In Rose, the start of a promising new series, English author Holly Webb spins together a shrewd and resourceful main character, a comfortingly familiar plot and writing that shines all the brighter for its simplicity. The results will delight fans of fantasy, historical fiction and girls with gumption. This would make a particularly enjoyable mother-daughter read-aloud.
Practical and hard-headed enough to loathe the signs that she has magical abilities (she can make pictures appear on smooth surfaces), Rose is thrilled when the opportunity arises for her to leave the only home she has ever known: St. Bridget's Home for Abandoned Girls. Her new life as a maid in the house of "Mr. Aloysius Fountain, the famous alchemist" suits her beautifully--until an evil sorceress threatens to destroy the happy home.
Webb draws on the British tradition of rich language and understated emotions (think Kenneth Grahame, Frances Hodgson Burnett and C.S. Lewis) and treats magic with a refreshingly light touch. Readers will immediately recognize that the heroine is special, but the setting is so deceptively mundane that readers may not realize Rose lives in a magical world until 25 pages in, when Rose off-handedly refers to "well-to-do households [that] usually held only one or two spells, and perhaps an unbreakable dinner service."
Webb does not reinvent the wheel, but succeeds in creating a book as satisfying and familiar as a cup of hot cocoa. --Allie Jane Bruce, children's librarian, Bank Street College of Education