The Secret of Platform 13
By Eva Ibbotson
Hi! Do you like the Harry Potter series? If you do, then this book is just right for you! If you haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books, this can give you sort of an idea of what Harry Potter is like. And if you didn’t like Harry Potter, just exit this review!
This book is mainly about a lost prince. A woman named Larina Trottle took the prince during the night. The story is about the rescuers who tried to bring him back. The people who are chosen as the rescuers are a wizard, a fey (a person who makes other people feel better about themselves – this fey makes plants feel better about themselves. Sort of crazy, right?), a hag (hags are people who send people nightmares and make people go bald and stuff like that), and an ogre covered in fern seed (fern seed makes anything invisible). The ogre got fern seed everywhere except for on his eyes.
There’s this big gump, a mound of something that looks like dirt and inside is a black hole that opens up every 9 years to lead into another world. Behind the gump, there were ghosts. The ghosts knew about the lost prince. They said they would help the rescuers find the prince. They showed the rescuers his house. The rescuers went inside and found a boy who looked a lot like the prince, but wasn’t. He showed them where the prince went out to lunch. The prince looked a lot like Mrs. Trottle (Larina Trottle). They tried to bring him back to the kingdom, but failed.
Now, Mrs. Trottle knows that someone is after her “son” (the prince). So they moved to a fancy hotel called the Astor. It took a while for the rescuers to find it, but they did.
Will they get the prince out of the Astor and back to the kingdom, or will all fail? As I always say, read the book to find out!
I recommend this book to readers who like Harry Potter. If you’re not a big fan, don’t read it. If you haven’t read Harry Potter, just give it a try. If you decide to give it a try and don’t like it, don’t read Harry Potter.
A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:
“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor): There were no scary parts in this book.
“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor): There was no yucky-lovey stuff in this book.
I give this book 4 ½ wands.
I like the book. I say to my grandmother all the time when she tells a story that it has to have a scary part. Since this book didn’t really have any scary parts, I decided to give it 4 ½ wands instead of 5.
