The Magic Place was very fast paced and the illustrations were good but for me the plot felt like so many other books. Then there was a twist and I wish the author used that as the plot line as it was so different and the story would of been something special. Also the Aunt and Uncle were so like other characters in other books.

For all the above reasons The Magic Place receives 3 stars

Exciting book to read. I got this one to read to my son. He absolutely loved it. The plot as fantastic. It was very well written

This was not at all the book I was expecting! I thought from the cover and blurb it sounded like a sweet tale of magic and hijinks in the vein of Diana Wynne Jones, but it's actually more like a Dickens or Frances Hodgson Burnett tale of escaping child abuse. There's a fair amount of Twits-like grossness in the horrible aunt and Uncle that Clementine stays with, which will delight some children, but wasn't to my particular taste, and I found the whole book just a bit more miserable than I tend to prefer. The illustrations definitely magnify the darkness and misery, too, with heavy lines and crowded scenes.
However, there are some brighter and more exciting moments, and I loved clever cat Gilbert (there is a bit of physical abuse towards him, too, if that's something you tend to avoid). I particularly liked the illustrations of him slipping over the rooftops, which seemed quintessentially cattish! The overall message is one of optimism, and kindness triumphing over selfishness, so it is uplifting in the end.
Overall, this isn't what I love from middle grade, but it will definitely charm readers who enjoy this style.

The Magic Place is a lovely story. Full of love, hope and inspiration. It's a great read that both young and older readers will enjoy and be able to discuss together.

You know I’ve enjoyed a book when I read it all in one go.
I didn’t go into this book with any preconceived expectations as this is a new author for me, but I have been pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this read.
The illustrations captured my heart. I absolutely adore them! And the description. Oh the description! I can’t even explain how much this book hit me with all the feels!
I have never experienced a book that has allowed me to imagine the story so vividly, until I read this and I cannot recommend this enough!

I am honestly unsure how to feel about this book. As an adult the story itself I found horrific. Ill admit I expected this book to be more magical and adventurous. Unfortunatley for me this was too heavy on Child Abuse which impacted my enjoyment immensely. I understand this is a children's book and they might see a different perspective to the story, however I am unsure I could reccomend.

This could be just me so I appologise.

I really enjoyed this charming tale full of magic, mayhem.
Clementine is imprisoned by her evil Aunt and Uncle who are your typical villains (very Roald Dahl-esque characters, reminiscent of the Twits). She dreams of escaping to the 'magic place' but she is only let out of her cellar to clean and tidy the house. Her Aunt and Uncle are very good at locking all the doors, especially when they go out to 'work' or go 'shopping', but one day, they let their guard down... Will she find the magic place she has been looking for?
The wonderful illustrations by Chris Riddell beautifully complemented this humorous story. It is perfect for fans of Dahl and larger than life characters aged 7+.

What a wonderful book! We find ourselves immersed in a Great Black City in England, set in the Victorian era, where Clementine dreams of a magical place where she can escape to. Clementine is a young girl who is not treated very well by her aunt and uncle, they make her do awful chores and useless tasks and at the end of the day lock her up in the cellar!
Clementine doesn’t feel as though she belongs and when cleaning one day she finds an object which changes her and her determination to find the magic place grows. She will have to be quick and with the help of her best cat friend Gilbert they start off on an adventure to find the magic place.

I read the book in 1 sitting and it is perfect for readers from 7 years upwards. The story was fast paced and after the chapters it left me wanting to find out what will happen next! The drawings are beautiful and give the reader a better understanding of the characters and settings that are written about.

The beginning of this book was so good' I thought it was so creative and funny. A mix between Harry Potter and Matilda it had so much potential but the latter half just let it down.
I still enjoyed the book but I did find myself skipping a lot of the end.
I did however love the illustrations, they added so much to the story and made the reading experience much better.

What a truly stunning book. The illustrations, the writing, the story… It was all just… *Chef’s Kiss*

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book. To say that this is a simple book would be a gross understatement. This is such a multi layered story, tackling topics such as kidnapping and child abuse. These topics although hefty were addressed with such delicacy and subtlety. Never making light of such terrible events, while still keeping it a story in which children can revel and find pleasure, is indeed a tall order which Chris fulfilled beautifully.
The title was a little misleading, but in the end so appropriate. It was indicative of hope and a better future, no matter how dire the circumstances you find yourself within. When you, reader, pick up this story you will see how aptly titled this book really is and rejoice right beside Clementine (our small heroine) when she finally makes the leap to enter The Magic Place that her heart yearned for.
The dark scratchy illustrations that Chris used were just perfect. They added drama and accuracy as well as a bit of comic relief, the feelings that they captured were mimicked in the writing and they created an opening for a fun and unique narrative voice to enter the scene.
I loved that narrator of the book was a sentient being and “talked” to the reader. Making references to the illustrations, making comments that deserve an answer from the reader, or allows for the reader to interact. It was quirky and had me smiling when I came across the sassy little questions that the narrator threw out to me.
I would definitely recommend this to Chris Riddel fans, the characters were colourful and fascinating. The villains, Clementine’s Aunt and Uncle, were evil in the best way, thieves and con artists to boot. They were dastardly and cunning. Evil in the best middle grade ways.
Though the writing, illustrations and the narrator kept the tale lighthearted and a made it a pleasure to read, undertones were sufficiently serious, and the darker message came through.
All in all, an important, yet fun read. I don’t regret choosing this one in the least.

I read this with my 5 year old son and he loved it. We were drawn to the title and expecting a book with magic in it - this is a magical story but not the one we had anticipated. Beautifully illustrated and with rich, evocative descriptions, we were both really drawn in and were rooting for Clementine from the get-go. What a nasty pair Vermilia and Rufus are! Nice and short chapters. The archaic language at times did mean we had to stop every now and then to explain words and phrases but that wasn’t a bother. Will certainly seek out the author’s future stories.

Thank you so much, NetGalley and David Fickling Books, for the chance to read and review this book!

TW: kidnapping and child abuse

Mistreated and abused by her wicked aunt and uncle, Clementine dreams of a magic place from her cellar bedroom, hoping she will, one day, escape the Great Black City. With the help of a peculiar and magical cat, Gilbert, one day Clementine decides to make her dreams come true.

With amazing illustrations, The magic place is a wonderful and lovely fairytale. funny and heartbreaking, intriguing and moving. Clementine was abused and hurt all her life and she's determined to survive and escape from her prison and her awful relative. I loved the descriptions, so evocative and intense and how the author and the illustrator describe the Great Black City, The magic place, the characters and their adventures.
Gilbert, the Grimbles, are intriguing characters, well written and rounded and I loved reading this book!
It filled me with hope and magic and it's absolutely splendid.

Can I just say that I adored this? I'm a sucker for a good middle grade with magical elements, so obviously I had to go for this one since "Magic" is literally in the title. Clementine's story was filled with so much hope and Gilbert was a cute little show stealer - when I saw that this was written by the illustrator for Philip Pullman's series I gasped!
Stunning, inside and out, this is a perfect read for younger middle grade and anyone who needs an uplifting, magical story!

Triggerwarnings for physical and mental child abuse.

Because of the title The magical place i believed this to be a magical story. It is not. There is no magic in this story so if your looking for that you should move on. If your looking for a quick middlegrade about a girl finding her own power, a family reunion and a cute cat keep on reading.

This is the story of Clementine or as she knows herself oye, she is locked up in the basement by her aunt and auncle and need to do all kind of chores. She dreams about a colorful she calls the magic place, she would love to go there but all the windows and doors in the house are shut.

This is a story about a girl who with the help of a cat finds her own strenght. And learns to make her own desicions. It was a quick read and had pretty drawings in it.

Thank you David Fickling Books and netgalley for gifting me this e-arc in exchange for an honest review. And although i would not have picked it up if i knew it wasnt a magical story i did enjoyed it quit a bit!

This is a lovely little book perfect for fans of Roald Dahl. It is the story of Clementine (even though she does not know that is her name) who was kidnapped as a baby. She was forced to live with her “aunt” and “uncle” who, at points, reminded me of the Twits. She is desperate to find this Magic Place which she has managed to spot.

A fun, quick, easy read, perfect for younger readers.

The Magic Place completely took me by surprise. It has a very warm and familiar tone, like your parent reading to you before bed as it carefully unfolds. Yet the story sweeps you away with an enormous sense of adventure and surprise. An utter delight to read, with gorgeous illustrations that fit the story perfectly. 5/5.

This was an utterly charming book and it was so refreshing to read a tale where there were no references to mobile phones, laptops or Xbox games. Instead we had a story with good old fashioned villains.

The story, set in what seems to be a Victorian landscape, is about Clementine who lives with her Aunt Vermilia and Uncle Rufus - two of the most dreadful people you could come across. The way they are described is wonderful and the illustrations that run through the book capture their 'evilness' brilliantly and we are shown in detail how they commit their crimes. Although I say that Clementine lives with these two characters, in truth, she has a metal bed in an empty cellar room that she is locked in regularly. Her one friend is a white cat, Gilbert, who keeps appearing. Clementine has never been outside, she has never seen the world but dreams of a Magic Place where she could be happy.

The writing style is perfect for an adult reading aloud to children, the author uses questions to encourage to the child to think, to search through the beautifully detailed illustrations. Reading this reminded me of the books that I used to read when my own son was young - a perfect book to share. The story - well, I won't spoil it but what normally happens to villains? But - look out for the dogs, that's all I'll say. Terrific fun.

All in all a great book for kids.

I am not sure what I was expecting but it was not this! I was even more delighted by the book that I thought I would be. I love the writing style and the illustrations.

This book begs to be read aloud, it engages with the reader, breaks down the fourth wall and is a beautiful tale. The illustrations are perfect and the book draws you into the world of Clementine, where one just wills her to escape and find the magic place of which she dreams. The characters are wonderful, even the hateful ones and children will throughly enjoy booing the baddies and cheering on the goodies, not to mention the friendly guardian cat and the pack of hero dogs!

This is truly a beautiful tale with stunning illustrations.

As in many classic tales for children we have a child imprisoned by evil relatives and in this case we have Clementine used as a servant to her evil aunt Vermilia and Uncle Rufus. The story takes place against a Victorian backdrop and the grime and darkness of the period is wonderfully captured. Clementine’s journey to escape the clutches of the wicked relatives is fast paced. With the support of Gilbert the cat, she battles to escape the darkness of her cellar to finally reach her envisioned Magical Place

The story is beautifully told with a language that pulls you in and lets your imagination picture scenes and empathise with Clementine’s dilemmas. But it is ultimately the illustrations of Chris Wormell that steal the show. They are enchanting and humorous and entailed to an extent that every emotion of the characters is clearly displayed to further enhance the tale. There is a charming classic feel to the imagery reminiscent of Edward Ardizzone’s in Stig of The Dump or Garth Williams’ and Charlotte’s Web.

This book is perfect to be read by or read to children from 7-10 . I would highly recommend this to challenge year 2 readers but would make an excellent story for drama and writing activities with lower KS 2 learners.

It’s important that we encourage children to read with love and enjoyment and broaden their pallete of authors so step away from Mr Walliams and next time get this for your children.

Thank you so much to David Fickling Books and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

A young girl is trapped in a house with two cruel thieving adults who treat her as though everything bad or every little mistake is her fault. She dreams of a Magic Place far away with mountains and beautiful colours, looking for any sort of sunlight down in her dark basement room.

This story was really interesting and sad but fun. The adults were horrible through and through which helped you really feel even more for Clementine. Whilst reading all I wanted her to do was escape, I kept saying in my head get out whilst you can. I really felt for her. The cat Gilbert you’ll adore him, the one character that comes and goes and interacts with every character and also helps to make life better for Clementine.

The story honestly wasn’t what I was thinking or expecting it was going to be, I really enjoyed it, it had lots of magic, lots of sweetness, lots of sadness and lots of humour too. The ending was perfect and rounded off the story perfectly.

From the start of meeting one character in the story (will give no spoilers) I personally knew who he was going to be and why he was there and I was very glad that I was right. What an adventure he had to keep going on.

I haven’t yet mentioned probably the funniest part of the story and when you read it you’ll laugh too, several times through the story one little dog gathers up so many more dogs and all they participate in a huge chase. I will not state the cause or reason (spoilers) but my goodness it will have you laughing so much when you get to it.

This book was a really unique book, a very original concept and had some elements similar to that of Roald Dahl’s books. A sweet lead that you feel an utter connection too, a pair of odious evil adults who you cannot wait for something bad to happen too and a dream that centres the heart of the lead.

I really enjoyed this book, it was an easy, fun, funny, sad sweet book; the chapters are very entertaining and it will keep you heavily engaged in the story the whole time. You won’t want to be done until you’ve gotten to the last page.

As an additional note, I loved the illustrations they were so beautiful and also that they were part of the story, the story itself referenced to an image that was surrounding it, I loved that originality and that they became interactive as such, perfect addition to this book.