I am not in the target audience's age range, so I can only say it's cute but without any depth and heavy-handed on the moral. ( )

Here lies another dupe of the Harry Potter series, but published 6 years prior to the Harry Potter books ever hitting the shelves. The story begins with another young boy, who goes off to reluctantly become a student of wizardry at a magical boarding school. There are moving paintings, spells based on singing, and magical ways of getting around. There are also two best friends who strongly resembles Ron and Hermione, with similar red hair and freckles combo and a strange hair-do that masks intelligence and friendliness. Henry aka Thronmallow (dumbest wizard naming system ever in my opinion) teams up with them to research the bad guy (Nettle) at the library, but true to Harry Potter form , the protagonist must save the day because he is the only wizard who can defeat the bad guy... ( )

Full Review

Publish in 1991, six years before the first Harry Potter book; sadly, Wizard's Hall and Earthsea overshadow.
A short read that only took a day. The beginning and ending went too quickly and there could been more. Perhaps a series of books.
The world building is weak, and the magic system is interesting but, not well explain. Better then waving twigs around and shouting pseudo-Latin words. The character development is good. mainly focusing on Thormallow.

Enjoyable read. Not as great as Earthsea and a little bit better then Harry Potter. For me both will never be Earthsea standards. ( )

This was light and fun. Nothing super exciting, but endearing for what it is. ( )

A rather fluffy little story, with a little bit of playing with story stereotypes but overall rather simple, even simplistic. I like the names thing; Dr Mo is...very convenient. Henry's "special magic" is weird, though admittedly it might be something that is known but not to first-year students. Things flow along a bit too conveniently (including convenient overhearings); Henry never actually makes a choice or takes an action until practically the end, just follows various instructions. Cute, I'm glad I read it, I don't see any reason to ever reread. ( )