I just got the first review today for The Cabinet of Wonders. I was so nervous to read it! Heart pounding, and everything. But it’s very kind, for which I’m very grateful.

Sorry for the little weird code bit that appears right before the review. That just appeared when I copied and pasted the review, and I can’t figure out how to get rid of it.

From the newsletter Shelf Awareness:

Children’s Review: The Cabinet of Wonders

The Cabinet of Wonders: The Kronos Chronicles, Book 1 by Marie Rutkoski (FSG, $16.95, 9780374310264/0374310262, 272 pp., ages 10-up, August 2008)

<" alt="" border="0" />—[if !vml]—> What would you do if the Prince of Bohemia plucked out your father’s eyes? Would you try to retrieve them? That is what 12-year-old Petra Kronos decides to do in this riveting tale of intrigue. The prince, after commissioning Mikal Kronos to create an astonishing astronomical clock in the center of Prague, takes out the craftsman’s eyes, so that he can never create anything like it again. And that’s just the first chapter. Debut author Rutkoski makes the fortress-like city of Prague itself into an imposing character, as Petra plots to penetrate the city and then the castle itself, to steal back her father’s eyes from the prince. She starts her journey with Astrophil, the erudite, talking metal spider her father created, as her sole companion, and her only protection is her friend Tomik’s ingenious glass balls (containing lightning, wasps, and water—”The idea is that when you break the glass, whatever is inside the ball will multiply a hundred times”). But while on her quest, she discovers that she has some talents of her own and attracts some unusual accomplices. A Roma named Neel at first tries to steal from Petra and winds up being indispensable to her. The prince’s dyemaker, Iris (to whom Petra is apprenticed)—who is literally so acidic that she must surround herself with adamantine (“the strongest metal on earth”) lest she melt a doorknob or chair—strives to create a new primary color in time to dress the prince in it for his 19th birthday and takes a shine to Petra. But what of Master John Dee, the ambassador from England who seems to have some strange hold over Petra? Or Jarek, who can talk to the animals? Are they friends or foes? While wearing her father’s eyes, Prince Rudolfo finds Petra in a giant crowd of spectators: “Whenever he wore them, his judgment of what was fine and beautiful was as accurate as a perfectly shot arrow.” Does beauty lie in the eyes of the beholder? Or must one possess a soul to see rightly? Rutkoski poses searching questions about perception and judgment, and plants plenty of seeds for future installments, but this first novel of adventure, loyalty and familial love (not to mention magic) wraps up quite satisfyingly.—Jennifer M. Brown.