A truly magical story! Liesl & Po will open your heart and make you reminisce on your childhood days when you believed in magic and when anything was possible.

The first thing I noticed and fell in love with in this book was the wonderful illustrations inside it's pages:



Also, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found under the dust jacket:


These added greatly to the imagination and increased the charm of the story immensely. I loved the way the characters were defined in the images. They were exactly how I would have pictured them.

The story takes us on a journey with Liesl and her friend ghost, Po, to bring her father's ashes to a house they lived in before her stepmother got in the picture. The same evil stepmother who locked Liesl in the attic since her father got sick - which was a year ago.

This book held extraordinary characters. Each and every one of them were fascinating and I couldn't help but be enthralled by them. When I met Liesl, I was immediately drawn to her innocence and devotion. I really enjoyed her trek to get her father's ashes to their house and how all the characters came together in the most uncanny way. What I also found great was how every characters had a big part in the novel. It didn't necessarily have one main character, it had many and you get to understand and adore every one of them, as well as despise the villains.

It didn't have the most unpredictable plot. It was actually pretty foreseeable from an adult standpoint. But this is a story that is written for children (9-12). Of course adults can enjoy this as well, much like the well loved Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Coraline and lots of others novels. The predictability of the plot never affected my appreciation of the book for a minute. The characters, the magic, the heartfelt moments were sufficient enough. It gave me the same feeling as when I curl up during the holidays to watch my favorite movies that I've seen a hundred times but never fails to make me laugh and smile.

Liesl & Po is a an enchanting tale that will bring tears to your eyes and won't fail to make you smile. I look forward to reading this to my son in a few years.

Ineffable!