Midnight for Charlie Bone

I saw this book by Jenny Nimmo at our elementary school book fair and wondered about it, but I was reading other stuff at the time. Then my neighbor's little boy dressed as Charlie Bone for Halloween. So, I checked it out of the library for J to read. J is a pretty discriminating reader for a nine-year-old. He got about 40 pages in and told me it just wasn't for him. I read a little of it for myself and realized that J was right. I did work through the entire book, trying to give it a good, honest try before evaluation. The fact of the matter is that the writing is choppy. The story doesn't flow smoothly. Strange things happen all over in this book, and though I waited patiently for some of the dots to connect, many of them never did. The idea is a good one, and it could lend itself to some exciting reading, but, as J said, "It just isn't very well-written." Harry Potter fans who need a quick fix before the final installment of the J.K. Rowling series might be okay with this book, but, try as it may, this isn't Harry Potter.

I saw some reader reviews of Midnight for Charlie Bone and was surprised that it did so well. Maybe I'm just too picky. However, I think that just because a book is written for children doesn't mean you can skimp on character development and plot details. Kids are smart and, as evidenced by my nine-year-old, know when someone is trying to follow a trend without putting enough thought into the final product. It's a shame, really. Jenny Nimmo has an intriguing story here. I just wish she took the time to tell it better.