Movies - Children of the Red King

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	Movies - Children of the Red King

Children of the Red King, also known as the Red King Quintet and the Charlie Bone books, is a popular series of children's fantasy books written by British author Jenny Nimmo. The main character, Charlie Bone, discovers that he is endowed with a magical talent and is sent to Bloor's Academy, a boarding school for other endowed students as well as students with artistic, dramatic, or musical talents. Charlie develops both friendships and enmities as he learns about and responds to the various schemes that are hatched at Bloor's. Little by little, Charlie discovers clues about the disappearance of his father some ten years before.

There are currently four books in the series, published by Scholastic in the United States and by Egmont in England (English titles first, followed by American titles):

#Midnight for Charlie Bone (2003) #The Time Twister / Charlie Bone and the Time Twister (2003) #The Blue Boa / Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy (2004) #The Castle of Mirrors / Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors (2005)

The fifth and final volume of the series, Charlie Bone and the Hidden King, is due to be released on June 1, 2006.

Midnight for Charlie Bone

The story begins with eleven-year-old Charlie Bone making a birthday card for his friend Benjamin. He intends to put a photograph of Benjamin's dog onto the card, but when he opens the envelope from the photo developer, he finds a picture of a man cradling a baby. He begins to hear static noises, followed by voices out of the photo. Later that day Charlie's great-aunts, Venetia, Lucretia and Eustacia, and his grandmother Grizelda test Charlie to see if he is magically endowed. When they find out that he can hear voices from photographs, they send him to Bloor's Academy.

Charlie returns the photo to its rightful owner, a Miss Julia Ingledew, who lives at the cathedral where his missing father once played. Miss Ingledew tells him the story of a lost, hypnotised baby, given away by a Dr. Tolly. She gives him a heavy metal case and a metal dog (actually a tape recorder) as he leaves. At Benjamin's house, Charlie plays the dog's tape, which gives instructions on how to open the case and awaken the baby—who would now be the same age as Charlie.

When he goes to Bloor's, Charlie meets the Headmaster's son, Manfred Bloor, who hypnotises Charlie. He learns about the legend of the Red King and meets all the other endowed children. He also makes friends with Fidelio Gunn and Olivia Vertigo. Together, they figure out that a girl named Emilia Moon is the lost child, and plan to bring her out of her hypnotic state, which they do at Fidelio's house. Emilia is returned to Miss Ingledew as her long-lost niece, Emma Tolly (Emma can fly).

The Time Twister

The year is 1916. Henry and James Yewbeam, two brothers, have been sent to stay with their cousins at Bloor's Academy for the winter. Henry just wants to hide from his mean cousins and play marbles for a while. He finds a long hall and begins to roll his marbles until he finds a marble that doesn't look familiar. Suddenly a series of strange events take place, and Henry finds himself beginning to disappear. He only has time to write on the floor "SORRY JAMES, THE MARBLES" before he vanishes.

The Blue Boa / The Invisible Boy

A new art teacher named Mr. Boldova has come to Bloor's, and there is a new student named Belle who lives with the Yewbeam aunts and seems to exert a strange power over them. Emma and Charlie soon discover that Mr. Boldova is the older brother of Ollie Sparks, the boy who lives in the attic of Bloor's Academy. Because Ollie was always prying into matters that didn't concern him, Ezekiel Bloor made him invisible. When Charlie and his friends find him, Ollie is alone and hungry. Charlie and his friends promise to make Ollie visible again with the help of Mr. Boldova.

The Castle of Mirrors

Charlie's magical gifts begin to take on a new dimension. He meets some new characters, including Mr. Pilgrim's replacement named Tantalus Ebony, and a strange new student named Joshua Tilpin, who appears to be magnetic. But not all is well. Billy Raven has been adopted by the de Greys, a child-hating couple who carry a gray bag of oaths with them; they seduce Billy to sign an oath of obedience before locking him up behind a force field in a strange place called The Passing House. Charlie finds out that his friend Olivia Vertigo is also magically endowed with illusion.

Charlie Bone and the Hidden King (unreleased)

Book description from Amazon.com: When Charlie turns twelve on New Year's Eve, the Flame Cats give him a grave warning: Something ancient has awakened, and Charlie must be watchful. Soon Charlie learns that the shadow from the Red King's portrait has been released, and that it will do anything to keep Charlie from finding his father. Meanwhile, pets are mysteriously vanishing from the city, and Olivia is in danger of revealing her newfound powers.

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