Elfenkinderen

Charmed #29

by Micol Ostow

Slaap, kindje, slaap, bij de elfen thuis,
Zij veinsden goede zorgen, maar waren niet pluist.
Wie kan je redden? Ze komen aanstonds,
Slaap, kindje, slaap, blijf nu bij ons.

Piper probeert zoals gewoonlijk een superheks te zijn en het allemaal tegelijk te doen: P3 runnen, voor haar pasgeboren zoon Wyatt zorgen en natuurlijk onschuldigen redden. Haar eerste werkweek valt behoorlijk tegen: dat ze Wyatt op het kinderdagverblijf moet achterlaten, geeft Piper het idee dat ze haar zoon in de steek laat. Gelukkig werkt Paige daar als uitzendkracht en lijkt Wyatt het er prima naar zijn zin te hebben.
Of toch niet? Het valt Piper op dat Wyatt vreemd doet, hij eet en slaapt niet meer volgens zijn normale ritme. Phoebe denkt dat de baby groeistuipjes heeft, maar Piper is daar niet van overtuigd. Enkele andere baby's op het kinderdagverblijf vertonen hetzelfde gedrag en sommige ouders besluiten hun kinderen thuis te houden. Als een kleuter aan Paige vraagt: ''Hebben ze ze meegenomen omdat ze de verkeerde baby's zijn?'' ontdekken de zusjes dat er in heel San Francisco kinderen omgewisseld worden. Meteen komen de Magische Machten in actie, want Wyatt is niet alleen het meest magische wezen ter wereld, maar hij is ook nog eens een Halliwell... En daar moet iedereen van afblijven!

Genres: Fantasy, Witches, Tv, Witchcraft, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 22, 2005

About the author

Micol Ostow has been writing professionally since 2004, and in that time has written and/or ghostwritten over 40 published works for young readers. She started her reign of terror with Egmont with her novel FAMILY, which Elizabeth Burns named a favorite of 2012 on her School Library Journal-syndicated blog, A Chair, a Fireplace, a Tea Cozy. Micol's graphic novel, SO PUNK ROCK (and Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother), was named a 2009 Booklist Top Ten Arts Books for Youth Selection, a Booklist Top Ten Religion Books for Youth Selection, and a Sydney Taylor Notable Book for Teens. She received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Her young adult horror novel, AMITY, will release from Egmont in August 2014, and her first chapter book series, LOUISE TRAPEZE, will debut in Spring 2015 from Random House.

She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, alongside her Emmy Award-winning husband, their daughter, and a finicky French bulldog. Visit her at www.micolostow.com.

Reviews

[Aruba · Rating 3 out of 5]

J’ai bien aimé ce tome, on retrouve bien la personnalité des 3 sœurs, c’est chouette d’avoir Wyatt au cœur de l’histoire.

Pas mal d’erreur de traduction, qui m’ont un peu dérangée et qui ont gêné la compréhension sur certains passages.

[Rianne Heartfilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept to bring in the changeling myth that I have seen in a lot of fantasy stories. Apart from Piper her mother instinct, I liked the idea of a child giving them information. It reminded me of the Fairy and Troll episode in the series.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well...finally moved into season six with this one.

There is mention of Phoebe's then boyfriend, Jason Dean, who took over ownership of The Bay Mirror and was also her boss Elise's boss. He moved to Hong Kong during that season.

Kind of weird because Piper and Leo are still together but it really isn't canon technically.

Not a very intricate plot.

Prologue has us meet a village of elves and a bounty hunter working for a demon comes to take all of their babies to form a magical army. The elfin nanny makes a deal to switch their babies out for human babies that can be given magic or even witch babies.

Piper is ready to go back to work full-time at managing P3 but also wanting to be super mom to Wyatt when not working or being a Charmed One against evil. Paige is working a new temp job at a day care and says she will be more than happy to take Wyatt there.

Leo thinks Piper is trying to take on too much and Phoebe is knee deep in women asking for advice about having babies, going back to work after having babies and can't really give her thoughts. Too busy trying to answer situations of other women.

A couple of days go and Piper notices that Wyatt is much more fussy and cranky than normal, not eating or sleeping like he normally does and cries for hours. Paige sees more and more parents taking their kids out of the day care, noting the same changes in their own babies that only toddlers are left.

A nurse named Katie who was working there has also quit without notice.

The one person who noticed some thing is a four year old girl named Natalie when she asks Paige:

"Did they take them because they're the wrong babies?"

Paige knows not to question a child because they can see things that grown-ups can't with their innocence like trolls and fairies. Paige also knows that means that the babies are changelings if they can be switched.

This of course isn't good when one of the children exchanged is the very powerful son of a Charmed One with an explosive temper...

Wyatt, of course, is safe in the end and Piper decides to be stay at home mom and leave P3 in the hands of capable staff while she is still the owner. All of the other babies get back to their parents, the demon and the bounty hunter are vanquished and Phoebe decides to have her own space on the paper's website to be a group for moms to give advice to one another.

Very cut and dry really. The elves or just this one particular village get their powers bound by The Charmed Ones from doing any magic towards humans and witches. They can still turn each other into bunny rabbits or make flowers grow or whatever...

Changeling Places is just...meh.

[Kostas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like an unaired episode of the series, it was so fun to read.

The best part of the book is the character's voices and dialogues. They are true to themselves as depicted on TV and they speak as you'd expect them to. Unlike the previous Charmed novel I read, Whispers from the Past, here I didn't feel that anything was off, as far as the characters' dynamic and personality is concerned.

What felt off were:
- the constant use of adverbs - please, for the love of God, stop it, not every single verb needs an explanatory word next to it. This is not even an exaggeration, I believe not even one verb in the Prologue is left by itself
- the Prologue itself. Why. Why would you spoil the first two thirds of the book for us. This is a literary device used by the show too - show the viewers what's going on before the witches realise it - and it got on my nerves even then
- the third part of the book. The pacing and plotline felt off

These novels are definitely not literary masterpieces, but they're great quick reads for fans of the show that feel nostalgic, and want to see their favorites in new adventures.

---
Charmed novels I've read so far:
Whispers from the Past (2000)
Changeling Places (2005)

[Leanne Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the storyline and concept in this. Interesting to bring in changelings and reminded me of the fairy episode where only children could see them. Liked the personal side of Piper struggling to balance going back to work with being a mom. Great story overall

[Ingeborg Hoogenboom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Een van de mindere charmeds.
Ik had het gevoel alsof er een langspeelplaat vastliep.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one was 40-50 pages shorter than the others and... yeah, you can tell. I'm also not really happy with how things played out with the elves. Half baked and seriously lacking.

[Sophia Aouichaoui · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Halliwell special!
Touching upon Motherhood and not necessarily having to be a parent to be a Mum/Dad...a protective Aunt can be just as strong!!

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this 2005 book based on the TV series "Charmed," Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, with their half-sister, Paige Matthews, are three incredibly powerful witches who live together in the family house in San Francisco. Piper is married to Leo, a Whitelighter (a guardian angel for witches and other upstanding folk). She runs a nightclub called P3. They have a son, Wyatt, who is a babe in arms. Phoebe is actively involved in her "Ask Phoebe" column at the fictional Bay Mirror newspaper, and is dating her boss, Jason, who mercifully spends a lot of time in Hong Kong. Paige is working a temp job at a day care center.

Piper has decided to return to work following Wyatt's birth. She feels guilt, but since Leo is on call 24 hours a day, she relents to Paige's suggestion of letting her take him to the day care where she works. Wyatt won't be the only infant, Paige assures her. There's a trained R.N. Besides, he'll be with family! Would Paige suggest anything that would in any way be bad for Wyatt?

When she gets to the club, she finds chaos. Invoices haven't been paid, supplies haven't been maintained, and somehow no one bothered to book a band for Saturday night. She feels unfocused and a bit overwhelmed. But rather than taking charge—this is her business, after all—she decides to stay home a while longer after the current crises have been averted. This is against the advice Leo offers of “easing” in, and common sense of going in and managing stuff when the club is closed and maybe leaving the baby at home with her sisters at night to keep the help from dipping into the till too often. It's not even necessary to the plot. So why does author Ostow have her do it? Got me.

Unfortunately for all involved, the day care center where Paige works just happens to be the place where Caitlyn, a nanny to a colony of elves living in a remote area of the Pacific Northwest, has decided to swap human babies with elf babies. If there were any doubt about that, the reader is introduced to the R.N at the day care center, diminutive Katie Whitesmith. But Caitlyn is really making the best of a bad deal. Mya, a bounty hunter for some unnamed underworld power, has given her three days to furnish infants for an army that underworld power wants to raise. She's talked the bounty hunter into believing that humans—taller, stronger than elves—would be better for the job.

Piper notices Wyatt behaving oddly. Usually he doesn't fuss much, now he becomes a human air raid siren in every store she takes him. She doesn't seem to be able to comfort him. He's not sleeping through the night. The same day that Katie quits the day care center without notice, parents start calling, saying their children are also behaving oddly. They have the feeling it may involve the center, and withdraw their children, much to the puzzlement and dismay of Dori, Paige's boss, who owns it.

In the meantime, the sisters debate such heady issues as whether infants have personalities or not. Phoebe agonizes over her advice column in such a way that I had to wonder if she is the right person for the job after all.

The deception is uncovered, demon butt is duly kicked, and the elves are punished for their part in the affair. This struck me as a bit unusual since supernatural “good” creatures in the franchise might be blown off or dismissed, but never punished. The elves, however, seem to be quite unrepentant with respect to the child swapping, so maybe they deserve what they get—which is permanent.

This is one of the shortest of the “Charmed” books I've come across, but at the same time it seemed one of the most long-winded. The actions of so many of the characters just didn't make sense. Only Paige seemed to be contemplating more than her own belly button. So while this one wasn't awful, I didn't enjoy it and can't recommend it.

[Sandeep Ellawala · Rating 1 out of 5]

The fact that it took me nearly 5 days to finish such a small book is a testimony to the fact that I have to squeeze in every little bit of time of the day I have while juggling with a very tight schedule. Having to spend that very precious and little time on a book like this is purely unacceptable. Do not get me wrong, I love the adventures of the Charmed three witches. Well, at least I used to love them when their stories were broadcast weekly on public television. The book just did not do it for me.

The story was pretty straight forward and there was no deep and thickening plot line. The writing style was direct and easy to follow. The story did not jump here and there too often for it to be hard to keep track of. However, in the simplicity itself I found a sense of insult to the intellect, having to read such shallow, cliched, and downright boring story. The description on the back of the story simply told what is there to be found in the whole book. There was nothing new I already did not know by reading that paragraph on the back cover.

The main attraction of the book to me was the ample bosom and deep cleavage of Paige Mathews (i.e. one of the three sisters played by Rose McGowan) depicted on the cover page. The whole time I was reading it, and even after I was done, I simply could not shake of thee feeling that this was a book that should not have been written. Or at least it was a book I should not have read, for it was a total waste of my time.

Having said that, I see that at the point of writing this book has an overall Goodreads rating of 3.87/5 which is impressive. So I am lead to believe that maybe this was written for a different demography of readers (i.e. teenagers perhaps). However, in my scale I would not recommend anyone to read this book. But if you still insist on reading it, well good! You deserve this for not listening to me! All jokes aside, to me this was not a book worth spending little time I have for reading.

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all the other Charmed novels, a great book, and just as good as the actual show.

[Natascha · Rating 2 out of 5]

The short description on the back cover was promising that this story would be scary and interesting (Changeling babies? What could be more scary?), though, in the end, it didn't impress me much.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

good story it was very sad though i felt sorry for them

[The Third Place A Teen Library]

F CHA
Fantasy

[♡ Jeri's Book Attic ♡ Jeri the Romance Bibiliophile ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]