about the book
In an alternate world where the present-day U.S. is infused with magic, there is a school called the Magisterium. To get in, you have to pass the Iron Trial. Once in, you will be instructed in all the wonders and dangers of magic. Most kids would give and do anything to pass the Iron Trial—but twelve-year-old Callum Hunt desperately wants to fail.
It is his father’s fault. All his life, Call has been told by him to stay away from magic. It is dangerous. If he gets in to the Magisterium, it can only mean trouble. So Call does all he can to fail—and fails even at failing! He gets through the Trial, and is admitted into the world of magic.
Call’s teacher mage is Master Rufus, and his fellow students are Aaron and Tamara. As they begin their first five years of training, Call begins to realize he knew very little of his world—and little about his own heritage.
about the authors
In this book, Holly Black trades in her dark faeries and goblins for something a little more ghostly. Her creatures are always on the edgy and dangerous side, especially the old china doll in Doll Bones. Holly received a Newbery Honor for how she handled a sinister spirit and the three coming-of-age children who quested to find its burial plot. Doll Bones was called “perfect” by The New York Times.
As a child, Holly believed in ghosts because her mother did. She was originally afraid of the spirits, but that turned to fascination. She grew up in a decrepit New Jersey Victorian house filled with books, several of them about ghosts. Always interested in writing, she studied English lit at The College of New Jersey. She is two classes away from a Library Science masters at Rutgers University.
Holly lives in Massachusetts with her husband Theo, an artist whom she met playing Dungeons and Dragons in college. Their house is a bit on the spooky side—they even have a secret library!
Holly has three cats—hairless demon Lily, grumpy Persian Fizzgig, and stray White Cat (Holly admits that she is too superstitious to change his name). She collects cool shoes and went to two proms in 2009!
Sources:
Author website
Author page : Amazon
Author interview : Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast
Author video interview: Random House
Also by Holly Black:
The Copper Gauntlet (Magisterium, Book 2) with Cassandra Clare. Scholastic. 2015.
Doll Bones. Margaret K. McElderry Books. 2013.
The Spiderwick Chronicles series with Tony DiTerlizzi. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. 2003-2004.
Born in Tehran, Iran, to American parents, Cassandra Clare spent the first decade of her life traveling the world with her parents. She even went on a trek across the Himalayas in her father’s backpack when she was a toddler. Before she was ten, she had lived in Switzerland, France, and England. Cassandra now lives in New York City.
Cassandra loved to read fantasy books as a kid. After she graduated from college, she worked for various entertainment magazines and tabloids, where she wrote a lot about Britney Spears and Brangelina. In 2006, she started writing fantasy fiction full time and wants never to write about Paris Hilton again.
A short story by Jane Austen inspired Cassandra’s pen name. Her real name is Judith Rumelt. She prefers to write around other people, because her cats and reality TV are a big distraction when she is home alone.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Simon & Schuster
Author interview : TMI Source
Author interview : The Fandom
Also by Cassandra Clare:
The Copper Gauntlet (Magisterium, Book 2) with Holly Black. Scholastic. 2015.
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