It took me much too long to decide to read this book -- I won it through LibraryThing Early Reviewers, and ended up shuffling it to the back of my reading list. But after winning the second book as well, I decided it was time to tackle the first one, and I'm glad I did!

The book is a quick, but an enjoyable read, that takes us through the transition of Penny Sinclair from an orphan, to a new resident of Dogwood, to a Phoenix Girl. I found her to be immediately likable, and with a desire for the opening mysteries of the book to be solved and wanting to see something good happen for Penny, I sped through even the even the more slower paced parts of the book, eager to see what awaited Penny and her new friends.

However, it's not all fun and magic -- after a magician that Penny suspects is her father arrives in town, several kids from her area go missing. And the more Penny learns, the less she can be sure she ever knew her own life in the first place. But she needs to figure something out soon -- because the mysterious kidnapper is coming for her next.

There were a few pacing issues for me with the story, which is the only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars. The book's description promises experiments with magic going wrong as often as they go right, but we don't really get to see this in any meaningful way. It's sort of mentioned once and then referred to a few times in the book. I think it would have helped to see more misadventures on that front, because it would have added in more conflict when the main conflict of the story was sort of in the background. It also would have helped to make the girls seem more proactive and make the magic seem more like a part of the story.

That being said, it wasn't a deal breaker by any means, and I'm greatly looking forward to the next book. The author, much like the girls' fox companion Ronan, leaves more questions than answers at the start of this series. I can't wait to see what the rest of the story holds.

Note: I received a free copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. This has no bearing on the content of my review.

I’m not the target audience for this book, but I do enjoy YA fiction, however I think this would be better for younger children. The writing was good enough, although, being British, I struggled a bit with the American-ness of it.
The story was exciting and whizzed on; the heroines were likeable and the plot was interesting, but there are many better books of this genre available. ( )

Orphaned since her mom’s mysterious death, Penny is surprised to learn that she has a grandmother still alive. Sent to live with her grandmother in Dogwood, Penny thinks at first that Dogwood will be boring. She soon discovers, however, a magical grove filled with secret and a magical book that talks about the Phoenix girls. Penny even finds a friend named Zoe who joins her in learning magic. When a mysterious magician arrives in town, who Penny suspects is her father, strange things start to happen, like children disappearing. It’s up to the Phoenix Girls, Zoe and Penny, to learn how to use their new found magic before it’s too late. But, with powers that only work they way they want them to, the two have their work cut out for them. Especially, since the kidnapper is coming for them next. Will they succeed?

The story drags a bit in places and the mystery takes a while to develop, but manages to hold the reader’s interest with its well-developed plot. The characters are easy to relate to and have realistic problems that most middle-schoolers will identify with. Fans of magic, fantasy, and mystery will enjoy reading this book. ( )

I was intrigued by The Conjuring Glass as a potential good “middle reader” book for my 10 year old daughter. It sounded like something she might enjoy. It focuses on a 13 year old girl, an orphan named Penny, who is moved to a new little town and discovers a secret magic that she is able to use. At the same time, evidence of some scary mystery starts to unravel around her and Penny needs to muster her courage and what little magic skills she’s learned to try and stop whatever is happening. Even though there is the risk that this could be a Harry Potter clone, it fortunately makes some conscious choices to differentiate itself while still potentially being appealing to Harry Potter readers.

The first thing I noticed as I read this book is that the writing is very simplistic and definitely geared towards younger readers. I’ve seen this categorized as “Young Adult” but the prose is certainly accessible to Middle Graders and the overall tone and depth of the story is more likely to be appreciated by those pre- and early-teens than older readers. Some of the content may be what pushes for the characterization as a “Young Adult” novel. While there was nothing that would be deemed as “mature themes”, there are some ‘intense’ scenes later in the book that could be a little frightening for younger readers. Thus I suspect this is the reason that some groups choose to “shelve” the book as a “Young Adult” novel, knowing that “Middle Grader” could potentially get readers as young as 7 or 8.

Assuming the role of a younger reader, I found myself intrigued by the story and by the character of Penny. She’s a bit of an outsider, not necessarily by choice but willing to adapt to that role. When she does finally make a friend in town, the hesitance and apprehension felt realistic and appropriate. As the girls discover the magic around them it is fun to see their excitement grow and I enjoyed the fun and playful way the girls just enjoyed being themselves and exploring the world around them.

Once the conflict in the story began, things took a turn for the strange. The author did a good job of keeping the antagonist and the real nature of the mystery at arms length for a while. I don’t want to spoil the fun by revealing the secrets except to say that the plot is intriguing and twists together a number of fun tension and questions. There were elements that felt a little trite and predictable but to younger/inexperienced readers they may not even notice or care and to me I was able to move on easily enough.

As I mentioned above, there were some intense scenes in the climax and near the conclusion of the book. These felt a little unbalanced and out of place given the younger tone of the rest of the book and as such they left me a little unsure of what to make of it. As an older reader I appreciated the added tension and excitement. Thinking of this as a book for my 10-year old, I was momentarily a little apprehensive. Thinking back on the scenes in terms of the overall book, I think it was more the contrast in the “tame vs intense” that made the “intense” scenes seem over the top. Taken individually I don’t feel like the scenes were inappropriate or anything unexpected for a Middle Grader novel (except perhaps, as I mentioned, for the young 7-8 yr old Grade Schooler who’s reading above his/her level).

This book is also set up as book 1 in a series. At this time I don’t know how many books are going to be in the series. It is very apparent at the end of Book 1 that we are definitely not done with the story. The overarching plot is not yet clear at all. The girls have only barely begun to explore the magic available to them. There are still too many questions unanswered and a number of questions not yet posed by the book at all. At this point I see there is a book “1.5” and a book 2 out. The book is fairly short overall and the easy prose makes it a quick read. My only concern is that the pacing be right. I have a difficult time with series books where each novel has a few significant scenes to keep the reader hooked but when looked at as a whole the overall plot moves along very slowly. Without having a view at the whole picture and without having read the next books, it’s difficult to tell what the trend will be but due to the smallish nature of the full plot trajectory in Book 1, I’m a little nervous about the rest…but that’s largely just in terms of my personal taste.

Overall I found this to be an entertaining read. I’ve recommended it to my 10 year-old daughter and have given her a brief synopsis but so far she hasn’t been interested in picking it up. Even though I enjoyed the book, it wasn’t an “absolutely must read” so I’m not pushing it on her at this point but I am interested to know if she likes it or not. We shall see. As for me, I’m probably not going to move on to the rest of the series unless my daughter does decide she likes it in which case I’ll just read along with her and enjoy the lightweight fun of this Middle Grader novel.

***
3 out of 5 stars ( )

This was a rather mediocre juvenile fantasy book. It's billed as YA, but I can't imagine anyone over 12 wanting to read it.

Positives: It was a very fast-paced story, and the two main protagonists were pretty likable. The story showed promise, and I think it could turn into a pretty decent children's series. I don't think it's ever going to be anything earth-shatteringly fabulous, but it has potential.

Negatives: This may be a picky thing on my part, but I thought the way the images were imbedded in the pages was really poorly done. You'd have a few lines of text, then a drawing in the center of the page, but next to the drawing a smooshed few sentences, rather than just opting to have text above and below the picture. It was very jarring to read. Another thing that bothered me about this book was the incessant bullying. I don't like the way that Knight answered the bullies in the book by making everyone mean to each other. One kid is calling another names, so let's turn around and call him names and make him cry. Yay! No, how about we don't teach our children that this is the way we handle every problem? It was very petty and juvenile, and the biggest reason I felt teens would think this book was rather lame. Kids might like it, but I'd like to think even kids would think this wasn't the way you want your 'heroines' to behave.

Final Assessment: I am obviously not the target audience for this book. However, I did give it to my 11 year old daughter (I think she is exactly the target for this sort of book), and she didn't get past page 12 before telling me to put it in the library donation box. It wasn't poorly written, and it does have potential, but as it is I wouldn't recommend it to anyone over 12, and even then it'd be toward the bottom of a long list of better selections. ( )