Entries Categorized as 'All Ages'
Posted by Becca
Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Funny, Jack Stoneley, Out of Print, Sad
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Our rating: 
A mixed breed puppy is born in an abandoned house. Its mother had been left, tied to the house, for a neighbor to pick up when her owners moved away. But she chewed her rope and ran back into the house before the neighbor could get there. The puppy ends up as the only surviver of her litter. The house is eventually set on fire to get it out of the way of a building company. After escaping through the chimney, the mother dog and her puppy are found on the roof and rescued by a worker. The man takes the two dogs home for his wife to care for. She immediately falls in love with them and persuades her husband to keep them. But the mother dog has other plans. She is determined to find her way back to her previous owners. On the way back to the old house, she gets lost and ends up getting shot by some shepherds. The puppy is now alone in the world. Throughout the rest of the story, she earns the name “Scruffy,” joins up with a pack of dogs, and unwittingly helps to wreck a car.
This is a great book about a dog who started out as a stray and ended up famous. I’ve read it multiple times and it still remains on my favorite list. The pack of dogs get into many adventures, including blowing up a traffic sign, “guarding” a lady, and rescuing a boot—thought to be a puppy by a deaf collie—from getting run over. The last part of the story is true. Jack Stoneley actually wrote the articles that are talked about in the book. “Scruffy” was originally titled “The Tuesday Dog.”
Posted by Jordan
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Funny, Good Read Aloud, Robert McCloskey, Skunks
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In the small town of Centerburg, Homer Price has six adventures with the rest of the residents of the town. Plenty of great stories, like shop-sitting for his uncle when the doughnut machine won’t stop, and catching a bunch of dangerous robbers.
Loads of fun! You’ll be rolling on the floor by the end of each chapter. If you enjoy this one, try Centerburg Tales, which contains the further adventures of Homer and the residents of Centerburg.
Posted by Sarah
Categories: All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Cats, Funny, Good Read Aloud, Lewis Carroll, Lizards, Pigs, Rabbits, Turtles
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A young girl named Alice sees a mysterious white rabbit one day and follows it through a rabbit burrow into a magical and somewhat strange land. Cakes and drinks that change her size, a Hatter and a March Hare, a baby that is literally a pig, and conversations with walking packs of cards confront Alice as she makes her way through Wonderland.
The cards are quite fun. They play a game of croquet with Alice using flamingoes and hedgehogs as mallet and ball! I found the court scene amusing. This is a sort of book that doesn’t really explain things. It’s a string of strange adventures, but still enjoyable. By the way, a pun with the Mock Turtle struck me as funny. I found this book pretty good, and perhaps some day I will read the sequel, Through The Looking Glass.
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Horses, Keith Robertson
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Tim Cottrell enjoys riding his beautiful horse Whiskbroom cross-country, but he dreams of finding someone to ride with him. The feed man tells him about a supposed ghost horse and rider who have been sighted in the vicinity. But before Tim can try to track down the rider, his sister Leona introduces him to a girl named Kate, who loves horses, but says she won’t ride them. The two of them decide to start a riding stable and purchase a stubborn little donkey named Eloise. Once they discover how to keep Eloise from balking, they hire themselves out to give rides to children. During all this, Tim is still determined to catch the phantom rider. Then he discovers a beautiful Arabian mare named Gray Cloud. He’s sure that if Kate had a horse like that, she’d be willing to ride, so he attempts to buy the horse and discovers several secrets.
This is one of those books where the kids try to “gray over” things and rationalize their disobedience. I do appreciate the way the ghost horse and rider turn out. Eloise is rather cute, and Tim’s cross-country chasings of the phantom rider are fun. Any of you swash-buckling types who got your hopes up when I mentioned secrets, sit back in your chairs. They’re more ordinary and practical. For instance, why is Gray Cloud’s saddle dry when the caretaker claims he rides her daily? That sort of thing. That being said, it’s a fair book. I read it in one day.
Posted by Ruth
Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Bears, Geraldine McCaughrean, Lions
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Wendy and the Lost Boys, all grown up, begin having dreams about Neverland more and more. In fact, every time they dream about it, something from Neverland appears when they wake up. They eventually come to the conclusion that something is very, very wrong in Neverland. They must become young again and fly back to find Peter before it’s too late.
I’m not a huge fan of Peter Pan, but I don’t particularly dislike it either. I thought this, the first authorized sequel, was pretty good. Often, something would come up that seemed out of place, or unecessary, but it all fit together in the end.
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