Off The Bookshelf: CAMP CACOPHANY, by Jessica Khoury

 

Audiobook, Audible exclusive

Narrated by Suzy Jackson

Mystwick School of Musicraft series

Fun short story, a before-the-story story.

Specifically, our heroine, Amelia, agrees to go to summer sports camp while her grandmother is on a quilt tour. Amelia knows she has no sports-related talent whatsoever, and of course, she gets paired as a bunkmate with a girl who is the ultimate athlete, and determined to win the trophy for best camper this summer. Again. Amelia is only there in a bargain with her grandmother, before her big audition to get into Mystwick.

However, she faces several problems from day one: no magical/musical practice is allowed on camp property. Amelia's bunkmate seems to have an antipathy toward music/magic. Everything she does goes wrong.

Bigger problem: magic is stirring, making the athletic equipment throughout the camp go crazy, then dangerous. But there is no music to be heard, and magic needs music to work. So what is happening?

Fun, short adventure, and a taste of Amelia's determined spirit that will stand her in good stead in the days and challenges ahead of her.

Off the Bookshelf: THE MIDNIGHT ORCHESTRA, by Jessica Khoury

 

Audiobook, Audible exclusive

Narrated by Suzy Jackson

Mystwick School series

This second book in the Mystwick School series takes up just days after the end of the first book. Amelia thinks she's finally settling in, she's finally made a place for herself and she belongs. She's looking forward to learning to use her newly discovered magical gift of Composing.

Then, of course, complications hit her, one by one. First, the other Amelia Jones shows up, miraculously rescued from being shipwrecked. This Mia is not a nice person, especially since she's determined to keep Darby and Amelia from being friends. Then the mysterious Mr. Midnight contacts Amelia by magically appearing notes, summoning her to the Midnight Orchestra. Then her classmates decide to enter a musical competition the school hasn't been able to enter since the grand prize trophy was stolen from them by cheaters. They're depending on Amelia to compose the winning musical spell -- and Amelia finds out that her mother was the composer for that last team.

Amelia's composing teacher, Miss Mott, is something of a free spirit, whose teaching methods leave her confused and frustrated. Especially when one thing after another goes wrong, in school and her life. Pushed to the breaking point, she makes a rash decision, which ends in her owing a huge debt to Mr. Midnight. And he's not above threatening her friends and the school to make sure she pays. Amelia could lose far more than the competition.

Bravisimo!

Off the Bookshelf: THE MYSTWICK SCHOOL OF MUSICRAFT, by Jessica Khoury

An Audible Original
Narrated by Suzy Jackson

Lovely, fun, not-nearly-long-enough book about a girl who lives for music -- in a world where magic has its roots in music.

Amelia Jones inherited her mother's musical talent and her flute, and her goal is to get into Mystwick and earn the rank of maestro and make magic. She learns the hard way that just because she's the best musician in her town and at her school ... that doesn't necessarily mean she's anywhere near the top when she gets among real musicians.

Especially when her grandmother seems determined to do everything she can to discourage Amelia's musical dreams and get her to have another kind of life -- any kind of life -- because Amelia's mother's death seems to be wrapped up in music and magic gone terribly wrong.

From the day of her disaster audition, when she's running late and burns up her sheet music and makes a judge's hair grow, to getting her acceptance letter and finding out that there's another Amelia Jones who should have gotten that letter, to the trials and tribulations of the first few months at school -- when it sure looks like a  ghost is out to destroy her future -- Amelia learns a lot of hard lessons, and the value of a true friend.

More please? I'm serious -- just when it looks like things are finally looking up for Amelia, and she has some answers, more complications loom on the horizon. I gotta know what happens next!