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The Secret Of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson
Which Witch?Arriman the Awful, the Wizard of the North, needs a wife, and, naturally, the only woman a wizard can marry is a witch. But which witch will Arriman choose? Warty, wicked, or just plain rude-witches galore enter his spell-casting competition. Poor Belladonna doesn't have a chance. Her spells conjure up pink begonias or ice-cream sundaes, not a single viper or toad. But with the help of a mysterious orphan and a worm named Rover, Belladonna just might do something really sinister.The Secret of Platform 13A forgotten door on an abandoned railway platform is the entrance to a magical kingdom--an island where humans live happily with feys, mermaids, ogres, and other wonderful creatures. Carefully hidden from the world, the Island is only accessible when the door opens for nine days every nine years. A lot can go wrong in nine days. When the beastly Mrs. Trottle kidnaps the prince of the Island, it's up to a strange band of rescuers to save him. But can an ogre, a hag, a wizard, and a fey really troop around London unnoticed?
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First published January 1, 1992
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About the author
Eva Ibbotson
79 books2,360 followersEva Ibbotson (Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner) was a novelist specializing in romance and children's fantasy.
She was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1925. When Hitler appeared, her family moved to England. She attended Bedford College, graduating in 1945; Cambridge University from 1946-47; and the University of Durham, graduating with a diploma in education in 1965. Eva had intended to be a physiologist but was put off by animal testing. Instead, she married and raised a family, returning to school to become a teacher in the 1960s. They have three sons and a daughter.
Eva began writing with the television drama “Linda Came Today” in 1965. Ten years later, she published her first novel, “The Great Ghost Rescue”. Eva has written numerous books including “The Secret Of Platform 13”, “Journey To The River Sea”, “Which Witch?”, “Island Of The Aunts”, and “Dial-A-Ghost”. She won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for “Journey To The River Sea” and has been a runner up for many of major awards for British children's literature.
Her books are imaginative and humorous and most of them feature magical creatures and places, despite that she disliked thinking about them. She created the characters because she wanted to decrease her readers' fear of such things.
Some of the books, particularly “Journey To The River Sea”, reflect Eva's love of nature. Eva wrote this book in honour of her husband (who had died before), a naturalist. The book had been in her head for years.
Eva said she dislikes "financial greed and a lust for power" and often creates antagonists in her books who have these characteristics. Some have been struck by the similarity of “Platform 9 3/4” in J.K. Rowling's books to Eva's “The Secret Of Platform 13”, which came out three years before the first Harry Potter book.
Her love of Austria is evident in works such as “The Star Of Kazan” and “A Song For Summer”. These books, set in the Austrian countryside, display the author's love for all things natural.
She was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1925. When Hitler appeared, her family moved to England. She attended Bedford College, graduating in 1945; Cambridge University from 1946-47; and the University of Durham, graduating with a diploma in education in 1965. Eva had intended to be a physiologist but was put off by animal testing. Instead, she married and raised a family, returning to school to become a teacher in the 1960s. They have three sons and a daughter.
Eva began writing with the television drama “Linda Came Today” in 1965. Ten years later, she published her first novel, “The Great Ghost Rescue”. Eva has written numerous books including “The Secret Of Platform 13”, “Journey To The River Sea”, “Which Witch?”, “Island Of The Aunts”, and “Dial-A-Ghost”. She won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for “Journey To The River Sea” and has been a runner up for many of major awards for British children's literature.
Her books are imaginative and humorous and most of them feature magical creatures and places, despite that she disliked thinking about them. She created the characters because she wanted to decrease her readers' fear of such things.
Some of the books, particularly “Journey To The River Sea”, reflect Eva's love of nature. Eva wrote this book in honour of her husband (who had died before), a naturalist. The book had been in her head for years.
Eva said she dislikes "financial greed and a lust for power" and often creates antagonists in her books who have these characteristics. Some have been struck by the similarity of “Platform 9 3/4” in J.K. Rowling's books to Eva's “The Secret Of Platform 13”, which came out three years before the first Harry Potter book.
Her love of Austria is evident in works such as “The Star Of Kazan” and “A Song For Summer”. These books, set in the Austrian countryside, display the author's love for all things natural.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
January 16, 2021
Ohmygoodness! Seeing the cover of this books takes me back to when I was 9 or 10 years old and first read this book. I loved stories about magic since I was a little girl and I read this book before Harry Potter came out. I read a few reviews where people drew similarities between "The secret of Platform 13" and "Platform 9 and 3/4" in Harry Potter. I need to re-read these books to draw any such comparison. All I can say is this: seeing this cover brought happy tears to my eyes and I feel I need this book in my library to re-read it again. Such happy and fond memories.
November 28, 2007
As I said in my last review I really liked this book then the other book I was talking of because this one is more magical and exiting, its well written in a style that I understand and that I like. It isn’t like those books that I had read that have weird sayings and paragraphs; it’s all a well structured book in the sense of grammar and understanding. What I learned from this book is to never give up with your dreams no matter what the circumstances are. In the whole story Belladonna (protagonist) enters to a black magic contest two marry a very powerful wizard, but the big problem is that she is a white witch and she can create black magic spells, she also need to face a really black, evil, and powerful witch that intents to kill the wizard to stay with his fortune. But at the end of the story she wins the contest and lives happily ever after. My final opinion is that this was one of the bets books Eva Ibbotson had ever written till now.
December 29, 2008
Arriman the Awful, the Wizard of the North, has waited and waited for a replacement but no one has arrived. He decides the best way to pass on his dark magic is to marry. But Who? He decides to hold a competition. Whoever performs the darkest magic, wins.
There are sea witches and country witches, witch twins and even an enchantress shows up at the last minute. But Belladonna, a white witch has unfortunately fallen in love with Arriman. She is determined to win but how does she start creating vipers instead of bunnies. Terence, an orphan that Belladonna rescues and his pet worm, Rover might just be the help she needs.
The contest is fun and the end has a couple of really nice twists. A fun and imaginative book!!
There are sea witches and country witches, witch twins and even an enchantress shows up at the last minute. But Belladonna, a white witch has unfortunately fallen in love with Arriman. She is determined to win but how does she start creating vipers instead of bunnies. Terence, an orphan that Belladonna rescues and his pet worm, Rover might just be the help she needs.
The contest is fun and the end has a couple of really nice twists. A fun and imaginative book!!
June 11, 2008
This was a very cute and clever book and great to read with kids.It kept my 6 year old's attention for at least 30 pages when my throat dried out.
December 3, 2008
it was a cute book. about a man trying to find a wife from a group of witches. funny when things go wrong. maybe a fun book for just a past time.
December 4, 2008
I read this book in fourth grade and I've always liked it. It's very cute and a pretty quick read.
April 2, 2009
funny, and charming...very good!
March 13, 2025
This book is about a wizard who needs to be married. The reason he needs to be married is because he is aging and he needs someone to be able to continue the wizardry. The wizard's secretary decided to host a competition to choose who Arriman (the wizard) will wed. In the competition, whichever witch does the blackest magic will marry Arriman. After multiple days of waiting and preparing, the day had arrived. Just a day before the competition something unxpected happened to one of the competitors. The competitors name is Belladonna, she found a child at an adoption centre who had an earthworm which helped Belladonna do her magic. ( Belladonna is a white witch and cannot do black magic without a pet/familiar). In the competition Belladonna ended up winning by doing the blackest magic possible, necromancy (bring people back from the dead). Near the end of the book there was a big plot twist. The twist was that the person who performed the necromancy was not Beladonna but the child (Terrence). In the end Belladonna and Arriman got married and Terrence became the new wizard of Darkington hall.
My favourite character in the book is Terrence, the reason is because he is trustworthy and very helpful. Terrence was found at a kiosk, where he was rescued and taken to a police station. At just three weeks old he was sent to an adoption centre where Belladonna found him. The thing I like about Terrence is his plot twist. I literelly was jumping up and down while reading the book. Also I like that he does anything to be able to help his friends, an example is when Belladonna was thinking for a trick, Terrence was the one that gave the idea for the necromancy.
As an enthusuastic reader, I found this book marvellous. The vocabulary in this book is exeptional and knowlegeble, I still feel like the vocublary could have been better. The exciting challenges and the awesome magic tricks make this book 10x more fun to read. The book is always mysterious and you can never be fully sure what is going to happen next.
I would recommend this book for readers who like mysterious books where you can never expect what will happen next. This book is perfect for people who want to find more new words and understand them in sentences.
I would give this book a five star, because the writing capability is terrific and the authors' idea for this book is just marvellous. I would recomend you to deffinetly read this.
My favourite character in the book is Terrence, the reason is because he is trustworthy and very helpful. Terrence was found at a kiosk, where he was rescued and taken to a police station. At just three weeks old he was sent to an adoption centre where Belladonna found him. The thing I like about Terrence is his plot twist. I literelly was jumping up and down while reading the book. Also I like that he does anything to be able to help his friends, an example is when Belladonna was thinking for a trick, Terrence was the one that gave the idea for the necromancy.
As an enthusuastic reader, I found this book marvellous. The vocabulary in this book is exeptional and knowlegeble, I still feel like the vocublary could have been better. The exciting challenges and the awesome magic tricks make this book 10x more fun to read. The book is always mysterious and you can never be fully sure what is going to happen next.
I would recommend this book for readers who like mysterious books where you can never expect what will happen next. This book is perfect for people who want to find more new words and understand them in sentences.
I would give this book a five star, because the writing capability is terrific and the authors' idea for this book is just marvellous. I would recomend you to deffinetly read this.
November 1, 2025
Very cute and magical stories❤️. First book 11/10 I loved everything, now the second book is a 8/10 for me, lovely book, though I would have liked to have a more thorough ending, it felt a bit rushed and never knew what happened with Raymond and family after all the fuss. However, and in true honesty, I really enjoyed the magical duo of books I got in my hands this time!
August 17, 2019
These two stories both are wonderful. There is just the right amount of magic to keep them moving along.
March 21, 2021
Baca terjemahan
March 5, 2017
Lively writing, but the use of "dark" to mean evil magic and "white" to mean benevolent magic just doesn't work. Even though many of the characters are appealing, the author's use of these traditional but inescapably racist terms make this book unavailable for a read aloud in the modern day.
March 12, 2009
Sticking with children's/YA fiction, I at first thought to have another good one - but this lauded modern fairy tale soon repelled me with it's hypocrisy and ingrained sexism: while the beak nose and grey hair of the hero, the tail of his secretary and the ugliness of the little boy are all celebrated and beloved as attrictive individualism, only the insipid heroine Belladonna is beautiful, hence good. Again and again repulsion is indicated by the hairiness and girth of various women, with never a single glimpse of intelligence to indicate the middle-European author is aware of what she's doing. Two bad ones are thin, but they also have red hair. The story is a lot like a genre romance, but from what I remember most YA books I read had similar patterns, or most good genre romances at least have a little adventure plot.
The plot was much more obvious in Platform 13, painfully so, since once again nothing at all redeemed the bad ones, which were fat and did fat things, like eat and be fat. Otherwise Ibbotson pre-empted Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl here, and if they weren't met with such unrelenting revulsion, some of her fantastic trios would be as delightful as Pullman claims. I wish she'd extended herself either into true tolerance or. Sigh.
The plot was much more obvious in Platform 13, painfully so, since once again nothing at all redeemed the bad ones, which were fat and did fat things, like eat and be fat. Otherwise Ibbotson pre-empted Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl here, and if they weren't met with such unrelenting revulsion, some of her fantastic trios would be as delightful as Pullman claims. I wish she'd extended herself either into true tolerance or. Sigh.
February 3, 2011
i have just started reading this book but so far i think that it is an amzing, ecxting book and i highly recemend it to any reader.
12.12.10
im on page 56 and so far and so far and i have one connection with belladona and it is that she loves everything and so do she also cares for every person she meets even people she is complete oppisites with and im the same way. and thats what i have a connection to.
12.17.10
Im on page 119 and the only connection i have is with Terence. The connection i have to him is that he has a pet, but his is a worm mine is a dog. Ternece is extremley close with his worm Rover and im the same way with my dog Karlee. Terence would never give up Rover unless he was giving it to Belladonna. And the only reason he does that it because Rover is used for witchcraft. But i would never let my dog be used for wichcraft. That is my connection with Trence.
1.17.11
Im on page 159 and the connection i have is with Terence. And the reason i have this connection is because Trence just lost his worm Rover. And i have lost alot of things my whole life. But not my dog Karlee or at least not yet because she is on a leash. And that is my connection i have with Terence.
12.12.10
im on page 56 and so far and so far and i have one connection with belladona and it is that she loves everything and so do she also cares for every person she meets even people she is complete oppisites with and im the same way. and thats what i have a connection to.
12.17.10
Im on page 119 and the only connection i have is with Terence. The connection i have to him is that he has a pet, but his is a worm mine is a dog. Ternece is extremley close with his worm Rover and im the same way with my dog Karlee. Terence would never give up Rover unless he was giving it to Belladonna. And the only reason he does that it because Rover is used for witchcraft. But i would never let my dog be used for wichcraft. That is my connection with Trence.
1.17.11
Im on page 159 and the connection i have is with Terence. And the reason i have this connection is because Trence just lost his worm Rover. And i have lost alot of things my whole life. But not my dog Karlee or at least not yet because she is on a leash. And that is my connection i have with Terence.
November 5, 2011
I think this book was good. It was very interesting to me. Arriman the Awful is wizard. He was born with a full set of teeth and other things that human babies aren't born with. That's a little weird but he's a wizard that performs back magic so it is to be expected. Arriman the Awful later decided to find a wife. There was a contest for the witches and the winner would become his wife. He chose Belladonna. But she isn't a black witch. So, there is a twist to the story! Read the book to learn more! I believe that this book is a great fantasy story. Hopefully more people read this book! It's great for people that like fantasy stories. Also, people will like this story if they like to read about witches and wizards.
May 12, 2009
This is a very good book for those who want to take a break from adult books. It's really entertaining and somewhat nostalgic for me because i loved reading fantasy books when i was younger and this books is basically a fantasy book. It's about a handsome warlock that is looking for a bride. He is famous amongst the ladies so many witches are interested in him so he decides to turn this opportunity into a contest. The rules whoever performs the darkest magic would be his bride. It has a very interesting twist when the purest witch ends up winning the contest. What did she do? Read and find out :)
April 11, 2008
I adore Eva Ibbotson's writing. Both "The Secret of Platform 13" and "Which Witch" are fantastic and charming. I think I preferred Platform 13 because the story is a bit more dynamic and suspenseful, with more twists and turns. Which Witch is sort of a straight run throughout. I love them both though.
April 29, 2011
Mikaela and me read which witch together every night before going to bed. I couldn't put it down, I wanted to keep reading it. It made putting the kids in bed so enjoyable! It may have too much black magic for some moms out there, but I didn't mind it. I thought it was a fun twist on the typical witch/wizard type of story. And MIkaela loved it too....
December 12, 2011
This is about a warlock that spent his whole life doing dark magic. He then goes to look for a mate and he has to choose from four witches. In the end, he has a child to carry on his name. I would use this in a classroom for the students to have a writing assignment on which witch they would want for a boy, and for a girl which witch they would be and why.
August 20, 2007
I have read this a few times. This book is awesome. The description is so well you can feel the climate : ) Awww the witch with the willies : ) Ha. Cute to pick up but a little too much yet for my 5 year old.
April 30, 2009
Jenna brought this book home from her school library. It said for Harry Potter lover's. I'm not a lover but enjoyed the books so thought this would be good. Hated it. I could only choke down about four chapters. Jenna said it gets better...I'll never know.
June 18, 2011
Ahh this book is a really good fairy tale. However the book may be a little bit childish but it sure does bring back the inner childhood out of me. It is an interesting book to read and if you like fairy tales, you should pick up this book and give it a try.
November 27, 2007
This is one of the older books i've read but it was still good. I really love reading about witches and wizards so this book was perfect for me.
November 28, 2007
OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
THIS BOOK IS VERY FUNNY
SO EVERYONE SHOULD
READ IT IT'S KINDA LIKE ROMEO AND JULIET
BUT A TWIST OF MAGIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS BOOK IS VERY FUNNY
SO EVERYONE SHOULD
READ IT IT'S KINDA LIKE ROMEO AND JULIET
BUT A TWIST OF MAGIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 16, 2008
I hope everyone has read this. It's about a warlock who has to choose which witch to marry. Really fun :)
March 27, 2008
cute and fun; well written
September 7, 2008
My rating 3 1/2 stars.
The main thing I didn't like about this book is the whole Symphony of Death with the rats thing. I thought it a bit disturbing, especially for being a juvenile fiction.
The main thing I didn't like about this book is the whole Symphony of Death with the rats thing. I thought it a bit disturbing, especially for being a juvenile fiction.
July 29, 2008
THIS ONE IS SO COOL!!! Just perfect in every way, down to the worm named Rover.
August 1, 2008
One of my favorite; funny and stilly and yet with some sort of important message (who'da thunk?) for kids.
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September 19, 2008sorta great...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews