A School for Sorcery [Paperback]

E. Rose Sabin (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Winner of the Andre Norton Gryphon Award

Welcome to the Leslie Simonton School for the Magically Gifted. A school where students can expect the unexpected. But be careful. At this school the final exam could be a real...killer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The teenage heroine of Sabin's 1992 Gryphon Award winner, Tria Tesserell, a country-mouse first-year student at the Lesley Simonton School for the Magically Gifted, is faced with three onerous tasks: befriending her unprincipled and talented roommate, Lina, learning to tame and use her own considerable magical powers and rescuing her love interest from the clutches of second-years Oryon and Kress and their demonic thralls. To make things worse, the faculty have made a deal to stay out of the conflict with Oryon and Kress, leaving Tria armed only with a few tentative friendships and what little she can remember from her sleep-inducing classes. As she and her fellow students-most of whom are little more than plot points with names-go from classroom to school dance to interdimensional corridor, they encounter a number of genuinely interesting concepts and creatures; but Sabin seems determined to fit everything into one book (in a break from recent trends, she ties off every possible loose end, leaving no room for sequels) and the most intriguing aspects of the school end up sadly undeveloped. The story has its charms, but it's so easy to follow and predict that the plot twists don't and the surprise ending isn't. The 12-and-under set will appreciate the uncomplicated tale, snippets of magical boarding-school life and happy ending, but only if they've yet to encounter J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, which outclass this one by a substantial margin.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A “most enjoyable book!”--Joan Aiken

"This is a most enjoyable book! It belongs to a genre of stories I adored when I was young; books such as A Girl of Limberlost and Anne of Green Gables. Tria, the heroine of A School for Sorcery, is faced with an outsized tussle: her elegant, spiteful roommate has a habit of turning into a black panther at times of stress, a hostile male student summons fearsome entities known as the Dire Women, and the whole sorcery course looks as if it will come to a cataclysmic end until Tria manages to call upon unexpected reserves of power. This is an elegant, complicated story, at times running into parallel action to perplex the pursuing reader. E. Rose Sabin is a writer to look out for."— Joan Aiken, author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

“J. K. Rowling introduced us to the charms and secrets of Hogwarts; now E. Rose Sabin opens up a school for teens who posses equal talents. A School for Sorcery is an excellent study of teens and magic in a very unusual school.”—Andre Norton, SFWA Grand Master

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Starscape; 1st edition (August 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765342197
• ISBN-13: 978-0765342195
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,036,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

E. Rose Sabin lives with her two dogs, Juliet and Kira, in Pinellas County, Florida, where she was reared and where for many years she taught Spanish, first in middle school and later on the junior college level. Her teaching career provided the inspiration for her first published book, A School for Sorcery. A life-long lover of books and reading, she now devotes her time very happily to writing fantasy and science fiction.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An entertaing new fantasy novel, October 8, 2002

By 

Nancy E. "Nancy" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A School for Sorcery (Hardcover)

It seems that ever since JK Rowling's fantastic Harry Potter series hit the shelves, we have received book after book of child and teen fantasy novels. It seems that everyone is trying to out-Potter each other. In some cases these "novels" can turn out to be embarrassingly bad. Fortunately this is not the case. A School for Sorcery by E. Rose Sabin is a thrilling novel about what happened if Harry Potter was female, a few years older, and in a completely different world.

Tria Tesserell is a 16-year-old farmer's daughter who has always known that she had had some magic gifts. Unfortunately, because of her close minded father, she has been forced to keep her powers hidden. But when she gets accepted to the Lesley Simonton School for the Magically Gifted she is thrilled. She won't have to keep her powers hidden any longer. But her enthusiasm is diminished when she actually gets to the campus. The buildings are crumbling, the hallway seems to be covered in a thick layer of dust and grime, and the food is old and stale. Tria gets in trouble right away when one of her powers she never knew she possessed works without her even knowing it. To top it off Tria's new roommate is a witch in more ways than one. Tria feels as if she can never learn to love this school. And just when she start's getting used to it and things start looking up a darker more sinister evil takes into play. Oryon, a second year student, has summoned an evil source that has kidnapped two of Tria's fellow students and friends. It looks like Tria is the only one that can save them, but she doesn't even know how.

I was unsure whether to give this book 4 stars of 5. There were many good qualities. The author manages to take a familiar scene (a magic school) and take it in a completely different direction. The characters are amusing and sometimes scary. And the emphasis in this book is more on ethical magic than breaking the rules for the greater good (like in Harry Potter). Still there are a few plot holes. Because there are so many characters many of them get introduced and seem like they will become large parts in the books. Instead they merely vanish about halfway through the book. But beyond that this book is great. I hope to see more works of fantasy from E. Rose Sabin, maybe in this world. I recommend it to fans of JK Rowling and Diane Wynne Jones.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better Plotted than HP books!, August 30, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A School for Sorcery (Hardcover)

With the protagonist being a teenager, this book is obviously aimed at the teens that first cut their teeth on HP but now need more meat. And they get it! The twists (plot twists & twists of objects in the book) is just grand. The best part is you don't see the end coming, yet it fits perfectly.

The various types of magic ability are much more thought out and well developed (and believable) than HP's, it impacts the plot and characters more. Because of their own ethics characters use and misuse magic and learn lessons from their mistakes.

And it is also a very rare story these days: a GIRL'S coming of age.

Well done.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read it twice!, April 30, 2008

By 

Athena R. Anderson "only Sci-fi reader" (US Military, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A School for Sorcery (Paperback)

I thought this book was fantastic. I have read it twice not and this will be the few that I have read twice. It is a fast read and I got through it quickly. I would have liked to see Sabin write more books on the characters that played in the three that she has written, such as a bit more about Veronica Crowell background and what her "gift" is and how she is got caught up in the beginning of everything. I also think that events happen so fast that I need to read the books more than one time to absorb all the information in. I would like to see more written about the school, students and faculty with adventures, love and background. There are infinite possibilities that could be written and explored. I believe that she could take this to the next level and be comparable to David Eddings or Anthony Piers Anthony in the 9-12 age reading level.