"Witchwood Park" by S.W. Develin is a spellbinding adventure that transports readers into a world brimming with magic, mystery, and enchantment. Develin's masterful storytelling and vivid imagination bring to life the eerie yet captivating Witchwood Park, where young protagonist Ivy finds herself unraveling secrets that could change her life forever. The novel is populated with richly developed characters, each adding depth and intrigue to the unfolding plot. Develin's prose is both lyrical and engaging, making it easy to get lost in the atmospheric setting and the twists and turns of the narrative. "Witchwood Park" is a delightful read for fans of fantasy and young adult fiction, offering a perfect blend of suspense, adventure, and wonder.

One day after school, Kendra, Daniel, and Jimmy follow a troll into Witchwood Park.
They have been recruited by the troll to help take over the evil queen and her army. Great for kids who like fantasy.

Considering the target audience I think this book is wonderful. The whimsical nature of the story will make it interesting for young readers. The grammatical errors did not bother me but should be fixed. However, a fantasy that is quick , easy to read and gets to the point is a gem for young readers. Working with children year round I know that a child’s attention span does not last very long if the book is not engaging. This book did that and more. Thanks NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in advance in exchange for my honest opinion.

I enjoyed the characters and story. I think my middle school girls will enjoy this book. I have some that are looking for such an adventure. I’m looking forward to the next book. I will definitely recommend this book.

This was actually a fun and relatively short novel to read. It had a bit of everything in it that younger readers would enjoy, like dragons, and queens and knights. The characters are very charming, and I liked Kendra as the main character. I also enjoyed the author's style of writing as it was simplistic but gripping. Overall, A Tale of Witchwood Park was a fun read.

This book is a pretty simple fantasy read for middle graders. There is a mystery and a quest all involving middle graders that is pretty cool. It has a pretty standard ending with all ending well - this really isn't a book for adults, but your kids will probably enjoy it.

Our library bought this one for our juvenile fantasy section!

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will be posting a full review to Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram.

I received an electronic copy from Kindle Direct Publishing through NetGalley.
Charming story about a magical kingdom and three young students who don't fit in. They must save the Witchwood and defeat the evil queen.
Written in simple language with an easy to follow plot for elementary level readers.
Develin captures the joy and danger involved in adventure. His characters come to life as they learn to believe in themselves.

I rarely rate books 5 stars, but this book quite deserved it. I don't know how can I aptly word the description of this book, except say that this book is a lot like Narnia, maybe better, cuz its like different from it in so many ways. Lol I wonder if that made any sense 😂

This story takes place in the life of three kids named Kendra, Jimmy and Daniel, these three kids are termed as loosers by their friends. Kendra is picked on cuz she lacks self confidence, Daniel is bullied and Jimmy has family troubles, and bullies people. So they are in their shells, not friends, not strangers, just loosers as everybody calls them.

Suddenly they find themselves in the company of Tree Stump which lures them towards the Witchwood forest. So unlike Narnia, they don't discover this world, they are taken to this world. The tree stump belongs to this magical land of witchwood, full of every magical character one can think of, and he is asked to bring the Queen aka Kendra, the Knight aka Jimmy and a some one else he doesnt remember aka Daniel.

Now these kids find themselves in a magical land with difficult responsibilities, from a land where they were the loosers they have come to a land where they are the rulers. The problem is the evil human Erila here aka the Fake queen. So these kids have to destroy her and her army and save the magical world of witchwood.

This is a short read as it is a part of a series but it was nicely paced. I loved reading it, the story was so well written that i could see it unfold before my eyes, like a movie. Its a light yet satisfying read. I will totally recommend this if you wanna gift this to someone who loves fantasy. The characters here are 8 year old kids. But in every good fantasy movie/story, the series begins with them as kids only exploring magic.

I received this book from Netgalley for a fair review and feedback.

Emily Spellmaker is missing. She didn’t return to Witchwood Park Elementary and Kendra, the shy little girl she befriended, is heartbroken. Kendra waits alone after school each day until the Tuesday a troll walks out of the woods. He chooses Kendra, Jimmy (the school bully), and Daniel (an outcast) to come on a magical journey where they must overcome an evil queen and her Army of the Faceless to free an enslaved land. In the process, they learn who they really are and what friendship means, while getting closer to solving the mystery of Emily Spellmaker.

I felt that this book had some good potential but ended up missing out. I liked the characters and the rivals they come up against, but I feel like the storyline was really rushed and scattered. I need more of a storyline, more juice other than rushed conversation. I just needed more!

It's an ordinary Tuesday for shy girl Kendra, bully Jimmy and the ostracized Daniel to be sitting at the edge of the park outside of school waiting to be picked up. The extraordinary part of it is the troll that comes up to them. She is the True Queen of Witchwood, and there a prophecy that the troll tells them about the Queen, the knight and the something else that has to save the land from the False Queen and her Army of the Faceless.

This is a book targeted for younger to middle-grade readers. It's very short and seems to be scant on a lot of detail, with rapidly shifting points of view within the same chapter. (If it's meant to be some kind of third-person omniscient, this isn't it.) Many things are simply told outright, rather than the kids having to figure them out along the way. Even for children, it's better to show them in action rather than have a handful of creatures explain everything in paragraphs of info-dumping. That being said, there is some fantastic world-building here, and I wish we got a chance to see more of their locations and homes and learned as much about them in detail that we did for our three kids in the opening chapter. Fights occur rapidly, and there's not a lot of detail about the places within this kingdom.

There's still the outline of a great fantasy story here, with a shy girl learning to be more of her true self, a bully that sees he doesn't have to be mean in order to earn recognition, and a boy that doesn't have to fade into the background to make friends. It's great to see outcast kids of all kinds rise up and find a purpose, and become heroes of their own stories.

This was an amazing story about friendship and hope. We really loved the fact that there was a troll that was friendly, dragons, and an evil queen! This was a fast paced story that we couldn't put down and we are excited to read the next one.


Reviewed by our middle grade reviewers Ages 9 and 12

Perfectly enchanting story geared for 8-12 year olds, or thereabouts. Older readers might find it a little bit 'easy,' which would be my only complaint, as well. There were a couple of times that the action moved so fast that it was actually unclear, and just a little more backstory in general and especially for Emily would have been nice. Hence 4 stars instead of 5.

I understand that the author wanted to make the story accessible to young readers, but more details would have been nice. Such as the reason why the two particular boys were chosen to became the knight and the...something or other. And if I'm going to be really, really picky, I wish he had given physical descriptions of the children. On Amazon, the cover depicts a girl who could be African-American, but no mention of what she looks like is in the book. Too bad; today's books could use more heroes and heroines who aren't the same old, same old.

A Tale of Witchwood Park is now in its third edition. This was a wonderful read for a middle grade chapter book. As with other high-quality properties like My Little Pony and Harry Potter, Witchwood is about how strangers can become friends who will do anything to help each other out. The main character Kendra is not immediately introduced. That would be my only criticism. She should appear sooner than the boys who become her friends/team in the magical land of Witchwood. Kendra is a quiet girl who likes to stay in her room and read. While in Witchwood, a more forthright side of her personality is forced to come through in order to save the kingdom. The plot does to point this real world personality out as a character flaw when quiet children who love to read should be praised. I personally don't see being shy and literate as flaws. Bringing her out of her comfort zone illustrates that it can be great to try new things, especially away from familiar territory of home.

This lovely tale about the power of storytelling will appeal to early-mid level readers who cut their teeth on animated fantasies like Frozen, Rapunzel, and Brave. We’re drawn in to the story as a troll appears in a schoolyard, looking for a Queen, a Knight, and Something Else. He connects with three misfits - Daniel, the boy who never gets picked for soccer; Kendra, a quiet little girl who can’t seem to function when around people; and Jimmy, the bully who can never do anything right.

The story moves quickly, as the troll leads the children into the Witchwood, where an amazing adventure awaits. Each child discovers something extraordinary about themselves as they work together to save the magical kingdom they’ve found.

I thoroughly enjoyed the premise that the Witchwood and the events of the story itself were created through Kendra’s storytelling, which she uses to cope with her every-day life. Relatively short, with a quick, action-packed pace, this will appeal to boys and girls alike.

I am really sorry to say that i didn't like this story at all. I found it too confusing for me to follow and I read it through twice. I had better hopes for this story.

Emily didn't return to school, and Kendra is heartbroken. She was her only real friend. Now Kendra waits alone after school until her mother comes to pick her up. Only a troll comes out of the forbidden woods one day before she arrives. He asks Kendra (the shy one), Jimmy (the bully) and Daniel (the outcast) to come on a magical quest to overcome an evil queen who has killed the forests and towns that once existed. He says no one will notice they are gone and they'll return home soon.

Author Buzz and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published and you can get a copy now.

Since they will be going in the forbidden woods, Kendra says yes. Maybe she can find Emily. Jimmy says yes because anything is better than going home. Daniel goes along because he was invited and nobody invites him to do anything.

The rest of this trip is magical and haunting. There's action all the way through. It's a fairly short read and I can see young readers enjoying this book. I'm no kid and I enjoyed it. How could you not when Daniel turns into a dragon when they need him to be one?

This is an exciting read that will hold a child's attention. If they like fantasy, they will love this book.

I received this book from Netgalley for a fair review and feedback.

The story is a cute story about three children who are unpopular - the kid who never gets picked at recess, the bully, and the shy/quiet girl. The ages of the children could be any elementary age, except the first line is from an 8 year old, so one would assume the children are 8 or 9. Likely the target audience would be 2nd or 3rd grade.

I'm struggling with a slight disconnect between the length of the book and the level of reading. For children who are interested in reading a chapter book such as this one, their reading level and comprehension is probably slightly higher than the writing of this book, so it will either be an easy read for an advanced reader or a very long read for an average or below average early elementary reader.

The story is cookie cutter. It's fine to have cookie cutter stories, and this would be a good precursor to Harry Potter books, geared towards children who are too young/unable to read HP themselves.

I'm a little bothered by the hand-waving away of things like following a troll into the woods, even though they shouldn't go with strangers. A more engaging reason as to why three children would follow a troll into the woods could have been given. Perhaps the author could have done a little survey with children of the age of the target audience: Would you follow a troll into the woods? Why or why not? Additionally, the children just accept "how things are" without poking at them much. Kids tend to poke at things quite a bit. I'd buy "that's just how things are" from Kendra as she seems to not poke at things much, but it did not seem like the other two would give up so easily.

My last complaint is that the story seems to be about Emily from all the descriptions. While Emily shows up here and there, this is Kendra and Jimmy's story mostly. So the descriptions are very misleading. I understand that this book is the intro book into a 5-book series and that there are also many stories about Emily directly available. As a kid who loved series, this would have been great for me. But I would have been disappointed to read all this stuff about Emily on the cover or booksite, only to have most of it be about Kendra and Jimmy.

I like the cover. It's the perfect artwork for the description of Kendra in her Witch/Queen clothes. The story moves along at a good clip. There's no lingering too long in any given place and the descriptions of places are fairly thorough. I got a clear picture of what was going on.

Overall, I give it 3/5 stars because of the issues outlined above are not made up for by the quality of the story. I'd be interested to see what children in the age of 7-12 say about the story rather than adult readers like myself and most of the reviews I've seen. Unfortunately, my sources have all aged out of that group at this time.

It has been a long while since I've read a book targeted for young children in the middle grades age range. With that target group in mind I liked the adventure Kendra, Daniel and Jimmy were called to embark. I liked the writing and the characters. There are many things that could be discussed with kids throughout the book to bring up important conversations about friendships, values, self-image, worth, etc. There is a battle scene that could be uncomfortable for children younger than the targeted audience, though I may be wrong here.

I enjoyed the plot, characters, flow, and feel of the story. It was just enough to take me on an adventure, hold my interest, and bring me back to reality in time for dinner. I did not feel completely sucked in by the story though. Maybe that was due to the target audience. I would recommend this read for children who enjoy fantasy books. 4-4.5 stars

This is a great book. I know some great kids who will love this book and cant wait to share it with them. With all the right fantasy elements, I know this will be a hit.