Midnight for Charlie Bone

A childhood favorite that holds up over a decade later.

thank you to my mother for showing me pink floyds the wall and this series for being one of my favorites as a kid for preventing any possible anglophile phase i could have had. if you don't eat your meat you can't have any pudding. these kids are going through it... "it's like rule of rose" thought counter: 3

my local library didn't have the first one so this was actually my first time reading it but it's as though i remember everything bc the other books summarize everything about emma all the time... i feel like maybe the reading level goes up as the series progresses iirc? but maybe not, also all these reviews from 2009 being like "one star sorry but NO this is just TOOOOOO YOUNG the sentence structure is so simple!!" are driving me insane like the main character just turned ten another main character is seven. it's for children. and it's still so evocative... it's so good at gutpunches with its style... i love big screwed up families i love hyperspecific magical powers i love middle grade about being in abject peril in gothic castles. i did not understand enough about being welsh in britain to understand everything about this series as a kid i just was like damn they hate his ass for no reason!

and i love Runner Bean :)

Once again I return to you with another comparison to Harry Potter. I recently read the book Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo.Before I read this book most people told me it was just like Harry Potter , but I hate to disappoint once again this is nothing like Harry Potter. There might be some similar things, but lets clear the table this is a different story and just as good. Midnight For Charlie Bone is a very compelling story that keeps you longing for more. The book starts out with a Prologue that gives you a brief history of The Red King, it then starts with Charlie's dilemna over getting the wrong photograph and hearing what people are saying in pictures. This picture leads to a chain of events which include three cats called Sagitarius, Leo, and Aries, who belonged to The Red King about 950 years ago. Charlie was just a normal boy but from an endowed family basically families that have powers.Charlie Bone is one of the descendants of the Red King. Charlie has inherited one of the kings powers where he can hear voices in photos. He is sent to a school that endowed children with powers have to go to or students that are just geniuses in the area of art or music. Bloors is not an ordinary school. Many strange things happen there and Charlie Bone is trying to figure out what they are. Not only are there strange things going on these things are very evil. All around Charlie there is evil but in his hero journey he has found very reliable friends to help him.
Charlie a bit like Harry feels that it is his duty to help solve all the bad things that are happening at the Bloor's academy. The picture he found was a picture of a baby that was stolen by the Bloors . They hypnotized the girl and her family to not remember her past. The girls biological aunt had been searching for the baby girl for years. When Charlie and his friends find out that the girl is someone at the academy, the search is on! But the girl has no idea of her past, so the small team must figure out which student it is, how to bring back her memory, and help her escape her cruel guardians who want to use her powers for evil. As Charlie goes on his quest he has to dodge his evil great aunts and his evil grandmother. While solving the mystery of the missing girl he has stumbled on very interesting facts based on the supposed death of his father.
I really loved this book. Number one reason why I love this book was because of my little cousin who is eight. He loves Harry Potter as do I. I let him read the first 3 Harry Potters but once Harry started getting older and the plot became darker, I felt like it was not age appropriate, yet. I had a really hard time getting my little cousin into another book series until I stumbled on this series. As great as Harry Potter is the older books might not be age appropriate for younger children. Not only age appropriate but those book get pretty big and it might be a hard read for little kids. So I Loved this book because it was a great read plus younger kids like my little cousin could enjoy it. It is about the size of the first Harry Potter so we read it together.
The main character of the Charlie is a very loveable character. He sort of reminds you of a young Harry Potter. He is very courageous but more relate-able than Harry Potter. When I read about ,Harry even though he is scared ,you as the reader would get the feeling that he can accomplish anything. I mean from the beginning you got the feeling that Harry is destined for greatness and he always jump into trouble without looking back kind of like superman. You know like he is not afraid because he had a suit of armor of some sort. That alone from the beginning always made me feel that Harry was older then his real age. This book Charlie is ten and thought he is more courageous then I was at ten years old he still acts like a ten year old. For instance when it was midnight he ask his uncle to accompany him outdoors. That's something a ten year old would do , but you know if it was Harry he would just head out, maybe bring Ron. What can Ron do.Basically the thing is Charlie has a lot of courage for a ten year old but it is not as exaggerated as Harry's courage. He says things like I'm scarred. Which just makes you scared for him. Charlie is a cute hero , that you want to hug and keep from danger.

I couldn't help but compare this book to the Harry Potter series, as it has many of the same elements like children with supernatural abilities going to a special private school. You can see the beginnings of the children (as well as others) taking sides, good vs. evil style. This is the comparison ends. Do not be fooled by the legion of people crying that it's copying Harry potter, much more it is simply a book about a boy going to a magic school. Using prose similar to Lemony Snicket and Diana Wyne Jones, this is a cunning, twitchy tale, full of breathtaking characters and unusual settings. Another thing that I liked was that all "endowed" children have powers, but they aren't taught spells they just have to discover what their powers are and nurture it. After that they learned normal things that kids would learn in a really tough boarding school.The vast array of already presented characters and their very different powers sets this book apart from the Potter series.. Though i might say the author of the book is no quite at J.K. Rowling's level(J.K. is a geniuuussss!) the books was very good. If you can learn to accept the book and love it for what it is you will love this book. Some people might get annoyed by some of the Harry Potter similarities but understand she is not copying Harry Potter, some things that are mentioned in both books are normal in England J.k. Rowling did not invent those things. For instance someone told me there were prefects in this book so that mean that she copied Harry Potter, but Prefects are just a normal thing in boarding schools in England. Harry Potter is just a great book probably the highest of it genre. So people are going to compare lots of book in the same genre to it but most of those books are different.
I would recommend this book to anyone.Midnight for Charlie Bone stands out on its own, and is a very worthy read. Sometimes I think readers forget that though we are all critics, but it is still okay to enjoy what you are reading, even if it is a kids' book. I don't think there is an age limit for good literature, and what makes a book good is the desire for a reader to want to finish what is being read because the book presents elements of intrigue that keep that book in your hands up until completion. This book actually pulls you right in the story and you get a very clear picture in your mind. It creates lots of suspense. It has a range of adjectives, nouns, connectives, openers, and vocabulary. I found Charlie to be a wonderful role model and a sweet boy who trusts people, counts on his friends, is kind, thoughtful, and respectful. That being said, he is still independent, brave, makes good choices, and stands up for what is right. The plot lines do not have a lot of twists, which I find helpful for young readers. I loved this book a lot . I'm always trying to find books to occupy my time since i love to read. I can see myself reading the other 7 books in 2 weeks , that's how good I think they will be. My only criticism is that the ending feels a bit rushed and things fall in to place a little too neatly. I still loved the book.

Ein reizendes Kinderbuch. Der Anfang war ein bisschen holprig, als hätte die Autorin noch nicht so ganz ihren Rhythmus gefunden. Alles ist etwas schnell, wird nur angschnitten und zu abrupt gewechselt. Doch ab ca. der Hälfte wird es spannend, abenteurlich und ich hatte die Möglichkeit, in eine tolle Geschichte abzutauchen. Als Kind hätte ich es nicht erwarten können den zweiten Teil zu lesen.

No I did not like it
No I'm uncertain why. Perhaps because I didn't know who were the villains and who to trust. I did warm up to the novelty of good and bad people from the same family.
Yes I would be reading book 2 because of a promise and perhaps to give some of the characters a chance to soak in.

It was just ok. Not the best writing style. Seems like she borrowed a lot from Harry Potter.

I read the first three books in this series years ago. There are quite a few more now so I’m rereading the books I have already read first.

The Red King. Yewbeams. Three evil sisters. Children with magical powers including hypnotism, hearing conversations in photographs, and flying. Three magical fiery cats. One yellow. One orange. One red.

A school. Part evil. Part good.

Onward to book two...

I got to page 167 and I couldn't finish it. The characters in this story are so mean that it's not even an enjoyable story. Part of the lure of reading a book is enjoying the world that the characters live in - being in a world different from your own. I don't want to be in Charlie Bone's world! His world sucks. There is nothing in this story that makes me want to finish it.

I was really looking forward to this book so I'm pretty disappointed with the outcome.