I received this book as part of a Library Thing member giveaway in return for a review. Another reviewer has likened it to Harry Potter - an analogy I think is dangerous (in fact at one point a character states that the school is not Hogwarts). Yes it is a book about young people some of whom have magical powers. Yes it is also about some of their parents, but it also includes a group of overwatchers keeping an eye upon the goings on of this region of America and it is unclear by the end of this book whether these overwatchers are benevolent or not. The book also hops around between groups of characters in many cases it felt as though I was coming in to a story with bits previously told. Sometimes those instances cleared themselves up over time, others probably must await until the next volume. I liked the characters, even those designed not to be likable. One realistic piece of writing is the duplication of names in the book. In real life we come across people with the same names all the time and have to work out how to identify between them. The first such instance in the book is Tom Dad and Tom Boy to differentiate between the main characters' father and their school friend. Further on a student is described as name and initial and skin colour, which is very normal in schools where certain names become popular all at once and you are forced to use the child's last name initial and, if more than one fitting that description, to add a physical attribute just to distinguish. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the subsequent novels in the series.
The author writes with great humour and the chapter titles are funny and frequently have nothing to do with the contents of the chapter. ( )

Like Harry Potter, with a deeper look into the struggles of being a teenager. If you love Harry Potter you will love this. I cannot wait for Journal Two. ( )