Monster

Author: A. Lee Martinez
Rating: 3/5
Reviewer: Todd

 
Summary:
Meet Monster. Meet Judy. Two humans who don't like each other much, but together must fight dragons, fire-breathing felines, trolls, Inuit walrus dogs, and a crazy cat lady - for the future of the universe.

Monster runs a pest control agency. He's overworked and has domestic troubles - like having the girlfriend from hell.

Judy works the night shift at the local Food Plus Mart. Not the most glamorous life, but Judy is happy. No one bothers her and if she has to spell things out for the night-manager every now and again, so be it.

But when Judy finds a Yeti in the freezer aisle eating all the Rocky Road, her life collides with Monster's in a rather alarming fashion. Because Monster doesn't catch raccoons; he catches the things that go bump in the night. Things like ogres, trolls, and dragons.

Oh, and his girlfriend from Hell? She actually is from Hell. From Amzon.com

Review:

Monster was a fun reading experience, as is general with Martinez’s work. The world is similar to our own so we can empathize with the characters that become victims of magical creatures that most likely they can’t even perceive. But I also think Monster is something a weak book. There really isn’t much character evolution outside of Judy, and the plot needs an almost literal deus ex machina just for the plot to finally make sense. But if you’re in the mood for a quick read that’s fun, give Monster a peek.

Abandoned Amusement Parks

Abandoned Amusement Parks
Author: Dinah Williams
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Reviewer: Helen

 

Summary: This is the telling the stories of 11 abandoned amusement parks across the country, giving their history and what happened to them and the ghosts later seen in the parks.

 

Review: This book is perfect for a young reader who likes spooky stories. It does not have a lot of details or pictures that are spooky and dark, but it is just enough for a younger child. There is something sad and creepy about the loss of the parks. I enjoyed it and would recommend this book for readers in Grades 4 -7.

 



Sabriel

Author: Garth Nix
Reviewer: Todd & Lydia
Ratings: 5/5 and 4/5 stars

Summary:

Since childhood, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who refuse to stay dead. But now her father, the Abhorson, is missing, and Sabriel must cross into that world to find him. With Mogget, whose feline form hides a powerful, perhaps malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage, Sabriel travels deep into the Old Kingdom. There she confronts an evil that threatens much more than her life and comes face-to-face with her own hidden destiny. . . . From Amzon.com

Todd: 5/5 Stars

Sabriel was an interesting tale of a daughter thrust into a world she scantly knows about, and a role she never assumed would be hers. The tale and the character are an interesting creation, a young lady who just turned eighteen and happens to have magic over the dead. This is a skill which is important to have and know when numbers of the dead are able to escape from the flow towards the final rest, letting the dead attack and drain the life from the living to prolong their stay among life.

Although, while growing up, Sabriel never realized just why her father taught her the knowledge to put down the dead and the necromancers who would call them. But when Sabriel learns of her father’s passing she departs the safety of her school to go into the Old Kingdom to find her father. But things are not simple once she finds her father’s home, and what destiny has in store for her.

Sabriel rejects that destiny coming to her so soon, and instead dedicates herself to saving her father. And therein lies what makes Sabriel so interesting as a character; she’s a rejection of the standard ideas of what a fantasy hero would be. She’s a young woman, she is a strong if limited magic user, she’s been trained in swordsman ship, and she resists falling immediately in love. This unfortunately tends to happen when the protagonist of a tale is a woman, even when the story is not romantic in nature.

The world of Sabriel/The Old Kingdom is one full of mysteries. The knowledge of the past has been lost because time’s flow and the effects of having the dead rampage the land. The magic is not yet fully defined, but as the full tale has yet to unfold perhaps that will change.

Lydia: 4/5 Stars

My fellow co-reader Todd has expertly fleshed out the intriguing story of Sabriel: within this book a young girl grows into a woman with magical powers. This story, which is the first part of a trilogy, is the perfect introduction into the high fantasy genre. The story is not entirely original, and does contain some clichés. For example, unlike Todd, I believe that the romance in this story was superfluous to the plot, and progressed at far too fast a rate to be believable. However, I can overlook some of the overused plot elements since the series is geared toward a younger audience.

My favorite aspect of the novel is Sabriel herself. She is a strong, intelligent, and extremely likeable female protagonist, which I believe is a wonderful role model to have in a young adult fiction book. She manages to get into trouble throughout the story, but her wit and ingenuity allows her to escape unharmed. I look forward to seeing how she “grows up” as the series progresses.

Todd and Lydia: On a final note, we both loved Tim Curry as the speaker of the audiobook! He imbued the story with life and substance.

Elephant's Story

Elephant's Story
Author: Tracey Campbell Pearson
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Reviewer: Denise Z.

 

Summary: The day Gracie loses her favorite book, Elephant finds it and the letter fun begins.

 

Review: This is a very cute and fun book that kids will enjoy. This picture book, about a girl who has her own favorite book and meets a friendly elephant, makes for a sweet story. Kids will giggle and learn at the same time when reading along. Each illustrated page adds even more learning opportunities for young readers as they read what the letters spell out by each of Elephant's animal friends. It is also a fun way to get kids to recognize letters scattered within each page and to notice the different types of animals that come along the way.

Heartless : Book Four of The Parasol Protectorate

Author: Gail Carriger,
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Reviewer: Todd

Summary: Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband's past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux's latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines, Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.

Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf's clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama's second best closet?

Heartless is the fourth book of the Parasol Protectorate series: a comedy of manners set in Victorian London, full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking. From Amazon.com

Review: It’s in this book that our perceptions of characters get turned on their heads, the secrets revealed never allowing us to think of them the same way. Silliness is revealed as hiding perceptive depth, the extent that some will go for self or kin becomes known, and long hidden secrets come to light. And while a poltergeist in this universe has been seen before, it’s in this book that the process of becoming one is revealed. It’s a sad and horrifying process, something akin to rapid onset of senility. If such a condition also came with one’s body parts free floating away from them while dissolving into ether. Looking back I’d have to say that this book is about coping, it can be the small things that that help one and theirs’ get through lives. It’s also about just how far some will go to be able to survive, to keep what is precious to them safe. And those extents can be both far, and absolutely terrifying.

A Dog Called Homeless

A Dog Called Homeless
Author: Sarah Lean
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Reviewer: Christi

Summary: Fifth-grader Cally Louise Fisher stops talking, partly because her father and brother never speak of her mother who died a year earlier, but visions of her mother, friendships with a homeless man and a disabled boy, and a huge dog ensure that she still communicates.

Review: A new and powerful writer. I hope she is working on another book. I would normally steer clear of "sad" books. Someone dies at the start? Not for me. But this one caught my attention, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I'm so glad I did. I loved the friendship that grows between this girl, who has decided not to talk, and her blind and mostly deaf neighbor. The author deals with all the layers of this story and sensitive topics so brilliantly. There was just the right amount of hope, happiness, sadness, unfairness, and magic to make you not want to put this book down. A quick read that I highly recommend.

This book won the Schneider Family Book Award. The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.
 

The Martian

Author: Andy Weir
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Reviewer: Lydia

I was extremely excited to get my hands on “The Martian,” a new release by Andy Weir which details one man’s struggle to stay alive—on Mars. Mark Watney is like no character you have ever met before: he is a mad genius with a wicked sense of humor who is willing to take risks. All three of these traits end up being the traits which sustain him as he lives alone in space. After a routine space mission leaves astronaut Mark Watney stranded on the red planet with no hope for rescue in the foreseeable future, he learns how do such things as grow crops and even make water.

The writing is not particularly beautiful—you will find no figurative language or even imagery—and the writing is precise and scientific, which makes sense considering the subject matter. My only major criticism of the novel is that the story quickly grew monotonous: Mark encountered a problem, said problem appeared to be his demise, but somehow, after only a day of hard thinking, Mark always came up with a brilliant and often far-fetched, insane plan to rectify the issue at hand. I also found myself repeatedly skipping over the heavy scientific and mathematical jargon in some of the chapters. Regardless of some confusing and/or boring parts of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed the inventive and fast-paced plot.