Entries Categorized as 'Review'
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: Adventure, Fiction, Incredibook!, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Brian Jacques, Castaways of the Flying Dutchman, Dogs, Long Read, Sad, Seafaring, Snakes
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Our rating: 
Ben and his black Labrador, Ned, becalmed in the Mediterranean Sea, are captured by Arabian slavers. Ned is thrown overboard and left to drown, but he tries to follow his master. Ben and three other young people are sold to Al Misurata, the most feared pirate on the Barbary Coast. Ben creates a strange fascination for Al Misurata, but when Ben speaks out against the pirate’s approval of slavery, he finds himself in very deep trouble. Meanwhile, the almost-drowned Ned is rescued by Herr Otto Kassel, the strongman in the traveling Rizzoli troupe. Fortunately, Al Misurata’s men capture the troupe, reuniting Ben and Ned. Al Misurata keeps up a pretense of just wanting to help the Rizzoli troupe, but Ned uncovers a plot to sell the troupe as slaves. Ben and his faithful hound determine to help the Rizzolis at whatever cost.
Hold onto your hats, friends, this is quite a tale. Like all Brian Jacques’ books, it is packed full of humor, memorable characters and rip-roaring, swashbuckling, edge-of-your-chair adventure. The review only tells about half of the story. So many things happen during Ben’s efforts to save the troupe! Pirates, smugglers, spies, raiders, a shark… This is a great addition to Castaways of the Flying Dutchman and The Angel’s Command.
Posted by Sarah
Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Review
Tags:Edward Eager
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Our rating: 
James and Laura, brother and sister moving to the country, meet a strange girl who mentions a wishing well. When James and Laura arrive at their new house, they find it has a well! Could it be the wishing well the girl mentioned? They meet a new friend named Kip and also become friends with the strange girl, whose name is Lydia. Together they go through adventure after adventure with the wishing well, but is the well really magic?
Lydia is probably my favorite character in this book. Magic or Not? has some bad language in it, but it’s still fun, though not a must-read in my opinion.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Bears, Cats, Dogs, Donkeys, Elephants, Frogs, Funny, Good Read Aloud, Mark Twain, Out of Print
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This book is collection of several short stories by Mark Twain. The highlights include the title story, about a man who bets on a frog jumping race; and The Bad Little Boy, a cynical tale of a boy who is very bad, and yet has the best of luck.
If you like your humor a bit on the cynical side (I do), this one is for you. Otherwise, you’ll probably dislike these five stories. The link to Amazon is a different book, with several more stories in it. I don’t know what they are, but it was the only one I could find.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Cats, Christopher Paolini, Dragons, Inheritance Trilogy, Long Read, Scary, Seafaring
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Spoiler alert! In order to review this book, I have to give away the ending of Eragon, the previous book in the series. If you haven’t read Eragon, I recommend that you move on to the next review.
Three days after the Varden’s battle with the Urgals, a small fight leaves the Varden leaderless. Ajihad’s daughter is chosen as the new leader, and Eragon leaves to continue his training with the Elves as a Dragon Rider. However, killing the Shade Durza has left Eragon with a wound that leaves him crippled, and he despairs of ever being strong enough to fight the evil king Galbatorix.
Meanwhile, Eragon’s cousin Roran is in a desperate battle against the Ra’zac for his village of Carvahall. Together with his friends, he must convince the village to do whatever it takes to stop the evil of Galbatorix.
First of all, let me say that I enjoyed reading Eldest. That being said, I must say that for being almost 200 pages longer than the previous volume, Eldest certainly takes a long time to tell a simple story. Eragon’s training reminded me of Luke’s in Star Wars Episode V, but it had some good parts. I found myself wishing that Roran get out of the story so I could get back to Eragon’s more exciting life, but he ended up having a reason to exist at the end, so I can forgive him. Also, I have to say that I didn’t agree with a lot of the different religions, although Paolini says they are mythology. On the plus side, the second book in the Inheritance trilogy has more action than the first one. All in all, this one is worth reading, it’s just a little slow.
Posted by Sarah
Categories: Fiction, Review, Younger Readers
Tags:Animals, Award Winner, E. B. White, Good Read Aloud, Insects, Pigs, Rats, Sad
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Our rating:
One morning Fern Arable, an eight year-old girl, learned her father was about to kill the runt of the new pig litter. She rushed to stop him and finally Mr. Arable agreed not to harm the pig. Mr. Arable gave the pig to Fern, and she eventually named him Wilbur. However, after a few weeks of happiness together, Mr. Arable told Fern that the pig would have to be sold. Wilbur was getting bigger, along with his appetite, and Mr. Arable wasn’t willing to feed the pig any longer. So Fern sorrowfully sold Wilbur to her Uncle Zuckerman’s farm nearby, where she could go and visit him. However, even with all Fern’s visits, Wilbur became lonely. But a spider named Charlotte was ready to be his friend and would also try to save him from being killed and made into bacon and ham.
A great book. For those who don’t like spiders, this book might help them feel a little more affectionate to the eight-legged insects. Maybe. No guarantees. And all readers should be prepared for a sad and perhaps unexpected part at the end. However, Templeton the rat is rather funny sometimes, and I really like the ending of this book.
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