Customer Reviews

Wizard's Hall

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Jane Yolen has written many charming and evocative tales of wonder over the years and now with all the well-deserved fuss over J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potters, fans young and old of the genre will love Yolen's 1991 effort, WIZARD'S HALL. In many ways similar to the Potters, this short, very quick read with Yolen's usual well-defined and entirely likeable characters and fast-paced,not overly complex plot, and typical wit and humor are as ever, right on target. Thornmallow, his friends, and enemies are all cut from the same rich fabric as the other grand mages of literature from Merlin to ubiquitous Potter. A great break between or after the Rowling books, without disappointment. Aimed at preteens (but as usual with Yolen, with some more advanced vocabulary thrown in --- the reading teacher in me just has to love an author to actually tries to expand vocabulary while endlessly entertaining her audience), this should not be overlooked by older mavens of humourous fantasy. (There's also some ethics education going on here, but Yolen is never pedantic, so, sh! don't tell anybody!)

This story is about an 11-year-old boy, Henry, whose mother sends him to wizard camp. Overall he is not a very good wizard but he tries very hard to become a good wizard. All the kids at Wizard's Hall give him the nickname Thornmallow-prickly on the outside and squishy on the inside. However, Henry does seem to make many friends. As it turns out, he is special because he is the 113th student to enroll in Wizard's Hall. Being the 113th makes him important because it is now his responsibility to save Wizard's Hall from the evil "magister" and his monster dragon. Special Note For teachers: This is a very good book to show students how trying hard does pay off in the end. I think most students will enjoy reading Wizard's Hall because it has a lot of imagery and the whole magical aspect of it is good at holding a child's attention. Also at 133 pages it is a quick read. On A Personal Note: I really enjoyed reading the book. It will be on the bookshelf in my classroom

One of the most magical books I've ever read! Though not as well-known or as generally well-liked as Harry Potter, I believe this book is superior. Its prose and descriptions are lyrical and beautiful, and the hero is endearingly insecure.

Henry is sent to "Wizard's Hall" by his mother, to become a wizard. Renamed "Thornmallow" (prickly on the outside, squishy inside), he soon makes a name for himself--he swamps a classroom in snow, inadvertantly yells during an orientation speech, and so on. But he soon discovers that he is one of 113 students, who are there to defeat the evil wizard Nettle and his enormous Beast. But Thornmallow doesn't think he can do it.

This is a shorter but much more INTENSE book than most wizardly tales. Its shortness is made up for by the sheer magic of Wizard's Hall--moving pictures, lizards swimming in the soup (which can be changed by older students), and the constellation ceiling that talks!

I love Thornmallow, he's so HUMAN. Who among us hasn't completely embarrassed themselves in front of a room of people? Or botched up something over and over? I also love his friends Gorse and Tansy (yeah, everyone has plant names) and the teachers. Not to mention Doctor Mo (PRICELESS! Simply priceless)

Read the book! You will NOT be disappointed...

This book is a little like the Harry Potter books but not as long. It is interesting, exciting, fun, and a little creepy. As the 113th student enrolled in the Wizard's Hall young Henry (also called Thornmallow) has to defeat a magical patchwork beast and it's master. Will he be able to do it? It is a VERY good book, take my word for it!

This book was first introduced to me in my 6th grade class. We were assigned to read this book and the first installment of Harry Potter. While everybody started to read the Harry Potter book because there was a big hype around it, I chose to start with Wizard's Hall because it was shorter. When I read it I couldn't compare it to anything because I hadn't read Harry Potter, so I started reading it with a fresh mind. Wow, I thought this book was really something special and I could relate to it. It was very original and I liked the adventures that Henry encountered. I was so enthralled with the book that i read it in 2 days. Afterwords I started reading Harry Potter and I was confused, the stories were strikingly similar. I enjoyed Harry Potter, but it didn't have that special charm I got when reading Wizard's Hall. In the end my teacher made the class write an essay about comparing the two books and also state which one was more original and interesting. Everybody else wrote that Harry Potter was original and that Wizard's Hall was boring and the same as Harry Potter, but I wrote how Wizard's Hall was actually written BEFORE Harry Potter and that it was way more original and interesting for it's time. I was the ONLY person in my class to get an A+ on my essay :).

I read Wizard's Hall four years ago, and have been searching for it ever since. I loved the evil Nettle, the adorable Thornmallow, and the shrunken wizard in its cage (I can't remember its name at the moment). This book operated on my level, and I connected. Upon reading the Harry Potter books, I was reminded of the flavor of Wizard's Hall, but it still wasn't right. I would never spend four years searching for the Harry Potter books, but Yolen writes with a special sparkle that makes this book well worth it. Bravo to Yolen, she writes right!

Like many others, I've been looking for something to read while I wait for the next installment in the Harry Potter series. "Wizard's Hall" came highly recommended, but I must admit I was horribly disappointed. I'm VERY glad I only borrowed it from the library, instead of buying it. While I rather appreciated the poetic writing style, the book itself was downright BORING. I was over halfway through the book before anything remotely exciting started to happen. The story doesn't seem to flow very well, and I found the descriptions of the characters and places quite shallow and choppy. Not a horribe book, but certainly not worth the time spent reading it. Try Diana Duane's "So You Want to be a Wizard" for a good wizarding book or "Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge for a slower-paced story with a wonderfully poetic writing style.

Generally this was a good book. i really enjoyed it and i couldn't put it down. its amazing to me how some people say that Harry Potter is better when it has a lot of the same ideas (like stars on the ceiling). the only problems were that it was too short, i read it in about 3 hours, and it kept saying the word "try". i know the whole piont of the book is that if you try, you'll succeed, but after saying it 10000000000000000000 times, it gets old. i would recomend this book to ages 7-12 but not much older

Other Recomendations: Harry Potter series, The Dark is Rising series (one of my favorites), His Dark Materials (my all time favorites in the world) and other science fiction/fantisies.

Wizards Hall was actually written in the late 1980's long before the Harry Potter books. I read Wizards Hall many years ago, so when I started reading Harry Potter I immediately recognized the remarkable similarities between the two books, so much so that I wrote the author of Wizards Hall to find out if she was going to sue! The same company that published Harry Potter originally published Wizards Hall, but dropped it when they signed for Harry Potter. This idea did not go over well it seems, and Wizards Hall was brought back in paper-back. Harry Potter is written in a lot more detail, but if you want real imagination, this is the book to read. The book and plot were well thought out, and the story is one that is memorable for years to come.

This is very hard to do, but I will tell you about Wizard's Hall now WITHOUT comparing it to Harry Potter (*gasp*). This book is very short, but the story is well-developed for the time span of the book. If the characters, especially the Magisters, are a little under-developed, that is because the main character, Henry, hasn't had much time to get to know them anyway. Very soon after finding himself in the famous Wizard's Hall, an interesting, bizarre school for young people wanting to become wizards (or witches), our main character finds out about a plot for the ruin of the Hall, kept secret by the teachers. Only he, blundering and seemingly un-magical, can save the school. To calm himself, Henry always remembers things that his Mama told him, or thought about his cow--the only two things in his life before he went to school. The meaning of his school-name, Thornmallow, is repeated a little too often (prickly on the outside, squishy within) but by the end you see why. Heartwarming, simple, and enjoyable, but, like all Yolen's books (eg: Dragon Blood, etc) ends almost TOO early, and leaves you unsatisfied! Not necesarily a bad thing...