Fish & Sphinx (MiddleGate Series)

Rae Bridgman
Great Plains Publications (2008)
ISBN 9781894283816Reviewed by Dylan James (age 12) for Reader Views (2/09)

Sophie and Wil are confused.  What was Catfysh trying to tell them?  Was the magical creature trying to save them or condemn them?  Sophie and Wil race to find the answer before the serpent’s chain is up to more evil. Sphinxes, lions, and even Medusa come to life to help them with their adventure!

“Fish & Sphinx” was great to me; it helped that I had the fortune to read and review the previous book, “Amber Ambrosia.” This book fills in details in case the reader has not read the previous book before, but all “Fish & Sphinx” needs is a little less dependence on the previous novel to be open to a larger group of readers. Individuals 10-12 years-old will enjoy this book the most, partly because they can relate to the comical school issues that Wil and Sophie face. There is absolutely nothing in here that even a 6-year-old couldn’t read, but 10-12 year olds will like it much more. Both boys and girls will like this equally, mainly because the two main characters are brother and sister, so readers will experience both boy and girl point of views.

This book had me interested all the way through it, capturing my interest with unique ideas such as fish sphinxes, mythical creatures, and new personalities. “Fish & Sphinx” by Rae Bridgman will interest readers mainly because of the ideas and the strange world that the activities take place in.

Reviewed by Matthew Feliciano (age 8) for Reader Views (8/08)

“Fish & Sphinx” was a fun fantasy book at times, but a lot of times I couldn’t keep up with what was going on.  There was too much happening at once and too many things that didn’t make sense to me.  But, overall it was good. I like fantasy and fiction novels a lot and this was one that made you want to join on the adventure. 

This book was about two kids who are cousins.  They are eleven-years-old; Wil is a boy and Sophie is a girl.  Wil and Sophie discovered an evil plan made up by the Serpent’s Chain, which is a magical secret organization.  The Serpent’s Chain was going to take over MiddleGate unless Wil and Sophie found a way to break a secret code and save their city. 

If you liked Harry Potter, you will probably like this book. There were ghosts, secret cities underneath regular ones, and ordinary kids with magical powers. Both kids in this book lived with relatives because their parents were dead.  Wil had inherited a medallion from his grandmother that took a lot of responsibility to take care of.  There were signs and clues everywhere, too, like lots of fish popping up and things like that. 

Even though I had a hard time keeping up, maybe it would be easier if you read the other books in this series before reading this one.  I didn’t know who the characters were and there were so many I got lost. Also, there was a lot of a foreign language at the beginning of each chapter and some strange version of English that I couldn’t always understand.  “Fish & Sphinx” by Rae Bridgman was tough but a good challenge for me.

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