Howl’s Moving Castle (World of Howl Series Book 1)
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Published April 1986
Page Count: 448
“Yes, you are nosy. You're a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. Control yourself. You're victimizing us all.”
Sophie is the eldest of three daughters and been told her entire life that she is destined to live an uninteresting and miserable life. This seems to be the case when she gets stuck running her stepmother’s hat shop. After unknowingly attracting the unwanted attention of the Witch of the Waste her life is changed forever. The Witch of the Waste curses Sophie forcing her to embark on an adventure that brings her into working for the infamous wizard Howl. Through cleaning Howl’s moving castle, making a deal with a fire demon, and at times babysitting Howl (he is an adult, but does throw tantrums sometimes) Sophie discovers things about herself, and Howl, that can’t be seen at first glance.
Reading Audience: “She read a great deal, and very soon realized how little chance she had of an interesting future.”
Amazon customers seem to thing ages nine to ten can read this one. If I child has difficulty reading maybe the ages would be a bit higher. This book would be perfect to read aloud to all ages that can sit still and listen. If read aloud the reader could also edit any words they wanted to.
Stuff to be aware of: “Sophie’s experience told her that tantrums are seldom about the thing they appear to be about.”
Language - The word “damnation” is used once and terms like “by the gods” and “good lord” are used about three times. There is some comparison language about how some girls are prettier than others and some are plainer than others.
Scariness - One character is said to, “take pretty girls and eat their hearts and steal their souls.” This is mentioned multiple times, but never happens. There are monsters in fight scenes that “claw their way up” from the earth. They are not really described in depth and are really a minor part of the story. The author leaves it to your imagination to really get an idea of what they look like. There are also some orange goo monsters that sometimes appear to be human in form. These two have a very minor bearing on the story and are only in one chapter.
Violence - There are some characters that die or are thought to have died.
Drinking - Brandy and beer are mentioned a couple of times. One character gets drunk and eventually admits that he is. A hangover is also mentioned.
Overall:
I enjoyed the Studio Ghibli movie Howl’s Moving Castle, so when I discovered that it was based on a book trilogy I got very excited. This is a book you can enjoy whether or not you have seen the movie or not. I would say about 60% of the book can be seen in the plot and various scenes in the movies, but the movie changes some characters a bit and leaves a few of the book’s character’s completely out. The overall story from the book mostly stays intact, but the way the characters arrive at the various plot points changes a bit. The ending of the book is also different than the movie, but I wonder if the movie takes some parts from the other two books in this series. I will have to read the other two books and find out.
This book is officially on my favorites list now. My wife and I listening to this one on audible and we both agreed it is one you want to read (listen to) again in order to catch hints about plot twists and ideas/characters that connect to other ideas/characters. There are so many amazing things going on in this story and it is so satisfying to see the end results. Plot twists, secrets being revealed, and watching the characters interact with each other make this such a great story.
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