Entries Categorized as 'Review'
Posted by Ruth
Categories: Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Incredibook!, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Donita K. Paul, Dragons, Funny
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Tipper is a young emerlindian woman who has been running the family estate ever since her artist father disappeared long ago. With finances dwindling, she resorts to selling off everything from furniture to her father’s art. Then one day Verrin Schope himself returns, along with a wizard and a librarian from Amara—and with dire news. Complications with an experimental gateway have placed the foundations of the world in danger, and the only way to restore harmony is through three certain sculptures. Sculptures that are now long gone. Tipper, with the help of the parrot Beccaroon, a tunmanhofer named Bealomondore, and her father and his friends, must set off on a journey to regain the sculptures before it’s too late.
Donita K. Paul certainly knows how to write a good quest! I think The Vanishing Sculptor is a splendid start to a new series. Readers of the DragonKeeper Chronicles will enjoy returning to the same world, and among the cast of new characters, will delight in the familiarity of a certain two. Humorous and adventuresome, with morsels of truth woven throughout the story, this book is a must-read for all. I enjoyed it very thoroughly and will doubtless be rereading it often while I wait for the next installment.
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Indians, Jean Craighead George, ravens, Sad
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Charlie loves to spend time with his naturalist grandfather. But his grandfather, now handicapped, is ailing, and Charlie is desperate to find something that will make Grandfather better. He remembers an old Indian tale about ravens being healing birds and decides to catch a raven chick. The young raven soon becomes part of the family, providing Grandfather and Charlie plenty to study and enjoy.
This is a great book for learning more about ravens—the different calls they use, various odd behaviors, their body language, and so on. The story is well written and engaging, to say the least. (I sat on the floor by the bookshelf and read the first half without getting up!) The only problem is that Indian myths and mysticism are predominant. Now, ravens being healing birds is shown to not be accurate, but there are still multiple references to ravens having supernatural powers. Charlie’s good friend Singing Bird is an Indian, and her family likes to demonstrate the old ways so people can see what they were like. I just wish they would differentiate a little more between showing what it was like and actually believing it. Enjoy with care.
Posted by Ruth
Categories: All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Award Winner, Easy Read, Gail Carson Levine, Good Read Aloud
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Ella has a problem. At birth, a foolish fairy granted her the gift of obedience. Now any command she receives, however big or little it be, she is compelled to obey. This has obvious disadvantages, and if the knowledge of her curse falls into the wrong sort of hands… well, it could be very bad indeed. However, Ella is not one to simply accept her fate. She determines to find the cure, no matter how long it takes.
This is a delightfully fun read. It’s lighthearted, but at the same time isn’t meaningless fluff. The story is cleverly written, and I found it almost impossible to put down. In short, Ella Enchanted is… enchanting! I’d say it’s best suited for ages 12 and up, but it could be a good read aloud book, too.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Mysteries, Older Readers, Review, Science Fiction
Tags:Bryan Davis, Echoes from the Edge, Funny, Mirrors, Scary
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Due to events that can only be understood by reading the first two books, Nathan Shepherd must travel to the dream world to find his father. Preventing Interfinity, a merging of the three Earths, is his goal. But events take a turn for the worst as previously-safe Earth Red heads back into a collision course. Nathan must decide between sacrificing the remaining supplicants (the strange powers behind dimensional mirror travel), playing the giant violin that previously almost killed him, or a third option which may be the most dangerous of all.
Hold onto your hat as you read this final installment! Themes of sacrifice, courage, and love are demonstrated over and over before your eyes as the story races to its conclusion. We finally learn the answers to most of the mysteries from the previous books. The ending is satisfying, yet things feel a bit rushed as the final chapter hurtles to a close. I was more emotionally involved in the previous two books than I was in Nightmare’s Edge, but with so much ground to cover it’s no wonder.
Posted by Becca
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Funny, Good Read Aloud, Monkeys, Wilson Rawls
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Jay Berry Lee loves to explore the river bottoms near his home in Oklahoma. One day, his dog, Rowdy, finds a strange creature in a tree. Jay Berry finds out from his grandpa that the creature is an escaped circus monkey and that there are about twenty-nine more. The circus is offering two dollars for each monkey, except for one. This one monkey is the leader of the other monkeys and the reward for it is a hundred dollars. Having the opportunity of making so much money, Jay Berry sets out to capture all thirty monkeys, but the task proves to be harder than he had expected.
Summer of the Monkeys is filled with Jay Berry’s humorous adventures. Every time the boy thinks he’s outsmarted the monkeys, the monkeys outsmart Jay Berry. Though there is some questionable theology about the Old Man of the Mountains, but the rest of the book is great. Be sure to have a tissue handy at the end because it’s very touching.
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