Omg I can't wait to the rest of this series! Cressida is the author I needed as a kid! Her stories are so easy to relate to, without feeling like she's talking down to kids.

Cressida Cowell has a way of telling a story that grips the reader from the very first sentence. The characters are unique, but you feel as though there might be a touch of that character hidden within yourself, giving you the encouragement to try something outside of your comfort zone.

I have met Cressida a few times now, at various London book events, and via Zoom during the Pandemic. Her art is raw and entirely true to herself and the stories they help weave are captivating, real, and honest. I love them

The Wizards of Once has all the ingredients needed for a great fantasy story. Everything from magic and witches to giants, ogres, sprites, and more than its fair share of adventure makes for a fast-paced, action-packed read.

The storytelling in this book is top-quality; each chapter is brimming with imaginative scenarios, intriguing characters, and a richly-built world. The magical creatures are incredibly diverse and varied, each adding an extra layer to the story. The Warriors' regimented fortress is the exact opposite of the Wizards' forest home. Each page is full of something new to explore and the illustrations make the ideal accompaniment to Cressida Cowell's story.

Xar and Wish, the two main characters, are both similar and dissimilar to one another - yet both feel like outcasts in their own communities and are drawn together by the hand of fate. The pair are sure to excite and inspire young readers planning their own hijinks yet the story also leaves readers with clear morals and messages.

The Wizards of Once is a fun, fantastical story yet it also has a darker side sure to thrill older readers. The end of the story sets up the perfect cliffhanger for book two and it will be interesting to see how the story develops throughout the rest of the series.

Lovers of fantasy will really enjoy this book. Full of interesting images and adventurous characters, this book (and series) will be a great addition to young bookshelves (or those not so young). A great start to a new series, full of adventure, mystery and magic.

I have found childrens/middle grade books to be very hit and miss with me. But I actually really enjoyed this one. It was quite good fun and set up the world well for a new series which I believe this one is. The main characters are well rounded with flaws and the supporting characters are fun too. Some of the characters feel a little pantomime-like but I think that is to do with the age it is aimed at. I did like the son/father relationship between Xar and his dad, that was very sweet and very different to the one between Wish and her mum. Overall a good series which I might look at continuing.

A magical tale from the queen of whimsical children's fantasy, Wizards of Once is entertaining, thrilling and filled with Cressida's original illustrations. HTTYD fans will LOVE this new series!

My rather elderly Kindle did not handle Cowell’s trademark illustrations very well and I needed to persevere to pick out the text within the rather hinky formatting. However, I refused to be put off though it took me a little longer to get into the story than I had expected, simply because Xar is fairly obnoxious at the beginning – though as the narrative progressed, it became increasingly obvious why he is such a pain and I grew to like and sympathise with him.

This book is clearly aimed at an older age-group than the How To Train Your Dragon series, and consequently lacks the can-do chirpiness that runs throughout HTTYD no matter what is going on. The language is also richer, full of poetic metaphors and although the adventure is full of incident and unexpected developments that are the hallmark of a Cowell story, the issues are more nuanced. Neither Wish or Xar are all bad or all good and I particularly liked the way the adults are portrayed. Very often in children’s literature, adults are either bullying buffoons or simply oblivious. It’s relatively rare to see an adult with a significant backstory and an interesting hidden agenda, yet both parent figures in this book first appear as typically black and white authority figures, only to later develop into something far more intriguing. I shall be very interested to see how they develop in due course.

All in all, this is a joy. I shall be reading it aloud to my granddaughter as a break from the Louis the Laugh series – after I’ve bought the print copy. And I have included the poem at the back of the book as something of a treat – I recommend you read it aloud…

Wandering Free
In the roads of sky and paths of sea
And in that timeless long-gone hour
Words of nonsense still had power
Doors still flew and birds still talked
Witches grinned and giants walked
We had Magic wands and Magic wings
And we lost our hearts to impossible things
Unbelievable thoughts! Unsensible ends!
For Wizards and Warriors might be friends.
In a world where impossible things are true
I don’t why we forgot the spell
When we lost the way, how the forests fell.
But now we are old, we can vanish too.
And I see once more the invisible track
That will lead us home and take us back…
So find your wands and spread your wings
I’ll sing our love of impossible things
And when you take my vanished hand
We’ll both go back to that Magic land
Where we lost our hearts…
Several lifetimes ago…
When we were Wizards
Once.

While I obtained the arc of The Wizards of Once from the publisher via NetGalley, this has in no way influenced my unbiased review.
9/10

Ok. So this was my first Cressida Cowell and although I really liked the idea, I didn't love the execution and I didn't really like the characters as much as I'd hoped. My proof copy hadn't coped very well with the illustrations either (on Kindle or on iPad) so I felt like I was missing a key element some how. Hey ho

Got to 48% and stopped. Didn't like characters or find the story very interesting I'm afraid.

Magic! Mischief! Mayhem! And a pleasant about-face from the How to Train Your Dragon series. With deep characters and a surprisingly spooky narrative with some pretty awesome villains, this book came as a surprise. I must say though that I felt that this would be better suited to a younger middle-grade reader or an older child reader. The illustrations and attempted humour sometimes made it read a little younger than I think the target market is.

3.5 stars for this children's fantasy adventure book.

This novel is the first in a new series by Cressida Cowell and it is a fun and scary adventure. The main characters are thirteen-year-olds Xar, younger son of a powerful Wizard king, and Wish, the seventh daughter of Sychorax, Queen of the Warriors. Xar is a self-absorbed, overconfident, unthinking, infuriating boy who will do anything to obtain magic: most Wizard children have their Magic 'come in' by the age of 13 and Xar worries that he will never have Magic unless he steals it from a Witch. Wish is kind, lonely, thoughtful and dismissed by most as unWarriorlike and very unlike her beautiful scary mother the Queen. They are accompanied by a host of other characters including Bodkin, conscientious Assistant Bodyguard to Wish who discovers he has a 'slight fainting issue' when faced with danger, Crusher a gentle Giant, snowcats, sprites, hairy fairies and an enchanted spoon. The characters and their relationships are beautifully drawn.

It is an exciting and well plotted tale involving the enmity of Wizards and Warriors; extinct-or-perhaps-not evil Witches; journeys, trials, and quests; lies and uncovered truths; and credible development of the characters. The only aspect of the book that I was less keen on was the narrative voice - this is subjective of course but I found the way the book was narrated rather off-putting, with laboured humour and at times it was just too twee for my liking.

I am not commenting on the illustrations as I was unable to view many of them in my Adavanced Reader Copy.

I received this ebook free from NetGalley in return for an honest review.