Small Change For Stuart by Lissa Evans

I had never heard of this book until about two weeks ago, when it was given to me by mistake. I started reading it in bed one evening, and am really glad I did. It's a great adventure story, full of magicians, puzzles, mysterious triplets and other highly entertaining characters.

The story starts with a young boy, Stuart, moving house with his family. His new life is extremely dull until he hears a tale from his father about Uncle Tony, a magician from fifty years ago. Uncle Tony kept his magic workshop extremely secret and well-hidden, but left a trail of clues for 'the right kind of boy' to follow and solve. Stuart decides to take on the challenge!

He tries really hard to track down the workshop, but is constantly interrupted by some triplets who live next door, April, May and June. The girls want to put him on the front page of the newspaper they are writing. Stuart meets a whole cast of interesting people on his adventure (not everyone is on his side), and has to solve a series of fiendishly tricky problems.

I enjoyed reading this book a lot. It's easy to read and moves at a really good pace. My favourite character was Stuart's dad, who is a crossword fanatic and always speaks using ridiculously long words. Instead of saying 'It is going to rain', he will say 'Peciptiation is due imminently'.

The story got very exciting towards the end, when Stuart needed help from the triplets in order to escape from an extremely dangerous situation. There is a sequel called 'Big Change For Stuart', which is out in paperback very soon. I'm already looking forward to reading it!