The Mystwick School of Musicraft
By Jessica Khoury
Hi! Have you ever wanted something really badly? Well, Amelia Jones has! Amelia Jones loves musicraft. Musicraft is where you play an instrument to a certain tune and it creates a spell. Amelia’s mom died when she was little and Amelia’s dad ran away after her mom died. Amelia’s mom (we’ll just call her “mom” from now on) played musicraft with a flute, just like Amelia. Mom went to The Mystwick School of Musicraft, which was very famous. Amelia’s dream has always been to get into that school.
It was the day of the auditions. They were being held in a big auditorium in the middle of a big city. (Amelia lives out in the country.) There, she meets a very kind boy, Jai. However, Jai’s dad has high expectations. He wants his son to play “serious” music. Rock music does not count as serious music, and rock is Jai’s favorite type. Jai goes in and he gives a great audition. Up next is Amelia! When Amelia walks in, there are four judges – two women and two men. Three are wearing tuxedos, and one woman wears a black dress. Amelia was supposed to make an acorn grow into a tree. She chose the piece “Handel’s Flute Sonata in E minor.”
At first, everything goes to plan. Her tree starts growing beautifully. But then, she gets nervous and messes up and the tree starts growing crooked. She glances at the judges to see what they think, and to her horror, a bushy mustache starts growing on the face of one of the judges. Oh no! Amelia has taken her concentration off of the tree and onto a judge, and now she’s made something grow out of him! She leaves with a sad face because she knows that she will never make it into Mystwick now.
Soon, she gets a letter from The Mystwick School of Musicraft. She gets very sad and doesn’t want to open it, because she knows that it contains a rejection letter. She goes up to her treehouse and mopes around. Amelia heads to her bedroom and lays down on her bed. Then, her grandmother knocks and enters with her flute. Amelia tells her to donate it to someone else, but Gran says, “Fine. If that’s what you want. But it’s going to be mighty awkward when you show up at school without an instrument to play.” She hands Amelia the letter, and Amelia has gotten in!
When Amelia shows up at The Mystick School of Musicraft, she goes to check in and the girl up there thinks that there has been a mistake, so she takes her to the three judges who judged all of the auditions. The judges tell her that the letter was supposed to be sent to a different Amelia Jones, one who played the piano. However, that Amelia died shortly after her audition, so the acceptance letter found its way to this Amelia Jones’ house.
Amelia felt sad because she was going to be sent back home and her dream had not come true, but then the judges discovered that she had played a spell that sent her tree to all of the other trees on the grounds. Those trees protected the school. If they removed her, then her tree would have to be removed as well, which would weaken the barrier. So, she was given a trial and was told that there would be a test where, if she could prove that she belonged, she could stay. If not, then they would have to expel her.
Will Amelia follow her dream and make it into Mystwick? Or will she get sent home and a different person be given a chance to come into Musicraft? As I always say, read the book to find out!
A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:
“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor – zero being not scary at all and five being majorly scary): 4
“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor – zero having no yucky-lovey parts in it and five having major yucky-lovey parts): 3
I give this book 5 wands.
This book was amazing! It showed a girl battle for everything she believed in and try to get a spot where she knew she belonged!
Source: Review Copy
