About Magic

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.