Posted by Becca
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Geese, Good Read Aloud, Horses, Jim Kjelgaard, Mules, Out of Print, Quick Read
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To start with, this book is made up of three unrelated short stories. The first, A Dog Remembers is about a large, friendly dog named Brad that comes to town one day with his master. The townspeople joke about Brad, saying that the dog is a lion. When Brad’s master is killed by another dog, Brad gets the blame. After all, he’s a big dog. Throughout the story, Brad tries to avoid the other dog and later on tries to find another master.
The second story is called The Black Horse. Jed Hale, lured by his employer’s reward of five hundred dollars, sets out to capture a wild black horse. This is no easy task. The horse is a said to be a killer and Jed has been crippled since childhood. Jed finally trails the horse to a ravine that is blocked on one side by an impassable swamp. The horse gets scared by a landslide and jumps into the swamp. Jed, not willing to leave the horse, must rescue it all by himself.
The last story The Lake and the Lonely Exiles is (surprise, surprise) about another dog. This dog lives on a farm and is quite happy. Then the farmer goes away on vacation, leaving the farm to a caretaker. The dog, who looks like a wolf, is blamed for killing sheep. Rather than kill the dog, the caretaker does what he thinks is the easy way out and dumps the dog on a lonely road. The dog ends up near a lake and adopts an injured goose as a companion.
I can’t decide which story I like the most. There are only two animal characters that have names. In the first story there’s Brad and in the third there is a mule named Adolph Hitler. I don’t believe that there is any bad language in any of these stories. This is a short book, but it is also very enjoyable.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Review
Tags:cars, Funny, Good Read Aloud, Ian Fleming, Quick Read
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Commander Potts is an explorer and inventor, but he doesn’t have much money. He wants to buy his family a car, so he invents some amazing whistling candies and sells them. Then, his whole family picks out a broken down old car, which Commander Potts fixes up in his workshop. When they take a ride to the seaside to try it out, the car, christened Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, has a few magical surprises up its, uh, radiator!
“Oho,” you say, “just like the movie!” Well, not exactly. No General Bomburst, no child-catcher, and Mr. Potts is already married. In fact, the book bears almost no resemblance to the movie. But give the book some credit, after all, it came first! (Am I here to review the book? Oh, yeah.) Anyway, I have only one problem with this book: It’s too short, and a bit too coincidental (okay, that was two problems). Lots of fun, absorbing, and it’s short (did I say that already?), so it only takes a couple hours to read.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Good Read Aloud, Indians, Quick Read, Scary, Scott O’Dell, Seafaring
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El Manta Diablo is nothing more than a scary story about a giant manta ray, right? When Ramon Salazar finds the largest pearl ever known, he is not so sure. An old Indian claims Manta Diablo will take back the pearl, and Ramon’s life.
I believe this story is a great example of why you shouldn’t be superstitious, however, the ending proves that Ramon doesn’t learn that lesson. Whatever. Scott O’ Dell has another winner, although a rather short one.
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Mark Twain, Quick Read
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Here, Aileen Mavourneen tells the story of her life. She led a pleasant existence until one day when she was sleeping in the nursery, she woke up to find the baby’s crib in flames. She dragged the baby out of the crib and into the hall, where the master found her and kicked her, thinking she was hurting the baby. Upset by the reprimand, Aileen went upstairs and hid in the garret until the owners realized what she was really doing and apologized. The very sad part of the story was when the master performed an experiment on Aileen’s puppy, which blinded it and eventually caused its death.
I know it sounds rather gloomy, and the end is gloomy, but there are funny parts in it, too. Particularly Aileen’s mother’s habit of using long words. The whole story is told in Mark Twain’s cynically humorous style.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Review, Science Fiction
Tags:Animals, Edward Eager, Funny, Quick Read, Time Travel
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Roger and Ann’s father writes a play and must go to England for the premier. So, once again, Roger and Ann get to stay with their cousins, Jack and Eliza. Only, Jack and Eliza’s parents are going to England too, so all the children go to stay in an old house in Connecticut. Magic awaits them in the garden of thyme, in the form of a Natterjack (a British toad-like creature), who tells them of the magical properties of the thyme. Of course, the magic is through time travel (har har).
Quite interesting, with funny adventures, but not nearly as fun as Half Magic. The ending is satisfying, although a bit predictable. The Time Garden is worth reading, but I found the puns to be a little much.
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