Tween Tuesday: The Carnival of Lost Souls be Laura Quimby

3 soft peanut butter cookies.

Cover Love: Oh my yes!! I adore this cover. And as I read the book I noticed more and more details from the story that the cover actually showed. Masterful!

Why I Wanted To Read This: Honestly, the cover. Totally captured my imagination. Here's the synopsis from the author's website:
For one charismatic kid, the dangerous world of the Forest of the Dead becomes the setting for the ultimate escape trick in this exciting debut novel.

Jack Carr has been shuttled from foster home to group home to foster home his entire life. The only constant has been his interest in magic, especially handcuff escapes like those mastered by his hero, Harry Houdini. When he's placed with the Professor, however, he feels like he's finally found a home—but his new guardian is hiding a dangerous secret.

Years ago the Professor bartered his soul to the undead magician the Amazing Mussini, and when the payment is due, he sends Jack in his place. Jack must travel with Mussini to the Forest of the Dead, a place in between the real world and the afterlife, where he's forced to perform in Mussini's traveling magic show. If he stays in the Forest long enough, he'll die himself. To find his way home, he'll have the help of Mussini's other "minions"—kids stolen just like Jack—and his wits, nothing more. Can he follow the example of his hero, Houdini, and escape the inescapable?

I Kept Reading Because: I wanted to know if Jack escaped and how he went about doing it.

Romance?: Nope, except hope for an orphan to find a family.

What I Liked (& Didn't):

First of all, although this has nothing to do with the actual plot of the book I feel it must be said...I loved the design of this book! I loved the cover and the pages inside looked like the pages of an old book.

I liked the magic talk! I know many, many kids who would be interested in the magic aspect and the parts about Houdini.

I felt that the book lost it's way a bit when Jack first got to the Forest of the Dead, but picked up it's pace good when the shows started.

I really liked Jack. He was a good character, strong voice. He made some good growth during the course of the book!

The ending was exciting and fulfilling.

To Sum Up: My own son has recently become fascinated with magic and Houdini, so I think I will be having him give this book a try when he is finished with his current read. I also think I could get several readers at my library interested in reading about Jack, the Handcuff Kid!

Tween Tuesday was created and is hosted by Sarah, the GreenBeanTeenQueen.

Book requested and received from Laura at Amulet. Thanks Laura!!