This is a delightful book. It's funny and charming and yet hard-hitting in places. It's about how society fails its most vulnerable members, about judging people because they are different, about the transforming power of love.
Linus Baker, the protagonist, is a case-worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, effectively in a dead-end job, ground down by routine and a home life centred on his cat and his love of music. Everything changes when he is sent to Marcyus Orphanage to report on it. Initially scared of the children there - one in particular - he comes to see them as individuals and as CHILDREN, rather than people to be afraid of. His life is turned upside down in more ways than one. The children are weird and wonderful, but totally believable, and Linus and the other adult characters, good and bad - particularly Arthur, the master of the orphanage - are beautifully drawn too. Recommended.