About This Book:
This series is part of Scholastic’s early chapter book line, Branches, aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow!
An evil magic turned Kwame’s friend Fifi into a green flame. It also stole the two most powerful calabashes, and now the world is falling apart! Kwame and his friends Esi and Papa-Kow must travel to the Magic Mountain, where the green flame is trying to combine the two calabashes to make one all-powerful calabash. Can they save Fifi and stop the green flame before it’s too late?
*Review Contributed By Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer*
Magical Academy Adventure
This is a nicely illustrated early chapter book that fills a much needed lack of adventure titles for elementary readers in grades 2-4, when students are often attempting to read the Harry Potter books before they are really ready. My hesitation in giving this to emergent older readers is that the characters are given “magic cheetah balls” to chew that turn them in to cheetahs so they can travel quickly. Middle school students would have entirely too much fun with that.
This was reminiscent of Blackwood’s Race to Fire Mountain, with some similarities to other magical academy books, with a sorting tree choosing the students’ calabashes and different courses of magical study. Readers who enjoyed the Disaster Squad branches series by Rajan and Lovett or Patton’s Battle Bugs will also be excited to find another easy-to-read adventure title.
