Rae Bridgman

Reviewed by Grandma Bev for TeensReadToo.com

William Wychwood was born to a magical family, but he doesn't know this until fifth grade, when he and his pet snake, Esme, must go to live with his aunts and his cousin Sophie whom he has never met. They live in Middlegate, a village that is hidden inside Winnipeg, Manitoba, and entered through a magical gate. Wil and Sophie enroll in school at Gruffud's Academy, where the curriculum includes classes that you and I never had in school; numeristics, verbology, and botanicals may have some parallels to modern classes, but they are quite different. One of the favorite games is snapdragon, a battle of wits between shadows.

Wil and Sophie are concerned about the deaths of hundreds of the sacred snakes of Narcisse, and they decide to try to find out what happened to these wonderful creatures. While on a field trip to see the snakes, Wil and Sophie discover a clue and begin a magical journey of exciting adventures.

Wil has a magical medallion that his grandmother had entrusted to him before she died in a suspicious fire, and it may have something to do with the mystery of the snakes. The kids encounter danger with kidnappings, serpents, evil magic, and shadow duals. In this very imaginative fantasy, Bridgman adds a numeristic table of contents, Latin verbiage, and sketchings that bring the magic of snakes and sorcery alive. The characters are exciting and fresh, and the plot is fast-paced and creative.… (mere)

Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com

What a wonderful, fishy book! Everywhere Will and Sophie go, there are FISH! Smelly, tasty, and very swimmy fish.

In the third installment of the MIDDLEGATE series by Rae Bridgman, the two eleven-year-old cousins, Will and Sophie, help prevent a takeover by the Serpent's Chain of the Manitoba Legislative Building.

The twins start back to school and everywhere they go and look there are references to fish. There are fish carved into the sculptures and they suddenly come to life. They meet a mysterious homeless woman named Catfysh. She appears to them periodically and finally, in the spring, she turns them into fish and they swim under the river and magically swim into the Legislative Building. There they save the building from the Serpent Chain takeover.

I enjoyed the further adventures of Will and Sophie. They have become very good friends and the author has given them another set of twins to be friends with. Aunt Rue is having problems at work, and Aunt Violet has opened up her own fortune telling shop in Manitoba. There, the author has introduced some very interesting characters.

I especially liked when the children became fish. It was interesting to see the river from the point of view of a fish. I liked how the fish talked. Now I am waiting the next installment, which I think will be centered in Iceland!… (mere)

Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com

AMBER AMBROSIA is the second book in the MIDDLEGATE fantasy series by Rae Bridgman I had to read the first, THE SERPENT'S SPELL, in order to enjoy the second, and I did enjoy both.

Wil is an orphan. His parents died in a car crash when he was young and he has since been living with his grandmother. A few months earlier, though, his grandmother died in a fire, but before she did she had given him a medallion that had a snake on it.

He is then transported to Manitoba, to a secret city within, called Middlegate. Here he meets his relatives that he didn't know he had, two aunts and a cousin, whose birthday is the same as his. His cousin, Sophie, has had tragedy in her life also. When she was small, her father and her mother disappeared. It is believed that her father murdered a man.

So both kids are now living with their aunts, Rue and Violet. Aunt Rue works for the government and Aunt Violet is loving but strange. Oh, and did I mention that Middlegate is a enclave for wizards? Yes, both Sophie and Wil are wizards. They go to the Gruffud's Academy, which is a lot like Hogwarts but a day school instead of a boarding school.

In the first book, the two cousins save the snakes of Narcisse from extinction and put an evil villain in jail. At the opening of the second book, it is summer vacation and the two are bored with the thought of many hot, dreary days ahead of them.

Then a mystery appears. It seems that the magical bees are dying. The kids get a job helping out one of the teachers from the school with his beehives and get transported into the land of bees. They find out that the dangerous criminal they put away in the first book has escaped and could be behind the mystery.

I enjoyed the odd parts of the book, such as the eyeglasses that Sophie wears that change color with her moods. Wil and Sophie's relationship is much tighter and a great friendship is growing. The two also meet another set of twins and I believe that a foursome will develop to help with the mysteries.

I would like some more explanation of what the Serpent's Chain is and also why Rufus Crookshank is so bad. But all in all, a good read.… (mere)