Rindis.com

This is identified as one of the influences on Harry Potter, and it’s easy to see parallels with the start of that series.

That said, the influence is less about Platform 9 3/4, and more for the initial characters.

We have the nice people (the royal family of The Island—the hidden fantasy land of the book), the absolutely horrible, entitled people (the Trottles), and the eclectic mix of the rescuers.

The main part of the book is a caper. The prince of The Island was kidnapped shortly after he was born, and now, nine years later, the Island and modern England are in contact again for nine days and it’s time to get him back.

Plot-wise, and caper-wise, the book is a lot of fun and well done. Generally, I recommend it.

However, a bigger question comes up when the team sent to get the now nine year-old prince find that having been taken by a desperate, entitled, and rich Mrs. Trottle, he is growing up into a perfectly horrible boy. And there’s the nephew of his nanny, a very nice and polite boy of the same age, picked on by everyone in the estate except his aunt. Unfortunately, instead of wrestling with the problem of the horrible person with the right inheritance and the great person who isn’t, the book takes the predictable easy way out. That let a lot of the air out of an otherwise fun kids book.