About this book
Scholastic Booktalk
Charlie looked at the picture of the man holding a baby, and heard the man’s voice in his head. The photograph was talking to him. Charlie’s life would never be the same.
Have you ever wished that you had a special talent, a special ability that made you different from everyone else? Charlie has just discovered that he has just that kind of talent, and it’s not making him happy. Suddenly without any warning, he can hear what people in photographs are saying. People in the newspaper, people in magazines, people he doesn’t want to hear, secrets he doesn’t want to know. What Charlie wants is his old life back, his life before the photo shop sent back the wrong picture, before he heard what the man in the picture was saying, before he heard the strange flame-colored cat in the picture purring. Before he knew that the man had given away his own daughter, the baby he was holding in the picture, in exchange for something in a strange locked silver box. Before Charlie had the box. Before he was involved.
But that’s not going to happen. Charlie’s life has changed, and he’s going to have to deal with it. The Yewbeams, his father’s large and ancient family, have always been known for their strange and unusual talents, such as hypnotism, mind-reading and bewitchery, so as strange as his new talent is, it’s not all that unusual in this family. His father’s sisters, who have always looked down on Charlie, are delighted that their nephew is endowed with a supernatural talent, and he’s immediately enrolled in Bloor Academy, the exclusive private school for gifted and endowed children that his father’s family has always gone to. It’s the last place Charlie wants to go, but his father is dead, and his mother’s family has no money. If Charlie doesn’t cooperate with his relatives, he, his mother, and her mother will be homeless. Charlie realizes that he really has no choice. Even though he can’t stand his weird and horrible aunts, and doesn’t want anything to do with them, he has to cooperate.
And before he even starts at his new school, several other strange things happen. Mr. Onimous and his three mysterious cats appear at his front door, and when Charlie tells him the story of the picture and his new talent, he discovers that the baby in the picture is now about his own age, and a student at Bloor. When he returns the picture to its rightful owner, Miss Julia Ingledew, who turns out to be the baby’s only living relative, she gives Charlie the silver box the baby’s father got when he gave her away. The more Charlie knows about this girl, who was lost for so many years before going to Bloor, the more sure he is that he has to find her, and help her any way he can. Could she be the reason why Charlie’s talent suddenly showed up? And what about his horrible Yewbeam aunts – why are they so determined to get the box away from Charlie? How do they even know about the box, when he’s kept it a secret? Why is it locked, sealed so that no one can get into it? What’s inside it, and why are so many people interested in opening it? Things just keep getting stranger and stranger.
What adventures await Charlie at Bloor Academy, and what will happen when he discovers the secrets that the school hides? What is so special about the ruined castle, and the Red King who built it? Why at the end of November, do all the students have to play the ruin game, entering the ruin, whether they want to or not? And what happens to the ones who never come out again?
This Booktalk was written by librarian and booktalking expert Joni R. Bodart
- Subjects:Changes and New Experiences, Families and Social Structures, Overcoming Obstacles
