A Well-Timed Enchantment

by Vivian Vande Velde, Cliff Nielsen

Overview

It's bad enough that Deanna has to waste her summer in France and her only friend is a mangy black cat, but now she's staring hopelessly into a well, trying to figure out what in the world to wish for.

Before she can make a wish, the cat scratches her, her watch falls into the well, and then . . . so has she! Except that now she's in medieval France, the cat is a handsome young man, and her watch has the power to completely change history.

Maybe a quiet summer would have been nice?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780152049195
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/01/2006
Series:	Magic Carpet Bks.
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)
Lexile:	720L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Vivian Vande Velde has written many books for teen and middle grade readers, including Heir Apparent, User Unfriendly, All Hallow's Eve: 13 Stories, Three Good Deeds, Now You See It ..., and the Edgar Award–winning Never Trust a Dead Man. She lives in Rochester, New York. Visit her website at www.vivianvandevelde.com.

Vivian Vande Velde has written many books for teen and middle grade readers, including Heir Apparent, User Unfriendly, All Hallow's Eve: 13 Stories, Three Good Deeds, Now You See It ..., and the Edgar Award–winning Never Trust a Dead Man. She lives in Rochester, New York. Visit her website at www.vivianvandevelde.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Slapstick adventure . . . funny."—The Horn Book

"Vande Velde has created an intriguing story, using familiar facts about the Middle Ages and [her usual] sly humor."—Library Talk
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From the Publisher

Gr 5-7 --Deanna, 15, drops her watch in a well, thus beginning a frenetic adventure in tenth-century France. Her first encounter is with elves wearing rock `n' roll T-shirts, who take her to task for mucking up time by throwing her Mickey Mouse watch into an astral loophole. Deanna is dispatched to find her watch, aided by her cat, Oliver, now transformed into a young man. Following a road ``paved with red polka-dot linoleum and marked with a flashing road-construction arrow,'' the duo (now magically clothed in tenth-century garb) become involved with a mannered French family that includes an evil sorcerer, a pair of competitive brothers, and their sire.... Everything works out: the sorcerer is not evil after all, Deanna retrieves the watch with the help of a pig-keeper who is marginally introduced, and Deanna and Oliver return to contemporary times. The characters are developed with exaggerated strokes, and the anachronisms that frame the book are jarring. However, the book's conclusion is pleasingly ambiguous, as Deanna, now in love with Oliver despite his currently feline form, prepares to make one more wish at the well. For a better crafted medieval fantasy adventure with a likable heroine, try Lloyd Alexander's Westmark (Dutton, 1981). --Carolyn Noah, Worcester Public Library, MA

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