{My Thoughts} – Abby and Jonah are two very interesting, yet charming siblings. They have a wonderful dynamic that helps to make them out to be funny and attention grabbing. This story begins with Jonah waking Abby in the middle of the night complaining that the mirror in the basement is making noises and changing colors. She although she is scared goes with him o the basement to investigate his claims. It turns out that the mirror is magic and it transports them into another world.

The mirror seemingly takes them and drops them smack dab in the middle of Snow White’s fairy tale. If you know me, you know I enjoy reading fairy tale retellings and this book is one of the better have have come across for children. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series and seeing the personality of the children develope throughout the stories. I am also interested in seeing how creative she gets with re-writing the stories. This first one was a job well done, I hope that the author can continue to exceed my expectations in future books.

I really enjoyed reading this book and now I understand why my daughter loves this series so much. In fact my daughter is currently reading book five and I am playing catch up, she started them in school last year. It is really hard finding books for her to read that she is interested in because she struggles with reading, but she really gets into these books and enjoys them and as long as we can keep finding books that hold her interest I am going to keep buying them, reviewing them and sharing them with others. I figure if my kid can enjoy it, I am sure some other parents will be grateful to know that they exist in case they want to try them with their kid. I highly recommend for the reluctant reader. ( )

Magic

Okay, so, fair warning, I am much older than the age range for which this book was written, and perhaps that explains why I wasn't very enchanted with the book itself. Though the back cover blurb does make it sound interesting.

I sympathize with Abby about change, but I found her a bit annoying also.

In one sense, the idea reminds me a bit of C.S. Lewis's "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" (minus the Christian allegory part). There's a portal (in this case a mirror) that transports children elsewhere (in this case, into Snow White's story). But changing the story by warning Snow about the poisoned apple means that Snow doesn't get her "happily ever after". The author doesn't address what happens to the fairy tales in our world if Snow White's story changes--perhaps because all the action takes place between midnight and 6 AM--though with all the time zones, it should be possible that someone, somewhere in the world could be reading the story of Snow White during that time. ( )

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A sparkly fractured version of Snow White. A fun read for a tween, but without the darkness of the original fairy tale, it has no emotional impact. ( )