The Puzzle Ring by Kate Forsyth

Review from Celia, age 9:

Hannah lives in Australia and is 13 years old, but she is meant to be in Scotland and be called Lady Hannah. One day, Hannah and her mum get a letter from Hannah's grandmother who lives in a castle in Scotland. Hannah talks her mum into going to Scotland to visit.

When they get there, Hannah finds a hag-stone at the Witch's Pool and an old rusted key in her Dad's old bedroom. Her dad has been missing for 13 years. Everybody says different things about where her father went, but he actually went through a portal into the time of Mary Queen of Scots. With the hag-stone you can see stuff that used to be there and magic things. With the key she could unlock a door in the music room that was her Dad's study.

Hannah meets other kids her age and makes friends. Then on a thin day she is going to go through the portal when her friends show up and argue that she didn't tell them she was going to leave. They all go back in time to the time of Mary Queen of Scots where they look for the pieces of the puzzle ring that may bring her father back and break the curse on Wintersloe Castle.

Eglantyne of the Fair Folk was married to one of Hannah's ancestors, she put a curse on Wintersloe Castle because people thought she was a witch and they tried to kill her as they burned witches in those days. She threw her puzzle ring into the air and sent them to the four corners of the world, so it couldn't be put back together and break the curse.

There, they meet an evil witch named Irata (don't say her name out loud!). They find all four pieces of the puzzle ring by using the hag-stone and find Hannah's father and escape back home.

In the nearby village there is a lady called Morgana Underhill, who is a descendant of the Morgana who was sister to Eglantyne. Hannah summons Irata by saying her name nine times. Irata comes through the portal and Morgana traps Irata in a mirror which they throw into the loch and the curse is broken. Morgana goes to be queen of the Fair Folk and for the rest of the years, everybody was happy at Wintersloe.

Comment on why she liked it : "Because it went back in time to the time of Mary Queen of Scots and had magic in it."