Entries Categorized as 'Older Readers'
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Cat Royal, French Revolution, Julia Golding
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Cat Royal’s patron Mr. Sheridan is tearing down his London theatre so he can build a bigger one. There’s just a small problem with that: the theatre is Cat’s home! Realizing what he’s done, Mr. Sheridan sends Cat to France to do some spying for him. When Cat gets there, she immediately gets tangled up in the French Revolution and enters a dangerous world where everything hangs on the will of the people.
As is the usual Cat Royal formula, Cat finds herself in a complicated situation that is quite tense and edge-of-your-seat exciting. The storyline here is excellent, the characters dimensional and complex. Unfortunately, all this greatness is marred by language that gets a little salty at times. Den of Thieves sets up a few events for the next Cat Royal book, which (not to spoil that review!) cut back a lot on the objectionable elements. All that to say that in my opinion, Den of Thieves is probably the low point of the series. But keep going, as the next one is much better.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery, Prince Edward Island
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Anne and Gilbert finally get married and move into their house of dreams. What follows is the account of their life there and their interactions with their new neighbors. There’s Miss Cornelia, who has some fun quirks; Captain Jim, a retired sailor; and then there’s Leslie, whose tragic life makes Anne reach out to her.
And really, there’s not much of a throughline here. Most of this fifth Anne book involves small, one or two chapter stories. We get plenty of L. M. Montgomery’s signature Anne humor and heartwarming here, though, and it only gets better with the second read. I do prefer some of the other books in the series better, but I did find this one quite enjoyable.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Anne of Green Gables, canada, college, Funny, L. M. Montgomery
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Anne is off to college! There she meets many new friends and stays in touch with just as many old ones. In between exams, finding the perfect house to rent, various escapades, and college social life, Anne must accept that she has grown up. Which means entertaining a few suitors…
Anne of the Island follows a somewhat more condensed style as four years of college are condensed into a single book. This feels rather rushed to me, especially with the suitors bit of my synopsis going on. It’s no secret that Anne discovers somebody she loves by the end of the book, but with the time so squished together, I never felt like I got to know some of her options. That’s really my biggest complaint, though, and it’s certainly no reason to pass up this delightful third Anne book.
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: Adventure, Historical Fiction, Mysteries, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Julia Golding
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Pedro, Cat Royal’s good friend, is finally settling into his new life in the Theatre Royal after the events in the first book, The Diamond of Drury Lane. All seems well, until Pedro’s former master appears and claims Pedro as his rightful property. Cat is determined to stop the dangerous man from taking away her friend, but with old enemies looming on the horizon she finds it much harder than she ever imagined.
Another Cat story well told. The style is quite enjoyable, and the authoress paints a very vivid picture of life in Britain in 1790. However. I would not give this book to anyone under thirteen, and I would think twice before recommending it to anyone under fifteen. The nasty language increased drastically—both in amount and stoutness—and some of the subject matter is on the border line of being uncomfortable, especially for younger readers. These books excite the adventurer in me, but I really don’t want to get hooked on books focusing on gangs, in which the heroine winds up risking jail because of her actions. It’s a clear picture of life in the streets, but not something I want to be filling my head with nonstop.
Posted by Ruth
Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Diana Wynne Jones
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Sophie Hatter runs the hat shop in the town of Market Chipping. That is, she does until the spiteful Witch of the Waste casts a spell on her, turning Sophie into an old lady. This decidedly unlooked-for event leaves Sophie with few choices but to go and seek her fortune—which she does—and ends up as a cleaning lady in the moving castle of the disreputable wizard Howl (other occupants include the apprentice Michael and the fire demon Calcifer). Life there is far from simple, and Sophie is swept into adventures involving a missing prince, a dangerous contract, and an impending curse.
This is the first book I’ve read by Diana Wynne Jones, and for one thing, I greatly enjoyed all the references to the old fairytales (Brother Grimm and the like), such as Sophie being sure it would be useless to seek her fortune because she’s the eldest of three sisters. Sophie herself is quite a fun character, and her spunky attitude toward life makes her interactions with Howl all the more amusing. I must say, though, that the structure of the story was considerably more rambling than I’d expected. There are several plot threads running through it, some of which I failed to see the point of, until they tied up quickly at the end. Altogether, Howl’s Moving Castle is an enjoyable book, but it doesn’t go very far beyond entertaining.
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