Review: The Ugly Teapot

The Ugly Teapot by Fred Holmes

My Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Fourteen-year-old Hannah Bradbury loved her father so much that she worried about him constantly. After all, he was a photographer who traveled to the most dangerous places in the world.

To allay her fears, each time he came home he brought her silly gifts, each one with supposed magical powers: the Seal of Solomon, the Ring of Gyges, even Aladdin’s Lamp. It was that lamp Hannah found the most unbelievable, for it looked like an ugly teapot. Nevertheless, her father assured her it was real, and made her promise to save her three wishes for something very special.

Then . . . six months later . . . the unthinkable happened. Her father was killed while on assignment to Baghdad. And so on the day of his funeral Hannah did something she never thought she would ever do.

She took out that teapot and gave it a rub . . .

The Ugly Teapot by Fred Holmes is a timeless tale, filled with magic and adventure. More importantly, it will make you believe in the overwhelming power of love.

I had no expectations when I read this book because I don’t read middle grade books often, and the ones I read are usually contemporary. But I was still excited because it has a Genie in it, which is super thrilling for me. (duh)

As the synopsis said, this is about a 14 year old girl named Hannah and her adventures. She loves her father very much and greatly admires him, so just imagine the loss and hurt she felt when her father died. Filled with grief and sorrow, weird things started to happen and it seems to come from the ugly teapot that her father gave to her. I can’t say much from here, but that’s basically where her adventure starts. Just read the book to know more! (winks)

Hannah is a very strong main character. She’s a very strong, brave, and relatable girl. I wish I had read her story when I was her age, she could easily have been my hero. I also loved her dog, Griff, and that they can communicate with each other! I wish I could also do that. The other characters where also well-written, Hannah’s father is definitely one awesome dad. There where also a few more characters that are a bit more magical like the magician, genie, and a lot more creatures along the way.

I enjoyed the unpredictability of the plot, every twist and turn was done very well! The magical realism was also played out magically. The writing was easy to read and follow, everything was written vividly so I felt like I was really on a magical adventure with them. I liked that it was about family, grief, and love. It doesn’t have romance in it but there are some cutesy scenes to look out for.

With all these positive things, you might ask why I only gave it 3-stars? Well, it’s more of a personal issue. I wasn’t that into the story or engrossed enough, maybe I wasn’t in the mood when I read this or other external factors. But I could have easily gave this 4-stars, I really think a younger audience would love this.

The Ugly Teapot is a fast-paced and magical read, perfect for those who loves magic and adventure! It a very promising first book for a series, I wish I could read the next book real soon. I definitely recommend this to everyone who enjoys middle grade fantasy books.

Thank you so much to the author for giving me digital copy of this book to review. I’m truly sorry that my review took a while before getting posted.

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That’s all, thank you so much for reading. If you want to read more book reviews from this blog, just click here. And you could also find my reviews in Goodreads.