The Children’s Book Review
Published: June 3, 2009
by Erica Kirov
Reading level: Ages 9+
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (May 1, 2009)
What to expect: Magic, Magicians, Good and evil, Family, Russian history – Fiction, Las Vegas
With its gold embossed razzle-dazzle cover and the publisher’s synopsis, I was allured by a super-natural power that the Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass beholds. When Nick turns 13-years-old his life takes an unsuspecting turn. He’s been living in a not-so-cool hotel in Las Vegas, The Pendragon, with his magician father whose magic skills are more illusion than magic. Nick has trouble making friends because everyone he meets is only in Las Vegas for a vacation. On his birthday everything changes — he discovers that his heritage runs much deeper than one could ever anticipate. He is part of the most powerful Russian magic family there is, and they live in The Winter Palace Hotel and Casino where the world-famous Damian puts on the greatest show on earth.
With a strong Russian heritage, author Erica Kirov brings an old-world depth to the fast paced neon-world of today’s Las Vegas. Two very different times and cultures collide in an out-of this-world experience. Swords, caviar, and Siberian tigers, meet skateboards, pizza, and hedgehogs. Kirov’s descriptions of characters and scenes are vivid and picturesque. This book is so well thought through that I am beginning to think that Erica Kirov may actually be from a family of magicians. I have been bewitched and I can’t wait for book two. A vonderful novel!
If you like J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, or The Navigator by Eoin Mcnamee, you’ll be really happy with Magickeepers. I also found a few very basic similarities between Kirov’s story and Ingrid Law’s Savvy. For more information visit: http://www.magickeepers.blogspot.com/
About the Author: Erica Kirov is an American writer of Russian descent. Though she is not from a family of magicians, she is from a proud family of Russians, and she grew up hearing stories of their lives there.
Erica lives in Virginia with her husband, four children, three dogs, parrot, her son’s snake (she really hates snakes), and a pet hedgehog. She is busy at work on the next Magickeepers novel.She also writes on http://teenfictioncafe.blogspot.com as well as her parenting blog, http://demonbabyandme.blogspot.com/.
Add this book to your collection: Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass
Check out more reviews of this book at the following blogs:
YA Books Central
Books For Your Kids
The Reading Tub
Book Loons
Dolce Bellezza
The Written World
Biblio File
Abby the Librarian
Booking Mama
A Childhood of Dreams
Eva’s Book Addiction
Word Candy
And even more reviews coming soon:
Looking Glass Review (6/5)
Alea Pop Culture (6/18)
Beth Fish Reads (6/23)