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    The Language of Spells
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    The Language of Spells
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    The Language of Spells
    Ebook246 pages4 hours

    The Language of Spells

    By Garret Weyr and Katie Harnett

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Grisha is a dragon in a world that's forgotten how to see him. Maggie is a unusual child who thinks she's perfectly ordinary. They're an unlikely duo—but magic, like friendship, is funny. Sometimes it chooses those who might not look so likely. And magic has chosen Grisha and Maggie to solve the darkest mystery in Vienna. Decades ago, when World War II broke out, someone decided that there were too many dragons for all of them to be free. As they investigate, Grisha and Maggie ask the question everyone's forgotten: Where have the missing dragons gone? And is there a way to save them? At once richly magical and tragically historical, The Language of Spells is a novel full of adventure about remembering old stories, forging new ones, and the transformative power of friendship.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChronicle Books Digital
    Release dateJun 26, 2018
    ISBN9781452161112
    Unavailable
    The Language of Spells

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    Reviews for The Language of Spells

    4/5

    29 ratings14 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I liked this book a lot, I liked the characters and the world and the story, up until the end, which, maybe it was because I’m already stressed for personal reasons right now, but I found the end just too depressing for words.
    • 4/5
      I spent the first half of the book raving about it, and the second half wondering if I'd somehow switched to a different book.The setup was riveting. We have an alternate history, in which dragons coexisted with humans, but around World War II they were rounded up and imprisoned. The allegory to Jewish concentration camps came through very clearly, and for much of the book, the greatest villain was human bureaucracy and cruelty, in the form of the "D.E.E."Unfortunately, these real-life themes are not given a real-life solution. Instead, they are literally magicked away in the second half. Yes, that magic takes place only with great sacrifice, but it is still a magical solution. In part because of the nature of that sacrifice -- and in part because the book ended -- we never resolved many of the ongoing plot threads, nor did we get to witness the ramifications of everything that had happened to this displaced population.The result was terribly unfulfilling. If the book had been straight-up children's fantasy from start to finish, the ending would have fit right in. As it stands, I wonder if the author had written herself into a corner, and was unable to come up with a solution to such a real-world issue as totalitarian xenophobia.I don't want to focus entirely on what I did not like, however. The characters were vividly written, the world engagingly built, and the stakes well established. In the end, perhaps the best thing it did was raise questions without attempting to truly answer them.
    • 4/5
      Had the ending been stronger, I would have given this book a higher rating. As it stands, the story itself can be taken as a fun fantasy story, written for children, or as an examination of the problems of modern government and totalitarian regimes. However, taken either way, the ending is a let-down. For a fantasy novel, the ending is sad, and doesn't make a lot of sense, especially for children / tween fantasy. For an allegory, you're simply left scratching your head and wondering what the point was.I'm not saying that the book wasn't enjoyable -- just that it could have been far better.
    • 4/5
      It took me a little bit to get into The Language of Spells -- I had a bit of a book hangover from my previous read and wasn't really captivated from the first line. But once I was a few chapters in and Grisha leaves the forest, I was totally captivated. I loved watching Grisha's character grow, and I loved his friendship with Maggie. I followed along eagerly as the dragon and girl begin their quest, but as it went on, it started to feel like certain aspects of their journey were coming too easily. I know it's a children's book, but I needed a little more. It felt like the first three quarters of the book set up for this epic quest that was then tidily wrapped up in the end. But, while the end was a little disappointing, I still enjoyed my journey with Grisha and Maggie, and would love to explore Vienna with them some more.
    • 4/5
      Grisha is a dragon; the youngest of the last dragons, actually. And, due to the machinations of an evil magician, he's spent most of his life as an enchanted teapot. When the enchantment is broken, he learns that all of the world's remaining dragons have followed a mysterious summoning sound to Vienna. After some time in Vienna, he meets Maggie, a lonely human girl. Together, they discover that something terrible has happened to many of the dragons, and together they embark on a quest to rescue them.This is a lovely, gentle book with a bittersweet ending. The pace is leisurely, but it doesn't drag. I thought the actual quest part went a little too easily, but the best parts of the book are Grisha and Maggie's friendship, and the way the world's magic system works. If you enjoy thoughtful juvenile fantasy, give this one a try.
    • 4/5
      In 1803 the last dragon ever is born, named Grisha. He lives with his mother in the black forest of Germany until he is about 60 years old, when he has an encounter with an evil magician and is turned into a teapot. For 80 years he lives as a teapot, shuffled around Europe in various households. When he is finally transformed back into a dragon, right after World War II, he learns that all dragons from all over the world are heading to Vienna, so he does too. Several months later he is working as a janitor and meets a lonely girl named Maggie. She asks him where all the other dragons are and he .... doesn't remember. Can Grisha and Maggie find out what happened to the dragons, and get them back? This book has all the elements of something I would really love, but they are not formed into a cohesive world or narrative. I loved the setting, and magic, and dragons, and I mostly really liked Maggie. But other than that I found the book to be way too long and unnecessarily explain-y. It was always telling and rarely showing. I really liked the beginning of the book, learning about dragons and seeing European history from the eyes of Teapot-Grisha, but that turned out to be almost irrelevant to the rest of the book. The only thing I did not like about Maggie was that the book makes a big deal of how Maggie is "special", in a way I really did not care for, and the perspective of the book is very misanthropic. All humans are mean and cruel, except Maggie and her father. Maggie is lonely and wants to make friends, but when she talks to other kids they think she is weird and don't want to be friends with her. This is presented as "people are terrible" instead of "a kid raised without any contact with other kids is going to have a hard time relating to other kids and so maybe you shouldn't do that."As far as the magic goes, the author makes a lot of complicated rules and then either ignores them or hand-waves them away as convenient. The evil magician casts a lot of spells, but the magic system is such that if the spells a magician casts are broken, the magician loses their power. Why would a magician bother to cast such pointless spells as turning a dragon into a teapot and selling the teapot if the breaking of that spell would mean that his power would be diminished?In the end, Maggie saves the dragons by giving up her "first and only friend". However, she actually loses the ability to see or interact with any part of the magical world. Either of those things would make sense as an ending but the book presents them as if they are the same thing, which they are not. It just doesn't quite click.There's some seriously wonderful material here, but it's lost in a book that desperately needs an edit. My dislike is definitely influenced by the high hopes I had after the first few chapters. I did very much enjoy the *gorgeous* illustrations. It's probably aimed at a middle-grade or younger audience, though it's 300 pages and contains complex language and ideas.
    • 4/5
      Q: 5P: 5(I absolutely loved this book)This magical book will touch your heart with its innocence and purity. When a young girl meets a 150-year-young dragon, magical things are bound to happen! Garret Weyr's focus on imagination brings to life the gold-eyed dragons and the beautiful city of Vienna. The child's sacrifice is sad, but it truly captures the essence of magic: to do magic, you must give up something you love the most.
    • 3/5
      A magical story with dragons, sorcerers and humans. A dragon named Grisha, was turned into a tea pot and lived many years with no mobility but hearing and seeing. He was released from the spell, but after being free other rules had to be obeyed. Dragons were divided an hidden with a sleeping spell. Grisha and Maggie work together to free the dragons, but by doing so, Maggie had to give up something she cherished. Garret is a good story teller. It is an easy read for young readers. I loved the illustrations.
    • 5/5
      This book was so cute. I would have loved it when I was 7 and I love it now. It’s written for kids but the language is good, the characters are real, and the author realizes that even kids can understand complex problems such as giving up what you want in order to do something worthwhile. In other words, it’s not childish.The story covers the relationship between the dragon Grisha, who as a young dragon was trapped in the shape of a teapot and thus never knew battle like all the other dragons, and the girl Maggie who was raised by her father and was never able to make friends (the other children didn’t make sense to her). When they meet, they develop a friendship, and together undertake a mighty task that will require sacrifices. There are dragons all around us, we’ve only forgotten how to see them.I read an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair review. I’m delighted that I chose to read this book and hope that you will too!
    • 4/5
      This is a beautiful story that I would absolutely recommend for middle-grade readers. The start is a little slow, but it builds to a quest that addresses some pretty deep themes at an introductory level. The post-WWII setting could make it lazily interpreted as allegory, but the book’s really an exploration of memory, trauma, love, friendship, sacrifice, and magic. Maggie and Grisha’s friendship allows them to be safe in each other’s company and understand things about their pasts they never had before. At 11 years old, Maggie also begins to see her father and her deceased mother as complicated humans, just like her. While I may have dragged my feet reading the beginning of this book, the end was completely satisfying. I’ll admit I cried during lunch at work as I closed the book. If you enjoy feelings of historical whimsy, magical realism, and intellectual exploration, I recommend “The Language of Spells.”
    • 4/5
      This weeks read was provided to me for free in exchange for an honest review.In a world where most people have long forgotten about dragons and magic, 11 year old Maggie sees it all around her. Grisha is one of the last dragons left in Vienna, having been imprisoned for most of his life in a teapot (evil sorcerers really are the worst), he now spends his days giving tours of an old castle, and his nights being...well... generally lonely. When these two unlikely characters meet one night in a hotel bar (Maggie's upbringing is eccentric to say the least- her parents are into the arts- need I say more) a deep friendship blooms. The two embark on a journey together to find out what ever became of the worlds mighty dragons, but to find the answer Maggie may just have to give up the thing she holds most dear, magic is tricky like that. This was an exceptional read! Bursting with magic and whimsy, it is one I would gleefully recommend to my big and little readers alike. We should all be more like Maggie, kind, honest, willing to do anything for a friend, and perhaps most importantly, sees things that most people find unimportant or overlook. This book reminds me that sometimes we need to slow down our fast paced lives and bring ourselves back to the basics, to really see the world. True magic is found in all the cracks and hidden places of life that are often discarded and overlooked; but if we really try, beneath it all, we can see all the wonder the world has to offer, and that can truly be the most beautiful part. "People expect that the magical will be extraordinary, but it's often easy to overlook" A beautifully written story for lovers of magic of all ages, I highly recommend this one! It was fun and magical with some lovely underlying themes. 
    • 5/5
      If it has been a while since you read a Middle Grade book, you should go find one and read it. There is something about that MG authors just get and they pull you into a world and you fall in love with the characters and everything just pulls at your heartstrings. The Language of Spells is one of these books. It is about a dragon names Grisha and also about a girl named Maggie. The reader meets both of them and follows their lives for a bit before these two wonderful characters even meet each other and start unfolding a beautiful plot. They live in a World of Magic, and there are magical things and no-so magical, normal world things. If you happen to be a human and want more of the magical world you can give up what you treasure most - money, time, or your most dear things to become magical. This book was a twisty road of past meets present and the magical and non-magical things and it was so wonderful to read.I loved this world, it was wonderfully whimsical and sometimes very sad, and it just blew me away. I found myself crying a few times throughout and really loved this whole book. That being said, it takes quite a while to get up and running so it is a slower read then most MG books, but the time it takes to get there is a pleasure.
    • 5/5
      children's middlegrade fantasy (magic, dragons, friendship).
      Terrific storytelling; recommended to fans who enjoy classic magical adventures.

      Parental note: there is at least one "crap" in here, but that is the worst of the language; there really isn't any violence but there are some scenes which could be frightening to the smallest children.
    • 4/5
      Very odd, very rich. It's a YA - there are a few holes in the logic, but nothing that leaps up and destroys the story, and the story is great. I kept expecting it to turn into a Holocaust story, or at least a moral tale - and it never did, aside from "magic still exists, if you look carefully" and "friendship is important". The ARC only had sketches of the art, I think I'll look for the published book to see them in full. They're interesting sketches but I think seeing the finished work will be worth the effort. I'm not sure if I'll ever reread it, but I'm very glad I have read it.