Author & Illustrators
This is a tour-de-force of fantasy stories, combining mythical beings such as werewolves, vampires, dragons, talking books and magicians, alongside fearsome warriors and long-buried secrets.
Hundreds of years ago, the Seven Sovereigns – the final mortal rulers of the world – were defeated by the evil White Prince and his vampir legions. With them, the secret of the Midnight Treasure, the source of all mortal magical power, died too; so named because it can only be found just before midnight on Spectre Night. Immortals and mortals now live uneasily alongside each other with the latter often in service to the former. Many mortals have developed small powers that they use to make lives easier but still live in fear.
Our hero, Tibor, and his best friend Rosa live with Tibor’s vampire guardian, the Baron. Tibor, aged 13, is to become a full-grown werwolf on Spectre Night and is desperate to know his family history. Then the arrival of a wizard brings news that Tibor must leave his fairly comfortable existence and use the magical Sleeping Knight – an object endowed with the power to uncover truth and dreams – to hunt down the Midnight Treasure for White Prince.
On his quest, Tibor joins forces with the Feathers – the fiercest mortal warriors in the country. They must contend with fearsome creatures, including vampires that can transform into inanimate objects and those they thought were allies, but truly have their own selfish agendas.
There are themes of courage, resilience, friendship, loyalty and hope. The plot twists come thick and fast and it’s quite a complex story. The writing is atmospheric and covers a wide range of event and many different characters.
The Lost Magician is a clever fantasy story that takes its premise from the Narnia books and crafts it into something fresh and unique. Author Piers Torday is like a magician himself when it comes to spinning stories and this one is spellbinding, combining enchanting fantasy worlds with well-developed characters and a convincing post-war setting of 1945.
Siblings Simon, Patricia, Evelyn and Larry discover a mysterious library door that leads to a magical world called Folio. This is a world in which the library’s stories are locked in an eternal war and the only hope of restoring peace is by finding the original librarian, a magician who has been missing for hundreds of years.
As the siblings become tangled in Folio’s battles, they encounter fairy knights, robots and bears among the cast of both familiar and unfamiliar story characters. Each of the four siblings has their own journey to undertake as they engage with the world of reading and imagination. While some feel naturally at home among the realm of stories, there is no glossing over the fact that not everyone finds it easy to immerse themselves in books and others need space to explore the whys and hows of their reading choices.
The world building in this story is delightful and it is heaps of fun for readers to journey through fantasy worlds where fairy-tale characters meet sci-fi scenes. There are plenty of nods to the Narnia stories and readers familiar with the original books will enjoy to spotting them dotted in among the narrative.
A fun and adventurous story where anything is possible and imagination is king.
Nominated for Favourite Books of 2018 by: ClassBooks (@classbooks1), Librarian
An enchanting and magical tale with adventure… it’s a must read!
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Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?
yes
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