Debut Fairy Fun: The Circle

Premise: The story follows Calum Ranson, whose Sidhe family is living among us in The Realm of Man. Though they use magic to clean the house and do other tasks, the family also must fit in among humans to keep their identities secret. When a new family comes to town, Calum discovers too many disturbing coincidences between a missing child from both the Sidhe and the humans.

Title: The Circle
Author: Cindy Cipriano
Length: 186 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Series or Stand Alone: First book in a new series
Content appropriate for: Grades 4-8

Three adjectives that describe this book: fun, mysterious, interesting

I enjoy a good fairy story. This debut novel is certainly a good fairy story. Though slow at times, the novel has some intriguing twists. I think this book would be a great introduction to the fairy world from middle grades students, especially boys. This novel for middle grade readers was fun to read. Though irritating at times, I think the intended audience will really enjoy it.


There were a few things that irritated me, though.

1. The Sidhe world is grossly underdeveloped. We probably spent less than 25% of the book in the Otherworld. I want to know more about how their world works. See more magic. Meet more magical creatures.

2. A few story arcs seemed to vanish entirely, even though a lot of time was spent developing them initially.

3. Divine intervention always irritates me. The final climactic drama ends when a powerful ally casts a Rescue Spell out of the blue. Come on! Maybe the whole thing could have been averted if he'd done that earlier.

Final verdict - This debut novel is worth it. I'm looking forward to putting it in the hands of my fifth graders and I'm curious is they will be irritated by the same things I was. I'll let you know their reactions as soon as possible.

3.5 stars