{"id":7967,"date":"2020-10-09T21:36:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-10T01:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=7967"},"modified":"2020-10-09T21:39:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T01:39:11","slug":"book-review-the-witching-stone-by-danny-weston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-witching-stone-by-danny-weston\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Witching Stone by Danny Weston"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/witching_weston.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-7969\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/witching_weston-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"cover art for The Witching Stone by Danny Weston\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/witching_weston-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/witching_weston.jpg 326w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>The Witching Stone<\/em> by Danny Weston (\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2GNBql4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amazon.com<\/a> )<\/p>\n<p>uclanpublishing, 2020<\/p>\n<p>ISBN-13: 13579108642<\/p>\n<p>Available: Paperback<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Witching Stone<\/em> by Danny Weston is an enjoyable read for young readers who appreciate coming-of-age stories with a touch of mystery and horror. Danny Weston is the pseudonym for Phillip Caveney, who has written many thrillers for adults, children and teenagers, some of which have won prizes.<\/p>\n<p>Teenager Alfie Travers has just been dumped by his longtime girlfriend. Alfie agrees to accompany his father on a job in a small English village, but is prepared to be bored out of his gourd. Killing time in the church graveyard, he sees a large stone marking the grave of the alleged witch Meg Shelton, who died in 1705. Mia, a goth teen, challenges him to summon the witch by walking counterclockwise around the stone three times, while intoning \u201cI don\u2019t believe in witches!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Meg apparates before Alfie. She claims she\u2019s not a witch and that her infant son was taken from her. Meg threatens to kill everyone Alfie loves if he doesn\u2019t find the grave of her son.<\/p>\n<p>Alfie and Mia search for clues. Meg, impatient for progress, shows her anger by turning the village\u2019s milk sour, putting toads in muesli, and blowing up computers. Alfie and Mia&#8217;s search takes them to library archives, the ruins of Meg\u2019s cottage and a viscount\u2019s estate with an impenetrable maze of yews. Was Meg a witch? How did she die? What happened to her son?<\/p>\n<p>The plot is straightforward and easy to follow. The narrative is simple and direct. There are only a few punctuation errors. Recommended for ages 10-14.<\/p>\n<p>Contains: discussion of teenage pregnancy<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Reviewed by Robert D. Yee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Witching Stone by Danny Weston (\u00a0Amazon.com ) uclanpublishing, 2020 ISBN-13: 13579108642 Available: Paperback \u00a0 The Witching Stone by Danny Weston is an enjoyable read for young readers who appreciate coming-of-age stories with a touch of mystery and horror. Danny Weston is the pseudonym for Phillip Caveney, who has written many thrillers for adults,<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-witching-stone-by-danny-weston\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2474,4586,3980,202,4585,628],"class_list":["post-7967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-review","tag-danny-weston","tag-middle-grade-horror","tag-supernatural-fiction","tag-the-witching-stone","tag-witches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7967"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7972,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7967\/revisions\/7972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}