The Secret of the Attic

After finding a mirror in their neighbor's attic that can transport them into the past, four friends--Alison, Heather, Megan, and Keisha--form the Magic Attic Club and promise to share all of their adventures

Grade 3-5-These series entries threaten to do for fantasy what "The American Girl Collection" (Pleasant) has done for American history. Four girls find costumes and a mirror in a neighbor's attic. A look in the magic glass takes one or all of them on an adventure, where they stay until they look in another mirror, at which point they are returned to the attic. Secret explains the formula; if children read Heather first, they will be mystified by the sketchy writing. The friends all seem alike, because their characterizations are glued to their outsides. Alison is the jock; Keisha the African American who celebrates Kwanzaa; Megan the reader who quotes Shakespeare; Heather the Jewish ballerina wannabe. But their contributions to the conversations are all the same-an annoying mixture of pseudo-sophistication and moralistic goodness. Readers are encouraged to emulate these people: there's a postcard at the back of each book inviting them to join the club and get their own key and a free glossy catalogue from which they may order merchandise. An opportunistic, hollow package.?Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland, ME
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The inaugural title in the Magic Attic Club line of novels and dolls (see Children's Book News, June 19) opens on the day before Christmas, when the four heroines of this series notice a new neighbor?an elderly woman with eyes "as blue as the heart of a flame"?hanging a wreath on the door of her Victorian home. After meeting the woman, Eleanor Goodwin, the girls find a gold key in the snow and bring it to her. She invites them to use the key to open her attic door. Within, they find a trunk packed with elaborate dresses and costumes. After each selects an outfit to try on, all four gaze in a mirror and are transported to a home in the 1930s, where the woman who greets them calls each by name. Her family is preparing to host a Christmas party when her husband rushes through the door with their daughter, Ellie, who has fallen through the ice while skating. In chapters that would do Pollyanna proud, the friends help nurse the girl (who has "flame-blue eyes") back to health?and inject a healthy dose of holiday spirit into the household before returning to the present. Though laden with cliches and dialogue that doesn't always ring true, this light, cheerful tale moves along briskly. Illustrations not seen by PW. Four other Magic Attic titles are scheduled for simultaneous release. Ages 7-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.