It may seem odd to say there are both good and bad messages in this book, but when I thought about it, that's what I decided was an appropriate analysis. On the good side, the siblings in this book are loyal to each other and look out for each other. They have been raised to put their family first, and they frequently think first about how their actions could impact their parents or each other. On the bad side, it is revealed in the book that after the disappearance of his girlfriend, Celia, Whit experiments with, or even takes up for a time, drinking, and while it is evident that he feels some guilt at this, the author does not deal with any consequences of that action beyond Whit's feelings of guilt, which arguably, are also a product of the loss of Celia. That said, I did not list the underage drinking itself as a concern because, while its consequences were not adequately explored, it was also not glorified in any way. A lot of parents may find this book to be too violent (I did not), and there is a lot of violence, especially violence perpetrated by adults against children. For me however, it was made clear that those engaging in the violence against the children were Evil, and the violence is portrayed as being acts of Evil. The violence engaged in by the children in response is shown as necessary to save the lives of others, and therefore justified. If you have a problem with the concept of violence being justified in the face of violence, you will not approve of this book. Overall, the book is not especially good. It's not particularly well written, and is a little too colloquial for my taste. It has just over 300 pages, and over 100 "chapters" which are not divided up in any logical fashion that I could discern, aside from a desire to keep each chapter extremely short (which I would think should be unnecessary with kids in this age group). I read it in a couple of hours in one night. My daughter (age 11) has not yet read it, so I cannot relay any comments she may have had about it.

I love this book! I was very very sad about Harry Potter ending, then I read this. It's like chocolate after a break-up. It shows that music, books, and art are power. And even if you take those away, you still have your own creativity. A great read. It's like our own world....but different.

It is educational a little bit, in the sense that you learn about values and government. (Democracy is overthrown by a totalitarian dictator.) It is pretty dark and the storyline has a never-ending sort of feel. This may be due to the fact that each chapter is literally 1-2 pages long. Perspectives switch between Whit and Wisty, and they both sound exactly alike, so you are prone to forgetting who's perspective it is being told in. It is action-packed, though. The ending is a cliffhanger, obviously to make you want to read the sequal. Overall, it gets a 5/10 for me. I recommend it for readers aged 11-15.

Enjoyable tale of a brother and sister newly and brusquely thrown into a world of cruelty and discrimination...discrimination against anyone with powers - like them.

Its amazing !!! Some peolple where worried including my teacher becaust its James Patterson. But its fin the say the h word some times over all its great i wouldn't put it down like a dog with a bone. Its great for kids 10 and up. The thing its a big book with some long words but if your a strong reader you should get this book!!!! I read both books witch and wizard and the gift witch and wizard is the fisrt book and i LOVE THEM BOTH!!!!!

Very well written

Love it this book is filled with humor and a good story to go along with it. pretty violent.

Love this!