4^th Grade and Up

It’s two months before Amelia’s big audition for the Mystwick School of Musicraft. If she gets in, she will learn to spin music into powerful magic—but her Gran has one last-ditch plan to persuade her out of it: sports camp.
A week of softball, sprinting, and sweaty socks isn’t exactly Amelia’s idea of a good time—in fact, she’s deeply, appallingly unathletic. By the end of day one, she’s puked her guts out in track, gotten a black eye in no-contact flag football, and firmly established herself as the Least Valuable Player at camp.
As head counselor, Coach Shawn is determined to make an athlete of Amelia, despite her complete inability to land a single basket in basketball and her high effectiveness at scoring in the wrong net in soccer. And all Amelia wants is some time to herself, so she can practice her flute for the Mystwick auditions.
But everyone’s plans are quickly derailed by a series of disasters that strike camp, putting everyone in mortal danger. It’s clear that strange magic is at work, and as the only musician around, Amelia suddenly goes from benchwarmer to MVP. But can she discover the source of the malevolent magic—and how to stop it—before the deadly spell reaches its crescendo?

This is a very short but very enjoyable prequel to “The Mystwick School of Musicraft”.

The first book dives deep into a world where music is used to create magic, but what about the people who can’t play an instrument? In a world where the band geeks are the super stars and the jocks are the odd ones out, we get to explore more of this magical world.

This story manages to squeeze many important lessons into a short amount of time. Lessons like you cannot force someone to be good at sports and instead of focusing on what you can’t do, embrace what you can do. My favorite lesson was how athletes and musicians aren’t really that different. As Coach Shawn said “Athlete. Musician. What’s the difference really? Both require practice, dedication and good breathing techniques.”

My suspicions about a second book were correct and will be available sometime in 2022. I’m really looking forward to listening to another audiobook with beautiful background music.