(The Harry Potter books suffer from some of the same problem, as do all children's books with kids as the heroes. There are a number of ways out-- J.K. Rowling has the same "magic powers" out as Cooper does, while John Bellairs (The Chessmen of Doom and The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull) relies on the ineffable workings of providence, and Lemony Snicket (The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, and The Miserable Mill is just so silly that you don't worry about realism.)

The other big problem with these is the ending. The early books are fairly straightforward collect-the-Plot-Tokens-and-win-prizes books, but the final volume goes all myffic, with a highly metaphorical Ultimate Battle between the Light and the Dark. It's a little disappointing, after all the build-up. There are also some issues with the way the characters are handled after the big showdown, but I can't really discuss those without massive spoilers.

I've focused on the negative in the above, because I pretty much hit the high points with the earlier entries. I don't want to leave the impression that these are bad books, though-- on the contrary, they remain some of the best kids' fantasy novels ever written (and Kate and I have pushed them on a number of young relatives and children of friends). They work pretty well for adults, too, so if you weren't lucky enough to read them when you were young, you could do much worse than to pick them up now.

(Previously posted to The Library of Babel.)