Troubletwisters, #1 -- Garth Nix and Sean Williams
It's a familiar premise that begins with a familiar line:
The year the twins turned twelve, everything changed.
"Everything changed", of course, could apply to any number of things, but in the case of Troubletwisters, it's more along the lines of Harry Potter, Charlie Bone, or Savvy. After an unexpected, violent, and mysterious incident destroys their house, Jack and Jaide Shield's mother moves the three of them—their father has departed for parts unknown—to live with their Grandma X.
Yes, that's what she goes by: Grandma X.
Even before they get settled in, Jack and Jaide know that there's something... off... about their grandmother, her house, and maybe even the whole town. Doors seem to appear and disappear, the cats are more communicative than some people, and there's something weird going on with the insects in town. Also, Jack is getting far more stealthy than humanly possible, Jaide's starting to develop a minor problem with gravity, and they're both starting to wonder if their Grandma X might be... well, evil.
First in a series, obviously, and while it's got the kids-become-tweens-and-gain-[SPOILER]-magical-powers-[/SPOILER] storyline, I'd say it's more on a par with Charlie Bone than with Harry Potter or Savvy.
Harry Potter's huge strength is in its world-building, and Savvy's huge strength is in Mibs' voice. While Charlie Bone is perfectly enjoyable, it (at least up through book four or five, which is where I stopped) never feels magical in the same way that the others do. For whatever reason—maybe it's because they feel like they're part of something bigger, both within the world of the story and within the literary canon—Harry Potter and Savvy resonate on a closer-to-core level than Charlie Bone and Troubletwisters.
Boiled down, hopefully in a more coherent manner: Troubletwisters is kind of the Spy Kids of middle-grade fantasy. (There are even gadgets!) Perfectly competent, loads of fun, bound to result in a popular series, but probably not one for the ages... though I'll certainly be reading the sequel.
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Book source: Review copy from the publisher.