Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

225 pages

"Tuesday at Castle Glower is Princess Celia's favorite day. That's when the Castle magically grows a new room, a turret, or sometimes an entire wing. No one knows how or why the Castle does it, and no one except Princess Celie has ever bothered to map out the Castle's many twists and turns.

But when the king and queen disappear and the Councilors from neighboring kingdoms arrive to 'advise' the three Glower children, even the Castle seems to know that something is wrong...Take the new tower room, which is stocked with mysterious objects and has a knack for appearing just when Celie needs it. Then there is the secret passageway that leads the children to a room the Councilors don't want them to know about.

To find their parents and hold on to their kingdom, Celie and her siblings will need all their ingenuity, Celie's maps, plus some help from their beloved Castle--before it's too late." -Dust Jacket

Due to the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, we didn't read as regularly as we normally do, so there were times when we couldn't quite remember what we'd read last in this book. I can tell that my kids are liking the story though when they ask me to read and when my oldest closes the door so she won't hear what we're reading because she thinks she'll read it sometime. It still makes me sad that she's outgrown reading with us. At least she loves reading on her own.

This story didn't quite live up to its potential in my eyes. I thought it had a very Hogwarts-esque feel in its premise with the castle changing every week and the description makes it sound more exciting than it winds up being. The Castle wasn't quite the character I was hoping it would be. It changes rooms and shows its like or dislike for a person by the size and location of that person's room. You'd think a castle capable of doing that would be more interesting. Hogwarts had ghosts and talking pictures at least. Instead, the bad guys "kill" the castle (or so the reader thinks) but I didn't care enough about the castle to feel one way or another about that. And, of course you know the castle's not really dead. Its relationship with Celie wasn't as special as I was hoping for. My biggest gripe about this story however, is the abrupt ending. The author wraps things up in about four pages. I was disappointed by that. It's like she was running out of time and just slapped it all together in a non-satisfying way. This is definitely a book for 6-10 year-olds at best. It was mild in its action and villains. Celie is relatable to kids and my girls liked her spunk.

I'd recommend it but it didn't wow us.