Read this with my daughter. She loved it and I let her pick the rating. ( )

This was a cute little children's chapter book. Not my usual read, but for some reason I was drawn to this one. I think children would probably enjoy this book. It is set in a fairy tale world, and includes magic, trolls and mermaids! I was a little dismayed at how mean Jack was to his friends, but by the end of the book all is forgiven and everyone is friends again.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley ( )

What a great idea for a book and series. Taking characters from fairytales, folktales and Mother Goose and spinning new stories around them. I liked that the characters were described in depth at the end of the story. I also think this will arouse interest in some of the fairytales and folktales that are getting forgotten in this time of superheroes.

This is a great book for late primary children looking to read "chapter books". Red (Red Riding Hood), Jack (Jack and the beanstalk fame), Rapunzel (the princess with the long hair) and Hansel and Gretel (the twins lost in the woods and almost eaten by a witch) all live in Tale Town. In the square is "The Story Tree" that grows branches that are the stories of the inhabitants in the town. On the day that a ship is due from Far, Far Away, the friends rush off to greet it. Jack is hoping his father might be on it. When a young boy, Anansi gets off the ship, he peaks the friends' interest. They follow him and Jack sees him with an imp. He also finds out that he talks to Trolls, the enemies of Tale Town. Jack tries to get the others to believe him that Anansi is really a troll in disguise, but they do not. Jack tries many things to get them to believe him and almost loses all his friends in the process. He meets Lily, a sea witch in training and uses her spells to try and get everyone to see the truth. Will Jack expose Anansi? Will Jack lose his memories and his friends?

There are some great messages in this book about jumping to conclusions, using your friends, not trusting others and becoming too obsessed with one thing. I think young readers will enjoy this book. They will especially love Jack's chicken Betsy, who can only say WHAAAAAT, but gets her message across. The characters are well written and the black and white illustrations add much to the story. I would recommend this book to school, public and upper primary/lower junior class libraries. A very cute read and I am looking forward to previewing the next one in the series.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I loved this book! It's a fantastic fractured fairytale and story of friendship. I can't wait to read the next one. ( )

I received The Spell Thief by Tom Percival from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Spell Thief is a story with fairy tale characters, such as Jack (and the Beanstalk), Red (Riding Hood), etc. It is a story about friendship and what can happen when you don't treasure your friends, and accept people for who they are instead of what you think they are. There is definitely a lesson to be learned in this story, especially with everything going on in the world today. Highly recommended for parents of children 5-9 years of age. ( )