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The Queen’s Secret

Horses have been banned in the country for centuries, and most people believe that horses were carriers of disease. Anthea and her family know the truth—horses are majestic creatures who can share their thoughts with people through the Way. The queen wants to reintroduce horses into the kingdom, but the king has demanded that horses and riders with the Way follow his every command.

When a deadly plague breaks out, people believe that horses are the cause. People’s fear of horses rises as more fall ill and the death toll increases. Anthea and her friends are asked to transport a lifesaving vaccine, but the people fear the medicine that can save their lives. To complicate matters, Anthea learns the queen’s secret—but will revealing the queen’s secret help or hurt their cause?

The second installment of The Rose Legacy series continues to focus on Anthea, who is an extremely likable and strong protagonist. The story introduces a group of all-female scientists that are struggling to understand the disease that is rapidly infecting people. Although the scientists discover a vaccine, the discovery comes because of a chance encounter instead of through their hard work and research. In the end, the story shows women in a variety of roles—the queen, mothers, young girls, and a villain.

Much of the plot revolves around the spread of the disease and people’s fear of both horses and vaccines. Although the plot takes an unexpected direction, the story is fast-paced, interesting, and enjoyable. The story highlights the dangers of allowing fear and misconceptions to overtake reason. Readers will appreciate seeing girls take action and face danger in order to help, even when others doubt their ability. Readers will be eager to read the next book in the series to find out why the villain has kidnapped horses and why the villain seems eager to start a war.

The Queen’s Secret is full of conspiracy theories and intrigue, but what makes the story even more enjoyable is the relationship between horses and their riders, as well as the friendships that Anthea makes. Jessica Day George creates a unique world that builds suspense without graphic violence, romance, or using cliché characters. Anyone who wants to read an engaging horse-related adventure should pick up the Rose Legacy series.

Sexual Content

  • Finn grabs Anthea’s “gloved hands. . . Now both of their faces were red, but it was not from the cold. . . Greatly daring, Anthea leaned forward and gave him a peck on the cheek, then pulled her hand away.”
  • After not hearing from Finn, Anthea finds him and, “she wasn’t even embarrassed to hug him tightly and kiss his cheek. Then she pushed herself away just as he tried to hug her.”
  • Jilly gives an account of her relatives. One relative’s “second wife ran away with a blacksmith.”

Violence

  • The queen tells others about an incident with the Kronenhofers. When two Kronenhofer ships entered the river, the Knonenhofer’s refused to answer guards who “hailed the ship to ask their intent. But the guards didn’t get an answer. Instead, the ship went into battle mode. . . The garrison disabled the Kronenhofer ship. One of them sank, and the other burned almost to the waterline, and there were only a handful of survivors.”
  • An injured man shows up at the farm, and “Anthea nearly fainted at the sight of the flesh underneath: bruised, bloodied, and with a large round hole that seeped more blood with every one of the major’s breaths. The blood looked dark and thick. . .” The man survives.
  • Men shoot at Anthea and two other girls, but they are able to escape unharmed.
  • A strange vehicle enters a village and attacks. “The man was destroyed. The front was simply gone. A gaping hole had been blasted in the beautiful stone façade, and there were flames pouring out of it. . .” During the attack, a princess and some horses were kidnapped.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Sometimes smugglers bring in alcohol. “There are Coronami who enjoy Leanan ale. . . And many Leanans prefer the Coronami wines to their own ale.”
  • Anthea says, “Liquor really is the root of all evil, as Miss Miniver said.”
  • An injured man is given an injection. “Morphine probably.”
  • Anthea is given a glass, “and she tossed back the water like it was whisky and slammed the glass down for emphasis.”

Language

  • Anthea calls a horse a “big idiot.”

Supernatural

  • People who have “the Way” can communicate with horses and feel the horse’s emotions.
  • A village is surrounded by stones that guard the place and helps it stay hidden. People and horses are not able to use the Way to communicate with others outside the village.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Pedro for President

Pedro is running for class president against Katie Woo. He has to write a speech about what he would do as president. But Pedro is stuck! He can’t even write one word. Will anyone vote for Pedro?

In Pedro for President, Pedro and Katie Woo show that they can still be friends even though only one of them can win. As Pedro goes through his day, he helps others and encourages them. Even though the ending is a bit predictable—Pedro wins—younger readers will still enjoy the story which is written with simple vocabulary that beginning readers will be able to master. Although Pedro for President is part of a series with many of the same characters, it does not need to be read in order.

Full-color illustrations appear on every page, showing Pedro and his diverse classmates. Short chapters that only have four or fewer sentences make the story accessible to independent readers. The end of the book contains a glossary, questions, writing prompts as well as two pages of jokes. Pedro for President wins the vote—it’s an engaging story for young readers! Readers who enjoy the Pedro series should also try the Katie Woo series because it has many of the same characters and is written in the same format.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

 

Katie the Kitten Fairy

The pet fairies and their special pets help all animals find safe homes. But Jack Frost has stolen the special pets, who were able to escape to the human world. When Rachel and Kirsty go to the park, they see a dog chasing a kitten. When they go to help the kitten, it changes into a tiger and then back into a kitten. Rachel and Kirsty know they must help the kitten get back to the fairy world, but Jack Frost’s goblins appear; they want the kitten for themselves. Can Rachel and Kirsty find the purr-fect solution to their problem?

Younger readers will enjoy Katie the Kitten Fairy because it combines fairies, animals, and goblins. The easy-to-read story has cute black-and-white illustrations on every page. The goblins add non-scary suspense, and readers will enjoy guessing what the goblins will do next. The story highlights the importance of being a good pet owner. For example, when James finds a kitten in the park, his dad won’t allow him to keep it until they call the animal shelter to make sure it doesn’t belong to someone else.

Katie the Kitten Fairy has likable characters who are kind to others. The story has easy vocabulary and short sentences, which make it perfect for readers transitioning to chapter books. Even though the story and characters are not well developed, younger readers will want to read every book in the series because the stories are so much fun. Younger readers will be able to read Katie the Kitten Fairy without assistance, and the stories will help them not only build confidence, but a joy for reading as well. There are seven books in the Pet Fairies series as well as the Sports Fairies series, the Fairy Tale Fairies series, and Special Editions.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Goblins try to capture the kitten. “With angry cries, two of the goblins dropped their butterfly nets and dove toward the girls. They stretched their gnarled green hands out to grab the kitten.” Rachel and Kirsty use fairy dust to escape.
  • The fairy queen tells Rachel and Kirsty that Jack Frost stole the fairies’ pets and, “He took them to his ice castle, and then sent out a ransom note.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • A fairy’s kitten pet is in the human world. When a dog chases it, the kitten changes form. “A sudden flash of light flickered through the air. A cloud of amber-colored sparkles swirled around the kitten. Seconds later, the kitten had vanished—and an enormous striped tiger had appeared in its place!”
  • The kitten uses magic to knock a man’s plate on the ground. The kitten then eats the food.
  • The kitten uses magic, so Rachel and Kirsty can understand it. “Sparkles streamed out of its mouth and swirled around in the air! The kitten meowed again, but this time the girls could hear words in its meows.”
  • Rachel and Kirsty use fairy dust to go to the fairy world.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Where Does Thursday Go?

Thursday was Bruno’s birthday. It was such a special day that he doesn’t want it to end. Bruno wonders what happens to Thursday when night comes. Where does it go? Can Bruno and his friend Bert find it in time to say goodbye?

Where is Thursday has cute colorful illustrations that show Bruno, who is a bear, and his friend Bert, who is a bird, exploring the natural world looking for Thursday. With adorable pictures and four or fewer sentences on a page, Where is Thursday is the perfect bedtime story. The story contains dialogue, personification, and onomatopoeias, which make reading fun. The picture book illustrates the abstract idea of time in a fun story that focuses on two friends.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

Satellite

Named after constellations, Leo, Libra, and Orion have been trapped since birth on Moon 2, a space station orbiting Earth. Not old or strong enough to survive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, the teens have been parented by teams of astronauts, training their entire lives to one day return home. Each teen anxiously awaits their sixteenth birthday, the day they would be declared strong enough to return home. They meticulously plan out their bucket lists for Earth while Earth taunts them from outside their windows.

However, after mechanical errors send them hurtling back to Earth earlier than expected, the group of teens soon find their new environment hard to adapt to, despite all its wondrous beauties. To survive, the friends must defy unimaginable odds while facing a dangerous monopoly, a new and strange world, and their own self-identity problems. Their bonds of friendship and their definition of home and family will be put to the test. Going back home will not be as easy as they thought.

With its text-speech writing style, futuristic setting, and an incredible amount of space facts, Nick Lake tells an extraordinary tale. Lake explores the meaning of home and family, the definition of love, and the search for one’s self-identity. Lake’s use of interludes and first-person narration makes Leo come alive on the page, causing readers to empathize with the teenager searching for a place to call home. Riddled with space politics, action, and references to our own modern-day culture, the fast-paced story is a page-turner from start to finish. A diverse set of characters will leave readers crying at the end.

Satellite has a unique plot with the perfect mix of action, space, suspense, and drama. The well-developed characters, who are all distinctly different, act like real people. Even though Leo has a secret crush on Orion, the story does not go overboard on the romance. Instead, the story focuses on Leo’s relationship with his grandfather and his mother as he strives to find out who he really is. Through Leo’s experience, the reader will be forced to look at Earth in a new light. When Leo gets to earth, he is overcome with wonder when he sees birds, fire, and even the simple act of throwing a ping-pong ball for the first time while other characters think of their surroundings as “just Nevada.”

Often called Andy Weir’s The Martian for teens, Satellite is so much more. It explores some of the true moral questions young adults have about life, and it seeks to answer these questions by teaching readers about the value of home and family. However, due to the constant cussing by the characters during stressful times, this book is best suited for older readers. The story’s text-speech, which mimics those of NASA commands, does not demonstrate proper grammatical concepts, which may frustrate some readers. Nevertheless, it is a must-read – not only entertaining young readers but teaching them not to take their everyday lives for granted.

Sexual Content

  • At the beginning of the novel, Leo describes how both he and the twins ended up being born in space and how they were conceived. Leo says, “1 of the results of the experiment was unexpected: if u put male and female astronauts in a confined space for 2 years, they will eventually have sex.” Leo also describes his own conception saying, his mother “had a fling a few nights before she launched.”
  • Throughout the book, Leo has constant feelings for Orion and Soto, which he recounts in detail saying, “he stands still while i get up, & i put a hand on his shoulder. i feel the strength of his muscles thru his shirt. a little electric current goes thru me. i feel something happen, in the center of me.”
  • Just before Orion dies due to his inability to live in 1g, Leo says, “u can’t go anyway u can’t … u can’t because I always thought my first kiss would be with u I always dreamed of it anyway and u can’t go because I haven’t had my first kiss, so u can’t go u can’t go u can’t go.” Orion and Leo kiss while Orion imagines Leo as Leo’s mother.

Violence

  • Wile e Coyote and the Road Runner are mentioned continuously throughout the book along with the various ways the main characters can die during space travel including burning to death, exploding, splattering, and suffocating.
  • When traveling through a ghost town in Sonoma County California, Leo notices that there are long lines at both the bank and multiple gun stores while other businesses have no activity. Leo asks his grandfather why, and Grandpa says, “hard to make a living these days. So people want to keep their money liquid. & they want guns to protect it.”
  • Grandpa is a rancher and during the book, Leo watches as they send cows to slaughter. Although not explicitly stated in the book, Leo ponders how his grandfather’s cows are raised only to die.
  • After discovering Leo’s location, a group of rebels against the Company tries to rescue Leo by attacking the ranch. When Leo’s grandfather walks in and sees one of the mercenaries pointing a gun at Leo, Leos says that his grandfather “doesn’t hesitate for a moment. He fires as easy as breathing, and the man is thrown back against the wall, a spray of blood, an arc of it, his head hitting the wood with a thud.” All three mercenaries die, Leo sprains his wrist, and Leo’s mother dislocates her shoulder during the fight.
  • While escaping Mountain Dome, Leo glances back and sees the muzzle flare and hears the “whistling sound” of a bullet as he notices one of the facilities guards shooting at them. None of them are injured.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Virginia describes Commander Boutros when she says, “get him drunk, he’s a whole different person.”
  • Before their launch, Grandpa, Yuri, and Leo all drink vodka mixed with rocket fuel for good luck. Yuri, of course, leaves out the vodka for 16-year-old Leo.
  • Medications are used frequently throughout the book, such as acetaminophen used to treat Leo’s fever and painkillers used to relieve the pain in Leo’s mother’s dislocated shoulder.

Language–

  • Profanity is used in the extreme. Almost all the characters at one point in the novel use it. Profanity includes: shit, fuck, fricking, bitch, ass, piss, oh my god, and goddamned.
  • Leo’s grandfather bets Leo that he cannot play catch on Earth because “gravity is a bitch.”
  • After astronaut Brown dies, Virginia responds with “fuck. what went wrong with the program? what did I do?”
  • After realizing that they will place a huge reliance on the boosters of Moon Two to maintain attitude instead of using their gyros, engineer Singh says, “shit.
  • After realizing they will never be able to survive on Earth outside of a hospital, Orion says, “well, this sucks ass, doesn’t it.”
  • Grandpa describes Kazakhstan as “a bit of a shithole.”
  • After seeing a Soyuz rocket, Grandpa says, “holy shit.” Later, he fights with Yuri about the legitimacy of their mission saying, “we can’t fly a Soyuz either! It’s a goddamned rocket.”
  • Former cosmonaut Yuri and former astronaut Freeman are “piss brothers for life” after their many adventures in space together.
  • After the Soyuz rocket fails to detach from Moon 2’s peripheral system, astronaut Sara says “dammit.” Later, astronaut Sara does her first EVA and describes space as “in-fricking-sane.”
  • When Leo saves Sara from dying by using his EVA suit rockets, he says, “I can hear her still in my helmet saying oh my god oh my god like all other words have been wiped from her mind.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Libra loves plants and dreams of being a botanist. While at Mount Dome, she spends most of her time in one of the company’s projects where they attempt to create perfect biodomes for construction on earthlike plants. The project is entitled Creating Eden.
  • The book references an EE cummings poem with the starting line of “I thank You God for most his amazing day.”
  • Throughout the book, Leo, Orion, and Libra are referred to as angels returning to Earth from heaven, and when Leo returns to Moon 2, he is like an angel returning to heaven once more.

by Matthew Perkey

 

Rise of the Dragons

Joss and Allie have always feared the Raptors and the wave of death caused by the vicious beast. When Joss finds a dragon egg, he never imagined the love he could feel for the Silver dragon or the danger the dragon would bring into his life.

The Lennix’s are a cruel and power-hungry family who wish to rule over all dragons and humans. They have trained their Raptors to follow commands and prey on unsuspecting humans. But some of the raptors are questioning the Lennix’s rule. They are convinced that possessing the Silver dragon is the key to their continuing rule.

Sirin lives in the Lost Lands, where dragons no longer live. Most people have forgotten the dragons and no longer believe they existed at all, but Sirin hopes that she will one day meet a dragon. While Sirin dreams of dragons, her real life is full of grief. When her mom is hospitalized, Sirin is forced to live with several different families. Sirin wonders if her life will be filled with grief forever.

Rise of the Dragons weaves together three stories—Joss and Allie, the Lennix family, and Sirin—and eventually ties the stories together. Most of the story focuses on Joss and Allie, the indentured servants who find the Silver’s egg. When the Lennix family tricks Joss and Allie into going to their compound, life only gets worse for the siblings. Readers will be engrossed in the unique, but cruel, dragon world.

Even though the reader knows that Sirin’s story will eventually connect to Joss and Allie’s story, readers may have a hard time connecting with Sirin’s story, which is realistic fiction. The chapters about Sirin pop in at unexpected places and slow down the plot. The conclusion brings Sirin and a dragon together in a fun, unexpected way and clearly sets up a sequel.

The story contains detailed, concise descriptions, as well as short chapters that often focus on one character. However, some readers may struggle with the difficult vocabulary, such as “ensconced,” “undulating,” “lugubriously,” “cantilevered,” and “soporific.” Rise of the Dragons may best suit middle school readers because younger readers may be frightened by the raptors’ cruelty; several of the characters’ parents are killed by raptors, and the characters are then enslaved by the Lennix family.

Sage creates an interesting dragon world, where death and violence are everyday occurrences. Although the characters are not well developed, the story has enough action and suspense to keep the pages turning. Rise of the Dragons has plot twists, truly evil villains, and a protagonist with whom readers will sympathize.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Joss thinks about his parents, who died when raptors “dived onto his mother and father, and the shine of their sharpened talons, curved and lethal, as they emerged from their sheaths for the kill.” Later Joss again thinks about his parents and how “they had been attempting to escape a Lennix roundup, and it hadn’t worked. He remembered Raptors diving down, taking his parents hundreds of feet up into the sky, and then dropping them into the sea.”
  • When Joss is riding his dragon, Lysander, they are chased by a group of dragons. As Joss and Lysander try to flee, “Joss felt a burst of heat as a spume of dragonfire hit Lysander’s tail. The flames fell away from Lysander’s silver scales like water from oiled feathers, but the shock of it caused him to shoot rapidly forward. . .” Joss and Lysander fly through a portal and are safe.
  • Lysander frightens a flock of sheep, and they run into an old quarry. Joss tells his sister about how he “climbed down into the quarry and they were piled up. Dead on the quarry floor. Well, they weren’t all dead. Some were injured and bleating. So . . . so I had to hit them on the head. To put them out of their pain. It was. . . Oh, it was horrible.”
  • When Joss trips, D’Mara “Grabbed Joss’s arm and pulled him roughly to his feet, gripping him so hard he could feel her nails digging into skin.” When Joss and Allie try to run, D’Mara “threw herself at Joss and caught his neck in an armlock. Allie hurled herself at the traveler, but a well-aimed kick sent her sprawling to the ground. . . The traveler jerked her arm hard against Joss’s throat, making him gasp for breath.” Armed guards appear and they shoved the sack over Lysander’s head. “At once he lay down upon the ground in defeat. . .They pulled her (Allie) arms behind her back and roughly tied her hands, then threw a net over her and wrapped her up so tightly that she could hardly breathe. Allie began to gasp in panic. . . As Allie took a shuddering gulp of air, Tamara kicked the back of her knees and Allie fell to the ground.” Joss is also tied up, and the two were taken to Fortress Lennix to be prisoners.
  • When Sirin and Ellie are walking home from school, some girls bully them, telling them they must pay a toll to pass. One girl grabs Sirin by the collar. Later, the same girls corner Sirin and her foster mother, Mandy. Mandy tries to help, but “Mandy looked down and saw the point of a jagged knife pressing into her all too thin cardigan. . . but the pressure of the knife point reminded her to keep quiet.” One of the girls “pulled out a knife, drawing the tip of the blade across Sirin’s stomach.”
  • The Lennix twins take Allie to a notoriously violent raptor and have her thrown into his room. They giggle as they hear the dragon roar and they assume Allie is being eaten. However, the dragon does not injure Allie.
  • When the Lennix’s catch a Green dragon, the other dragons punish the Green. “Bellacurx sent a short burst of flame flickering across the ground, so that they curled around the delicate feet of the Green and sent her hopping from one foot to another—much to the amusement of the other Raptors. . . In a sudden movement, the red dragon brought her wings down in such a way that their sharpened barbs gouged deep grooves through the scales of the Green and tore into her wings.” The Green is then imprisoned.
  • The Lennix’s raptors go on a raid, attacking the Greens and “demolished their nest.” D’Mara’s husband tells the raptors, “The free Greens are finished. But the Reds, Yellows, and Blues remain . . . Raptors, tonight we shall go in for the kill. We go to the Islands of the Blues where they hold their eggs deep in caves beneath the ocean. From them we shall take a tribute: a living infant that we shall tear to shreds before their eyes, and then we shall leave them in grief. We shall return again and again and again until the Blues show us their hiding places of their clutches and beg us to take them.”
  • The epic battle between the Lennix’s raptors and other dragons takes place over three chapters. During the fight, “Wave after wave of firestiks rained down from Flight Vengeance. Bellacrux and Lysander ducked and dived. . . And then a firestik found its mark—on Lysander’s left wing tip. Lysander pitched to one side and sent the weapon bouncing off his armored silver scales. The sudden lurch sent Joss sliding out from the rider’s dip.” Joss is able to rebalance, and the fight continues. One aggressive raptor named Valkea goes after Bellacrux. “Valkea let loose a long, focused spume of fire. It caught the tip of Bellacrux’s tail but did little damage, for the tail-thrashing doused the flames and the burn alerted Bellacrux to her pursuer . . . Bellacrux sent a long, thin steam of brilliant orange flame straight into Valkea’s face. The Red wheeled backward and the flames shot down the soft and vulnerable front of her neck. . . In agony from the burn, she thrashed her neck to and fro, trying to cool the burn. . .” During the battle, one dragon is injured when someone throws a firestik, and the raptor’s “tail exploded into flames,” causing the raptor to fall to his death.
  • When a burning raptor falls to his death, he hits a dragon’s wing. When the raptor’s tail hits the dragon, “there was a snap like a pistol shot, and suddenly her wing was hanging down, useless. Herlenna screamed. . . She keeled over to one side, and with a crashing and cracking of branches, she disappeared through the canopy of trees like a drowning swimmer beneath the waves. Lysander and Joss heard a deep thud, and then all was silent.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • D’Mara calls her husband a “spineless little liar” and “slick of dragon slime.”
  • D’Mara calls a dragon an “idiot.” Later she calls Joss an “idiot.” Several other characters also call someone an “idiot.”
  • Kaan calls his brother a “dumbo” and then tells him, “Oh, go boil your stupid fat head.”
  • D’Mara tells her husband, “And I always thought that Lock of yours was a bit of a bonehead.”
  • A girl tells Sirin’s foster mom, “Bleedin’ Nora, you’re effing crazy, you are.”

Supernatural

  • Humans can lock with dragons. “Some people were lucky enough to become so close to a dragon that they stayed together for life. They even understood each other’s thoughts.” Once a dragon and human have locked, they can communicate through thought.
  • A silver dragon is able to travel through a portal to the Lost Lands. “All Silvers can travel through the invisible portals that link our two worlds. And if a Silver touches its tail to another dragon, they can both go through. Indeed, you can have a whole chain of dragons going through.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

A Good Team

Yeti is good at bouncing a ball on his head, but Unicorn cannot bounce a ball on her head. Unicorn is good at running races, but Yeti can’t run fast. Even though Unicorn and Yeti aren’t good at the same things, they can still have fun together. They play ring toss, run a race, and go ice skating.

Designed for children who are learning to read, A Good Team contains easy-to-read text. When each character talks, their words appear in different colored quote boxes. Each page has a full page of illustrations, and contains three or fewer sentences. Beginning readers should be able to read the text alone, and will enjoy flipping through the story multiple times to look at the colorful, silly pictures.

A Good Team is the second installment in the series but can be read as a stand-alone story. Although the story does not have a plot, the characters enjoy a special friendship. As they play games, Unicorn and Yeti encourage each other to try new things, and they demonstrate positive communication skills. A Good Team is not as funny as the first book in the series, but readers will still enjoy the sweet story. A Good Team will build confidence, fluency, and a love of reading.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Unicorn uses magic to make ice skates and hot coco appear.

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Spooky Sleepover

Katie Woo is having a sleepover. She and her friends are going to eat yummy food, play dress-up, and tell spooky stories. After telling spooky stories, Katie Woo worries that there is a monster under her bed. She has a scary dream, and when she wakes up, her lucky kimono is missing. Did a monster steal it? Is there a ghost in the house? What happened to Katie Woo’s lucky kimono?

Younger readers will relate to Katie Woo and her sleepover fears. Even though Katie Woo and her friends have fun, Katie still worries about monsters. Independent readers will enjoy the easy-to-understand plot and the bright colorful illustrations that appear on every page. Each page contains four or fewer sentences, with simple vocabulary. Although Katie’s Spooky Sleepover is part of a series with many of the same characters, it does not need to be read in order.

At the end of the story, readers will find a glossary, questions, and writing prompts. Younger readers can continue the fun with the pancake recipe at the end of the book. Readers will enjoy Katie Woo’s sleepover adventure and improve their reading skills along the way. Readers who enjoy the Katie Woo series should also try the Pedro series because it has many of the same characters and is written in the same format.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Ender’s Game

Earth has been attacked twice by the Buggers—aliens attempting to colonize Earth’s solar system. The whole world waits with bated breath for the Third Invasion and sends its best and brightest children to Battle School when they are six years old to be trained in strategy and warfare. Eventually, these children will become the pilots, commanders, and soldiers that will save the human race from extinction.

Ender is a governmentally approved Third child in a world with a strict two-child rule. He was allowed to be born in the hopes that he will be a genius like his two older siblings, but with the correct temperament for Battle School. The experiment succeeds, but Ender doesn’t want to go to Battle School. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He especially doesn’t want to leave behind his beloved sister Valentine, though he will not miss his psychopathic brother Peter. But Colonel Graff tells Ender that the world needs him, and Ender believes him.

What follows is Ender’s journey through Battle School, where his brilliance generates both respect and hatred from the other children. As the children study how to fight, Ender finds himself at the center of an immense web of manipulations, all designed to turn him into the Commander that Earth needs to defend itself. It doesn’t matter that Ender doesn’t want to kill anyone; it’s what he is good at and will become great at with the right push. And push him, they do.

Ender’s Game is a masterpiece, which is why it is required reading at many high schools. There is heavy content that is inappropriate for younger and sensitive readers: profanity and name-calling are used often, there are bouts of violence (including attempted murder), and there is a thematic question of whether cruel, immoral means are justified by an end that benefits humanity.

These masterfully woven questions will keep readers up at night, and readers will relate to Ender and his struggle to define himself. Is he a monster like his brother Peter? Is he a killer like the teachers want him to be? It is Ender’s emotional turmoil of self-loathing, loneliness, and despair that will haunt readers long after they read the last page—more than the aliens, the fights, and even the theological questions. Ender’s Game will leave readers desperately wishing that Ender’s life had not been so hard. Readers will forget that Ender is just an ink-and-paper boy from a story, and not the son, brother, or friend that they have fondly come to know him as.

Sexual Content

  • When Valentine says she has an oral exam at school, her brother says it could be worse. “It could be an anal exam.”
  • Dink says, “Hey, look! Salamander’s getting babies now! Look at this! He could walk between my legs without touching my balls!”
  • When Valentine is offered a weekly column in a newspaper, she says, “I can’t do a weekly column…I don’t even have a monthly period yet.” Later in the same argument, Peter asks her, “Are you sure you’re not having a period, little woman?”
  • When Peter is also asked to write a column, he says, “Not bad for two kids who’ve only got about eight pubic hairs between them.”
  • After a bully makes fun of another boy’s butt, “Look how he shimmies his butt when he walks,” the other boys start calling the bully, “Buttwatcher.”
  • One of the commanders “had programmed his desk to display and animate a bigger-than-lifesize picture of male genitals, which waggled back and forth as Rose held the desk on his naked lap.”
  • Ender jokingly calls his friend, “you circumcised dog.”
  • When the Buggers procreate, “each male in turn penetrated the larval queen, shuddered in ecstasy, and died, dropping to the tunnel floor and shriveling.”

Violence

  • Ender is attacked, and he beats the main bully thoroughly, to make sure no one is ever bold enough to attack him again. “Ender walked to Stilson’s supine body and kicked him again, viciously, in the ribs. Stilson groaned and rolled away from him. Ender walked around him and kicked him again, in the crotch.”
  • Ender’s older brother threatens to kill him. Peter “knelt on Ender, his knee pressing into Ender’s belly just below the breastbone. He put more and more of his weight on Ender. It became hard to breathe. ‘I could kill you like this,’ Peter whispered. ‘Just press and press until you’re dead. And I could say that I didn’t know it would hurt you, that we were just playing, and they’d believe me, and everything would be fine. And you’d be dead.’”
  • A boy hits Ender repeatedly when they are on a space shuttle. “Just as the next blow was coming, Ender reached up with both hands, snatched the boy by the wrist, and then pulled down on the arm, hard…The boy sailed through the air, bouncing against the ceiling, then down against another boy in his seat, then out into the aisle, his arms flailing until he screamed as his body slammed into the bulkhead at the front of the compartment, his left arm twisted under him.”
  • Two teachers mention a prior student’s suicide in passing. “Everybody looks like Pinual at one time or another. But he’s the only one who killed himself.”
  • Ender plays a computer game that sometimes has gruesome deaths. One time, “the Giant cut him open along the spine, deboned him like a fish, and began to eat while his arms and legs quivered.” Another time, “He jumped at the Giant’s face, clambered up his lip and nose, and began to dig in the Giant’s eye. The stuff came away like cottage cheese, and as the Giant screamed, Ender’s figure burrowed into the eye.”
  • A commander slaps one of his soldiers. “Madrid stepped closer to the girl and slapped her across the face with the back of his hand. It made little sound, for only his fingernails had hit her. But there were bright red marks, four of them, on her cheek, and little pricks of blood marked where the tips of his fingernails had struck.”
  • Ender’s commander hits him after Ender disobeys orders. “Suddenly Bonzo swung at him, caught his jaw with a vicious open-handed slap. It knocked Ender sideways, into his bunk, and he almost fell. Then Bonzo slugged him, hard, in the stomach. Ender dropped to his knees.”
  • Ender and his friends are attacked by an older group of guys in the Battle Room. “Someone caught Ender by the foot. The tight grip gave Ender some leverage; he was able to stamp firmly on the other boy’s ear and shoulder, making him cry out and let go. . . the boy had hung on too well; his ear was torn and scattering blood in the air, and Ender was drifting even more slowly. I’m doing it again, thought Ender. I’m hurting people again, just to save myself. Why don’t they leave me alone, so I don’t have to hurt them?”
  • Ender gets picked on several times during Battle School. “So Ender got knocked down in the shower that morning. One of Bernard’s boys pretended to trip over him and managed to plant a knee in his belly.”
  • Valentine, “had seen a squirrel half-skinned, spiked by its little hands and feet with twigs pushed into the dirt. She pictured Peter trapping it, staking it, then carefully parting and peeling back the skin without breaking into the abdomen, watching the muscles twist and ripple.”
  • Bonzo tries to kill Ender. “Bonzo’s tight, hard ribs came against Ender’s face, and his hands slapped against his back, trying to grip him…instead of kicking, he lunged upward off the floor, with a powerful lunge of the soldier bounding from the wall, and jammed his head into Bonzo’s face. Ender whirled in time to see Bonzo stagger backward, his nose bleeding.” The fight takes place over two pages.
  • “Late one night [Ender] woke up in pain…He saw that in his sleep he had been gnawing on his own fist. The blood was still flowing smoothly.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • “Bastard” is used often. Peter tells his brother, “No, no, I don’t want your help. I can do it on my own, you little bastard.” Another time Colonel Graff says, “We promise gingerbread, but we eat the little bastards alive.”
  • “Hell,” “asshole,” and “ass” are used several times. Valentine says her older brother is “The biggest asshole.” Graff tells a teacher, “your ass is covered, go to hell.”
  • “Damn” is used a few times. Graff tells Ender, “I told them you were the best. Now you damn well better be.” Another time a student says, “I be the best soldier I can, and any commander worth a damn, he take me.”
  • Another student tells Ender to “kiss butts if you’ve got to.”
  • Variants of “piss” are used several times. One boy in the Game Room tells Ender, “Beating you…would be as easy as pissing in the shower.”
  • At Battle School, the boys’ slang includes frequent name calling. For example, Graff says, “Scumbrains, that’s what we’ve got in this launch. Pinheaded little morons.” Other variants include pisshead, fartface, etc.
  • “Son of a bitch” is used once. “I’m a pilot, you son of a bitch, and you got no right to lock me up on a rock!”
  • “There was a myth that Jewish generals didn’t lose wars.” The commander of Rat Army is Jewish, so it, “was often called the Kike Force, half in praise, half in parody of Mazer Rackham’s Strike Force.”

Supernatural

  • An alien race, called “Buggers,” invaded Earth’s solar system twice before. All of Earth is preparing for the Third Invasion.

Spiritual Content

  • When talking about how humans won the last war, Graff says, “Call it fate, call it God, call it damnfool luck, we had Mazer Rackham.”
  • Graff says if Ender is not the one, “then in my opinion God is a bugger. You can quote me on that.”
  • After a battle, Ender saw that some people “knelt or lay prostrate, and Ender knew they were caught up in prayer.”
  • An admiral says piloting is “a god. And a religion. Even those of us who command by ansible know the majesty of flight among the stars.”
  • Speaker for the Dead is a book that became “a religion among many religions” on Earth. “But for those who traveled the great cave of space and lived their lives in the hive queen’s tunnels and harvested the hive queen’s fields, it was the only religion.”

by Morgan Lynn

 

 

The Host

Earth has been invaded and successfully conquered by tiny, worm-like aliens called “souls,” who invade the bodies of humans and take over their minds. The invasion is over, the souls have won, and only a handful of wild humans are left in hiding.

When one of those humans is captured, Wanderer is inserted into its body to report to the other souls what life this wild human led, and to discover if there were other wild humans with her. But when Wanderer enters Melanie’s body, Wanderer is shocked to find Melanie still conscious and resisting. This is Wanderer’s body now; Melanie should have faded away.

Melanie’s presence frightens and shames Wanderer, who feels weak at not being able to control her host body. But then Melanie’s memories start to seep in, memories of a human brother and a lover who are still in hiding, memories of what it means to be human. Wanderer starts to love these people who she has never met and longs for them. When the opportunity arises, will Wanderer destroy Melanie and sell out her family to the other souls? Or will Wanderer turn her back on her fellow souls and attempt to find Melanie’s family to taste just what makes humanity so special?

Many readers will want to pick up The Host because Stephenie Myers is the author. Even though The Host is considered an adult novel and has more advanced vocabulary than the Twilight series, the content level is similar to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. One area that may be controversial is that Melanie has a romantic relationship with a slightly older man; during The Host Melanie is 21 and her love interest is 29. However, there are many flashbacks to when Melanie is 17 and first met Jared, who was then 26. When she wants to be intimate, Jared initially says no because he does not want to take advantage of her. They do get together at some point after that, though their ages are not specified.

The Host is an emotional story that explores the bounds of love and examines what it means to be human. Wanderer is a kind, gentle soul who hates her host at first, but then grows to love her; Melanie is a spirited and sometimes violent girl who has learned to survive in the world the souls have created. Both Melanie and Wanderer have to set aside their preconceived ideas about the other species and find common ground. There is an array of characters who are all richly drawn and satisfyingly complex. The story contains enough danger to constantly keep readers on their toes. For readers looking for love, adventure, and an emotionally wrenching story, The Host is sure to delight.

Sexual Content

  • Jared kisses Melanie. “He kisses me again, and this time I feel it. His lips are softer than his hands, and hot, even in the hot desert night.”
  • When Melanie says she wants to share a room with Jared, he says that’s a bad idea because when he was stocking his place, “birth control was pretty much the last thing on my mind.”
  • Jared kisses Wanderer to test her reaction. “I think he just meant to touch his lips to mine, to be soft, but things changed when our skin met. His mouth was abruptly hard and rough, his hands trapped my face to his while his lips moved mine in urgent, unfamiliar patterns.”
  • The first time Ian kisses Wanderer, he “ducked in and touched his lips to my forehead.” The second time, “His lips were soft and warm. He pressed them lightly to mine, and then brushed them back and forth across my mouth. . . He caught my lower lip between his and pulled on it gently.”
  • After a soccer game, two friends are playing around. “She laughed, tugging away, but Wes reeled her in and planted a solid kiss on her laughing mouth.”
  • Wanderer and Ian kiss twice more, both described in similar fashion. When they kissed, Wanderer “shoved my mouth against his, gripping his neck tighter with my arms…Remembering how his mouth had moved with mine before, I tried to mimic that movement now. His lips opened with mine, and I felt an odd thrill of triumph at my success. I caught his lower lip between my teeth and heard a low, wild sound break free from his throat in surprise.”
  • When Wanderer and Jared kiss, “My hands knotted in his hair, pulling him to me as if there were any possible way for us to be closer. My legs wrapped around his waist, the wall giving me the leverage I needed. His tongue twisted with mine, and there was no part of my mind that was not invaded by the insane desire that possessed me. . . My hands fisted around the fabric of Jared’s T-shirt, yanking it up.”
  • When they agree to move into the same room, Wanderer thinks, “Ian and I would be together, partners in the truest sense.”

Violence

  • When Melanie is robbing a house, a man grabs her. “‘One sound and you die,’ he threatens gruffly. I am shocked to feel a thin, sharp edge pushing into the skin under my jaw.”
  • When Jared first kisses Melanie, “his lips come hard on mine…I jerk my knee up in a sharp thrust.”
  • Wanderer reads the headlines of an old human newspaper. There are stories including “Man Burns Three-Year-Old Daughter to Death” and “beneath this was the face of a man wanted for the murders of his wife and two children.”
  • When Jared first sees Wanderer, “his arm shot out and the back of his hand smashed into the side of my face. The blow was so hard that my feet left the ground before my head slammed into the rock floor. I heard the rest of my body hit the floor with dull thumps, but I didn’t feel it. My eyes rolled back in my head.”
  • A group of humans try to kill Wanderer. The struggle takes place over two pages. “His hands wrapped around my throat, choking off my air. I clawed at his hands with my useless, stubby nails. He gripped me tighter, dragging my feet off the floor.”
  • Jamie hits Jared. “There was a sharp crack, and someone gasped…Jared had one hand over his nose, and something dark was oozing down over his lips. His eyes were wide with surprise.”
  • Kyle tries to kill Wanderer; the fight is described over eight pages. “His hand locked on the back of my neck, forcing my face into the shallow stream…He fought to push me back into the stream, but I wriggled and wedged myself under him so that this own weight was working against his goal…He jumped over the smaller stream with a bound and carried me toward the closest sinkhole. The steam from the hot spring washed my face. He was going to throw me into the dark, hot hole and let the boiling water pull me into the ground as it burned me.”
  • Wanderer discovers that the humans tried to cut out one of the alien souls. “Brighter than these were other silver things. Shimmering segments of silver stretched in twisted, tortured pieces across the table…tiny silver strands plucked and naked and scattered…splatters of silver liquid smeared on the table, the blankets, the walls.”
  • Wanderer asks Jared to hit her face with a rock, to cover a scar. “It made a squishing sound and a thud—that was the first thing I noticed—and then the shock of the blow wore off, and I felt it, too.”
  • To fake an injury, Wanderer deliberately stabs herself with a knife. “I jammed the knife into my arm. The headrest muffled my scream, but it was still loud. The knife fell from my hand—jerking sickeningly out from the muscle—and then clunked against the floor.”
  • Ian punches Jared. “Ian’s fist struck Jared so fast that I missed the blow—I just felt the lurch in his body and saw Jared reel back into the dark hall.”
  • Melanie attacks Jared when she thinks he killed Wanderer. “He’s got my right hand, so instead of punching, I throw out a vicious backhand with my left, catching his face across the cheekbone. The force of the blow stings in the bones of my hand.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None.

Language

  • “Hell” is used a few times. When Wanderer remembers her host body’s death, she was, “sucked into the hell that was the last minute of her life.” Another time Jeb says, “How the hell would I know?”
  • “Damn” is used several times. One time Jared says, “Damn it, Jeb! We agreed not to—”?”

Supernatural

  • Earth has been overrun with aliens called souls, which take over the body of their human hosts. “The soul shone in the brilliant lights of the operating room, brighter than the reflective silver instrument in his hand. Like a living ribbon, she twisted and rippled…her thin, feathery attachments, nearly a thousand of them, billowed softly like pale silver hair.”

Spiritual Content

  • When Melanie asks Wanderer if souls believe in an afterlife, Wanderer says, “There’s a reason we call it the final death…We have so many lives. Anything more would be…too much to expect…When I die here, that will be the end.”
  • When a friend dies, Wanderer says at his funeral, “I hope your fairytales are true. I hope you find your Gladdie.”
  • A soul commits suicide. “Then his face went blank, and his body slumped, unresisting, to the cot. Two trails of blood flowed from his nostrils.”

The Shark Whisperer

Tristan Hunt is known for being clumsy, which is why his parents aren’t surprised when he falls into a pool of sharks. After his strange experience in the shark tank, Tristan is invited to an ocean-themed summer camp in the Florida Keys. But this camp has a secret. All of the campers have a special talent when it comes to the ocean.

While at camp, the ocean animals ask for help figuring out who is finning sharks in the Bahamas. When several of the campers go to investigate, they disappear. With the help of sharks, dolphins, a quick escape-artist octopus, and other sea creatures, can the campers stop the shark-finning, reef-blasting billionaire?

Tristan Hunt and the Sea Guardians takes the reader on an underwater adventure, where sea creatures of all types come to life. As the campers learn about sea life, they discover an array of sea creatures from a toothless shark in a rehabilitation center to chatty seagulls. Several scenes are from a shark’s point of view, which adds interest. Tristian meets several sharks with a Bahamian accent, and one humorous shark laughs at Tristan’s fear of sharks and tells him that humans taste awful. The interaction between humans and sea life, and the variety of sea creatures with their different personalities make the story a lot of fun.

As Tristan and the other campers learn about their skills, their different reactions are interesting. At first, Tristan is a clumsy, insecure boy. However, as the story progresses, Tristan becomes more confident, is able to speak his mind, lead others, and can also laugh at his clumsiness on land. The story connects sea creatures’ behavior to the campers’ behavior and shows the importance of leadership, cooperation, and helping each other.

As a marine scientist, Prager beautifully describes the ocean sea creatures and their habitat as well as highlights the importance of taking care of the ocean. Although the ocean descriptions accurately explain the ocean, some of the long descriptions and advanced vocabulary may make the story difficult for some readers. Tristan Hunt and the Sea Guardians mixes adventure, action, and ocean life to create an exciting, educational fantasy that readers will enjoy. Readers will want to jump into this series, which continues in The Shark Rider.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Someone is finning sharks. Tristan explained, “Finning, that’s totally disgusting. It’s when people slice off a shark’s fins and then throw the dying shark back into the water.”
  • The bad guy’s crew kidnapped some of the campers. The kidnapping was not described.
  • The sea life reported that “men from the ship killed and finned ten lemon, two bull, and five bull sharks. Took the fins and dumped the sharks. A few pilot whales were injured by the blasts; hurt their ears and they’re having trouble navigating.”
  • In order to free the kidnapped campers, the sea life attacks the bad guy’s yacht. A group of birds “dove like kamikazes toward the men on the upper deck at the back of the ship.” Then a group of birds poops on the men. When the kids try to escape, “the security man also tried to pull out his gun, but the birds had aimed well. The firearm kept slipping in his grasp due to a heavy coating of poop and slime.” The kids jump off the yacht, and the men tried to start the Jet Skis’ engines. “At that very moment, however, another team was preparing to go on the attack. The flying fish swam fast to build up speed. They leapt out of the water, stretched their fins out wide, and used their tails as rudders. The eight-inch, silvery fish glided low, swift, and silently over the water’s surface. . . They hit their target in quick successions, pummeling one of the men in the face and chest.” The attack happens over four pages.
  • After the campers are rescued, and with the help of humans, the sea creatures put explosives on the ship. Tristan “noticed that the ship was leaning. Its right side was lower in the water than the left. . . Men started yelling. Black smoke began billowing out from inside the ship.” The yacht sinks, but no one is injured.
  • When one of the bad guy’s men finds a group of campers, they trick him into driving his Jet Ski into an ooid sand wave. “The water over the top of the ooid sand wave was too shallow for the heavy Jet Ski. It hit the sand and stopped with a tremendous jolt. Somehow the man was able to stay aboard and upright on his machine. He reached for his gun. Just as he was about to swing his weapon around, a heavyweight rammed him from behind. The man flew off the Jet Ski as if he’d been hit by a dump truck.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • As the kids were flying over an island, “Coach Fred came on the intercom and told them about a secret navy base there that specialized in capturing drug smugglers.” One of the teens asks if the Navy shoots the drug smugglers. Coach Fred replied, “No, they do not shoot the drugs smugglers. . . well only if necessary.”

Language

  • Darn is used twice.
  • Heck is used once. When a man sees a strange shadow in the ocean, he asks, “What the heck was that?”
  • Oh my God is used twice. Tristan’s father said, “Oh for God’s sake.”
  • Hugh’s family has a chef. He said, “Thank God we do. My mom can’t cook at all.”
  • Someone calls Tristan an idiot.
  • A shark calls Tristan a “lame brain.”
  • A man calls a group of people dorks.
  • frickin’ is used once.

Supernatural

  • All of the kids at camp have different abilities. Ms. Sanchez explains why. “Well, as you and the others know, life on Earth is believed to have started in the ocean. Over hundreds of millions of years, animals evolved and adapted to life in the sea—like dolphins. . . Humans have always lived on land. But since life began in the sea, our very earliest ancestors came from the ocean. In some people there are still traces of the genes that allowed those organisms to adapt to and live in the sea. At the right age and with the right help, these genes can sort of, well, be turned on, at least for a few years.”
  • When the kids at camp drink a pink-colored water, their hands and feet change. After drinking the pink-colored water, “there was a thin sheet of skin between their toes, like the webbing on a duck’s feet.” The effects of the water are temporary.
  • Some of the students can communicate with sea animals. Others have “excellent mucus deployment skills.”
  • When an octopus touches Hugh, “the creature turned brown with blue polka dots. Hugh smiled. Then an even more shocking thing happened. Hugh’s hand also turned brown with blue polka dots.” Hugh discovers he has the ability to camouflage and communicate with animals. Ms. Sanchez explains, “I bet in seawater you’ll be an excellent mimic. Your skin will have the ability to change color and maybe even texture when you’re in the ocean.”
  • Sam discovers that she can echolocate. Sam was swimming in a lagoon, and “after she made the clicking noises she had more than a feeling that the sharks were coming. It was like she had a full-screen 3D image of them in her head.”
  • When the students are in the water, their wounds heal quickly.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Prince Fly Guy

Buzz has a hard homework assignment. He has to write a fairy tale. With Fly Guy’s help, Buzz brainstorms story ideas. Fly Guy puts himself into Buzz’s story suggestions—an ugly troll, a smelly pig herder. Fly Guy decides he wants to be a handsome prince. Prince Fly Guy flies to a dark castle, fends off a giant, and rescues a beautiful princess.

The fiftieth installment of the Fly Guy series does not have to be read in order because the plot does not build on previous books. Like the previous books, the story uses slapstick comedy and humorous full-colored illustrations. Much of the humor comes from the illustrations that show Fly Guy as different fairy tale characters. At the end of the story, Prince Fly Guy lives happily ever after.

Prince Fly Guy introduces the process of brainstorming ideas for a story. Throughout the story, Buzz and Fly Guy discuss different story possibilities. For every story possibility, Fly Guy imagines himself as the character going through the scenario. Readers will giggle at the illustrations that show Fly Guy as a fairy tale character who runs from a giant, kisses a frog, and eats cold porridge. Although the story is not unique, younger readers will still enjoy the story, and the conclusion is sure to please.

Designed for younger readers, each page contains large illustrations that use exaggerated facial features to help readers read the character’s emotions. The story will give emerging readers confidence as they move from picture books to chapter books. Prince Fly Guy has three chapters, and most pages have only one sentence. The story’s short sentences, simple vocabulary, and pattern of wording make Prince Fly Guy a good choice for younger readers.

Prince Fly Guy uses the same format as the others stories in the series. Although the story does not have a lesson, the story shows how fun the creative process of writing can be. Prince Fly Guy is an entertaining story that may just lead readers to pick up a pen and try to write their own fairy tale.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When a giant swats Prince Fly Guy and the princess, “The princess threw her crown. It hit the giant on the nose. The giant fell down.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Deep Blue

Serafina has always known that she will eventually rule her nation, located deep in the Mediterranean Sea. She needs to prepare for her Dokimí, when she will be introduced to the Mer people as their future ruler and will announce her future husband. But rather than worrying about her Dokimí, Serafina is obsessed with the strange dreams of sea witches that have been haunting her.

Everything changes when, during her Dokimí, a poisoned assassin’s arrow strikes her mother, and her father is killed. Now, Serafina must embark on a quest to find the assassin’s master and prevent a war between the Mer nations. Along the way, Seraphina will meet five other mermaids; will the six mermaids be able to discover who is behind the conspiracy that threatens the Mer world?

Many readers will pick up Deep Blue because of the beautiful cover image of a mermaid; however, the story is not as intriguing as the cover photo. The mermaid world has a complicated history and a confusing number of characters (both gods, humans, and mermaids). Much of the mermaid world is mundanely similar to the human world and there are overly long descriptions of clothing. Another negative aspect of the story is the main character Serafina, as her character is inconsistent. In some scenes, she is fearful and runs from danger. Other times Serafina shows bravery, but that bravery makes her make stupid choices that endanger others. Serafina never takes the advice of more knowledgeable mermaids, even when she should.

Throughout the story, six mermaids must meet and make it to the sea witches’ lair. The six mermaids eventually find each other; however, readers will question how the mermaids come together at exactly the right landmarks that lead to the witches’ lair. The action slows down considerably as the characters talk about the history of the mermaids and much of the dialogue feels stilted.

In the end, Deep Blue is a typical story about a beautiful princess who loses everything including her parents. She takes a difficult journey, which teaches her some important lessons. Serafina must learn not to believe other people’s cruel remarks and that everyone makes mistakes. She also must overcome fear. Vrăja tells her, “You fear you will fail at the very thing you were born for. And your fear torments you, so you try to swim away from it. Instead of shunning your fear, you must let it speak and listen carefully to what it’s trying to tell you. It will give you good counsel.”

Even though the story has some positive messages, Deep Blue will leave readers slightly confused, disappointed, and wondering why anyone would want the whiny Serafina to rule their realm. Readers looking for a good mermaid book may want to try Atlantia by Ally Condie instead.

Sexual Content

  • Serafina overhears a conversation about her fiancé’s girlfriends.
  • When a mean girl tells Serafina that her fiancé has a girlfriend, Serafina says she isn’t upset because “I just hope she’s done a good job with him. Taught him a few dance strokes or how to send a proper love conch. Someone has to. Merboys are like hippokamps, don’t you think? No fun until they’re broken in.”
  • Serafina thinks back to when her fiancé kissed her. “It was lovely, that kiss. Slow and sweet.”
  • She finds her fiancé and one of his friends “lying on their backs. Mahdi had a purple scarf tied around his head and a smudged lipstick kisses on his cheek. . .” Someone had drawn a lipstick smiley face on Mahdi’s friend.
  • A merboy says that “Merl’s so hot, she melts my face off.”
  • Three human girls continue to fight over a boy, even though the girls are dead. Someone explains, “Must be something irresistible about rivers to sad girls. They just have to throw themselves into them. I’ve seen a lot of river ghosts.”

Violence

  • A man grabs an eel and “bit into it. The creature writhed in agony. Its blood dripped down his chin. He swallowed the eel. . .”
  • In the past “Kalumnus had tried to assassinate Merrow and rule in her stead. He’d been captured and beheaded, and his family banished.”
  • During a ceremony, men attack. An arrow “came hurling through the water and lodged in her mother’s chest. . . Her mother’s chest was heaving; the arrow was moving with every breath she took. It had shattered her breastplate and pierced her left side. Isabella touched her fingers to her wound. They came away crimson. . . The assassin, barely visible in the dark waters, fired. The arrow buried itself in Bastian’s chest. He was dead by the time his body hit the seafloor.” Both of Serafina’s parents are killed as well as many merfolk.
  • As the invaders try to capture Serafina, they blow up a wall. Serafina “looked up, still dazed, just in time to see a large chunk of the stateroom’s east wall come crashing down. Courtiers screamed as they rushed to get out of the way. Some didn’t make it and were crushed by falling stones. Others were engulfed by flames ignited by lava pouring from broken heating pipes buried inside the wall.” Serafina is able to run away.
  • The invaders use a dragon in their attack. “The dragon bashed her head against the palace wall and another large chunk of it fell in . . . the dragon knocked more of the wall down. The creature pulled her head out of the hole she’d made, and dozens of soldiers, all clad in black, swam inside. The leader pointed toward the throne . . . Arrows came through the water . . . Isabella spotted a dagger next to the corpse of a fallen Janiҫari. She conjured a vortex in the water, and sent the knife hurtling at the invaders’ leader. The dagger hit home, knocking him to the floor.” The Janiҫari “gurgled, drowning in his own blood.”
  • When Serafina and her friend were hiding in a cave, a merman appeared demanding “rent for staying in his cave. He signaled to the morays. They swam to the mermaids and began divesting them of their jewelry. . . One of the eels had dropped the necklace he’d taken from Serafina and had thrust his head down the front of her gown to retrieve it. Sera, lashing her tail furiously, caught another eel with her fins, and sent him spinning into a wall. He hit the stone hard and fell to the cave’s floor, motionless. The other eels were on her immediately, snarling. Tiberius sank his teeth into her tail fin. Sera screamed again, and tried to pull away.” The mermaids are sold to soldiers.
  • Soldiers capture Serafina and her friend. “They shackled Serafina’s wrists with iron cuffs and blindfolded her. They forced an iron gag into her mouth and wrapped a net around her. Then, one of the soldiers slung her over the back of his hippokamp and rode fast. . . The ride was agony. The net’s filament bit into Sera’s skin. The gag, with its bitter taste of metal, made her retch.” When they arrive at their destination, Serafina and her friend are put in prison with another mermaid. “Her face was bruised. She held her manacled hands close to her chest. Blood swirled above them, pulsing from the stump of bone where her left thumb used to be.”
  • While in prison, Serafina and her friends are immobilized with a metal collar that is padlocked to the wall. Serafina sees her friend, who was “chained to another pole only a few feet away. Her eye was swollen and bruised. Her skin was a sickly gray-blue.”
  • A merman frees Serafina and her friends from prison. During the break-out, “the guard’s throat had been cut. He was arching his back, flailing his tail. His eyes, pleading and desperate, found Sera’s. She gasped and backed away.”
  • While Serafina and her friend are hiding out, men appear and try to capture them. A man points a spear gun at Serafina. “Luckily, the duca lunged at the man and grabbed his arm. The gun went off. Trailing a thin nylon line, the spear hit a wall and fell into the water. . . the duca threw a punch at him, but he deflected it, grabbed the duca, and hurled him against a wall. The duca crashed to the floor, motionless.” Two mako sharks are mortally wounded. A merman who was helping Serafina was shot with a spear gun. The speargun hit “with a sickening thunk and exited his body under his collarbone. His attacker yanked on the line attached to the spear, pulling the cruel, barbed head into his flesh.” Later Serafina learns that several were killed during the fight. The scene takes place over five pages.
  • When Serafina enters the mirror realm, Rorrim tries to keep her there. When Serafina tries to leave, “He grabbed her hair and yanked her back. The pain was electric. She screamed and tried to pull away, but he only tightened his grip.” Serafina cuts off her hair and is able to escape.
  • Serafina’s friend, Ling, gets caught in a fishing net. When she is caught, Seraphina sees Ling’s “eyes wild with terror, mouth open in a scream.” Ling’s friends are able to free her.
  • As Serafina and her friends are traveling, they see “on the seabed below, maybe twenty feet off the ship’s port side, were bodies. At least a dozen of them. . . They were dead. Some were lying on their backs, others facedown. Some had the kind of open, gaping wounds that were made by a spear gun. Others had bruises on their faces.”
  • When Serafina sat against a tree, “she was jerked against the tree roots. She heard a snarl and smelled a gut-wrenching stench. She screamed and tried to pull away, but was pulled back.” Serafina’s friend took out her blade. “The blade came down to the right of Sera’s head. An instant later, she was free. . . and a human arm was lying on the ground. She whirled around to see what had attacked her. It was a terragogg. Or what was left of him. He was dead . . .” Someone had used forbidden magic to “reanimate the human dead and make them do their bidding.”
  • Three river witches are in a circle, casting a spell to keep a monster in his cage. “Blood streaked the lips of one, and dripped from the nose of another. Bruises mottled the face of a third. Sera could see that the magic cost them dearly. . .the monster grabbed the witch by her throat. She screamed in pain as its nails dug into her flesh. It jerked her forward, breaking her grip on the incanti at either side of her. The waterfire went out.” Serafina and her friends try to help the witches. “With a warrior’s roar, she (Astrid) swung her sword at the monster, the muscles in her strong arms rippling. The blade came down on one of its outstretched arms and cut off a hand. The monster shrieked in pain and fled into the depths of its prison.” The scene takes place over five pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Serafina’s fiance, Mahdi, is rumored to be a party boy.

Language

  • “Good gods” and “Oh gods” are used as an exclamation several times throughout the book.
  • The villain and his soldiers are often referred to as sea scum.

Supernatural

  • Some mermaids have magic. “Magic depended on so many things—the depth of one’s gift, experience, dedication, the position of the moon, the rhythm of the tides, the proximity of whales. It didn’t settle until one was fully grown.”
  • Magic is used throughout the story. One spell is a vello spell. The mermaid said, “Waters blue, Hear me cast, Rise behind us, Make us fast!”
  • The story has several human ghost that live inside mirrors. “Ghosts lived inside it—vitrina—souls of beautiful, vain humans who’d spent too much time gazing into it. The mirror had captured them. Their bodies had withered and died, but their spirits lived on, trapped behind the glass forever.”
  • A witch uses a mirror to beckon Serafina. When Serafina looks at the mirror, she raised her hand slowly, as if in a trance.” Someone else enters the mirror, and the witch leaves.
  • Serafina and other mermaids can use songspells. “Canta mirus was a demanding type of magic that called for a powerful voice and a great deal of ability. . . Mirus casters could bind light, wind, water, and sound. The best could embellish existing songspells or create new ones.”
  • A mermaid can cast a bloodsong which shows someone else their memories. When a mermaid causes herself to bleed, “the crimson swirled through the water like smoke in the air, then coalesced into images. As it did, Serafina saw the bloodsong—the memories that lived in her teacher’s heart.”
  • Several times throughout the story mermaids use transparensea pearls. “The songspell of invisibility used shadow and light and was notoriously difficult to cast. Spellbinders—highly skilled artisans—knew how to insert the spell into pearls that a mermaid could carry with her and deploy in an instant.”
  • In order to help Serafina and her friend escape, a mermaid uses magic. “She pulled wind down into the water and spiraled giant vortexes one after another, until she’d raised a wall of spinning typhoons. She was no longer a mere mermaid. She was a storm system, a category five. And she was bearing down on the enemy.”
  • In order to escape, Serafina and her friend go through a mirror, where thousands of ghosts live. Many of the ghosts in the mirror realm are lifeless because they, “craved admiration. They become listless without it.” While in the mirror realm, Serafina meets Rorrim, who feeds off of dankling. Rorrim explains, “It’s a little piece of fear. They burrow into backbones. A few of them will infest a nice strong spine, and then as the bones weaken, more come. . . There’s nothing, absolutely nothing as tasty as fear. Doubt is delectable, of course. Insecurities, anxieties—all delicious, but fear? Oh, fear is exquisite!”
  • One mermaid was omnivoxa and could speak and understand any language.
  • A river witch uses a bloodsong to show Atlantis being destroyed. “People ran shrieking through the streets of Elysia, the capital, as the ground trembled and buildings fell around them. Bodies were everywhere. Smoke and ash filled the air. Lava flowed down a flight of stone steps. A child, too small to walk, sat at the bottom of them, screaming in terror, her mother dead beside her.” The story is retold over four pages.
  • The sea witches teach Serafina and her companions magic. One mermaid cast a spell trying to make waterfire. “Whirl around me/Like a gyre, /This I ask you, /Ancient fire. /Hot blue flames, /Throw your heat, /Cause my enemy/To retreat.”
  • One of the mermaids has the power of prophecy and sees visions of the future.
  • Serafina and her companions perform darksong. “Canta malus was said to have been a poisonous gift to the mer from Morsa, in mockery of Neria’s gifts. The invocation of the malus spells could get the caster imprisoned: the clepio spells, used for stealing; a habeo, which took control of another’s mind or body; the nocérus, used to cause harm; and the nex songspell which was used to kill.” A bloodbind is forever and if a mer breaks it, they die. The mermaids perform the bloodbind. The girls cut themselves and share their blood. “As the last notes of the songspell rose, the blood of all five mermaids spiraled together into a crimson helix and wrapped itself around their hands. Like the sea pulling the tide back to itself, their flesh summoned the blood’s return. It came, flowing back through the waters, back through the wounds. The slashed edges of their palms closed and healed.” The spell is described over four pages.
  • A witch tells the mermaids about silverfish who live in the mirror realm. “Tell it where you need to go, and it will take you.”

Spiritual Content

  • A witch, who is helping cast a spell says, “Gods help me!” As the witches are attempting to cast a spell, a witch says, “Come, devil, come. . . you’re near. . . I feel you.”
  • Serafina must face Alitheia. She is told, “The gods themselves made her. Bellogrim, the smith, forged her, and Neria breathed life into her. . . When Merrow was old and close to death, she wanted to make sure only her descendants ruled Miromara. So she asked the goddess of the sea, Neria, and Bellogrim, the god of fire, to forge a creature of bronze.” The creature must taste a meril’s blood to determine if she is a descendant of Merrow.
  • Serafina “prayed to the gods” that her magic would work.
  • The history of mermaids is told. When Atlantis was falling into the ocean, Merrow “saved the Atlanteans by calling them into the water and beseeching Neria to help them. As the dying island sank beneath the waves, the goddess transformed its terrified people and gave them sea magic. They fought her at first, struggling to keep their heads above water, to breathe air, screaming as their legs knit together and their flesh sprouted fins. As the sea pulled them under, they tried to breath water. It was agony. Some could do it. Others could not, and the waves carried their bodies away.”
  • After Serafina is questioned, the villain tells her, “Gods help you if you’ve lied to me.”
  • When Serafina and her friends are freed from prison, Serafina says, “Oh, thank gods!”
  • Serafina was told a story about the sea goddess, Neria, who “fell in love with Cassio, god of the skies. She made a plan to steal away from her palace and meet him on the horizon. Trykel found out and was jealous. He went to Fragor, the storm god, and asked him to fill the sky with clouds so he could hide in them, pretend to be Cassio, and steal a kiss. . .” The story is not completed.

The Darkest Hour

After the battle with the dogs, the dust settles. There is only one casualty—Bluestar, the leader of ThunderClan. Since Fireheart was the deputy, he must now receive his nine lives and new name from StarClan. Everything seems to be flowing smoothly at the beginning of Firestar’s rule. Prey is good; there have been no fights with other Clans, and Tigerstar has been quiet so far, even though he was the reason the dogs attacked. Firestar works with his apprentice and helps the Clan recover, but he is haunted by a new prophecy.

Soon Tigerstar announces that RiverClan and ShadowClan are merging and that they will be forming TigerClan. When TigerClan attacks WindClan, it becomes clear what will happen if ThunderClan and WindClan don’t accept the new order. Is there any way the clans can work together to bring peace to their home?

As Tigerheart tries to unite the other clans, he shows his cruelty. Unlike previous books, The Darkest Hour doesn’t focus on floods, fires, or storms. Instead, the clans fight each other and the intense battle scenes are often described in detail, which will cause an emotional reaction because of the graphic descriptions.  The book transitions smoothly from the clan’s life to the battles; the battle scenes and the epic climax will leave the readers’ hearts pounding.

The final chapter in the Warrior series, The Darkest Hour, will not disappoint! As the six-story arch ends, readers will feel an emotional connection with the clans’ cats and will be surprised by unexpected and shocking events. Young readers love the Warrior series because of the well-developed characters, the descriptions, and the nonstop action. The Warrior series has turned many youngsters into avid readers because the series takes the reader into the lives of wild cats, who soon feel like friends. Warriors fans will forever remember Fireheart, who will leave his paw marks on their hearts.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Tigerstar commanded Stonefur to kill two cats, and when Stonefur refuses, Darkstripe attacks him. “The two warriors were a clawing, screeching knot of fur on the floor of the clearing. The rest of the cats scrambled backward to give them space, still keeping the same eerie silence. . .” They fight for two and a half pages. Stonefur eventually dies in the battle.
  • Firestar was in his camp when he heard wailing. Firestar watched as “limping out of the tunnel was a cat that was almost wounded beyond recognition. Blood dripped from a long gash in his flank. His fur was matted with sand and dust, and one eye was closed . . . The newcomer was Mudclaw, barely able to stand from pain and exhaustion.” Mudclaw announced that TigerClan was attacking their camp. When a patrol goes to their camp, Onewhisker “was lying on his side with deep wounds to his throat and shoulder. Barkface, the WindClan medicine cat, was pressing cobwebs to them, but the blood still oozed out sluggishly.” Onewhisker told them that Gorsepaw had been killed. Onewhisker said that Tigerstar “pinned him down in the center of the clearing, with his warriors around him so none of us could get close enough to stop him. He . . . he said he was going to kill him to show the rest of us what we could expect if we refused to join him.”
  • Tigerstar attacked Scourge. As they were fighting, Tigerstar “fell on his side, exposing his belly, and Scourge’s vicious claws sank into his throat. Blood welled out as the smaller cat ripped him down to the tail with a single slash. A desperate scream of fury erupted from Tigerstar, then broke off with a ghastly choking sound. His body convulsed, limbs jerking and tail flailing . . . The dark red blood kept on flowing, spreading across the ground in a ceaseless tide. Tigerstar let out another shriek.” This fight lasted one page.
  • During a major battle with BloodClan, Scourge attacked Firestar. As Scourge attacked Firestar, “Agony exploded in his (Firestar’s) head as the reinforced claws struck down. Flame washed over his eyes, fading to leave nothing but darkness. A soft, black tide was rising to engulf him; he made one final effort to get up, but his paws would not support him, and he fell back into nothingness.” Firestar died, but because he had nine lives from StarClan, he was brought back to life.  After he was brought back he killed Scourge, and the battle was over. The battle is sixteen pages long, and many lives were lost.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Firestar’s friend called him a “Stupid furball.”
  • Firestar called a cat a “mouse-brain” because they jumped into a battle and almost fought the wrong side. The phrase mouse-brain is used six times.
  • Blackfoot called some cats “half-Clan crowfood.”
  • Darkstripe called someone “fox-dung.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Cats that die go to StarClan and can come back in dreams.
  • Cats go to the moonstone, “a gleaming rock, which glittered as if it were made from countless dewdrops,” to share dreams with StarClan and gain answers.
  • StarClan shared a prophecy that said, “only fire can save the Clan.”
  • A clan leader can be granted nine lives from StarClan, which means they can die eight times and return to life.
  • Cats are granted their warrior name, “by the powers of StarClan.”
  • Fireheart said that it was the will of StarClan that Bluestar died, and that she made peace with StarClan before she died.
  • Firestar received a prophecy from StarClan saying, “Four will become two. Lion and tiger will meet in battle, and blood will rule the forest.”
  • Ravenpaw said that StarClan made a good choice making Firestar leader.
  • Firestar tried to reach out to Spottedleaf, the dead medicine cat, in a dream. Firestar wanted help making a decision, but Spottedleaf wouldn’t help him, and she told him that it was his decision.
  •  Firestar said that “Tigerstar behaves as if he’s never heard of StarClan.”
  • Sandstorm said, “It’s in the paws of StarClan.”
  • Tallstar swore on StarClan.
  • Bramblepaw started arguing with his father and he said, “then at least I’ll go to StarClan as a loyal ThunderClan cat.”
  • Right before all the cats went into battle, they said, “And may StarClan be with us all.”
  • Cats think the stars represent each member of StarClan, so when one cat saw some stars at dawn, he thought, “a few early warriors of StarClan looked down at him.”
  • After Firestar was killed, he lost one life, met with StarClan, and then he came back to life.
  • A cat said, “Thank StarClan.”
  • Firestar asked his medicine cat if they had received any messages from StarClan.
  • Firestar said that they are in the forest, “by the will of StarClan.”
  • As Whitestorm died, he said, “I go to hunt with StarClan.”
  • After they won the battle, Firestar said, “Thank you, StarClan.” He then received a vision from Spottedleaf.

The Brooklyn Nine

Baseball is in the Schneider family’s blood. Each member of this family, from family founder Felix Schneider in the 1800s to Snider Flint in the present day, has a strong tie to the game and to Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Nine begins in Manhattan, 1845, with Felix Schneider, a boy who has recently moved to America from Germany and ends up meeting the Knickerbockers. Several years later, Felix’s son Louis plays baseball during the civil war. He serves for the Union but befriends a Confederate soldier and they bond over the game. Louis’s son, Arnold Schneider, also has a love for baseball. He meets the famous King Kelly who has fallen on hard times and gone to drinking and fails to live up to the young boy’s expectations. Arnold’s son Walter tries to get Cyclone Joe Williams onto a team by pretending the man is Native American. Frankie Snider, Walter’s daughter, runs a numbers game for a mob and meets the famous reporter John Kieran, who helps her rig it.

Kat Flint, the first character unrelated to the Schneiders, joins the Grand Rapids Chicks in the first All-American Girls Baseball League. Her son Jimmy is more into baseball cards than actual baseball, but faces the threat of Sputnik and the fear of atomic annihilation during the 1950s. His son, Michael Flint, pitches a perfect game. His son, Snider Flint, helps run a pawnshop with lots of baseball memorabilia.

Each of these experiences, from Felix in 1845 to Snider in 2002, are connected by baseball. Gratz creates characters that are vivid and distinct, each with their own unique traits and personalities. The historical information and timeline of characters allow the reader to glimpse baseball and life during each character’s time period. The conflicts that characters face are realistic, and the ways they overcome them show the advantages of hard work instead of magical solutions.

Gratz also includes a large amount of accurate historical information about baseball in the stories. His main characters are fictional, but they interact with are real, historical people. For example, King Kelly was an actual baseball player who spent his fortune on alcohol, and Cyclone Joe Williams was a real African American who played as one of the world’s greatest pitchers, even though he could never play in the major leagues.

The story is broken up into nine innings, and each inning focuses on one generation. Each inning has an entirely new cast of characters and ends in a cliffhanger. Even though the cliffhanger’s questions are eventually answered, the abrupt endings of each chapter may cause some frustration for readers.

The Brooklyn Nine weaves authentic details about baseball into each fictional character’s life story. Gratz clearly illustrates the idea that baseball is more than just a game or a pastime, and the nine stories he tells are an innovative way to get that idea across. The book is relatively easy to read; none of the words or sentences should be too difficult for the author’s recommended audience of 8+. There is a small amount of violence, but nothing is extremely detailed. More than anything, the author includes powerful themes centered around the importance of perseverance and the powerful impacts that different generations can have on each other.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Kids fight each other in the novel. “Walter got in one good blow before the kid and his two friends ganged up on him and beat the stuffing out of him.”
  • During the civil war, the characters hear “the pop of a rifle” before “Stuart’s leg exploded.”
  • Felix remarks that “shootouts sometimes erupted in the streets” of New York.
  • Felix’s uncle “struck” and “cuffed” Felix when he came home after losing a package in the mud.
  • Walter “clawed and fought” when his hat was stolen, “getting himself bloodier in the process.”
  • Henry is punched, leaning to “blood spurt[ing] from the boy’s busted nose.”
  • Eric “punched [Jimmy] in the stomach.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • King Kelly walks onto stage, “with a glass of beer” in his hand, and proceeds to take “a long draw” off of his drink.
  • King Kelly says he spent his money on strawberries and ice cream, and a heckler yells that “the bartenders got the rest.”
  • King Kelly gets drunk.
  • King Kelly says his “act goes better when [he’s] had a little something to drink.”
  • Blind pigs and speakeasies, illegal bars during the prohibition era, are the setting for Frankie’s chapter.
  • Kat sees girls sitting on gravestones “sipping beer and smoking cigarettes.”
  • Babe Herman “spit a huge glop of tobacco juice.”

Language

  • Rawney Dutchman, bloody devil, plonker, boat-lickers, dork, are all used by characters to insult each other.
  • Hell, damn, and darn are used as exclamations.
  • During a traffic buildup, men “yelled obscenities at each other.”
  • The “Red-Legged Devils” were said to have gotten their name when they fought with “hell’s fury” during Bull Run.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Felix compares his neighbor’s apartment to “preachers who stood on street corners throughout Kleindeutschland yelling warnings of damnation and hell.”
  • Temperance preachers throw whiskey into the sea, saying that “alcohol is an abomination, a plague on our cities and our communities and our families.”

by Dylan Chilcoat

Simon Thorn and the Wolf’s Den

Twelve-year-old Simon Thorn’s best friend is a mouse. The kids at school think Simon’s a freak because he talks to animals. Simon doesn’t think life can get worse, until a herd of rats kidnaps his mom. After his mom’s disappearance, Simon learns that he and his family are Animalgams—people who can change into an animal at will.

The children of the Animalgams attend a secret academy hidden within New York’s Central Park Zoo. Simon sneaks into the academy hoping to find clues to his mother’s whereabouts. While at the academy, Simon learns that the Animalgam world is full of ancient rivalries and feuding kingdoms. Commanding the school is a dangerous foe intent on holding supreme power, and she thinks Simon is the key to gaining it. In an instant, Simon’s world has shifted, and he isn’t sure who he can trust. Simon is determined to find his mother, but he may lose his life in the process.

Simon Thorn and the Wolf’s Den jumps into action right from the start. The plot twists and turns as Simon uncovers family secrets, new friends, and evil villains willing to kill for power. Although the plot is complicated, the author circles back to repeat important information, which helps the reader keep track of key details.

Simon is a relatable character because he wants to fit in, but he refuses to bow to bullies. Even when Simon is under intense pressure, he continues to do what is right, including protecting those around him. Because the story is written in the first person, Simon’s thoughts and feelings allow the reader to understand why Simon puts his life in his enemy’s hands.

The villains in the story are capable of hiding their true intentions, but in the end, their actions show the dangers of desiring power. The story also highlights the themes of friendship, forgiveness, and the pain of loss. Simon’s uncle, Darryl, shows what a good parent figure should act like—he gives encouragement, sets rules, and is willing to die for Simon. At the end of the story, readers will understand that even when people have good intentions, the outcome doesn’t always work out as expected.

The story’s advanced sentence structure and often scary violence make the story more appropriate for older elementary readers. Simon Thorn and the Wolf’s Den is a fast-paced story that takes readers into a fantasy world where unlikely Animalgams band together to defeat evil. This entertaining story will surprise and delight readers, while it teaches that “you are the person you choose to be, not the person others think you are.” Readers will be clamoring to read the next book in the series, Simon Thorn and the Viper’s Pit.

 Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When Bryan is bullying Simon, Winter stands up to the bully. The bully “shoved her backward. Winter hit the chair hard, and the crack of elbow against metal echoed through the cafeteria. Simon didn’t stop to think. By the time he realized what he was doing, he had already tackled Bryan to the ground and socked him in the soft spot below the ribs. Bryan cried out, and Simon pulled away, dumbfounded.” During the fight, “Bryan shoved his arm against Simon’s throat. His fist connected with Simon’s abdomen, and Simon curled into a ball.” When Bryan goes after Winter, “Simon roared. His hand shot out, his fingers curled into claws, and he swiped his nails against Bryan’s face. Bright red lines sprouted across Bryan’s cheek, and he faltered, his mouth opened in shock.” The bullying and fighting scene lasts for five pages.
  • While walking through the park, Bryan and his friends see Simon. Bryan shoves Simon, and then “one of the eighth graders caught him and pushed him forward. Back and forth he went, until he was so jarred that he could barely keep his balance. . . Simon made what was possibly the stupidest move in his life: he kneed Bryan in the stomach. Hard. And as Bryan doubled over, Simon pushed him to the ground, grabbed his backpack, and made a run for it.”
  • While at home, rats attack Simon, Darryl, and Isabel. “Rats—hundreds and hundreds—crowded the hallways and poured into the apartment, surrounding the three of them. Their high-pitched squeaks made Simon’s ears ring and he could see their sharp front teeth. . . A particularly eager one tried to climb up Simon’s leg, its tiny nails scratching his skin, and he kicked hard.” Simon’s mother tries to steal a car, but the rats disable the car. The rats begin throwing bricks at the car. “Another hit the window, and another, and another. . . The window shattered. Shards exploded all over him, clinging to his sweatshirt.” As Simon runs, the rats “descended on him with impossible speed, climbing up his clothes, flinging themselves at him, biting him everywhere they could reach. . . One of them crawled up the knife, and though the blade cut its belly, the rat either didn’t notice or didn’t care.” The rats take Isabel. Simon and Darryl get separated. Simon is safe. The rat scene takes place over ten pages.
  • Winter helps Simon escape a guarded building. Winter “kicked an unexpecting guard. Hard. His cry of pain echoed through the lobby. . .” When Simon and Winter get outside, the rats attack. As Simon tries to run, he feels “the rats’ sharp claws scratching his legs as they tried to climb up his jeans again.” A flock of predatory birds appears, and “before Simon could move, talons ripped the rats off his clothing and more vicious screams echoed in his ears as the birds and rats clashed.” The rats scatter.
  • During an Animalgam training exercise, “the mountain lion snapped at the girl, who wore a stony expression and didn’t take her eyes off her opponent. . . At last the cat attacked. Again the girl was ready for him, and she sprang aside a second time. With impossible speed and strength, she flipped the beast over in midair and pinned him to the ground, her knee against his throat. The mountain lion fought back, his massive paws striking her again and again until—The girl disappeared.” The girl wins the match by turning into a spider.
  • During an Animalgam training exercise, Simon tries to sidestep his opponent, “but she grabbed his sweatshirt and twisted him around, and Simon fell hard on his back. All the air left his lungs, and he gasped. . . He buried his knee in her stomach and pressed his arm across her neck, the same way Bryan had pinned him. . . he held her down as she struggled.” When the opponent changes into a spider, Simon is able to capture her in the palm of his hand. When he threatens to squish her, she gives up.
  • When Nolan denies that he is Simon’s brother, Simon dumps chocolate milk on him. Then, Nolan “lurched forward and tackled Simon to the floor, ripping at his shirt and tearing at his hair.” Simon doesn’t fight back, and their uncle breaks up the fight.
  • Brothers, Malcolm and Darryl, fight. “An inhuman snarl cut through the air, and in a flurry of teeth and fur, Malcolm shifted and leaped at Darryl, knocking him to the grass. Darryl roared. In an instant, he also shifted into his wolf form, and Simon jumped back as they collapsed in a heap of limbs and claws. The wolves snarled and ripped at each other’s fur, pawed each other’s snouts, and rolled over and over again as they each fought to gain control.” Even though the brothers fight, they make sure they do not hurt each other. Their mother breaks up the fight.
  • Winter turns into a snake and attacks a man who is trying to keep Simon from leaving. When the man grabs Simon, Winter “shot toward him, sinking her fangs into Perrin’s ankle. Winter must have been venomous, because instantly his grip loosened enough for Simon to shove him away. . . His eyes rolled back into his head, and his knees buckled as he collapsed to the ground.” The man is given anti-venom serum.
  • An Animalgam turns into a black widow and bites the villain. The venom does not kill her.
  • While in wolf form, Darryl is caged and birds attack him. The attack is not described, but Simon finds Darryl. “The hulking wolf lay inside, his sides heaving and his gray fur matted with blood. Scratch marks lined his belly, and the feathers that clung to him made it obvious what had happened. . . As soon as Darryl was free, he shifted back into a human and staggered against the wall.”
  • When Simon and his friends get to his grandfather’s place, they find the security guard “stooped behind the desk. Simone moved closer. A security guard was slumped in his chair, and dark liquid dripped from his neck.”
  • In an epic battle that lasts for two chapters, the villains fight for control over Simon. During the battle, an eagle “flew after Simon, catching up in seconds. His talons scratched Simon’s neck and shoulders, and he shoved the bird away, using all his might to tear a handful of feathers from Orion’s wing. The eagle screamed and disappeared into the trees.” Hundreds of birds attack Darryl, who is trying to help Simon. Darryl is in wolf form, and he “snapped at the birds, fighting to break free, but there were too many of them. They pecked and scratched at his face, his throat, his paws, every part of him they could reach. . . Orion lunged toward the wolf, sinking the razor-sharp points of the Heart of the Predator into Darryl’s chest . . . Darryl had shifted back into a human, and a pool of blood expanded beside his motionless body.” Darryl dies.
  • During the epic battle, Simon turns into an eagle and “lashed out with his talons, slicing across Orion’s face and grazing his one good eye. . . Orion cried out, and at last he let go. Clawing at the air, he stumbled backward off the roof and fell into an empty sky.” Orion is injured but comes back to grab the scepter.
  • Malcolm is able to pin one of Simon’s enemies to the floor. He tells her, “You will leave the city and all our lands, and you will never return. If I ever see you again, I will rip you limb from limb, as slowly and excruciating as possible. By the time I’m finished, you will be begging me to let you die.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Several times someone calls somebody else a “jerk.” For example, when Simon is being bullied, a girl tells the bullies, “Would you jerks shut up and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of?”
  • A bully, Bryan, calls Simon a “freak” and a “psycho.” He also calls Simon a “fart face.”
  • Simon calls Bryan an “ape face.”
  • A girl calls Nolan a “royal halfwit.”
  • Several times someone calls another person an “idiot.”

Supernatural

  • Simon can talk to animals. “Not only could he understand what they were saying, but they could understand everything he said in return.”
  • The story revolves around Animalgams, humans that can change into an animal. This ability is passed down by family. For example, when Darryl changes, his “fingers shifted into claws, his hands into paws, and his nose into a snout. Gray fur spouted all over his body, engulfing his clothing, and as his torso thinned and lengthened, a tail appeared at the base of his spine. In the time it took Simon to blink, his very human uncle had changed into a real, live, snarling wolf.”
  • Animalgams can only turn into one animal, except for the Beast King. The Beast King ruled hundreds of years ago, and “he killed countless Animalgams who refused to bow down to him.” The Beast King was powerful because “he could shift into any animal he wanted. . . You try defeating an enemy who can suddenly grow venomous fangs or dive underwater or fly away. Not to mention he had thousands of followers willing to fight for him.” Nolan and Simon are the Beast King’s heirs, and many believe one of them will eventually be able to shift into any animal.
  • The villain is trying to find all of the pieces of a scepter, because “when all the pieces are in place, the Predator can absorb the power of everyone it kills and transfer it to the person who holds the scepter.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Secret Mountain

Jack and his friends are hanging out in Tale Town’s magical tree when they see a surprising sight. Mayor Fitch’s guards lock a troll child in the stocks. Everyone knows that trolls are trouble, but how could it be right to hold a child prisoner? Jack and his friends, the Little Legends, decide to rescue the young troll and help her get home. With Mayor Fitch’s guards looking for them, is there any way to get the troll home?

Children will enjoy the silly magic, the non-frightening suspense, and the fairy tale characters that appear in The Secret Mountain. Cute black-and-white illustrations appear on almost every page, and help bring the diverse cast of characters to life. As Jack and his friends try to help the troll return to her home, the reader will learn that outward appearance isn’t what makes a person good or evil. Ella explains, “You get good people and bad people. Why would it be any different with trolls?”

Readers can understand the story without reading the previous books; however, reading the stories in order is suggested because The Secret Mountain often refers to events that happened in previous books. Younger readers will need help tackling the story because some of the vocabulary is difficult and the pages are heavy in text. The Secret Mountain has a large cast of characters—a talking chicken, Jack, Red, Rapunzel, Hansel, and Gretel are just a few. As the plot unfolds the story jumps from place to place, which may confuse readers.

The Secret Mountain drops readers into a fairy tale world where magic is real. The story highlights the importance of working together to do what is right. The Secret Mountain will delight confident readers looking for a fun story with cute illustrations.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Mayor Finch’s guards put a troll child in the stocks.
  • When a girl was jumping on a pogo stick, a guard “swiped the pogo stick, bending it in two.”
  • Mayor Finch sets fire to a troll village. The event is not described.
  • A group was riding in a hot air balloon when people below began shooting arrows at them. “More and more arrows ripped into the balloon.” When the group crashes, they discover that a troll turned the mountain into marshmallows so no one would get hurt.
  • Hurrilan swings a magical crystal-topped staff. “. . . Then the crystal started glowing with a bright red light, leaving shimmering trails that twisted around each other, becoming almost solid. The light trails snaked through the air toward Rufaro and Adeola, twisting them around like a slow-motion lasso that bound them completely and dragged them back toward the glowing crystal.” The light shrinks the kids, and “the light dimmed and was sucked back into the crystal, taking Rufaro and Anansi’s mom with it.” The scene takes place over three pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Lily the Sea Witch gives the group magic capsules that make them fall asleep.

Language

  • Someone told a small green monkey to move his “furry green butt.”
  • A chicken says, “that Mayor Finch is a stupid, sausage-faced—”

Supernatural

  • Tale Town has a magical tree. “If you ran your finger along the branch, the story would happen inside your head.” The tree has a spell of protection, which “means that the only way to trim off a story is using the Sacred Shiny Story-Snipping Shears.”
  • Cole uses fairy magic, but it “never really worked properly.” He accidentally turned his friends into hamsters.
  • Lily the Sea Witch uses her magic to put the town’s guards to sleep. Lily, “pulled the lid off a colored jar and flung the contents of it all over the guards, who immediately crumbled and fell fast asleep.
  • Lily the Sea Witch gives a group some, “magic capsules containing the concentrated essence of it wasn’t like this when I was young! This powerful spell was made up of the complaints of older people, who were always complaining that It wasn’t like this when I was young! It was one of the most boring things you could ever hear and would make everyone fall asleep immediately.
  • Someone meets a boy’s parents, who are trolls. Someone explains that “Anansi’s mom and uncle have been cursed by the troll warlock Hurrilan. The spell used to make them look like trolls all the time, but now it’s only in the daylight.”
  • Anansi can talk to spiders, and he asks them to make a hammock for him to sleep in.
  • “When soldiers appear, Hurrilan uses magic to turn them into goats.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Genesis

Noah has died again. Now he is determined to live. After an asteroid destroys the Earth, the planet is left in the hands of Fire Lake’s sophomore class.  After being murdered and uploaded into a simulation, the group of 64 students is left to duke it out and hopefully make it through the Guardian’s game. There are no rules, but repeatedly dying has trained Noah. Now, he plans to lead the strong into the future. At any cost.

Min Wilder knows that survival isn’t enough. In a world where violence is king, Min rebels against allowing others to determine who lives and who dies. She will fight for what is right. She will fight against anyone who stands in her way.

The second book of Project Nemesis follows the same group of kids, alternating perspectives between Min, Tack, and Noah. The kids are told by the Guardian, the one in charge of the computer program, that they must fight each other to make it through the program and eventually return to real life. He claims that the simulation will only allow the strongest and smartest to return to the real world. This spurs the kids to form groups and turn on one another as their existence becomes a fight for survival.

Min, Tack, and Noah all take separate journeys and handle the violence and new reality differently. Min refuses to bow to the moral pits that the violence keeps tugging the students into. Tack completely gives himself over to the violence, willing to do anything to make it out alive. And Noah believes completely in the program’s rules, until Min reminds him of his humanity. All three teenagers’ journeys spotlight different ways of handling grief, trauma, and catastrophe. The students’ struggle with whom to trust and what to believe is both interesting and thought-provoking.

In order to fully understand Genesis, readers need to read Nemesis first. Reichs does an excellent job of incorporating past events from Nemesis into the story; the short reminders help the reader stay engaged. However, what makes the reader keep turning the pages are the intriguing situations the students face—the story has non-stop action and startling surprises.

Genesis is extremely violent and has an outrageous storyline. While it takes some faith from readers, this story does an excellent job navigating this unique plot. Genesis will keep the readers guessing until the very end. Readers who enjoy suspense and adventure will enjoy the plot twists and action sequences. Readers who are fans of Maze Runner will want to pick up the Project Nemesis series.

Sexual Content

  • Tack says Noah is “too busy roasting people like marshmallows, or making out with his hunting knife” to look for him and Min.
  • Toby volunteers to take Min back to the jail in town. Min says, “Screw you, Toby.” He replies, “You offering?” As they start back into town, he “put a hand to the small of my (Min’s) back. He left it there for a few paces, then ran his fingers up and over my bra strap.”
  • Min announces that she’s willing to sacrifice herself so the group can make it to Phase Three. Noah is filled with emotion and insists that she’s their leader. Noah then kisses Min “in front of the others. His touch was electric, and soft, and sad.” Noah insists that he should be the one to sacrifice himself. Min says, “‘Don’t leave me, okay? I forgive you. I . . . I love you.’ I kissed him then, hard on the mouth.”
  • Right before Noah and Min get in their tubes to be regenerated, they share a kiss. “Then Noah’s lips found mine and I wrapped my arms around him, squeezing, losing myself in his warmth. . . I grabbed him again and mashed his face with another kiss.”

Violence

  • A group of kids is ambushed as they are sneaking through the woods. Their rivals who ambushed them start shooting. “Zach dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, a dark stain spreading. . .Morgan’s body jerked . . .Then she slumped onto her butt, blubbering, glossy liquid spilling from her mouth.” Later in the scene, the rest of the group gets away and sets fire to a cabin with the rivals inside. The people inside screamed and were locked inside as the cabin burned down. The people are not described as they are dying.
  • Chris and Mike kill Min by locking her in an elevator and blowing up the cables. “The wall exploded, shards of metal lacerating my arms and legs. Flames licked my skin. . . My legs smashed up into my body. The roof slammed down on top of me.”
  • While on their way to the Silo, Min and Tack run into Neb who is staying at a summer camp with four others. While talking, “Neb spun sideways. . . gasping in confusion as a red bloom spread across his chest.” Two kids are attacking the camp, and one shoots Min and Tack with an assault rifle. It is not depicted in any detail.
  • Min is ambushed. When the three assailants try to capture her, one “caught a fist in his teeth for his trouble.” They put a bag over her head and tie her up.
  • Devin drops some food, and Ethan overreacts. “. . . he raised his gun and shot Devin in the stomach.” Devin doesn’t die immediately, so Ethan shoots him again. This is all done with the understanding that he will revive at one of the reset points.
  • Zach, part of the team trying to ransack a store, gets shot in an ambush. “. . . a line of bullets ripped into his jacket.” Then Noah shoots the sniper who killed Zach. The sniper “toppled forward and fell to the sidewalk with a sickening crunch. . . leaving a wide smear on the icy concrete.”
  • The convenience store is blown up. A couple of kids standing in front of the store were shot and killed. One of them “had been tossed face-first into the gutter and was smoldering with tiny flames. The victim, a girl, lay unnaturally, her neck twisted too far around.”
  • In order to give Min an extra life, Tack tricks her into shooting him and causing him to reset. It is not described in any detail.
  • Noah and another kid use machine guns to shoot a group of kids following them. No details are given.
  • In order to escape the jail and show up at the reset points, Akio and a couple of other kids used a fork to kill themselves. “The most horrifying jailbreak in history—a human murder chain. . . Ran myself into a wall.”
  • Noah and Tack get in a fistfight. Noah’s “left fist flew, striking Tack across the face. . . Punching. Kicking. Clawing. . .” The fight lasts two pages.
  • Tack, Noah, and their team try to ambush Ethan’s group but instead get ambushed themselves. “The barrel hit him chest-high and broke open, covering him in flaming liquid. Richie screamed. . . he collapsed in seconds. . . A tongue of red enveloped Jamie. She made a sickly screaming sound, a red stream leaking from her mouth.” Tack and Noah throw grenades, and “Toby’s left leg was missing. . . Toby put his gun in his mouth and calmly pulled the trigger.”Noah gets ambushed. “The first shot took me in the shin. The second struck my side.”
  • Min must shoot Noah four times to even her life count. Noah “was lying on the ground in a puddle of warm, slick blood. . . I was down again. The drop cloth was soaked through with dark red liquid. . . I closed my eyes as she thrust the gun barrel against my forehead. . . Bang. Bang. Bang.”
  • Ethan’s group and Min’s group attack each other. Over twenty kids are involved in the fighting. “Then Kyle stood over his body, unloading on Chris every time he tried to get up. . . Dropping his gun, he unsheathed a KA-BAR knife from his belt and stabbed Leighton in the chest. . . Before he could fire, Ethan tried to tackle him, but Toby sidestepped in a blink and tripped him, then shot Ethan five times in the back.” The fighting lasts six pages.
  • Tack sacrifices himself to get the group to Phase Three of the program. “Tack put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At the beginning of the simulation, Sarah “destroyed the liquor store the first week. I let Cash and Finn get drunk and smash everything.”

Language

  • “Jesus” and “God” are used as exclamations.
  • Profanity is used extensively. Profanity includes: “jackass, “ass,” “fucking,” “fuck,” “hell,” “damn,” “crap,” “freaking,” “assholes,” “pissed,” “bastards,” “shit,” “bullshit,” “bitch,” “bitchin’,” “goddamn,” “douchebag,” and “prick.”
  • Derrick says, “Sarah’s lost her damn mind.”Casey
  • is upset when Noah acts like only the boys are good at fighting. “‘Since when did sex matter?’ Casey shouted. . . ‘Don’t count up penises and assume you know the score.’”
  • Ferris walked across the valley to get to Noah’s house. He says that the lake was, “colder than Santa’s balls with that wind.”
  • Noah asks Tack to eliminate him. “No way, Noah. . . Fuck you, Noah! You want to play Jesus, do it your goddamn self.”

Supernatural

  • In the program, the kids figure out that as they kill each other, they gain strength and powers from the confirmed kill.

Spiritual Content

  • While traveling across the valley to try and unite the groups of kids against Ethan, Tack jokes, “So we’re not seeking converts along the way? . . . This is the worst mission trip ever.”
  • Min is worried she will be captured or killed by those after her. “Pray to God Noah isn’t sitting there waiting for me. Pray to God? Or the Guardian?”
  • Min says a small prayer because she believes that Sarah cannot manipulate the program.
  • Min is nervous when she learns that Sarah actually has the power to manipulate the program on her own. “Sarah was playing God, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.”
  • Sarah discovers how to change the program. Derrick says, “Sarah acting like the voice of God.”
  • To even people’s numbers, Hector needs to shoot someone. He refuses, saying, “My religion forbids it.”

by Hannah Neeley

 

 

Daughters of Steel

Halan was a powerless princess. Now, she’s the queen of the Magi Kingdom, a blazing desert land where magic rules. Without any power, Halan wonders if she can be the queen her people need.

Nalah was a poor girl, from a kingdom that feared magic. Now she’s the Queen’s Sword, standing beside Halan at the helm of the kingdom. The more Nalah’s uncontrolled powers grow, the more dangerous they become. Will Nalah’s fear of her magic’s power cause her to hurt the people she cares about?

Nalah goes on a quest to discover how to control her powers. While she is gone, a friend from her world travels through the Transcendent Mirror asking for help. Halan decides to go through the mirror and help the Thaumas of New Hadar. As a dark threat draws closer, can Nalah and Halan reunite to save both worlds?

The second installment of the Sisters of Glass series continues the saga of Nalah and Halan; both girls need to learn valuable truths that will help them become leaders. Halan wants to be a good queen—one that will “stand up for people, do the hard things when it needs to be done, even if it means putting her own life on the line.” When Halan travels to New Hadar, she highlights the importance of caring for others, no matter their station in life. At one point, she tells her friend Marcus (a market boy), that “Your life and your brother’s and the lives of every single soul being held by the Hokmet are just as valuable as mine. If I were to put my safety above that of others, then I would be a very poor leader indeed.”

Nalah takes her own journey, where she must face several challenges. Throughout her journey, she learns that everything must have balance and that she has to prove her own worth to herself. Even though Nalah learns important lessons during her travels, even younger readers may have a hard time believing some of the unrealistic events. For example, even though no one has ever returned from a journey into the desert, Nalan is able to cross the desert in two days, albeit she gets injured. Nalah is also able to perform advanced magic, with no new instruction; she even successfully performs a healing magic spell that her mother could not control.

Through the sisters’ experiences, readers will explore the qualities of a good leader, as well as think about the nature of good and evil. At one point, Halan thinks about those who care for their own safety and questions, “Or was witnessing evil and doing nothing about it just as bad as doing it yourself?”

 Daughters of Steel has a complicated plot, graphic violence, and a ritual that requires collecting people’s blood. The story jumps back and forth between Nalah’s point of view and Halan’s point of view, which makes the story confusing at times. Although Sisters of Steel gives readers thought-provoking questions to consider, readers who are only interested in reading about sisters in a magical world may want to read The Unicorn Quest, which has less violence.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When a beam falls on a man, Nalah uses magic to try to help him. Nalah felt “for the splinters in the wood’s core, she concentrated on them and willed them to open like a wound. The beam split apart under her hands. . . The man trapped underneath let out a pained gasp as the beam was dragged off his lower torso. Blood was flowing freely from the legs of his trousers, where a jagged spur of bone was poking through his skin.”
  • Nalah accidently sets the building on fire. Workers begin throwing water on the fire, but it doesn’t help. “The workers backed up as fast as they could as the whole structure started to topple. It crashed to the ground in a shower of sparks, and there was a scream as part of it flew off and caught a young woman square in the chest. She dropped and rolled, and people ran to help her.
  • When Marcus jumps through the Transcendent Mirror, a soldier follows him. The soldier “lunged, swinging his heavy stick, and Halan had to push Marcus aside as she dived out of the way. Marcus toppled to the ground, quickly scooting away until his back rammed up against a bookshelf. . .” Halan throws a bottle of sleepsand at the soldier, and “he recoiled, staggering, and then crashing to the floor. Halan felt some satisfaction seeing that he landed face down in his own spittle.”
  • When Soren and Nalah begin a journey, a group of people surround them. Someone grabs Soren, and he “was on his knees, his arms twisted behind his back by one of the men, a knife held to his throat by another.” Nalah wonders, “Could she take on twelve armed adults—some possibly wielding Thauma weapons?” Nalah doesn’t fight, but gives herself up. A man makes her put on gloves that will not allow Thauma magic to “transmute skin.”
  • A group of people captures Soren and Nalah, and as the two are being transported a man hits Soren. “The man punched him hard in the stomach and he doubled over, gasping for breath as he was pulled through another door, which slammed with a clang.” Nalah is taken to another room somewhere. “Nalah had not given up, but she was helpless to stop them from dragging her over to a wide wooden table in the center of the workshop. They thrust her against it hard enough that it pushed all the air from her lungs. . . one of the women had leaned over and seized her wrist, pulling it across a table to rest palm up across a shallow metal bowl. The woman snapped a shackle over her arm and another over her other wrist, so that she was pinned down, the edge of the table digging into her stomach.” The capture of Soren and Nalah takes place over ten pages.
  • In order to escape an enforcer, “Marcus lobbed an old kettle across the room, striking the Enforcer on the shoulder. The man tripped over a box and landed on his back on the floor, cursing with words she’d [Halan had] never heard before. . .” Halan and Marcus go through a trap door. Then “the Enforcer burst out from the trapdoor, and by the time he saw the pole coming toward him it was too late. Powered by panic, the blow hit home, and the man dropped like a stone and sprawled there, unconscious.”
  • Trying to get Marcus and Halan to come out of a house, Enforcers throw a smoke bomb into the house. “the smoke tasted foul and bitter, and it snaked into her lungs and began to choke her.” They are able to escape.
  • Nalah is captured and tied up, and her wrist is cut so that her blood will flow into a bowl. She feels pain, “and then there was numbness, and then there was pain again. Nalah’s arm throbbed and her vision swam. Her knees gave out, but the manacles held her in place, still stretched over the table. Her shoulders and her calves ached from the strain.” Nalah tried to focus on other things, but “the stinging agony of the cut on her wrist always brought her back.
  • After some of Nalah’s blood is drained, two men come into the room. One man “was dragging Soren behind him. His hands and legs were bound, and there was a bloom of purple across one side of his face where he’d been struck, but at least he had the right number of eyes.”
  • In order to escape, Soren “grabbed the metal ruler from the bench and held it out in front of him, twirling it in his fingers like a scimitar. . . The man lunged at Soren, clashing his sword so hard against Soren’s ruler that sparks flew from the impact. . . With a flourish of her arm, Nalah sent the glowing chain whipping across the attacker’s back. His clothing sizzled at its touch, and the man cried out in pain. Nalah pulled the chain back in and whipped it again, driving the man into the corner of the room like a lion tamer.” Nalah and Soren get out of the room, but encounter more people. “The nobles rushed at them. Soren parried one blow and got a hard swipe across the shoulders of one of the women, drawing blood. But then he had to duck and roll under the table to avoid the swords of the other three nobles. Nalah spotted a box full of threads and ran over to scoop them up in her hands. Twisting some of the threads around her fingers, she concentrated on imbuing them with magical energy and speed. When the woman vaulted over a table to swing her sword at Soren, Nalah flung out her hands toward her. The threads shot out like arrows, winding around the woman’s wrist and waist, binding her. . . One of the nobles had got under his guard and stuck a short knife right into his belly. Soren choked and doubled up, the ruler dropping from his hand with a clang.” The capture, blood gathering, and escape takes place over two chapters.
  • As part of a test, Nalah must face a wolf. “The flickering light picked out the hundreds of tiny blades that formed its coat, two serrated metal ears, and a jaw that disguised rows of metal teeth. . . Nalah yelped and dived aside as it punted, snapping at the air where her throat had been. . . The creature’s snarling head twisted in midair, and its teeth closed on Nalah’s leg. She screamed. The pain spiked up through her body as the wolf’s fangs sank into her flesh. Half blind with agony, Nalah threw back her head and channeled her breath into a burst of heat that struck the wolf right in the mouth. It yelped and let her go, recoiling, pawing at its face.”
  • Enforcers try to capture Nalah and Marcus. Marcus “struck, stabbing the tip of the knife into the soft exposed flesh where the Enforcer’s show met the bottom of his still trouser.” Marcus uses a magic knife, so the Enforcer cannot speak and call for help. Later, they find other Enforcers, and “Marcus lunged wildly at one of the Enforcers with his knife and then tried to bolt around them, but the other one was too quick and gave him a stunning blow across the back of the neck with his truncheon. He sprawled on the floor and the knife skittered out of his hand. . .” Marcus is captured.
  • A man grabs someone with a glove “made of deep green iridescent fabric, like a beetle’s shell. As soon as he touched the bare skin, the man’s hand spasmed and turned ashen gray, the flesh seeming to sag and shrink away. . . the hand, which continued to wither with each passing second.”
  • Tam grabs Halan and “seized her wrist, twisting it up behind her back. She gasped as he pressed his knife to her chest. . . The pain was worse than what Halan had been prepared for. She let out a sobbing yell as Tam dragged his knife across her arm, holding it out over the crystal bowl. Blood cascaded down the blade and dripped into the black pool in long, viscous strings.” Tam attempts to kill Halan, but before he does Tam is killed when “his back hit the altar with a sickening crunch, and he wheeled away and struck the wall that was peppered with the shards of his crystal bowl. Tam hung there for a second and then slid down the wall and lay still.”
  • A man throws sand into the air. “Most of the soldiers managed to duck and shield their faces, but a few were too slow as the sand melted and twisted into tiny shards of glass and flew at them. Two men fell to the ground, gasping and clutching at their faces, blood beginning to seep from a thousand tiny wounds.” The man “reached out to grasp the branch of a nearby tree. Suddenly, all the trees in the garden began to whip their branches around wildly. Two of the soldiers were knocked on their backs, and three more standing too close let out choking screams as the branches wrapped around them, hugging them tight to the trunks of the trees.”
  • A man grabs Halan’s ankle with a glove. “Something seized Halan’s ankle, feeling like a hundred biting insects were all stinging her skin at once. She screamed and tried to pull away, but the grip tightened. Halan’s vision swam and she reeled, losing her balance and hitting the ground hard. She held up a hand and watched as her skin turned gray and began to wither before her eyes.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • In New Hader, several people refer to those who can do magic as “Thauma scum.”
  • “God” is used as an exclamation once. Someone says, “God, I was so worried. . .”
  • A man tells Nalah, “You’re too young, too stupid to have these powers, you see? They should never have come to you—they’re wasted on you. You’re not even from this world! You’re a street rat, a guttersnipe. . .”
  • Several times, someone calls a person an “idiot.”
  • When Marcus encounters a dark figure, he asks, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Supernatural

  • Thaumas have magical powers that allow them to make things with one element—glass, metal, tapestry, wood, etc.
  • In the story, each world has a tawam, which is another version of themselves. When Halan goes to the other world she recognizes Ester. “This girl was New Hadar’s version of Ester—her tawam! Not everybody from the two worlds had a tawam—Ester’s ancestors must have survived the quakes, met and had children, and their children met the same people and had children, and on down the generations, for hundreds of years.”
  • Halan and Nalah have the ability to “communicate through their thoughts, a benefit of their special bond. They’d quickly gotten used to using it, sending each other messages even when they were in the same room.”
  • When Halan finds an orb and looks into it, she sees a vision. Halan wonders, “Is this another vision of the future?”
  • When Nalah looks into an orb, she sees a vision. During the vision, “the eye focused on Nalah, and she felt as if in one glance it had seen her whole life, every moment she’d lived and every moment still to come. You are lost, Child of the Clan, said a deafening voice that seemed to come from the mountains themselves. Take the journey and be found.” Because of the vision, Nalah takes a journey to a shrine.
  • Nalah is given an Aqua Needle. “Nalah was fascinated when she first saw the hollow wooden stake, its end sharpened to a point. Apparently all you needed to do was follow its magnetic pull to a point in the desert and push it into the sand. Within moments, water hidden within the earth would begin flowing from its mouth.”
  • The Transcendent Mirror allows people to travel to the different worlds.
  • A man uses Nalah’s blood to make a blood cloak. An ancient text said, “that the blood of one of these Thaumas, when joined with certain other materials, can make a substance so powerful, it becomes like an extension of the Thauma themselves. It draws power from the Thauma and imbues that power into whoever is wearing it—Fifth Clan or not.”
  • When Nalah is in shackles, Soren puts a silver coin into her mouth. Nalah uses her magic to turn the coin into a key, which allows her to remove the shackles.
  • Halan finds a hold-all bag, which looks normal but holds as many items as one can put into the bag.
  • Nalah is told she must go to a shrine and “find you what the Seer has to tell you. Your destiny be the destiny of all of us, Starchild, and it must not be delayed. Read I this in the stars. . .”
  • Nalah must use her magic to pass a series of tests. When she gets to the shrine, the walls begin to burn, and Nalah must ignore them to focus on opening a box to get a key.
  • Halan is given a magic knife that “will render anyone it cuts unable to speak for at least an hour.” Halan’s traveling companion, Marcus, is given a staff that “strikes with twice the force you put into it and will bear almost any weight without bending.”
  • Tam performs a ceremony. Halan sees him “standing at an altar, his eyes closed and his mouth moving constantly as he muttered incantations. Placed on the altar was a large crystal bowl filled with a liquid so dark it was almost black, and giving off an eerie ghost light that hurt Halan’s eyes to look at. . .” Unconscious prisoners surround the altar, and their wrists had been cut. Tam “dipped the other hand into the bowl and began to write in the air, symbols that seemed to burn on the backs of Halan’s eyelids when she blinked, written with the blood of the innocent Thauma.” Tam is attempting to draw power through using the Thauma’s blood. The ritual is described over two pages.
  • When Tam performs a ritual, New Hadar begins to tear. The ritual is going to cause the end of New Hadar. Halan and Nalah are able to stop the ritual, which creates a permanent portal between the worlds.

Spiritual Content

  • Halan enters a secret meeting. “Thank you, Halan thought, sending out a message to the spirit of Nalah’s father. It looks like your luck even works for me.”
  • Halan meets a prophet, Cyrus, who has been dead for hundreds of years. Cyrus tells her, “I am not alive, Nalah. . . Not quite—not the way you would understand it. I exist here. I have existed here since before I was born, and I will exist here for a long time after you are dead. In my short time as a mortal being, I was a Fifth Clan Thauma named Cyrus, also called the Prophet, the Blind Seer. I was blind, then, although it might be more true to say my eyes were simply . . . elsewhere.” Cyrus tells Nalah, “Since you picked up my prophecy orb, I have not left your side.”
  • Halan prays for a miracle.

Lady Knight

The Chamber of the Ordeal has given Kel a task that could win the war and save countless lives. Kill the Nothing Man, who entraps the souls of children to fuel metal killing machines. But the Chamber is unable to give her any details, leaving her wondering how she can find the Nothing Man. Is there a way to fulfill her mission without breaking her oaths and abandoning her duty? Or will Kel have to sacrifice everything—including her life?

Unfortunately, Kel quickly finds herself trapped in Tortall when Lord Wyldon assigns her to run a refugee camp. Refugees are pouring in due to the war, and Kel worries they may be a target as the Nothing Man needs children to use for his machines. Kel cannot abandon the refugees, so she sets aside the Ordeal’s mission and works to make New Haven the best fort it can be. With constant attacks by Scanran forces, things are never quiet for long. And soon, an unimaginable tragedy will set Kel on a course that will end up with her going head to head against the Nothing Man, his magic, and his army.

Many readers will relate to Kel because she faces her troubles with determination, understanding that her actions have consequences. Kel’s journey was not easy. Throughout her journey, she shows physical and mental strength, but also the strength of conviction. Kel understands the importance of duty and is willing to go to any length to protect others.

Knight is a roller coaster from beginning to end. The story has a slightly darker tone than the previous books because it focuses on war and describes war’s causalities. Kel has become the knight she always wanted to be. She is kind, and brave, and noble—a great example for girls and boys everywhere. The plot will keep readers engaged, as will the wide cast of new characters. From Scanrans to refugees, Tamora Pierce once again has managed to create a wide cast of diverse characters that are as well-developed as they are lovable. The only disappointing thing about Knight is that it is the last book in Kel’s wonderful story.

Sexual Content

  • Kel thinks about how, “She and Cleon had kissed, had yearned for time and privacy in which to become lovers. He’d wanted to marry her, though she was not sure that she wanted marriage.”
  • A man is shocked that a woman is in charge. He calls Kel, “’a shameless girl, a chit who’s no better than she ought to be!’ The insult to Kel, the claim that she was nearly a prostitute, brought the soldiers growling to their feet.”

Violence

  • Kel’s fort is attacked several times. “Three raiders still galloped toward the eastern wall. One of them went down, an arrow in his throat. . . . Numair’s spell had done its work: flames rose from the ground at the enemy’s rear. There was no sign of either shaman in that large blaze. He’d burned them out of existence.”
  • Killing devices attack the fort. “A man went down, gutted by a dagger-hand. A soldier flew off the walkway to the ground twenty feet below . . . One refugee wasn’t quick enough; the device cut him lengthwise from behind as he turned to flee.”
  • When her men don’t want to bury the dead after a battle, she says, “Then, sir, you shall plow the section where the bodies are, two days hence . . . The feel of a plow as it hits rotting flesh and bone must be . . . interesting.”
  • Two men fight over a woman. “Two young men, both larger than Kel, punched, kicked, and rolled on the ground, trying to rip one another apart.”
  • Kel goes to Haven after reports of a battle. She finds, “a few dead sword- or axe-cut animals . . . All had bloody muzzles and, in the case of the cats, bloody claws . . . [there] was a maroon-and-brown pile. There Oluf’s cold, dead face, his eyes wide, seemed to stare right at her. He lay on a stack of dead men, all in army maroon.”
  • Kel finds several dead bodies as she tracks a group of kidnapped refugees. “Though animals had fed on the dead woman, the Stormwings hadn’t touched her. The earth had protected her face. Gently Kel brushed the mud away. Through the dirt, bloat, and darkening of dead flesh, Kel recognized Hildurra.” Later, “A woman lay crumpled at the roadside. Kel thought her skirts were dull maroon until she saw that they were stained with blood.”
  • At a castle, “corpses hung from the walls in iron cages. Some of the bodies were beginning to fall apart. At least two looked fairly recent.”
  • Kel and her troops storm a castle. The fight takes place over a chapter. “The door opened and a man stuck his head out. Kel cut him down. Another man stumbled across his body to die at Connac’s hand. Inside, Kel heard men hammering at the blocked doors and shutters. Here came another soldier, half armed over a nightshirt. Kel rammed her glaive into his unprotected side while Connac chopped at the man’s neck.”
  • When Stenmun attacks her, Kel “hooked her leg around one of his, and jerked, a leg sweep from her studies in hand-to-hand-combat . . . He went down on his back . . . Kel didn’t wait for an invitation. She brought the iron-shod butt of the glaive down with all her strength, striking him right between the eyes, breaking through his skull. That probably finished him, but to be sure, she cut his throat.”
  • Kel finds Blayce. “She caught Blayce at the knees, cutting the muscles behind them. He dropped, turning visible to her unaided eyes, his control over his invisibility spell gone. Kel seized her glaive two-handed and yanked the blade toward her, neatly beheading the Gallan.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Tobe thinks Kel was drunk when she bought him. “I don’t care if you was drunk or mad or takin’ poppy or rainbow dream or laugh powder, you bought my bond and signed your name and paid money for me and you can’t return me.”
  • When offered wine or cider, Kel chooses cider. She thinks about how, “recently she had found that wine or liquor gave her ferocious, nauseous headaches. She was happy to give up spirits; she hadn’t liked the loose, careless feeling they gave her.”
  • A woman had been “smuggling poppy” to the children that Blayce chose to kill.

Language

  • Phrases such as Goddess bless and By the gods are used frequently as a part of Tortallian culture.
  • An angry cook calls a dog, “you thankless rat turd.”
  • An innkeeper calls an orphan a “whore’s brat.”

Supernatural

  • Kel lives in Tortall, a world filled with monsters and magic. The monsters include griffins, centaurs, and more. Some are good, some are not. Kel even has a basilisk for a teacher.
  • Several people at court are mages. They have the Gift, which can be used for light, to heal, and more. For example, “Daine, known as the Wildmage, shared a magical bond with animals . . . For three years her eagles, hawks, owls, pigeons, and geese had carried tidings south while the land slept.”
  • Neal puts a spell on an abusive man. Neal says the spell won’t hurt the man, “as long as you don’t hit anyone. When you do, well, you’ll feel the blow as if you struck yourself.”
  • A little girl, “is a seer . . . She prophesied that you would come and save us from the Gallan.”

Spiritual Content

  • Tortall has many gods. They are named differently but are similar to the Greek gods. For example, Mithros is the god of the sun, and there is a god of death. The gods are mentioned often in the Tortallian culture but are not an integral part of the plot.
  • An evil mage captures the spirits of dead children and uses them to fuel killing machines, metal monsters with knife fingers.
  • At one point, Neal asks why the gods don’t stop the killing machines. “All the legends say they loathe necromancy. It interferes with the balance between the mortal realm and that of the dead.”
  • When stopping at an old battleground, Kel “added a soft Yamani prayer . . . It seemed to work with most ghosts. She’d never seen any in the Yamani Islands.”

The Raft

Robie feels lucky living on the small island of Midway which sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But sometimes being the only kid on the island makes her feel like she’s going crazy. To keep Robie sane, she goes to visit her aunt in Hawaii. After her aunt suddenly has to leave the island for work, Robie decides to catch a cargo flight home. When the plane hits a nasty storm, Robie thinks everything will be alright. Robie is wrong.

Suddenly, Robie is submerged in water. She’s fighting for her life. Then Max, the only other survivor, pulls her onto a raft, and that’s when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of skittles. There are sharks. They have no idea if help is on the way. How long can they survive in the middle of the ocean?

The Raft is a sensational survival story that has several twists that will surprise readers. The story is told from Robie’s point of view, which allows her fears to jump to the surface. When Robie is on the raft, she finds a “Survival at Sea” card that adds irony to the story, as well as helps Robie stay alive. Robie clearly loves nature but also fears nature’s violence. Through Robie’s experiences, the story highlights the dangers humans pose to wildlife by throwing trash into the sea; this aspect of the story will encourage readers to make small changes that can dramatically help ocean creatures survive.

The story doesn’t only focus on survival at sea. Max is dealing with overcoming a tragedy. As his story unfolds, Max retells his story of love and loss. Readers will be pulled into his story and will cry at his loss. Max’s story adds suspense and a unique aspect to the story.

The story has short chapters, and some of the paragraphs are only one sentence; this makes the story easy to read as well as increases the story’s suspense. Robie makes several references to The Hunger Games which adds an interesting element to the story. The Raft is a fast-paced story that pulls the reader in from the very first chapter. Fans of survival stories will absolutely enjoy The Raft. For those who want to dip their toes into other ocean survival stories, add Adrift by Paul Griffin and Surrounded by Sharks by Michael Northrop to your reading list.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While walking home, a man thinks Robie is someone he knows. The man attacks Robie. Unexpectedly, “a hand grabbed a chunk of my cornrows and yanked. My food went flying as I whipped around. . . He grabbed my cornrows tighter, forcing my head down so I could only look at the ground . . .” Some men begin yelling at the man, and he lets Robie go.
  • A shark attacks a seal, which is able to escape to the beach. To stop the seal’s suffering, Robie grabbed a board, and “just as I was ready to bring the board down, her head fell my way, both of her eyes looking up at mine. There was no surprised in her gaze. Like she expected me to be there. To help her. . . Then I cried out as I brought the board down as hard as I could.”
  • Max’s journal details how his girlfriend, Brandy, died in a car crash. His truck rolled over, and Max found her body. “Brandy lay where she’d been thrown through the windshield as soon as we’d rolled, just off the road. . . Oh God. Her neck was at an impossible angle, and I held her hand to my chest.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Crap and holy crap are used occasionally.
  • Frickin’ is used five times. For example, when Robie was on an airplane, she “tried not to think about the dark and the water underneath us. Nothing by dark and all that frickin’ water.”
  • Hell is used several times. When a man sees Robie on a deserted island, he asks, “What the hell is she doing out here?”
  • Oh my God and Oh God are used as exclamations six times.
  • Pissed is used four times. Robie is upset when she drops a partial bag of Skittles, she “blubbered, as part of me cursed the carelessness that had just lost us all the food we had, and another part was just pissed that I hadn’t eaten them all when I had the chance.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Robie is on a plane, an engine stops. She prayed, “God, please please let everything be okay. Please don’t let us crash and please just let me get to Midway. And please let them (the pilots) be calm when I look up there.”
  • The plane crashes, and Robie is pushed out into the ocean. When she is underwater, she prays, “God, please kill me already. This is more than I can take.” As she is still submerged, she prays, “God, please, let me reach the light. I want to live.”
  • Robie found a “Survival at Sea” card in the raft. As she was reading it, the card explained how to escape a fire caused by a plane’s oil slick. Robie thought, “Thank God for small favors. My plane crashed, but at least there wasn’t a fiery oil slick to deal with.”
  • When Robie hears a plane’s engine, Robie “said a silent prayer” hoping that it would find her.
  • When Robie finds a tube of Carmex, she “cradled it to my chest for a moment, thanking Max, thanking God, thanking whoever put that ditty bag on the beach.”
  • When Robie is worried that she is going to die, she says a prayer. Then she thinks, “When I was little, I did say my prayers every night. But when it was just me, and I was older, without Mom and Dad putting me to bed, I stopped. Midway didn’t even have a church. We did have a white cross though, on an edge of the island, overlooking the lagoon. . . Every Easter, the residents of Midway did gather at the cross at sunrise. Sometimes someone read from the Bible or said a few words. Usually we sang a hymn. This year I had slept in.. . I could bargain with God. Isn’t that what people did in these situations?” Robie decides she is too tired to plead her case, and God could make his own decision on what happens to her.
  • When Robie is rescued and calls her mom, her mom says, “thank God.”

Aru Shah and the Song of Death

Aru and Mini are just beginning Pandava training. But then someone steals the god of love’s bow and arrow, and the thief isn’t playing Cupid. Instead, the shape-shifting thief is turning men into heartless, fighting zombies. The Otherworld is in a panic, and they think Aru is the thief. The gods have decided that Aru must find the weapon within ten days, or both she and Mini will be kicked out of the Otherworld—forever!

Aru won’t be alone on her quest. Along with her Pandava sister, Mini, Aru unwillingly teams up with super-strong Brynne and Aiden, the boy who lives across the street. But Brynne and Aiden are keeping secrets, and Aru isn’t sure she wants them on her team. Still, they must find a way to battle demons and travel through the dangerous serpent realm together.

Getting along with Brynne and Aiden isn’t Aru’s only challenge in Aru Shah and the Song of Death. She must also overcome her own mind, where the Sleeper’s words, “You were never meant to be a hero,” still resonate. Will Aru be able to overcome her self-doubt? Can she prove that she has what it takes to be a hero?

This second installment in the Pandava series takes the reader on a wild ride through the Otherworld. Full of action and adventure, the story adds interesting characters including a crab that is angry that his brother can sing, a handsome boy, and another Pandava sister. Still, readers who fell in love with Mini and Boo will miss them in this book; Boo has a tiny appearance, and Mini spends much of the story in the land of the sleep.

This story highlights the complicated nature of people. Although the villain is clearly acting villainous, the villain is shown to have other sides to her nature. As Aru learns more about India’s history, she discovers that just a hero can also be a monster. The theme is reinforced when Aru’s mom says, “sometimes villains can do heroic things and heroes can do villainous things.” The villain’s story shows that there are always two sides to every story; however, the villain’s past does not excuse their bad behavior.

Also threaded throughout the story are strong messages of treating people with respect, as well as putting others before yourself. Since several of the characters can shape-shift, the reader will see that physical appearances can be deceiving. At one point in the story, Aiden says, “I just don’t think people should be mean to someone because they don’t like the way they look.”

Aru Shah and the Song of Death is a highly entertaining story that brings India’s mythology to life. Because the story has many characters based on mythology, readers not familiar with India’s mythology will need to use the glossary that appears at the back of the book. The different realms of the Otherworld are beautifully described, the gods are diverse and interesting, and the battle scenes are often filled with humor. This book will leave readers thinking about the complicated nature of people and the importance of compassion. As one god said, “Just because something is not fair does not mean it is without reason or even compassion.”

Sexual Content

  • There is a brief passage when Aru thinks about Aiden’s parents being divorced. She thinks, “Lots of kids at school had divorced parents, and not all families needed a dad and a mom to be whole. Some had two dads, or two moms, or just one parent, or no parent at all.”
  • Aiden’s mother was an apsara, a heavenly dancer. In order to be with Aiden’s dad, she had to give up her place in the heavens. Aiden’s parents are getting divorced, and Aiden wonders, “What if she regrets her life? She gave up everything for my dad. And then he leaves her to marry a girlfriend he met while he was still with my mom.”
  • Because Aiden’s mother was an apsara, Aiden has the ability to smolder. “In stories, apsaras were the ultimate temptation, because they were unnaturally beautiful and magical. . . apsaras have a kind of hypnotic power. They render themselves impossible to look away from, and even make people follow them.” Aiden uses his power to get past the sage’s waiting room.
  • The god of love gives Aiden an arrow. The god of love says, “an enchanted arrow from my own collection, to do with as you wish. But know that you cannot change someone’s free will. And there is no way magical cure for grief. All this arrow can do is open the pathway for love. It doesn’t make someone smitten, and the love doesn’t necessarily have to be romantic.” Aiden uses the arrow on his mother.
  • When Aiden says, “I like you Shah,” Aru’s “heartbeat jittered and she felt a not unpleasant swoosh low in her stomach, like butterflies taking wing.” Aru is a little upset when Aiden then says that he likes her as a friend.

Violence

  • Zombies attack Aru and Mini. Aru “flung Vajra as if it were a javelin. The lightning bolt zapped the wooden peg out of the zombie’s hand, and he pulled his arm back, stung. . . An enchanted flower stall turned its pumpkin vines into a row of exploding jack-o’-lanterns, and the kitchen appliances section summoned an army of wooden spoons to beat a group of zombies over the head.” The attack ends when “fake Aru sent the Pandava girl-jaguar flying back against a wall, where she slid to the floor, unconscious. In a flash of blue light, the big cat turned back into a girl.” The attack lasts for two chapters.
  • As Aru and another girl are fighting, “a blast of wind shot Aru straight up into the sky. Her arms started pinwheeling. She glanced down—that was a huge mistake. Everyone looked like really tiny ants. As she fell, the last thing she saw before blacking out was a pair of giant hands reaching to snatch her out of the sky.”
  • A giant swan attacks Mini and her friends. Mini uses Dee Dee, and “purple light exploded in a burst in front of them. The swan squawked and stomped back. . . Then Brynne morphed. Blue light blazed around her. Where she had once stood, there was now a blue elephant almost as large as the swan.” Elephant-Brynne “charged at the bird.” The scene takes place over eight pages. No one is injured.
  • When trying to get through customs, “the floor opened beneath Aru plunging her into frigid pitch-black waters.” Then a “cold tendril wrapped around her ankle and dragged her under.” Aru discovers that she can breathe and walk underwater. She can also talk to sea creatures.
  • A giant crab tries to eat Brynne, Aiden, and Mini. “The crab reared up, swinging one of its pincers, and Brynne went flying against the wall. She slid down, shook her head, and then got back to her feet. . .” Mini uses a shield, but “the shield broke. Down came the pincer. The four of them rolled in different directions. The crab rotated, trying to catch them all at the same time. . .” During the attack, the crab eats Brynne, who turns into an elephant, which the crab throws up. The scene takes place over seven pages.
  • The serpent king attacks Aru. He tries to bite her, and “his jaws missed her face by an inch. As she pivoted out of the way, Vajra jumped into her hand, fully expanded. Aru threw the lightning bolt. . .Vajra shot forward like an arrow. But Takshaka was faster. His powerful tail whipped out and knocked the lightning bold aside like it was a toy. . . Takshaka’s tail lashed through the air and caught her in the stomach. She crashed into the wall and slid down, shaking her head.” The fight takes place over six pages. Aru and her friends are able to escape.
  • The serpent king tries to stop Aru and her friends. “he zigged and zagged, his great coils winding way up the shelves and blocking the entrance to the ceiling above. . . Takshaka’s fangs lengthened. They were stained yellow, and one was chipped. Venom dripped onto the ground, hitting the floor with a teaming hiss. . . A rush of air hit Aru just as Takshaka lunged.” The wind blows Takshaka backwards. A boy appears and helps the group escape. The scene takes place over five pages.
  • A group of asuras try to block Aru and her group from passing. Aru’s group uses their celestial weapons. “They herded the attackers with invisible jabs, forcing them into a tight circle. Brynne blasted them with wind, and Aru added the finishing touch: a golden electrical net to catch and pin them in place.” The asuras flee as soon as the net is taken off.
  • Sparky will not allow Aru and his group to go into the Ocean of Milk. He challenged Brynne to an eating contest. As he is eating, “his skin, which had always been a bit ruddy, now reminded her of embers. Even his hair, once a rust color, like a bad dye job, had changed. Now it looked multicolored—blue at the roots, orange in the middle, and yellow at the tips. Like a flame. . . Sparky wasn’t some kid with ugly sunglasses and an appetite that could destroy a city. He was Agni, the god of fire. And he was on the verge of consuming them. . . The fire continued to move closer. Aiden raced back toward them. There were soot marks on his face and he was out of breath. . . Waves of fire skirted around them, nearly blistering their skin and blackening the wooden planks beneath their feet. Agni opened his jaws, getting ready to swallow them whole. All Aru could see were searing flames, “the air in front of her heat-warped and furious.” Aru is able to use a godly gift to defeat Sparky. The scene takes place over ten pages.
  • The story ends in an epic, multi-chapter battle scene. When the villain shoots an arrow at Aru, “Aiden dove in front of her. . . The arrow hit him with full force. Aiden crumpled up on the ground.” Aiden turns into one of the heartless. As the battle continues, “Mini aimed Dee Dee at the first line of Heartless, which included Aiden. A burst of violet light blasted them, and they fell to either side. Almost immediately, they started to get back up. . . Aru steadied herself, preparing for his next blow. When it came, Aru fell to the ground. . . Aiden roared, ready himself to plunge his blades straight through her. At the last second, Aru rolled out of the way. Aiden snarled. He tried to life the scimitars to strike again, but they were stuck in the damp sand.” The villain is defeated.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Aru meets Varuni, the goddess changes colors. Aru thinks the goddess is sparkling; “It reminded Aru of champagne. Which was disgusting. The one time she’d sneaked a sip from her mom’s New Year’s Eve glass, it had tasted like rotten soda.”
  • While Varuni is talking to her husband, he implies that Varuni drinks too much. Later in the story, Varuni “sipped on something that looked like tomato juice and had a piece of celery sticking out of it.”

Language

  • “Oh my god” is used as an exclamation once, and “Oh my gods” is used an exclamation twice.
  • “Heck” is used twice.
  • Brynne calls two obnoxious asuras “pigs.”

Supernatural

  • The story focuses on Indian Mythology and includes gods, demigods, monsters, and demons. The back of the book includes a glossary of Indian mythology, so the reader can understand who the mythological characters are.
  • During a fight, a shapeshifter “shifted into a blue world and was carrying a large bow and arrow in her mouth as she ran.” Later the person shifts into the likeness of Aru.
  • Each Pandava has a celestial weapon. Mini has Dee Dee, which can cast a shield of invisibility. Aru has Bajra, which is a bracelet that can turn into a lightning bolt.
  • Aru and the other Pandavas can speak to each other telepathically.
  • When Aru and her group go to see a sage, he is cursing people. One curse is, “May all the chocolate chip cookies you reach for turn out to be cleverly disguised oatmeal raisins.” Another curse is, “May you always fumble with your credit card in Starbucks when there’s a huge line behind you.”
  • When Aru and her group go to the Queen Uloopi’s old palace, they find a cursed place littered with skulls. When Mini touched a skull, “the jaws snapped open. . . nearby another skull—or, honestly little more than a jawbone—laughed and whispered.” Mini goes into a trance which allows her to talk to voices. The voices give Mini the knowledge that she seeks, but then “a serpent tail as thick as a redwood trunk curled around her body and yanked her toward the cave.” Mini is taken to the land of the sleep, “far from the reaches of mortals.”
  • Aru and her group see “huge night-black hounds prowling toward them. Saliva dripping from their jaws. Their eyes looked like round mirrors, but instead of reflections, they reveal moving images.” The hound’s eyes reflect the person’s worst nightmare.
  • When Queen Uloopi is given her heart jewel, “a bright light washed over her, and Uloopi was transformed. . . Her wrinkled skin glowed, and the gray in her hair shone like silver. Her eyes sparkled . . .” When her heart jewel is restored, she is able to catch “up on all the things she hadn’t properly seen.”

Spiritual Content

  • One of the characters is a Rakshasa, which is a “mythological being, like a demigod. Sometimes good and sometimes bad, they are powerful sorcerers, and can change shape to take on any form.”
  • Brynne is part asura, which is why she can shapeshift. She is the daughter of Lord Vayu, the God of the wind, so she never loses her direction.
  • Aru and her friend are looking for someone’s soul song. They find it, and “in the astral plane, the song orb had taken on a strange pulsing glow, reminding Aru that this was actually a part of someone’s soul. Someone had wanted the god of love’s arrow so dearly that they’d been willing to part with their very essence.”
  • Aru has an encounter with the god of waters, who is “known for being as fickle as the sea itself.” She then meets his wife, Varuni, who is the goddess of wine.
  • Aru and the other Pandavas have been reincarnated. However, the reincarnated are not the same person they once were. Aru, who was reincarnated from Arjuna said, “Arjuna and I are completely different people. That’s like expecting Brynne to have the power of ten thousand elephants just because she’s Bhima reincarnated! Or asking Mini to rule a country now just because she’s got Yudhistira’s soul! I’m not Arjuna!”
  • When an enemy of Arjuna appears, he wants revenge. Aru argues, “I mean, that was like a millennium ago. And I’m not Arjuna. We just have the same soul. It’s like getting someone’s hand-me-down socks, honest.”
  • Aru and her friends meet with a sage. “A sage is a very wise person. Aru’s mom had told her that some have special powers, because of their religious focus. Once there was a sage so formidable he put a curse on the gods themselves—he caused them to lose their immortality.”
  • Agni, the god of fire, explains how “I’m a sacred part of every prayer! You know at weddings, that there’s a holy fire for the bride and groom to walk around? That’s me!”

Ride, Fly Guy, Ride

When Buzz and his dad decide to go for a ride, Fly Guy happily goes with them. Fly Guy’s adventure begins when the wind blows him out of the car’s window. Fly Guy blows into a passing truck and lands in the driver’s mouth. The man spits out Fly Guy, who continues on a wacky adventure. Fly Guy even ends up on a circus train, where he meets a sleepy and surprised elephant. Will Fly Guy b lost forever, or will he make it back to Buzz?

Ride, Fly Guy Ride will pull readers into the silly story, which focuses on transportation. Giggles will erupt because of the slapstick comedy and the humorous full-colored illustrations. Much of the humor comes from the illustrations that show Buzz and his father trying to save Fly Guy. Fly Guy ends up in some silly situations including landing in a man’s mouth and falling onto an elephant’s nose. At the end of the story, Fly Guy survives unscathed, which will delight readers.

Designed for younger readers, each page contains large illustrations that use exaggerated facial features to help readers read the characters’ emotions. The story will give emerging readers confidence as they move from picture books to chapter books. Ride, Fly Guy Ride has three chapters, and most pages have only one sentence. The story’s short sentences, simple vocabulary, and pattern of wording make Ride, Fly Guy Ride a good choice for younger readers.

Even though Ride, Fly Guy Ride is part of a series, the stories do not have to be read in order because the plot does not build on previous books. Ride, Fly Guy Ride is a fun story that beginning readers can read alone; it is also is a quick read for those looking for a story to read aloud.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Wild Robot Escapes

After being repaired, Roz is sent to Hilltop Farm, which is unlike the remote island that Roz considers home. Roz still speaks the language of the animals and is able to make new friends on the farm. She talks to the cows and the farmer’s children and works to help keep the farm in check as wolves and natural disasters assault the small homestead.

Even though Mr. Shareef and his children consider Roz part of the family, Roz still misses home. Eventually, Roz begins to yearn for the friends and family she left behind. Flocks of geese begin migrating and stopping on the farm, reminding her of her son Brightbill. Roz can’t escape due to a tracker installed in her body, but she works with the farmer’s children to research the tracker and remove it.

After Roz escapes for the second time, recovery robots quickly capture her and bring her to her creator. She is destroyed to appease the public, but Roz’s creator gives her a new body with more features than she had before. They travel to the island Roz came from and reunite her with her old friends and Brightbill. Throughout Roz’s journey, she wonders why she isn’t like other robots. Roz questions, “Is being different the same as being defective?”

Like the previous book in the series, The Wild Robot Escapes is a story of a robot trying to fit in with a new crowd. Roz encounters a number of friendly characters while she tries to get back to the home she knows, which shows that we’re never completely on our own. With the help of friends, Roz is able to overcome many obstacles.

Roz’s destruction, reconstruction, and return to her island also show the darker sides of society. Even though she eventually returns to her family, she has to fake her own death to please the world that thinks she is a rogue robot. The Wild Robot Escapes teaches the importance of friends and family, while also considering the realities of death and society. It’s a heartwarming book with unnervingly realistic undertones about judgment and fear.

The story refers to characters and events from the first book in the series, so readers should read The Wild Robot first. Many readers will be able to relate to Roz, who is a hard-working and compassionate robot who questions her purpose in life. The Wild Robot Escapes is an intriguing, illustrated story that is both entertaining and educational.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Roz recounts the time from the first book when she, “tumbled off a cliff . . . killed two geese and smashed four of their eggs.”
  • Roz finds the carcass of, “a dear [that] had recently been killed and eaten.”
  • Mr. Shareef, “hand[s] Roz a rifle.” Roz uses it to intimidate wolves, but she doesn’t fire it.
  • Wolves “slash her [Roz’s] chest,” and Annabelle then “land[s] a hard kick” on the wolves.
  • Mr. Shareef says, “sometimes farmers have to kill animals.” Mr. Shareef tells Roz, “I order you to kill those wolves.”
  • During a storm, a tool “hit the back of her [Roz’s] head.”
  • A wolf named Shadow says, “You can eat all the animals you like. . . after we kill the robot.”
  • During a hailstorm, “a stone hit Brightbill’s shoulder, and he fell to the ground.”
  • While hunters are looking for prey, “a gunshot echoed throughout the mountains.”
  • A ram “smashed right into the robot.”
  • When Roz is melted down, “a blazing beam of light filled the picture, and the robot parts turned orange.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Roz, “slipped on cow dung.”
  • Similar to the first book, many animals mistake Roz for a “monster” or “creature” before they get to know her.
  • Annabelle calls a group of wolves “brutes.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • A character says a prayer before they eat. “Thank you, God, for this yummy food.”
  • Shadow and Barb say that Roz was, “towering above them, looking like a demon.”

by Dylan Chilcoat

 

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