Product Description

PerfectBound e-book exclusive extras: "Diana Wynne Jones's The Chronicles of Chrestomanci: Nine Notes"; and our exclusive interview with Diana Wynne Jones.

His father and uncles are enchanters, his mother a powerful sorceress, yet nothing seems magical about Christopher Chant except his dreams. Night after night, he climbs through the formless Place Between and visits marvelous lands he calls the Almost Anywheres.

Then Christopher discovers that he can bring real, solid things back from his dreams. Others begin to recognize the extent of his powers, and they issue an order that turns Christopher's life upside down: Go to Chrestomanci Castle to train to be the controller of all the world's magic.

The Lives of Christopher Chant is the adventure-filled story of the boyhood of Chretomanci, the famous magician who also appears in Charmed Life, Witch Week, and The Magicians of Caprona.

Diana Wynne Jones's beloved Chronicles of Chrestomanci include Charmed Life, The Magicians of Caprona, Witch Week, The Lives of Christopher Chant, and Mixed Magics -- all published by PerfectBound, all containing a rich section of e-book exclusive extras about the worlds of Chrestomanci.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27784 in eBooks
• Published on: 2002-04-02
• Released on: 2002-04-02
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

From Publishers Weekly
Young Christopher Chant has very unusual dreams: he gets out of bed, walks to the corner of the nursery and enters a lush, green valley that can lead him to any one of the hundreds of worlds that comprise what he calls the "Almost Anywheres." Christopher doesn't tell anyone about his dreams because he thinks everyone has them. When his father loses all of his money, Christopher and his mother must go live with Uncle Ralph; he is ecstatic to learn that Christopher can bring solid objects back from the worlds he visits, and so uses him to perform some experiments. Then Christopher's father forces him to go live at Chrestomanci Castle, where Christopher is told he must become the next governing magician. Jones has written a mesmerizing account of the boyhood adventure of the famous magician who starred in Charmed Life. Her ability to mesh magic and realism results in an enthralling story about a boy just discovering his powers. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9–In Diana Wynne Jones's magical coming-of-age story (Greenwillow, 1988), Christopher Chant manages to lose most of his nine lives as he comes to accept his destiny. His magical powers and his nine lives put him in line to be the next Chrestomanci (head enchanter) so, against his will, he is taken out of school to Chrestomanci's castle to be trained. There he realizes, to his horror, that his Uncle Ralph, whom he idolizes, is the Wraith, a notorious and wicked smuggler of magical goods. When Uncle Ralph tries to destroy the current Chrestomanci, Christopher joins forces with a young Goddess, a spirit traveler, and an ill-tempered temple cat to save him. This word-for-word reading will have high appeal for middle school fantasy fans. Actor Gerard Doyle's rich voice and English accent suit the story perfectly. His excellent expression and conviction draw listeners into the tale and help them follow the complex plot, giving each character's voice just enough distinction. The narration is slow enough to facilitate reading along but a good pace for listening as well. Both public and school libraries will find this an excellent addition to their audio collections.–Louise L. Sherman, formerly Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"A cracking good story." -- --ALA Booklist (starred review)

"A cracking good story."(--ALA Booklist (starred review)) -- Booklist

"Wonderfully entertaining. A born storyteller weaves her own brand of magic." -- --The Horn Book (starred review)

"Wonderfully entertaining. A born storyteller weaves her own brand of magic." -- --The Horn Book (starred review)

"Wonderfully entertaining. A born storyteller weaves her own brand of magic." -- --The Horn Book (starred review)

Customer Reviews

another clever and highly imaginative tale from Diana Wynne Jones
Christopher is an only child of two parents that constantly bicker, and every night, Christopher travels to other worlds for great adventures. He has a cool uncle Ralph that seems the understand him. Soon, Christopher is meeting a young man named Tacroy in the other worlds and running "experiments" for his uncle, smuggling magical supplies back to his own world. Christopher, it is discovered, has nine lives and his so magically powerful that he is destined to become the next Chrestomanci. He befriends a similar powerful young person, a Goddess, in another world. Slowly and without realizing it, Christopher falls into darkness, becoming an angry, unkind, and disagreeable child that is breaking the laws of magic. Christopher must determine who is good and who is just trying to use him. My favorite character is Tacroy, who is quite ambiguous, and yet is sort of Christopher's Sirius Black, as the only one who can identify with him as a spirit traveler and understands him. The book itself is just another beautifully written, incredibly clever and imaginative and magical work from Diana Wynne Jones. The images and so vivid and so brilliant. Grade: A-

A Death Wish, Anyone?
Diana Wynne Jones tells the backstory of everyone's favorite enchanter, Chrestomanci, in "The Lives of Christopher Chant". Chrestomanci turned the sterotype of old, sagely wizards upside down in the first Chrestomanci book with his dapper attitude and humorous qualities. However, I'll be frank; I did not enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed "Charmed Life". The story was very slow in places and the ending was very rushed. But, Jones still won me over with her delightful characters, quirky magic, and adept talent at writing meaningful and thoughtful fantasy.

Christopher Chant starts out as a normal boy who doesn't quite understand everything that's going on around him. Christopher never even bothered to tell people, ecspecially his feuding parents and nannies, about his dreams and the worlds he visits in them. But one day, Christopher's new nanny discovers all of the objects Christopher brings back from his dreams, and informs Christopher's Uncle Ralph, a charming enchanter, about them. It turns out that Christopher is a spirit traveler, or a person who visits the twelve related worlds in their dreams. Uncle Ralph soon recruits Christopher for many "experiments" where Christopher must bring him back various goods from the related worlds, and Christopher is only too happy to oblige.

On these experiments, Christopher soon loses many lives at such an obvious rate that he realizes he has nine lives and is a powerful enchanter, even though Christopher can barely manage the simplest of spells. Christopher is soon sent to live in Chrestomanci Castle for training, and he hates it. He would much rather play cricket than become the next Chrestomanci, but everything changes when Christoper realizes that his "perfect" uncle is really an inter-world illegal smuggler, and Christopher so happens to be his partner-in-crime even though he didn't know what he was doing in the first place.

The story is told with Jones' usual quirky prose and humor. Many readers who read the first book will smile as the story goes on and many of Chrestomanci's background is cleverly explained. Christopher as a character is skillyfully progressed from a naive and somewhat cold child to an aware and powerful enchanter. However, the story, as much as I would like to deny it, does suffer some problems. The beginning is a very long drawl, as well as the middle, and nothing interesting happens till Christopher finally arrives at Chrestomanci castle. From there to the ending its a smooth ride. Unfortunately, it appears that Jones didn't know what to do with her ending as its very quick and jumbled. For the last fifty pages, everything is unusally described and very confusing. I just wish that the story had ended with a strong conclusion rather than the sentence "that is really all, except for a letter that arrived for Christopher from Japan soon after New Year ..."

Even though the ending was a jumbled mess, we're still talking about Diana Wynne Jones here, and her brilliant writing and humorous details makes even a very weakly plotted book enjoyable. While I did not enjoy "The Lives of Christopher Chant" as much as I enjoyed the first book, readers everywhere are sure to enjoy how Chrestomanci went from a timid boy into a powerful enchanter.

One of my favorite fantasy books
I read this book many years ago, and did not even realize that it was part of a series until recently. I bought the other books in the series, and was expecting the other books to be similar to this writing style. While the other three books in the series are good stories and entertaining reading, it is "The Lives of Christopher Chant" that is the best of the series. This book has more depth and humor than the other books in the series. I devoured this book in one setting, because of the wonderful imagery and use of dry humor and wit. I actually don't think that you need to read the books in the series in order; besides the first two in the series, these books really don't have much in common with each other, besides the Chrestomanci character. Each book is a wonderful book in its own right. However, it is this book that gives the best background of the world in which Chrestomanci lives. Highly recommended, especially if you like J.K. Rowling - this book is the most similar to Rowling's style.