Teens will easily relate to Listen's conflicts (intensified when her friends cast her out of their clique). Casting spells intended to achieve such feats as make a vacuum cleaner break, Listen works her way through almost half the book before she notices the tiny promise on the back cover: 'This Book Will Mend Your Broken Heart.' The results of Listen's magic deliciously spike trenchant scenes that shift among the various (adult) couples and the role of the Zing Family Secret. Meanwhile, Listen Taylor, a motherless seventh-grader who lives with her father and his girlfriend Marbie Zing, discovers a book of magic spells. The central mystery discussed every Friday night by the Zing adults, behind the closed doors of a garden shed has to do with a carefully guarded family secret that (as readers gradually learn) necessitates the constant surveillance of a young elementary-school teacher named Cath Murphy. It is very long, but you have to stick to the end, and it is great! Another book that reminds me of this is 'The Name of This Book is Secret'(actual name!) because it is long, written in the same way, and the endings are similar.A revised version of Moriarty's adult novel, I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes (not published in the U.S.), this whimsical though rigorously plotted novel offers an intellectual puzzle that may engage YA readers, but the lengthy, adult-centered narrative may test the patience of its target audience.

My opinion is it is one of my favorite books in the world, so from 1-10, an 11. (Think there are enough affairs?!) The tone is very exciting and unexpecting. Cath Murphy has an affair with a married man. Marbie has an affair, for no real reason, and Fancy thinks her husband is having an affair. The conflict is that there are many conflicts that end up to be connected! Listen Taylor's friends tell her she is no good and she is friendless, and she goes through the story trying to find new friends. The setting is in Sydney, the main characters are Listen Taylor, her dad, Nathaniel, Marbie and Fancy Zing, Radcliffe, Maude ZIng, Cath Murphy and Cassie ZIng. This is because it could happen, but there are some parts that I don't think could happen. The genre is realistic Fiction, but just barely. The book I read is called The Spell Book of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty.

The spell book of listen taylor