I originally heard of this book from the Ghibli movie (like I'm sure lots of people have). For some reason while reading, I kept on thinking about how I would set this as a play, so the majority of the story took place on a stage with set pieces. Kinda weird, I know.

I would say for your child who is 10+ they would love this book. As a 22 year old, I found this book enjoyable enough, but wasn't for me. It was interesting how everything did tie together in the end. I wouldn't say there is a whole lot of apparent character growth, but looking back you can see some. Personally, I didn't find the book to be better or worse than the movie, just different. Apparently there are more books that follow Howl, but I'll probably skip those. A fun short read if you're an adult who liked the movie, although if you have kids, 100% get them to read this.