Book Review: Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy

Ophelia is eleven years old, has asthma and thinks about everything very scientifically. In fact, she is a member of the Children's Science Society of Greater London. Unlike her mother, who recently passed away, Ophelia definitely does not believe in magic or fairy tales. That is, until her father, who is an expert on swords, gets called in to help with a sword exhibition at a museum in a faraway city.

While there she runs into a boy locked in one of the museums many rooms, the boy claims that wizards took away his name to protect him and he needs her help to escape and defeat the Snow Queen. At first Ophelia doesn't believe him, but as she finds more and more things in the museum that cannot be explained through science she starts to change her mind.

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy is a great fairy tale story for children. There are ghosts, giant birds, wizards, and stone snow leopards that come to life. In the beginning of the book, Ophelia is quite firmly rooted in reality and is still grieving over the loss of her mother. Throughout her epic adventure she learns to be brave and finds a way to connect with her mothers love of fantasy.

Karen Foxlee really brings Ophelia's world to life in her writing. Her descriptions made me feel like I was right there, sneaking through a huge creepy museum. I especially liked the way she described the ghost girls.

"She felt Kyra then, close beside her, breathing right into her ear, and the singed popcorny smell of her tickled her nose."

Who knew ghosts smelled like popcorn?

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy was fun and scary without going overboard. I will definitely be reading this with my girls.

I got to read an advance copy of this book through NetGalley and Random House Children's in exchange for an honest review.

It is due to be released on January 28th 2014.