I got this book at the age of 13 when it was first released. Since then, I have found a second copy at a used book store and have kept both copies in my home ever since. These days, I read them aloud to my children.While I was one of the many kids who loved the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books as a child, this book was the rare title that followed the same formula and bettered it so much that it alone was enough to make you want to toss all the others into the garbage. Sadly, it was the only one of the "Endless Quest" books that was this good, but the one good one was a powerhouse.As the young wizard apprentice Jaimie, you and your two best friends, a talking fox and a talking owl (simply named Fox and Owl) have come with wizard Pentegarn to settle a problem with the three wizards currently ruling in the now-tattered rainbow castle. But you have been tricked, so while Pentergarn fights for his life you, Fox and Owl have been sent to another area entirely. It's up to you to get back to Pentegarn and help him.Rose Estes is a natural for this sort of storytelling. She has a strong, mature style in her manner and handles the layout of the entire book with lots of intelligent planning, yet keeps the slightest suggestion of a child's fairy tale present just enough to keep it lighthearted (she eases the dark mystery of the cloud castle's tempting table by presenting its food and drink as "cookies, cakes, ice cream and candy", for example). And there are some genuinely humorous moments both clever and refreshingly original for this sort of book, such as the antics of Fox and Owl in the enchanted library. And Harry Quinn's illustrations are among the best I've seen in fantasy literature.If you stumble across this one, trust me--you will adore it and will read it again and again as much as any of the fairy tales you loved as a child.
Good for young readers
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
Like the other endless quests books, it is up to you to decide the hero's fate and the plot. It was my favorite endless quest book as a child, mostly because I love dragons. It's fun to read and different from the other books in Sci-fic.
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