Beautiful storytelling about a dragon who spends a few hundred years enchanted as a teapot,
a lonely girl’s whose first and only friend is this dragon, and a wicked magician who has imprisoned most of the dragons. Once they realize what happened to the dragons, The girl and dragon quest to avoid the magician, find the dragons, and free them— no matter the cost.

I had no expectations for this book and so I was blown away by its loveliness.

So, I am a total sucker for dragon books and will request and add everyone to my TBR in hopes of reading about their grand adventures and epic quests. When I saw this cover and read the blurb I was so excited to dive into this new age tale with my favorite fantasy creature as the star of the show! What I was expecting and what I got, now that is something to be compared to Yin and Yang.
The story seemed to drag on (no pun intended) forever and has eighty-plus pages of what I like to call fluff n’ stuff because it's really not necessary and seems to only add to the quota of the bottom line that qualifies books as novels and not novellas. Once the dragon, Grisha, and the MC young human girl named Maggie finally meet in a random place that seems as ridiculous as it sounds – a hotel bar- I thought maybe now the plot will progress and the story will right itself. WRONG. The characters never really seem to do anything and when they do they are instantly rewarded with whatever information they sought out and the storyline just stays stalled in park with no apparent destination.
I could not connect with the characters or the story and I was totally bummed to find that the end finally rushed into “action” and then BLAMO! Everything and everyone is okay! Yay! Err not?
I do not know who I would recommend this story to as the dragons are just boring and there are no quests so High Fantasy lovers like myself will just be deflated with the plot. There is no romance - which I was not expecting- or real character development through conflict, so it really cannot be considered a Young Adult? And I think kiddos would get bored and DNF the story and not appreciate it either; therefore, not really middle grade either? I try really hard to not tear apart hard work and dedication that goes into novels, so I commend the author on trying to do something new but the follow through was never really met which why it took so long for me to finally finish reading this story.
Thank you, Netgalley for allowing me access to this story for an honest review.

Seemed to be written in a condescending tone--this is how magic really works.. Much was described being told instead of shown. Could not relate well with the characters.

“Everyone can look at the world… But only those who pause to see what is wrong can change it.” – The Language of Spells
In a world losing its memory of magic, young Maggie is the one fearless exception. Raised and schooled in a hotel, Maggie finds herself lonely despite her father’s eccentric and loving care. She eagerly seeks out a friend amongst the dragons that frequent the hotel’s bar and finds the truest: Benevolentia Gaudium, more fondly known as Grisha.
Grisha has called Vienna his home for many years, but knows that things are not as they should be in the city, though he cannot remember why. With the help of Maggie’s unwavering friendship, Grisha at last remembers the truth of what happened to the dragons of Vienna. Together, he and Maggie set out on a quest to uncover the truth and find a way to save them.
Garret Weyr weaves magic into each page of The Language of Spells, using Grisha and Maggie’s story to remind readers that sometimes, it is only by remembering and facing painful things that we can then set them right.

“Magic is funny in that way: It chooses those who might not choose themselves. In fact, one of the many rules governing the world of magic is that if you pay attention, you will understand how magic has chosen you. And why.”

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Chronicle Books.

The Language of Spells is a middle grade novel about a dragon named Grisha who befriends a human child, Maggie, in Vienna. Dragons weren’t always confined to the city, and when Grisha and Maggie go digging into the past, they discover that there used to be many more dragons–and something terrible may have happened to them, something that no one in Vienna remembers.

There are good and bad things about this book, and I had difficulty deciding whether or not to rate it lower. The writing is reasonably good, if a bit stuffy at times, particularly for a middle grade novel. The characters are overwhelmingly nice, especially Grisha, which is trying in its own way. I have difficulties with characters who never have so much as a bad thought. I like Maggie though, and I enjoy characters who are thoughtful and intelligent. The world-building is also decent, and I enjoyed the dragons and the magical rules of Weyr’s world, although I could have done with fewer cats.

I think there’s some underlying message about discrimination when only the golden eyed dragons are allowed to stay in Vienna, and even those are on tight restrictions. (The events take place after both World Wars, so there may be some kind of Holocaust parallel to draw there.) The chapters are blocked off by drawings, and I’m hoping they’re only placeholders for the galley copy, because they’re extremely rough. I’d be interested to see how they look in the final version.

The first major problem with the novel is the pacing. The beginning is extremely slow, as a main character spends around a hundred pages as a teapot, and the ending is too fast (more on that later). Furthermore, nothing much happens. Grisha and Maggie are technically on a quest, but it’s mostly a quest of thinking carefully about things and then doing them, with few wrenches thrown in to make things interesting. While I like the idea of a quest that’s fought mostly with the mind, Weyr doesn’t quite pull it off. I was a little bored, and I can’t help feeling that most middle grade readers would be extremely so.

It also reinforces (perhaps unintentionally) that female protagonists are best suited to these kinds of quests. Maggie’s strength is supposedly her intellect, but she wins the day through sacrifice, not through her mind, and I’m tired of selflessness being the key feature of female characters. (She’s also described as “no ordinary girl.” I never want to hear that phrase again. What does an ordinary girl even look like?) There’s an unnecessary emphasis on gender, first that dragons are only male and female (Why? Why can’t a dragon be genderfluid? Gender neutral? Something else we’ve never heard of? This is especially troublesome in a fantasy novel where the options are limitless.), and then an irritating tendency to call Maggie a “girl child”, like it’s important to make the distinction.

The other problem is the ending, which is quick compared to the rest of the novel, not to mention sloppy. There’s some weak justification that because one of the characters doesn’t know how things turn out, then the reader doesn’t either, but… at least half the novel is told from other points of view. It was almost like Weyr either couldn’t or didn’t want to wrap things up and decided to just throw in the towel. Even so, I wasn’t fond of how things went down. It’s alright to leave adult novels on a heavy note, but there seems to be something fundamentally wrong with leaving a child’s novel in darkness, and it doesn’t even keep with the themes of the rest of the novel. Maggie’s poet father taught her to look for exceptions, so I fully expected her and Grisha to do just that. When choosing between the dramatic ending and the one that makes sense, choose sense every time.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

I was able to read this book for free thanks to NetGalley.

This was a rather cute and quick read! From the beginning, you grow very attached to both characters thanks to the detailed and tenderly presented narration. It both has the feel of a fantasy novel, but, at its heart, it's a story about friendship and sacrifice. It's an adventure not just for children, and the ending might leave you a bit teary-eyed. Overall, it was an enjoyable read that truly had a sort of 'comfy' feeling. I'd recommend it!

You might think a book about an 11-year-old girl and a hundreds-of-years-old dragon is a book for children. Oh, but this is a very special book. This is a book to be shared with everyone you love. Make no mistake. It is my pleasure to tell you, read this book! And then, at the end, read the beginning again! Make ready a treasured spot for this book to be when you are not sharing it with more people you love, and then people you like and then people you don't even know, because the greatest magic there is, is speaking to the heart and this book has that level of magic.

This is an adorable middle grade book and I might have teared up just a bit finishing it...
Grisha, a dragon with a strange and lonely past, finds himself in Vienna with the rest of the dragons who have left the forest. Maggie is a precocious, but lonely, little girl being raised by her poet father and the city of Vienna. Together, they discover both the beauties and dangers of magic and how they can use it to make the world a better place.
This book was so cute. Grisha and Maggie (and other supporting characters) were all so quiet and gentle and wholesome. They're brave in smaller ways than traditional fantasy heroes. And they understand what's important in life. I loved it. I especially love that you get to know so much about Grisha and Maggie's pasts that you can understand why they're so grateful to find each other. And that's really what makes this story so wonderful. This is a quiet book, not full of action and adventure. It's full of small discoveries and quiet friendships and teapots and talking cats.
My biggest complaint is the ending, which I'm not actually that upset about. I'm still kind of reeling. It's abrupt and bittersweet and there are so many questions left unanswered, but I think that's how it's meant to be - large sacrifices yield great rewards. And I hope that can be the legacy of our characters.
Highly recommended for young readers with an interest in urban fantasy.

I feel like I didn't give this book a fair chance, and I blame my reading habits for that. I've been on a middle-grade adventure/fantasy kick lately, and I suspect I was nearing the end of that run when I started this book. That being said, I still really enjoyed this book. The beginning is like curling up on the couch under a blanket with a cup of cocoa and sitting down to read. It's comforting and inviting. It drew me in at first. The storytelling/lore was really well done, and in other circumstances, would have sucked me in completely. But, again, it's my fault it didn't grab me as much as I wanted to. I'd consumed too much middle grade adventure/fantasy in a short period of time. BUT! BUT BUT BUT!!!!!!!!!! I still really enjoyed this book. In fact, I'm certain I'm going to buy this book when it hits shelves in June. I'm definitely going to revisit this book once I've had a little bit of a break, and I'm 100% confident it will captivate me and give me everything I wanted the first time around.

Pick up this book. You won't regret it. I know I'll be rereading it soon.

I really enjoyed this middle grade book! I loved the inventive combination of dragons into the real world historical details and thought it was incredibly compelling and clever.

The premise of this book is absolutely fascinating and I look forward to reading it. Unfortunately, I was not able to access the protected file and therefore cannot give it a review. Looking forward to reading it when I'm able!

Title: The Language of Spells
Author: Garret Weyr
Illustrator: Katie Harnett
Pub Date: June 26, 2018
Cover: ★★★☆☆

Grisha is a dragon in a world that's forgotten how to see him. Maggie is a unusual child who thinks she's perfectly ordinary. They're an unlikely duo—but magic, like friendship, is funny. Sometimes it chooses those who might not look so likely. And magic has chosen Grisha and Maggie to solve the darkest mystery in Vienna. Decades ago, when World War II broke out, someone decided that there were too many dragons for all of them to be free. As they investigate, Grisha and Maggie ask the question everyone's forgotten: Where have the missing dragons gone? And is there a way to save them? At once richly magical and tragically historical, The Language of Spells is a novel full of adventure about remembering old stories, forging new ones, and the transformative power of friendship.

Definitely an adorable cozy read. Part of my love for it comes from mature conflicts and real life social issues, which makes it fun for everyone and not just for kids. And let's face it: the best kids lit is fun for parents too.
The Language of Spells was perfectly fantastical. The setting is our history, from early 20th century to WWII. The setting comes right off the page playing off your knowledge of the eras while painting something truly unique.

And the magic system, important to all fantasies far and wide, was wonderfully complex where it could have been over simplified. 

Maggie and Grisha's friendship is so adorable. The dragons represent all marginalized groups and not just one in particular (which I was worried about given the setting in WWII). Weyr doesn't dumb down history for children, he tells a new story in a familiar setting.

The writing, overall, is a little bland but the story is well worth the read.

The Language Of Spells by Garret Weyr is a quiet but lovely fantasy book due out in the spring geared towards Middle Grades readers aged ten and up. Its protagonists are an eleven year old girl, and a 200 year old dragon. Their quest—to find a group of enchanted dragons and awaken them from their slumber. I will let the words of the author speak for themselves: “Sometimes, even today, magic still happens. Sadly it no longer comes from cauldrons or fairy godmothers with wands....Instead, it is tucked into shadows and corners, visible only if you look. But you might have found it, some years ago, on a cold, rainy night at a famous hotel bar in the center of an old city in Europe. Anyone who cared to pay attention that night would have seen magic coming out of its deep slumber at the exact moment when an old dragon and a young girl met for the first time.” I quite enjoyed this story, and many Middle Grades readers will also—especially those who already love to read. As a librarian with a decades long career, I can vouch that many fiction and nonfiction books written for this age group are better written than those written for the adult market, and quite enjoyable reads for those older than the intended audience. That was the case for this book. It pairs fantasy with real life history—the dragons disappear during the World War II era—and features quiet ordinary characters transcending that quietness to make a difference in their world. It is a solid addition to the fantasy genre. Thank you Chronicle Books and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader’s Copy and for allowing me to review this book.

The Language of Spells is a quiet book, rather like the human protagonist, a girl raised by her poet-father and whose artist-mother died before she could establish memories of her. The magic side of the book is represented by Grisha, the dragon who was enchanted into a teapot and trapped for many decades until his final owner, who could sense his presence, made the sacrifice that freed him. The two protagonists encounter each other in modern-day Vienna and embark on a quest that will large hearts and bravery. The story may be too contemplative for many children but sure to enchant others.

This book is beautiful and amazing and sweet and <i>almost</i> made me produce tears. Not quite, but almost. It's whimsical and serious at the same time, and the friendship between Grisha and Maggie is a living and lovely thing. The language and style is simple and vivid, really it's exactly as charming and great as the cover art.<br>
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<i>I give you my first and only friend.</i> I was THIS CLOSE to tears.

I enjoyed The Language of Spells very much. The storyline was fascinating, but the narration style is the true magic of this book. Occasionally, the narrator addresses the reader directly; a majority of the text is a narration, but it is punctuated throughout by dialogue. Taking place in a seemingly parallel history to earth, the characters love in a world with dragons who intermingle with people though they are often discriminated against. Readers who love Newt Scamander's character with adore the characters of this novel. The themes revolve around acceptance of self and seeing past the obvious or surface level.

Throughout the novel, there are adorable drawings that seem, at first, to be haphazardly created, but are actually quite charming and well done.