"The Wind Singer" by William Nicholson

This fantasy is set in a city called Aramanth. The main characters are the twins Kestrel and Bowman, and Mumpo, a boy who doesn’t have any parents, and doesn’t have any friends either.
Aramanth has a system of rating all the families in it by the scores they get on their yearly exams. Every citizen has to take part on the exams. One day, Kestrel becomes fed up with it all and starts shouting rude things about the emperor. She escapes punishment and along with Bowman and Mumpo begins a journey to get the wind singer, a magical object that will make the people of Aramanth happy again from the Morah.

What’s good about this story is that it moves along quickly and has some amusing parts. It’s interesting from the start because the reader immediately sympathizes with Bowman, Kestrel and their family. The story is full of surprises and sudden twists in the plot, so the reader doesn’t get bored.

I would have hoped that there would be more sides to some of the characters, or to some of the different tribes such as the Chakas and the Barakas. They seemed ridiculous in the story because they were shown only from the perspectives of Bowman and Kestrel. I think that a reader who likes fantasy would enjoy this story most. A reader that doesn’t like to read long books wouldn’t enjoy reading the book that much because it is quite long. The book moves from event to event quickly though, so you won’t get bored.

Maria