I remember this series when it came out while I was in intermediate school and how it was seen as a huge Harry Potter clone. It starts with our boy Charlie Bone who discovers he can hear voices in photos. It gets him sent to Bloor’s Academy, a gifted magical school and there he will find himself on a magical journey to find the missing child of the photo.

Personally, it definitely feels like a “HP” clone but “Bone” still manages to be its own fantasy story. A enjoyable and magical read that has its own magical tricks up its sleeves. B+ (83%/Very Good)

The day has come, folks. I think I'm too old to legitimately enjoy middle grade books that aren't rereads.

I remember reading this series years and years ago. I'm talking "wow I honestly thought I imagined this series" years ago. Like that one siamese cat cartoon show that everyone suddenly remembered after someone posted a photo of it on tumblr. So when I saw the title whilst scrolling through categories on Libby to find a random book to read, I just had to quench my curiosity.

This book is about a child named Charlie Bone, obviously. Charlie was just living his normal, slightly boring life until he one day discovers that he's able to witness the story behind a photograph. Be it a picture of Charlie's best friend with his dog, a newspaper clipping of yesterday's events, or even a years old photo of a couple and their child. When he looks at a photo, he hears what happened while it was being taken.

As soon as his family finds out that he's "endowed" with a power, Charlie is informed of his father's family lineage and enrolled in Bloor's Academy. There, he meets other endowed children as well as just normally gifted students. Chaos ensues, and Charlie finds himself on a wild ride of magic and powers and secret, age old histories.

It has been so long since I read this series, that I honestly can't even remember how I felt about it as a child. Obviously, I enjoyed it, otherwise I never would've continued after finishing this first one.

However, as an adult, I can't say that this was an exceptional read. The plot was extremely stilted and jumpy, the characters were flat and totally underdeveloped, and the writing was-excluding the fact that this is indeed a middle grade fiction- waaaaay too juvenile. I could honestly believe that this was just a really long children's book, if the author had decided to include pictures. The sentence structure reminded me of those books for tiny children (toddlers?) that used simple rhyming words such as "cat", "bat", or "hat" to teach the english language.

I believe that a much younger, advanced reader would love this series. I wish I could remember how old I was when I read this originally so that I could better recommend it. I guess I'll just say that, if your child is an advanced reader who is tired of picture books and small chapter books like The Magic Tree House, they would most likely enjoy this book. Give it a try, at the very least. I just don't think I'll be continuing the series with any enthusiasm due to my age.

Well, I don't have the latest one, but I just finished books 1-5. Lots of similarities with Harry Potter, but this series is targeted toward readers who are a bit younger. Charlie Bone is a young boy who discovers that he can hear pictures talking. Once his aunts discover his talent, they send him to Bloor's Academy, a creepy private school where he will study with kids who are rich and/or gifted in music, art, or drama and/or endowed with magical talents. Each book tends to focus on someone who has been held hostage by the evil members of the Bloor or Yewbeam families. Charlie and the good endowed children rescue various victims from the bad endowed children.

The Books:

Midnight for Charlie Bone

Charlie Bone and the Time Twister

Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy

Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors

Charlie Bone and the Hidden King

Charlie Bone and the Beast

There are some good moments. Charlie is an interesting character and I absolutely love the flame cats. There are some truly funny moments in the animal cafe. On the whole, this is a better series for younger readers than Harry Potter--not as scary. Recommended for younger readers or readers who are looking for something like Harry Potter, but lighter.

Charlie Bone has grown up knowing that his family is a little, okay a lot, different than most. Little does he know that his family are descendents of the Red King and that he has passed down his powers to them. Now Charlie Bone has discovered an unusual gift-he can hear people in photographs talking! His scheming aunts decide to send him to Bloor Academy, a school for genius's where he uses his gifts to discover the truth despite all the dangers that lie ahead.
I really liked this book. I think the lack of deadly violence was the part I liked the most. I got very tired of having people die in the Harry Potter series. In this series, they don't die - they are found. I also like the way each character has a different endowment. This makes it interesting to see how their particular endowment works for and against the other characters.

Lame rendition of Harry Potter.

Off-brand Harry Potter.
Not as bad as off-brand pop-tarts.

it was so fun!

A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.

*2022 review*

A charming little YA series I remember reading way back when I was about ten (I used to get very excited about ordering them from the Scholastic book catalogue, let me tell you), clearly riding on the coattails of Harry Potter's success (boy with thick black hair has magic powers, goes to magic school, etc.) and yet- still quite refreshing as a series! Despite being in the modern world just as much as HP, there's more of a fairytale quality about this one. The characters sweep across your mind more like colours than people you know. And they're charming and odd, as the world they live in. I always liked the female characters in this particularly. The aunts are amusing, Olivia is probably my favourite and the most memorable, Emma is sweet and mysterious, and Dorothy de Vere (I'm not sure if that's exactly her name, I'm literally pulling this out of my memory from 10 years ago so I'd be surprised if it's accurate), Manfred's violinist mother, who has her precious hand smashed up in a doorframe- that was a haunting part of the story.

It's a nice book. Well-written, far superior to a lot of YA series, and ends up running its own race despite coming out of the gate with Harry clinging to the saddle.

It also introduced me to some of my all-time favourite female names: Una and Amoret (which I later encountered in Spenser's Faerie Queene and was tickled), Yolanda (oh yeah, she was a FANTASTIC character!), Daphne, Venetia, und so weiter.



*2024 reread*

It's funny, before I even read my 2022 review, the first line of the review I was going to write was, yet again, "charming."

It really is. It's such an earnest, fun, unique world, in a simple way, in the way you think when you're a child.

So my sister was able to read Harry Potter right when it came out. Being a few years younger, I was so happy when the Charlie Bone series came out. It was MY turn to have my OWN series that I could be excited and invested in! I started reading the series and anticipated each new book as the series unfolded... around the fifth book, however, I stopped reading. I think I became a bit too old at that point and there was too much space in between the books being released for me to stay in tune with the magic of it all.

HOWEVER... fie! Fie, I say! Now that the books are all out and done, I want to finish the series. And reading this first one again, I had the same fun joy as last time. I remembered most of it. I guess it wasn't that long ago. But I'm into it still and will press forward through this next week and a bit to complete the series! Once and for all!

I hope I don't regret it...

I'm so happy to be in this world again! Apparently, it has already been 7 years since I last reread this and that baffles me. This is one of my favorite series that I grew up with but unfortunately, I only own the last two books and so there hasn't been a lot of chance for me to read them. There are some of my favorite characters in these books and I love the setting, there is a lot of similarities between this and Harry Potter and a bit of Percy Jackson. I really binge-read this and I was happy the entire time. It is by no means a perfect book and I don't think adults reading this for the first time would like it, even adults who like to read middle-grade, but I do think elementary and middle schoolers would like it.

I was planning on only rereading this first book because my library doesn't have all of them but I now really want to read than all after this one. Luckily I managed to hunt down them down: my library has books one, three, and four, Hoopla has an audiobook six, I own physical copies of books 7 & 8, and I'm going to buy the Kindle books for Two and Five.

when u figure out a childhood fave is actually not well written at all :(