Entries Categorized as 'Adventure'
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, Animals, Dragons, Fantasy, Fiction, Incredibook!, Long Read, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Donita K. Paul, DragonKeeper, Dragons
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Our rating: 
Now that the dragon population is on the rise, Kale has a myriad of dragon-keeping duties that consume her time. Bardon whisks her away on a quest with meech dragons Regidor and Gilda, who are searching for a lost meech colony. However, there is a subtle evil infiltrating Amara. A group calling themselves Followers claims that to truly follow Wulder, one must follow a strict set of rules. Kale, Bardon, and their friends must discern the truth, find the lost meech colony, and battle an ancient evil.
Folks, this book is deep! I don’t think I even scratched the surface with my summary. Donita K. Paul wraps up her amazing DragonKeeper Chronicles with a satisfying and delightful finale, answering many questions raised in the first four books, and opening the way for a few more. Of course, wonderful truths run through the entire book, making it more than just a story. I was so happy to find that characters absent from DragonFire reappeared here. The only problem I have is that this is the end of one of my favorite series. That aside (and it’s not much of a complaint!), DragonLight is certainly not to be missed.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fiction, Funny, Good Read Aloud, Review
Tags:Book of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau, light
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Ember stands as the only light in a literally dark world. The city is lighted by lamps, the sky is black, and nobody ever leaves. When Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow are assigned their jobs as citizens of Ember, they are excited at first, but soon become frightened as they discover that the city is running down, which is the worst possible thing that could ever happen. Then Lina’s granny remembers that something important was lost, which Lina finds, but not before her baby sister chews up the important piece of paper, leaving the writing on the paper in tatters. It’s labelled “Instructions for” something, so Lina and Doon try to figure out what it says before the city’s lights flicker out for the last time.
Here’s a delightful story that is both fun and deep at the same time. I’m still thinking about some of the implications of elements of the story, and still chuckling over others. The citizens of Ember have no concept of so many of the things that we take for granted, which is demonstrated time after time as they wonder about what words like “hogwash” and “treetop” mean. On the deep side of things, The City of Ember speaks profoundly about pride, greed, and the consequences of wrong choices. The only thing I really didn’t like was the slow beginning, but once that’s over, you have a book that deserves to be recognized as an excellent story for pretty much everybody. There’s a movie coming out on October 10th, which looks pretty good to me.
(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
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Posted by Ruth
Categories: Adventure, Award Winner, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Lloyd Alexander, Westmark trilogy
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Being a printer’s apprentice could hardly be called dangerous work, but with the Chief Minister Cabbarus laying down laws left and right, Theo soon finds himself running for his life. For the sake of concealment, he falls in with the fraudulent Count Las Bombas, and through twists and turns, they are joined by Mickle, an orphan girl with a talented voice. Their journeys sweep them all over Westmark, involving a group of revolutionaries, a daring rescue mission, and an uncovered plot of the evil Cabbarus aspiring to take over the throne.
Overall, I don’t know that I can recommend this one as much as Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles. This is supposed to be a book for children, but there were a couple of things that bothered me—moral issues of what is right and what is wrong often set Theo to wondering, but the other characters seem to shrug off his concerns. Also, there was a very small amount of swearing, which was completely unnecessary. Aside from these things, I was able to enjoy the story, and I may look into reading the second and third of the trilogy, but I can’t rank Westmark as one of Lloyd Alexander’s bests.
(No Ratings Yet)
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Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, Animals, Dragons, Fantasy, Fiction, Long Read, Older Readers, Review, Scary
Tags:The Door Within, Unicorns, Wayne Thomas Batson
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The Realm is in grave danger as Paragor marches ever nearer with an immense army. Only the legendary three witnesses can save our friends from the previous books. Meanwhile, Aidan is still trying to get through to his friend Robby about the Realm and King Eliam. And Antoinette is still in the Realm, captured by Robby’s evil Glimpse. As Paragor’s army reaches Alleble, the three witnesses must be discovered, and everybody must choose whose side they are on.
This is an epic fantasy tale that moves quickly from page one all the way to the end. So quickly, in fact, that I almost feel like Wayne Thomas Batson could have split The Final Storm into two books and slowed down a little bit. However, that is my only major complaint with this one. The characters really come to life, there’s great humor, excitement, and a very satisfying ending.
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, Animals, Dragons, Fantasy, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Holly Black, Spiderwick, Tony DiTerlizzi
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The adventure begins as the Grace family (twins Jared and Simon, Mallory, and their mother) moves into a house that Mrs. Grace’s great-aunt Lucinda has given them. And then strange things begin to happen. The children find a hidden room, full of weird references to faeries. Jared finds a field guide by Arthur Spiderwick telling all about the different kinds of faeries, what they do, where they live, and how to tame them. When they do find faeries, the faeries want them to destroy the book. But Jared insists on keeping it, and so the Grace family is plunged into an adventure they never expected.
Although this is a fun story, there are many things included that make it inappropriate for the intended age group. Jared has problems controlling his temper, and he never overcomes the problem. He also deceives the faeries more than once in order to keep the field guide, but later realizes that he should be truthful. His siblings are a little more well-behaved.
Somewhat disappointing is the fact that the villain character is not revealed until the fourth book in the series. Also, the story seems to be stretched out needlessly to cover a five book serial. Every member of the family is captured by faeries at one time or another, which makes for exciting escapes, but becomes boring reading after the second or third capture. However, a clever story does manage to make Spiderwick worth reading. Even though the series is aimed at a younger audience, I feel that it is really better suited for ages 10 and up, so I went ahead and labeled them for older readers. I’ve linked to the boxed set, as the books really should be read back-to-back.
I actually enjoyed the recent film version of The Spiderwick Chronicles better than the book. A lot of the more inappropriate material was cut. The story was also changed around to make it move along at a more respectable pace, and I thought that the ending of the movie was much more satisfying than the ending of the book. The film also lets you know who the bad guy is early on, which was a big plus for me. So make sure that you see the movie once you’ve finished the books.
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