Title: The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere #1)

Author: Jacqueline West

Genre: Children, Fantasy

Published: June 9, 2010

Olive and her parents moved into the old McMartin house and Olive began to notice that not everything was normal about the paintings on the walls especially when she figured out she was able to travel into them.

I found some of the descriptions slightly off beat and therefore they made the book more interesting. "The water was the temperature of warm soda pop or cold soup." Or "Olive half expected a cat that size to make a crash like a dropped bowling ball, but he landed with surprising lightness." Without the slight quirkiness I believe the book would have been a much slower read.

As I have noticed recently in the books I have been reading the best part were the animals. There were three cats who had more personality than the human characters and they were also more fun. At one point I began thinking we hadn't seen any of them for awhile and it was time for at least one of them to make an appearance.

It was a fun story which the target audience should enjoy. I really wouldn't mind reading the next in the series.

Overall I gave this book 4 stars out of 5.