Serafina and the Black Cloak

I read this book when I was ten years old, (I'm eleven now) and loved it!! The beginning was a bit slow but when I got to the part where Serafina spots the man in the black cloak capture the young guest, Clara Brahms, I desperately wanted to find out what was going to happen next. It is violent and scary in parts of the book but if kids can handle violence then it will be okay. The characters in the story are great role models (except the villains of course!) and very brave. The ending was super good because in the beginning of the book Serafina had to stay away from everyone except her father, hid in the basement, and had to face the man in the Black Cloak. But in the end, she defeated the man in the Black Cloak and saved everyone that's been captured by the man in the Black Cloak. She did not have to hide in the basement anymore and she didn't have to hide from everyone anymore. This book will make Readers stay up all night dying to know what is going to happen next. Serafina and the Black Cloak made my top ten favorite books, I can't wait to read book 2!

I began reading this to my nearly-seven year old and 10 year old. We were in the Asheville area so the setting was relevant and I thought, if I read it with them, an 8+ book would be around the right level to keep both interested… mistake! The descriptions of the inner workings of the old house are nicely written and Serafina’s world is strange and interesting. Very early into the book, while wandering the basement in the dark of night, Serafina witnesses a child being chased and caught by a terrifying supernatural man. She watches the child being consumed (Dementor-style) before being chased herself. This whole sequence is very frightening and I found myself having to gloss over some of the descriptions before eventually accepting this wasn’t going to work as a bedtime story! Great, scary story but for older children.