Howl's Moving Castle (Howl's Castle Series #1)

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Overview

In the land of Ingary, such things as spells, invisible cloaks, and seven-league boots were everyday things. The Witch of the Waste was another matter.

After fifty years of quiet, it was rumored that the Witch was about to terrorize the country again. So when a moving black castle, blowing dark smoke from its four thin turrets, appeared on the horizon, everyone thought it was the Witch. The castle, however, belonged to Wizard Howl, who, it was said, liked to suck the souls of young girls.

The Hatter sisters—Sophie, Lettie, and Martha—and all the other girls were warned not to venture into the streets alone. But that was only the beginning.

In this giant jigsaw puzzle of a fantasy, people and things are never quite what they seem. Destinies are intertwined, identities exchanged, lovers confused. The Witch has placed a spell on Howl. Does the clue to breaking it lie in a famous poem? And what will happen to Sophie Hatter when she enters Howl's castle?

Diana Wynne Jones's entrancing fantasy is filled with surprises at every turn, but when the final stormy duel between the Witch and the Wizard is finished, all the pieces fall magically into place.

Eldest of three sisters in a land where it is considered to be a misfortune, Sophie is resigned to her fate as a hat shop apprentice until a witch turns her into an old woman and she finds herself in the castle of the greatly feared wizard Howl.

Editorial Reviews

Children's Literature

In Wynne Jones' fantasy universe there is always odd magic cropping up. When the reluctant milliner Sophie talks to her hats, unfortunately they listen. It is unfortunate, because in unwittingly giving futures to her hats' purchasers, she brings down the wrath of the Witch of the Waste. A quick visit by the witch, a short spell, and seventeen-year-old Sophie is aged sixty years. Undaunted, Sophie hobbles off to seek her fortune as a cleaning woman in the moving castle of the young wizard Howl—and the fun begins. Shortly Sophie has the entire establishment well in hand, even the vain clothes-horse Howl. But finding an end to her spell is another matter. Wynne Jones' castle is a marvelous conceit—four doors open onto four different locations, and the whole is moved by Howl's talking fire demon, Calcifer. In this first of three interconnected stories (followed by Castle in the Air, 1990, and House of Many Ways, 2008), Wynne Jones creates the memorable characters who believably people her country of Ingary in an alternate, late Victorian-era world. Reviewer: Kathleen Karr

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up Sophie Hatter reads a great deal and soon realizes that as the eldest of three daughters she is doomed to an uninteresting future. She resigns herself to making a living as a hatter and helping her younger sisters prepare to make their fortunes. But adventure seeks her out in the shop where she sits alone, dreaming over her hats. The wicked Witch of the Waste, angered by ``competition'' in the area, turns her into a old woman, so she seeks refuge inside the strange moving castle of the wizard Howl. Howl, advertised by his apprentice as an eater of souls, lives a mad, frantic life trying to escape the curse the witch has placed on him, find the perfect girl of his dreams and end the contract he and his fire demon have entered. Sophie, against her best instincts and at first unaware of her own powers, falls in love. So goes this intricate, humorous and puzzling tale of fantasy and adventure which should both challenge and involve readers. Jones has created an engaging set of characters and found a new use for many of the appurtenances of fairy talesseven league boots and invisible cloaks, among others. At times, the action becomes so complex that readers may have to go back to see what actually happened, and at the end so many loose ends have to be tied up at once that it's dizzying. Yet Jones' inventiveness never fails, and her conclusion is infinitely satisfying. Sara Miller, White Plains Public Library, N.Y.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780061478789
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 4/22/2008
Pages: 429
Sales rank: 24,409
Age range: 10 - 14 Years
Lexile: 0800L (what's this?)
Series: Howl's Castle Series , #1
Product dimensions: 5.10 (w) x 7.50 (h) x 1.30 (d)

Meet the Author

In a career spanning four decades, award-winning author Diana Wynne Jones wrote more than forty books of fantasy for young readers. Characterized by magic, multiple universes, witches and wizards—and a charismatic nine-lived enchanter—her books were filled with unlimited imagination, dazzling plots, and an effervescent sense of humor that earned her legendary status in the world of fantasy. From the very beginning, Diana Wynne Jones’s books garnered literary accolades: her novel Dogsbody was a runner-up for the 1975 Carnegie Medal, and Charmed Life won the esteemed Guardian children’s fiction prize in 1977. Since then, in addition to being translated into more than twenty languages, her books have earned a wide array of honors—including two Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honors—and appeared on countless best-of-the-year lists.

Her work also found commercial success: In 1992 the BBC adapted her novel Archer’s Goon into a six-part miniseries, and her bestselling Howl’s Moving Castle was made into an animated film by Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki in 2004. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006, and became one of the most financially successful Japanese films in history.

Diana Wynne Jones has also been honored with many prestigious awards for the body of her work. She was given the British Fantasy Society’s Karl Edward Wagner Award in 1999 for having made a significant impact on fantasy, received a D.Lit from Bristol University in 2006, and won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Fantasy Convention in 2007.

Born just outside London in 1934, Diana Wynne Jones had a childhood that was “very vivid and often very distressing”—one that became the fertile ground where her tremendous imagination took root. When the raids of World War II reached London in 1939, the five-year-old girl and her two younger sisters were torn from their suburban life and sent to Wales to live with their grandparents. This was to be the first of many migrations, one of which brought her family to Lane Head, a large manor in the author-populated Lake District and former residence of John Ruskin’s secretary, W.G . Collingwood. This time marked an important moment in Diana Wynne Jones’s life, where her writing ambitions were magnified by, in her own words, “early marginal contacts with the Great.” She confesses to having “offending Arthur Ransome by making a noise on the shore beside his houseboat,” erasing a stack of drawings by the late Ruskin himself in order to reuse the paper, and causing Beatrix Potter (who also lived nearby) to complain about her and her sister’s behavior. “It struck me,” Jones said, “that the Great were remarkably touchy and unpleasant, and I thought I would like to be the same, without the unpleasantness.” Prompted by her penny-pinching father’s refusal to buy the children any books, Diana Wynne Jones wrote her first novel at age twelve and entertained her sisters with readings of her stories. Those early stories—and much of her future work—were inspired by a limited but crucial foundation of classics: Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, The Arabian Nights, and Epics and Romances of the Middle Ages.

Fantasy was Jones’s passion from the start, despite receiving little support from her often neglectful parents. This passion was fueled further during her tenure at St. Anne’s College in Oxford, where lectures by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis increased her fascination with myth and legend. She married Medievalist John Burrow in 1956; the couple have three sons and six grandchildren.

After a decade of rejections, Diana Wynne Jones’s first novel, Changeover, was published in 1970. In 1973, she joined forces with her lifelong literary agent, Laura Cecil, and in the four decades to follow, Diana Wynne Jones wrote prodigiously, sometimes completing three titles in a single year. Along the way she gained a fiercely loyal following; many of her admirers became successful authors themselves, including Newbery Award winners Robin McKinley and Neil Gaiman, and Newbery Honor Book author Megan Whalen Turner. A conference dedicated solely to her work was held at the University of West England, Bristol, in 2009. Diana Wynne Jones continued to write during her battle with lung cancer, which ultimately took her life in March 2011. Her last book, Earwig and the Witch, was published by Greenwillow Books in 2012.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

In which Sophie talks to hats

In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.

Sophie Hatter was the eldest of three sisters. She was not even the child of a poor woodcutter, which might have given her some chance of success. Her parents were well to do and kept a ladies' hat shop in the prosperous town of Market Chipping. True, her own mother died when Sophie was two years old and her sister Lettie was one year old, and their father married his youngest shop assistant, a pretty blonde girl called Fanny. Fanny shortly gave birth to the third sister, Martha. This ought to have made Sophie and Lettle into Ugly Sisters, but in fact all three girls grew up very pretty indeed, though Lettie was the one everyone said was most beautiful. Fanny treated all three girls with the same kindness and did not favor Martha in the least.

Mr. Hatter was proud of his three daughters and sent them all to the best school in town. Sophie was the most studious. She read a great deal, and very soon realized how little chance she had of an interesting future. It was a disappointment to her, but she was still happy enough, looking after her sisters and grooming Martha to seek her fortune when the time came. Since Fanny was always busy in the shop, Sophie was the one who looked after the younger two. There was a certain amount of screaming and hairpulling between those younger two. Lettie was by no means resignedto being the one who, next to Sophie, was bound to be the least successful.

"It's not fair!" Lettie would shout. "Why should Martha have the best of it just because she was born the youngest? I shall marry a prince, so there!"

To which Martha always retorted that she would end up disgustingly rich without having to marry anybody.

Then Sophie would have to drag them apart and mend their clothes. She was very deft with her needle. As time went on, she made clothes for her sisters too. There was one deep rose outfit she made for Lettie, the May Day before this story really starts, which Fanny said looked as if it had come from the most expensive shop in Kingsbury.

About this time everyone began talking of the Witch of the Waste again. It was said the Witch had threatened the life of the King's daughter and that the King had commanded his personal magician, Wizard Suliman, to go into the Waste and deal with the Witch. And it seemed that Wizard Stillman had not only failed to deal with the Witch: he had got himself killed by her.

So when, a few months after that, a tall black castle suddenly appeared on the hills above Market Chipping, blowing clouds of black smoke from its four tall, thin turrets, everybody was fairly sure that the Witch had moved out of the Waste again and was about to terrorize the country the way she used to fifty years ago. People got very scared indeed. Nobody went out alone, particularly at night. What made it all the scarier was that the castle did not stay in the same place. Sometimes it was a tall black smudge on the moors to the northwest, sometimes it reared above the rocks to the east, and sometimes it came right downhill to sit in the heather only just beyond the last farm to the north. You could see it actually moving sometimes, with smoke pouring out from the turrets in dirty gray gusts. For a while everyone was certain that the castle would come right down into the valley before long, and the Mayor talked of sending to the King for help.

But the castle stayed roving about the hills, and it was learned that it did not belong to the Witch but toWizard Howl. Wizard Howl was bad enough. Though he did not seem to want to leave the hills, he was known to amuse himself by collecting young girls and sucking the souls from them. Or some people said he ate their hearts. He was an utterly cold-blooded and heartless wizard and no young girl was safe from him if he caught her on her own. Sophie, Lettie, and Martha, along with all the other girls in Market Chipping, were warned never to go out alone, which was a great annoyance to them. They wondered what use Wizard Howl found for all the souls he collected.

They had other things on their minds before long, however, for Mr. Hatter died suddenly just as Sophie was old enough to leave school for good. It then appeared that Mr. Hatter had been altogether too proud of his daughters. The school fees he had been paying had left the shop with quite heavy debts. When the funeral was over, Fanny sat down in the parlor in the house next door to the shop and explained the situation.

"You'll all have to leave that school, I'm afraid," she said. "I've been doing sums back and front and sideways, and the only way I can see to keep the business going and take care of the three of you is to see you all settled in a promising apprenticeship somewhere. It isn't practical to have you all in the shop. I can't afford it. So this is what I've decided. Lettie first -- "

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Mother-Daughter-Book-Club

Posted March 18, 2009

more from this reviewer

Courtesy of Mother-Daughter Book Club .com

Sophie is sure that her life is meant to come to nothing, because where she lives the eldest child is always ill-fated. So when times get tough for her family she is content to stay home and work in the family hat shop while her two younger sisters go off to bright futures working in a bakery and learning magic. But when the Witch of the Waste comes into her shop one day and casts a spell on Sophie, making her appear old, she decides to set off into the wider world where she knows no one.

When her old bones become tired at the end of her first day of wandering, she finds herself at the edge of the wizard Howl's castle. The castle is enchanted; it moves and blows puffs of smoke constantly. Although Sophie is afraid of Howl because she heard he eats young girls' souls, in the guise of an old woman she thinks she will be safe. With thoughts of finding a warm fireside and a comfy chair, Sophie goes into the castle.

She finds Howl's assistant Michael, and his fire demon, Calcifer, but Howl is not in. As Sophie makes herself useful and becomes a part of the castle life, she begins to learn more and more about Howl, Calcifer and Michael. Gradually, as she gets to know them, they become like a second family to her. But can she keep Howl from being taken by the Witch of the Waste? And can she break a magical spell that binds Calcifer to Howl, so the spell on her can be broken as well?

Howl's Moving Castle brings up issues of creating family for yourself and seeing people for who they truly are, despite the masks they put up to keep others at a distance. It's about finding love and acceptance, and not being afraid to look for the magic in small moments. The castle itself is fascinating, with its door leading to different villages depending on which colored-button is facing down, its ability to move its location and its permanent window looking onto a sunny port town. Our mother-daughter book club members thought the ending felt a bit rushed, but otherwise we all enjoyed reading it and talking about Sophie, Howl and all the characters. I recommend it for book clubs with daughters aged 13 and up.

6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted December 31, 2008

I Also Recommend:

A Lover of Fantasy

This is the best fantasy book I have ever read. The characters are extremely likeable and not one-dimensional. The humor included is great and I love the hilarious situations that Howl creates due to his vanity. The plot is engaging and Howl's Moving Castle is one of those books that you just can't put down. I have read this book over and over again and stil it fails to bore me. Readers beware: Make sure that you give yourself time for it will most likely be that you finish this book in one sitting!

6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted August 24, 2011

Great Read, but not a great e-book

Howl's moving castle is a wonderful book. It's a quick, fun read, and the writing style of Diana Wynne Jones makes you feel like you're reading an old fairy tale and adds greatly to the charm of the story. However, I don't suggest purchasing this story for the nook. The e-book is filled with typos, which are few and far between when you start out, but then become so frequent that they're actually a distraction, and it doesn't help matters that the occasional word is missing. All in all, the ebook feels as though it were carelessly put together, which I don't remember being the case with the plain old paperback edition. It was a bit of a disappointment.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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HonorsReading007

Posted December 8, 2009

I Also Recommend:

A Whimsical Fantasy That Anyone Will Love

Howl's Moving Castle was recommended to me by a friend who praised it highly. Needless to say I had high expectations, and Diana Wynne Jones did not disappoint. Howl's Moving Castle is the story of a girl named Sophie who accidentally upsets a witch causing her to turn Sophie into an old woman. With nothing to lose, Sophie sets out to seek her fortune. Along the way, she encounters many strange and magical creatures, none more strange or magical than the feared Wizard Howl. Sophie decides to move in with Wizard Howl and his apprentice Michael, and live with them in their fantastic Moving Castle. While there, Sophie makes a pact with a sarcastic fire demon named Calcifer. Calcifer promises to lift the the spell that has been placed on Sophie if she promises to break his contract with Wizard Howl. In her quest to break the contract, Sophie will discover the true Wizard Howl and learn the secrets of the amazing moving castle.
While very well written, there are some parts of the story that could be confusing to a younger or less educated reader. This being said, I literally could not bring myself to put this book down as I was reading it. It was as if it were glued to my hands! I heartily recommend this book for anyone with an extensive vocabulary and a reasonable amount of imagination. I also would advise you to see the movie after reading the book because some things will make much more sense. All in all, Howl's Moving Castle is an enchanting story that you will want to read again and again.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Ravenswold

Posted August 14, 2011

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Wonderful! But not a great copy.

I am thoroughly enjoying this book. It is a complete delight and worth reading every page; however, at the time I purchased it, it has a lamentable and unacceptable number of typographical errors in it for a paid-for book. It gets quite distracting. I'm not sure I would buy an ebook from this same publisher again, since it seems like they don't deliver even standard publishable quality.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Xilo

Posted April 4, 2009

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This is a wonderful book

I would recommend this book for all ages! However, the book is very different from the movie, it is still very wonderful and catches your attention on every page.

Sophie, is the eldest of three sisters, she has to stay behind to take over her fathers hat shop while her two other sisters move on to different apprentices. One day while she is working in the hat shop the wicked witch of the waste pays her a visit and tuns her in to an old woman.

Sophie, is so embarrased by what she has become that she sets out on an adventure. When she gets tired and can't move any more howl's castle appears and she ends up letting herself in. After that she ends up working for howl as a maid.

At first Sophie is afraid of howl because of all the rumors she has been hearing, but soon finds out that she grows more and more fond of him with each day passing.

When I read this book i could not put it down!!! She also has a sequal to this book called house of many ways which is also a wonderful read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted March 16, 2009

If you like the movie...

If you like the movie, you may or may not like the book. The movie takes many liberties that have nothing to do with the book at all. However, the redeeming factor about the movie vs. book is that they are so different that they are two separate entities. I enjoy both immensely!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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SfkSmile123

Posted January 21, 2009

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Loved It!

The story captivates you so much! It's imaginative and unlike any story you've read! It's AMAZING!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted December 25, 2005

Awesome!

One reason why this book is hard to put down is because it is 100 percent original. You'll never know what will happen next. Humorous, wily, and detailed, this is a great book to add to anyone's fantasy collection.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted October 16, 2003

Funny!

I think this book is one of those few stories that stay with you throughout your life. I've never read anything so peculiar but hey..! It's all good! I really enjoyed the twists and hidden messages within the story. For some reason I really liked Michael. I have no idea why. Maybe it's because he freaked out when Sophie began cleaning up the place.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted July 28, 2002

Something about it really pulled at me...

I didn't think this sounded like a very interesting book at first(the first chapter was a little bland) but I soon found myself reading this book everywhere I went, even at a denny's restaurant with my grandparents. I finished it craving more. That's the kind of reader I am, but seriously, this book was very good. It had everything. Comedy, drama, fantasy things, a good plot, romance, and great characters. Especially Howl. Email me if you agree with me about this book, or just want to talk about it. :D

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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BeccaN

Posted May 14, 2012

This book is hilarious. The adventures of Sophie, Wizard Howl, C

This book is hilarious. The adventures of Sophie, Wizard Howl, Calicfer and all will carry you away, to the point you may not want to put the book down. So much better than the movie! Well worth a read or two, or three...
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Anonymous

Posted March 6, 2012

I loved the movie, so when I found out this was a book, I was so

I loved the movie, so when I found out this was a book, I was so overjoyed I could hardly wait to get it. It was just my luck that the library at my middle school had it. I checked it out once and read it three times in the week I had it. I absolutely loved it!!! I got it mostly for the romance because I just loved it in the movie, but the book was so much more than just the feelings between Sophie and Howl. It had a similar plot to the movie, but different and much more interesting. I literally couldn't believe it was over, and then I found out there was a whole series! Unfortunately, my library doesn't have the rest of the series, so I haven't been able to read it. It's been nearly three years since I first picked up Howl's Moving Castle and it is still my number one favorite book! I absolutely recommend it!!
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HomeSchoolBookReview

Posted March 2, 2012

a fair amount of excitement

The first time I ever heard of this book was in 2006 when we lived in St. Louis, MO, and a friend of our younger son Jeremy with whom he played homeschool baseball, gave a report in a local homeschool Network newsletter. A few years later, after we had moved from St. Louis to Salem, IL, we picked Howl’s Moving Castle, made from the book in 2004 by Hayao Miyazaki, for a family video. The film generally follows the book, but as Jackson noted there are some major differences. I read several reviews by people who actually liked the movie better than the book. The main complaints about the novel are that it is has poor character development, flimsy story lines, implausible plot devices, and too many words yet not enough real description. Personally, I found the book well-written and generaly easy to read with a fair amount of excitement, but I did note a few concerns. First, the plot has an almost “absurdist” quality to it. That doesn’t necessarily make it bad, but some people may not care for that sort of story. There are some common euphemisms, such as “drat” and “confound it,” a few curse-like terms (“damnation” and “Hell’s teeth”), and one instance of the word “Lord” used as an exclamation. Howl has as reputation as a womanizer, courting girls until they fall in love with him then dropping them for someone else but nothing sexual is actually implied. References to drinking beer, brandy, and wine occur, and Howl comes home drunk once towards the end. If you prefer not to have your children reading books which contain magic or witchcraft, you would obviously want to avoid this one. I do make a distinction between books which I believe promote an interest in the occult, such as Harry Potter, and those where the magic or witchcraft is simply part of the fictional setting of a story. Howl’s Moving Castle comes about as close to the former as possible, and only the “absurdist” nature of the plot might keep it from falling into that category.
Author Diana Wynne Jones, was born in London, England, on August 16, 1934, the daughter of Marjorie (née Jackson) and Richard Aneurin Jones, both of whom were educators. She is a British writer, principally of fantasy novels for children and adults, as well as a small amount of non-fiction. Some of her better-known works include the Chrestomanci series. Her books range from a broad, almost slapstick delight in the construction of absurd-yet-logical situations, especially evident in the endings of some of her books, to sharp social observation, to witty parody of literary forms. Foremost amongst the latter are her Tough Guide to Fantasyland, a non-fiction work on clichés in fantasy fiction that has a cult following as a reference among writers and critics, despite being difficult to find due to an erratic printing history, and its fictional companion-pieces Dark Lord of Derkholm (1998) and Year of the Griffin (2000), which provide a merciless, though not unaffectionate, critique of formulaic sword-and-sorcery epics. Charmed Life, the first book in the Chrestomanci series, won the 1977 Guardian Award for Children’s Books. Archer's Goon (1984), a Boston Globe - Horn Book Honor Book and World Fantasy Award for Best Novel nominee, was adapted for television in 1992. According to her autobiography, Diana has been an atheist since she was ten. Howl's Moving Castle won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and was named an ALA Notable book for both children and young adults. A sequel
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MissPrint

Posted February 26, 2012

more from this reviewer

romantic, thrilling, and completely absorbing

Before Hayao Miyazaki made "Howl's Moving Castle" into a feature length animated film in 2006 (2004 if you saw it in Japan), it was a book written by Diana Wynne Jones in 1986. Due to the inherent difficulties of creating an animated film, Miyazaki greatly abridged and adjusted the plot of the novel for his movie. I happened to enjoy both film and novel but after reading the book I realized that the plot is extremely different in the novel--enough that the book and movie become completely different viewing experiences.

Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about the movie. On to the discussion of the book:

Sophie lives "in the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility exist." In other words, all of the traditional fairy tale stories are real. Not so bad, except that Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three sisters, which everyone knows means Sophie is doomed to failure should she ever set out to seek her fortunes. Sophie is resigned to her fate--living obscurely, and less than successfully, working in the family hat shop. Except that this is not a traditional fairy tale and events soon intervene to set Sophie on a very unexpected course indeed for an eldest daughter.

It all starts in the hat shop after some interesting things begin to happen when Sophie talks to the hats she trims. Interesting enough to attract the attention of the dangerous Witch of the Waste. When her encounter with the Witch of the Waste leaves Sophie cursed in the body of an old woman, she has no choice but to go out and seek her fortune in hopes of breaking the curse (even if she is an eldest daughter).

Along the way, Sophie comes upon a mysterious moving castle that has taken up in the hill's of Ingary. The castle belongs to Wizard Howl "who was known to amuse himselv by collection young girls and sucking the souls from them. Or some people said he ate their hearts." Either way, he was not anyone Sophie expected to ever meet let alone move in with. Until she does. Adventure ensues as Sophie tries to break the curse and help Howl with his own uniquely magical problems.

In terms of fantasy novels, "Howl's Moving Castle" is one of my favorites. The world Jones creates is fully realized without ever getting boring or limiting the reader's imagination. The tone of her narrative is also spot on. Readers of Jane Austen's novels or the "Sorcery and Cecelia" series will notice a similar narrative voice. Although this novel is largely timeless, the prose has a charmingly Victorian tone--taking its time to arrive at the action, the better to familiarize readers with the characters involved and show the readers just how fantastic they (and the story) really are.

I also adore this story because it is romantic, thrilling, and completely absorbing. Even at 329 pages, the novel is far too short. Happily, Diana Wynne Jones follows up "Howl's Moving Castle" with "Castle in the Air" (1990) and a brand new book featuring Sophie and Howl ("House of Many Ways") is due out in May of 2008.
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StarSailor

Posted December 20, 2011

Highly Recommend!

This was a fantastic read. I had seen the movie a while before sitting down to read the book. It more than lived up to the hype created to the movie and did not disappoint at all. The world so much larger than the movie shows, and it offers so much more background into the characters and their actions. I highly recommend to anyone who might be interested, they will not be disappointed; fans of the movie or newcomers will enjoy immensely. I cannot wait to get my hands on the rest of the series!
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Dandie

Posted November 30, 2011

Story is Ok, Typos are not

The only real complaint I have about the ebook is there are obvious typos throughout. Somebody proofread, please?

Also, the book itself is alright. There's not a ton of character development so far, and I feel like I barely know anyone in the book. Calcifer is perhaps the most memorable character, but the story is interesting.
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Anonymous

Posted November 26, 2011

Best book I ever read!

Very well written book and I loved the movie!
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BNReynolds

Posted November 15, 2011

I Also Recommend:

Very Cute

I Loved this book, i thought it was a wonderful quick read. Although it is nothing like the movie. I like the book much better than the movie, it had a lot more detail more adventure, and was all around much more intriguing.
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Anonymous

Posted November 9, 2011

Awesome

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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