Book Review: Hocus Pocus Hotel

We interrupt our Christmas revelry to bring you a book review!  I read this one on the plane yesterday, so I thought that I would review it before I forgot.



Charlie Hitchcock has gotten one of those "meet me behind the bleachers" type of notes from Tyler Yu, the scariest kid in middle school.  But it turns out that Tyler just wants Charlie to help him solve a mystery at the hotel his parents own, called the Abracadabra Hotel, where a lot of magicians live.  But do they really do magic?  Or is just a bunch of tricks?

At first I was ready to be harsh on this middle-grade book.  But then, I paused.  Sure, the story was hokey and then characters were bland. But if I were nine-years-old, the tricks and the drawings and the mystery would really suck me in.  And that's what it's supposed to do.  The author obviously has very in depth knowledge of stage magic, and he has made an enthralling book for kids with his knowledge.  The illustrator has fun diagrams of every stage trick they encounter, and I think that kids would love that.

Does this meet the C.S. Lewis definition of good Children's Lit? No.  But I do think that it would keep kids interested, entertained and occupied.  I can picture some kids (especially little boys--sexist I know, but boys like some things more than girls and vice versa) looking at those diagrams for a long time and loving them.

So, 4 stars for Hocus Pocus Hotel.  It's supposed to be the first in the series, but I don't know that the others have come out yet.  Please correct me if I'm wrong on that.

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