Charlie Bone and the Children of the Red King

Hiding in the shadows of Harry Potter is another similar series that doesn't pack as much power but makes up for it in mystery and heart. I am talking about Charlie Bone and the Children of the Red King. Charlie Bone lives in a weird world where magic is real and subtle. It seems to be the real world as we know it, but once, long ago, there was a wizard known as the Red King who came from Africa and had ten children, each inheriting a portion of their father's power. Five of the children grew up to be tyrants, abusing their power to bring ruin to their father's kingdom, the other five were so ashamed they ran away and disowned themselves. Charlie Bone is among the descendants of the Red King as are the Bloors who run Bloor's Academy, built upon the ruins of the Red King's castle. Bloor's Academy is sort of like Hogwarts except that it isn't a hidden school of magic, it's a school for kids with special talents, mostly the kind that you would find in the real world, music, drama, and art. Then there are the children of the Red King, a small group of about a dozen students who have talents not so neatly defined. Each child has inherited a specific form of magic from their common ancestor, interestingly these are contrasted with other students ordinary talents to show that they are arguably no greater than the artists they share the school with. This makes for a very intriguing dynamic, everyone in the school knows about the Children of the Red King and their magic, it's not really much of a secret, instead it remains hidden because most of them keep it subtle enough that it doesn't stand out any more than the talented musicians and actors that surround them.

For Charlie, his involvemnt begins when he finds he has the power to communicate with portraits,even crossing time if need be to hear what someone said when the portrait was made. His power grows over the series, from hearign, to being able to talk to them, to actually being able to enter their world. He uses the last power once to acquire a wand that once belonged to his ancestor, a Welsh magician with power second only to the Red King, but the wand is only used as a wand for a short time before it transforms into a moth that still performs magic but now of its own accord. As soonas Charlie's power first manifests he is sent to Bloor's Academy where he is paired with a peer mentor, a music student who tries to teach Charlie how to play an instrument so he can fit into the school of music(everyine falls into one of the three regular groups, the Children of the Red King are not formally separated into their own school). Charlie meets a number of other students, some magical, some not, but his main enemies are the Bloors. Manfred, the youngest of the Bloors, has the power of mind reading and mind control, but curiously, Charlie Bone is immune to this power. Manfred's grandfather Ezekiel is the true mastermind but has no magic of his own and covets the power of the children. Ezekiel is in league with Charlie's grandmother and her sisters,two of whom have their own powers, but Charlie has his uncle Paton on his side. Unfortunately, Paton, the brother of the Yewbeam sisters, has a rather inconveninet power, he boosts light bulbs until they burst. For the most part Paton hides in his room and works on genealogy, but when Charlie's life gets complicated he comes out and challenges the Bloors. Then there's the flame cats, Leo, Aries, and Sagittarius, colored red, copper, and yellow, who can turn into fire.They were once leopards until the Red King turned them into housecats so they could blend in, and they have their own strange purpose and power, though they clearly favor Charlie and seem to come him whenever he needs them most.

I highly recommend this book series if you ever wanted to know what it would be like if Harry Potter switched to decaf, which is so much more interesting, because if leaves you thinking "Well now that I believe."