Nine is a pick pocket who steals an ornament from an old lady. This ornament turns out to be magical and Nine meets the most eccentric cast of characters living inside. She must work with them to try and break the spell and get free.

This was a really fun quick middle grade magic story. I really enjoyed the concept of the story and the characters are all likeable. I was rooting for them especially Nine.

However having said that, I feel there could have been more to the plot and development to the characters which is why I have given a slightly lower rating. It all seemed a little bit too simple, yes this is middle grade but give your age appropriate readers some credit, they are definitely able to handle a more in depth magical plot than the one offered.

Overall I did enjoy my experience of reading this book. I’m not sure if there will be another book in this world, but I would be interested in reading it to see if there has been more development and where the story takes Nine next!

Nice children book, I liked it even though I’m in my twenties.
It’s a fresh and quick read, so if want to try something new give this author a chance!

A charming story that will delight independent readers from age 8 upwards. My daughter loved the characters and found the book funny and engaging. She's looking forward to reading more by the same author.

This book sadly did not enchant me or the junior reader I shared it with.
Way too much focus on being a pickpocket which the child instantly picked up on and said she didn’t want to read because it was naughty.
I appreciate you can get past that and if the book is good enough it almost becomes irrelevant but sadly for me this book lacked content, humour, interest and substance. It was a real struggle to finish - sorry

This book is adorable! Nine is determined and self-sufficient and very sassy. Flabberghast is a sneaky little tragedy! Spoon is a menace. Eric is a baby that needs protecting. I know that I would have loved reading this as a child. As it stands, I'm a bit old for the target demographic and still found it enjoyable. Credit to the author for being able to do that.

What I will say is that there came a point where I was so disappointed by the motivation behind the witch's curse and Flabberghast's stubbornness. It felt really juvenile and not worth all of the trouble and time that was invested into the feud. But then again it is clearly meant for a very young audience so I'm sure they would be better able to relate than I would.

I kinda want to see what else Nine gets up to in her life, my little grumpy girl. HA.

Unfortunately, this book fell a little flat for me. Where the concept really grabbed my attention, the story was okay but I didn't really have a connection with it, nor with the main character. Because of that, I found my thoughts often straying.

Nine is an orphan and a pick-pocket, who steals more than she bargains for one day, when the tiny model of a house that she takes suddenly becomes full sized, complete with a wizard, a troll and a talking spoon. Oh, and a curse that needs to be broken. This is a wonderfully silly and heartwarming middle grade read and I am pleased to see that there will be more adventures for Nine and her friends in the future. Five stars!

This is a stunner of a read and perfect for those newly confident readers who are stepping into longer chapter books and looking for an adventure.
Absolutely stuffed to the brim with fantastic characters, this is a gripping adventure with miraculous magic and lots of laugh out loud moments. Who wouldn’t want a troll housekeeper?
We love that Nine is angry and hurt and doesn’t always manage to make the right decisions. She is a joy to follow as she butts against the wondrous worlds inside the house and the dark streets she lives in.
Perfect for reading aloud to a class and for fans of The Train to Impossible Places and The Strangeworlds Travel Agency.

I thoroughly enjoyed every moment I spent reading this book. The world building within this was incredible, as was the description of certain aspects of the characters and objects within the story

I thought this was a solid Middlegrade.

We meet Nine who is self sufficient and yet looking for something more, looking for somewhere to belong.
And she finds something more when she finds the House at the Edge of Magic.

Amy Sparkles introduces us to a array of specific, rather unorthedox characters whom all at their introduction all made me laugh.
A troll with an attachment to its featherduster. A spoon with a sword. And a wizard in fussy slippers.

The pacing is fast and funny and Nine both competent and strong. I think this is a well suited read for a young Middle Grade reader.

I loved this! Madness, magic and humour! Nine finds herself in a strange old position when she’s tasked with breaking a curse on a magic house. Can she help them? With a troll, a wizard and a spoon to help, will she succeed? I really liked these characters (Nine is lush!) and I think there could be potential for another?! Regardless, this is full of fun!

The House at the Edge of Magic suggests a very magical kind of story. Adding in that very gorgeous and bright cover of the house in the story, and it sends an instant appeal. 

The idea of Nine finding a house shaped ornament that grows into a big house, where she gets drawn into their curse and trouble sounds quite fantastical. And gives room for all kinds of imagination for the middle grade reader. If this and that is possible, what else could be possible in this world? 

Unfortunately the story didn't quite deliver. A lot of that had to do with the plot, the writing and the characters. What you often see, unfortunately, is that authors make things the simplest of simple for middle grade readers when that really isn't needed at all. This is what happened with the plot and the writing. It is in a way chewed out. Simple, no notch of subtlety. It didn't even really make sense. And it is a shame because there is so much imagination in the initial idea and world, that then gets stumped.

Simplicity doesn't have to be bad but at least dress it up. There is an attempt at fun characters but it needed so much more depth. Again, middle grade readers can totally deal with multi depth characters, especially in literature. Nine had the emotional range of a stick. Flabberghast just plays one role as The Wizard. Did he have emotions besides anger? And then there was the soft hearted troll housekeeper who just got shat on.

In the end I rated this book 3 stars on goodreads because I do think this book can be fun for a middle grade for a one time read. But there is nothing here to make a reader come back to the story or the world. It is forgettable.

I absolutely LOVED this book, such a tonic in these times when things seem so dark. I read this to my 11 year old and we fell in love with the magic and chaos. There were so many times we laughed so hard we cried, but at the same time there is a heart-warming story of friendship and belonging.

A thoroughly enjoyable read and I highly recommend!

I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fun but simple read, and nice and short for less keen readers!

We follow Nine, a thief with her own self-interest at heart, into a world of magic where she has to help the house break a curse. Flabberghast is perfect as a young but easily distracted wizard - he had just the right amount of silliness.

The overall reasoning behind it all was where it lacked a little for me - it fell into one of my least favourite tropes. But the curse itself was fun in its complete randomness. And the wonderfully British element of the tea cupboard being locked! That made me laugh.

I think the book being on the shorter side meant we didn't get any of the depth I would have liked into the characters or the plot, but it didn't detract from my general enjoyment. The house deserved more page time though, I wanted to explore it more.

It's a fun quest, and I may well lookout for the sequel. 3.5 stars.

This was my last read of 2020 and it was a really nice a whimsical way to finish of the year. The house at the edge of magic is just jam packed with nooks and crannies to explore, it seems to have weird and wonderful rooms for all occasions and I do love a good semi-sentient building that adapts and changes to the world around it to really emphasise its magic.

Sparkes really gives the house personality, I could imagine the riot of colour and noise clearly and it seems like such a interesting place to explore. I really enjoy this kind of whimsical worldbuilding, its just such fun to read. Its filled with little jokes, twists and turns, discoveries and bits to make you giggle - such as a copy of 'Wizard's little book of Calm' that has murderous intentions. I do wish we had spent more time in the house. There was a lot of places that were mentioned but never fully explored (we need more time in the library please!). I hope that if there is a sequel we get to discover more of the houses rooms and secrets.

The characters are as equally weird, whimsical and wonderful. Nine is one of those protagonist that is fierce and feisty with a head on her shoulders, she doesn't quite dive into adventure blindly but has her eyes on the reward. It's great to see how being in the house and making friends with it's inhabitants allows Nine to be less guarded and more herself. Flabberghast is your typical eccentric wizard with a long and intricate CV including Hopscotch champion, but that is not to his detriment I found him a great foil for Nine. Dr Spoon, who is literally a wooden spoon in a kilt brandishing a sword is a bit of a puzzlement that made me grin and then there is also Eric who is the incredibly loveable house troll that just wants to clean! All of them make a fun band of misfit friends.

Its funny and weird and wonderful with a big dollop of outrageous thrown in. It just made me smile and that's what such a fun book should do.

Middle Grade readers are in for a treat with this hilarious fantasy adventure - The House At The Edge of Magic by Amy Sparkes.
And while we all know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, Ben Mantle has done a wonderful job of illustrating the extraordinary house which is just bursting at the seams with surprises for both the reader and the occupants of the house themselves.
If you look closely at the windows, you will see the wizard Flabberghast, Eric the house-keeping troll with his beloved feather duster and Dr Spoon. Hang on. Nope. The sword-wielding, kilt-wearing wooden spoon must be holed up in his lab. (Yes, you did read that correctly.)
If on top of these wacky characters we add Nine to the equation - that’s the name of the orphan protagonist, not the number - then the results promise to be as explosive as the mysterious Dr Spoon’s experiments.
Indeed every turn of the page, just like every door and room and toilet of the house, brings about something entirely unexpected; even unassuming tea cupboards are definitely not to be trusted.
And while Flabberghast wouldn’t say no to a hopscotch competition, it’s not all fun and games.
As you might have guessed from Nine’s name, she’s not at the top of anyone’s priorities. Nine is desperate to make a new life for herself away from Pockets’ Nest of a Thousand Treasures and the other thieflings.
But The House at The Edge of Magic with its strange, and sometimes downright terrifying inhabitants, isn’t quite what she had in mind - especially when a witch has placed it under a very sneaky spell which Nine is expected to break it. Because Nine doesn’t want anyone to depend on her. Nine doesn’t want to get involved. Nine doesn’t care - or so she tells herself.
A quirky, jack-in-the-box of a novel with laugh-out-loud humour and a magical heart.

This book was such a fun and fast paced read, that I flew through in one sitting! It is such a lovely middle grade book full of magic and curses and I really enjoyed reading it. The characters were fun and entertaining. The quirky and magical things that happened throughout kept me on my toes and kept my interest. Definitely recommend this for middle grade readers.

Whilst middle-grade books are designed for kids there's a lot of them that are entertaining for all ages, where you pick up the book and get so absorbed in it that before you realise it you've read the whole thing in one sitting. This was what happened to me when I read The House at the Edge of Magic.

The book follows Nine, a young girl living on the streets, who's grown up learning to steal in order to pay back Pockets, the old Fagin like figure, who took her in as a baby. Picking pockets and stealing from shops, Nine is barely living, surviving from day to day, forced to give whatever she gets to a man who treats her like dirt. She's dreaming of an escape from her life, and when she steals a small ornamental house from a woman's purse she finds a way to finally get away from things.

When she knocks on the tiny door the house grows to huge proportions, and inside she discovers a strange wizard named Flabberghast, his troll butler Eric, and Doctor Spoon, a kilt wearing, sword wielding living wooden spoon. The three of them have been cursed for years, and cannot leave the house, and ask Nine to help them break the curse, offering her a priceless gem in exchange. With the promise of the wealth she needs to escape her life Nine reluctantly agrees to help the three of them, but now they only have fifteen hours to break the curse.

The plot moves at a pretty brisk pace, and manages to pack a lot into its pages, so despite it's relatively short length there's plenty of action and adventure to keep you from ever getting bored. Even though a lot of time gets given over to exploring the contents of the weird, magical house, and all the strange things that happen inside it, there's plenty of time given over to characters too, and readers get some quieter moments to really get to know Nine, and see the life that she's trying to get away from. I've seen other middle-grade books that have tried to strike this important balance, and more than a few of them fail at it, either neglecting to spend time giving their characters compelling personalities or backgrounds, or bring the pace to a grinding halt whenever they try to. Amy Sparkes has managed to find the perfect balance here, and you never feel like you're missing out on anything.

Sparkes has also managed to create a really intriguing world, and I just wanted to spend more time inside the house, seeing more of these weird characters, and the world of magic around them. There are hints of bigger things here, of other worlds and places that exist outside of reality, of monsters and creatures from myth and legend. I found myself wanting to learn more about this, and if I'd have been over the moon if I'd been told that this was the start of a series that would go on to see the characters having more adventures in magic and weirdness.

As a stand alone book this is a great read, one that will appeal to readers of every age. Parents will enjoy reading this with their kids, and adults will have a lot of fun with the strange characters and weirdness. This isn't the first Amy Sparkes book, but it's the first of hers that I've read, and thanks to how good this is I'd definitely be interesting in reading more of her stuff.

I thought this book is going to be one of my new favourite middle-grade novels... I expected that this book will be fun, magical and that will be similar to The House in the Cerulean Sea… But in the end, it became the biggest disappointment of the year for me.
I had a problem with the characters, the atmosphere, the writing, the villain… I don’t even know when to start. Let's start with the... writing. The writing is a personal thing, so I can only speak for my name, but it just didn’t match with me. I just couldn’t get into the story. It wasn't for me. Maybe that’s also why I couldn’t like the characters.
I'll start with our protagonist, Nine. She is a hard-working orphan admitted by a criminal organization and must steal to stay with them. Sure, her story was sad, but I couldn’t sorry her. I was very annoyed by her character, I couldn’t like her. She comes across a magical house and constantly scolds it, calling it awful. And I can’t like a person who says magic is bad.
And there is Flaberghast, too (I hope I wrote well his name, I deleted the book as I finished). He annoyed me terribly. He said nothing to Nine, looking only at his interests. All along, I had a feeling that he is a son of a wealthy man, and now he was hysterical because he didn’t get something, or in this case, because he was cursed.
But the identity of the villain made me crazy. Seriously??? I wasn’t surprised after all, but it was a very weak twist for me. I felt something like this going on, and I almost figured the magical words out in the beginning. I thought it was very, very stupid.
Maybe it’s because of the writing, but while I was reading it, I clearly got the same atmosphere as when I was reading Howl’s Moving Castle… And I DNFed it after 40% because it wasn't for me… So, maybe someone else would like it, but it wasn't for me.
There was a sentence at the end of the book that we will meet the characters in the future, so I figured it out that this will be a series, but I thank you, that was enough of it.

This was a book that I received before release thanks to my Tales By Mail subscription as part of their Whimsical Worlds box, and it was the perfect title for such a theme! Having never read any of Amy Sparkes’ work before, I was immediately gripped by the synopsis promising a house full of magic, mystery and ridiculous residents! I also love how the cover art by Ben Mantle perfectly encapsulates the wondrous house and its curious occupants.

Nine is an orphan, and a thiefling to the miserly Pockets, who took her in when she was a child in return for her only worldy possession, a music box. But when Nine’s latest “pounce” yields only a tiny ornament of an odd-looking house, her disappointment leads her to lift the tiny doorknocker, which opens up a whole world of curiosity and magic she never dreamed of. She if welcomed with open arms by Flabberghast, an exasperated wizard, and his companions Eric (a troll with a love of housework) and Dr Spoon... well... I’ll leave that one to your imagination.

But with the discovery of such an astonishing home, comes the expectation that Nine will lift the dreadful curse put on the house by a scorned witch whom Flabberghast has had “a disagreement” with... Will Nine be the one to break the curse, free the house, and finally locate the elusive toilet?

The book was an absolute gem from the moment Nine knocked on the door, to the very final moment. I loved the house with all of its quirks, particularly the tea cupboard! I felt very much like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole into a world which makes absolutely no sense, full madness and mayhem, but with such charm and such warmth. Nine is a strong and independent heroine, who overcomes her helplessness on her quest to help others, and finds a sense of belonging and friendship. The characters trapped inside the cursed house really make this book, and the house truly feels like a character itself. The world that Amy has created is wondrous and magical, and I loved every tiny enchanting detail she has carefully crafted and tossed into this marvellous melting pot. I cannot wait to spend more time in this delightful realm.

Perfect for fans of magical middle grade, Abi Elphinstone, Michelle Harrison or LD Lapinski!