Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage by Alma Alexander

• 01/17/2014
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Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage
Alma Alexander
EOS (2007)
ISBN 9780060839550
Reviewed by Dylan James (age 11) for Reader Views (2/08)

Thea is sad and troubled for a lot of reasons.  In a world of mages, she is one of the only kids that can’t do magic. Tired of being mocked and pitied, she spends most of her time sulking. But then a change happens for the better (or the worse):  her father sends her to a mysterious land through a portal as a last resort to get magic flowing through her veins. Knowing nothing of this land, she explores until she finds a mysterious character that will be her teacher. At long last, she discovers how to do magic, but when she goes back to her home world, she finds she can’t do it.  Disappointed, her father sends her to a school for kids that have problems with magic. Bored, Thea starts investigating the school. After looking through the seemingly peaceful school, she discovers a sinister threat and a plot to take over the world.

This book is surprising, full of weirdness, and very descriptive. A lot of things people look for in a book are here, but I think the author is overdoing the descriptive parts a little. There are a lot of parts where I was very tempted to skip pages.  This book would go a long way if it took out some descriptive parts and added some action parts.  Also, it’s very confusing how you see a character for ten pages or so and then you never see him/her again. I think there should have been at least a little more reference to characters like that. The only descriptive thing that should be added is the main character’s age.  It might have been in there somewhere, but I sure didn’t see it. The bad thing called the “nothing” is not faced at all until the last thirty pages of the book. Even though there are some faults, the end was very well-written and could capture any reader’s attention; sadly, my attention was lost by the 250^th page (the book is 389 pages).  I think this book would have benefitted from cutting out some descriptive parts, which would have made it a lot better.

If the author writes a sequel to this one, I will definitely try to get it though because the end was great.  It got me thinking that the next book would be better. “Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage” ends with the main character figuring out how to use magic, and that makes readers eagerly anticipate the next book.