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A Court of Thorns and Roses #1

In her quiet village, 19-year-old Feyre has become the sole provider for her family. After her father’s fortune was squandered, Feyre was forced to step up and take care of her father and two older sisters. Miles away from Feyre’s home, there is an invisible wall separating the human world from the faerie world, Prythian. This wall has been in place for hundreds of years under a treaty to keep humans and faeries segregated and safe from each other.

One day while hunting in the forest near the invisible wall, Feyre unknowingly shoots down a faerie that took the form of a large wolf. When a shapeshifting high fae bursts into her home to claim vengeance for his fallen soldier, Feyre is taken as payment for killing the faerie wolf and brought into the faerie world to serve for the remainder of her life. As Tamlin, her captor takes her to the spring court, she begins to unravel the dark secrets hidden in the faerie world.

Feyre soon learns that Tamlin is the High Lord of the spring court and one of the most powerful faeries in Prythian. While living in Tamlin’s home, Feyre becomes more of a friend than a prisoner, then soon learns the treacherous pasts of the faerie courts, which includes the spring, summer, autumn, winter, day, and night court. While the spring court is filled with cursed masks, mystery predators, and a hidden tyrant terrorizing the faerie lands, Feyre must come to understand her new home and accept her growing feelings for Tamlin.

As Feyre’s feelings begin to soften for Tamlin, a mystery curse creeps closer to the spring court. When an evil tyrant takes Tamlin and his court from their home, it is up to Feyre to save her newfound home from the curse. Now Feyre must decide: does she go home to her father and sisters or go after Tamlin?

A Court of Thorns and Roses is full of twists and turns; Maas takes the readers to the fresh faerie world of Prythian and lays out the groundwork for a magical series filled with adventure and romance. Feyre must dive into the faerie world of deadly politics, deceit, and vengeance in this thrilling tale of fantasy, family, and love.

The novel focuses on setting up the fantasy world of Prythian, which is filled with fairies and mythical creatures, but it is also a true look at the power of family and survival. Feyre sacrifices herself, her dreams, and her safety every step of the way for her family, friends, and ultimately, for love. A Court of Thorns and Roses dives into a new universe of faeries and courts with rich, memorable characters. The story focuses on the characters’ relationships and how people from different worlds can come together to fight a common evil. A Court of Thorns and Roses shines a light on the most unlikely of people becoming friends in a divided world.

However, the politics of the faerie world and the different courts can get tiresome. Feyre compares every new character to how she could paint them, which becomes repetitive and unnecessary. A Court of Thorns and Roses is a slow burn, and it gets better as it goes on. As the story continues, this book is hard to put down and becomes a nail-biter. This story highlights the true strength of women through Feyre’s character, who becomes an unlikely hero in the faerie world. Feyre comes to the rescue of Tamlin, which reverses the generic “damsel in distress” trope readers have seen time and time again. Fans of Holly Black and Cassandra Clare will fall in love with Sarah J. Maas’s fantasy as she introduces the world of Prythian.

Sexual Content

  • Feyre discusses her two-year love affair with a boy from the village. She describes all of their encounters as “a rush of shedding clothes and shared breaths and tongues and teeth.”
  • Tamlin and Feyre have an encounter in the hallway after Tamlin has been involved in a faerie ritual that makes him act more predatory than human. He ends up biting her, then “the bite lightened, and his tongue caressed the places his teeth had been. He didn’t move – he just remained in that spot, kissing my neck. Heat pounded in my head, and as he ground his body against me, a moan slipped past my lips.” Feyre’s moan causes Tamlin to come back to reality.
  • Tamlin and Feyre have their first kiss. “He brushed his lips to mine – soft and warm. My hands went around his neck, pulling him closer, crushing myself against him. His hands roved my back, playing in my hair, grasping my waist, as if he couldn’t touch enough of me at once.”
  • Tamlin and Feyre have sex for the first time. “We were a tangle of limbs and teeth, and I tore at his clothes, and then tore at his skin until I marked him down his back, his arms. His hands were devastatingly gentle on my hips as he slid down in between my thighs and feasted on me, stopping only after I shuddered and fractured. I was moaning his name when he sheathed himself inside me in a powerful, slow thrust that had me splintering around him.”

Violence

  • Feyre kills a wolf, that has just killed a deer, and then skins the wolf. The wolf “didn’t try to dodge the arrow as it went clean through his wide yellow eye.” Feyre describes “wrapping the bloody side of his pelt around the doe’s death wound” before she takes it home with her.
  • Feyre describes a memory of when thugs beat up her father for losing investment money. “That creditor and his thugs had burst into the cottage and smashed his knee again and again. I had stayed, begging and weeping through every scream of my father, every crunch of bone.”
  • Feyre fights off the naga, or “faeries made of shadow and hate and rot.” She shoots one with her bow and arrow and it “struck home and blood sprayed.” Tamlin comes to help her and “shredded through his companion’s neck, flesh and blood ripped away.” The scene is described over two pages.
  • An injured faerie comes to Tamlin’s home with “blood oozing from black velvety stumps on the faerie’s back . . . as if his wings had been sawed off.”
  • Some faerie men try to attack Feyre and “herd and push me towards the line of trees” before Rhysand steps in to save her.
  • Feyre sees the body of a girl, who had been mistaken for herself and tortured by Amarantha as a result. “Her skin was burned in places, her fingers were bent at odd angles, and garish red lines criss-crossed her naked body.”
  • Rhysand is forced to “shatter the mind” of a traitor faerie and kills him with only his mind. “The faerie male’s eyes went wide – then glazed as he slumped to the floor. Blood leaked from his nose, from his ears, pooling on the floor.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Feyre talked too much because of “the wine she had at dinner.”
  • Feyre drinks faerie wine and “it was like a million fireworks exploded inside me, filling my veins with starlight.” This makes her giddy and she dances a lot.
  • Feyre is forced to drink magical faerie wine that makes her “memory a dark blur of wild music.” After she drinks the wine, she has no control over her actions and is forced to dance for hours in front of the faeries.

Language

  • Townspeople call the Children of the Blessed “faerie-loving whores.”
  • Profanity is used occasionally. Profanity includes: shit, damn, and hell.

Supernatural

  • On their journey into the faerie world, Tamlin uses magic to put Feyre to sleep and to “keep my limbs tucked in to prevent me going for my knife.”
  • Feyre describes Tamlin changing from his beast form into his faerie form. “The beast plopped into the chair, and, in a flash of white light, turned into a golden-haired man.”
  • Tamlin tells the story of the curse on his lands and the “blight that caused a magical surge during a masquerade ball forty-nine years ago” that left the spring court permanently stuck in masks.
  • Feyre encounters an evil faerie creature in the forest called the Bogge. It gets inside her head and tries to make her look at it because “when you acknowledge it, that’s when it becomes real. That’s when it can kill you.”
  • Another faerie creature tricks Feyre into seeing an apparition of her father “near the open gate, beckoning me to hurry.”
  • Feyre traps a Suriel that has “a face that looked like it had been crafted from dried, weatherworn bone, its skin either forgotten or discarded, a lipless mouth and too-long teeth held by blackened gums, slitted holes for nostrils, and milky white eyes.”
  • Feyre encounters a “giant worm, or what might have once been a worm had its front end not become an enormous mouth filled with ring after ring of razor-sharp teeth.”

Spiritual Content

  • Feyre describes villagers “praying to the long-forgotten gods” to not encounter faeries on their hunts.
  • Feyre and her sisters run into the “Children of the Blessed,” who are missionaries that worship the high fae as gods.

by Adeline Garren

 

A Wind in the Door

When six-year-old Charles Wallace tells his sister he’s found dragons in the pasture, Meg doesn’t want to believe him. But lo and behold, Meg and her friend Calvin discover the enormous creature with hundreds of wings and thousands of eyes. A giant man claiming to be their Teacher tells them the dragons—which are really one creature, a cherubim—is one of their classmates. They’ve been brought together because evil creatures called Echthroi are trying to destroy creation—from the largest stars down to the tiny mitochondria in Charles Wallace’s cells. With her brother’s life on the line, Meg must learn how to love even her enemies or the Echthroi will succeed in destroying her brother and perhaps all of creation.

What follows is a fantastical conflict between the forces of good and evil; a struggle of life and love against hatred and destruction. Meg, Calvin, and the cherubim must work together to save Charles Wallace’s mitochondria from the Echthroi that would destroy. They are transported into Charles Wallace’s cells and meet the farandolae that lives inside his mitochondria. The farandolae have been led astray by the Echthroi and are refusing to grow up, killing the mitochondria. Meg and her classmates have to show the farandolae a better way and rescue them from the Echthroi, before the misguided farandolae kill the mitochondria, Charles Wallace and themselves.

Once again Meg complains and resists the tasks that are given her, but she rises in the end and learns how to look for the good in people even if she doesn’t like them. A Wind in the Door is more complex than A Wrinkle in Time and may be confusing for younger readers as it deals with mitochondria and the relativity of space and size. Still, for readers able to grasps its more complex topics, A Wind in the Door is a fun read that imparts the importance of loving your enemies and looking for the good in everyone. While A Wind in the Door doesn’t discuss religion directly, its storyline and themes are allegorical. For instance, the cherubim and Teacher explain that there is a battle between life and darkness, and to save Charles Wallace the children must protect the ‘song of creation’ from evil forces that would disrupt it.

A Wind in the Door is not a science book, but it does combine quantum physicals and biology to show that people are galaxies unto themselves. In order to accomplish this, the main character is reduced to the molecular level, which is made believable through L’Engle’s use of imagery. Besides being an interesting story, the reader learns about the importance of compassion, friendship, and love. Anyone who is interested in learning more about the nature of human relationships should read A Wind in the Door.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • The farandolae don’t want to grow up so they suck the nutrients from adult farandolae, called fara, killing them in the process. “A group of farandolae whirled about a fara; fronds drooped; color drained. The dance was a scream of laughter, ugly laughter.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Meg has a run in with an Echthroi impersonating Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins, “rose up into the night like a great, flapping bird, flew, screaming across the sky, became a rent, an emptiness, a slash of nothingness.”
  • Meg meets a cherubim. “Wings, it seemed like hundreds of wings, spreading, folding, stretching—and eyes how many eyes can a drive of dragons have? and small jets of flame.”
  • Meg’s teacher is a “huge” man whose “long robe seemed chiseled out of granite.”
  • A large black garden snake acts strangely human, bowing to Meg’s new teacher. While the snake never speaks, it’s said that she too is a “Teacher.”
  • Meg is shown how the Echthroi destroy matter; how they turn it into nothingness. “Across the sky, where the stars were clustered as thickly as in the Milky Way, a crack shivered, slivered, became a line of nothing-ness.”
  • Meg learns how to kythe, a form of mind-to-mind communication. “It’s how cherubim talk. It’s talking without words, just the same way that I can be myself and not be enfleshed.”
  • Farandolae, things that live inside mitochondria, are depicted as “a small, silver-blue mouse…[that] spoke, but with neither a mouse’s squeak nor a human voice. The sound was like harp strings being plucked under water.” Meg and her friends are transported inside a mitochondria, to help the farandolae.

Spiritual Content

  • What Charles Wallace thought were dragons turns out to be a cherubim.
  • The cherubim tries to explain exactly what the Echthroi are. “I think your mythology would call them fallen angels. War and hate are their business, and one of their chief weapons is un-Naming—making people not know who they are. If someone knows who he is, really knows, then he doesn’t need to hate.”
  • When Meg tries to stop the Echthroi, she sings the song of creation, “Sing for the glory of the living and the loving the flaming of creation sing with us dance with us be with us Be! They were not her words only. They were the words of Senex, of the Deepening Sporos…the cherubim and seraphim, wind and fire, the words of the Glory.”

by Morgan Lynn

The Spacedog Cometh

Klawde is not an average cat. He’s an exiled emperor from across the universe. Klawde spends his days plotting his revenge. He will use any means possible to return to his homeland. Klawde is cruel. He’s cunning. He’s also his human’s best friend.

As Klawde plots his cosmic revenge, the space dog Barx arrives on Earth. Barx plans to take Klawde back to his home planet, where Klawde will be punished for his crimes. Unlike Klawde, Barx is loyal and an overall good boy. He also loves to play catch. Barx is determined to bring Klawde to justice. Will the ferocious feline be able to avoid justice?

While Klawde is focused on evading Barx, Raj is faced with his own out-of-town visitor. Although his grandmother is from Earth, she may be even more formidable than Klawde. When Raj’s grandmother plans a birthday party for Raj, he is convinced that the party will lead to the ultimate embarrassment.

Klawde: The Spacedog Cometh brings in two new characters—Barx and Raj’s grandmother. Raj’s grandmother showers Raj with love. She not only begins packing him traditional Indian lunches, but she also invites his entire class to a birthday party that will feature traditional Indian food. Raj loves his grandmother enough not to complain, but he still worries about being different than his classmates. Raj’s relationship with his grandmother leads to some funny, awkward, and surprising situations.

As Raj is trying to survive his grandmother’s visit, Klawde is up to no good. He is convinced that torturing Barx is the key to returning to his home planet. The contrast between Klawde and Barx is amusing and leads to many fight-and-chase scenes. As Klawde and Barx create chaos, Raj doesn’t know if Klawde is being honest or not. After all, Klawde has told him, “Lies are the sharpest arrows in the warrior’s quiver” and “The truth is whatever I say it is.”

Klawde: The Spacedog Cometh continues the engaging, comical story of Klawde. The new characters keep the plot fresh and exciting. Although Klawde’s plans don’t turn out as he had hoped, the conclusion is heartwarming and proves that Klawde will never change. The story continues in the same action-packed format as the previous books. The engaging story has short paragraphs, easy vocabulary, and hilarious blue-and-black illustrations. Not only do the illustrations help the reader imagine the story’s events, but they also highlight Klawde’s various emotions of misery, distaste, and disgust.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When Raj brings a dog home, Klawde attacks him. “SLASH! I struck the dog’s nose, claws fully extended. The beast’s eyes snapped open as it yelped in shock and pain. When it saw me, it began to growl, a low rumble that sounded like thunder. Then it charged! Only my superior feline reflexes kept me from the death trap of its snapping jaws.” Klawde hides in his litter box. When the dog follows, “I began to kick up sand with my back paws, creating such a flurry that the canine was blinded.” Klawde eventually races away from the dog, and jumps on Raj’s grandmother’s head. The fight is described over three pages.
  • Klawde calls the dog a “slobbering moron.” In response, the dog bites Klawde’s tail. “The pain—it was like my tail had been blasted by a Zzaxxannian laser torpedo! Fortunately, my cry of agony so surprised Barx that he loosened his grip.” Klawde gets away by climbing a tree.
  • When Klawde finds the dog sleeping, he “bit him on the leg.” The dog doesn’t respond; instead, “Barx merely yawned.”
  • Klawde hides in the bathroom. When Barx comes into the bathroom to drink from the toilet, Klawde attacks. Klawde “sprang from my hiding place, claws fully extended! My left paw slashed Barx’s nose, my right his ear. Barx stumbled backwards in shock.” The dog chases Klawde, who climbs onto the mantel and “flung down a stack of books that the father-ogre kept there. They hit Barx on the shoulder, and he yelped in anger.” Raj’s grandmother shows up and stops the fighting. The fight is described over four pages.
  • Klawde demands that Barx returns to his home planet. When Barx refuses, Klawde calls him a bad dog. “A low growl started in Barx’s throat, and the fur along his spine began to rise. . . ‘Don’t you growl at me!’ I said, slashing him across his hideous snout. Barx bared every single one of his deadly teeth.” Then, Klawde ran from Barx.
  • When Klawde returns to his home planet, the other cats attack. “Just then, the escape pod started to rock. We were being swarmed by the infuriated mob. . .The mob was clawing at the hatch, trying to pry it open.” Klawde makes a desperate last-minute call to Raj, who comes and saves him.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • In his thoughts, Klawde often calls others names. The characters also call each other names, including moron, idiot, jerk, dimwit, imbecile, fool, cowardly scoundrel, dolt, fraud, sniveling charlatan, vile flatterer, and two-faced mongrel.
  • Heck is used three times. For example, when Raj takes a traditional Indian meal to school, someone asks him, “What the heck is that?”
  • When Klawde keeps saying “sit,” Barx says, “Dang it!”
  • Darn is used once. Barx says, “Klawde did something pretty darn awful in my solar system. . .”
  • When Raj sees the lights from a spaceship he thinks, “No. . . freaking. . .way.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The 39-Story Treehouse: Mean Machines & Mad Professors!

Andy and Terry have added thirteen new levels to their amazing treehouse! With a new trampoline, chocolate waterfall, active volcano, opera house, baby-dinosaur petting zoo, museum, boxing elephant, not-very-merry-go-round, X-ray room, disco dance floor, high-tech office, and the world’s scariest rollercoaster, the treehouse has gotten even more ridiculous!

As usual, Andy and Terry are too busy having absurd amounts of fun to realize that their next book is due tomorrow afternoon. Even though the boys have not written a scrap, Terry has a solution. He unveils his new top-secret invention: a Once-Upon-a-Time Machine that writes and draws the books for them. After the invention locks them out of the treehouse and threatens to write its own books, the duo must seek the aid of a mad professor, who is determined to destroy the universe, in order to save their treehouse.

Will the boys be able to save the universe and the treehouse all while finishing their book?

The Treehouse Series is a fantastic series for young readers who are reluctant to read. Griffiths and Denton create a silly, funny, and ridiculous story that will leave readers rolling on the floor laughing. In order to finish their book, Terry invents a machine that will write the book for them. After the machine locks the boys out of the treehouse, Andy and Terry go through a range of slapstick scenarios in order to save their treehouse and book series. In the end, the boys realize they should have written their book and not have depended on the machine to do it for them. This teaches readers the importance of doing their own work.

Unlike other books in the series, Griffiths and Denton do not depend on bathroom humor or inappropriate behavior as a crutch for their jokes, but instead, use wordplay and a bit of slapstick comedy to entertain their readers. The funny black-and-white drawings contribute to a positive reading experience and will help younger readers transfer their reading skills from picture books into full-fledged novels.

Unlike other series, readers can enjoy each of these books by themselves and the series does not have to be read in order. In the end, this fun, easy-to-read book will teach readers the importance of doing your own work and encourage reluctant readers to finally read. The story’s fast pace and silly situations will keep readers turning the pages until the very end.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • In the treehouse’s baby-dinosaur petting zoo, one of the velociraptors bites one of Andy’s fingers off. It is illustrated, but not gory or violent.
  • The Once-Upon-A-Time Machine slaps the boys “away whenever we get too close to the treehouse.”
  • The Trunkinator, a giant boxing elephant, “stomps into the room and punches [Professor Stupido] in the nose.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • After Terry’s jet-propelled swivel chair malfunctions, he calls it “stupid.”
  • When the Once-Upon-A-Time machine refuses to let Terry and Andy in, Terry yells, “You’re just a dumb machine that I invented! Open the treehouse door! NOW!”
  • Professor Stupido, the world-famous un-inventor, is a main character in this book. He calls penguins “stupid, flightless things.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Matthew Perkey

King & Kayla and the Case of the Mysterious Mouse

Kayla (a human) and King (a dog) are both detectives. One day, King and Kayla decide to play fetch with their friends, Jullian (a human) and Thor (a dog). When Jullian throws King’s ball too hard, it goes over the fence. Jullian goes to look for the ball, but she can’t find it. King and Kayla must put together the clues to find out where it went—and who had his ball.

Mystery fans will love Kayla and King who enjoy doing ordinary things like playing fetching, eating grilled cheese sandwiches, and following clues to solve a mystery. King’s enthusiasm is contagious and readers will enjoy King as he tries to find out who stole his ball. Thought bubbles appear over King’s head with cute pictures that explain what King is thinking. The illustrations add humor to the story. For example, when King thinks about his “stolen” ball, he pictures a cat thief wearing a mask.

As Kayla and King try to solve the mystery of the hidden ball, Kayla makes a list of “what we don’t know about this case” and a list of “everything we know about this case.” King causes a little havoc as he looks for the answer, but he also makes a new friend. In the end, King is surprised by the unexpected ball thief.

Young readers will love King who thinks that every new thing is his favorite thing. King, like many children, is upset when someone yells at him. The bright illustrations show each character’s emotion making it easy for young readers to understand what they feel. The illustrations often have unexpected details, like Thor making friends with a worm.

King & Kayla and the Case of the Mysterious Mouse is perfect for readers transitioning out of picture books and into chapter books. Each page has a large picture that allows the text to be spaced out so younger readers will not get discouraged by the amount of text. The simple, fun plot and interesting characters will keep readers engaged until the very end. Beginning readers who love animals will enjoy the King & Kayla series.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

A Good Kind of Trouble

Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is follow the rules. (Oh, and she’d also like to make it through seventh grade with her best friendships intact, learn to run track, and have a cute boy see past her giant forehead.)

But in junior high, it’s like all the rules have changed. Now she’s suddenly questioning who her best friends are and some people at school are saying she’s not black enough. Wait, what?

Shayla’s sister, Hana, is involved in Black Lives Matter, but Shay doesn’t think that’s for her. After experiencing a powerful protest though, Shayla decides that some rules are worth breaking. She starts wearing an armband to school in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Soon, everyone is taking sides and she is given an ultimatum.

Shayla is scared to do the wrong thing (and even more scared to do the right thing), but if she doesn’t face her fear, she’ll be forever tripping over the next hurdle. Now that’s trouble, for real.

Told from Shayla’s point of view, A Good Kind of Trouble effectively explains the Black Lives Matter movement and Shayla’s budding awareness of political activism. When Shayla and her friends begin junior high, they struggle with the changes that come with growing up—crushes, changing friendships, and figuring out their own beliefs.

Readers will relate to Shayla as she struggles with the difficulty of junior high. Shayla’s teacher assigns an “eyeball journal” so students can write down their observations. As Shayla writes in the journal, her thoughts and emotions come to the forefront, which allows the reader to connect with Shayla on a deeper level.

As the story explains the Black Lives Matter movement, most of the information is introduced as Shayla’s parents listen to news about a trial where a black man was killed by a police officer. Shayla’s parents and several adults talk about the trial, but the events are not described in detail. Even though the story focuses on how African-Americans are unjustly stereotyped, the story also touches on how other races are also stereotyped. Shayla’s friends are different races—Isabella is Latin and Julia is Asian.

Throughout the story, Ramée incorporates quotes from famous people, such as author Ralph Waldo Emerson. Shayla’s parents and teachers also give positive advice. For example, one teacher says, “You can be different from the generations before you. You can celebrate people’s differences. Or step up and challenge beliefs you know are wrong.” As Shayla explores her own personal beliefs, she thinks about everyone’s opinions and applies them to her own life.

A Good Kind of Trouble will entertain readers as it introduces them to some heavy topics. The story will show the importance of taking a stand as well as discovering your own belief system. A Good Kind of Trouble would be an excellent story for parents to read and discuss with their children.

Sexual Content

  • Isabella tells her friends that “my dad has a new girlfriend. And you know my mom. She’s all freaked out about it, and worried that I’m going to freak out about it. . .”
  • For a science lab, Shayla is paired up with a cute boy. During the lab, “We both reach for the honey at the same time, and our hands brush. Then a few minutes later, there is this one moment when our heads get really close together. Thank God I brushed my teeth real good this morning!”
  • The students at school play a game and “command” a person to do something embarrassing. At the school dance, Tyler is “commanded” to kiss Shayla. Tyler asks Shayla to dance and “before I can say anything, Tyler kisses me. I’m not talking a peck on the cheek; his mouth is smothering mine. . . I know it’s not a nice kiss. It is slobbery, and even though he must’ve just had a mint so at least his breath isn’t bad, his lips are chapped and scratchy.”
  • Shayla is upset when everyone talks about her and Tyler’s kiss. When she talks to Tyler, she tells him, “And you should know it’s not cool to just kiss somebody. You can’t be all up on somebody who didn’t say it was okay.”

Violence

  • At school, a group of boys try to put Alex in the garbage can. Bernard tries to help. “Most of the boys are laughing, and a few try to grab Bernard’s arms, but Bernard is stronger than they are, and he hauls off and punches a guy and then yanks Alex from Daniel. . . Bernard pushes Alex behind him and then he clobbers Marcus, and that’s just when Principal Trask walks outside the cafeteria.”
  • Some of the students wear armbands in support of Black Lives Matter. “In fifth period I found out the fight was all about Noah Randolph getting commanded to take off his armband and he wouldn’t, so a bunch of other boys started whaling on him.”
  • Shayla’s father tells her about a woman who was “selling incense in front of a store.” When the police were called, “two officers shot her.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • While talking about other people, several characters are referred to as “jerks.” For example, when Shayla sees a boy in the school hallway, “A bunch of boys surrounded Alex, and I can tell they’re being jerks just by the way they’re laughing and nudging each other.”
  • While walking in the school hallway, a boy yells, “My dad says Black Lives Matter is racist.” Shayla thinks, “I want to tell him his dad is an idiot. . .”
  • Shayla’s sister calls her a dummy one time.
  • Dang and damn are both used once.
  • “Oh my god” is used as an exclamation once.
  • When a boy says, “Blue lives matter.” Shayla tells him, “Of course blue lives matter, stupid.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Shayla’s family prays before dinner. “Usually our prayer before dinner is really fast. Just a quick thank-you to God for the food, and sometimes Daddy will add something silly like thanking God for Momma’s brown eyes. . .But tonight Momma’s voice is slow and serious. . . ‘And protect our daughter, Hana, as she struggles to understand the horrible shootings and this troubling verdict. Keep her on the path of peace and nonviolence. And give solace to the poor families, Lord, who have lost young men way too soon.’”
  • During a relay, Shayla was afraid she would drop the baton. During the event she was “praying we’ll connect.”

Hair Love

Zuri’s hair lets her be her. It coils and kinks to perfectly match a princess tiara or a super-hero cape. This morning, Zuri is too excited to sleep because her mom is coming home. Zuri knows that she’s beautiful, but today she wants an extra-special hairstyle.

Zuri knows her father has had to work extra hard while her mom was away, so she doesn’t want to wake him up. Zuri wants to do her own hair, but she accidently wakes up her daddy. He is convinced that styling Zuri’s hair will be “a piece of cake.” Soon, Daddy realizes that Zuri’s hair has a mind of its own.

While Zuri’s father loves the hairstyle he has created, Zuri and her cat aren’t impressed. After several styles and some tears, Daddy watches a tutorial. “Daddy combed, parted, piled, and twisted. He nailed it!” When Mommy comes home, she gives Zuri a big hug and tells her, “And your hair is beautiful.”

Hair Love isn’t only a book about expressing yourself, but also a beautiful story of a father and daughter. Both Zuri and Daddy show each other their love through actions. Zuri makes her father breakfast—cereal, an apple, and a juice box. Zuri lets him sleep because she knows he is tired. Zuri’s father also acknowledges Zuri’s need to look beautiful and creates several hairstyles before he finds the perfect one.

Told with full-page pastel illustrations, Zuri’s plight becomes real. When Daddy tries to style her hair, the results are often comical. Both the cat and Zuri’s opinions of each hairstyle are portrayed through the characters’ expressions. Even though the illustrations are often humorous, Hair Love does an excellent job of showing how Zuri’s hair allows her to express herself. The ending of the story shows Zuri’s mother, who is wearing a scarf over her head, hinting that she is undergoing cancer treatments. Even though most readers will not pick up on this aspect of the story, readers who know someone with cancer will understand the illustration’s significance.

Readers will fall in love with Hair Love and want to read the story over and over. Through both the illustrations and text, the story shows the special bond between father and daughter and highlights the family’s love for each other. The story’s message is simple and readers will understand Zuri’s need to feel beautiful and to express herself. Hair Love will leave readers with a smile and a new understanding of family love.

Even though Hair Love is a picture book, the story is intended to be read aloud to a child, rather than for a child to read it for the first time independently. Most pages contain 1-2 sentences, which makes the story a quick read and an excellent bedtime story. Hair Love should be in everyone’s home library because the story showcases healthy family relationships and highlights the importance of expressing yourself. If you’re looking for another picture book that explores family relationships, add Mars Needs Moms by Berkeley Breathed to your reading list. Another must-read picture book that shows the importance of loving yourself is Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Bone Houses

Deep in the mountains lies Annvyn, a land once populated by fairy folk and filled with magic. Hundreds of years ago, Arawn, the king of the Otherfolk, was betrayed by humankind. The Otherfolk abandoned their stronghold at Castell Sidi, but they left dangerous magic behind.

Ryn is proud to be the gravedigger of the village of Colbren, just like her father before her. But her job is becoming harder as the dead keep coming back as sinister magical creatures known as bone houses. Ellis is an apprentice mapmaker searching for his long-lost family. Together they must travel into the heart of Annvyn to seek the answers to both of their issues.

The Bone Houses focuses heavily on the bone houses. These magically reanimated human corpses are essential to the plot and are often described in great detail both in and out of battle. These descriptions have the potential to scare younger readers and, as they often include gory details about the human body, should be approached with caution by readers with weaker stomachs.

The Bone Houses is a fast-paced, Polish-inspired fantasy with a uniquely post-magical setting. The quest-based plot keeps the story moving forward, with quieter world-building and character moments balanced out by exciting, fast-paced battles. Strong, fierce Aderyn and gentle, intelligent Ellis make such a good team that readers will find it easy to root for them to succeed, both on their quest and as a couple. It is easy to get lost in the mysterious allure of Annyvn, which Lloyd-Jones describes beautifully. The story certainly has a darker edge to it, exploring the unintended consequences that magic can have, even when controlled by the most well-meaning of people.

Sexual Content

  • Ellis asks Ryn if the innkeeper is “trying to find [her] a spouse.”
  • After a conversation with a young boy, Ellis tells Ryn, “I’m pretty sure he thinks we’re having an illicit romance and your family disapproves of me.”
  • Ellis describes Ryn. “The firelight burnished her red-brown hair to a blazing crimson, and something about the angle of her chin and jaw made his heart clench painfully.”
  • When Ryn smiles at Ellis he experiences a feeling “like the times he slipped on a patch of ice or a slick rock—weightlessness in his belly and anticipation of the fall.”
  • Ellis gets embarrassed when Ryn strips to bathe in a creek. When he turns to give her privacy, she says, “I’m not naked. There’s cloth covering all the relevant bits.”
  • Ryn asks if Ellis is “not one for the ladies?” She then tells him, “If you prefer the lads that’s fine.”
  • Ellis covers Ryn with his cloak as she sleeps, describing it as “A moment of sentimentality that he could ill afford. . . But he would allow himself this foolishness, if only because no one else would see it.”
  • After Ryn is attacked by a bone house, she and Ellis have a moment. “He wanted to kiss her. He felt half sick with yearning. . . It was her surety, her fierce sense of purpose; he wanted to draw it into himself. Her eyes were steady on his, and she did not pull away.” They do not kiss.
  • Ryn contemplates her growing feelings for Ellis. “She wasn’t sure when she’d begun to regard him as hers. Her friend, her ally, and one of those few people she wanted to keep safe. And if she liked the way his dark hair fell across his eye or how his voice rasped when he said her name—well. That was beside the point.”
  • When Ellis saves Ryn from drowning, she “wanted to throw her arms around him, hold on until she was sure they were both alright, until she’d worked up the nerve to press her face into the hollow of his shoulder.”
  • When Ryn looks at him, Ellis says he can feel her gaze “like being pierced through: the sharpest, sweetest pain he could imagine,” and describes her as “truly lovely.”
  • Ellis says that he “wanted to touch the hollow of [Ryn’s] throat, feel her heart beating beneath his fingertips. He wanted to push the hair behind her ears and kiss the freckles scattered across her shoulders. He wanted to tell her that he wouldn’t leave—not like the others.”
  • Ryn and Ellis finally discuss their feelings for one another and Ryn kisses Ellis, “with a determined ferocity.” Their conversation is about three pages long, and the description of the actual kiss lasts for about a page.

Violence

  • Ryn encounters a bone house and grapples with it. “The woman staggered, reaching out for Ryn. Ryn ducked back, but the woman’s brittle fingers caught her on the shoulder. She felt the rake of nails, the fingers stiffen in death. Ryn tore the axe free, and there was another nauseating wrenching sound, like tissues being torn apart. The dead woman fell to the ground.”
  • While sleeping in the woods, Ellis is attacked by a bone house. “[Ellis] reached for the only weapon he possessed: a walking stick. He jabbed it toward the man, trying to hit him around the shoulders and head. But it was little use.”
  • Ceri, Ryn’s younger sister, jokingly suggests getting rid of someone with, “a few poisonous berries slipped into a jar of blackberry preserves.”
  • Ryn and Ellis are attacked by three armed bone houses that were soldiers before they died. Ryn “threw the axe. It flung wildly through the air, and only its handle hit the bone house in the chest. The chain mail slowed the blow but could not halt it. Ryn rushed the creature, seizing her axe from the ground and aiming another blow at the bone house’s unprotected throat. Its head dropped to the undergrowth.” The fight is described over four pages.
  • A villager is killed by a bone house. The villager “did not beg. Nor did he raise an arm to defend himself when the bone house brought the sword down across his throat.”
  • A large number of bone houses attack the village. “Distantly [Ellis] heard the sounds of shouting and the clash of metal upon metal. The bone houses weren’t only attacking the house. They must be everywhere.” Preparations for the battle and the fight itself are described over about eight pages.
  • Ryn’s younger sister is attacked by the bone house of their uncle. “This bone house stank of rotted flesh, and his white hair trailed from his skull. He did not speak, but a terrible noise emanated from his chest—a rusty groan. His fingers were blackened with rot, and they were tangled in Ceridwen’s hair. And in his other hand was a dirty knife.”
  • Ryn’s family owns an overprotective goat, who attacks several bone houses. She uses “her horns gouging one’s hip.” She is ultimately outnumbered and killed.
  • An incident from Ellis’s past is described in which a girl “kicked him to the ground and kept him there with a foot on his left shoulder.” Ellis suffers from an injury to that shoulder that never properly healed and causes him great pain.
  • Ryn leaves her brother with instructions to “brain” the Lord in charge of their village if he tries to send them to a workhouse.
  • Ryn and Ellis discover a community of people living with the bone houses of their dead relatives. When one of the residents finds out about their quest, she attacks Ryn. “Aderyn was on her back, legs kicking wildly as Catrin pressed her to the floor. The woman’s hands were on Aderyn’s shoulders, gripping with bruising force, and she was saying, “—can’t, you can’t—,” as if this were a conversation.”
  • As they pass through the mine, Ryn and Ellis are attacked by bone houses, and Ellis is pulled underwater. Ellis “tried to push himself upright, but something hung to him tightly. He struck out at the thing, bubbles emerging from his lips. He blinked and the water stung his eyes, but there was nothing to see, nothing to hear. His elbow connected with something hard and he felt it give, snapping beneath the blow.” The fight is described for six pages.
  • While crossing the Llyn Mawr, a large enchanted lake, Ryn and Ellis are attacked by a creature called an Alfac. “It had small scales that glittered in the sunlight like small opals. Its teeth were sharp as daggers, angled inward. Meant for ripping and tearing.” The creature capsizes their boat and pulls Ryn under. “[Ryn] touched a stone that seemed larger than the rest. Her fingers curled around its rough exterior, and before she could hesitate, she drove the rock into one of the fancy’s golden eyes.” The description of the fight lasts for three pages.
  • A group of bone houses emerge from the lake and attack Ryn and Ellis. “The bone houses dragged Ellis through the door and into the courtyard. One of his hands seized the frame, fingers straining, but then he was jerked free. He vanished into the darkness.” The fight is described over ten pages.
  • Ryn and Ellis discover the bone house of Ellis’s mother, who attacks Ryn. “Ellis knew that sound would follow him into his nightmares—the resounding crack of the cauldron striking Ryn, and then the thud of her body hitting the floor. She was so still that she might have been dead. And for one terrible heartbeat, he thought she was. Then her fingers twitched and she made this noise. A whimper in the back of his throat.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Hywel, one of the villagers in Colbern, suggests he and Ryn “stop by the Red Mare” for a drink.
  • Ryn describes her uncle as having been “soused” when he died.
  • Ryn gives Ellis feverfew to help with the pain in his shoulder. He jokingly asks if she is planning to keep him “in a slightly drugged state of good cheer.”
  • Ryn and Ellis find an old bottle of wine and get drunk. “The liquid was thick in [Ellis’s] mouth. He swallowed hastily, but even in its absence the wine lingered on his tongue. It tasted of burnt honey and orange rinds. Warmth bloomed in his chest.”

Language

  • Both “Bloody” and “Fallen Kings” are used as curses a few times.
  • Ellis describes Ryn’s uncle as an “ass.”

 Supernatural

  • As a child, Ryn encounters a bone house for the first time. “She had seen bodies before, but they were always gently wrapped in clean clothes and then lowered into the ground. They were peaceful. This thing moved slowly under the weight of armor, and a sword jutted from its belt. And it stank.”
  • While keeping watch for bone houses, Ryn describes the night as “dark enough for magic.”
  • After Ryn saves Ellis from a bone house, she asks if he “[spoke] the name of the Otherking three times” or “dabbled in magic.”
  • Ellis is surprised to see an iron gate surrounding the village of Colbren, to which Ryn replies, “Cities took down their iron protection when the Otherfolk left. But you’ll find us countryfolk a little more wary.”
  • Ryn recalls a story her mother told her about how Colbren came to be protected by the fairies. “One day, a woman had ventured into the mountain forests with a basket of her finest wares. She carried golden churned butter, and fresh loaves of bread studded with dried fruits, and apples that tasted of autumn sunlight. . . If you let us be, she said, we will bring offerings again.”
  • Ryn describes Annvyn, the destination she and Ellis seek, as “The land of the Otherfolk. The birthplace of monsters, of magic, and where Arawn used to rule.”
  • Chapter six consists of Ryn telling Ellis several stories about Annvyn. “It was the king of the Otherfolk, Arwan, who made his home there. Castell Sidi, a fortress of granite and enchantment, rose up beside a clear mountain lake, the Llyn Mawr. It is said he brought magic with him—for he was immortal and lovely, and he could weave enchantments as easily as we spin wool. And where he went, other magical creatures followed.” She also describes how a magical artifact left behind in Castell Sidi caused the bone houses.
  • Ryn asks Ellis to accompany her to Castell Sidi, saying “All of this began when the cauldron of rebirth was cracked. It must have made the magic go awry—I thought, if I could destroy the cauldron altogether, the magic would vanish.”
  • The family goat comes back to life as a bone house. “For one moment, Ellis wondered if perhaps it had been asleep this whole time. But that couldn’t be—it had a gaping wound in its side. It had died. They had all heard it being killed.”
  • Ryn and Ellis come upon a community where people are living with the bone houses of their deceased loved ones. Ryn discovers this fact when she meets the dead mother of their host. “She’d been dead long enough for her skin to stretch tight, for desiccation to set into the flesh, yet not long enough so that her hair had lost its shine. It had been recently brushed, and it was that detail that stuck in Ryn’s mind.”
  • Ryn describes different stories she has heard about Annvyn. “How it was the otherworld, the Not-Place, where Arawn had ruled over his court at Castell Sidi, where red-eyed hounds caught game for their master, where men vanished for a decade only to reappear not a day older.”
  • Ryn is visited by the bone house of her father who guides her to Castell Sidi. “They walked through the forest, dead man and living girl . . . They walked in silence—that was one thing Ryn had always liked about the dead. There was no need to talk.”
  • Ryn and Ellis are attacked by the Alfan, an ancient lake creature that lives in the Llyn Mawr. “This creature was untouched by time and blades. It was a remnant of another age, and she could not kill it.”
  • When Ryn breaks the cauldron the bone houses die. “[Ellis’s] mother sank to the floor; Ellis sought to keep her upright, his arms locked around her, but it was to no avail. His mother was fading, the magic slipping away. Her fingers traced his cheek, and then clattered to the floor.”

Spiritual Content

  • Ryn says that she “retreated to the forest the way some people took refuge in chapels.”
  • While thinking about her father’s disappearance, Ryn mentions that her family had no burial rituals without his body. “No draping of white cloth, no placement of fresh flowers, no building a mound of stones.”
  • Ryn says that her father believed in “respect due to the dead,” and that’s why in the graveyard “the little rituals were always observed.”

by Evalyn Harper

Then Everything Went Wrong

Hilo can’t remember his past, so he decides to go back to his home planet. But D.J. won’t let Hilo return to his home alone and jumps through the portal before anyone can stop him. In order to hide their disappearance, Izzy makes a fake Hilo and a fake D.J. robot. The two friends need time to explore Hilo’s home planet. Will D.J.’s parents figure out that D.J. is missing?

Hilo knows he is supposed to save everyone, but what happens if danger appears when he is gone. As Hilo discovers his past, the military is quickly narrowing their search for him. Will Hilo discover the answers he needs before it’s too late?

With Hilo and D.J. on another planet, Izzy and Gina are forced to take drastic measures to hide their missing friends. Gina creates a fake Hilo and a fake D.J., but it’s impossible for her to make them act “normal.” Even though Izzy and the robots are supposed to blend in, they keep getting into fights at school. Polly appears on earth, which adds to the comical conflict. Despite the fights and the misunderstanding, it is clear that the friends will do anything to keep each other safe.

Then Everything Went Wrong is full of humor and heart. Izzy and Polly clearly don’t understand earth’s customs, and their well-intentioned mistakes will keep readers giggling. Izzy keeps telling everyone that she “knows how all of the pieces fit,” but does she know what’s best for everyone?

Brightly colored illustrations will capture readers’ attention, but readers will want to keep turning the pages because of the engaging story and the likable characters. The detailed illustrations show exaggerated facial expressions which will help readers understand the characters’ changing emotions.   For maximum enjoyment, the stories should be read in order. Even though the first chapter recaps the events in the previous books, the story’s plots build on each other.

The story hits on themes of friendship, fitting in, and the dangers of war. The book ends with a shocking cliff-hanger that will leave readers in suspense. Even though Then Everything Went Wrong is the fifth installment of the series, the plot continues to build and keep readers engaged. Hilo is a boy robot that readers will love.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Hilo decides to go back to his home planet, and D.J. refuses to be left behind. D.J. puts on Hilo’s spacesuit and goes through a portal. Hilo follows. They see space pigs and D.J. almost gets eaten by a space frog.
  • When Hilo and D.J. find Dr. Horizon’s secret lab, Hilo hits a button that begins a self-destruct countdown. Hilo creates a shield around himself and D.J. that protects them from the blast.
  • When a boy calls Polly a weirdo, she hits him. The boy falls on the ground and Polly jumps on his back and pulls his arm back.
  • When a group of girls yells at Polly, Polly says, “I won’t be fighting anyone.” A girl pushes Polly and fake Hilo and fake D.J. jump in to protect Polly. The fight is not described.
  • A woman tells Hilo a story about Tamir, who said, “I was a creature of rage and greed. I sought only to hurt and to conquer and to rule my world. . . I was born enslaved, beaten, starved, abused, and forced to work until the day I was strong enough to fight back.” Tamir changed when he felt love.
  • When the army shows up and wants to take Hilo, Gina shoots a beam of light out of her wand. It hits a man in the stomach and knocks him down, but doesn’t seriously injure him.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • For show and tell, Izzy says, “So, when I armpit fart—it attacks pigeons. . . If I cup my hand too much, it sounds too high and the pigeons don’t come. . . When I do my right armpit I can call seagulls.”
  • In the space void, D.J. asks, “does this place always smell like a gorilla’s armpit?”
  • Gina waves her wand at the portal and two big dogs come through. The dogs chase Izzy and Gina.
  • Polly says that the Furback Clan was “forced to make weapons for those dirt-snaking vermin.” Then he calls them, “Lizard poop.”
  • A military man says, “Dang it” three times.
  • Polly, disguised as a human girl, tells the class about “hippopotamus bees” that “weigh three tons, and carry twenty gallons of nectar in their pouches which are attached to their rather gigantic butts.” Polly then points to her butt.
  • A boy calls Polly a weirdo.

Supernatural

  • Gina sends a communication spell across dimensions.
  • Polly uses a “masking spell. It’ll change my appearance. I’ll look human.”
  • When Tamir went through a dimensional portal, the creature said, “In my world we call a door like that magic. Here you call it science. It’s mostly the same.”
  • Robots “don’t have emotions . . .But they feel. They’re so afraid.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Safari Pug: The Dog Who Walked on the Wild Side

Pug and Lady Miranda think a lion is hiding in the house—maybe under the bed. Pug is so afraid that Lady Miranda thinks there is only one thing to do—take Pug on a safari adventure so he can face his fears. Pug is afraid to meet a lion, but he soon realizes that Florence, a rare lion cub, isn’t scary at all. What’s scary is Arlene von Bling who wants to kidnap Florence. Can Pug save the lion cub? Will Pug be able to defeat Arlene von Bling?

As Pug and Lady Miranda visit the zoo, the villainous Arlene von Bling tries to sneak several of the animals out of the zoo. Later, the reader discovers that Arlene von Bling hopes to sell the animal to make money. Safari Pug focuses more on Arlene von Bling and less on Lady Miranda who spends much of the time locked in a room. Safari Pug is missing much of the humor that appears in Cowboy Pug. If readers are new to the Adventure of Pug Series, they may want to read Cowboy Pug first.

Safari Pug draws the reader in with the silly illustrations that have splashes of green and yellow. The large illustrations and big make Safari Pug accessible to confident readers. However, younger readers may find the text-heavy pages and the vocabulary difficult. Independent readers will enjoy the adventure, the animals, and the conclusion.

Safari Pug will appeal to a wide range of readers, especially pet lovers and adventure seekers. The fun story will keep readers interested until the very end. Even though Safari Pug is part of a series, the books do not need to be read in order to be enjoyed. Readers who enjoy adventurous animals should also read the Pets on the Loose Series by Victoria Jamieson.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Arlene von Bling tries to kidnap a lion cub named Florence. Pug tries to help. Pug “lifted Florence into the air. In a moment of quick thinking, Pug grabbed hold of Florence’s tail to pull her back, but it was no good. Arlene von Bling was much stronger than Pug and she shoved them both into her enormous bag.”
  • In order to leave the zoo, Arlene von Bling throws the bag that Florence and Pug are in. “Then suddenly Pug and Florence felt themselves flying through the air. Arlene von Bling had thrown them over the fence.” The bag catches on a tree branch.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

We Are the Gardeners

In We Are the Gardeners, Joanna, and the kids chronicle the adventures of starting their own family garden. From their failed endeavors, obstacles to overcome (bunnies that eat everything!), and all the knowledge they’ve gained along the way, the Gaines family shares how they learned to grow a happy, successful garden. As it turns out, trying something new isn’t always easy, but the hardest work often yields the greatest reward. There are always new lessons to be learned in the garden!

Told through both text and words, We Are the Gardeners shows the steps to becoming a successful gardener. The full-page illustrations burst with all the colors of the garden, from the bright red of tomatoes to all the greens of the plants. The illustrations are beautiful and show the joys of gardening—digging in the dirt, picking seeds, and taking time to splash in the sprinkler. Readers will enjoy seeing children helping by watering plants, weeding, and eating the fruits of their labor.

The cheerful story doesn’t only focus on all of the positive aspects of gardening. Instead, the story also shows the failures, including a dying plant and animals feasting. However, the failures are shown as learning experiences. When a plant dies, the text reads, “Some people tell themselves they are no good at something after one small failure. But no chance were we going to give up that easy.”

Readers will learn where to put a garden, the importance of pollinators, how to identify beneficial and harmful bugs, and more. However, We Are the Gardeners also teaches important life lessons, such as using books to learn, making a plan, and “every setback and failure teaches us something.”

Even though We Are the Gardeners is a picture book, the story is intended to be read aloud to a child, rather than for a child to read it for the first time independently. Most pages contain 1 to 3 complex sentences and some difficult vocabulary. However, We Are the Gardeners would make a perfect springtime story to read to younger children. We Are the Gardeners will inspire readers to find the perfect place to put a potted plant or make a garden of their own.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

EndGames

Blue arrives in the capital city of Altalus, where she is determined to find her friend Crow, the boy who was created to be a flying war machine, and Jack, the engineer who built him. But soon she is inadvertently kidnapped by Snow and Red, twins from the enemy side of their ten-year war. They set off on a dangerous adventure that brings them to the front lines of the war, and eventually realize that they must work together to help end it. But with larger, more powerful forces at work, the fight for peace and survival will be more difficult than they ever imagined.

The majority of EndGames’ plot focuses on the war between Goswish and Grimmaea. However, readers may have a difficult time following the story because of the abrupt transitions. The story jumps from scene to scene causing readers to struggle with keeping up with the new characters and all of the new information. While NewsPrints focused on Blue and Crow’s relationship, in EndGames the two are separated and have little contact. Readers will miss the interaction between the two.

Even though the story is recommended for readers eight and up, younger readers may not be able to understand the more mature themes that appear in the book. The story is very anti-war and shows the dangers of using children to fight an adult’s war. EndGames also shows how governments only print news that is beneficial to them. Instead of being concerned with the truth, many newspapers only spread the government’s propaganda. The newspaper only runs an important true story when “the truth happens to sell even better for the Bugle.”

Unfortunately, EndGames tries to accomplish too much. The story has themes of imperialism, gender roles, and discrimination as well as an anti-war message. EndGames features both a blind character and a transgender character. A female aviator tells Blue, “Oh I’ve always knon I was a boy. . . Other people just didn’t know it yet.” However, the transgender reference is brief and awkward.

Although the artwork is stunning, younger readers may be confused because of the quick transitions. Even though the illustrations help tell the story, some scenes are still confusing. The frantic pacing allows the story to skip over information that may have made the scene’s action clear.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While flying, two airplanes shoot at each other. A plane is knocked out of the sky by “friendly fire.” No one is injured. The scene is illustrated over six pages.
  • When another country’s Navy appears, a soldier uses a weapon in an attempt to “destroy that machine before your Goswish troops can get it back.” The weapon hits a target and starts a fire. The soldier is shown celebrating the destruction. The scene is illustrated over six pages.
  • As airplanes approach, the army is told “to protect Goswing, we must destroy Grimmaea!” Airplanes are shot down and fall into the ocean. The scene is illustrated over four pages.
  • Blue is left on unstable land that is being consumed by lava. Blue falls into a crack in the ground, but is saved.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • “Goose Butts!” is occasionally used as an exclamation.
  • Heck is used once.
  • Someone calls Blue an “idiot.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Lintang and the Pirate Queen

Lintang loves her family, but she doesn’t want to be a homemaker. Lintang dreams of leaving her island home. She longs to go on dangerous and daring adventures. When she meets the infamous pirate, Captain Shafira, Lintang wants to join her crew. When she gets her chance, Lintang promises to follow orders. However, Lintang’s curious, impulsive attitude always gets her into trouble.

Lintang discovers that living on a pirate ship can be difficult. Her loyalties are divided when she finds that her best friend, Bayani, has stowed away and is desperate to stay hidden. Lintang knows that Bayani is hiding a secret that could change the world. However, she has promised the pirate queen that she will never lie to her. How can Lintang impress the pirate queen and keep Bayani’s secret at the same time?

Readers will relate to Lintang, who has a difficult time following orders. Despite her best intentions, Lintang gets into trouble time and time again. When Lintang is demoted to a cabin girl, she gains the crew’s respect through her positive attitude and work ethic. During her voyage, Lintang “had turned into Lanme Vanyan (the mother of all monsters), faced a Kanekonese siren, fought a dragon, almost drowned twice, battled a sea serpent, [and] worked as a cabin girl.”

Moss creates a beautiful world full of mythies. Some mythies are friendly and others are deadly. In order to introduce the different creatures, many of the chapters being with a page from The Mythie Guidebook, which describes each type of mythie. The information describes how to eradicate the mythie, their behavior, danger level, and provides a description.

Lintang and the Pirate Queen has non-stop action as Lintang, Captain Shafira, and her crew embark on a dangerous journey where they fight fearsome monsters. The story ends in an epic multi-chapter battle that has many surprises. Because of the complex world, the complicated plot, and the large cast of characters, Lintang and the Pirate Queen is best for strong readers. However, adventure-loving readers will love this tale of friendship and adventure.

Sexual Content

  • Lintang tells a legend about Pero, who “was not afraid of the Goddess of Death.” When he left home, he “packed his bag, said goodbye to his mother, kissed the barmaid, and left.”
  • Avalon is transgender. One of the ship’s crew treats him unkindly. She says, “Avalon pretends she is a boy. I remind her she is not.”

Violence

  • While walking in the forest, Lintang and Bayani are attacked by a malam rasha. “A night terror (malam rasha) is a humanoid forest mythie in the predator category. It appears as a woman with wooden skins, long dark hair, and a white dress. Instead of arms, it has tree roots, which are sharp enough to dig through flesh.” Bayani’s fey friend, Pelita, helps. “Before it could attack, a ball of white light zipped in front of its face. The malam rasha recoiled, snarling.” Lintang raised her sword and the “malam rasha reared up. It moved to strike with its arm of tree roots, but she stabbed and it retreated. Slash. Dodge. Stab. Dodge. . . Lintang ran to Bayani, shoved him to the ground, and threw herself over him.” When the two are laying on the ground, someone chases the mythie away. The fight scene takes place over four pages.
  • The malam rasha goes to the temple and goes after Lintang. “The mythie barreled into her. She landed on the stone floor, winded. Pelita fluttered out of the way just in time. The malam rasha curled its lip and slashed at Lintang’s stomach. . . The malam rasha tried again, clawing and tearing until the front of Lintang’s sarong was in tatters.” Panna leaves that were smeared on Lintang protected her. Captain Shafira jumped in to help. “Captain Shafira aimed sword blows at the malam rasha so fiercely that it was forced to retreat.” The Captain’s crew assists her in capturing the malam rasha. “Captain Sharfira brought her sword down and chopped off its arm. It released an earsplitting shriek.” The battle is described over three pages.
  • Once the malam rasha is captured, Captain Shafira “directed a kick to the malam rasha’s wooden head, and it slumped, unmoving.” Later when the light of day appears, the mythie “burst into flames, leaving only a silhouette of ash and the broken fishing net.”
  • A predator mermaid uses her power to make Lintang jump into the sea. “Stinging spread across her body, from both the impact and the chill. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore. She was with the mermaids now.” The mermaids try to pull Lintang deeper into the ocean. “Splinters sliced at Lintang’s lungs. Her head felt light. . . She barely noticed the flash of steel, or the clouds of blood in the water, or the fact that the mermaids had released their deadly grip.” Lintang is saved. The scene is described over a page.
  • When leaving the island, Nyasamdra picks up Captain Shafira’s ship. Nyasamdra “let them float in the air. She watched them swirl inside the bubble, her face childlike with curiosity.” Trying to help, a “bird darted past Nyasamdra’s fingers and pecked the bubble. There was a pop, and everyone had to hold on as the ship plummeted back into the waves.” Bayani comes above deck and gives Nyasamdra the correct tribune, then she lets them pass. The scene is described over four pages.
  • A sea serpent attacks Captain Shafira’s ship. The huge serpent tries to break the ship up by squeezing it. “Lintang acted without thinking. She raced forward and shoved a harpoon into the serpent’s mouth to wedge it open. The serpent started to snap but stopped as the dragon’s claw dug into the roof of its mouth and sprayed blood across the deck.” One of the crew members “swung out on a rope, caught the harpoon with one hand, and used the dragon talon to slash the serpent through the neck.” Lintang is injured. The fight is described over three pages.
  • When Governor Karnezis tries to get Lintang to give up Captain Shafira’s location, Lintang tries to escape. “. . . Governor Karnezis snatched her hair. She cried out as he yanked her backwards.” Lintang uses a dart to put the governor to sleep. Captain Shafira and her crew help Lintang escape.
  • Farah and her family helped Captain Shafira when she was injured. The Vierzan counsel sent “people to kill Farah’s family and burn the place down.”
  • While under the sirens’ spell, Avalon attacks a crewmember, Mei. “Avalon lunged. He wrapped his arm around Mei’s throat. . .Mei strained to pull his arm from around her neck. Her round cheeks turned pink. She was suffocating.” A crew member hits Avalon over the head with a frying pan, causing him to pass out.
  • Captain Shafira boards Captain Moon’s ship and the two fight with swords. “The two thrust and parried, each as skilled as the other. A few clashing blades and a clever maneuver later, they’d switched positions. . . Captain Shafira managed to kick Captain Moon’s ankle, dropping her to one knee. Captain Moon blocked an attack while she was down, then stabbed forward so violently that Captain Shafira had to jump two steps down the staircase. . .” When the sirens threaten both ships, the two captains work together.
  • The ship’s dragon awakens. Captain Shafira and Captain Moon bait the dragon, causing it to tear down a locked door.
  • At one point in the fighting, Bayani is “standing on the bridge with the spear side of the khwando pointed at Zazi’s neck.”
  • Lintang jumps in the ocean, then turns into the mother of monsters named Lanme Vanyan. Lanme attacks a dragon. Lanme “sprang, clamping her hands on the dragon’s shoulder. It tried to toss her aside, but she held on and slashed at its wings. They twisted in the air like a whirlwind.” She flings the dragon away and then attacks a siren. “Lanme zipped toward it and bit it beneath the arm. . . The siren tried to crush her with its free hand. She bit its fingers. Bubbles hissed from its mouth, but it didn’t pull back.” The siren swims away.
  • The dragon returns and attacks Lanme again. Lanme “whipped her tail into the air, wrapped it around the dragon, and slammed it onto the waves. The dragon shuddered with the impact, then floated, stunned.” Then, Lanme turns back into a human.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • The Vierzans developed a medicine that “kills dangerous things in your body. Stops illnesses, disease; you name it, the Curall fixes it.” When Pelita is sprayed with Curall, she glows brighter. “Pelita’s squeaks turned into tiny shrieks. She sounded like she was in pain. . . And then, as swiftly as a sneeze, a human body burst out of the pixie. A girl lay in Pelita’s place, an Islander barely ten years old.”

Language

  • While practicing sword fighting, Lintang says to her best friend, “You ebony-nosed loobatoon! You brown-tailed barbanees! You blood-eyed ruberrince!”
  • “By the Gods” is used as an exclamation four times.
  • When Lintang scares the ship’s cook, she says, “Mother of monsters, you scared the petticoats off me!”
  • Someone calls another character a gnome.

Supernatural

  • Lintang’s world has various mythies, such as sirens, propheseeds, mermaids—both predator and friendly types. For example, “Propheseeds are sky mythies that take the form of three glowing dandelion seeds. They appear harmless, giggling childishly, and do not physically attack. . . The propheseeds will say your name three times, then, in a form of a riddle or rhyme, give you the time and details of your imminent death.”
  • Those born on the twin Islands have “small, shiny fish scales” on the back of their necks. A ship can only leave the island if they have someone from the Twin Islands. But the island’s mythie guardian Nyasamdra drowns ships “that tried to leave her territory unless they carried someone with her mark.”
  • Sirens are predator mythies. “Like the common siren, it calls for males, but unlike the common siren, it gives power to its victims, making them strong and violent, unable to think of anything but getting close to the mythie.”
  • Mythies did not appear in Lintang’s world until “shooting stars had passed overhead when the mythies arrived. No one knew why the Three Gods had sent the mythies. The creatures had caused havoc throughout the world, but the priest always said in serene voices that the Gods had reasons for everything they did, even if humans could not understand them.”
  • One of the characters is a talking clamshell.
  • Lintang turns into the mother of monsters named Lanme Vanyan.

Spiritual Content

  • People believe in Ytzuam, which is “high above, past the clouds, past the sun, there’s a world in the stars. . . It’s separated from our world by a single thick curtain. There are three Gods who live there: Niti, Patiki, and Mratzi.”
  • As Lintang walks she sees the temple, which makes her think about the gods. “Lintang used to learn about the Gods from the priest there when she was younger, but the only time she visited now was during seasonal festivals.” The three gods are Neti, the creator of the stars, Patiki, the planter of stars, and Mratzi, the harvester of stars.”
  • When Lintang accidentally sets the house on fire, she needs water fast. “Their offerings to the Three Gods had been freshly lain on the stone alter that morning. She reached between a scattering of juicy bubleberries and thin, smoldering sticks of mollowood to take the earthen jug.” She uses the water to help fight the flames.
  • When Lintang fights the malam rasha, she was “praying to the Three Gods that her plan would work.” Then she “dredged up a memory of a prayer from temple. ‘Hear me, Niti, Patiki, Mratzi—Gods of Ytzuam, givers of life, guardians of stars. Please protect us, please don’t let the malam rasha eat us.”
  • People believe that when someone dies, they continue to live. Lintang thinks about her dead grandfather. “Lintang hoped her grandfather’s star, blazing high in the sky” was not ashamed of her.
  • Bayani had died and Mratzi told him that the mythies were human. She then allowed him to return to the living.
  • Lintang trusted the Pirate Queen, but then “prayed to Niti she wasn’t wrong.” Later, when the Pirate Queen decides to stay with Lintang until she gets to her destination, Lintang “sent a silent prayer of thanks to the Gods.”
  • In Vierzan, the people have destroyed the Gods’ monuments because “they think the Gods sent mythies to wipe humans out. . . Now they refuse to pray or build temples or leave offerings.”
  • When Lintang must jump off a building, Bayani thinks she is injured. When he discovers that she is fine, he says, “Thank the Gods, thank the Gods—”
  • When almost drowning, Lintang sees a vision. Shooting stars crashed “through a field of unplanted seeds. . . the impact of the shooting stars scattered seeds throughout the world. . . She saw a man unwittingly absorb one of the star seeds, then he burst apart as a gnome sprang from him.” The vision shows Lintang how humans became mythies.
  • Lintang turned into a mythie.

Landscape with Invisible Hand

After the first vuvv landed, everything was supposed to change for the better. With the promises of health and prosperity, humans greeted the technologically advanced alien race with open arms. But when Adam’s parents’ jobs are replaced by alien technology, Adam realizes that only the wealthy class is able to thrive. Earthlings start to go hungry as food, water, and medicine become scarce. Earth becomes a wasteland of diseases where the poor suffer, while the rich and vuvv in the skies live a life of luxury.

With no money and barely enough food to survive, Adam Costello—an 18-year-old American artist—must get creative. Adam and his girlfriend, Chloe, sign up for a 1950s style dating program where they record “traditional human love” for the vuvv to watch. The vuvv watch as Adam and Chloe fall in love and act out scenes, including dates. But as the money rolls in for their pay-per-view program and their subscriber count goes up, Adam and Chloe start to hate each other. After they break up, the vuvv threaten to sue them for promoting their “fake love.”

With the threat of a lawsuit and food running low, there is only one way out—a global youth art competition. After Adam’s art teacher, Mr. Dave Reilly, entered some of Adam’s artwork in a “traditional human” art contest, Adam makes the first cut and is invited to a huge party at a galleria where the winner will be announced. The winner will have everlasting fame and fortune with their art pieces sold throughout the universe. Will Adam win and move into the clouds or will he be stuck living on the desolate Earth forever?

In Landscape with Invisible Hand, Anderson draws many parallels between Adam’s art contest, the vuvv’s colonization, and social media. He asks the question: how much should we shape ourselves to fit the criteria of others? Adam constantly has to decide whether to become the type of human the vuvv want or stay true to himself. In the beginning, Adam desperately tries to fit the vuvv’s mold in order to survive. But as Adam’s health starts to deteriorate, Adam throws away this mold and submits “nontraditional” art to the vuvv contest, teaching readers to be themselves no matter what.

Even though at its core the book has a positive, self-empowering message, Landscape with Invisible Hand is intended for older readers. Reader’s hearts will be torn apart as nothing goes right for Adam’s family—food runs out, they can’t find a job, and Adam’s medical problems worsen. The story is extremely dark, saddening, and has no happy ending. The novel also makes many parallels with African colonization and enslavement with Adam’s situation. This motif will make it hard for some readers to understand the story’s true meaning. Along with the plot and themes, the novel’s sexual content and language is also intended for older readers. The character’s frequently “neck” and kiss, and Adam constantly cusses throughout his narration. Landscape with Invisible Hand contains a powerful message that can be used to start a conversation about our world’s self-identity crisis and social media.

Sexual Content

  • The book begins with a drive-in movie theater showing a 1950s alien film where a girlfriend and boyfriend are making out. Then, an alien approaches from the nearby woods. “Boyfriends and girlfriends squeal and lean into each other. Couples grin. They’re parked in fifties tin cars and ‘necking.’ The movie screen above the field of parked cars is reflected in their windshields.”
  • “‘Gee, Chloe,’ I say, and turn to kiss her cheek.” Adam and his girlfriend Chloe take part in a 1950s dating job, where they record themselves in love and upload it for vuvv enjoyment. Usually, it involves slight kissing and flirtatious conversation.
  • After doing the 1950s dating job and filming their love for so long, Adam and Chloe fall out of love. Adam recalls how “once when we were pretending to kiss – our mouths stuck together uncomfortably like fried onion rings – just pressed against each other, not moving, trying not to breathe each other’s breath – suddenly a word popped into my head: intimacy.”
  • Chloe brings another boyfriend, Buddy Gui, to the house where she and Adam’s family live. Adam thinks to himself, “Once they disappear, I hear the ruckus from some buddy-cop holo show they’re watching, or else they’ve just turned the volume up real loud to hide the sound of them fucking.”

Violence

  • After trying to apply for a soup kitchen job, Adam’s mother starts talking to a guy in a suit. Suddenly, he throws her against the wall and says, “You’re not applying for that soup job. It’s mine. I have your fucking address now, and if I see you working there next week, I’m going to come over and burn your motherfucking house down.” After watching it all unfold, Adam says that he “should’ve punched him.”
  • Adam and his mother have nothing to do, “So we watch the news, and there has been a race riot in Central Falls. Security cameras show a bunch of white guys rampaging through a bodega, lifting up the Coke fridge, and tipping it through the window, attacking the owner and his family with a baseball bat, screaming shit like go back to Mexico and leave us our jobs. They’re stomping on the chips in the snack food aisle and showing their teeth like an animal pack. Some white woman standing outside on the street in a terry-cloth hoodie tells a reporter that if it weren’t for those goddamn people, the censored censored censored illegals, everybody wouldn’t be eating the grass in our yards on all fours.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Profanity is used in the extreme. Almost all the characters cuss and profanity is on almost every page. Profanity includes: douche, shit, fuck, goddam, ass, idiot, Jesus, hell, jerk, and piss.
  • Adam recounts the vuvv landing and says, “A few years ago, some guy in cargo pants was caught tipping over one of the monument’s pillars. At first, everyone thought he was doing it as an anti-vuvv protest. Later, it turned out he was just a douche.”
  • Adam hates how his house looks. “The shingles look okay, but all the brown panels look like hell. The paint is cracked and flaking off in long strips. What kind of dipshit would design a house half shingled and half painted?”
  • Adam’s mother asks if he includes “the piles of bullshit you heap in every direction” in his paintings.
  • Adam calls his dad a “fucker” and a “fucking coward” for running off and abandoning them. Adam’s mother calls Adam’s dad a “jackass” after he suggests they try to rent out part of the house.
  • Someone sold a million-dollar estate for a “goddamn dollar” to the vuvv.
  • Adam suffers from Merrick’s Disease, which causes him to have the “shits” constantly.
  • Adam lied to a group of rich kids, claiming he damaged his Achilles tendon “when I was kneeing a complete idiot in the gut.”
  • Adam’s sister, Nattie, makes a pun. Her mother lets out a long sigh and responds, “Jesus, Nattie. I don’t know what to say to that.”
  • Adam hates school because “The school day seems to stretch forever, especially because my last couple of classes are taught by vuvv tech, which just shows us stuff floating in the air and then tells us off when we act like jerks.”
  • Adam watches Thallium Dogs II: Assassin’s Blade where the main character “opens up a noisy barrel of whoop-ass.”
  • In celebration of getting to the art competition shuttle, Adam urinates. “While I’m still in the shadows, I piss a smiley face into the snow.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • The winner of the art competition makes a crude, wooden chainsaw construction of the Virgin Mary and a combination of baby Jesus and the Hindu god Ganesh. “My painting faded. In its place is the 3-D image of rough-hewn Virgin Mary and Child, except the Virgin Mary is swaddling on her lap (silent night, holy night) an infant with the head of an elephant.”

by Matthew Perkey

Let It Glow

Pegapony Electra loves to be outside, running as fast as she can—and she’s fast! Now that it’s time to learn to ride with the children at the Enchanted Pony Academy, Electra couldn’t be more excited. But riding is a lot harder than it looks. When Electra accidentally throws a prince onto the dirt, the other children are afraid to get in the saddle. Can she find her perfect match and keep working toward becoming a royal pony—before time runs out?

Readers will relate to Electra as she struggles to learn a new skill and worries that no one will like her. Electra is the fastest pegapony in her class, and she desperately wants a royal child to choose her as a pet. But during her first lesson, she doesn’t understand what the boy wants and accidently throws him off off the saddle. Soon Electra’s self-doubt causes her to wonder if she will be rejected during the choosing ceremony.

Let It Glow focuses on Electra’s struggle and connects it to Alana, who is afraid to try new things. Alana, who is in a wheelchair, wonders if her disability means that she cannot become her kingdom’s queen. Even though Electra is struggling with her own problems, she continues to encourage Alana. Electra’s willingness to help Alana is heartwarming and will show readers the power of kindness.

The story also highlights the importance of being careful with your words. When the children talk badly about Electra, Alana says, “Didn’t we talk about the importance of kindness in our class? Royal children are supposed to set a good example. Are you doing that by saying such nasty things to this nice pony?”

Let It Glow is the third book in the series. However, Enchanted Pony Academy books do not need to be read in order. Let It Glow will entertain those who have already transitioned to chapter books. Cute black and white illustrations help break up the text and appear every three to five pages. Although the vocabulary isn’t difficult, the text-heavy pages and long sentences may be overwhelming for beginning readers. Let It Glow will entertain readers as it teaches important life lessons about perseverance and kindness.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Electra comes to a sudden stop and “the boy flew forward, tumbling off the saddle onto the ground.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Each pegapony has a different Glitter Gift. The Glitter Gifts include being able to become invisible, being able to talk to winged animals, teleportation, and making flowers bloom. One pegapony can even shoot sparks out of his horn.
  • Electra’s Glitter Gift is making her horn and hooves glow. When she used her Gift, “she could feel a warm tingle whenever they started to light up.”
  • Several times in the story, someone levitates an object, which is usually the pegapony’s riding gear. For example, when Electra is getting ready for riding class, “Mulligan levitated the saddle onto her back and tightened the straps around her.”
  • Electra tries to go to the hundred kingdoms, but the stairs aren’t there. “Only the headmaster and headmistress could enchant the rainbow to form stairs.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

 

Cowboy Pug: The Dog Who Rode for Glory

Pug and his best friend, Lady Miranda, are ready for a horseback adventure. They gallop into trouble and are kidnapped by bandits. When they end up at the county fair, there’s lots of cotton candy and also a rampaging bull. Will the bull ruin the county fair? Can Pug and his new friend Horsey save the day?

Lady Miranda and Pug travel to a farm where they meet Frank and Horsey. Frank shows Miranda some unsuccessful magic tricks. The clueless Frank adds to the story’s humor as he causes havoc. Equally clueless are Lady Miranda’s footmen who spend most of the story chasing Lady Miranda and Pug. The silly story leads the reader to the county fair where Pug and Horsey end up surprising everyone.

Cowboy Pug will draw the reader in with humorous illustrations that have splashes of red and yellow. The large illustrations and big text make Cowboy Pug accessible to confident readers. However, younger readers may find the text-heavy pages and the vocabulary difficult. Independent readers will enjoy the adventure, the slapstick comedy, the accidents Frank causes, and Pug who is reluctant to be a cowboy.

Cowboy Pug will appeal to a wide range of readers—pet lovers, adventure seekers, and those who dream of being a cowboy. The fun story will keep readers interested until the very end. Even though Cowboy Pug is part of a series, the books do not need to be read in order to be enjoyed. Readers who enjoyed Cowboy Pug should also read the Haggis and Tank Unleashed Series by Jessica Young. Younger readers who aren’t ready to tackle Cowboy Pug might want to try the Mercy Watson Series by Kate DiCamillo.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A boy accidentally clipped a cyclist. “The cyclist wobbled into a grocery stall, sending watermelons tumbling into the road behind them.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

 Cabin Fever

Most people love the holiday season, but it makes Greg a nervous wreck. Greg believes that if he makes a mistake in the first eleven months of the year, it’s not a big deal, but if he does something wrong during the holiday season, then he’s in trouble with Santa and won’t get any presents. With Thanksgiving gone and Christmas fast approaching, Greg becomes obsessed with playing Net Kritterz online – a game where he takes constant care of his internet pet Chihuahua. Greg needs money in order to feed and clothe his virtual pet, but after his mom says money is tight, Greg has to create new ways to earn cash quickly.

After Greg’s request to his local church for a ‘donation’ and his snow shoveling business fall through, Greg and his best friend, Rowley, decide to hold their own Holiday Bazaar where they will sell concession snacks, offer holiday games, and make gifts like their school’s own Bazaar. However, after Vice Principal Roy stops them from handing out advertisements at school, the young duo decides to advertise their Bazaar by hanging signs on the outside school wall. But while taping them up, rain begins to pour and the paint on the signs runs, staining the bricks a neon green. With the police hot on their tails, Rowley and Greg flee the scene of the crime.

After the local newspaper carries a story about the vandalism and Vice-Principal Roy demands that the guilty parties come forward the next day, Rowley submits an anonymous note indicating that he and Greg are responsible for the vandalism. Refusing to identify Rowley as his partner in crime, Roy forces Greg to clean the outside bricks alone for hours. When Greg gets home, he learns the police have paid his house a visit and left a note saying that they would be back later. That night, a huge snowstorm traps Greg and his family inside their house. Greg now has to wait out the snowstorm while stressing about the police as his family’s food rations and electricity run out. Will Greg survive the snowstorm and get the chance to clear his name or will he be sent to jail like he fears?

Cabin Fever’s plot revolves around everything that happens in Greg’s life and is told from his 12-year-old perspective. The story contains a lot of bathroom and childish humor and at times the humor and illustrations can be crude and inappropriate for really young readers. At one point in the story, Greg clears a neighbor’s driveway of snow using a sprinkler and feels annoyed when his neighbor slips on the resulting ice. In another part, Greg tries to steal from the collection tray at church in order to pay for his Net Kritterz. Many illustrations also depict a butt, someone using a toilet, or Greg in his underwear.

Despite the book’s bathroom humor, Cabin Fever has positive lessons for young readers. Jeff Kinney has a natural talent for using humor to mask important messages. In this book, Kinney uses Greg and his humor to address gratefulness. When Greg is on the verge of losing everything – electricity, food, shelter, video games – while snowed in, he realizes how grateful he is for his family, friends, and home.  Also, the consistently funny black-and-white comic illustrations will help younger readers transfer their reading skills from picture books into full-fledged novels, helping even the most reluctant of readers start reading. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever is a fun, easy-to-read story that will entertain readers and teach them to be grateful for their families and friends.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • One of Bryce Anderson’s cronies shoots Greg with a BB gun.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Bathroom and immature humor are used consistently. Words like stupid, jerk, and poop are used frequently.
  • After Greg went to the bathroom, somebody asks, “Did you poop?”
  • Every time someone gets hurt on a piece of playground equipment, the teachers remove it for safety issues. Eventually, the only thing left is the balance beam and Greg thought it would never leave, “but believe it or not, some idiot wasn’t looking where he was going the other day, so now that’s gone, too.”
  • Greg thinks Rowley’s skipping “looks stupid.”
  • When Greg was in elementary school, his teacher, Mr. Harkin, accidentally walked in on him while he was using the bathroom. Greg says he “felt like a jerk” after he told his mom about it.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • It’s Christmastime in the novel; Jesus and God are mentioned.
  • The family goes to church three times and to folk mass one time. Greg says, “Our family usually goes to church at 9:00 a.m., but today we went to the folk service at 11:00.” Greg and his family even go to church on Christmas morning.
  • Greg feels bad for people who have their birthday right around the holidays because it gets lumped together with Christmas and they get cheated out of a gift. Greg guesses it’s been happening for thousands of years and an illustration shows God handing a gift to Jesus saying, “This gift counts for Christmas AND your birthday, Jesus!”

by Matthew Perkey

Pete the Cat’s Trip to the Supermarket

Along with his dad and brother, Pete the Cat heads off to the supermarket. But what happens when Dad loses the grocery list before they even get there? It’s up to Pete and Bob to help remind Dad what was on their list!

Pete and his brother help with the grocery shopping, but they don’t just get what they need. Soon the cart is full of groceries that include dinosaur eggs, cupcakes, popcorn, popsicles, and even flowers for Grandma.

Pete the Cat’s Trip to the Supermarket has a simple plot suited for a young audience. The story shows Pete’s family going through the grocery store aisles. The story lacks adventure and conflict, and instead focuses on what each character adds to the grocery cart.

Each page has large, colorful illustrations. Readers will want to take their time looking at the pictures to find some surprises. For example, a frog is passing out free samples of hot dogs and the egg freezer has dragon, ostrich, frog, and chicken eggs.

Pete the Cat’s Trip to the Supermarket is intended to be read by beginning readers. The story contains sight words and will allow children to sound out words and sentences. The short sentences and the simple plot is best suited for younger readers. As Pete and his family load up their grocery cart, parents may want to discuss food choices. The story would be a perfect conversation starter about healthy eating choices. Children will love the brightly colored illustrations, and the story encourages readers to sound out new words.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Splat the Cat and the Lemonade Stand

School’s out, and Splat can’t wait to visit the waterpark, but first, he needs to make some money selling lemonade!

Splat opens a lemonade stand to make enough money to buy a ticket to the Super Jump Water Park. But when Spike opens another lemonade stand right across the street, Splat is in for some friendly competition. He’s going to have to think fast to beat his rival!

Readers will laugh as Splat and Spike try to outsell each other. Each idea gets more outrageous until Splat and Spike finally realize that they should be working with each other instead of against each other. In the end, Splat and Spike earn enough money to pay for a water park ticket. Scotton weaves an entertaining story that has a realistic conflict, loveable characters, and teaches the importance of cooperation.

Large, full-color illustrations bring the story to life and add humor as well. The illustrations show both Splat and Spikes’ facial expressions, which will help younger readers understand the characters’ happiness, frustrations, and worries. Readers will also enjoy looking for the rat that appears in many of the pictures.

Splat the Cat and the Lemonade Stand is perfect for beginning readers. The story is designed for readers who can read on their own, but may still need a little help. Each page is illustrated and has four or fewer simple sentences. The cute pictures and the low word count make Splat the Cat and the Lemonade Stand a fun bedtime story. The simple plot, the humorous conflict, and the relatable characters all combine to make Splat the Cat and the Lemonade Stand perfect for beginning readers.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Grand Escape: The Greatest Prison Breakout of the 20th Century

At the height of World War I, brave Allied and German forces battled on land, air, and sea. During these battles, captured Allied soldiers and pilots were sent to the dangerous web of German prisons where they were neglected, beaten, and robbed. The most troublesome prisoners of war were sent to

Holzminden – an inescapable landlocked prison designed to break prisoners. The prisoners are in the middle of Germany, locked down by armed guards and barbed-wire fences. The camp’s ruthless commandant, Karl Niemeyer, enforces the camp’s cruel rules. Escape seems impossible for the rag-tag prisoners.

Faced with a Herculean task, a group of determined Allied soldiers and pilots defy the impossible, daring to escape the prison by building a tunnel right under Niemeyer’s nose. Scraping away mere inches of dirt every hour, the team tunneled through the prison’s foundation underneath guard towers, dogs, barbed wire fences, and into a nearby farm. As Niemeyer becomes suspicious of a possible escape, the team of escapees works tirelessly forging documents, smuggling in supplies, and bribing guards. The hardest challenge of escaping Holzminden was yet to come for the 29 men—making it back home undetected through war-torn Germany.

The Grand Escape will leave readers on the edge of their seats as they read the true story of how a team of Allied prisoners banded together to escape Germany and became an inspiration for their fellow countrymen during World War I’s darkest hours. Bascomb does an extraordinary job bringing the story to life. His vivid details, page-turning suspense, and well-developed research alongside photographs, maps, and diagrams of the tunnel and prison camp make the reader feel like they are actually in the tunnel escaping with the prisoners.

The suspense will keep readers turning the pages until the very end. However, the book discusses some of the atrocities of World War I, including the intense violence and hatred between the German and Allied soldiers. Some descriptions are graphic; therefore, the book is not for the faint of heart. This book is aimed at older readers who have some pre-existing knowledge about World War I and the development of modern aircraft. Nonetheless, The Grand Escape is a terrific nonfiction book that will teach readers to persevere through hard times.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When Cecil Blain and Charles Griffiths are sent on a mission to find warehouses in Germany, they are shot at by German artillery. “A shell rocked one plane on the port side of their formation, but its pilot recovered. Another cut confetti-sized slits into the wings of Blain’s plane, and shrapnel pinged against his engine cowling.” Although no one is injured, Blain and Griffith’s plane sustains heavy damage and they are forced to land behind enemy lines where they are soon held as prisoners.
  • On a bombing run, English pilot David Gray and his machine-gunner are ambushed by Böelcke. A “close-quarter rake of bullets from Böelcke ripped through Gray’s engine and shredded an aileron. Propeller stopped, balance control lost, the plane plummeted into a spin.” Gray and his gunner are both severely injured, with broken bones and lacerations covering their faces, but they manage to survive, crash landing behind enemy lines.
  • Holzminden’s commandant, Karl Niemeyer, is easily angered and loves to both psychologically and physically torture his prisoners. In one instance, he “ordered a guard to fire at prisoners in the barracks building who were mocking the Germans during their morning drill marches.”
  • Private Dick Cash was “ordered across no-man’s land in an early morning assault on the strategic German stronghold at Bullecourt. The Australians faced withering heavy machine-gun fire in their approach to the enemy lines. During the attack, Cash was shot in the chest. The bullet punctured his left lung, but he continued ahead. A series of mortars threw him first skyward, then sideways. Shrapnel pierced his back, and many of his teeth were knocked out before he landed in a shell hole, boots first.” However, Cash manages to “survive the maggot-infested squalor” and is sent to Holzminden after recovering in a German hospital.
  • At another camp, Harold Medlicott and Joseph Walter were murdered, but the German guards lie to prisoners, saying they were shot on the run. The guards return to camp with two stretchers covered in dark sheets and “while several British officers distracted the guards watching over the bodies, another officer rushed up and threw aside the sheets. Medlicott’s and Walter’s bodies were riddled with over a dozen bullets and stabbed with several bayonet wounds.” The British officers realize that Medlicott and Walter were not shot while escaping, but brutally murdered by their captors.
  • While escaping to Holland, a border guard sees Bennet and Campbell-Martin and starts to fire. “The crack of a rifle echoed behind as they charged headlong into Holland. The first shot and the next missed. They ran and ran until they splashed into the Dinkel River in free Holland.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • On their way to a new POW camp, the guards and prisoners stop at a train station restaurant and form a temporary truce where “the British bought every bottle of wine behind the bar, some of them a lovely pre-war vintage.”
  • During a Christmas party at Holzminden, “Douglas Lyall Grant, of the London Scottish Regiment, supplied a cellar’s worth of bottles that he joked cost more than a night out at London’s swanky Carlton Hotel.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • On the night of the escapes, “A religious man, Butler muttered a short prayer before pushing his kitbag into the tunnel and following it in.”

by Matthew Perkey

Through the Untamed Sky

After winning the wild Pegasus mare named Echofrost in a contest, Rahkki Stormrunner is officially a rider in the Sky Guard army. Rahkki is terrified of heights though, and Echofrost doesn’t want to be tamed. But with Echofrost’s herd captured by the giants and a fierce battle looming on the horizon, the duo will have to conquer their fears if they want to fly with the army and free the herd.

Meanwhile, back in his village, Rahkki learns of a growing rebellion to overthrow Queen Lilliam. Unfortunately, the queen suspects Rahkki’s family is behind it, and she places him under intense watch.

As Rahkki and Echofrost escape to Mount Crim to save Storm Herd, Rahkki worries that the greatest danger may not come from the impending battle against the giants, but from within his own clan.

Through the Untamed Sky continues the story of Echofrost and Rahkki. In order for Echofrost to free her herd from the giants, Echofrost joints the Sky Guard with Rahkki. However, it soon becomes apparent that none of the Landwalkers (humans) care whether Rahkki lives or dies. To make matters worse, someone is actively trying to assassinate Rahkki. In a world where political power can only be gained by killing the current Queen, danger lurks in the shadows.

Although Echofrost’s desire to be free is understandable, she never thinks about Rahkki’s needs. Echofrost’s selfish behavior continues to the very end of the story. It takes a battle with the giants for Echofrost to see that “freedom meant choosing her bonds, because a Pegasus could not live alone or act only for oneself.”

The second installment of the Riders of the Realm Series shifts its focus away from Echofrost’s conflict and focuses more on the political unrest. As the story unfolds, Rahkki remembers the night his mother died. Even though the flashbacks help explain the political structure, readers may become upset that someone would kill a pregnant woman in order to gain the throne. The death of Rahkki’s mother is not the only violence in the story. An epic battle is fought and many lose their lives. Although the descriptions are not gory, there is blood and violence that may upset sensitive readers.

Through the Untamed Sky will entertain readers. However, the long descriptions, the large cast of characters, and the complex storyline make the story suitable only for strong readers. Like the first book in the series, Through the Untamed Sky ends with a cliffhanger that will have readers reaching for the third book in the series, Beneath the Weeping Clouds.

Sexual Content

  • The princess and Rahkki are talking when the princess “placed her hand in his, and a jolt of heat shot through his body.”
  • During the battle, Rahkki “leaned forward and kissed [the princess’s] lips. She tasted sweet, like peppermints.”

Violence

  • As part of a ceremony, Rahkki and Echofrost are branded. After the branding, Echofrost’s “eyes bulged and her breath came in rapid bursts as she absorbed the pain of the branding. Rahkki’s body had gone numb except for his throbbing shoulder.”
  • The giants come to talk to the queen, but the queen upsets the giants, then, “The Sky Guard ascended. Guiding their pegasi with their legs, the Riders fired arrows at the Gorlanders. . . Led by the two elephants, the Gorlanders rushed out and their huge strides carried them swiftly toward the jungle.” The Gorlanders’ dragons “dived down, shooting hot jets at the new pair. Rahkki cringed when the flames licked the back of his neck.” The scene is described over three pages. No one is seriously injured.
  • A giant lizard, Granak, chases after Rahkki and the princess. In an attempt to hide, the two “quickly pushed vines and leaves over their bodies, but Granak reared back and uprooted their tree with his massive clawed foot. Thick roots popped out of the soil, throwing Rahkki and l’Lenna into the air.” As the two run, their pegasi “swooped down, attacking like angry birds. Echofrost landed a barrage of kicks to Granak’s head. Shysong kicked him hard across his ear hole. . . The lizard’s huge foot swung at the roan, just grazing Shysong’s wing. She spun out of control.” When I’Lenna gets to the fortress, the guards close the gate, locking Rahkki out.
  • When the lizard catches up to Rahkki, “Granak swiped his huge paw and slammed Rahkki’s chest. The boy tumbled across the yard. . . Rahkki tumbled across the soil, his body vibrating from the power of the dragon’s paw. His armor clanged, protecting his skin. . .” Rahkki throws hot pepper spice “straight into the dragon’s open mouth. Granak reared back with a roar and shook his great head.” The lizard flees. Some people believe Rahkki defeated the giant lizard with magic. The chase scene is described over eight pages.
  • Rahkki remembers the night his mother was assassinated. His mother’s Pegasus was injured as he tried to fly the kids to safety. “A long sharp sliver of wood was embedded in the stallion’s chest like a spear. . . [Rahkki’s] tears dripped onto the stallion’s face. They mixed with the rain as he [his brother] stroked the boy’s cheek and listened to his soft breaths.”
  • Giant spiders attack and try to wrap the pegasus in their web. Rahkki’s brother, Brauk, tries to help. “Brauk picked up a sharp stick. The closest spider had reared back and shot a band of silk at them. . . then he charged the waist-high spider and smashed it across its fangs.” The spider is able to grab Brauk with its web. The pegasus is able to help. “Drael stomped its head, and pale-blue blood squirted across Rahkki’s nightdress.” The spider scene is described over three pages.
  • Someone tries to kill Rahkki with a poisonous snake. “A pillow slammed onto Rahkki’s head. He tried to shove it aside, but the person pressed it into his face, cutting off his air. Meanwhile, the serpent bumped against his thigh.”
  • When Echofrost tries to find her herd, giants see her. “A small tree spiraled up from the Gorlan party, thrown like a spear. It struck her between the eyes.” Echfrost and Rahkki fall to the jungle floor. “Hot blood trickled from Rahkki’s hairline. He ran his hands along his body, checking for injuries; but other than his raw skin, a few cuts, his throbbing ear, and a pulled muscle in his thigh, he was undamaged.”
  • A giant finds Echofrost. “Suddenly, a rock struck her flank and she whirled around.” Echofrost saw “an adult Gorlan male, squatting and facing her . . . Reaching into a bag strapped to his back, the giant threaded out a long rope. At the sight of it, Echofrost pinned her ears back. He caught her, tugged hard, and rolled her onto her side.”
  • Rahkki finds the captured Echofrost and fights the giant, who is a prince. “Desperate, he sliced the prince’s arm with his dagger.” Then a huge python reached the giant and “it sank its teeth into his short neck. The giant roared and toppled onto his back, and the snake’s great weight pinned him.” Feeling sorry for the giant, Rahkki helps. “He reached the base of the python’s skull and drew his dagger. . . Then he tightened his fists around the pommel and drove the sharp blade straight into the python’s brain.”
  • When the Land Guard is commanded to attack the giants, Rahkki is forced to go with them. The army is supposed to steal the wild herd from the giants. While trying to get to the pegasi, “screams and shouts and smoke filled the valley.” The tiny dragons use their fire and “several Land Guard soldiers rolled across the grass, trying to snuff out their burning tunics. Others swiped at the burners with their sawa blades, cutting them out of the sky.”
  • The giants use their saber cats to help them fight the battle. “The first saber cat reached the captured wild herd, and its long fangs punctured a mare’s throat, severing the vein.”
  • A saber cat attacks Rahkki. The cat “galloped at him, tail lashing, jaws wide.” Echofrost threw Rahkki out of the way. Rahkki “grabbed his sawa sword instead. The cat turned on him, muscles rippling, lips curled back in a snarl, whiskers bristling. . .” Echofrost goes to help and “kicked the cat in the head, knocking it out. It tumbled onto Rahkki, pinning him to the ground.”
  • When the princess claims to be “the rightful Queen of the Fifth,” the head soldier Harak tries to kill her. General Tsun helps the princess, then “Harak loosed the arrow, and the shaft plunged straight through Tsun’s throat. His breath cut short, the general collapsed and his life force pooled atop soil. . .”
  • When the giants take the princess captive, Rahkki jumps in to help her. “Rahkki sliced the bindings around I’Leanna’s wrist. . . the king roared at the sight of I’Leanna being cut free, and the line of ten giants loosed their stones at the princess. Rahkki clutched her close, blocking her body with his.” Rahkki is injured when a stone “slammed into his anklebone. Another stone struck his helmet. He released I’Lenna and crumbled to his knees, his ears ringing.”
  • Harak shoots an arrow at Rahkki, but Echofrost “darted between the arrow and Rahkki’s neck. It slid between her armor and into her rib cage. . .”
  • During battle, a mare named Rizah “tossed the man across the field and then kicked another.” A young soldier shoots an arrow at Rizah. “The arrow lodged deep in Rizah’s neck . . . The golden mare pinwheeled toward land and struck the grass. She toppled over, wheezing.” The battle scene takes place over 50 pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Rahkki’s brother is injured, he is given “medicine to keep him asleep.”
  • An animal healer explains how she uses dragon drool to make a medicine that puts people to sleep. “Boiling the venom removes all of the toxins but leaves the anesthetic properties intact.”
  • During a meal, the Queen’s table has food and rice wine.
  • A merchant sells food and rice wine to shoppers.
  • After Rahkki gives a girl his food, she was found “convulsing in the dirt. Another groom screamed for help as white froth poured from the girl’s mouth.” It turns out that Rahkki’s food had been poisoned.
  • During the battle, Rahkki uses “drool-soaked” darts to put giants to sleep.

Language

  • Bloody rain is used as an exclamation frequently.
  • Lands to skies, sun and stars, and by Granak are all occasionally used as an exclamation.
  • Rahkki’s brother says, “My brother’s an idiot.”
  • By the Ancestors is used as an exclamation once.
  • When a group of boys was wrestling, a boy calls someone a “Gorlan-blooded freak.”

Supernatural

  • Each clan “claimed a different mascot, and the queens fed their respective beasts live animals to keep them content, then stared at the gnawed bones as if their futures were written in them.” In one clan, the queen’s adviser “oversaw the sacrifices to the clan’s mascot, read omens, and made predictions.”
  • Someone tells Rahkki that curiosity calls the kaji spirits. “Kaji spirits harassed the seven clans, causing people to trip and slip and blunder where they were otherwise sure-footed and agile. Kajies came in flurries when Sandwens were either up to no good, full of pride, or curious about things that had nothing to do with them.”
  • When attacking a python, Rahkki says, “Granak protect me!”

Spiritual Content

  • After winning Echofrost in a contest, Rahkki goes to talk to the queen. When he returns, he climbed onto her back, “with a small prayer to the wind spirits.”

 Masters of Mischief

After successfully trapping Ralph and his two cronies in South Ridge Middle School, Max’s crazy night seems almost over as police sirens approach. There is just one last thing to do – go home! While evading the police and possible suspensions, Max and Erin dive into the back of a pickup truck just as it is about to take off. What they don’t know is that the pickup truck is driven by the thieves – Ralph, Tucker, and Moose – who all escaped from Max’s traps and the police!

Successfully ditching the pickup truck when it stops for fast food, Erin and Max head home for some well-needed rest. Throughout the weekend and at school on Monday, Max must dodge police, his parents, his nosy neighbors, and a brutal bully to avoid any possible suspicion for his involvement with Friday’s robbery. If Max is caught, he risks detention and probably homeschooling by his grandmother for the rest of his life. However, Max and Erin discover the thieves’ new plan – to pose as security guards to steal the new, expensive school computers when no one is looking. Can Max and Erin avoid detection and detention while stopping the malicious thieves?

Masters of Mayhem is a fun, suspenseful read for young readers. Throughout her three books, Russel has created a character who is troubled just like any other boy his age but manages to strive through his problems and think of others. Max does not flaunt or boast about how he stopped Ralph and his gang and saved the school but instead keeps it to himself. He considers the consequences of his actions and worries about involving Erin and tarnishing her perfect school record. Max cares about other people more than he cares about himself. He even swears to put a stop to the thieves again, risking his own life to protect his new school. He is a role model for young teenagers.

Unlike other books in the series, Russel does not depend on bathroom humor or inappropriate behavior for her jokes. Instead, she puts Max in hysterical and wacky scenarios to entertain her readers. In addition, the book’s cartoonish, manga-like black-and-white illustrations will help readers transfer their reading skills from picture books into full-fledged novels, making this story great for young, reluctant readers.

The Misadventures of Max Crumbly is a series that should be read in order. Like every book in the series, Masters of Mischief ends with a suspenseful cliffhanger, so make sure you have the next book in the series ready for your reader.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • After Max and Erin fall into the school dumpster, Max worries that unless he and Erin “can figure out how to get out of this stupid dumpster,” they might never roam free again.
  • Erin doesn’t want her ice princess costume to get damaged. Max says, “Erin only cared about her STUPID ice princess costume.”
  • When Max and Erin hide in the back of a truck, Max worries that “those Neanderthals would see us through that big window in the back of the truck and try to run over us or something.”
  • Max says that if “Erin could sneak out of her house to rescue me, then I could at least sneak INTO my house to save my butt.”
  • Max screams when he sees his sister in an oatmeal face mask. Max’s sister tells him, “Shut up, you birdbrain!”
  • After the police visit their house, Max’s sister comes downstairs and asks if the police were there. Max says his sister is hearing things and she responds with, “Actually, the voices TOLD me to give YOU some mouthwash, BUTT BREATH!”
  • Thug Thurston, Max’s bully, asks Max, “Did you have a nice weekend, BARF?!”
  • Erin fumes and says they “can’t just let these JERKS get away with this!”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Matthew Perkey

Kitty and the Tiger Treasure

Kitty’s family has secret superpowers. Kitty is a girl by day, but a cat by night. Kitty is excited to visit the museum’s new exhibit—the Golden Tiger statue. Legend says the Golden Tiger statue can grant people their heart’s desire. Kitty isn’t sure if the legend is true, but she doesn’t want her cat, Pumpkin, to miss out on the excitement.

Kitty and Pumpkin plan to sneak into the museum at night. As the two are looking through the museum, the museum cat Figaro startles them. Figaro thinks that Kitty and Pumpkin are thieves. As they talk, the real thief sneaks the Golden Tiger statue out of the museum. Can Kitty, Pumpkin, and Figaro work together to find the thief and return the statue?

Animal lovers of all kinds will fall in love with Kitty and the cat crew as they work together to stop a sneaky cat from stealing the Golden Tiger statue. Kitty and her friends meet a greedy cat who wants the statue for herself. Kitty uses the statue’s legend to scare the bad kitty, Precious, into giving up the statue. Kitty tells Precious, “But if it is true, I expect the spirits come in the dead of night and creep in through tiny cracks around the doorframe.” Even though a spooky event happens, the reader knows that Figaro, the museum cat, is the culprit—not a spirit.

Readers will enjoy Kitty, a spunky girl who values her animal friends. The fast-paced plot will keep readers flipping the pages until the very end. Each page has illustrations ranging from cat prints to detailed illustrations of Kitty and her activities. The illustrations are black and white with a pop of orange. Although most of the vocabulary is easy, younger readers may need help with some of the words. Some of the vocabulary is more advanced, such as encrusted, swished, pampering, civilized, and suspicious.

Kitty and the Tiger Treasure is a fun story for those who are ready for chapter books. The bright pictures and large text will keep the reader’s attention. Kitty’s adventures show her sneaking out of the house, walking across buildings’ roofs, and using a window to get into a pet store. In the end, Kitty and her cat crew are able to solve the mystery and return the priceless statue. However, Kitty knows that the most priceless treasure is her friends. Any young reader who has pretended to be a cat will enjoy reading the imaginative story, Kitty and the Tiger Treasure.   

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Kitty’s family has superpowers. “Kitty could see in the dark and hear noises from far away. She could also balance perfectly and perform amazing somersaults. Best of all, she could talk to animals!”
  • According to legend, the statue of the Golden Tiger has magical abilities. “The legend says that the Golden Tiger listens to your heart’s desire, and if you touch its paw, it will grant you your greatest wish.”
  • Legend also says that the statue can curse people too. “If a bad person does something to make the statue angry, it will conjure up ghostly spirits to seek revenge!”
  • Precious, a cat, can hypnotize with its golden eyes. The cat hypnotizes a dog and has the dog steal the Golden Tiger. When Kitty meets Precious, “Kitty felt the cat’s golden eyes drawing her in like a magnet. . . Kitty’s head swam. For a moment she could hardly remember why she was there. Then she thought about how much she wanted to help Cleo, and her eyes focused again.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Baseball Saved Us

“Shorty” and his family, along with thousands of Japanese Americans, are forced to relocate from their home to a “camp” after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fighting the heat, dust, and freezing cold nights in the desert, Shorty and the others at the camp need something to look forward to, even if only for nine innings. So they build a playing field, and in this unlikely place, a baseball league is formed.

Surrounded by barbed-wire fences and guards in towers, Shorty soon finds that he is playing not only to win but to gain dignity and self-respect as well.

Although Baseball Saved Us is a picture book, the story introduces the history of Japanese American internment camps. An unnamed narrator explains the confusion of having to leave his home and the changes that came with living in the internment camp. His older brother begins spending more time with his friends and at one point becomes disrespectful. This event causes the narrator’s father to create the baseball field. With the help of others—inside and outside the camp—the baseball field becomes a reality.

The narrator knows he isn’t “that good” at baseball, but he keeps trying his best. The narrator gets angry that a guard is “always watching, always staring.” At this point, he is able to hit a home run. After that pivotal game, the narrator is back at school, being ignored by all of the white students. Baseball gives him a way to connect with the other kids. The story quickly jumps from the internment camp to events after the war. Because of the story’s choppy flow, readers may need help connecting all of the events together.

The sepia-toned illustrations mimic the colors of the desert where the internment camp was located. In most of the pictures, the faces of the people are indistinguishable, which gives the reader the feeling that the person could be anyone—even someone they know. Both the story and the illustrations explore the topics of prejudice and racism. The narrator learns how to deal with his feelings of anger and resentment. Through baseball, he is able to gain a sense of self-respect.

Although the topic is presented in kid-friendly language, Baseball Saved Us hits on heavy topics that readers may have questions about. Unlike other picture books, Baseball Saved Us has text-heavy pages as well as advanced vocabulary. The story is less about baseball and more about the narrator’s experiences in the internment camp. Baseball Saved Us will leave readers with many questions about World War II and the reasons why Japanese Americans were put in the internment camps. Baseball Saved Us would be an excellent book to read with a child and use as a conversation starter.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When Shorty was up to bat, someone yells “Jap.” The narrator “hadn’t heard that word since before I went to camp—it meant that they hated me.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None
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