Announcements

Hi folks, I am popping by with a couple of announcements today.

Fist of all we will have some new reviewers joining us soon. PomPom has officially come on board and there are two other volunteers who I will be getting names from and announcing soon.

Also, the delightful Debbie Viguie co author of the Wicked series has agreed to be interviewed. Zobdy is reading one of her books now and she and PomPom will be conducting the interview in January.

You may also have noticed the shelfari widget. We will be adding the books that we review to it as we go along.

Have a Happy Christmas all and we will see you next year.

Ice - Sarah Beth Durst

I thought this book was amazing and I loved it. It is about a girl called Cassie, who has lived in a research station in the Arctic all her life and she loves it. When she was little, her grandmother told her that her (Cassie’s) mother was the daughter of the North Wind, and the North Wind had promised that she would marry the Polar Bear King when she was old enough. But she fell in love with a human man (Cassie’s dad) so she (Cassie’s mother) promised that when she had a daughter (Cassie), her daughter could marry the Polar Bear King instead. The North Wind was so angry that he blew Cassie’s mum into the troll castle where she has been ever since.

Cassie stopped believing that when she was four. Her father had told her that her mother had been killed in a blizzard. But, on her eighteenth birthday, the Polar Bear King comes for her and she realises that the story is true and her mum could still be alive. She makes a deal with the Polar Bear King and says that she will marry him if he saves her mum. He agrees so she stays with him. Gradually, she begins to love him and when he is taken away, she makes a perilous journey to save him.

It is a great book with magic, mystery, excitement, action, romance and a talking polar bear. What more could you ask for? In places, the story didn’t move on as quickly as I would have liked it to but I loved it anyway. I read it non-stop in two days. I would love to read other books written by Sarah Beth Durst. I would recommend it for 10+ (probably girls).

By Zobdy

Age 12

The Monstrumologist: The Terror Beneath by Rick Yancey

This is a non-review as I have not finished the book. It’s about a doctor who studies monsters (a monstrumologist) and his assistant, an orphaned, twelve year old boy called Will Henry.

I enjoyed reading this book and will probably get back to it later but if I waited that long to write a review, it would be too late. I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t get into this book, it didn’t grip me. I got distracted by other things and, like I said, I’ll probably get back to it another time.

I normally like books like this, mysterious, mythical, a little bit gory, but it just didn’t make me want to read it. It was well written and it had an interesting story and I enjoyed it but I just didn’t get sucked in. Ironically, the Prologue says that an old man had just died and another man had been given his journal (the rest of the book) to read because it’s the kind of story he might like, but it says it sat on his shelf for nearly six months until he reads it and decides it’s nothing but fiction. I will probably be the same except I think I might enjoy the story more than he did when I finally get round to reading it properly.

By Zobdy

Age 12

Reviewers Needed

Hi folks, Pizza is sadly withdrawing from blogging because, frankly, he's just that age where he needs to be focusing on exams and his writing rather than the blog. It's a shame and he will be missed, he's been a huge contribution to Young & Un:Bound.
I wish him all the best for future and hope when things settle down he'll return to blogging, even if not to us here.

In the meantime this means we are now severely under par. The one drawback of using younger reviewers is frankly school is a much bigger time suck than work so the more we have the better covered we are. On the plus side we get wonderful frank reviews about books from the agegroup they are aimed at.

I would like to open up the roster, if anyone out there is under sixteen and would like to review for us here at the youth site I would be delighted to have you on board! In order to maintain anonimity, if you are under 14 I would ask that you email reviews to me and I will post them, with your blog name at the end, as I do for MJ & Zobdy. If you are happy to receive occasional books to review from me then include your postal address when you email me and I will send them out to you from time to time, dishing them out as they come in to me. Worldwide postage is no problem although it may restrict you to paperbacks.

If you are interested please email me at hagelrat (at) googlemail (dot) com with your age, user name (not real name) and any strong reading likes/dislikes (do you hate horror or love historical novels? Are you a captain underpants fan?) .
I am happy for contact to go through a parent rather than being direct and there is no specific time commitment, as and when you can is fine.

Troubadour - Mary Hoffman

Troubadour is set in Southern France in the thirteenth century. The story starts in a Lord’s castle where the Lord’s thirteen year old daughter, Elinor, is making her first appearance as Lady Elinor, a young noblewoman. Her favourite troubadour (travelling musician), Bertran, is moving on to the next town and Elinor’s parents have arranged for her to be married to a Lord in his forties so Elinor, dressed as a boy, sneaks into another troubadour’s troupe with the help of the joglars and joglaresas (minstrels). As Elinor flees, the Pope declares war and the whole of Southern France is chaos.

The story starts with a scene in the Lord’s castle but then splits off into telling what is happening to Elinor, Bertran and also the Pope and his forces. As the story goes on, and we meet more characters and groups slit up, we see what is going on in lots of different places. I enjoyed this because if it had only been following one person there wouldn’t have been nearly as much information and it wouldn’t have been very interesting.

Also, at the back of the book, there is a glossary and historical notes. I found the glossary useful because there were words that I didn’t recognise and I found the historical notes very interesting because I had never heard of the French crusades and I enjoyed the background information.

I thought it was very well written and it kept me hooked. I was desperate to know what would happen to Elinor and her friends so I kept reading it. I would recommend this book to eleven plus.

Zobdy

The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

I bought this book for two reasons, firstly; the cover looked awesome, secondly because I had heard several great reviews about it. But plot first, review second.

It begins with some kids who were raised by scientists after being created using 98% human DNA and 2% bird hence, they are pretty much angels. The leader of the gang of angels is called "Maximum" and helps them to escape from the cruel experiments these scientists do to them. The 6 children (Max, Fang, Iggy, Gasman, Nudge and Angel) are in hiding from these scientists for years until one day they are found and they kidnap the youngest, Angel who is just 6 years old. Half the book is about finding and rescuing Angel and the other, I can't tell you.

I enjoyed the plot of the story, it could be a very good book if it was written better. Firstly, the names were terrible or strange apart from Max who I actually thought was a boy until page 50. Also, it seemed to be very repetitive. If I had a nickel for every time the bad guys came and they got away then I would be seriously rich. I usually don't care how many chapters or how long they are but this 450 page book had nearly or more 150 chapters!

It was sort of ridiculous how the author divided the chapters, most of them continued SECONDS after the last one. I was really excited about this book because I loved the cover and heard cool reviews of it, I decided to break the score down to give you an idea:

Plot- 4/5

Addictivness- 3/5

Written- 2/5

Characters- 2/5

Overall: 2.75 stars out of 5.

(I really don't like to give bad reviews but I try to be honest, apologies to James Patterson fans. The plot was good enough to consider reading the next one in the series but it was badly written.)

The Sea-Wreck Stranger by Anna MacKenzie

This book isn't what I considered my kind of genre, but I decided to give it a go and was relatively pleased. So it begins with a young girl named "Nessie" who lives on a remote island who had experienced a terrible past with the ocean involving disease and death, ever since the people have been scared of the sea. Nessie and her brother Ty are both orphans, her mother and father both victims of this disease. They live with their aunt and uncle who aren't very pleasant people and live on a farm similar to our world's; milking, beef etc. One day Nessie and Ty decide to go for a peaceful walk on the beach and find a stranger washed up on the shore, they know that he is not from the island and acknowledge that he will die if they leave him there or tell anyone so they hide him in a cave. For weeks the children feed him and take care of his injured leg and another child their age finds out and pretty much dobs them in. People find out and the island people are worried about what this stranger will bring.

As I said, not my genre but it is a light and interesting read. Suitable for ages 10 and up, I enjoyed the concept but I wasn't too sure about how it was written. Not a very well-known author and I think it is only published in Australia and New Zealand. 3 stars.

Warriors of Ethandun - NM Brown

Warriors of Ethandun

By N.M. Brown

This is a historical adventure fiction story. It’s set in Anglo-Saxon and Viking times. 21^st century children travel back in time and find themselves in a seriously scary adventure!

This story involves magic, war and a bloodthirsty bear. I really enjoyed it but I thought it was too scary sometimes. The adventure was exciting.

The two 21^st century children were my favourite characters. The author described them really well.

I think this book was a bit too old for me because there was so much fighting and the scary bear (don’t cuddle your teddy bear while you’re reading it!) But it was a good book and children aged 13+ will enjoy it.

By M.J.

aged 10

(Hagelrat here. On reflection it possibly was a little old for MJ but I also read some of the book and whilst clearly judgement impaired when it comes to judging age suitability I also thought it was an entertaining fantasy adventure. A sort of updated Narnia. It's part of a series.)

Foundling by D.M Cornish

Written by D.M Cornish this book is one of my favorites, nearly beating the best book I've ever read ("Abhorsen"). It is set in the land known as the Half-Continent, this land is shared by humans and monsters. It begins in a orphanage known as "Madam Opera's Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls" or something along the lines of that, the term "Foundling" in this book means, "also wastrel. Stray people, usually children, found without a home or shelter on the streets of cities or even, amazingly, wandering alone exposed to the wild".

Well it begins at this orphanage where a boy with a girl's name (Rossamund) is left at the orphanage as a baby. Rossamund grows up in this place, unexposed to the world outside his city containing monsters and horrible creatures, but for the first time, he must leave. At a certain age, the children are selected to a career by employers, Rossamund is selected to be a "Lamplighter", a job that involves travelling and being vunerable to monsters in the outside world. He ventures to a city called "High Vesting" where is will recieve instructions, if he ever gets there.

I give this book 4.8 stars, it is awesome! I have never seen an author go to so much trouble over their book. That meaning for "Foundling" was taken from the second half of the book which contains a dictionary for the Half-Continent, it is also complete with nearly 200 pages of maps, diagrams and information about the Half-Continent. I look forward to reading the second book in this series.

Artemis Fowl Book 1 by Eoin Colfer

This book is the first in a best-seller series by Eoin Colfer. It features two different settings and two different characters; Artemis and Holly.

Artemis is only twelve years of age but is already an academic prodigy, producing, using and developing ideas and technology to manipulate ways in the business world to restore his family's fortune which had been lost by his father who went missing on a trip to the artic circle.

Artemis' first idea is to uncover an ancient and secret civilisation known commonly as sprites or fairies, his body guard; Butler is doubtful at this initially and comes to realise there is a civilisation that runs bellow Earth hidden from man-kind for centuries.

Meanwhile, in the spirte civilisation, Holly is the only female officer of the sprite's police, the LEPrecons; hence where the name leprecon started. She is having trouble fitting in with all the male officers of the force yet is keen on her assignments. Holly is the forces best pilot, but on a trip to stonehenge to replenish her magic she is kidnapped by Artemis who has a few theorys of taking advantage of Holly to gain gold.

Together, the two come to realise that they are not so different from one another.

A great childrens fantasy book with a modern twist. Eoin Colfer is a genius, I give it 4 out of 5 stars. This is currently in a series of six.

The Ashleys, Lipgloss Jungle - Melissa De La Cruz

Lipgloss Jungle is not the first in the series. I have never read the first book but I still understood the story.

It is about the three Ashleys, Ashley Spencer (known as Ashley), Ashley Alioto (A.A.) and Ashley Li (Lili). They are the queen bees of the school and all wear the same style of clothes, have bags by the same designer and wear the same shade of pink lipgloss.

I gathered that in the previous book, Lauren Page, whose family had recently gained a lot of money, hatched a plan to join the Ashleys and break them up from the inside.

Everyday, the Ashleys (and Lauren successfully continuing her quest) go to Starbucks and have a Soy Latte each (Ashley’s favourite drink) and then they sit on the bench outside their school and “help the fashionably challenged” (make mean comments about the other girls’ clothes).

Trouble stirs when the mysterious S. Society sit on the bench and the war begins. Ashley is horrified and orders the attack. But maybe A.A. and Lili don’t want to be the same anymore?

Each chapter focuses on a different girl and I liked it because I could see what each of them were thinking and if they were planning anything that they haven't told the others. It also gives all four sides of the story so you can decide who was in the right.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it was fun to read and it was exciting finding out what they were going to plot next. I wish I could read the rest of the series. I would recommend it to girls between the ages of nine and fifteen.

By Zobdy
Age 12

just dropping in

to say how gorgeous is our new logo?

The Fire Within by Chris d'Lacey - Review + Interview

It starts in the small and rather odd town of Scrubbley, where a man called David seeks a home while doing University/College. David finds a place with only two occupants, a woman and her daughter. At first they seem like very ordinary people, the daughter Lucy is just what a small child should be like, imaginative and slightly rude. Mrs. Pennykettle (Lucy's mother), makes pottery, not just any pottery, but dragons. Her and Lucy's lifes seem to revolve around dragons, as a housewarming gift, David is given a dragon with a notepad and a pencil in his hand. They tell him to try and speak to it, strangely, the dragon beings to write, giving him ideas for a story to give to Lucy, based on a true story, one that continues throughout the book.

I give it 3 stars out of 5, I think it is mainly for children up to 13, interesting and different.

Interview:

Which is your favorite book of all time?
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Which genre of reading are you most interested in?
Nothing specific. I liked Science Fiction when I was younger.

Did you read or write at all when you were a kid?
I read (comics mostly) but I didn't write.

When did you start writing?
When I was 32.

Do you picture any of the characters from "The Fire Within" as yourself?
David is based on me when I was younger, but there are shades of an author's personality in all of the characters they write.

Out of all your books, which is your favorite?
Dark Fire

Out of your characters, which one is your favorite?
Bonnington!

When and why did you get into writing?
When I was 32 and to try something different from songwriting.

Are you currently writing anything now?
The next dragon book, as yet untitled.

And the random question (do not be offended, it's just a bit of fun
and it is interesting to see replys)....
If you accidently swallowed a T.V, and it was electricuting you, how
would you stop it?
I like to think I'd pull the plug out!

Pizza
Age 14

Logo Update

I just wanted to pop in and say, in the next couple of weeks my darling of a designer is going to produce a proper graphic for Young & Un:Bound. He has some amazing ideas and I can't wait to see what he produces.

The Fall by Garth Nix

"The Fall" is the first book in "The Seventh Tower" series. It is about a boy who lives in a castle, along with other high or low ranking dormitories, and they have all never been to the world outside of the castle.

The world he lives in is always dark, there is a veil which keeps it dark, this is important to uphold the rule of magic.

When any of the "Chosen" turn thirteen, after, on the Day of Ascenation where they all enter the spiritual world (Aenir) to get a Spirit Shadow. When the Chosen are under the age of thirteen, they are given a Shadow Guard, which is similar to a Spirit Shadow but less important. When his father has disappeared on a mission for the empress, he has the families primary sunstone.

All of the Chosen have at least one sunstone, they can be used for many things: Healing, Music, Heat etc. But a primary sunstone is essential to enter Aenir, if you don't have one you join the Underfolk who work as servants for the Chosen. Desperate to get a sunstone, he tries to still a primary sunstone from the Seventh Tower. He falls back through "The Veil" and falls to a place he is not familiar with. He begins a quest with a "mad-girl" back to the castle.

I think this is a great science fiction book. It is about a whole other world, the author (Garth Nix) did a great job of it and I look forward to reading his other books.

Pizza

Age 14

Mister Monday by Garth Nix

One of Garth Nix's most well known series, The Keys to the Kingdom. I am on two sides with this book. As much as I think it is a great book, it is very different I suppose you could say.

It is about a boy named Arthur Penhaligon who goes to a new school and is very asthamtic. During a school run, he has a terrible asthama attack, two other class members go to fetch a teacher, in the mean time two very strange characters show up expecting him to die. He is given a key, presumably one character; Mister Monday is supposed to take the key back when he dies, but Arthur lives. The key is now his and he unlocks a whole new world behind it all. An inventive idea in my opinion.

Many more strange people come to collect the key and they don't care how many people die doing it. A disease comes up from these people and soon enough most of the town has the disease known as "The Sleepy Plague", they can't wake up. The town is put in quarantine and Arthur is the only hope of finding a cure.

It's an interesting book and it is an easy read but I'd say it's suitable for children from age 11 up to adults even.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
I look forward to reading the rest of this series in the future.

By Pizza,
Age 14

Young & Un:Bound - Reviewrs wanted

This is a call for anyone under 16 who would like to review for Y&U?

The guidelines are simple any book suitable for children, teen and YA suitable for younger readers. Bad language is not permitted on Y&U for obvious reasons. That's about it. No particular time commitment is required, if you send me your email address, age and handle I will invite you to blog on the site, if you prefer not to be an accessable presence online then like MJ and Zobdy you can email me the reviews and I shall add cover images and pop them up with credit to your handle.

I have no issue with my team requesting books on the basis of their work for Y&U but would ask that you be respectful of our relationship with publishers, if you request a book, please review it, if they send it unsolicited then great if you can, if you don't fancy it perhaps offer it up as a giveaway or pass it to another member of the team.

I hope I will hear from one or two of you out there to really invigourate this new

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Our class was asked to read this book before school started again by my English teacher. To be quite honest our English teacher treats us like we don't read much, but most of us don't, just me and a few friends. I also thought it would be a book that would be an easy read, I was right, read it in 3 hours. But I must say it IS a children's book, but it doesn't mean adults and teens can't read it, and it was great! I saw several reviews of it, it seemed good, but I was going to leave it until the last minute, in the end, I gave into curiousity and I was surprised.

It begins in a world, or as it is mentioned in the book, a "community" of people who live perfect lifestyles without colour, pain, sorrow, love, lies and rudeness. It starts with a boy called Jonas who is 11-12 years old. They are ranked for their age, so Jonas was classified as an Eleven, he is about to have his years ceremony for the end of that year, meaning, his job is chosen, not by him, but by others.

In this world, you do not choose your life, it is chosen for you, your spouse is chosen to who you match and your children are also chosen for you. At the Twelve ceremony Jonas' name was not called out, everyone was startled, but at the end the elder calls Jonas up. The elder makes the announcement that he is to be the new reciever, a great honour which is very rare. Jonas is given a folder with puzzling instructions which he never thought he would need, most of them things like "you may ask anyone, anything", and "you may lie". So the next day Jonas comes to training, not knowing what the Reciever actually does, he finds an old man, the previous Receiver. Jonas asks, "what do I call you?" he replies "call me the Giver".

But together the new Receiver (Jonas) and the Giver try to stop the perfect ways of the community and bring back love, colour and emotions to the world. It is an addictive and rather easy read. Great for all ages.

By Pizza

Age 14

New Member - Pizza

Hi folks I just wanted to welcome Pizza to the team. Pizza will be cross posting some of the reviews from Pizza's Book Discussion over here at Young & Un:Bound.

Pig City - Louis Sachar

Pig City
By Louis Sachar

I didn't want to read this book at first because the blurb on the back made it sound boring. Then I found out it was by the author who wrote 'Holes' so I thought it was worth trying. I thought the title looked cool because the letters were all buildings.

It's about a girl called Laura Sibbie who starts a club with her friends, called Pig City, when children aren't allowed to make clubs because of her school rules. Laura asks someone to join her club but they don't want to. So he makes a new club called Monkey Town. What makes this book interesting is the relationship between the two club leaders.

I usually like to read action stories but I still really liked this book. I would give it 10 out of 10!!!!!!!! This story is about people, secrets and friendships. It kept me glued to the story so much that I finished it in 2 nights!!!!!!!!!!!

By MJ
aged 10

The Thornthwaite Inheritance - Gareth P Jones

The Thornthwaite Inheritance

By Gareth P. Jones

The Thornthwaite Inheritance is about identical twins, Lorelli and Ovid Thornthwaite. They live in a creepy mansion without a mother or father and are completely cut off from the rest of the village. Another thing which makes them different from most thirteen-year-olds is that they spend their time trying to kill each other.

It starts with a truce which causes a chain of events leading to the explanation of everything that happened to their parents. It gets very complicated towards the end when their history is uncovered. I would recommend reading this book when you are in the mood to work things out. If you read this when you are tired, you will get confused.

Overall, it is a great book, filled with action, mystery and murder. It is fun to read and I couldn’t put it down. As the plot unravels, remember, everything is not always as it seems.

By Zobdy

Age 12

Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

This book stars Skulduggery Pleasant and his side kick Stephanie. This is a detective book with a difference. He is dead.

With his sunglasses gone there is no doubt that he's a skeleton with a skull for a head. You have a skull for a head and you fight evil, they can just take off your head and throw it away; no they go and try to turn you to dust instead of that.

My favourite character is Skulduggery because he's funny and he's got a skull for a head that he won in a poker match. My favourite part is when he's in a room and he just keeps missing being turned into dust, because Serpine is trying to turn him into dust with the sceptre of the ancients but he just keeps missing and turning the walls to dust instead, and eventually Skulduggery turns Serpine into dust.

I like this book because it is funny, exciting and it has magic fireballs in it.

by MJ
aged 9


Skulduggery Pleasant - Playing With Fire by Derek Landy

Derek Landy is an excellent writer, with good thoughts and imagination. This is another book about the amazing Skulduggery Pleasant, and how escapes the trouble he gets himself into.

Valkyrie Cane (Stephanie) learns magic and together she and Skulduggery defeat the evil vampire, Dusk, and the Grotesquery. The Grotesquery is a huge monster made up of different magical creatures. It can even teleport a short distance.

My favourite part was when the cleavers kept attacking the Grotesquery in the same place to try to kill it because it had really hard skin. Eventually the Grotesquery killed the cleavers. So Valkyrie Cain picked up Tanith Low's sword and killed the Grotesquery. This is my favourite part because I like big battles in books, and this battle was really hard to win.

I liked this book because it was funny, exciting and adventurous.

by MJ
aged 9


Skulduggery Pleasant - The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy

This is the third book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series. I really like the bit at the bottom of the page, it says "Do panic. They're coming." This is an adventure book about a detective with a borrowed head.

This book is about a man called Batu, who really is a non-magical person called Paddy. He was trying to bring back a group of gods who take over and destroy the world. But he needed an Isthmus Anchor and a teleporter, but he has murdered all the teleporters except for two, and then he kills another teleporter so there is only one teleporter left, an he is only a child. If I tell you any more I will end up telling you the whole story.

My favourite part was when Solomon Wreath, a necromancer, tells Valkyrie Cain that they need to find Skulduggery's original head to open up the gateway. They want to open the gateway again to get Skulduggery out, and they can't use the Grotesquery to open it like last time because Skulduggery threw the Grotesquery into the other realm before he went in. It is my favourite part because it is going to be really hard because they don't know who took it except that it was elves.

I really enjoyed the book because it was funny and kept me in suspense.

by MJ
aged 9

Harry Potter Companion Books - JK Rowling

The Tales Of Beedle The Bard, Quidditch Through The Ages and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

By J.K. Rowling

This very entertaining trilogy is based on J.K. Rowling’s award winning Harry Potter series. All three are books that are in the Hogwarts school library.

The Tales Of Beedle The Bard is illustrated by J.K Rowling herself. It is a book of fairy tales that young witches and wizards are supposedly told as bedtime stories. With comments from the great professor, Albus Dumbledore, it is a very enjoyable book.

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is a copy of Harry Potter’s own text book, complete with his own amusing notes and jottings, often based on his own experience of these creatures. I enjoyed reading about the nundu and the lethifold and other creatures that I had not yet encountered in the Harry Potter series. There is a short foreword written, again, by Dumbledore, and an introduction by the “author”, Newt Scamander, complete with an A-Z of beasts.

Quidditch Through The Ages is supposedly taken from the Hogwarts school library. At the front, there are the names of the people who have taken it out plus a few jottings. It is the full history of the popular wizarding sport, Quidditch. It explains how the golden snitch was thought up, talks about some of the current teams and says how the game has evolved. Once again, there is a foreword by Dumbledore.

I recommend these books to Harry Potter fans everywhere. They can be read separately or as a set. They are small, uncomplicated books that are fun to read and easy to dip into when you’re bored. They might not be interesting for people who have not read the Harry Potter books, but if you have, they’re great!

By Zobdy
Age 12

Welcome

Welcome to Young and Un:Bound. Generally speaking you won't hear from me here, but I thought i'd introduce it.

I will eventually approach my lovely designer about a logo of it's own but for now it's a hatchett job by me, so sorry about that. He's very busy and I can't actually pay him, so y'know, wit my turn.

The point of this blog is that we now have two younger reviewers coming on board, looking at childrens and young adults books. I considered how best to divide content and settled on giving my tween bloggers their own space to inhabit. I think this is going to be a great place for teens and their parents to get a peer view on the books they want to read.

Anyway, we will be kicking off the reviews tomorrow with a look at three books designed to accompany the Harry Potter series.