  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 09/01/2011 In this charming, insightful fantasy, Oliver’s first for middle grades, characters converge thanks to an accidental mix-up between boxes, one holding an evil alchemist’s greatest spell—“The Most Powerful Magic in the World”—and one holding the ashes of a little girl’s beloved father. Locked in the attic by her greedy stepmother, Liesl desperately mourns her father’s death, but she has reason to hope when two ghosts, Po and Bundle, visit from the Other Side. After they deliver a message from her father, who wishes Liesl to bury him under the willow tree where her mother rests, they steal the box containing his ashes. On their journey, they meet Will, the alchemist’s ill-used apprentice, who has been on the run ever since he misplaced the alchemist’s spell, which could raise the dead and restore youth. This original fairy tale, told by a wise and humorous omniscient narrator and peopled with broadly drawn but instantly recognizable characters, avoids sentimentality to show the magic of accepting loss without letting go and finding joy in the lives left behind. Final illustrations not seen. - Copyright 2011 Booklist. School Library Journal - 11/01/2011 Gr 5–8—Liesl's father has died, and she has been locked in an attic by her cruel stepmother. To the attic comes Po, a ghost whose memory of whether it was a boy or a girl has faded in its time in the world beyond. Po meets Liesl's father on the Other Side and carries a message back: he would like his ashes to be buried next to his first wife so that he can move on. In the same town on one fateful night, the apothecary's apprentice, Will, has two errands. The first is to deliver a box containing magic that the apothecary has conjured at the commission of the powerful the Lady Premiere, magic the apothecary claims will bring the dead back to life. The second is to stop by the undertaker's for some magical ingredients. Unwittingly, Will swaps the box of magic with the one containing the ashes of Liesl's father. When the mix-up is discovered, he flees the wrath of the apothecary and the Lady Premiere. Meanwhile, with Po's help, Liesl finds an opportunity to escape the attic and her stepmother. Their paths and destinies converge in an entirely satisfying way, and the plot gains forward momentum through chance encounters and lives crossing paths. This fantasy is written with the gentle simplicity of a fable infused with a storyteller's wisdom. Acedera's black-and-white charcoal illustrations are soft, warm, and somewhat old-fashioned, adding a great deal to the charm and emotion of the story. This is a case in which the illustrations truly enhance the book and make it something more special than it otherwise would have been. A lovely tale.—Tim Wadham, Children's Literature Consultant, Fenton, MO - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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