The children are the heart of this and the first book. Without them to anchor the story and make the book come to life, the reader would be left with a underdeveloped novel. Specially one that struggles to show genuine creativity (none of the magic is original), falls short of a strong or consistent plot, and is far too "tell, not show". I ended up rating it the same as first book. Though they don't have the same strengths and weaknesses, both ultimately fall short.