Magic Marks the Spot audiobook

wow, i have been looking everywhere for a story about a gargoyle and finally... ^^it was such a wonderful book about pirates, heroes, GARGOYLES, really, can't express my love for these creatures enough :)

My rating: 3.5 of 5 starsA copy of Magic Marks the Spot was provided to me by HarperCollins/Edelweiss for review purposes.After recently being denied admittance to The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates simply because she's a girl, Hilary is now being forced into attending Miss Pimm's Finishing School for Delicate Ladies. Not that she has any desire to become a Delicate Lady. She can tread water for 37 minutes, can tie a knot that cannot be undone and hates dresses because dresses make climbing ship's rigging next to impossible. While Hilary is quite the vibrant character on her own, her gargoyle side-kick provided the comic relief when the story veered too far into weighty territory. The weighty territory mostly involved the odd choice in bad guy, which was a bit of a shock and surprise, however it was handled well. While the story was only occasionally serious, the remaining characters were still just as lighthearted making this a perfect read for young kids. In addition to the story there are between chapter snippets of letters, newspaper articles and other assorted information that was a charming addition.Magic Marks the Spot is an extremely cute Middle Grade novel that comes equipped with a super spunky heroine, entertaining pirates, magical gargoyles and treasure hunting adventures. While this works as a stand-alone novel with its solid wrap-up ending, it's actually a brand new start to a planned trilogy. Definitely looking forward to future mischief from Ms. Hilary!

This book is charming, hilarious, and well written. Part of the reason I found it so enthralling (and funny) of course was the narrator. I primarily listened to the audio book and she is one of the best of not the best narrator I've ever heard. I really enjoyed her work on the Incorrigible Children series and I was over the moon when I started the audio book and heard her voice. Interestingly enough, this book was perfect for all the same reasons as the Incorrigible Children, she must have a type haha. Both feature strong female leads and the depiction of women as capable no matter what their job is. Some "feminist" books make a point of putting down "traditionally" female dominated careers as stupid and have their heroine do something more "traditionally" male, which is horrible and the opposite of feminism, imo. Both of these books have very strong, smart, and capable governesses who are constantly saving the day, but not in a brash I'm-not-your-typical-governess-I-kick-butt-all-the-time-unlike-those-other-wimpy-governesses-#feminism, they're much more natural and sort of force the reader into taking for granted that all governesses kick ass. And then, of course, this book also has a pirate as the main character, which pushes all the buttons of the traditional society of the book and people are constantly trying to shut her down and she responds with the appropriate zeal. That's another thing that bothers me in books, sometimes the female lead will meet sexist resistance to whatever she's trying to do and she's like "Oh, as a member of the fairer sex, I will be perfectly courteous and take the high road" when all you're thinking as a reader "take him down!!" . This book is much more satisfying because she confronts every bully and sexist overlord head-on and tells them exactly what she thinks. Wow this review really got away from me haha, when there's feminist themes in a book to discuss it's hard for me not to ramble. Anyways:TL;DR This book was really funny and well-written and contained excellent themes that I believe every child would benefit from.

So good! A really fun middle grade book that people of all ages can enjoy!

My kids now only want to listen to audiobooks in the car. Goodbye, classical music I'll miss you! They picked this book out from the library's digital collection. It was a lot cuter than I thought it would be. The narrator did a fantastic job and there are some great characters in here that you can really root for.

I do enjoy books about pirates! MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT tells of Hilary Westfield's journey to become a pirate, complicated by the facts that she's a girl and the daughter of an admiral. I have always enjoyed girl-crossdresses-as-a-boy stories, but that is not this one. Hilary is determined to do it all as a girl.MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT is a very fun story, filled with a search for treasure and mysterious thieves and unexpected magic. I'm not sure it's a great start to a series, because it stands very well on its own. There are no loose ends here. The only real problem is that the chapters end with bits of letters and newspaper articles. This would be a nice way to catch up with what's going on with other characters, except at least half of the letters are in a little cursive font on a darkened background. It's hard to read as an adult who was taught cursive - I can definitely see it tripping up kids.

I adored this book, I found myself chuckling to some of the antics and happenings for our young Hilary. Hilary longs to be a pirate on the open seas and skip finishing school for high society girls. How is a GIRL with a pet gargoyle going to escape her governess and Miss Primm's finishing school to become a pirate? This will make a SHIVER ME TIMBERS bedtime read-aloud for parents to enjoy with their kids. Be warned, they will probably be begging for one more chapter each night :) Or your independently reading child will be found under the covers with the flashlight sneaking in more reading time. The variation in the reading to include letters in different typeset is a nice touch and a map is always a good idea.Grab your pirate hat and set sail on the first in the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates series. In compliance with FTC guidelines: I received this book as an ARC (advanced reader copy) for free through Goodreads First Reads program.