Book Review – Andy And His Magic Phone Visit The World Next Door

This is the first book from Johannesburg-based attorney Kim Ebner who has a penchant for fantasy novels.

Andy receives a second hand phone from his parents for his twelfth birthday. He is over the moon. While at school with his new phone, he gets several urgent messages from a stranger wanting to meet with him to give him a brand new phone in exchange for the one he has. His science teacher, Mr Casper, catches him texting in class and he gets detention. Detention turns out to be at Mr Casper’s house. In the basement science lab, Andy discovers his phone has magical powers that transport him to another world. Upon his arrival, he loses his phone but makes a new friend, Harold. From Harold he learns that evil adults have been trying to enslave this world that used to belong to children.

The two friends set off to find Andy’s phone and to save the “world next door”.

As a parent, I thought it was inappropriate for Andy to be receiving text messages from a strange adult, meeting the stranger and then going to detention at a teacher’s home. I felt uncomfortable reading it to my children.

Ewa Fabris
1/5