Magickeepers: The Pyramid of Souls

1:09 AM

by Erica Kirov (author) and Eric Williams (Illustrator)

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (May 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1402215029
ISBN-13: 978-1402215025

Description (Publisher Website)
It was stolen from Alexander the Great. To keep it safe, Edgar Allen Poe bargained away his sanity. And somebody suckered P. T. Barnum to get their hands on it. It’s the most closely guarded secret in the magician community. And it’s missing.

What would you do to protect your family from an ancient pyramid capable of stealing your very soul?
Nick Rostov finally has the life he’s always dreamed—and he’ll do anything to protect it.
Nick has only now discovered he is part of an extended Russian family of magicians: the Magickeepers. He lives with his eccentric new relatives at the Winter Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where they perform daring feats of magic to a packed house. Real magic.
But Nick and his family face a new danger in the form of a stolen relic, the Pyramid of Souls. The tiny pyramid has traded hands many times throughout history. Its power can steal a magician’s very soul.

Nick knows who took it: Rasputin, leader of the Shadowkeepers. Using his unique ability as a Gazer—one who can see into the past—Nick enlists his cousin Isabella to help him find it. Soon, the two are hot on the evil sorcerer’s trail…until Isabella’s soul is trapped by the very relic they’re trying to find.

Nick will do anything to rescue Isabella and recover the Pyramid of Souls. But will it be enough to save his family?

About The Author

Erica Kirov is an American writer of Russian descent. Though she is not from a family of magicians, she is from a proud family of Russians, and she grew up hearing stories of their lives there.

In the last four years, Erica has seen eighteen novels published for adults. She has garnered rave reviews from US Weekly magazine (twice selected for the “Hot Book Pick”), Cosmopolitan, Kirkus, Women’s World, American Girl, Forbes, Kiplinger’s, as well as newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times and a recent front-page spread in the Flair section of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. She writes on http://teenfictioncafe.blogspot.com as well as her parenting blog, http://demonbabyandme.blogspot.com/.

Erica lives in Virginia with her husband, four children, three dogs, parrot, and her son’s snake (she really hates snakes). She is busy at work on the next Magickeepers novel.

Review

As with the first Magickeepers book, this is an absolutely delightful read. While it's intended for 9-12 year olds, I have to tell you that once again I was glued to the story. Kirov has such an imagination and entertaining style of writing that even adults will be hooked from the first page. This is definitely one you'll want to introduce the young readers in your life to! The book is full of magic, elephants, tigers, pyramids and more even more magic.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Jabberwocky for providing me with a copy of this book to review.