I was invited to read and review Karen Foxlee’s Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy on NetGalley.

This book is aimed at middle-school kids, although I think elementary readers could also handle it, as long as they aren’t the types to have nightmares about scary things. This is the story of a young girl in a foreign city who discovers a boy locked up in a room in a very strange museum where her dad is working. Her mom has died recently, and one of the most interesting parts of the book is her hearing her mother’s voice encouraging her to be more adventurous and do the right thing, even when it’s scary and she will need her inhaler. There are some interesting characters throughout the book as well.

Honestly, at first, the book didn’t grab me. There wasn’t enough explanation of what was going on and there were too many references to other children’s books (can you say C.S. Lewis?) for me to enjoy it, but about a quarter of the way in, the story grabbed me anyway and I enjoyed the rest. It’s nice to have a strong young female character that faces her limitations and her fears and still manages to do the scary stuff. There were a lot of stereotypical characters in the book, but I have to remember it’s written for a younger audience. Many of my middle-school kids would like this book, but it would easily entertain 3rd-5th graders who were better readers as well.