Review: Paint By Magic

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Title: Time Travel Mystery #2: Paint By Magic (my version is the Indonesian version so: Time Travel Mystery #2: Lukisan Kematian Padova)
Author: Kathryn Reiss
Publisher: Kaifa Teens
Source: Can't remember - probably one of the chain bookshops in Surabaya, Indonesia.
Synopsis: 
Something is terribly wrong with Connor's mom--she keeps slipping into bizarre trances. Connor suspects that the key to his mom's strange behavior is an old art book filled with paintings of a woman who looks exactly like her. But the artist who created those paintings died before his mom was even born.


Connor gets his chance to break the evil link between the past and the present when he is mysteriously whisked back in time to the 1920s. But can he save his mom--and himself--before it's too late?

Review: ⋆⋆⋆

'Hay is for horses!'

This is one of the books I found in my family's study whose plot I couldn't remember. The only thing I can remember is that I liked it, and that sentence up there^ (funny what your brain retains, isn't it?), so I decided it was time for a re-read.

Paint By Magic is aimed for middle-schoolers, and I think that age group would find this thrilling. I've read and watched too many mystery novels to be surprised by the conclusion of the plot, so I became quite impatient with Connor for not reaching the same conclusion faster. Then I reminded myself that he's eleven. Nevertheless, there were truly eerie and thrilling moments, and I was truly creeped out by the painter.

I'm kind of ambivalent about the push for old-fashioned activities. I totally understand how lovely it must be to have family quality time without technology interrupting - and that should absolutely happen more than it probably is for most families - but I've lived overseas. For more or less five years, technology was the only reason I could have any form of quality time with my family. Balance is always better, and I like that the Rigoletti-Chase family seems to be moving in that direction.

All in all, I would've loved this more if I had been 14 year old, but it is still a good read.