My brother-in-law brought this for my son when he and his wife visited last year. (He has given the kids a number of books, actually, and they are always spot-on, even if he doesn't get to spend a lot of time with the kids. Great readers think alike I guess.) Anyhow, I hadn't read it since I was a teen, so I picked it up for something to read while waiting at a doctor's appointment. I think I liked it better this time around than the first time I read it. There were several moments when I wanted to yell at the characters not to trust person X or Y, but since it's a midgrade, I'm okay with some things being a little pointed. I loved the atmosphere, the mystery, Merry (actually, I think what I loved about Merry was that he reminded me so much of Dumbledore, and in some corner of me I am still mourning the end of HP), and the fact that one of the kids is named Simon (lovely Englishy name--one of my characters is named that, too). I checked to see if my library has the rest. They have some, but only in German, and I can't tell from the titles if they have the next one. It looks like their collection in incomplete. Alas. But it was nice while it lasted.
Word starvation is hard.
