The Whipping Boy

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!

Check out what my dad found on YouTube:



Isn't that hilarical!

The Prometheus Project--Trapped

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)

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

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

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

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).