Midnight for Charlie Bone: By Jenny Nimmo

This is a book series I was hesitant to read because it had the “If you like Harry Potter, you’ll love these books!” recommendation I’ve come across many times before. The problem with this label is that it raises my expectations too much. I end up comparing the books to Harry Potter (my favorite children’s book series), and then they fall short of my expectations.

Yet, this book and all the other books in the Children of the Red King series did not fall short in any way. In fact, I liked them much more than I expected to. Not because of their similarities to Harry Potter, but because of how very different they were. In Midnight for Charlie Bone, the main character, Charlie thinks he is an ordinary boy, and he’s grateful for it. You see, Charlie comes from a family who has unusual gifts.

His Family is directly descended from the Red King. The Red king was “endowed” or gifted with many magical or unusual talents. He had eight children, all of whom were gifted with one of his many endowments and their descendants passed on these gifts to their children, their children’s children and so on down the line.

In Midnight for Charlie Bone, Charlie finds out he himself has an unusual gift. He can hear what’s happening inside photographs or paintings. Unfortunately, his horrible Aunt’s find out he has a gift, and insist he attend Bloor’s academy for gift and endowed children such as himself. At Bloor’s he realizes that there is a mystery involving an adopted child- a mystery he wants to uncover. He also discovers that there is a balance between good and evil under that roof- and that he is a part of something bigger than he ever could have imagined.

I think it is unfair to compare Jenny Nimmo’s novels to Harry Potter. There are similarities; magic is in both, and a great deal of time is spent with Charlie at Bloor’s Academy, just as a lot of time is spent at Hogwarts, and even Charlie Bone and Harry Potter look a bit the same, (at least in my mind). But Nimmo makes this book her own so well that as a reader I enjoyed the book too much to care if they were similar or not.

Jenny Nimmo is a really good writer with an excellent imagination. She makes this book her own by giving Charlie and all of her characters a distinct personality and showing the reader that even in the same family, there can be good and bad people. He characters are quirky, interesting and thoughtful. It’s my opinion that Nimmo created a wonderful world in this book series. A world I was very glad to visit. The endowments some of the characters have are so imaginative and unique. They use their talents for good, or for evil depending on which side they have chosen and the outcome is a fast paced, can’t-put-the-book-down read.