Audio: The Cabinet Of Wonders

I have found something to fill the void left by the ending of Harry Potter!! I picked up the audio version of The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski recently at Half-Price Books because I was out of things to listen to in the car and thought, "Hmmm, sounds kinda interesting."

Petra Kronos has a simple happy life. but it's never been ordinary. She has a tin spider...who likes to hide in her snarled hair. Her best friend can trap lightning inside a glass sphere. Petra also has a father in faraway Prague who is able to move metal with his mind...Petra's life is forever changed when, one day, her father returns home - blind. The prince has stolen his eyes, enchanted them, and wears them. But why?
Petra doesn't know, but she know this: she will go to Prague, sneak into Salamander castle, and steal her father's eyes back.

This book is supposedly written for children but (and maybe this is because it was being read to me) I didn't feel like it was a "children's novel." What I mean is that I think adults would enjoy this book too (as many of them did with Harry Potter). I'm not sure if the author meant to write a book for children or she was simply writing a book that, when finished, was so easily aimed at children. This is her debut novel (unfortunately the next book isn't out yet, booooo) so I'm not sure if she is solely an author of children's fiction. What I do know is that I loved this book. I have picked up a few other "children's novels" in the past and felt the author was talking down to the audience, as if he didn't expect children to understand him. This is not the case in this book. The language is not above a child's head but it is also not "talking down." I think that is a hard thing to do for most people. It was only 7 hours of audio (unabridged) so I'm sure the book is a fairly quick read. Pick it up and read it soon! The next book in the series, The Kronos Chronicles, will be out in August.