Minimal surreal magic school story

Charlie Bone has one friend, who has a dog. Charlie lives with his mother and two grandmothers, one who is kind (Maisie) and one, Grandma Bone, who is severe. Charlie discovers unexpectedly that he has a gift -- he is "endowed", as Grandma Bone says. When he looks at a photograph, he can hear the conversation that took place when it was taken. Grandma Bone tells him that, because he is endowed, he must go to a special private school, Bloor's Academy. Charlie accordingly goes to Bloor's Academy, meets other endowed children, and has adventures.

Although this sounds like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, the feeling is completely different. Jenny Nimmo's style is spare to the point of minimalism. Nothing is described in more than the barest outline. I don't have a mental image of any of the characters. The story is told in the third person from Charlie's point of view. His inner dialog is minimal. I don't have a feeling for who he is or how he feels. The same holds more strongly for the remaining characters. I have no sense of an underlying structure or logic to Charlie's city or school. The result was a surreal ambience.

My best stab at explaining is that if René Magritte wrote a children's book, this might be how it would feel.

It did not honestly interest me all that much. Although I like the weird and surreal, this was too spare for me. I doubt I'll read any more Charlie Bone books.

Blog review.

Viena geresnių mano skaitytų knygų vaikams. Manyčiau, skirta plius minus 10 metų vaikams. Suaugę, žinoma, rastų prie ko prisikabinti, nelogiškumų ir pan., bet vaikai tokių dalykų juk per daug neieško :) Tuo tarpu knygoje pilna veiksmo, nuotykių, paslapčių, magijos, pavojų ir perskaičius skyrių norisi tuoj pat pulti skaityti toliau. Tačiau, kiek suprantu, šita knyga Lietuvoje "nepaėjo" ir tik vienintelė išleista iš visos Raudonojo karaliaus vaikų serijos knygų. Labai dėl to gaila, nes taip ir matosi, kad nuotykiai tęstųsi toliau - pagrindiniai veikėjai lieka mokytis toje pačioje pavojingoje ir paslaptingoje Bluro akademijoje, lieka neišspręstas Čarlio tėčio klausimas. Žodžiu, tikrai rekomenduoju šią knygą ;)

I actually give it 3 stars but if my friends saw that they would kill me. Fortunately nobody reads these reviews. ;)

My second grade daughter came home from school very excited about the chapter book her teacher was reading to their class. “Mom! You HAVE to read Midnight for Charlie Bone! You would LOVE IT! It’s just like Harry Potter!” Immediate yes, naturally.

Reading the same book has been SO FUN. My daughter would come home from school “MOM! I got to the part where…” And I actually knew what she was talking about since I read it too. This was fabulous on multiple levels because I was able to tell she was comprehending the book, AND it was something fun we could connect over. Without a doubt I will be reading my kiddos school books again the future.

Turns out my daughter’s book recommendation was also solid. I did in fact LOVE Midnight for Charlie Bone. It had quirky characters, adventure, and many twists. Admittedly I got so hooked I read the second one.

My eight year old son is currently reading this and absolutely loving it, reading it every chance he gets and proclaiming how good it is after every session of reading. My husband and I have been reading Harry Potter to him at night, and he is very enthusiastically following that story. Charlie Bone books are very VERY similar to Harry Potter, but for a younger audience, and Midnight for Charlie Bone is the perfect book for him to read on his own and still get his "troubled boy discovers his magical powers" fix. I think the suggested age on this book (according to Amazon, anyway) is 4th - 6th grades.

My son talked me into reading this with him. Now that I'm done with it, I can see how he is fascinated by it. The story is good (not great, but good), the characters are semi-interesting (though a little hollow), and the struggles are just a bit too easily won. Charlie himself is a fairly passive figure, even though it seems like a lot happens to him, but he decides more than he does, if that makes any sense. I would strongly recommend this as a pre-cursor to Harry Potter, to get children used to reading longer books and the basic idea of both: a child being mildly abused by the grown-ups (and a few of the kids) around him, finding a heretofore unknown sort of magic (both in the world, and within himself), and then emerging triumphant over the vast majority of the adversity (but saving a bit of it for future volumes). For adults, it's not a very fulfilling read, but don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled with it because it keeps my son reading!

I read this book at the encouragement of a young person in my house, and I’m glad I did! It was a fun and unputdownable read, and the ending had me reaching for book 2 in the series. This series is very appropriately marketed to middle grade readers, and I tried to keep that in mind as I read it—it has just the right level of intrigue for a 4th-6th grader, in my opinion.

I read all of the books in this wonderful series a couple of years ago! And found out that I hadn't rated them so here it is!

Deca Crvenog kralja, čiji je glavni lik Čarli Boun, je serijal mog detinjstva koji nikada zaista nisam završila. Zato sam odlučila da ga čitam ispočetka, desetak godina kasnije, te po prvi put pročitam i poslednje dve knjige serijala.

Čarli Boun ima posebnu sposobnost - on može da čuje šta govore ljudi na fotografijama. Kada njegova čudna baba saznaje da se njegova moć konačno ispoljila, ona odlučuje da ga pošalje u Blurovu akademiju - školu za muzičke, glumačke i likovne talente, u kojoj se školuju i obdarena deca, kako bi ih držali na oku. Zahvaljujući fotografiji pomoću koje je otkrio svoju obdarenost, Čarli saznaje da se u Blurovoj akademiji nalazi devojčica koju je otac - čovek sa fotografije - zamenio za čudnu kutiju, koja dospeva u Čarlijeve ruke. On odlučuje da će da pronađe ovu devojčicu i vrati je njenoj tetki.

Ponoć za Čarlija Bouna je divna knjiga, puna misterije i nepredvidivih obrta. Veoma je „pitka“ - dinamična je i tera vas da čitate sve do poslednje strane bez ispuštanje knjige iz ruku. Vi prolazite Čarlijeve avanture zajedno sa njim, osećate se potreseno i uplašeno kad i on, sumnjičavi ste kad vidite da bi neko mogao da mu podvali, a ponosni na njega kada uspeva da postigne svoje ciljeve.

I wonder why Charlie never talked to his uncle before when they always lived in the same house. Maybe I can kind of imagine doing that, if I was shy of him. Perhaps he's one of those scary adults. But maybe he's kind of like my brother who never comes out of the basement, and just never pays attention to his nephew, I guess.

I could give the grandma some good advice about how to kill people that live in the same house. She should just get a knife from the kitchen, and it would probably be easy to kill him when he was asleep. But maybe she just wanted to be more fair. Oh well, who knows.

Midnight for Charlie Bone is about a 10-year-old boy discovering that he has the ability to hear the conversation that took place moments before a picture was taken, by simply looking at the photograph. Charlie only wanted to blend in, and was disappointed to find out he would now have to transfer to Bloor's Academy. Leading up to his first day, he decided to help the family from the photo that accidentally ended up in his hands. The picture brought him to Miss. Ingledew, who had been desperately looking for the young girl in the photo for many years. She gives him a locked case that she believes could be the answer to finding the girl. Charlie takes on the dangerous journey, navigating those trying stop him, in order to save the girl.

In my future classroom, I would use this book as a resource in working on comprehension with struggling students. Formula fiction provides a platform for student to be able to learn elements of a successful plot, while making it easy for them to comprehend the predictable story line.

Eine schöne Geschichte! Den nächsten Teil werde ich wohl auch hören

I'm rereading this series before giving away the books to my new younger brother. This book was even more fun than I remember it being! It's about a formerly unexceptional boy named Charlie Bone who suddenly finds he can hear people in photographs. His life rapidly changes and he now has to go to an old school for children with exceptional abilities in art, music, or drama, which also teaches children with special powers like talking to animals and telekinesis. Adventures, mysteries, friendships and villains await him inside and outside the doors of Bloor's Academy.