Rose
Holly Webb
Those of you who have
kids or siblings that are 6-9 years old probably think that it is a book about
a puppy or a kitty. But no, this book is about Rose, a ten-year-old orphan.
Slowly this book gets more and more interesting. In a quite magical way.
Rose lives
at St. Bridget’s Home for Abandoned Girls. She does not daydream about rich
parents coming in to claim her and sweep her off her feet. She has reasons to
think that her father was a soldier and that her family had something to do
with fish.
Rose is very good at storytelling. One day,
when she is telling her friend Maisie a made-up story about how Maisie got lost
and ended up at the orphanage, her story comes to life. In pictures, that is.
The girls can see Rose’s story on the side of an old brass tub. Maisie loves
it, but Rose is scared, so she decides not to do it again.
The next day when the girls at St. Bridget’s are doing
laundry a guest comes to the orphanage. She’s dressed in a black dress and has
a nice hat on. She needs a girl 10-11 years old to be a maid. She asks Eliza,
Ruth, Lucy and Rose. Eliza is twelve, Lucy doesn’t want to be a maid and Ruth
does nothing but giggle, so Miss Bridges picks Rose. That’s the beginning of
her new life…
Rose
thinks that she works for Miss Bridges but Miss Bridges surprises her – they
both work for Mr. Fountain – the famous alchemist. Fountain works for the king
and he is one of the few who can make gold. Soon Rose learns that none of the
servants at the Fountain household like magic. They tolerate it, since it pays
their paychecks, but nothing more. Rose wants to get her hands on a magic book,
so she can figure out how to get rid of the pictures (the ones that come with
her stories) because she doesn’t want to have anything to do with magic. She
soon learns that Mr. Fountain lives with his seven-year-old daughter Isabella
and his apprentice Freddie. After Rose works at the Fountain house for a week
she gets an afternoon off to go visit the orphanage. She wanted to talk to
Maisie, but her friend isn’t there. Miss Lockwood tells her that Maisie’s
mother came for her. When she gets home, Rose realizes that something is
terribly wrong – Miss Lockwood kept saying there were flies, when there weren’t
any, Maisie left behind her locket – her most treasures possession, if she was
rich now, why would she have a cheap locket in the first place, and when Maisie
told the story – the story that Rose had made up – her mom was so happy that
she REMEMBERED – but Rose made the story up!! Rose thinks that Maisie was
stolen.
Since Rose made friends with Freddie
(Mr. Fountain’s apprentice) she decides to talk to him. Freddie decides that
they need to scry. It means look for her in a mirror or something shiny. But
when they scry that night, they only see darkness. She might be in a dark
place, or it didn’t work. Gustavus, the smart, magical cat tells Rose and
Freddie that it would work better if they had something of Maisie’s. So Rose
and Freddie go to St. Bridget’s at night, to take Maisie’s locket. On the way
there, they encounter a group of street boys, whose sister was also stolen. At
first, the boys thought it was Rose and Freddie, but when they promise the boys
to find their sister, they believed them. When they try to scry for Maisie with
the locket, they still get blackness. Rose is starting to feel frustrated, but
Gustavus (the cat, remember) suggests that they need to ask a different
question. So Rose thinks, Maisie who stole you, and the face of Miss Sparrow,
the lady who Mr. Fountain likes. Freddie is surprised. He says “Well, I didn’t
like her, but I didn’t think she was a kidnapper”. Then Isabella, Mr.
Fountain’s spoiled daughter finds them. She calms down and they make a plan –
Isabella will be bait, Rose and Freddie will follow her and save all the
kidnapped children and they win. Yay!
But the
plan does not go as planned. Sparrow spots Rose and Freddie, and brings them
with. Now there is no one to save them except, maybe, Gustavus. But then all
the children join happy memories and escape. Rose and Freddie stay behind to
defeat Miss Sparrow. But will they be able to defeat such powerful magic? By
themselves, no. But when they call up a mist monster (a creature that goes for
the most powerful magic and fights it), they might have a chance. So, leaving
Sparrow alone with the mist monster, they run.
At the end, Rose will learn magic,
too. Mr. Fountain is almost positive that Sparrow will come back, but he’s glad
that they haven’t killed her, because it would have taken part of her soul.
This is the first book in a series, so if you’re interested you can find the
books right here.
