Gr 4-7-There's nothing new in this Harry Potter-inspired fantasy; a magic school, quirky professors, cleverly named spells, and a main character with a previously unknown magical bloodline all make an appearance. Ivy has known a life of servitude working for Royals in a castle hidden in a slurry field, which is a force field that blocks magic. When she finds herself outside of the fields for the first time, she is then (inexplicably) able to attend school at the Halls of Ivy where she can study to become a scrivenist. World-building falls flat-lots of magical terms are thrown around without context. There is no real suspense since it's obvious from the beginning that Ivy isn't who she thinks she is. It's almost impossible to keep track of the various characters, none of whom seem to have a clear impact on either Ivy or the story. There are some interesting imaginative elements, such as the glanagerie bottle, a world created in a genie bottle of sorts, but they seem to belong in a different story. This author has promise but needs to find her own voice. VERDICT Successful Harry Potter readalikes abound. Pass on this one.-Mandy Laferriere, Fowler Middle School, Frisco, TX © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A teenage orphan enters a curious school and encounters mysteries and dangerous secrets in this first installment of a debut YA fantasy series. Life in Croswald is about to change for 16-year-old orphan Ivy, a lowly castle maid in charge of the kitchen "scaldrons," oven-heating, fire-breathing dragons. Fleeing the castle after a messy scaldron mishap, Ivy hops a strange conveyance that transports her to a school for potential quill-wielding, spell-casting "scrivenists." (The author's creative languagestudents are "sqwinches," and "hairies" are lanterns housing fairies with luminous hairis one of the book's pleasures.) Learning that there is more to her gift for sketching than she realized, Ivy studies spells and the magical properties of inks and quills, but strange things keep happening. Why is an old scrivenist, long thought dead, working in secret? Why is the head of the oddly familiar school moving paintings to the "Forgetting Room" so that no one will remember they existed? How can Ivy get a look at a certain journal stored there, and what does it have to do with her recurrent dream? And why has Ivy drawn the interest of the Dark Queen of Croswald and her truly fearsome Cloaked Brood? The intrigue is layered with such whimsical inventions as one school lunchroom run by ghostly bad cooks and another by a jester who is best avoided, scrivenists who end their lives as tomes in a library, and small houses pulled by a gargantuan flying beast with its own weather system. Yes, there are many Harry Potter-ish elements: a school for young wand-wielders, quirky shops dealing in enchanted student supplies, eccentric characters, spells gone wrong, an evil pursuer. But Night's blend of magic, danger, and suspense (and a touch of steampunk) is a well-realized, fresh fantasy world all its own, and Ivy is an appealing protagonist of relatable complexity. A few bobbles: Ivy seems to go without food for long stretches; the use of "effected" rather than "affected"; a professor who is both standing and perched on a chair. Harry Potter-like threads spun into a fresh, enjoyable mix of magic and mystery. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.