Children of the Red King


Children of the Red King is a series of ten children's fantasy, school and adventure novels written by British author Jenny Nimmo, first published by Egmont 2002 to 2010. It is sometimes called "the Charlie Bone series" after its main character. A series of five books was announced in advance, completed in 2006, and sometimes the books were called the "Red King Quintet" until its continuation.
A prequel trilogy, Chronicles of the Red King, has been published, which tells the story of the Red King.
Two follow up books, Henry and the Guardians of the Lost and Gabriel and the Phantom Sleepers, were written a few years after the prequel trilogy.

Contents

Children of the Red King comprises ten novels. All were first published by Egmont Books and the first 8 with cover art by David Wyatt. The first two were released in paperback editions, the following 6 were released in hardcover.
  1. Midnight for Charlie Bone
  2. The Time Twister
  3. The Blue Boa
  4. The Castle of Mirrors
  5. Charlie Bone and the Hidden King
  6. Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf
  7. Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock
  8. Charlie Bone and the Red Knight
In the United States, the books were released with the following titles :
  1. Midnight for Charlie Bone
  2. Charlie Bone and the Time Twister
  3. Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy
  4. Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors
  5. Charlie Bone and the Hidden King
  6. Charlie Bone and the Beast
  7. Charlie Bone and the Shadow
  8. Charlie Bone and the Red Knight
  9. Henry and the Guardians of the Lost
  10. ''Gabriel and the Phantom Sleepers''

    Plot summaries

''Midnight for Charlie Bone''

In the first novel, 10-year-old Charlie Bone discovers that he has a special power. After accidentally encountering a photograph of a missing baby, Charlie begins to hear the voices of people in photographs. He discovers that he is a descendant of the Red King, who was an ancient magician. Many of the Red King's descendants are endowed with magical powers. His cruel and uncaring Grandmother Bone and her three evil sisters send him to Bloor's Academy, where many endowed children study. With the help of a mysterious man named Mr. Onimous and his magical cats, Charlie returns the photograph of the missing baby to its rightful owner, a bookstore owner named Julia Ingledew. Julia asks Charlie to find her missing Emma, who was traded for a mysterious briefcase by her brother-in-law. Emma, now 10, is kept at Bloor's Academy and trapped under hypnosis by an endowed student, Manfred Bloor. With the help of Charlie's friend Benjamin and the loyal dog Runner Bean, as well as some of his family members, Charlie rescues Emma and discovers that his father is still alive, but also hypnotised by Manfred.

''The Time Twister''

In 1916, Charlie's great-great-uncle, Henry Yewbeam, is tricked into looking into the Time Twister while staying with his jealous cousin, Ezekiel Bloor. The Time Twister takes Henry from 1916 to the present day without ageing him. Charlie, at Bloor's Academy, witnesses his appearance and takes him to Mr. Pilgrim's room. However, the dog Blessed also sees this, and tells Billy Raven, an orphan who can communicate with animals and is acting as a spy for Ezekiel in return for the chance to be adopted. Ezekiel orders Billy to bring Henry to him. At midnight, Charlie goes down to the kitchens to find Cook, but comes across Henry directly. Henry says that he had met a "small lady in black", who had given him tea and sweets. It turns out the lady in black is Manfred Bloor's mother, who is cursed and can never leave the castle. Together they devise a plan: Henry will go in one of the canteen's freezers until the temperature is the same as winter in 1916, then look at the Time Twister and be transported back; Charlie will keep checking that he's still breathing. However, when they put their plan into action, the freezer door freezes shut. Hearing Charlie shout out, Cook comes running, and manages to heave the door open, revealing Henry who has turned blue and fainted of hypothermia. They take him back to Cook's top-secret quarters, where the Flames help revive him. Charlie then returns to his dormitory, with the help of a magical torch that Cook gives him which shows up details that aren't usually visible. Cook threatens Blessed not to tell Billy about her secret home or Henry. On his return to his dormitory, Charlie finds Billy, who has apparently just been bribed with cocoa. Charlie and his friends devise a plan to help Manfred's mother. She escapes through the Time Twister, while Charlie and Uncle Paton take Henry to live with his younger brother, James, by the sea.

'' The Blue Boa''

Paton Yewbeam goes on a secret mission to stop a terrible danger. Meanwhile, Grizelda Bone and her three sisters introduce Charlie to a pretty girl named Belle Donner who will go to Bloor's. At school the group finds out about an invisible boy named Ollie Sparks, who has been put in his condition by an ancient blue snake with feathers. They also find out that Mr. Boldova, an art teacher, is actually Ollie's brother, who is trying to save him. The group finds out that Belle is really Yolanda Yewbeam, who is a shape-shifter, and Charlie's great-great-great aunt. She hypnotises Mr. Boldova into leaving the school and Paton returns gravely ill. Charlie decides to visit Skarpo, but things don't go according to plan and Skarpo and his mouse escape. Luckily Cook finds Skarpo terrified of the present day, and Charlie agrees to return him home to his painting if Skarpo can help heal Paton.

''The Castle of Mirrors''

Billy Raven has been adopted by a mysterious and evil couple called the de Greys. The de Greys are endowed and have created a force field to trap him on the weekends to prevent him escaping. A distant relative of Billy's tries to adopt him, but ends up sacrificing himself to save Charlie's Uncle Paton. Manfred and Ezekiel brew trouble for all the endowed children. However, Ezekiel accidentally resurrects the Red King's wife Berenice, in the form of a white horse, when attempting to revive the King's evil son Borlath. Olivia Vertigo finds out she is endowed, with the ability to create illusions

''Charlie Bone and the Hidden King''

Charlie goes to Bloor's Academy on a mission to find his father. Unfortunately, 'The Shadow' is set free, and causes trouble everywhere. Meanwhile, Charlie's mother is bewitched to forget about her life and her family. It is revealed that 'The Shadow' had cast a spell on her. Eventually, Charlie discovers that Mr. Pilgrim is actually his father.

Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf

Charlie Bone and his Uncle Paton are visiting Charlie's old house while his parents are out whale watching. While there he finds that his whole upstairs floor area was ripped up and they find that there were people inside the house earlier. When Charlie goes to Bloor's Academy he finds a new boy is there that he has to guide around. His name is Dagbert Endless because his last names are "as endless as the seas". Dagbert's endowment is to drown other people, controlling water. Dagbert has to be around Charlie all the time, so he starts to drive his friends away by insulting them. Later Charlie finds out that his great Aunt Venetia will marry a man who has two young children.
Meanwhile, there is a weird howling that the whole town could hear. The town decides to call it the "wilderness wolf" and thinks that it's dangerous. When Charlie goes home for the weekend his Uncle gets bitten by a creature outside their house. He claims that the things were definitely not a wolf as everyone else thought, but more of a human. When the town holds a meeting, Charlie's friend Benjamin proposes the idea that Charlie's classmate Asa Pike might be the creature since earlier he betrayed Manfred Bloor and helped Charlie get his father back. Charlie's great Aunt Venetia dropped her new children at Ingledew's bookshop. Little Eric was endowed, but Miranda was not.
When Charlie goes back to Bloor's he is told by Billy Raven that the Wilderness Wolf is shouting "Help". When there is gunshots one night Billy tells Charlie that he heard it howl "Father". Later that week Charlie wakes up to his friend Naren sending the message goodbye. When he tried to talk back Dagbert sees the message and Charlie confronts him. While talking Dagbert experiences wild symptoms, such as glowing and pain, and he keeps telling Charlie to get his Sea Gold Creatures from under his pillow. When he gets better Dagbert explains how it is his birthday and how he is now more powerful than his father. When Charlie goes home for the weekend Benjamin explains his plan about Asa Pike and Charlie thinks that could be right. He decides that he has to help Asa because Asa risked everything to help him and his father. So he, Olivia, Benjamin, and Runner Bean go into the forest looking for him. Instead, they find Asa's mother as they realize that Asa's father was shot and was now dead. On their way across a dangerous metal bridge, the water rises so high that Runner Bean was washed away. Charlie's wand ends up helping them from drowning and Charlie sees the Red King across the bridge. Benjamin goes off to find Runner Bean and Charlie and Olivia bring Mrs. Pike to the Pet's Cafe. There she explains her story of how she thought that Asa would be good at Bloors Academy with Manfred as his friend, but they explained how they took him away because of how he betrayed them. Charlie leaves and remembers that he has to pick up Billy's Rat from a Kettle store. When he gets there the lady gives him a strange kettle that gets warm when he was in danger.
Charlie and Billy make a plan to go save Asa from underground. When they go they see Asa in his beast form, but Charlie finds that Billy lost his endowment. They decide that he needs to change back into his human form before they can talk to him. When Billy uses his special candles and Charlie uses his wand Asa turns into his human form as they leave the area. They see the Red King and they agree that Asa should go with him. Asa thanks Charlie for helping him and leaves.