Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton
By mrs. kirk - Sunday, October 15th, 2006
Hailed as the “DaVinci book for kids” I picked up Endymion Spring at Wal-mart a few days ago just to have a light quick fantasy read. I was right on two counts, it was light and it was quick.Â
I actually enjoyed the book though I admit I was much more ramped up to a spectacular ending than the book offered. As a bibliophile myself I was quite entranced by the plot which consisted of a 12 year old (or around that) boy finding a blank book in the Oxford library that is the key to a much larger mystery that includes Johann Gutenberg and Faust. Some pretty weight material for fifth graders!Â
The book is well-written no matter what age is reading and that is always a pleasure. I can see clearly by the open ending that Mr. Skelton plans an entire series and why not? Those Harry-Snicket-Fowl-Materials books have made their authors millions (and even in JK Rowling’s case billions!), so who wouldn’t be interested in diving in?Â
On some levels that bothers me as they are all so commercial. In fact I just read a fantasy book (part of my Wal-mart buy) that actually included ADVERTISEMENTS for CoverGirl make-up and tampons in the book itself. I am serious. CoverGirl was listed in the credits and certain shades of lipstick and nail-polish were mentioned in the fairly vacuous book and the Tampax website was also listed in the credits. For me, that is going to far.Â
Fortunately Endymion Spring had no in your face advertisements though it would (like Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series) make a compelling tourist enticement to visit Oxford. Oxford being the real-world equivalent of the fantasy Hogwart’s.Â
This is a fairly smart story with very little character development. It is an excellent debut novel however and I am sure as the story continues it will grow in its depth.Â
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