Book Review: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

In 1997, I got my first after-school job, I was paid minimum wage to shelve books at the local library. I enjoyed it a lot, even if I sometimes spent too much time stopping to read what I put on the shelves at the Weston Public Library in the Boston suburbs. The librarians were great and for a time, everyone working in the youth services had a K name.

One of these all-knowing Ks was my boss Kelly and she gave me a very specific assignment. After handing me a copy of a book I had never heard of, she instructed me to read this before I next came to work. The book was Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle and it was as much a part of job training as how to shelf-read the series section in the back.

I went home and read it in one night, meeting along the way Sophie Hatter, who would give her millinery personality by talking to the hats she created. It was a bit of passive magic, but it attracted the attention of someone much less passive. Cursed to assume an elderly form, Sophie leaves family and livelihood behind to find the local wizard Howl and enlist his help in breaking the curse. She soon tricked the wizard's fire demon into helping her and got wrapped up in the adventures of the apprentice, Michael. Throughout, there was strife with the Witch of the Waste and the mystery of a missing ruler. And, as sometimes happened, the magical kingdom had a wizard from an unexpectedly run-of-the-mill place.

I was enchanted by this little story and read the sequel as soon as I could locate Castle in the Air. While it was a children's book, it drew me in for its insights into adult relationships, unlikely friendships, and personal destinies that cannot be avoided forever. In between my introduction to hobbits and my first visit to Hogwarts, I spent some time in a castle where the doorknob position determined the city that would be seen beyond the threshold.

People of all ages need and deserve whimsy and a pause to consider fundamental needs and Howl's Moving Castle. The film adaptation takes some very interesting liberties, but has its own merits, but it stays true to the message of happily-ever-after being a hair-raising experience that is worth living.