Griffin's Castle by Jenny Nimmo

Title: Griffin's Castle
Author: Jenny Nimmo
Reviewer: Karen
Genre: Junior Urban Fantasy
Rating: Like
Alerts/Warnings: Might be a bit intense for children with highly active imaginations.
Premise: "After years of having moved around, eleven-year-old Dinah determines to make a huge, dilapidated old mansion into a home for her mother and herself, but the wild beasts she summons from a stone wall to protect her may also imprison her" (King County Library System).
Opinions: This book by the author of the Charlie Bone series is a sad, beautiful tale of a child trying to run away from some bad memories in her life. In the process, she learns that stone animals gracing a nearby castle begin to come to life for her.  Dinah learns about friendship and how to heal from her past sorrows and how to find a permanent home. The story is told in an omniscient point of view so to let us into the minds of, not only Dinah, but those who surround her as well.  Because of this the story feels more in-depth and we see the impact Dinah has on her schoolmates, her mother, and others.  However, it does tend to make it a little more difficult to become attached to the more frequent characters. Also, I have a highly active imagination so there were a few times that the girl's sadness, or some of the events she experienced made me a bit tense. As such, parents might want to read this prior to their children to make sure its something they could handle.  Overall, I liked the story, but I still much prefer the author's Charlie Bone series much more.