I'm sure most people who either were or raised a little girl after 1986 are familiar with the American Girl dolls and their corresponding books. The Magic Attic Club franchise is similar, though far more obscure (it also seems to have gone out of business or otherwise been discontinued); rather than American Girl's historical characters who are sold as dolls and star in their own series of chapter books, the Magic Attic Club is a set of four (later six) modern characters who are sold as dolls and star in one continuous series of fantasy chapter books.

The premise of the Magic Attic Club series is simple: four girls—Heather Harden, Keisha Vance, Megan Ryder, and Alison McCann—discover that the mirror in their neighbor's attic has the magical ability to send them through time and space to a place corresponding with whatever costume they try on. Dressing up as a princess will result in a fantasy adventure in your typical quasi-medieval Europe setting; dressing up as a cheerleader will whisk you away to a cheerleading camp; and dressing up in an Olympic skater's outfit will have you competing for gold on the ice. It's an interesting concept, a bit similar to the Magic Tree House series, but rather than focusing on teaching history or science, it focuses on teaching social lessons like confidence, leadership, and bravery.

In The Secret of the Attic, Sheri Cooper Sinykin introduces readers to the original four girls, the concept of the magic attic, and the owner of the magic attic, an elderly woman named Ellie. Helping others is a major of theme of the book, but as far as I'm concerned, the subplot is far more interesting. It's Christmastime, and Megan, Keisha, and Alison have invited Heather, the new girl, to their celebration... but Heather's Jewish and doesn't celebrate Christmas, which leaves her feeling awkward and a bit alienated; she has yet to tell her friends any of this. Obviously, she finally does and is reassured by her friends; she and Keisha even bond a bit over some of the similarities between Chanukah and Kwanzaa traditions.

All in all, it's a cute story; nothing groundbreaking, but a nice way to introduce the series nonetheless. It might be a nice thing to read during the holidays if your child, like Heather, is feeling awkward about not celebrating Christmas or, conversely, might need some help understanding how children who don't celebrate Christmas might feel a bit left out during that time of year. If you can get your hands on the series, I definitely recommend giving it a try; perhaps its strongest aspect is how multi-ethnic it is, with the core cast of characters including two ethnically unspecified fair-skinned girls, a Sephardi Jewish girl, an African American girl, and a Native American girl. Of the three girls whose ethnicities are identified, their cultural history is considered very much a part of the characters, being referenced throughout the series and explored as thoroughly as possible, given the short length and young audience of the books.

The first few books of this series were quite childish, more so than is warranted given their 7+ age recommendation. As the series progressed, however, the authors got their act together and realized that you don’t need to write down to children, and I certainly appreciated that. (It made revisiting this childhood memory far less painful than I worried it might be.)

Unfortunately, L.E. Wiliams must not yet have realized that lesson when she wrote this installment. There’s a lot of “tell” instead of “show” and a lot of stereotyped and over-exaggeratedly “childish” comments and worries. It’s not unforgivable by any means, but it definitely has a somewhat condescending sense toward its intended demographic that seriously grates the nerves of its peripheral audience.

If this was her first installment in the series, I’ll forgive it completely; the other authors went through the same trial-and-error method with their writing styles for the series. But as far as determining the order of the post-Trapped books… so many of these were released in such a short time period that the publication dates aren't particularly helpful (and many of them are either missing or guesswork in the first place), and there’s not a lot of information available on this series, so I’m rather out of luck with trying to find out if this is actually Rose’s first appearance as a main character. I’ll be reading a few more of her installments when I get the chance, and I definitely hope to see Williams’ voice improve; otherwise, I have to say I'll be disappointed.

It's clear from the first few pages of this that the new author doesn't know a thing about these characters and their backgrounds. Take this exchange, for instance:

Her friends laughed. "That's true," Keisha said..."Ali is the only one of us who wasn't afraid to jump off the high board at the swimming pool when we were all in first grade, remember?"

Uh, no, actually. Two of the people you're talking to just met you within the last year, remember? And, you know, that's been a major plot point in many of the books?

I do hate to break it to you, Ms. Alexander, but you have to actually read the previous books when you start writing for a popular series, m'kay?

The actual plot of the book is fairly interesting, however, so it's a shame that the author's obvious lacks of interest in and familiarity with the series nearly ruined my enjoyment of it.