As others mentioned, this book is a bit slow to start out in, but the world is lush and the characters are fun to get to know. It's a good atmospheric middle grade for any little witchlings you may know.

This book was a fun dark fantasy that fans of Eva Ibbotson's darker works like Dial a Ghost and magical stories like Howl's Moving Castle will love.

As far as fantasy novels go, this is pretty standard fare. Zita Brydgeborn an orphan and a maid, learns at age 12 she's actually the long lost daughter of a powerful family. She's whisked off to the castle to learn what fate befell her powerful, witchy family.

I struggled to get into this at first, but the author's ability to vividly describe the world in which Zita and the other Brydgeborns live eventually won me over. The plot drug at some places, and the ending was a little messy for me, but ultimately it was a rather enjoyable way to pass an afternoon.

3.5 stars

Middle graders are going to enjoy this tale. It starts rather slowly, but its well written, I think, and has lots of magic in it that is sure to be a plus In addition to a girl who discovers she's a witch- kind of like Harry Potter discovers he's a wizard! I think it will appeal to kids imaginations very well. Fun read.

Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC

2.5 stars

There's nothing seriously wrong with this book. It just didn't click with me. I don't typically like slow stories and this was so slow. I felt like very little was happening and what was happening felt very easy and convenient. I know this is a story meant for young readers, but I think kids should have books where the main character has some setbacks.

There was a lack of world building as well. I never felt like I understood the setting or magic system.

This is a fine middle grade fantasy that's a little bit spooky.

This was a great read to read around Halloween. A great story about how a girl discovers that she actually is a witch. This book was different than any other witch book I've read before.

This magical book took me through a wild journey. I certainly didn't expect many of the things that happened and I thought the idea of the story was genius. It was really interesting and I loved reading it. perfect for readers ages 9-12.

Cinders and Sparrows is a fun middle grade adventure with witches and mysteries. Twelve year old Zita is an orphan and housemaid when she receives a letter in the most peculiar way, by scarecrow. The letter states she is now the sole heir to the Blackbird Castle. When Zita arrives at the castle nothing is as it seems.

I enjoyed this story, I thought I had it figured out from the beginning and I mostly did but I still enjoyed the adventure. The world of the castle and the role witches take in the book is different than most tales of witches. Zita grew through the story but I think her most endearing character traits were her optimism and loyalty, which I loved.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in return for a honest review. These thoughts, miss spellings, and grammar errors are all my own.

This was a great read for Halloween time as it was a bit creepy and set the mood for me. A moving story about an orphan discovering who she really is. While some of the characters were a bit obvious who they were, there were still some surprises by the end of the book. Thank you for the ARC NetGalley!

Orphans are pretty standard in middle grade fantasy. Especially the orphan who is lifted out a life of hard work to discover they have inhereted a magical legacy. In that aspect, this book is entirely what you would expect. And of course, Zita discovers that her family history is covering up some secrets. Finding her magical strengths leads her to the truth about what happened to her parents. There are a few surprises in the final chapters that I won't get into here (no spoilers) but overall this book treads familiar ground. A shame since ti's set in a world and magical worlds that held a lot of promise.

Most people don’t know Zita’s real name, since she’d been called Ingabeth at the orphanage where she was left as a toddler. So when a bizarre scarecrow shows up and delivers her a letter addressed to “Miss Zita Brydgeborn”, telling her that she is the long-lost heir to Blackbird Castle and asking her to come to the castle at her “earliest convenience”, her skepticism is somewhat diminished by the use of her real name. Besides, Zita doesn’t have much to lose. Her life as a twelve-year old orphaned maid is nothing very exciting, and she desperately wants to uncover her past and reunite with her family.

But when she arrives at Blackbird Castle, Zita discovers that her entire family has recently been murdered. The lady who has temporarily been put in charge of the castle, Mrs. Cantanker, is not very welcoming and doesn’t seem to believe that Zita is really a Brydgeborn. It turns out that Zita comes from a powerful family of witches. She must first prove her identity by demonstrating abilities that she never knew she had and then take lessons in witchcraft from Mrs. Cantanker. Meanwhile, Zita learns more about her family and about magic by exploring the castle. Two young servants, Bram and Minnifer, are eager to help her, although they are compelled to obey Mrs. Cantanker first and foremost. Zita finds spellbooks that contain information not included in her lessons and she encounters ghosts who tell her much more about her family history than Mrs. Cantanker does. In particular, she has some indirect communication with the ghost of Greta, who was her adopted sister.

What follows is an atmospheric, vaguely spooky fantasy full of twists and turns and revelations. Many characters are not who they claim to be, and everyone has secret plans and motives. This story has many of the same tropes and appeal factors as the Harry Potter books, but with more of an old-fashioned writing style, a smaller cast of characters, and a setting that’s farther removed from the “normal” real world. But like Harry Potter, it features an orphaned protagonist who is initially living a mundane, unhappy life until suddenly discovering that he/she is from a powerful magical family. Cinders and Sparrows has elements of the “chosen one” trope that is so fundamental to the Harry Potter story, and it uses the same “magic education” plotline that made the Harry Potter books so popular. There’s even a noticeable similarity in the portrayals of Harry Potter’s mother and Zita Brydgeborn’s mother and in the resulting messages about familial love. But despite all these similarities, the differences in characterization, setting, writing style, and overall tone actually make this book a better pick for readers who like scary stories, surprise endings, and protagonists who outshine the supporting characters.

The opening note from the author acknowledges the influence of the 1911 children’s novel The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, adding that Cinders and Sparrows is basically a Gothic novel version of The Secret Garden. I think that’s a pretty apt description. I also felt like this book reminded me quite a bit of Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge, a pretty obscure and underrated book from 1964, which I remember much more for its tone and writing style than for its plot.

While I initially felt that Zita’s personality seemed a little too strong-willed and assertive to be believable for a downtrodden orphan, I quickly found that the plot and atmospheric setting greatly outweighed that minor characterization quibble. So my overall opinion is that this is a great book that deserves far more online buzz than I’ve seen it getting so far. It’s best suited for intelligent middle-grade readers who already have a penchant for the genre. In particular, recommend it to kids who tend to prefer classic children’s fiction to contemporary realistic fiction.

Cinders & Sparrows by Stefan Bachmann; HarperCollins Children's Books, 368 pages ($16.99) Ages 9 to 14.

...

Stefan Bachmann, author of acclaimed fantasy "The Peculiar," offers a wondrous enchantment in this beautifully written, suspenseful tale of a 12-year-old girl reclaiming her birthright as a witch.

Zita Brydgeborn, brought to an orphanage at the age of two, is working as a maid for ancient Mrs. Boliver when a scarecrow delivers a letter demanding her presence at faroff Blackbird Castle. (The envelope is "thick papered and creamy, stamped with a knobble of black wax in the shape of a raven.") There she discovers she is heir to the castle, her family is sitting frozen dead (done in by a petrification spell known as "ephinadym mulsion") in the dining room, and the strange woman presiding over the castle, Ysabeau Cantanker, doubts her pedigree as lone survivor of the last of the reigning witch families.

Zita is a feisty heroine, loyal to her friends, as she applies herself to learning spells and divining what evildoing is afoot. Here she discovers the castle library: "Here there were enormous grimoires bound in oxblood and verdigris-colored leather, books with tasseled placeholders, locked with coiling salamanders. There were rows of encyclopediae stamped with gold. There were rather dirty, unassuming volumes no larger than chapbooks that look as if they had traveled through fire and mud."

Bachmann is a mastery of fantasy, offering wondrous descriptions of the castle with its mysterious staircases, its mischievous creatures called Triggles, its hideous villains.

Zita receives a mysterious letter telling her that she is not an orphan; instead, she is a Brydgeborn of Blackbird Castle. When she arrives at the castle, she learns that she is the heir to a fortune, castle, and witchcraft. As she learns to use her witchcraft to see and help ghosts leave the land of the living, she realizes that the people in the castle are not who they say they are. This is a spooky, atmospheric book that is perfect for fall. It includes ghosts, crows, magic, and a creepy castle. While Zita was often very brave, she was vulnerable and showed that it was ok to be both scared and brave.

Absolutely wonderful, this intriguing mystery filled with secrets, magic, and a determined heroine --it's the best sort of adventure! An orphan girl named Zita inherits a large family home which she learns descended from a cursed witch family. Since everyone in her family is dead, she must outmaneuver her wicked guardian's ill-will and poor magical instruction to find out the truth about her family. Because maybe her family isn't dead...and maybe she can save her mother and siblings.

Cinders and Sparrows drew me on the first page and kept my attention until the end. Zita is an excellent heroine for young readers - she's not perfect and she struggles through much of the book, but she doesn't give up. The supporting characters are fantastic and the villains just evil enough without being over the top. I also really liked the message that sometimes you might feel like giving in to the darkness of life, but there are people who love you and make fighting for your life worth it. Some of the twists were predictable, but others come as a surprise (just as they do for Zita).

Some aspects of the story may be a little scary for younger readers (demons, ghosts, things in the woods that will drag you into the underworld), so I would be cautious when recommending it. That being said, I do believe this is a good book for school and classroom libraries.

*Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review. *

Ingebeth, an orphan and a housemaid, never really had any past or future, until the day a scarecrow delivered a letter to her. Did she know that her real name was Zita Brydgeborn, she was a witch, and her mother had been looking for her since she was kidnapped ten years before? Dreaming of a family she never got to know, and nagged by vague memories of being taken as a toddler, Zita made the long trek to her new home - a huge, haunted place inhabited by one grouchy older woman, two servant children, and many, many ghosts. Her family had been killed by a spell, and if anything was going to be done, it was up to her as the last witch of her name. Of course, in a witch’s house, not everything is as it seems.

I love this book so much! I couldn’t put it down and read the whole thing in a day, cheering on Zita and trying to keep one step ahead of the secrets (impossible). I hope Zita has more adventures in the future.

This book will appeal to kids that like spooky stories. The magic is interesting and I liked the bit of mystery as Zita tries to find out who murdered the rest of her family. I must admit I found Zita's character kind of strange. Sometimes she seemed like a shy little girl. Other times she's snappy and assertive..

Twelve year old Zita, an orphan and maid gets an unexpected surprise one day. A letter delivered by a crow telling her that she has a family she never knew and is now the sole heir and apparently she's a witch to boot. She knows nothing of witchcraft or her family and is thrown into this world where she is taught magic by Mrs. Cantanker, a woman who says she was Zita's mother's friend and will judge whether or not Zita is part of this family and fit to be it's heir.
This is an interesting read and very enjoyable. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that enjoys books like this.

"A suspenseful tale of witches, family, and magic from internationally bestselling author Stefan Bachmann. When a twelve-year-old orphan unexpectedly becomes the mistress of a seemingly abandoned castle, she is thrust into a mysterious plot involving murderous spells, false identity, and a magical battle of wills between the living and the dead. Readers of Kate Milford's Greenglass House, Victoria Schwab's City of Ghosts, and Diana Wynne Jones will be riveted.

Twelve-year-old Zita, an orphan and a housemaid, has resigned herself to a life of drudgery when a strange letter arrives, naming her the only living heir to the Brydgeborn fortune. Now the mistress of the castle, Zita soon realizes foul play led to the death of her family. And as she is guided through lessons in the art of witchcraft by the somewhat mysterious Mrs. Cantanker, Zita begins to wonder who is friend and who is foe.

Unforgettable and utterly enchanting, this stand-alone tale about family, belonging, and friendship will bewitch readers of Tahereh Mafi’s Whichwood, Katherine Arden’s Small Spaces, and Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle. Cinders and Sparrows is a magical page-turner by the author of The Peculiar, the acclaimed international bestseller."

Even without that stellar blurb, you get your cover designed by the Balbusso sisters, you are going to get your book bought by me.

Growing up in an orphanage and living life on her own, Zyta Brydgeborn is summoned back to her childhood "home" to find out about her witch heritage and rejoin her family and save the castle.

This middle grade fiction is about bravery, family, and self discovery. The thing I enjoyed most from this book was the delightful cast of characters and it quite reminded me a bit of the ensemble of characters in Cinderella. A good balance of evil and helpful.

I personally love Halloween and this gave me all the Fall/Halloween vibes without being overly spooky or scary. A perfect read for Fall. The book had a good pace until the end in which I felt the ending was rushed and I wanted more of a resolution with Zita and her family. I wanted a bit more.

This book is perfect for upper elementary and middle school students especially girls who are having trouble finding their identities in life.