Midnight for Charlie Bone

infobox Book|
name = Midnight For Charlie Bone


image_caption = First edition, 2002
author = Jenny Nimmo
illustrator =
cover_artist = Marijka Kostiw
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = Children of the Red King series
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Egmont Books Ltd
release_date = 15 May 2002
media_type = Print (Paperback & Hardback)
pages = 345 pp (first edition, paperback)
isbn = ISBN 978-1740518215 (first edition, paperback)
preceded_by = None
followed_by = The Time Twister

"Midnight for Charlie Bone" (2002) is the debut fantasy novel in the Children of the Red King series by Jenny Nimmo.

Plot summary

Ten-year-old Charlie Bone is making a birthday card for his best friend, Benjamin Brown. He intends to put a photograph of Benjamin's dog Runner Bean onto the card, but when he opens the envelope from the photo developer, he finds a picture of a man cradling a baby. He begins to hear static noises, followed by voices out of the photo.Then he goes for a walk with Benjamin and finds a news paper with a picture on it.He hears voices again and tells Benjamin about it. Then Charlie saw his Uncle Paton Yewbean during daylight, this was strange because Uncle Paton was never out in daylight. Charlie finds out that Uncle Paton has a power as well. Whenever Uncle Paton is around, light bulbs explode. Suddenly Uncle Paton notices that Charlie is following him and tells Charlie to go home. Later that day Charlie's great-aunts, Venetia, Lucretia and Eustacia Yewbean, and his grandmother Grizelda Bone, test Charlie to see if he is magically endowed. When they find out that he can hear voices from photographs,with much resistance by Charlie, they send him to Bloor's Academy.

Charlie returns the photo to its rightful owner, a Miss Julia Ingledew, who lives near the cathedral where his missing father once was an organist. Miss Ingledew tells him the story of a lost baby, given away by her late sister's husband, Dr. Tolly. She gives him a heavy metal case and a metal dog (actually it is a tape recorder) as he leaves. At Benjamin's house, Benjamin and Fidelio Gunn (he was sent by the Bloors to help him with music because he was to be in music) play the dog's tape, which gives instructions on how to open the case and awaken the baby who would now be the same age as Charlie.

When he goes to Bloor's, Charlie meets the Headmaster's son, Manfred Bloor, who hypnotizes Charlie temporarily. He learns about the legend of the Red King and meets all the other endowed children. He also makes friends with Fidelio Gunn, Billy Raven (an orphaned albino), Olivia Vertigo (a brilliant actress), Lysander Sage, and Tancred Torsson. Together, they figure out that a girl named Emilia Moon is the lost child, and plan to bring her out of her hypnotic state, which they do at Fidelio's house. Emilia's real name is Emma Tolly and has an endowment which lets her become any kind of bird she wishes and fly whilst in bird form. Miss Julia Ingledew becomes the guardian of Emma when Paton Yewbeam goes to Bloor's and forces thems to give him her birth certificate and other important documents.