Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George

Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George

A castle that is constantly rearranging itself, and a young royal family sworn to protect it... Celie, Rolf, and their beloved Castle Glower are back in this exciting sequel.

Strange things are afoot in Castle Glower: new rooms, corridors, and even stables keep arriving, even when they aren't needed. Celie's brother Bran, the new Royal Wizard, has his hands full cataloguing an entire storeroom full of exotic and highly dangerous weapons, while Celie has her hands full . . . raising the creature that hatches from a giant egg she finds! Will they be able to find out what's making the Castle behave this way in time? (blurb from Goodreads)

Rating: PG, 5 stars

Trigger Warnings: none

Approximately a year and a half ago I review Tuesdays in the Castle and loved it. I had no idea there was a sequel, but boy am I glad. The second volume of the Castle Glower series loses none of the magic of the first book.

Wednesdays in the Tower continues the story of the lives of Princess Celie and her family, who live in Castle Glower, a castle which grows, shrinks, and rearranges itself, seemingly at random. Celie’s big accomplishment in this volume is a completed atlas of the castle.

One of the things I love about the Castle Glower books is the charm of Celie. She is a princess in a magical castle (and now she has a pet griffin), but at the end of the day she faces the same problems as other girls her age, namely being taken seriously by her family even though she is the youngest.

In general, I think the reason Wednesday in the Tower is as successful as Tuesdays in the Castle is because there is a winning combination of both concept and characters. Concept alone probably could have carried Tuesdays in the Castle, but fully-developed characters are needed to continue the series. Fortunately, Wednesdays in the Tower has no shortage of those. The characters all just felt so real, and that gave me so much enjoyment. They were interesting in their own right, not just because they lived in a shape-shifting house.

My sole complaint with the novel is not that it ends on a cliffhanger, but that the book isn’t out yet and won’t be for some time. I’ll definitely pick it up whenever it comes out.

Wednesdays in the Tower will appeal to fans of the previous book in the series, as well as those who like bright, spunky middle grade fantasy. Celie’s personality reminds me a bit of the earlier parts of Ella Enchanted (one of my all-time favorite books), although the Castle Glower books don’t deal with the same level of emotional maturity or internalized conflict. Instead, Celie and her family face external problems and solve them together in family-oriented ways.

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

Rating: PG; 5 stars

Summary: Castle Glower is not an ordinary castle. Every Tuesday, it grows and changes, sometimes adding adding rooms, sometimes a whole wing! Celie, the smallest of the royal children, is the only person who has ever tried to map Castle Glower. Unknown to Celie and almost everyone else in the castle, her detailed knowledge of the castle's layout will soon become important to the survival of Castle Glower!

Opinions: This book was nothing like the blurb said it would be. To start, it was a lot darker. When you *SPOILER ALERT* kill off the beloved King and Queen (Dad and Mom, to our young protagonists) in chapter 4 *END SPOILER*, things are going to be a little darker than your average middle-grade novel. I got the impression, based on the blurb, that this book was going to be more about how no one understands Celie's interest in how the castle grows and changes. This impression was...rather off. BUT. Do not let that deter you from reading Tuesdays at the Castle. This is an excellent book.

The writing style in Tuesdays at the Castle reminded me a bit of The Tale of Despereaux; it contained that same magic that makes Despereaux so loved. I dunno what it is, but I'm suddenly finding a whole slew of fantastic middle-grade books that are all written with this same magic. I don't know if it's the audience, or the genre, or what, but I like it!

I found the characters in Tuesdays at the Castle to be well developed. I was consistently surprised by how they reacted to different things, but not in a bad way. The book is pretty short, so there wasn't really a lot of room for character back-story. Still, George managed to write logical character responses that still managed to surprise, which is no small feat.

I loved the twists and turns of the plot. At times, I felt that I was actually in Castle Glower, because the plot took me in so many interesting directions that I never would have suspected. I suppose this is in part because of how I misunderstood what the book was about, but I do think that the majority of it was simply a very skillfully handled plot.

I gave this book a PG rating because it is a little bit dark. There's a bit of violence and general darkness that really small kids might not be able to handle very well. However, I firmly believe that any child who is old enough to read chapter books would fare fine with Tuesdays at the Castle. I would recommend not reading it to a three-year-old. I gave it 5 stars because I really and truly enjoyed this book. I read it essentially in one sitting, and I enjoyed every page of it. This is a wonderful book, and I think it would make an especially good family read. If you like fantasy for children, Tuesdays at the Castle is a lovely, fun little book.