What Parents Should Know
There's not much to concern parents here -- Diana Wynne
Jones has never been the edgiest of writers. She belongs to the
old school of children's literature.
The main thing to discuss here is what it would be like suddenly to be old, to have a child's mind in an elderly body. There's a lot about adulthood and old age that children don't know or understand, and they may be interested to try to imagine Sophie's predicament.
Common Sense Media Review
Diana Wynne Jones writes the old-fashioned kind of fantasy:
fascinating and original, but also slow and meandering. Once
Sophie settles in at the castle, it's hard to say what the
story is about for the next couple of hundred pages. That's not
to say it's boring -- far from it. But, much like the castle
that wanders around in the wilderness, it doesn't seem to go
much of anywhere, or to have much of a definite purpose.
Eventually there's a nice climactic showdown, though much of it happens offstage, so to speak, a few secrets and surprises are revealed, and it's wrapped up satisfyingly enough. But then, just try to explain what it was all about. Die-hard fantasy lovers adore this and other Wynne Jones books, but those who need action, adventure, or even a clear plotline may find it too murky for their tastes.
From the Book:
Sophie put her hands to her face, wondering what the man
had stared at. She felt soft, leathery wrinkles. She looked at
her hands. They were wrinkled too, and skinny, with large veins
in the back and knuckles like knobs. She pulled her gray skirt
against her legs and looked down at skinny, decrepit ankles and
feet which had made her shoes all knobbly. They were the legs
of someone about ninety, and they seemed to be real.
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