The Wizard's Map

Pretty good, but not great. We enjoyed this, it is the story of Peter and Jennifer (and their family) who are visiting their grandparents in Scotland and discover that magic is real! The story starts with the entire family driving to the grandparent's house and quickly turns into quite the little adventure. Upon arriving (in almost no time flat) the youngest daughter (Molly) inadvertently colors on an old map while the older children are trying to figure out an odd card game (all found in the attic, of course)...these two events set into motion the freeing of a very old and very evil magical (Michael Scot). Ultimately it becomes Jennifer's daunting task to find the magician in his magic lair and free her entire family...with the help of show more a dragon, a unicorn and a dog.

We enjoyed reading The Wizard's Map, but even my usually less than observant daughter pointed out that since they were twins and the story played on the twins knowing things about one another, that Jennifer really should have been better able to tell when the evil wizard was possessing the brother, so there were some problems with the story, but overall, it was a quick, fun read. Perhaps the additional titles in this series will bring greater character development and tie up some of the loose ends that this particular story created. I give it a B-...it's entertaining and whimsical...but a little lacking in character development and the plot is not as tight as it could be. show less