The Kingdom of Carbonel

This is the second volume in the middle grade-level Carbonel series. I last read it was a library copy about 15 years ago.

A year after setting Carbonel free from a witch's spell, teenagers Rosemary and John reunite to spend the summer together. To their delight, King Carbonel returns. After going to a pharmacist for a special prescription, the two drink an elixir and can hear Carbonel again--and all the other animals and insects around. Carbonel has a special request. He must leave for a meeting of kings, and he's concerned about the well-being of his two young kittens. Rosemary and John agree to tend them, but soon enough trouble merges. Carbonel's old witch is up to mischief again, this time plotting with the ambitious cat-queen of a show more neighboring city. The two children must do everything they can to save the kittens and keep Cat Country from falling into outright war.

This book is as charming as I remembered. It's so delightfully British, full of eccentric characters with magic revealing itself in unexpected ways. I'm so grateful that these books were finally reprinted! Mind you, it does feel dated in some ways (this second book was published in 1960) but that's all part of its charm. show less

A nice, heart-warming sequel to Carbonel: King of Cats, whose faults by nature you just want to skip over for the wonderful, classic childrens adventure that it is. A lovely book, and quite rare to find something so jolly. I'd recommend it to anyone for a nice quick read, though the edition I picked up was just over 300 pages, and not the 240 on the Goodreads site :)

After re-reading the first one of course I was going to end up re-reading the next one. Another lovely kids adventure about cats and magic. I do also like the fact that Rosemary's mum is a single parent and this is just treated as normal - I'll definitely encourage my daughter to read these in a few years.

I am so glad this trilogy has been re-issued. A lovely story involving cats and witches and invisibility and nefarious plots against the King. What I never noticed ages ago is that the side plots are just as delightful as the main. The chemist is a dear, and the pets in the shop are hilarious. I'm glad to have revisited this, and am looking forward to Carbonel and Calidor, which I don't remember at all.

This is the one I remember reading aged about 10, borrowed from the library. I recognised the bit where they drink the magic potion from the great coloured bottles in the chemist's window. It's true that most chemist's shops (or pharmacies as we tend to call them nowadays), had these big tear-drop-shaped bottles displayed prominently in the window, filled with coloured liquids, usually red and green, but sometimes other colours as well. I also remember the way the rooftops and chimneys in the story changed at night into a magical cats' kingdom of hills and trees.

Almost as good as the first book in the trilogy. This one had slightly more action, though it took a while to get started. And many more loveable cats. Though, sadly, not as many loveable human characters (there are still some though). I love how she does different regionalisms for different characters, but there was less of that in this book.

Charming, with just enough old fashioned adventure. (Plus, Z is convinced that the king might have diabetes - hence the name - Carb/onel.)