The Mystwick School of Musicraft

Gr 4-7–Magic and music blend in this “Harry Potter”–esque fantasy. Amelia Jones has always longed to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a Maestro, or a musician who controls the magic of music. In Amelia’s world, Musicraft powers everything from construction to farming to medicine. To achieve her dreams, she must get into the Mystwick School of Musicraft. But once she’s accidentally admitted, she must prove to the school and to herself that she belongs there. Beautiful imagery describes magic emerging from instruments. Frenna’s cartoons depict important moments but would have been more effective in color. The book’s climax will send a chill down readers’ spines. Like Harry Potter, Amelia is an orphan who lives with a relative who wants nothing to do with magic, and she also attends a magical boarding school that contains an enchanted forest and lake and divides students into four groupings (at Mystwick, the groups are wood, percussion, brass, and strings).