Beyond Differences: Wizards of Once series by Cressida Cowell

First there was The Wizards of Once, the story of Xar, a young boy who belongs to the Wizard tribe who has been patiently waiting for his magic powers. Joining Xar is Wish a Warrior who, despite being surrounded by people who are highly against magic, owns a banned Magical Object that she must conceal.

Brought up as enemies, these two-black sheep of the family come together when a common enemy threatens to destroy both their homes and the Warrior empire and Wizard worlds collide.

Then best-selling author Cressida Cowell continued this exciting tale with The Wizards of Once: Twice Magic. We were very excited to read it late last year but if you missed out then read on…

When Wish and Xar meet up again and join forces to solve the problems that are brewing in the Wildwoods, an action-packed adventure begins to unfold. Can they stop the witches? Will they start a war? And how are they going to stop the evil forces that have been unleashed and make things right again without making their parents extremely mad?

If you don’t yet have this series in your collection, then you might want to take a look at our full review here.

This month a new edition of The Wizards of Once: Twice Magic has hit the shelves so if you haven’t already grabbed your little reader a copy then now would be the perfect time.

It is filled with beautiful illustrations, detailed sketches of elaborately adorned characters, intricate maps, and dark and ominous castles along with fascinating creatures such as giants, snow cats and sprites. Cowell is not only a master story teller but an extremely talented illustrator.

The Wizards of Once series is funny, detailed and thoughtful, and explores themes of resilience, perseverance, loyalty and moving beyond differences to work together.

You can’t go past this for the 8+ fantasy reader. In November fans will be very pleased to hear that there will be a third addition to the series with The Wizards of Once: Knock Three Times and you can read more about that here.

In the meantime if your little reader devours these at the speed of light (and undoubtedly they will), Cressida Cowell has a fantastic website where you can watch video clips here , read an extract here and you can listen to a sample of the audio book read by none other than David Tennant, the beloved Dr Who here.

Purchase a copy of Wizards of Once and Wizards of Once: Twice Magic by Cressida Cowell

Cressida Cowell is the author and the illustrator of the bestselling How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once book series, and the author of the Emily Brown picture books, illustrated by Neal Layton.

How to Train Your Dragon has sold over 8 million books worldwide in 38 languages. It is also an award-winning DreamWorks film series, and a TV series shown on Netflix and CBBC. The first book in Cressida’s new series, The Wizards of Once (also signed by DreamWorks), is a number one bestseller.

Cressida is an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust and the Reading Agency, a Trustee of World Book Day and a founder patron of the Children’s Media Foundation. She has won numerous prizes, including the Gold Award in the Nestle Children’s Book Prize, the 2017 Ruth Rendell Award for Championing Literacy, the Hay Festival Medal for Fiction, and Philosophy Now magazine’s 2015 Award for Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity.

Cressida grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland and she now lives in Hammersmith with her husband, three children and a dog called Pigeon.