If you thought every possible magic school angle had been taken, think again! No boarding school here – pupils arrive via their regular secondary school every morning. Now it does draw on Harry Potter in other ways with this entire first book basically being the sorting hat chapter (which just happens to be one of my favourite bits), and I spotted one of Hagrid’s famous lines – “Shouldn’t have said that” – but the world is distinct and I absolutely loved it.

This is a really short book – perfect for chapter book readers (I’d say 6-9, although Amazon seems to have it classified as 10-14 which I’d disagree with) or reluctant readers who would struggle to tackle Harry Potter.

It’s going to be a series, but I gather the other books can be read in any order as long as you start with this one so the world building is done. I love that this allows the readers to jump straight to their favourite characters and houses.

The other books are simply subtitled in a reading scheme style that will make it easy for the younger fans e.g. “Phoebe makes a mess” and “Maisy takes a tumble”.

Can’t wait to read more.

About the author

Normally I’d share a photo of the author, but she’s very camera shy, so I have nothing! Here’s one of her characters instead …

One last thing I have to add, the dedication is terribly sad – my heart goes out to the author and her family.