Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  A boy pushes Charlie to the ground; a few other instances of bullying. Two men hit each other, and one falls and hits his head on the rocks, crippling him for life. A boy’s dog is attacked by a wild beast. A man with extrasensory mind powers uses them to shatter all the windows in a school.

Adult Themes:  Charlie lives with his cruel grandmother and aunts, who are constantly belittling and abusing him (emotionally). A man surrenders his infant daughter in exchange for a box with mysterious powers. Unethical behavior: bribery, lies, cheating, etc. in the fight of good vs. evil.

Synopsis

The plot of this book sounds strikingly similar to the Harry Potter series: a young boy who lives with cruel relatives discovers he is gifted with special powers and is sent to an academy for endowed children, where he learns he must play a pivotal, yet dangerous, role in solving a mystery that involves good versus evil. The story is even set in England, the children at the academy wear capes, and the boy feels out of place at the school and unsure of his abilities. Yet that is where the similarities end (there are no magic wands or wizards.) The boy, Charlie Bone, is a quiet kid who learns one day that he can hear the voices and conversations of people in photographs at the time the photo was taken. When his mean grandmother and aunts realize he has been thus “endowed”, they insist he leave home and attend Bloor’s Academy for the gifted. Charlie is reluctant to go until the day a stranger appears on his doorstep and tells him about the bizarre disappearance of a baby girl and a magical box that holds the answers to her whereabouts. Charlie may be the only one gifted enough to open the box and solve the mystery, but not if his meddling aunts and the sinister Bloor family have anything to do with it.

I really wanted to like this book. I tried to overlook the glaring similarities to Harry Potter and engross myself in its mystery. I wanted to give poor Charlie a fighting chance, but there was so much in this book that was wanting: a well-thought out plot, for one; character development, for another. We catch only glimpses of Charlie’s personality and that of his dull friends, which made it difficult for me to feel invested in his plight. The story, too, feels disjointed and confusing; maybe I was expecting too much. (Or it could be that I’m not deep enough to follow such a convoluted plot…but not likely.) At any rate, younger children who have yet to read any of the Potter series (are there such children?) might find it amusing. This book is the first of eight in the Charlie Bone series.