Book vs. Movie Review: Howl's Moving Castle

The Book: 1986

This children's book by Diana Wynne Jones was published in the 1980s when I would have been part of its target audience, but I didn't discover it until the 2000s.  Nonetheless it quickly became one of my all time favorites.  I don't think there is an age limit for appreciating Howl's Moving Castle - it's one of those books that I turn to when I want something comforting, satisfying, and entertaining, and I always enjoy it no matter how many times I've read it before. 
Sophie, our heroine, is a timid and rather bored young woman who bemoans her fate as an eldest sister, because in a land where fairy-tales are everyday realities, everyone knows that only younger sisters lead lives of adventure and romance.  But Sophie's life takes an unexpected turn when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste and finds herself magically transformed into an old woman.  Not wanting to face the shock and sympathy of her family, she runs (or rather hobbles) away, determined to seek her fortune and break the curse.  In doing so, she finds herself teeming up with the infamous Wizard Howl whose magical moving castle has been terrifying the inhabitants of her village.