The Golden Thread (Sorcery Hall Trilogy) [Hardcover]

Suzy Mckee Charnas (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sorcery Hall Trilogy | Publication Date: May 1, 1989

Bosanka, an alien witch from another world, wants Valentine, a New York City teenager, to use her magical powers to help Bosanka return home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this third exciting book of the Sorcery Hall series ( The Bronze King ; The Silver Glove ), apprentice wizard Valentine Marsh's newest adventures in magic begin when her musician friend Joel, who is studying violin in Boston, calls on her. For some reason his hands cramp up when he plays, and he needs Val's help to understand why. But she is distracted by other concerns--her grandmother is dying of a stroke. Magical events at a New Year's Eve party seem to lead to the arrival of Bosanka, a sinister girl who says she is a foreign exchange student. She insists that Val and her friends can help her search for her "people." The problem is getting everyone together to create more magic--the unlikely group of conjurers includes skeptics and wise guys. Bosanka's true identity will be a wonderful surprise for readers; her reunion with her people is poetically depicted and touching. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-9-- With her beloved sorceress grandmother in a coma and hospitalized, 14-year-old Valentine Marsh attends a subdued New Year's gathering on the roof of a New York apartment building. When Val and her friends join hands in an experiment to magically create a star, they seem to fly into the sky until they are struck by a powerful bolt of heat. None of this is too disconcerting to Val; in previous adventures, she and her grandmother have destroyed a monster and an evil witch. Upon returning to school, Val is assigned to assist a strange foreign exchange student, Bosanka, who reveals that she is a powerful, magical ruler of another world and is looking for her people. Then she demands that Val and her friends use their power to find her misplaced subjects. Val fears Bosanka's people may subdue and misuse humankind, yet she dreads to refuse the royal commands. Charnas shows the adventures of a typical high-school girl who just happens to have inherited some degree of white magic talent. In so doing, she touches on a host of contemporary issues, the most important of which is her ecological message that we are one people and must use technology to preserve the earth rather than destroy it. If all this seems a "stretch," it isn't. Charnas neatly ties seemingly disparate pieces together into an exciting, absorbing, contemporary romp.
- Cindy Darling Codell, Belmont Junior High School, Winchester, KY
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 209 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (May 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553058215
• ISBN-13: 978-0553058215
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,384,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The third book of the "The Bronze King" trilogy, April 18, 2011

By 

B. Jackson "The Canvas Canary" (Winston-Salem, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Golden Thread, The (Mass Market Paperback)

I bought the second book ("The Silver Glove") of the trilogy some years ago, and had re-read it a few times. I liked it well enough that when I found out (via Amazon.com, I think) it was part of a trilogy, I wanted to find out how the storyline started. So I researched on Amazon.com and found the other two titles in it: the first one, "The Bronze King", and this third and last one, "The Golden Thread".

Somehow, I was sort of disappointed that I didn't get to find out more about the place called "Sorcery Hall", and a few other things like that, but I still liked it; at least, f'rinstance, I know how the storyline starts, and stops. :-)

The author (even with the fairly minor disappointments I had) is a very good writer, and you can "feel" the sort of person the young protagonist is.

All-in-all, a good read. :)

5.0 out of 5 stars a strong ending, February 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Golden Thread (The Sorcery Hall Trilogy, Book 3) (Paperback)

The saga of Valentine Marsh, daughter of a long line of witches trying to manage their
powers in the modern world, closes with Val and her circle of friends struggling to deal
with a poweful visitor from a world much rougher and crueller than ours, an alien
visitor who uses her own magic to try to force them to do her bidding. It's a tense, scary
adventure with a wonderful resolution that needs the strengths of each of the friends.
Great stuff.