After really enjoying the Clockwork Boys books by Kingfisher I decided to hunt down other books by her and discovered Minor Mage, which is also completely charming. It's really a YA book, although apparently her publishers refused to publish it as such as it does have some scary characters (some human-eating ghuls) and various references to death. Nonetheless, can't say it's any more grim than many of the original fairy tales that children have enjoyed for centuries, so unless your kids are super sensitive I'd give it to them to enjoy.

The protagonist is Oliver, a 12 year old minor mage who knows only three spells (one of which is to control his allergies to armadillos). Oliver gets by with the little he learned before the town's senile old wizard died, and by a lot of trial and error. But when a drought hits Oliver's tiny farming town, he's the only one who has a chance to bring the rains back, so he sets off on a dangerous journey accompanied only by his familiar (an armadillo named Eglamarck). Oliver's a charming protagonist, the world is somehow both cozy and dangerous at the same time, the lessons Oliver learns along the way are relevant to readers of all ages, and the whole adventure is extremely readable and over too soon.