Wizard's Hall

Rating:
Summary: Charming wizardly tale
Review: Before Harry Potter was even a blip on the screen, fantasy master Jane Yolen penned a brief, sparkling story about a quiet young boy with untapped magical powers. The delicate writing, interesting magic and likable hero serve to elevate this far above the Harry Potter series.

Henry is a shy, quiet boy who (like most kids) has various brief ambitions as to what he wants to be when he grows up. When he mentions wizardry to his mother, she sends him off to Wizards' Hall to learn magic. Things don't start off smoothly -- Henry is renamed Thornmallow (prickly on the outside and squishy inside), and he messes up even basic spells. Despite his failures, he tries hard.

But all is not well at Wizards' Hall. One night Thornmallow and his pals overhear a cold voice talking about taking over the Hall. Thornmallow is the one-hundred-and-thirteenth student needed to defeat the evil wizard Nettle and his quilted Beast... except that they don't really know how to stop Nettle. To save his friends, Thornmallow will have to call on magic he never knew he had.

Despite all the hype around the Harry Potter series, "Wizard's Hall" comes off as the superior story. "Wizard's Hall" has a kind of magical intimacy and subtle magic to the story, without any slam-bang effects. No sparkles, no fireworks. Instead, everything about the Hall seems to have a bit of magic in it -- as does the writing.

Yolen's writing shimmers the moment she introduces us to the Hall. Her descriptions of things talking pictures, star-studded ceilings, soups with lizards swimming in them, and a small avalanche of snow and roses are astonishing, especially since she rarely goes into too much detail. Even the magic of this book is beautiful and subtle, based on singing and chanting. Reversely, there's the horrific Quilted Beast, which seems to be a perfect example of unnaturality.

Thornmallow is a likable little guy, quiet and definitely suffering from a confidence problem. It's hard not to feel for him as he struggles with his magic, and suffers the consequences of battling with Nettle. His friends and mentors are a quirky bunch, and Nettle's aura of evil is pronounced without being over-the-top.

Beautifully written and exquisitely plotted, "Wizard's Hall" far outstrips the Harry Potter series. It's sweet, deceptively simple and shimmers with Yolen's unique writing. A must-have for fantasy fans.

Rating:
Summary: An Inconsequential Book
Review: It's an unremarkable but readable tale of a student wizard's first days at school. There are other wizard in training books out there (you may have even read one in a popular series, ahem) but the best is still A Wizard of Earthsea--buy that first, then return for this book if you must. It's not awful, it's mostly harmless, but it isn't her best work.

Note: 3 stars, for me, is a pretty good review, 4 is for extremely distinguished works, and 5 only for those I consider classics. Most of what is published is, unfortunately, a 2 or less.

Rating:
Summary: Promising, but flawed
Review: Jane Yolen is a talented writer. (Read the Pit Dragon Trilogy if you don't believe me.) She is at her best when writing about magical things. That means that Wizard's Hall is - a promising, but flawed book. For one thing, it is too short. There is very little that is expanded on. I would have liked to have heard more about Thornmallow's adjustment to school, his classes, his school friends, his - well, anything. It seems like she just was assigned to write a book with a specific number of pages and came up with a menacing wizard and beast to fill up the pages instead of more "ordinary" things. This isn't bad, it just gives the book a flat aura. The characters are strictly two-dimensional, with the exception of Thornmallow.

Now, what makes this book redeemable is the small details, such as the soup that tastes brown, and the beast itself. These show hints of Yolen's usual talent. Unfortunately, they are just that, hints. I recommend this book to fantasy fans, but try to get it used, it's not worth the whole price.

Rating:
Summary: A book to read while waiting for the next Harry Potter?
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Ten times better than Harry Potter!
Review: 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...

Rating:
Summary: An A+ book...
Review: 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 :).

Rating:
Summary: Wizards Hall
Review: WIZARD'S HALL is the original book of young wizards. It's original and the best book to sit down by a fire with on a rainy day. It's not complicated wich makes the book so interesting. It makes simple statements and is a different style of writing.
It is about a boy who decides to become a wizard. He is sent to a simple school where the teachers are worried about an evil villan.To tell more would be giving away would be too much and disposing of certain qualities the book maintains.