The Conjuring Glass : Book 1, The Phoenix Girls

At some point everyone feels like an outsider. In Penny Sinclair's case she is a 13-year-old girl moving to a new town after the death of her mother. She has spent four months living in a group home and now is headed to the small town of Dogwood to live with her godmother Susan, who was best friends with Penny's mother.

As soon as Penny moves into her home she notices a fox that seems to always be watching her. She has already been having mysterious dreams and doesn't feel comfortable in her new surroundings. When she is outside one day the fox speaks to her, in fear she runs away but she can't escape her destiny.

What Penny doesn't know is that her mother once belonged to a group of witches called The Phoenix Girls and she is about to show more become one of them. The Phoenix Girls Book 1: The Conjuring Glass by Brian Knight is the first in a series from JournalStone Publishing that young horror fans will enjoy. In a secret grove behind her new home is a cave, wands, magic keys and a book on how to become proper witches.

Penny is not alone, she soon meets another girl who has just arrived in town named Zoe and the two of them start training to become witches. Their spells don't work half the time but they're determined to keep trying. Something wicked is coming to Dogwood in the form of a magician with a big secret. The children of Dogwood start to disappear one by one and Penny and Zoe may be the only ones that can help.

The Conjuring Glass is a story geared towards middle school children and has a couple of themes that all kids can relate to. One is trying to fit in with other kids. Penny and Zoe are both outcasts because they are new in town and both are adjusting to their new surroundings. They have each other though and work well as a team. They learn magic together and get help with bullies from the talking fox. As the story develops, the girls are left to their own devices to rescue the kidnapped kids.

Another theme that is in this book is abandonment and loneliness. When Penny comes to Dogwood she feels that she is alone in the world. She is dealing with the loss of her mother, but also wonders who her father was and what happened to him. Penny is obsessed with finding him and her obsession leads her and the whole town into danger. I really enjoyed how the mystery of Penny's father worked into the story.

While I did think that The Conjuring Glass was slow-moving at points, there was a lot to like about the book. All of the characters reminded me of kids that I once knew. I also think young readers will be able to relate to both Penny and Zoe. The setting and atmosphere were great and I liked the fate of the town's children lying in the hands of two young witches. My favorite part was when Penny stands up to a bully that was much bigger then she was. It showed that Penny was a tough character and I found myself rooting for her. I think most young kids will love the mystery in The Phoenix Girls: Book 1 The Conjuring Glass and they will appreciate the spooky parts also. I would love to see where the story of The Phoenix Girls goes in future installments. show less

The Phoenix Girls, Book 1: The Conjuring Glass, by Brian Knight, is, as the title implies, the first in a new YA fantasy series. Penny is forced to leave her home in San Francisco after the death of her mother; she is taken in by her mother's oldest friend, Susan, who lives in Dogwood, the small town in Washington State where Penny's mother grew up. Almost immediately, she meets some of the town's children, who are hostile toward her, apparently because of the actions taken by her mother many years earlier; almost immediately, too, she is greeted by a talking fox. Initially resistant to the very concept, once she meets and becomes friends with Zoe, another newcomer to town, the two friends discover that Ronan, the fox, is more than just show more a strange possible hallucination; he is a guardian and helper, ready to introduce them to the realms of magic, which unknown to them is where they truly belong. But when Tovar, the Red Magician, comes to town to put on a magic show, the girls learn that there is much more to magic than simply mastering some tricks.... I very much liked this book - in fact, I finished it in one sitting, which is rare for me. Penny is an interesting character, being in some instances quite childish and in others very grown up, and Zoe appears to have perhaps a bit more mystery to her story than we have yet been told. I also like Susan, Penny's guardian, who is very down-to-earth and practical; but I love Ronan, the fox who holds the threads of magic for the youngsters. I had a few quibbles: in Chapter 4, there's a moment where Susan tells Penny something important and the next paragraph relates to the following day, and some paragraphs later the story goes back to the moment when Susan told Penny that particular information - but this could be solved with a simple gap between one paragraph and the next; I also found that naming Susan's assistant at her shop "Jenny" was a bit confusing, what with the "Penny/Jenny" rhyming. But those are very minor matters, and for the most part I just raced through this book (although not so quickly that I couldn't savour it); I am very much looking forward to the next in the series, and hope it doesn't take a year to arrive! Highly recommended. (This was a Early Reviewer book from LibraryThing and the book is not yet available, but should be soon.) show less

It took me much too long to decide to read this book -- I won it through LibraryThing Early Reviewers, and ended up shuffling it to the back of my reading list. But after winning the second book as well, I decided it was time to tackle the first one, and I'm glad I did!

The book is a quick, but an enjoyable read, that takes us through the transition of Penny Sinclair from an orphan, to a new resident of Dogwood, to a Phoenix Girl. I found her to be immediately likable, and with a desire for the opening mysteries of the book to be solved and wanting to see something good happen for Penny, I sped through even the even the more slower paced parts of the book, eager to see what awaited Penny and her new friends.

However, it's not all fun and show more magic -- after a magician that Penny suspects is her father arrives in town, several kids from her area go missing. And the more Penny learns, the less she can be sure she ever knew her own life in the first place. But she needs to figure something out soon -- because the mysterious kidnapper is coming for her next.

There were a few pacing issues for me with the story, which is the only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars. The book's description promises experiments with magic going wrong as often as they go right, but we don't really get to see this in any meaningful way. It's sort of mentioned once and then referred to a few times in the book. I think it would have helped to see more misadventures on that front, because it would have added in more conflict when the main conflict of the story was sort of in the background. It also would have helped to make the girls seem more proactive and make the magic seem more like a part of the story.

That being said, it wasn't a deal breaker by any means, and I'm greatly looking forward to the next book. The author, much like the girls' fox companion Ronan, leaves more questions than answers at the start of this series. I can't wait to see what the rest of the story holds.

Note: I received a free copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. This has no bearing on the content of my review. show less

When Penny's mother dies, she returns to her mom's hometown to live with her godmother. When she arrives, she realizes that there is something strange about the place and that her godmother won't share everything she knows. As Penny and her newfound friend Zoe explore the town they find a book of magic in a hidden glade. Together the girls learn as much as they can to fight against a mysterious man who seems to be stealing children through a magician's mirror.

Based on the ARC copy, the whole book has a weird gloppy feel...like the consistency of the story wasn't quite right. I cant put a good age on it either - sometimes it felt older, sometimes younger. Even the characters didn't quite fit into the age that they were supposed to. show more Overall it was enjoyable enough, and certainly fits in the popular fantasy genre, but not a favorite. show less

The Conjuring Glass:Phoenix Girls Book 1 is probably most appropriate for pre-teen to early teen readers. The mystery in the story is intriguing and keeps you reading, but the character development is lacking. While I realize that this is the first book in a series, after finishing the book, I found that I didn’t really care about the characters. There were details in the book about Penny and Zoe learning magic and going to school and going to the bookstore, but I did not feel that there were enough details about the girls themselves to make them interesting. It seemed that they were just the vehicle of getting from point A to point B. I had a lot of questions that weren’t answered, again, I realize this is the first of a series and show more the author isn’t going to just give you all of the answers, but if I don’t feel connected to the characters, it is unlikely that I will read the rest of the books in order to find out. (This book is an Early Reviewers Book from LibraryThing.) show less

I received the ebook of The Conjuring Glass: Book One, The Phoenix Girls through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers and enjoyed reading it. It's a young adult/middle school level book about a young girl named Penny who, after her mother dies in a plane crash, ends up living with her Godmother Susan in a small town named Dogwood where a magical adventure awaits her. From a talking fox to a box of wands to a strange carnival House of Mirrors and a mysterious red-haired magician who hands out mirrors that show more than they should, Penny's days become a whirlwind of strange and wondrous things. But something evil is at work as well and children begin to go missing. Along with her new friend Zoe, Penny strives to master the magic and skills show more needed to face a creature from her nightmares and learn more about the Phoenix Girls and herself.

The book has a lot of suspense that keeps the reader turning the pages and wanting to learn more along with Penny and Zoe. Lots of mysteries and just enough hints about Penny's parentage to make the reader look forward to learning more in future books. The ideas are interesting and creative. I read a lot of fantasy, or all levels, and I liked that so many of the author's ideas were new and unique. I am looking forward to the next book in the series and would recommend this book to readers who enjoy series like Harry Potter and John Bellairs Johnny Dixon series, as well as other YA writers who like to combine a bit of scariness and mystery with their magical stories. show less

This is the first of a new series for middle school girls. Thirteen year old Penny is moving back to a small town in Washington to live with her guardian, her mother's best friend, after her mother's death. She makes one friend, and thanks to a talking fox, they find a box with a wand and a book of magic. At the same time, someone starts kidnapping children in the area. Penny and Zoe are able to block the evil Birdman and rescue the children, but are left at the end of the book with needing to further develop the next stage of their magic powers.

This is clearly a book for this age group. It reads smoothly and carries the interest, but without the depth or character development that would make it entertaining for adults. There are lots show more of mysteries hinted at that will clearly be a focus of future books. There are two egregious printing errors: on page 175, "to wet your curiosity" instead of "to whet your curiosity" and on page 200, the boy named Rooster is called "Roster". One can hope that future books will not only carry the action forward but also develop some emotional depth. Recommended for its target group. show less