Day 28: A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine

Elodie leaves her small island community to go to the City of Two Castles to be an apprentice. Her parents want her to be a weaver or another sensible profession. Elodie wants to be a mansioner, an actress. When she arrives in the city she finds out that free apprenticeships are no longer permitted, she is robbed by a cat, and befriends a dragon. When Elodie realizes that her dreams of being an actress need to be put on hold, she agrees to be the dragon’s assistant. As the dragon’s assistance she will help the dragon reason and deduct as well as use her acting skills to solve mysteries. When the Ogre, the inhabitant of one of the castles, goes missing and is accused of poisoning the king, the inhabitant of the other castle, it is up to Elodie and the dragon to figure out what really happened and who is behind it. I usually like Levine’s books. Her books are creative and unique stories influenced by fairytales. Two Castles was just okay. There are a lot of characters, back stories, ogres, cats, actors, good people that are really evil. The story ends up being very muddled. Which is a shame because if some of the elements were edited it would have been a very fun, fairytale mystery. Levine has a good following and I have a group of girls who are always looking for fairytale and fantasy books, I know this book will be read. I just don’t think the readers will find it as satisfying as others they have read. I would recommend this book for fourth and fifth graders.