Pickled Bananas

Two from Doug Tennapel--Bad Island and Ghostopolis

2011-09-10T21:10:00.004-04:00

Hello! I'm back with something really special--a double review of two great graphic novels by Doug Tennapel.

First up, Bad Island. In this book a family of four go out for an outing in a small sailboat, but when the weather turns nasty, they are blown to an unusual island where they meet some of their fiercest, wildest, and weirdest creatures on earth (maybe in the whole galaxy). With something hunting them, they can't afford to care about health and hygiene-- they're caught in a battle of life and death! Thrills, chills, and excellent pictures!

Ghostopolis. In this book, what seems to be a normal boy is transported to the spirit world, where the laws of the real world are turned on their head (which is why ghosts are able to fly). In his perilous adventure, he meets a nightmare--a skeleton horse--he calls Skinny, and the ghost of his long-dead grandfather. A ghost hunter who has been fired and a ghost who escaped to the living world try to find the boy and return him to his proper place, while evil bug creatures under the ruler of the ghost world try to find and destroy him...

I think this is a brilliant use of art to help tell an exciting story! I'd have to say I liked this one best, but Bad Island is pretty great as well.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

2011-05-30T10:09:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago, I read the book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin. It both won the Newbery Honor and is the book for Kids Reading Across Rhode Island. I got a copy for free at the kickoff event for that.

This book involves the old man of the moon, a dragon who can’t fly, a talking goldfish, and a girl who’s determined to change the fortune of her family. The book starts out in a small village where everything is muddy. And by everything I mean everything. Then one day a man selling goldfish comes, and the girl, whose name is Minli, buys a goldfish with one of her two coins that she got when she was a baby. Her mother is furious, but her father points out that it is her money, and she can spend it.

With the advice of the goldfish, who can talk, Minli starts out on a journey to find the old man of the moon, to ask him how to change her family’s fortune. On the way she meets a dragon who is tied down and can’t fly. She unties the dragon while the dragon tells her his tale. In this story, a painter was painting a dragon for the emperor, who is a very, very angry fellow. He did not put eyes in the painting, and when he gave it too the emperor, he was furious that the painting was unfinished, but when he saw that he could make a simple brushstroke to finish it, he did. But then the dragon came alive, broke through the palace wall, and ran away. That’s just one of the stories within the story, of which there are tons.

With the dragon, Minli and the goldfish travel to a city where they borrow a page from the book of the future, and a string of destiny. Then they find another village, but when she came there she was almost killed by the green tiger, the spirit of the emperor described above. Two of the children of the village defeat the green tiger, by tricking him so that he falls into a well. Then after a brief stop in the village they escort Minli up the endless mountain.

She then gets to the man of the moon, but what question will she ask him? And will Fruitless Mountain ever bear fruit? Find out by reading the book yourself!

I loved this book so much because of the plot, the characters, and the magic of it all. Also I liked this book even though most “common sense” says white boys only like to read books bout white boys, and books with short sentences, few words, and lots of action. I fall completely out of this category, and completely loved this. Because of the talk she gave, I know that the second book she tried to write, the publishing company tried to whitewash her book, and told her to make the Chinese girl into a white boy. Thank goodness she didn’t do that here with this story!

Here's a picture of me listening to Grace talk (borrowed from Grace Lin's blog). I am the one in the maroon shirt on the right.

And Tango Makes Three

2011-04-20T19:32:00.003-04:00

Today I read "And Tango Makes Three" a book that you've probably all have heard of, and some of you might even have read. We've been meaning to get it out of the library for ages, but never got around it until now. Tango Makes Three is one of the most challenged books children's books in the United States. In this book, there were two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo, Roy and Silo. They acted to each other as though one were male and the other female. The two male penguins started building a nest, as all penguin couples did, but got no eggs (because of both being male). So the zoo keeper gave them an egg that wasn't being looked after. And Roy and Silo looked after it. Eventually, it hatched, and out came Tango!

Roy and Silo were good parents. Tango was the first penguin in the zoo (perhaps in the world) to have two daddies.

I loved this book because it's a very sweet story! I recommend it to kids aged five and up.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

2011-03-02T20:10:00.004-05:00

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis, is a classic that I just read (although I'd seen the movie). I'm reading the sequel, Prince Caspian, now.

In the L., the W., and the W., four ordinary kids--Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy--are evacuated to an old house in the countryside in World War II. In this house, they find in a spare room a wardrobe. Lucy hides in the wardrobe and finds that it is a doorway to the fantastical country of Narnia! Eventually, they all find their way through to Narnia, and are swept up into an adventure where they have to pit their wits and everything else they have against the White Witch! She has made it always winter in Narnia, and never Christmas.

But Edmund had made it to Narnia by himself, and met the White Witch. She had made him think that she was the Good Guy! So he betrayed his siblings, only to find that she herself had planned to betray him...and he became her captive.

The real Good Guy is Aslan, the magical lion. He comes back from over the sea and sets in motion the fall of the White Witch. But she still has a lot of power....

Who will win? What will happen to the children? And will Christmas come?

(of course you've probably read the book or seen the movie, so you know the answers).

I liked this book because of all the action, and because the story was utterly amazing and fascinating. My favorite character, was Peter, the oldest--I could sort of relate to him, because I am an older brother too.

For the next Pickled Times, I'm going to rank this against another fantasy classic--The Lord of the Rings! I might even throw in a few other books.... possibly even Zita the Space Girl....

Zita the Spacegirl

2011-02-10T18:34:00.000-05:00

Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke (2011) is one of the best graphic novels I have ever read. in two days, I had read it 5 times!!!!!!!!!!!

Zita and her friend Joseph are ordinary kids. While running around, they find a crater with a mysterious device inside a rock at the bottom of it. This device has a big red button. Zita, being the more adventurous type, presses it. Nothing happens. She presses it a few more times, and a portal opens, much to their surprise. Out of it comes the tentacles of an alien, tentacles that snatch Joseph and pull him back through the portal. The portal closes again, and Zita, horrified by what she has done, runs away. Then she decides to rescue Joseph, gets the mysterious device, and hits the button. When the portal opens again, she jumps through it.

When she lands, she finds herself in an alien world with mysterious creatures at every turn. She runs off through the strange streets, and once again sees the tentacled alien, pulling Joseph along. She reaches for the mysterious device, but a creature (who Zeta eventually finds is named Strong-Strong) steps on it, breaking it.

Will Zeta be able to rescue Joseph and get back through the portal? Why was Joseph captured? And where in the galaxy have they ended up? Find out in Zita the Space Girl!

This book I suggest for ages seven up. It is a bit scary, and some of the characters are a bit creepy (like the tentacled thing, and other strange creatures). But she makes friends with some of the aliens (like Strong-Strong), and they help her along the way.

I loved it because it was so exciting. It was really good. Zita is a very good character; she reminds me of my brother in personality because both are adventurous and mischievous (which sometimes gets them into trouble), daring, loyal, and determined.

Candy Bomber, by Michael O. Tunnell

2010-12-19T19:26:00.003-05:00

Candy Bomber, The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot", by Michael O. Tunnell (2010, 104 pages).

This book is about a pilot who drops candy over East Berlin, so that the kids have a treat. You've probably heard of the second world war, and probably about the Berlin War...but here's some background information.After WW II, Germany was divided into 2 parts--the allies of Great Britain, the US, and France took one half, and the Soviet Union took the other. Berlin was in the Soviet half, East Germany, so the western alliance decided that Berlin should be split as well, into east and west halves. Then in 1948 the Soviets decided to starve out the West Berliners, and so giant aircraft started flying from the west to bring food to the western half, because there was no other way to get food into that part of the city.

Back to the story. One US pilot, Gail Halvorsen, saw a bunch of kids backed up against a fence on one of his missions. He saw that they wanted more than just food, so he gave them the only candy he had, two sticks of gum. To his surprise, they didn't fight over it--they broke into many pieces, to share. And he went back to his plane, and flew off.

He soon decided that he easily drop parachutes with candy attached, and so the candy bombing of West Berlin began. When he had candy to drop, he would wiggle the wings of his aircraft--and so Operation Viggles was underway. It brought happiness and hope to the children, many of whom still remembered the deadly bombs from the end of the war.

An excellent piece of non-fiction, with lots of information contained in both historic pictures and words. I greatly enjoyed reading this!

The pickled times; first ever issue!

2010-12-11T18:05:00.014-05:00

Hey guys! You are looking at a historic post--the very first ever Pickled Times!

Here I will give you updates, fun facts, and sneak peaks about what books I might be reviewing next!

Updates:

Poptropica: coming soon, Cryptid Island! A great one for fans of Nathaniel Flood, Beastologist!

Dragonfable: First Snow is here! Have you completed the Falcon Reach Idol quest?

And my igloo on Club Penguin is decorated to the herring gills with Christmas goodness!

Fun Facts:

One of the best places for this is io9, but you have to ask your parents for permission--some of it is a bit too old for those of us younger than 12.

From my little brother: "I am reading the Harry Potter books. I started three weeks ago and have almost finished Book 4, The Goblet of Fire."

Sneak Peaks:

The book I want most for Christmas: Book 3 of the Prometheus Project--Surrounded

Books coming soon on pickledbananas: The Edge Chronicles, vols. 1 and 2, and Candy Bombers.

In issue 3, my very own comic strip will be here!

See you soon!

Case Closed? Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science (my 50th post!)

2010-11-24T09:11:00.002-05:00

Case Closed? by Susan Hughes, illustrated by Michael Wandelmair (2010, Kids Can Press) is a very excellent piece of non-fiction, probably one of the best books I've ever read. Inside it, it offers answers (as far as is possible) to nine most intriguing and puzzling mysteries ever. They include the stories of the INS Dakar, the Anasazi, and what befell Hapshepsut. So you can see, the book is global in scope.

They used lots of different approaches in solving the mysteries. The scientists involved used computer simulations, archaeology, genetics, forensics, historical evidence, and, in at least one case, the search for the legendary city of Ubar, satellite imagery. It was fascinating!

The most intriguing thing is, is that some of the mysteries here aren't fully understood--for example, what happened to Hapshsut's father, King Thutmose I. But in some cases, you actually get the answer--Anastasia, the lost princess of Russia, was never really lost, and neither was her brother--they were just buried separately!

I'd like to see a sequel, because I know some mysteries they've missed--things like Shangri La, and King Arthur, Flight 19 in the Bermuda Triangle....

I'd recommend this to kids above the age of eight, because some of the pictures are a little disturbing (dead people) as are some of the stories (like the burial and exhumation of the Romanovs).

The Whipping Boy

2010-11-14T18:11:00.005-05:00

The Whipping Boy, by Sid Fleischman, is a brilliant work of literature. A whipping boy is a boy plucked off the streets, and when the prince does something naughty or bad, like tying all the lords and dukes powder wigs to the chairs, the whipping boy is called in to take the prince's punishment.

The setting is long ago-there are horse drawn carriages, and powdered wigs, so it seems Georgian. Also there a boiled potatoes--so it has to be after the European discovery of America. The main events take place in a castle, a forest, a town, and a fair.

There are two main characters. First is a spoiled and obnoxious prince, known as Prince Brat. His silliest maneuver--while fleeing the castle (more about this later), he takes his crown with, probably to make villains kneel before him, says the narrator. The second is Jemmy, a boy from the streets, is the whipping boy of the title. Cool fact--Jemmy started out as a rat catcher, but as a whipping boy, he learned to read and write.

In this book, Prince Brat, who is probably one of the most naughty boys in the land, decides to get out of the castle because it is so boring. He has done every single prank he can imagine, and none of them are to his liking. So he decides to run away with his whipping boy...who by the end of the book is his best friend...Jemmy of the streets. In their journey they meet two of the most dreadful villains ever, Hold Your Nose Billy, and Cutwater. They take all the food the boys have, which was mostly packed by Prince Brat, and worse, they ask them to write a letter to the king saying that if he ever wants to see his son again, he will have to bring them a wagon load full of gold. A wagon load. How much is a wagon load? Probably if you got a wagon load full of American dollars you'd be a millionaire.

After easily running away from the baddies, the boys run into a girl with a dancing bear, who scares off the villains who are still on their tail. Then boys, girl, and bear hitch a lift with the hot-potato man who is going to the fair. There they run into Cutwater and Hold Your Nose Billy once again. They flee through sewers...will they be eaten by rats, or will they find some way to escape?

This is probably one of my favorite books. I first heard of it when it was used as a piece of literature we had to correct in my classroom, and my teacher suggested reading it. I looked in her library, but it wasn't there; happily, I found it in the public library. I liked it because the characters were very interesting, and the plot was great!

One especially interesting thing, I think, is that the chapter titles (things like "In which we observe a hair-raising even") treat you not as a reader, but as a character. My mom says this is just an old fashioned style of chapter titling, but I liked it!

A very funny YouTube clip for Lord of the Rings Fans!

2010-11-11T12:22:00.001-05:00

Check out what my dad found on YouTube:

Isn't that hilarical!

The Prometheus Project--Trapped

2010-11-07T16:35:00.005-05:00

The Prometheus Project is a very good work of science fiction for middle grade kids. To date, there are two books in the series--Trapped (2006) and Captured (2007). My mother first got these to review on her own blog last year, and now finally I have read them.

In Trapped, two very ordinary kids, Ryan and Regan Resnick, move to a very boring town called Brewster, PA--"more like snooze-ter," they think. When they overhear a discussion between their parents about secret codes at the mysterious Protract Company that their parents work for, their curiosity is overwhelming and they decide to go explore the Protract Company for themselves.

What they find is something that is completely out of this world. Really.

The Protrac Company has been been working on something called the Prometheus Project. A bit of history--Prometheus was one of the Titans, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. Fire, if used correctly, is very useful. But it can also be very dangerous. The same is true for the secret of the Prometheus Project. Beneath a cloud of trees, in a building whose signs warn of lethal amounts of radioactivity, lies an alien city.

And Ryan and Regan made it through all the security elements (including guards) and gotten into the city, where an accident with a generator kills their mother, and they go back in time. Will they be able to go back and save their mother, or will they be trapped in a paradox forever?

As you can see, because there is a sequel, the answer to this question is obvious...and I'm glad, because I found these books so interesting! The descriptions of the technology, and the technology itself, is fabulous, and the characters are brilliant. Overall, the book is great. I would recommend this to kids who love science fiction, time travel, and things that involve technology, and even people who like non-fiction!

The Call (The Magnificent 12 Book 1)

2010-10-13T20:53:00.003-04:00

The Call (The Magnificent 12 Book 1), by Michael Grant (2010), is one of the best books I've ever read! It falls into the top five most favorite books of my life! It combines the outrageous, the impossible, the amazing, and the hilarical into one thing. It's a fantasy book gone mad!

A very ordinary kid named Mack gets himself in hot water with his school's head bully, Stefan. When Stefan accidentally punches his fist through thick glass (instead of Mack's head, as planned), Mac ends up saving him from bleeding to death. Stefan decides to take Mack under his wing....and then Grimlock, a weird guy, old and stinky who sort of looks like like a ghost, appears and things start going nuts. This old guy has plans for Mack, plans that involve defeating an ancient evil that was imprisoned for three thousand years...the Pale Queen!!! aka the Dreaded Foe!!!

So Mack, with his bodyguard, Stefan, are whisked off on an airplane to Australia...but things go wrong (in an ancient evil returning sort of way), and the boys are almost killed. Will the spell Mack learned from Grimlock save them, or will one of Mac's phobias come true, and he'll get eaten by sharks? Find out in THE MAGNIFICENT 12 THE CALL!

Grimlock's story about his fight with the Pale Queen is told in separate chapters, and it was sometimes a bit confusing. But that was the only thing wrong with the book.

I recommend this for all kids my age! A very good choice if you are in a local bookstore and have the money to buy it!

There's also a cool website, with games and information about the characters and places and objects--here it is.

Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary

2010-10-04T20:06:00.002-04:00

The Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary (DK 2009) is a giant compendium of lego Star Wars models (duh--kind of obvious from the title). In this book you can find your favorite characters, ships, droids, and tons of other stuff you never knew had become lego! (and probably never needed to know). All the podracers from Episode 1 became legos, there are more bounty hunters than I knew existed...and so much more. There's lots of Star Wars information, and, of course, lego information alongside each model pictured.

My brother and I have spent hours browsing through this books-it's one of our favorites! And each book comes with a minifigure--we got and Episode 4 Luke!

It's a Secret! by John Burningham

2010-10-03T20:32:00.003-04:00

It's a Secret! (2009), written and illustrated by John Burningham, is an excellent picture book. It's about a cat whose name is Malcolm. Usually he slept during the day, and every night he went out. One day, Marie Elaine, Malcolm's owner, wanted a drink of water in the night. So she went down stairs and found that her cat was dressed in handsome clothes! He was going to a party, and he invited Marie Elaine to come. She became small enough to fit through the cat flap, and off they went. Then Norman, a little boy in the neighborhood, saw them, and came along to the party too!

But, to get the party, they had to make it past the mean old dogs...and they did! And that's all I'm going to tell you, because I don't want to spoil the story!

It's silly and magical and fun! Nothing is explained...which room for a lot of imagination!

I like the story better than the illustrations--the illustrations look too much like a kid's drawings for me.

THE mostly TRUE ADVENTURES of HOMER P. FIGG

2010-08-06T08:56:00.003-04:00

THE mostly TRUE ADVENTURES of HOMER P. FIGG, by Rodman Philbrick (The Blue Sky Press, 2009)

Told in the first person, from Homer's point of view (but not a diary).

Homer and Harold Figg--two orphans, living with their mean old uncle, Squinton Leach, who hates everything, thinks people are better when they're gloomy, and keeps the boys in the barn, likes animals. While Homer and Harold are feeding the pigs, Homer decides to take a piece of the stale crust for himself. When Leach sees this, he goes into a fury. Harold stands up for his little brother, and tells Leach that he feeds the hogs better then them.

So Harold gets sold to the Union Army illegally, and is sent off to fight in the Civil War. Homer runs away to find his brother, and on that adventure he faces slave hunters, guardian fail, even more guardian fail, a medicine show full of treachery and deceit, and the War itself!

This is a great book if you want a bit of action combined with history. If Homer was in my school, I'd automatically want him to be my friend--he's someone who gets things done the right way, but sometimes he has no idea where the train will turn...

This was one of my summer reading books, and I'm making a power point about. Great read! I suggest that everyone read it, because it might well become a classic (and in fact it was a Newbery Honor book).

My brand new wii!

2010-07-24T17:28:00.003-04:00

On Monday I got a brand new Nintendo wii for my birthday, and ever since we've got it, the amount of time spent playing on the computer and watching tv has plummeted! I like a lot better because it is a lot more active, and everyone in the family likes. So it's a good thing to have.

I also got books, and an egg drop kit--I've read them all (reviews coming some). Even though I was playing the wii...Time these days. It seems to have loose ends...

(I haven't had a chance to build the egg protector yet. Perhaps tomorrow).

Ragtag, by Karl Wolf-Morgenlander

2010-07-11T19:26:00.003-04:00

Ragtag, by Karl Wolf-Morgenlander (2010, Clarion, 226 pages)

Ragtag is a swallow who lives in Boston. He's one of the members of a group of birds called the Feathered Alliance. I won't tell you much about the Alliance, because I don't want to spoil the book. But I'll tell you a little--the Alliance is a group of non-predatory birds, led at first by the great owl Hoogol (even though he's a carnivore, he doesn't eat other birds).

The Talon Empire (raptors) is attacking Boston! The other clans of birds are trying desperately to defend themselves. Ragtag goes from an outsider to the leader of the Feathered Alliance, and using his quick wit, stubborn personality, and a few tricks (in the form of eagles!), helps his friends win the war.

I loved this book because of Ragtag's personality (he reminds of my little brother--he's very stubborn, and even annoying). It's a great book for anyone eight and up. High quality action.

I can't quite visualize what the human residents of Boston made of the whole thing--some were good, some were bad, and they all posed problems to the birds. But more to the Talon Empire....

A Nest for Celeste, by Henry Cole

2010-05-22T15:47:00.004-04:00

A Nest for Celeste, by Henry Cole (2010, HarperCollins) is about a mouse looking for a home.

Celeste is a mouse; to be precise, a basket-maker mouse. She lives in a hole in the side of the dinning room wall. Her only company is the big black cat (who wants to eat her!) and two rat bullies--not much company there! Then one day when she is out foraging, she is chased up the stairs by the cat, into a room, and under the bed....there she finds a boot in which to make a home, and she makes it comfortable with a sock and some leaves.

That morning a man named Joseph finds her there, and makes her his pet. As Celeste finds out, Joseph is a very good friend. Joseph paints birds, but instead of doing it the way his master does (he takes dead birds and pins them up), Joseph likes to paint from real life.

In her adventures with Joseph, Celeste meets a bird called Cornelius, an osprey named Lafayette, and she goes through floods, death-defying chases, and another nasty encounter with the rats. Her basket making skills come in useful....

And in the end, Celeste has a home (a lovely one!). And that is what she wanted.

This is one of my all time favorite books. It is really moving. I cared a lot about Celeste. The illustations were great too. If you have ever read The Invention of Hugo Cabret, it is sort of like that, because it is both pictures taking up whole pages, and also a lot of writing.

Guess who Joesph's teacher is! (he's the most famous bird painter in America....he has a society named after him...and his name starts with "a").

Tollins: Explosive Tales for Children

2010-04-22T20:45:00.004-04:00

Tollins: Explosive Tales for Children, by Conn Iggulden, is imaginative, strange in a silly way, and takes explosion to a high art. In this thrilling collection of three stories, we met the Tollins. Here's what Tollins aren't:

"Tollins are not fairies. Though they both have wings, fairies are delicate creatures and much smaller. When he was young, Sparkler [a Tollin] accidentally broke one and had to shove it behind a bush before its friends noticed.

In addition, fairies cannot sing B-sharp. They can manage a very nice B-flat, in a quite sweet voice, but B-sharp comes out like a frog being run over by a bicycle. Tollins regard fairies as fluttery show-offs and occasionally use them to wipe out the insides of cups." (page 15)

They aren't like us, either. They are small, and have wings. Unfortunately, because they weigh so much, they can only use their wings for short hops over the ground.

In these stories, a young Tollin named Sparkler and his friends and family survive all the world can throw at them--being fired up in rockets by greedy fireworks makers, thrown into jail, and encounters with mysterious Dark Tollins from up north (note--although most of the other Tollins were used in fireworks, Sparkler was the only one who got thrown in jail).

The episodes include:

1. How to Blow up Tollins
2. Sparkler and the Purple Death
3. Windbags and Dark Tollins

I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys either small mystical creatures or things that go boom. Or people looking for a good book to read.

Age: Any. It was pretty easy to read, and there were lots of illustrations.

Iggulden also wrote The Dangerous Book for Boys.

The Legend of Hong Kil Dong

2010-03-28T17:24:00.003-04:00

The Legend of Hong Kil Dong: The Robin Hood of Korea, by Anne Sibley O'Brien, is about courage, strength, and determination. It is about a boy who lived in Korea long ago. He was born into a wealthy family, and was favored by his father, even though his mother was a maid servant. Before Kil Dong's birth, his father had seen clouds, lightning, even a dragon! It was a good omen for the child. And he had a birth mark on his leg, proving that he was like no other.

But Kil Dong could not address his father as "father," and his brother would inherit everything (even though Kil Dong was smarter) so he went to train with the monks, where he could seek greater knowledge. Eventually he met an old sage (a mountain spirit?) who taught him magic and martial arts. Then he found the camp of bandits...and that is all I'm going tell you.

Begining a graphic novel, I could see what emotions went through Hong Kil Dong. This brought the story alive. I've read this book many times, and enjoy it in some deep way.

The Daring Adventures of Penhaligon Brush

2009-09-30T17:47:00.003-04:00

The Daring Adventures of Penhaligon Brush, by S. Jones Rogan (2007), is a fabulous book.

Penhaligon Brush is a fox. He was abandoned by his parents, who went to find a better world, when he was young, so he stayed with a family of badgers. His favorite was his badger brother, Bancroft (the badger shown on the cover).

Penhaligon journeys from Ramble-on-the-Water to the town of Porthleven to meet his brother, but when he gets there he finds that the whole city has been over-run by a ferret army. It is up to him to defeat the spoiled nephew of Lady Furball Feline, to get back Furball Manor, who is leading the ferrets...

This book is both entertaining, has a lot of detail, and something I can't put my finger on, without opening the book....I loved it!

This Side of Magic, Keyholders Volume 1

2009-07-05T09:54:00.002-04:00

This Side of Magic is a book about two ordinary kids, named Penny and Luke, who have a neighbor named Mr. Leery. Mr. Leery is a Keyholder, a regular human who defends the real world from the magical world. He is the last remaining Keyholder, and he takes Penny and Luke to be his apprentices. Mr. Leery has a cat named Mo, who is his "link." A link is a magical being bonded to a human by spirit and a bracelet with a crystal (in this case, it's purple amethyst). So Penny and Luke become the new Keyholders, but there's another new keyholder, Natalie...this part comes at the end of the book.

This is the book is about the beginning of an adventure that will take willpower, determination, and magical beings to keep the balance of the two worlds. I like this book because of the fast paced plot, with not much "blah blah blah,"said this person and "blah blah blah" said the other person. I would recommend it to an eight year who isn't ready for Harry Potter.

The next book, The Other Side of Magic, is next on my reading list.

The Prince of Irleand and the Three Magic Stallions

2009-06-02T21:00:00.003-04:00

Prince of Ireland and the Three Magic Stallions by Bryce Milligan, illustrated by Preston McDaniels.

This book is about an Irish prince whose mother dies and time passes and the king, his father, marries another woman who bears the king two more sons. Wanting her sons to claim the throne, the queen puts a geis (pronounced gaysh, meaning a kind of magic spell or curse) on him. The geis is that he
cannot "sleep two nights under the same roof nor eat two meals from the same fire until you have brought [the queen] the three magic stallions that the young giant Sean O'Donal keeps at the edge of the western world."

But before he goes, he puts a geis on her...

Can he fulfill his task, and foil the wicked queen?

I liked this book very much because it is a different kind of fairy tale--it's Irish and that makes a nice change. I liked the illustrations a lot.

Nini Here and There

2009-05-18T20:52:00.000-04:00

Nini here and there by Anita Lobel (2007) is a very touching book.

It is about a cat whose owners are moving to a new home. She gets zipped up in a black bag, and then falls asleep in it. There she dreams that she is in a hot air balloon, a boat, and a few other things.

When she wakes up, she gets unzipped and let out of the bag. At her new home, there is a field with butterflies, a white dog, and more nice things.

It's a bit like the last book I reviewed, about dreaming and the power of the mind to take you places.

The very last sentence is the most touching of all. But I'm not going to tell you what it is, so you gotta read the book!

Here's a link to it on Amazon:Nini Here and There

Willy the Dreamer

2009-05-17T17:57:00.003-04:00

Willy the Dreamer, written and illustrated by Anthony Browne is a very elegant book. It is a about a chimpanzee named Willy (but I don't really think he really is a chimpanzee. Browne has another book about Willy and at the very end of that book there is actually a picture of a chimpanzee mask, and a person walking away, so Willy could be anyone of us, disguised).

In this book, Willy dreams he's a movie star, or a singer, or a sumo wrestler, a ballet dancer, a painter and more. The pictures are funny, in part because of the bananas hidden in them, and in part because of jokes like making the hammerhead shark's head look like a real hammer, and the famous writer part is a chimpanzee/banana Alice in Wonderland.

This is one of my all-time favorites. It has this deep something...I can't put it into words.

Julius, the Baby of the World

2009-03-28T12:09:00.002-04:00

Julius, the Baby of the World, by Kevin Henkes, is about two opinions that do not meet. A little bit about Kevin Henkes--Kevin Henkes and his award winning books are famous throughout the United States. He's written many books about mice, like Chester's Way, and Lily's Purple Plastic Purse (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? NO! Different author). I, and all my second grade classmates, had to write a book based on Chester's Way. Know what mine is called? Victor's Way! Now, on with the story.

Julius, the Baby of the World, is about Lily, her baby brother, and her parents. The parents think that Julius is the "baby of the world." Lily thinks the opposite. It takes a party for Julius where a cousin insults her brother (using the same words Lily had been using) to drive Lily to loving Julius. Because after all, he is her brother.

I recommend this book for ages four through seven, and the children's lucky parents. It is funny, smart, and sweet

Diary of a Worm.

2009-02-26T09:15:00.004-05:00

Diary of a Worm. by Doreen Cronin, with pictures by Harry Bliss (2003), is an all time classic!
It will always be loved by kids and their lucky parents. It is written in the first person--in the words of an intelligent worm child--and it describes things that happen to him in his daily life as a worm. He plays with his friend, Spider, he describes some of the dangers of worm life, like hopscotch, and he goes to school. Once he forgot to bring his lunch, so he ate his homework! His teacher told him to write "I will not eat my homework" ten times, but when he was finished he ate that too.

You will never look at worms in the same way after reading this book. Worms are good for the earth, and worms (at least in this book) are funny!

In my book rating system, this rates an A+ ! I recommend this book for ages 3 to 8. There are two sequels--Diary of a Spider, and Diary of a Fly (but not Diary of a Wimpy Kid! That's another story...)

Luke on the Loose

2009-02-06T21:18:00.003-05:00

Luke On The Loose
by Harry Bliss (a Toon Book, 2009)

This book is extraordinarily funny! It's about a boy called Luke who chases pigeons all the way New York into Brooklyn and up onto the top of a water tower! As he chases the pigeons, he scares people to heck, and almost kills himself in the street . His dad organizes a search, and the fire brigade find him asleep on top of the water tower, and return him to his parents.

This is a Toon Book, which is graphic easy reader--a comic book book for readers five to seven, but I enjoyed it at age eight.

City, by David Macaulay

2009-02-02T17:33:00.004-05:00

City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction
by David Macaulay (1974) is the story of how an imaginary Roman city goes from just a few tents to a metropolis with marvels of engineering like an aqueduct and a bridge 60 feet over a river. His trusty drawings build a picture in your mind as you watch the city growing.

I especially liked the description of the building of the forum, the heart of the city, because that was cool. There are fascinating details, like how Roman sidewalks were built, and how to build a good aqueduct. Fact--aqueducts were built about fifty feet off the ground, to keep the water from being poisoned or stolen.

This a bit hard for the average third grader to read to himself, and is more for fourth graders and up. But younger kids can enjoy having it read out loud to them, and studying the pictures. Definitely! You have to study the pictures to get what he's saying, and the pictures are awesome.

For more great non-fiction, visit the Non Fiction Monday posts at Picture Book of the Day.

Poptropica!

2009-01-31T18:29:00.006-05:00

Poptropica rivals some of the other computer games that I play. It's surely one of the top five. This game is both interesting and challenging, and has no combat. In Poptropica, there are islands and on each island is a quest. On each quest, you have to face a challenge and earn something when you complete it. But your quest is never done, because new islands always come! You get to make your own character. Also you can remember your character by clicking the save button in the lower right hand corner of the screen.

Coming soon: Mythology!

The Chicken of the Family

2009-01-10T20:45:00.005-05:00

The Chicken of the Family
by Mary Amato illustrated by Delphine Durand (2008)

Imagine you're a kid with two older, annoying sisters who tease you all the time. And then one day they tell you you are a chicken. And you believe them. That's what this book is about.

Henrietta, the youngest sister, is shocked when Kim and Clare, her two sisters, tell her she is a chicken. She isn't sure she believes them. But they put an egg in her bed, and feathers by her bedside, and say all these things that aren't quite true about her, and she ends up believing them. So she goes to the farm next door, where there is a hen house garden, and she plays tag and follow-the-leader with the chickens. Her sisters say she has to come home, that she's not a chicken, and that they are going to get into trouble. But Henrietta likes being a chicken, playing with her new friends in peace....

The King Who Rained

2009-01-04T21:15:00.005-05:00

The King Who Rained is about the trickiness of the English language, and that's why I like it. This book is both fun and a tiny bit educational, especially for young children. It is about a girl whose parents tell her things that she misunderstands, like "there was a king who rained for forty years." Of course, they meant "reigned" but the girl thought "rained." That's just one example--if you want more, read the book! The illustrations are really funny. They show what the girl thinks, not what is really being said.

This is a good book for kids five and up.

Mythbusters-- the best tv series!

2009-01-03T12:55:00.008-05:00

Mythbusters is very eductional and has a lot of booms, bangs, and laughs. It is brought to you and me by the Discovery Channel, which also has other good shows. On the show, the Mythbusters "put myths to the test." My favorite is their baseball myth episode. If you happen to be a fan of Mythbusters, let me know!

Amulet Book 1: The Stonekeeper!!!!!

2009-01-02T09:28:00.001-05:00

Amulet, Book One: The Stonekeeper (Bk. 1)
by Kazu Kibuishi (2008)

This is a graphic novel for kids ages 7 and up. It's the first of a series of books where two kids, Emily and her brother Navin go into a mysterious world where they meet their mother's grandfather and a pink bunny named Miskit and his robot friends. They have to rescue their mother from a tentacled creature and face an evil wizard. The amulet is helpful charm belonging to Emily which helps her overcome obstacles in the other world in which kids find themselves. Emily almost fell under the power of the dark wizard, but she was able to fight it off because of the amulet.

The drawings are excellent--I really liked all the detail in them.

I took this book this book to school, and I lent it to two of my friends, but I never got it back...so my mother got another copy for me. And now my little brother wants his own copy!

I'm looking forward to the next book--I just read on the author's blog that it's on its way!

The Great Kapok Tree

2008-11-02T10:17:00.004-05:00

The Great Kapok Tree, A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest, by Lynne Cherry, is very educational. It takes you right to the middle of the rain forest, the pictures are so detailed.

This book is about a man who comes to the forest to chop down a great Kapok tree. But after he takes a few whacks with his ax, he falls asleep. And all the animals, including a kid from a rain forest tribe, give him reasons why he should not cut down the tree. The reasons are good ones.

In first grade my class did a rain forest play based on this one book. Each of us was a different animal, and we added animals that weren't even in the book, like a harpy eagle (my character).

I would give this book an age rating of 3 and up as a read aloud. Hope you like it!

The Three Pigs (a non fairy tale book)

2008-10-26T09:47:00.003-04:00

The Three Pigs, by David Wiesner, is very, very funny. It starts out as the fairy tale of the three little pigs, but it turns into a quest between fairy tales and books. The three pigs get blown out of their story into a place where there is nothing but pages of stories. First they make a paper airplane out of one of their own pages--showing the wolf knocking on the door. And there is a very funny page where you can only see the pigs' bums (bottoms). Then they visit Old Mother Goose's hey diddle diddle (where they turn hideously childlike) and the cat follows them out. Next they visit a dragon, guarding a rose of pure gold, and they help the dragon escape from a knight. At last they all, pigs, dragon and cat, go back to the pigs' story and write their own ending...

This book is for ages 3 and up.

Calvin and Hobbs

2008-10-25T20:50:00.004-04:00

Calvin and Hobbes was a newspaper cartoon series in the 1980s by Bill Watterson. It was a big hit. It was made into books which are very very good and you can still get them today.

The adventures of Calvin, the boy, and Hobbes, his tiger, are very funny (many funny things happen, but there is no bathroom humor, which is a good thing). Once I played Calvinball with my friends at school--it's a game where you make up the rules as you go along. And I've played destruction games like Calvin's.

Some of the stories are for teenagers or adults, but kids can still read this.

The Arrival

2008-10-19T10:19:00.005-04:00

The Arrival, by Shaun Tan, is, like Polo (see below), has no words. But it doesn't need them. This book is very very very creative. The pictures are black and white, and there are lots of them because it is a graphic novel (c0mic book). It takes place starting in our world, but it's not quite our world. The fist thing that is strange are the dragon-like tails, sweeping across the city. There's a father, a mother, and a girl, and the father goes across an ocean to a weird and wonderful city. He finds his room, and gets an animal companion(see cover)--sort of like a head with a tail and legs. Eventually, the mother and the girl join him, while in the real world there are giant aliens sucking up the people. More strange things happen. At the end, the family stays in the strange city, and the girl finds a friend.

I recommend this book for ages 7 and up (my brother says he understands it even though he is five but my mother doesn't).

2008-10-19T10:19:00.001-04:00

Polo.

2008-10-18T08:56:00.001-04:00

Polo by Régis Faller (2006) has no words (except sound effects), but it doesn't need them (it was written by a Frenchman). The pictures tell you what's happening. It's a great way to show how you can say things without using words. Polo is a dog who travels to imaginary places. All the places Polo visits have things that don't happen in real life, like an elevator built inside a tree, a boat made of ice, or an underground country of giant blue mushrooms. I recommend this book for ages 3 and up.

MAMMOTH ACADEMY!

2008-10-13T17:52:00.005-04:00

Mammoth Academy, by Neil Layton, is a chapter book that I nominated for the Cybils in the Middle Grade Reader category because I liked it so much. It is about two mammoths, Oscar and Arabella, who go to a school called Mammoth Academy to learn all the sorts of things we people learn in our schools. There are creatures that aren't mammoths too, like a cave cat, an owl, and a fox. All of the creatures at the academy get along with mammoths. They have very cool adventures, especially Fox and Oscar, like going up a steep mountain and finding a human cave school (humans were very dumb at that time!).

I love the black and white illustrations, and there are lots of them!

This book is an easy reader, but it has too many pages to count in that category the Cybils! It has ten chapters and 149 pages (this is the UK version). This books is for ages 6 and up.

Here's another review, at Jen Robinson's Book Page.

Beowulf!

2008-10-09T20:52:00.002-04:00

Beowulf, by Stefan Petrucha and Rod Chamberlain (2007), is a graphic novel (comic book) about a Saxon myth. The cover says it is about "the world's first-and greatest-hero," Beowulf, who went to the greatest of mead halls (a large banquet house) and fought this evil swamp monster called Grendel. Then Grendel's mother came and killed people, so he went to the swamp where she lived and fought her at the bottom of the lake, in her temple. He was the first man to see the bottom.

What will he battle next? Read the book and find out.

I like this book because it is very cool. This book is for ages 6 and up. My brother likes it and he is only five.

Owly

2008-10-06T20:25:00.003-04:00

Owly (by Andy Runton) is a comic, but not a usual comic. The speech bubbles don't have words, but pictograms. There are both comic books and regular books about Owly, as well as an Owly plush toy for $9.95, advertised on the back of one of the comics.

There is a range of different characters, from an Owl (Owly) and a Worm (we call him Wormy), to a raccoon who owns a plant store, and many other unnamed animal characters like birds and a flying squirrel.

The first Owly book made me cry. It was the first time I ever cried because of a book. Read it and find out why!

Here's another review, at Comics Worth Reading.

Baron Munchausen

2008-10-01T18:02:00.008-04:00

The Baron Rides Out (illustrated by Patrick Benson) 1985, The Baron on the Island of Cheese (illustrated by Patrick Benson) 1986, The Baron all at Sea (illustrated by Patrick Benson) Walker, 1987, all by Adrian Mitchell.

The Baron Munchhausen series books belong to my father (and other people in the world), but still I like them. The Baron Munchhausen travels around the world, doing all these crazy things. Once his friend Robin said, "You can't go down Mount Etna in less than one hour. " So the Baron went on to Mount Etna, and went down probably in an hour, but it took him a couple of months to get back to where he was staying, because he was swallowed up by a ginormous fish, bigger than the whales, and there were loads of other ships. And that's just one of his adventures. You can read them in these three books, but I'm sure there are a lot more stories about him. I'm writing one called "The Baron Chills Out."

I really really like these books, because of all the whacky things that don't really happen. If you do not believe the Baron, he'll challenge you to a duel to the death on the 31st of February at the west gates to the Garden of Eden. I recommend these books for ages 7 to 99. Young readers can read with a parent, better readers can read alone. More superb illustrations by Patrick Benson; see HOB.

Dragonfable!

2008-09-29T20:49:00.002-04:00

Dragonfable is like Adventure Quest, a on-line fantasy battle game (see my post on Adventure Quest). It's different because instead of just clicking buttons all over the place, your character walks around. You can buy weapons, battle monsters, and go on quest. Instead of going to Death when you lose a battle, it says "Defeat!" and you just go back to where you were. One of my friends played Dragonfable but somehow fell out of it.

The Stranger

2008-09-28T11:17:00.000-04:00

The Stranger (written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, 1986) didn't immediately grab me, but still I liked it because it gave me something to think about and puzzle on. In the book, Farmer Bailey was driving along in his pickup truck. Suddenly, he heard a thump! He thought he had hit a deer. But it wasn't a deer, it was a man. A man who had lost his memory, or so they thought. The doctor took his temperature, and said he would remember his name and where he lived. When he left, he had forgotten his thermometer. Farmer Bailey's wife said," You've forgotten your thermometer!"
"It's broken," said the doctor, "All the mercury is stuck at the bottom." This is the first clue to the stranger's identity. The author never tells us anything about him, only that he is a stranger. There are other clues. When he was helping in the fields gathering hay, unlike Mr. Bailey, who had to rest, he never stopped, never sweated, and never rested. A couple of weeks later he was staring at the trees. He thought the trees at the farm were green and ugly, but all the other trees were regular fall trees. He picked a leaf, and blew on it. He was amazed when it turned red. That evening, they saw him in his old leather clothes and he ran away. When they went out, all the green trees had changed color.

So who is this mysterious stranger? Try and guess!

Weslandia

2008-09-19T20:12:00.003-04:00

Weslandia, by Paul Fleichman, illustrated by Kevin Hawke, (1999). This book has a lot of things to do with nature in it--how people and nature coexist. But this book is fantasy, not non-fiction. A kid called Wesley did not like anything that the other boys in his neighborhood like. He didn't like pizza and soda (like me!) and he refused to shave the hair off half his head, like the other boys in the neighborhood, even for five dollars. One day he decided for his summer project he would make his own civilization from a staple crop. This staple crop he called "swist." The seeds came by a strong west wind, and grew taller than his house, and attracted animals galore. This plant had amazingly delicious fruits, as well as tubers on its roots. Wesley invented his own machines, and made the fibers into clothes. The other children used to chase him, but now they went to work for him, ten minutes a day at the grinding stone, grinding the seeds to make oil, and buying the oil that was good sunscreen and bug repellent. He even made up sports.

When school started, he had no limit to friends. And he had succeeded in making his own civilization.

I like this book because of all the neat stuff he does with his wonderful plants.

Eco-Wolf!

2008-09-15T18:04:00.005-04:00

Eco-Wolf and the Three Pigs, by Laurence Anholt is a very good book. This time the Wolf wins, and he is a good wolf. In the story, Eco-Wolf makes water powered machines, without polluting the water. He teaches animals how to not litter, and instead of a house he has a wigwam.

Then three big pigs come, and they're going to build houses, whatever it takes. The first house was a straw house. That night Eco-Wolf called the animals to his tent. He said the old oak trees the pigs had cut down were like his brothers and sisters. And Eco-Wolf gives the pigs the Bird Treatment (calling all the birds and the birds taking the straws). Then the pigs build a wood house, and the same thing happens but with burrowing animals making burrows. The next building the pigs made was a giant concrete shopping mall with a free way leading up to it. Will Eco-Wolf be able to stop them?

HOB.

2008-09-14T09:42:00.001-04:00

Under the stairs in the house where Boy and Girl live there is Hob, a little helper. He always gets a gift each night, like an apple or an egg. And in return he drives away things that not supposed to be in the house, like Clockstop who stops clocks from going right, and eats time. Also he scares away Wump--who stomps down the stairs breaking them, tipping over bottles, denting the house, knocking out a brick, and making Hob's teeth rattle. In that episode he asks Budgie the pet bird to sing Baby to sleep. She sings, "Go to sleep, little egg." "The bird's an idiot," says Hob.

The Hob stories come in the red, yellow, green and blue books, or you can get all of them in one book, that is the book shown. Also you can get Hob and the Goblins as well as Hob and the Peddler. They are longer and have chapters.
HOB is by William Mayne, and illustrated by Patrick Benson. The pictures are so beautiful.

Adventure Quest

2008-09-13T14:06:00.001-04:00

Adventure Quest is an online battle game where you fight monsters with weapons and armor and get gold, experience, and z tokens. You create your own character. You can buy new weapons and stronger armour with your gold. Also there are quests. Be careful! Some quests require greater experience before you can do them. Also the weapons and armour require a certain amount of gold and experience--if you don't have enough, you can't buy them.

BONE.

2008-09-13T10:50:00.000-04:00

The Complete Bone Adventures by Jeff Smith is very creative and I like it! I really like how he uses false animals from his mind combined with real people and animals. In the book when Bone is running from the bad furry creatures, he meets some possums. One says, "Hey, look who's coming!" And another says, "It's Uncle Fone Bone!" Bone says, "Run, Kids! The rat creatures are after me!"Hope you enjoy

Dragonology!

2008-09-13T09:27:00.000-04:00

Dragonology the Complete Book of Dragons by "Dr. Ernest Drake" is a great way to learn about dragons. It tells you all about them from what dragons eat to where they live and there are 10 types of dragon! Dragons might have colonised another planet! But are dragons realy out there?

STINKY.

2008-09-12T21:00:00.000-04:00

Stinky, by Eleanor Davis (2008), is written very well and really grabbed my attention!

The illustrations are very good and they tell you the life you might find in a swamp. This book is part comic part chapter book and it's very easy to read. The problem is a boy, named Nick, comes into the swamp and Stinky Seymour, a monster who lives in the swamp, does not like kids. Solution: Stinky made friends with Nick and Stinky tried an apple and he offered Nick a pickled onion.

I recommend this for ages 5 and up.