The Mystwick School of Musicraft, by Jessica Khoury

The Mystwick School of Musicraft, by Jessica Khoury, is a fun read for those who like magical school stories with determined kids finding their true gifts.

Amelia Jones is the best in her village at musicraft-the art of mixing music and magic-and she's determined to gain admittance to the Mystwick School, one of the most prestigious in the world.  It's where her mother, who died when she was little, went, and it's all Amelia wants.  When she botches her audition, she's sure she hasn't gotten in, but to her great surprise, she gets an acceptance letter.  And so she's off on a magical trip around the world, in a dirigible powered by magic organ music, that gathers her classmates and takes them to the school off in the Colorado mountains.

But once she's there, it's discovered that she is the wrong Amelia Jones.  Another Amelia, brilliant at both piano playing and spell crafting, was supposed to have gotten the letter, but she has just tragically died.  The staff at the school are very doubtful about giving the wrong Amelia her place, but decide to take her on a trial basis.   She's determined to work harder than everyone to prove her worth, but her flute playing isn't nearly as good as everyone else's music, and her magic doesn't always work out right...and on top of that, her new roommate was best friends with the other Amelia, and of course resents her tremendously, and to make things even worse, she realizes she's being haunted...possibly by the other Amelia.

But eventually her roommate, and a friendly boy in her class, start helping her figure out what's happening.  In order to try to set things right, they break school rules and experiment with a forbidden dark spell, which doesn't go well.  And in the end, the whole school is in danger and Amelia realizes that she has a special, valuable gift after all and deserves a place in the world of magical music.

It doesn't break tremendously new ground, but it's a pleasant read with enough new interest provided by the music.  The growing threat posed by the ghost and the dark magic add nice tension, while remaining a problem the kids can solve by working together.  There's nothing really to find fault with, but it never quite became a book I found myself loving, though I can imagine many 9-11 year olds enjoying it more than I did.  Amelia isn't a brilliant instrumentalist, and so there was never the passion for the music in and of itself taking over the pages, which I would have liked.  Apparently the audiobook, where you get to listen to all the music powering the magic, is wonderful, and in fact sounds so appealing I want to check it out.