Catch Chrystallia And The Source Of Light Engineered By Paul Michael Glaser Textbook

had a difficult time reading the conversations with the Chrystallia characters, but I enjoyed the Christmas story revolving around Maggie and Jessie and their dying mother.
I think that children would love this adventurous tale, I may have enjoyed it more as an audio book, where I wouldn't have had to decipher what the characters were saying.
Beautifully written, intriguing, Fastenating! An adventure into a world of characters who are searching for what they are convinced, is lost.
A human journey as well, This is a manuscript that could produce a delightful film, There is so much detail, I will surely read this book again, Thank You Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Program in exchange for an honest review.

Chrystallia and The Source of Light by P, M. Glaser
Maggie is a young girl who's life is falling a part, Her mother is dying. Her family is loosing her home, As the holidays approach, Maggie and her little brother Jesse find themselves in a strange new world Chrystallia, and all Maggie wants to do is go home,

What I liked about the book: I didn't like anything, OK, the concept was interesting, but the book just didn't live up to the potential,

What I didn't like about the book: I hesitate to write this review, It seems everyone liked this book, except for me, I really did not like this book, It felt like a badly crafted mishmash of Alice and Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz,

The story was too hard to follow and quite frankly gave me a headache, There was either too many characters to follow, The flow of the story between the characters was too choppy, I kept losing the plot, This book is billed as a children's fantasy, but many of the characters have accents that are difficult for young readers to follow.
A mangled mess of French, Russian and South Texas accents made the story even more difficult to follow, And probably explains the migraine I got every time I read this book,


Another young people's book that didn't quite engage me, The use of language was lovely, the book itself was beautifully made, Some of the characters were more interesting than others, the book is a keeper for who wrote it not because I would reread it, I came to it too old, What happens when you're thirteen years old and you feel that your whole world is falling apart and there is NOTHING you can do about it Maggie, tell us her story.
She feels her life sucks because her family seems to like her eleven year old brother Jesse more than they appreciate her.
She wonders if anything is wrong with her but decides to put on the facade of being tough and uncaring.
She takes on this defense mechanism to protect herself from her feelings of being unwanted and unloved, Her brother Jesse, on the other hand, seems to be the innocent and sensitive kid who seems to have more fun because he is gifted with looking at everything from the positive point of view.
He loves everyone, believes everything and has a natural inclination to trust ' everything, ' Christmas is coming and their house won't be their home anymore because business hasn't been so great and the bank threatens the family with foreclosure.
Aside from that however, another seeming tragedy is that their mother is dying and it is the family's last Christmas they will spend in their home.
Naturally, Maggie is pained and rather angry not knowing what will happen next and wondering what bad or good is yet to come.
On the other hand, Jesse is more positive and hopeful keeping in his mind and heart the lessons of his mother to always have faith come what may.
Both siblings discover that this isn't the only world, and that there is an exciting place of crystals under the earth where they meet amazing creatures.
After all the excitement in the strange world of crystals and quartz, they end up knowing that no force in any universe is mightier than love.

I won this book from goodreads but never have received the copy, So, i can not make an deeper comment on this book, I got a copy of this book through Librarythings's Early er program, I was very excited to read it it sounded like a wonderful middle grade fantasy adventure in a fantastic Alice in Wonderland like underground fantasyland.
Well it wasn't. What it was was very difficult to read, confusing, and obnoxious, I stopped reading afterpages because it hurt my brain and because it made me sad, It made me sad that some poor kid might pick this book up to read and then never read fantasy again because of this book.
I am very sensitive to the fact that kids picking up fantasy like this are very impressionable and think that quality stories should be targeted at that age group.
Enough rant on to the review.

Maggie and Jesse have a mother who is dying and are being forced to move out of their house because of her medical costs.
Then one night their Christmas tree grows roots in the living room and opens the way into a magical crystal world full of crazy characters.


I am trying to think of something good about this book, The pictures throughout were very well done and fun, The book itself was a very nice package nice cover, pages, and font, The idea behind the book is a wonderful one, Reading the synopsis made me excited to partake in this magical adventure,

Unfortunately it was incredibly poorly executed, Initially the language and conversations between the characters was a bit awkward but I was willing to overlook that as the adventure continued hoping I would get to the wonderful fantasy world I had been promised.
Well, things just got worse,

When Maggie and Jesse enter the underground they apparently awaken some of the crystals down there, We don't know how this happens, Things aren't very well explained and that whole scenario is very hard to picture despite the wonderful pictures, I was constantly rereading to figure out exactly how all this magic was working and still didn't really understand what the author was trying to portray and picture.
That is just the worst, . . a fantasy world that is so poorly described that you can't even picture it,

Still I was willing to wait to understand the world and continued reading hoping to get to the good parts.
This is when things go even worse, A plethora of characters enter the book, they aren't well described and are hard to distinguish from each other.
Then all these characters start to speak Glaser has written the characters' words to phonetically represent the accents they speak in.
So basically when the characters talk they each use a different set of misspelled words to represent their accents.
It was almost impossible to read, I had to read parts of the book outloud just to figure out what the heck a given character was saying and even then sometimes the sentences didn't make much sense.


Can you imagine giving a kid a book with the majority of the words misspelled It confused the heck out of me and I can't imagine what it would do to a kid learning to read.
I thought maybe I was being dense and tired, so I gave the book to my husband and asked him to read a couple pages.
His response was "What in the world does that even mean Is this really a published book"

Here is an example: "Yoo will be rooled IN, against, undt for.
Rooled goot undt bad, right undt wrong, rooled here, rooled zere, up und down, und everyvhere!" That is the guy with the German accent speaking.
Here is another quote from the next page "But they eeth ththoft an' their outthide eeth mmoofing', an' ththee other were undereth'd, an' there eeth no rrool for" This is the guy with the lisp.
I believe there is also a guy with a French accent all of it is spelled goofy and impossible to read.
My eyes are glazing over just typing the quotes in for you, yes they are really spelled like that.
. . I double and triple checked them,

Overall, I pretty much detested this book, . . it is one of the worst books I have read this year, It made my eyes cross, my head hurt, and made me sad for any kid who has this book as their first foray into fantasy.
Please go read Harry Potter, or Fablehaven, or Percy and the Olympians or The Books of Beginning, do not even try to read this book, I have no idea where all the positive review are coming from, Sure it is a cool concept but it impossible to read and very poorly written, The concept counts for something but not for everything,
Being a fan of books for young adults/teens and fantasy, I really wanted to like this book.
Mr. Glaser was a guest at a convention I attended and I was pushed into buying this, So I read it. I started it in Augustand finished it yesterday, I was determined to push through it, I personally found this book to be just awful, A family who may lose their home, a dying mother, two young children neither particularly likable, and

set on Christmas Eve.
What could possible go wrong The kids fall into a hole that develops in the floor of their home, beneath the Christmas tree no less, and wind up in a world that has talking minerals/rocks who have bad accents.
Why, oh why, did Mr, Glaser write this book

I try to find something redeeming in any book I read, I'm at a loss with this one,

For the record, there is nothing offensive, It's just a badly written story, in my opinion, of course, Full review to follow. Wonderful Book!!! PMG did a great job with this and the Audio is out of this world, PMG did the audio himself and he does all the voices differently with great sound effects, Chrystallia and the Source of Light is an imaginative story about two children who fall into a world where crystals come alive.
The sibling rivalry between the children was well drawn, and was intensified by the sorrows they were living with: their's mother impending death from illness, the forced move from their home because the family's money went to medical bills rather than the mortgage.
The adventure in Chrystallia forces them to look at themselves and each other in a different way,

The fantasy world PM Glaser created is fascinating, filled with the living crystals, all with their own forms, personalities,and accents.
The accents may be a little difficult for some readers, This would be a great book to read out loud with kids, or would make a wonderful audio book.


I read the book on Kindle, but recommend the hard cover version for the fabulous illustrations, If I could have rated this book,stars, I would have. Wiity, funny, entertaining, easy to read, Illustrations are awesome. Plus you can learn a little something about gems, rocks and minerals, In this beautifully illustrated children's fantasy story, two siblings struggle against sharpedged, bedazzling foes to arrive at a place of knowing, to which they and everything belong.
It's Christmas, but thirteenyearold Maggie and her tenyearold brother Jesse are anything but joyful, Their mother is dying, the bank is about to foreclose on their home, and very soon, everything about their lives will change.
In an adventure that takes them below the earth's surface to a realm inhabited by crystalline life forms some of which seem to have been spawned from the children themselves the sister and brother discover the strength of their bond, the breadth of their courage, and the awesome power of love.
Amid dazzling displays of colours and shapes, Maggie and Jesse must move through crystal planes and canyons as they do battle with King Bloo, the princes Red and Orange, and Holy Clear.
Jesse learns from Princess Amethyst that the thing that scares him the most can waken him to his greatest strength.
Sharing his secret with Maggie ultimately leads the two to a place of forgiveness, called home, Absolutely inlove Paul. He was my favourite in Starsky n Hutch fancied him like craze just wish he lived nearer to me.
I think he still looks handsome,

I knew he would go far he is amazing, Brill actor, terrific painter, fab director n screen player n fantastic author, Really adored this amazing book, Recommend this to all, from young to old, My daughter loves this she was def quiet listening to the story, I am so glad that Paul read it himself which made it that more special cos he put so much feeling into his creation he was def sending us on a jorney n I honestly dont think anyother would of succeeded in doing it just as Paul wanted n needed.
I wanted to get the book signed, but unfortunately!I missed that promotion, so I just got it via Audible.
My all time favourite, such a beautiful, gorgeous story n Paul really brings it to life walking on Crystals

sitelink be/qHEmmyNtw This book is told in the point of view of Maggie, a young girl frustrated with all the things happening around her.
Her mom's dying, they're losing their house, and now she and her brother, Jesse, has wound up in a strange new world.
Enough is enough! Maggie wants to go home and she'll do whatever it takes to do that,

Glaser has written an original read filled with unique characters and an interesting world made of crystal and rock.
The story was concise and fastpaced so that you'll be halfway through the book before you know it, I was impressed with Maggie's character development and it was nice to see her grow up from the pouty girl in the beginning.
The ending was sweet and meaningful and carries a very significant message,

Although the characters were fun and unique, there was either too many or Glaser didn't do such a great job juggling them.
For example, when we are first introduced to all the crystal people, Maggie and Jesse is shoved to the background.
Every now and then, they'd yell out, "where are we!" but are completely ignored, It's never a different question either, by the way, A few chapters after that, the siblings take center stage and Pytrope and Scheelite are silent, I might have missed something but it felt like they were forgotten until the very end of the book.
Also, a lot of the characters have accents which can be difficult to follow along ranging from texan to french and so on.
I had trouble, anyway. Another issue was that the characters are mainly reactive, This and this has happened to the group! We must run! Oh no, it happened again! Run some more! It's not until twothirds of the book is through before we see someone do something productive.


Pro: interesting characters with quirky traits, unique plot, character development, sweet and meaningful
Con: reactive rather than proactive, characters "disappear", Maggie is very annoying until she matures, accents depends on the reader whether you'll like it or not

Overall, this book was nice and sweet.
This book is best suited for our younger readers but anyone can read and enjoy it, However, I would like to point out to parents that when we meet King Bloo, there is an overly dramatic scene where he is snuffing gold dust.
Whether or not you mind you or your child reading something like that is up to you, Aside from that hiccup, the book is very kidsfriendly and fun to read,

Won from the Early ers Giveaway in return for an honest review,