Magical. I wish I had read this book when I was a kid. Originally written in German, I found the translation spot on and not at all choppy, despite having so many make-believe places and characters. The story flowed well and was entrancing. The only thing I didn't like is when the author is done with a character, they are often phased out with a phrase like "that's a story for another time", which makes it seem like the author plans on writing a several more stories later on to continue those additional story lines, when those characters are so small, you, as a reader, know there will be no such stories.