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Timeless: Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic

Time collided. Now dinosaurs roam with robots. Humans from three different time periods now live on Earth. Diego’s parents come from two different time periods and hope to make their home, New Chicago, a better place.

In Diego’s world, conflict is ever-present. Not everyone believes that kids from different eras of history and from different cultures should interact. Some still wish for the world that they came from before time collided.

When Diego’s father, a New Chicago’s top engineer, is taken by rebels, Diego vows to help free his father. Diego thinks the key is to build bigger, stronger weapons. However, when he and three others accidentally end up on a pirate ship, Diego’s beliefs are challenged.

Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic gives the reader a glimpse of the struggles others faced during different eras, which gives the story interest. The story doesn’t just focus on how boys and girls often do not understand each other, but also how people from different cultures can also have conflict.

Although the story is full of action and has an epic battle scene, the violence is not described in great detail. Instead, sights and sounds are left to the reader’s imagination. Stunning illustrations enhance the story and help bring the new world to life. Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic is a story about friendship, family, and seeing others in a new way. In the end, Diego learns that powerful weapons are not the key to keeping his world safe.

Sexual Content

  • Two boys have a sparring match and the winner gets a kiss from Paige. One of the boys says, “Sadly for you, only one lovely lady will get to know the thrill of these lips.” Later the winner describes the kiss, “But it wasn’t exactly a kiss. More like an attack on my face. Her lips were, like, strong.”

Violence

  • Diego and a group are cornered by a bully and his gang. Diego “Slammed Fish across the face with it (skateboard) and a girl ‘judo flipped’ a boy to the floor.”
  • A rebel group attacks a power plant and kidnap about a dozen engineers. “A marine lay on the floor nearby, unmoving . . . Shots. More gunshots. Fists colliding, the thump of bodies hitting the floor.” During the attack, a man holds a sword against Diego’s father’s throat.
  • Rebels attack a boat carrying some of the engineers’ families. “More pops. Splintering cracks. . . The gunfire seemed to come from everywhere . . . Bullets zinged past Diego’s head.” Diego’s mother shoots the rebel’s boat and it explodes.
  • When trying to escape from dinosaurs, Diego crashes his gravity board on a cliff. “The beast began to throw their massive bodies against the wall, trying to dislodge him.” Diego is rescued.
  • The rebels attack the pirate ship and the battle plays out over an entire chapter. The battle is not described in graphic detail.
  • The pirates, trying to save the engineers, attack the rebel’s base. The attack happens over several chapters. Diego shoots at one of the bad guys. When someone is injured, the description jumps in time, which allows the reader to imagine what happened. One of the characters is killed, but his death is not described.
  • When someone calls Diego a “clock mongrel,” Diego’s father hits him. “George spun and crumpled to the floor.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A boy “sucked on his cigarette, the end glowing. . .”
  • The pirate captain is seen asleep with a half-empty bottle of vodka and Diego assumes he is drunk.

Language

  • Profanity is used rarely, but includes bastards, crap, crud, damn, hell, holy crap, and pisses.
  • When Lucy is saved from a dinosaur, she said, “Oh my God, I thought I was done for!” She uses this phrase twice.
  • When Diego finds out that pirates have been hired to find his father and the other engineers, Diego said, “Hell, I should be allowed to go before some hired guns.”
  • When Diego tells his friend about the pirates, his friend replies, “bloody hell!”
  • The rebel group is referred to as “bastards.”
  • When Paige makes a meal, the available food is referred to as “nasty crap.”
  • According to Diego, one of the girls acts like “everything I do pisses her off.”

Supernatural

  • Diego and his father have “the Maker’s Sight,” which allows them to see how different machine parts work together. “It shows me a series of images that allow me to make or fix anything.”
  • Diego wills baby turtles to surround Lucy. He explains how he did it. “It’s more like I can send them a thought, feeling, or image, and they seem to . . . act on it. It’s like hypnosis, I think.”
  • When describing “the Maker’s Sight,” Diego’s friend said, “You sound like one of those spiritual mediums we have back in London, communicating with the dead through their crystal balls.”

Spiritual Content

  • During a battle, the pirate captain said, “A prayer to your god of choice might also be helpful.”

The Last Kids on Earth

When the monster apocalypse hit Jack’s town, the thirteen-year-old retreated to his tree house. Everyone Jack knows has either run away or been zombified. Jack has been living in his tree house, which he’s armed to the teeth with catapults and a mote. Living on Oreos and Mountain Dew, Jack spends his time playing video games and scavenging stores.

Jack realizes that he can’t handle zombies, Winged Wretches, and Vine Thingies alone. He goes out to search for his best friend, Quint. Along the way he finds a team comprised of a reformed bully named Dirk, a pet monster, and a girl named June (who becomes Jack’s love interest).

Surviving a monster apocalypse will be difficult; however, life gets more dangerous when the intelligent gargantuan menace known as the Blarg sets his sights on Jack. He will need his entire team to defeat the monster.

Told from Jack’s point of view, the monster apocalypse comes to life with humor. Jack’s desire to care for his friends is clear. When Jack searches for June in the hopes of rescuing her, he discovers that she is a strong character that doesn’t need a knight in shining armor. Black and white illustrations add to the story. For a book filled with monsters, the story is more fun than frightening. Packed with action, The Last Kids on Earth will engage readers from the first page to the last.

Sexual Content

  • June Del Toro is Jack’s “love interest”. When introducing her, Jack says, she has “legs that just won’t quit (no idea what that means, I’ve heard it in a movie. I guess her legs are resilient?)”
  • Jack finds June in the school building. “In the dim light, I can make out that it’s June. Hey, I just used ‘make out’ and ‘June’ in the same sentence. Go me!”
  • Jack and his friend discuss if it is possible to “call dibs” on a girl.

Violence

  • A monster tries to smash Jack. The battle is described over several pages. “The monster’s massive fist pounds the roof until it cracks like thin ice. I trip, tumble back, and land hard on my bony butt .” When the monster smiles, he reveals “an army of dirty fangs, with chunks of flesh between each tooth.” When Jack hits the monster over the head, the monster drops him and Jack gets free.
  • A monster grabs the school bus. “The monster tilted the bus so the back pointed toward the sky. We all pinballed, plummeting down the aisle, smashing against the seats, backpacks flying through the air.” Jack and his best friend escape. The fate of the other occupants on the bus is not mentioned.
  • Zombies come after Jack. The zombie’s “throat is missing—just a bunch of gnarly old flesh there. He comes at me, practically jumping.” Jack whacks the zombie in the face with a hockey stick.
  • A monster eats a zombie. “He roars and shoves the undead thing into his mouth. As he chews, the sound of the poor zombie’s snapping ones echoes across the empty suburban street.”
  • A flying monster almost gest Jack. Dirk saves him. “Dirk hurls the Winged Wretch into the closest building . . . The monster lets off a pained howl, then flies off into the distance. . . “
  • A Blarg attacks. “Blarg’s like a tank, crushing cars and stomping shopping carts beneath his feet.” Jack and Dir use butter to make the monster crash.
  • June throws tennis balls at the zombies, who used to be her teachers. Later, the zombies attack the kids and there is a fight that is complete with illustrations. The fight goes on for several pages.
  • The Blarg attacks the kids. Jack uses a sling shot to fling an acid capsule into the Blarg’s eye. “A demonic howl erupts from Blarg’s lungs. He paws at his face, trying to wipe away the sizzling chemical mixture.” When the Blarg chases the kids, they throw a big-screen TV at him. The battle against the Blarg last for three chapters. Jack kills the Blarg with a “Louisville Slicer.”  The monster “howls. I’m dangling from the blade, gripping tight, as the monster’s legs give out and he comes crashing down.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Jack calls a monster a jerk. Later he thinks, “I hate jerks—whether they’re monster jerks or zombie jerks or just regular human jerks.”
  • Jack says “crud” several times. When a monster tries to hit Jack, he thinks, “oh crud.” When the monster is looking for Jack, he says, “holy crud.”
  • Dirk calls Jack a dork.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade

A strange shrieking. Disappearing Zombies. New monsters appearing. Jack and his three friends keep hearing an eerie shrieking that summons the zombies. They are determined to discover where the zombies are going. Along the way, they encounter a giant Wormungulous, a pizza parlor monster hideout, an ancient evil who destroys worlds, and a stereo system that is totally the bomb.

The mystery of the strange shrieking isn’t the only problem Jack is facing. As a foster kid, Jack never had the chance to make friends. The monster apocalypse changed that. Now that he has a family, he wonders if he can trust them to stay alive on their own. He worries about all of the what-ifs—what if they get hurt? Or eaten? Or chopped up? Or zombified? Can Jack learn to trust his friends and allow them to help him stay safe?

In the end, Jack realizes that “Friends are important. Family is important. . . But even a post-apocalyptic action hero can’t keep them safe all the time.” He also learns that not all monsters are wicked and that battling together is the only way to defeat evil.

The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade is told in the same humorous tone as the first book in the series. Each of the kids is given unique talents and is shown to be strong in different ways. The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade will be a hit with readers of all ages.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A Wormungulous lives in the mall and chases the kids. Jack hits the monster with a boomerang. “There’s a BLAST as smoke bombs and bang snaps and sparklers explode. The monster jerks to the left, veers band to the right. . . “ Jack and Quint are able to escape.
  • Later the Womungulous finds the kids and gives chase. Jack sticks the monster with a blade. “The monster shrieks in pain and its thick tail whips into me . . . I slam into the side of PacSun.” A man-monster pushes the kids out of the way.
  • A Hairy-Eyeball Monster attacks the Jack and Quint. The monster fires quills at the kids. One of the quills pins Quill to a headstone.
  • Zombies follow a strange shrieking noise. The kids follow, trying to figure out where the zombies are going, they see “undead bodies soar through the air like they’ve been launched from a catapult . . . We watch as limp zombie bodies pound the cement like mortar shells.” The zombie’s brains had been sucked out.
  • A Winged Wretch attacks. “The monster’s razor-sharp talons grab the zombie by the shoulders . . . the Winged Wretch beats its wing and thrust upward, into the sky.”
  • The kids find strange insects that combine to make a huge creature.  “. . . The insects begin to gather themselves. Amassing, assembling, joining together to form something nightmarish . . . I try to run, but the horror in front of me is too much . . .” Dirk saves Jack.
  • The zombies follow a strange shrieking sound. “As each zombie stumbles into the clearing, the tree’s branches move and shift. The branches snap and reach down in a series of chilling, herky-jerky movements. . . The branches open at the end, like ferocious wooden mouths—and they inhale the zombies.”
  • The Wormungulous chases Jack into a cage. “It’s wrapping around the cage like an oversized, ultra-awful anaconda . . . I feel like I’m in the trash compactor in Star Wars.” The monster’s energy runs out and Jack realizes that the Wormungulous has a festering wound and needs help.
  • Thrull, a giant monster, grabs Jack and throws him through the treehouse wall. “Wood splinters and shatters. A second later I crash-land into a pile of leaves.” When Dirk tries to help Jack, “Thrull backhands him—a slap that sends Dirk sprawling into Rover so that they both land in a heap.” Thrull puts the kids in a cage and takes them to the Tree of Entry. When Thrull is eaten by the tree, he turns into a monster.
  • The kids unite with monsters to defeat Thrull the Tree Beast. The battle is described over several pages. Jack is swallowed by Thrull the Tree Beast. “Thrull the Tree Beast shrieks! Wood snaps and cracks around me. At my feet, jutting out of the barrel, the bottle rocket burns . . . The trunk of the tree shatters completely. . . My body is rocked—a title wave of explosive energy rips through me, hurling me from the inside of the tree.” In the end, Jack is saved when the kids defeat Thrull the Tree Beast with weed killer and bottle rockets.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • The children are tricked into completing a bestiary. “I have filled the bestiary with magical energy. When the bestiary is full, the essence of the creatures inside will transform the book into a key.” The key will be used to let an ancient monster into the world, which wants to feed on others.
  • Thrull plants vines that turn into a Tree of Entry. The tree feeds an ancient monster. Trull must complete an incantation in order to bring the ancient monster to this world.
  • Thrull sacrifices himself to the tree. “He cackles like a mad, giggling demon and gives me a final look before his eyes shut and her roars, ‘TAKE ME.’” The Viney-Thinks eat Thrull.

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Last Kids on Earth and the Nightmare King

Life couldn’t get much better for 13-year-old Jack Sullivan. He eats Twinkie sandwiches for breakfast, lives in a cool treehouse, has a hoard of monster friends, and battles zombies. Jack loves his life with his friends and wouldn’t change a thing about it.

Then Jack and his friends discover they may not be the last kids on earth. When a human voice comes from a radio, everyone except for Jack is excited to discover that others have survived the zombie apocalypse. June and the others hope to be reunited with their parents, but Jack is afraid that finding others will lead to his friends forgetting about him. Jack goes on a quest to prove that their life is crazy, fun, and perfect.

As jack creates crazy fun activities for his friends, a monstrous Nightmare King hunts Jack and his friends.  Jack soon learns that an ancient evil will use any method necessary to gain Jack’s loyalty and help him come into Jack’s world.

The Last Kids on Earth and The Nightmare King is another action-packed book that will keep readers entertained. New complications and new monsters are introduced to keep the plot interesting. The story shows a diverse group of friends who work together to defeat monsters. Although each character may seem stereotypical at first—the brainiac, the bully, the damsel—each character is fully developed and reveal that a person cannot be put into a category. For example, June is not a damsel in distress, but a strong girl who is capable of contributing to the group.

Although there is violence, the kids spend most of their time running from the monsters. The battle scenes contain humor and are not frightening. In the end, the story reminds readers that it often takes both kids and monsters to defeat evil.

Sexual Content

  • June and Jack are playing a game. June asks Jack, “Which prize would you like honey?”  Jack knows she is teasing him, “but I don’t care; I like hearing her call me honey—it makes my belly region warm.”

Violence

  • Zombies attack the group. Dirk uses his strength to grab the zombies and “corpses catapulted.”
  • A King Wretch swoops and tries to grab Jack. “I smack into the street, flipping and flopping like a fish. My nose cracks against my knee, and I immediately feel blood bubbling inside my nostrils.” The monster grabs Rover, “dragging Rover across the pavement. The sound of pained scraping fills my ears while dread floods my stomach.”
  • A Scrapken (an octopus-like creature who lives in the junk yard) uses his tentacles to try to smash the kids. Instead, the Scrapken hits a wall and Zombies rush into the junk yard. “Thankfully, the next tentacle swing slams into a tire pile, and about nine hundred ninety-nine pounds of rubber plow into the zombies. Some are knocked aside, and others are sent pinwheeling through the air.”
  • In order to get away from zombies, Jack hides in a car. Before the zombies can get to Jack, the Scrapken picks up the car. “It’s chocking the metal frame like an anaconda—tightening and squeezing and crushing!” Then the Scrapken throws the car. Jack has “aches and pains and bruises, but nothing major.”
  • The King Wretch saves Jack from Zombies. “With one massive, snapping chomp, the King Wretch devours a dozen zombies. A simple swallow, sucking them down.” The King Wretch then grabs Jack. “His talons punch me square in the chest. I hit the cold floor and the claws tighten, digging into my shoulders. Hot saliva drips from the King Wretch’s fangs and splashes against my cheek.” The King Wretch then hypnotizes Jack.
  • While riding a rollercoaster, The King Wretch grabs Jack. “The flying beast snaps out with his talons, tearing into my hoodie and knocking me back.”  Jack’s hoodie tears and, “I plummet downward for a short moment, and then all I feel is PAINFUL AWFUL TREE-LIM-BREAKING-SMASHING ON MY BONES!” Jacks friends come to save him and there is a battle that last over several chapters. In the end the King Wretch is eaten by the Scrapken. “Slithery serpent sounds and then, at last, the King Wretch goes silent. The Scrapken hugs him anaconda tight, squeezing, crushing, and then they disappear beneath the scrap, into the ground . . .”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Jack occasionally says “crud.”

Supernatural

  • The King Wretch hypnotizes Jack and gives him visions of what the future may be like. When the King Wretch looks into Jack’s eyes, “Soda bubbles in my brain. . . I feel like a tornado of terrible energy whirls past me. Through me... and then everything is altered”

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Sisters of Glass

Halan, the heir to the Magi Kingdom, is different. Unlike every royal before her, she has no magical powers. Her parents fear that without magical powers, she will be unable to protect herself against a dangerous rebellion that is festering. Halan, on the other hand, is certain that she has nothing to fear and that her father will be able to reunite the Magi Kingdom in peace.

Nalah, a glassblower’s daughter, is an outcast among her peers. In New Hadar, she must hide her magical powers because magic is outlawed. Despite her efforts, her power is growing, and she is fighting the battle to control it. When an old family friend appears, Nalah begins to wonder if using magic is the only way to improve her and her father’s lives.

Two girls’ lives come crashing together when Nalah steps through a magical mirror that takes her to the Magi Kingdom. Each girl must overcome their fears and learn to trust each other before both of their worlds are shattered.

Full of magic and suspense, Sisters of Glass is a new series that is best suited for more advanced readers.  At the beginning of the book, the plot is complicated and confusing. The chapters begin with a history of each girl’s world and alternate between each girl’s point of view. Changing between points of view may be difficult for younger or struggling readers. The story also has graphic violence and the king kills several people in an effort to gain their magical powers. The death scenes may be disturbing, especially when Nalah watches her father die and then is stuck in the dungeon with his dead body.

Unlike most stories, Sisters of Glass, does not have a romantic interest. The platonic relationship between Nalah and her friend Marcus is refreshing and endearing. Readers will be able to connect to Nalah as she struggles with being obedient to her father. Nalah’s strong personality and her loyalty make her a character that readers can look up to. Unlike Nalah, Halan comes off as a bratty princess who thinks that she knows best. Even when her actions endanger others, her remorse is almost nonexistent. The contrast between the two girls is interesting, but Nalah is the character that readers will come to love.

There are several messages in the story. One message is treating everyone—no matter his or her station—with respect. This message ties in with the message of bringing peace to a kingdom. Only with justice, understanding, and cooperation can peace ever be realized.

Sexual Content

  • When Nalah meets a boy, her friend says, “He likes you,” and then makes a kissy noise.
  • Each world contains a person who is a tawam. Nalah is Halan’s tawam; however, they have different fathers. They discuss which of the two has a biological father that they don’t know about. Nalah wonders, “Could it be true? Could Zachary Tam have been my real father?”
  • Halan sees her mother kiss a man who is not her father. “ . . . He was leaning into her mother, his lips pressed to hers.” Later she discovers that this man is her biological father.

Violence

  • A metalworker makes a magic circlet. To demonstrate its power, the metalworker puts the circlet on a servant, which causes “the servant to cry out in unbearable pain and crumple to the floor, clutching at the metal around his head.”
  • Nalah’s father is attacked. “Mr. Bardak doubled over and Tam turned and brought his fist up in a swing that caught Nalah’s father across the temple, making him stagger. His knees bent and he fell to the floor.”
  • A man uses a mirror to travel to another world and kill another man. “He silently unclasped the sheath, raised the blade above his head, and brought it down into the back of the old Tam’s neck. . . The rumpled man didn’t make a sound. He spasmed once and fell forward off the chair onto the wooden floor, the papers by his feet scattering like a flock of started doves.”
  • Halan is kidnapped. When she is kidnapped, a cloak is thrown over her head. Later, she is tied up. She tricks a boy into untying her binds, and then “she brought her arm around in a wild swing, and her balled fist struck him hard on the side of the head. He reeled, and she reached up and grabbed his shirt, pulling him down to the floor so his head hit the stone with a horrifying thunk. He lay still.”
  • Nalah goes to the dungeon. “There were sounds coming from the murk. Crying sounds, wails of pain and distress, the low chatter of angry voices, the odd rattle of chains or clang of metal against metal.”
  • A guard throws Marcus to the ground and draws his sword. Nalah grabs the sword, and “suddenly the sword bent under her hand like it was made of clay.” Nalah’s glass bird swoops down and attacks the soldier; Marcus and Nalah get away.
  • In order to return to the palace, Halan must get away from her captors, so she “scooped up a chunk of sandstone, and clunked him on the back of the head . . . Marcus slumped to the ground with a groan.”
  • The king goes to Nalah’s world and kills several people’s tawams so that the tawams in his world will gain more power. Their deaths are not described.
  • The king kills Nalah’s father. “The king struck like a snake. . . A metal ball, about the size of a plum, flew from inside his flowing sleeve and struck Nalah’s father in the forehead. It stuck there, and immediately crackled with tiny fingers of white lightning, sending them climbing all across his body. Amir Bardak’s eyes grew wide with surprise, and his arms and legs spasmed uncontrollably . . . Nalah’s father went limp and fell forward, lifeless in the dirty straw.”
  • The king attempts to hang Nalah. An old man throws an orb at the executioner, “sending out a plume of blue smoke that curled around his foot like the tentacle of a sea monster, dragging him off stage and engulfing him in a pulsating cocoon of smoke.”
  • There is a battle between the common people and the king’s soldiers. The action takes place over a chapter but is not described in detail. When a guard attacks Nalah with a sword, a glass bird, “raked them [his talons] across the guard’s face,” saving her. The king grabs his daughter and threatens to kill her, but Nalah saves her.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Halan goes to a bazaar where two men walk by “drunkenly.” At the end of the night, very few people are still outside, but there are a “few, argumentative drunks.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Thaumas have magical powers that allow them to make things with one element—glass, metal, tapestry, wood, etc.
  • Several of the characters use a mirror to travel to another world. When Nalah goes through the mirror, “it felt like she didn’t have hands—or any physical body at all. She felt herself hanging, suspended in an in-between place, wonderstruck and trembling with fear.”
  • Nalah has several magical powers. She can make metal bend. When she touches a tapestry, she has a vision of the events depicted in the tapestry. “. . . The tapestry in front of her was coming to life, as if every individual thread had a mind of its own.”
  • Nalah’s captors put a Veil of Strangers on her.  The veil changes her appearance. When she tries to remove the veil, “it squeezed tight around her temples, her head filling with throbbing pain.”
  • “Some people exist in both worlds, like twins—except they call them ‘tawams.’ . . . there’s a mirror version of me living here.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Roland Wright: Future Knight

Roland Wright dreams of being a knight, but he knows that dream will never come true. Only sons of noblemen become knights, and his dad is not noble. Then a series of unexpected events happen that bring excitement and hope to Roland. A knight, with a head stuck in his helmet, shows up at his father’s blacksmith shop. The knight has exciting news. Roland’s father’s famous armor saves the king’s life, and then the king offers to take either Roland or Roland’s brother Shelby to the castle to train as a page.

Roland’s father, a quiet and skillful man, must decide which son will become a future knight and which son will become an armor maker. In order to determine which path in life is best for his sons, Mr. Wright comes up with a contest to judge the boy’s skills. In an attempt to win the contest, Roland seeks out the advice of an experienced knight.

Young readers will be instantly captivated by a view of life in the Middle Ages through Roland’s eyes. Not only is Roland humorous, but he also is just like a typical boy—he spends much of his time day-dreaming and he doesn’t have much use for girls. Adding a mouse as a pet, a gallant knight, and a wise and insightful father to the mix makes Roland Wright Future Knight an entertaining story. An added bonus is that the story teaches that winning isn’t the most important part of being a knight (or a young boy).

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When Roland thinks about the neighbor girl, he knows she’s wrong but, “he didn’t grab his big, spiky steel mace and hit her over the head so hard that her brain shot out her earholes like lengths of rope.”
  • Several times Roland and his brother fight with wooden swords. One time as they are playing, Roland, “lunged and swiped, hitting Shelby’s sword so hard it flew out of his hands.”
  • The boys have a contest where they fight with wooden swords and shields. Shelby hits Roland across his unprotected back. “It felt like a red hot strip of steel had been pressed against Roland’s skin. He fell to the ground face-first in agony. He rolled onto his back, hoping the softness of the grass would stop the pain.” When his father tries to stop the fight, Roland says he can continue, but he ends up yielding to his brother.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Roland Wright: Brand-New Page

As a page, Roland expected to learn how to smite the enemy. However, he didn’t expect his enemy to be another page. But when Hector decides that Roland is a smelly peasant who doesn’t deserve to be trained as a page, Roland soon learns that not all pages fight fair.

When an elephant escapes from his pen, no one seems to know what to do, so Roland and Nudge, his pet mouse, jump to the rescue. However, instead of being praised, Roland finds himself thrown in a cell.  Roland now wonders if his chance of becoming a knight is already over, or if there is something he can do to save himself from being sent home.

The second book in the Roland Wright series is just as entertaining as the first book, Roland Wright Future Knight. Although Nudge plays a smaller role in the story, the addition of new characters and an elephant keep the reader interested. Throughout the story, Roland is never mean-spirited. Even when provoked, he strives to behave like a good knight. Roland Wright Brand-New Page will entertain young readers as well as teach that honesty always wins out in the end.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Roland tells Nudge what he thinks they will see when they get to the King’s castle: “Hundreds of archers shooting arrows from the battlements down onto the attackers . . . and soldiers pouring boiling oil on men charging at the drawbridge with a battering ram . . . and gallant knights swinging broadswords atop warhorses covered with shining armor.”
  • One of the pages is upset that Roland, a “smelly and stupid” peasant, is at the castle. They fight with wooden swords and shields. Roland is whacked in the face. As they continue fighting the other page said, “I’ll have you chopped into little pieces.” Roland is able to hold his own until the other boy tires and leaves.
  • An elephant escapes and smashes into the wall that people are hiding behind. As the elephant continues to push its tusks against the wall, someone calls for the royal archers. The King commands them to stop in order to make sure the elephant is not harmed.
  • The elephant, “squashed the squire in armor against a stone wall. It made a horrible sound, like a bug being crushed.”
  • Hector is punished. “. . . Hector was already in the stocks, his head and hands clamped in tightly, the sun beating down on his face.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At dinner the pages drink “watery ale.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • A boy tells Roland, “It’s God who looks after the King.”

Roland Wright: At The Joust

Roland is excited to attend his first joust and watch the knights crashing and smashing. However, he soon learns that jousting isn’t just fun and games. When Roland unexpectedly faces Little Douglas, a page from another castle, Roland must fight his fear and stay on his feet.

Roland Wright: At the Joust has the same loveable characters as the first two books; however, the story focuses less on character development. It mostly revolves around a tournament, so there is more violence than in the previous books. Even though the jousting is described in kid-friendly language, the descriptions are long and show the danger of being a knight.

In the end, Roland is victorious, but he realizes that being hurt or watching your friends hurt is a high price to pay for being a knight. Roland also learns that true friendship is the most important thing of all.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • To practice, Roland fights a knight. During the fight there was, “crashing, banging smashing and walloping.” The fight goes on for several pages, but language is kid-friendly, “Roland was hit yet again with the pommel-doinggg!—and found himself lying on the ground. . .”
  • One of the knights describes being unhorsed. “The first thing you feel is an enormous thump, like you’ve been hit by a rock thrown from a catapult. You see nothing through your visor but blue sky.”
  • There is a tournament where knights joust. During one joust, a knight is injured. “Sir Lucas was thrown up and backward . . . he slowly rolled and twisted a full three yards above the grass. He began to fall, headfirst, crashing his helmet against the tiltline.” Later in the story, it is revealed that Sir Lucas might not live.
  • Roland participates in a joust. “He turned to see Little Douglas lying flat on his back with the broken end of Roland’s lance sticking out of the shoulder joint in his armor.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Stone Girl’s Story

Mayka and her stone family have always lived on the mountain. Their father, a stonemason, brought them to life by etching stories onto their bodies. But now that her father is gone, the markings are beginning to fade. Mayka and her two bird friends go in search of a stonemason to recarve the stories.  As she searches, she learns about the complicated history of stone creations. She also must learn which flesh-people can be trusted—because not all humans are good.

Filled with unique, engaging characters—both stone and flesh—The Stone Girl’s Story explores the importance of making your own decisions and writing your own story. With the power of friendship, Mayka helps other stone creations change their stories, and, in the process, they defeat evil. Through her journey, Mayka shows the importance of words; although she lies, she does so for good reason. She also learns the importance of being brave and how to become the heroine in her own story.

Beautiful descriptions bring The Stone Girl’s Story to life. Mayka retells many stories, which makes some of the action less interesting. Although the ending of the story is action-packed and suspenseful, some readers may have a hard time wading through the first half of the book. However, getting to the end of the book is worth the work because of the lessons learned, the exciting climax, and the hopeful resolution.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Mayka comes to a stone wall that was created to protect what lies on the other side of it. When Mayka’s bird friend touches the wall, rocks rolled round his feet. The rocks “rolled together to pin him to the wall. As she dug, the rocks rolled against her too, trying to trap her fingers with the bird.”
  • A stonemason creates a huge stone monster who attacks the city, trying to capture Mayka and her friends. “The monster kicked away the guards, and they sprawled against the building, knocking over fleeing people and capsizing pedestals. The monster charged forward. Each step slammed into the ground and caused the buildings to sway. Tile fell off roofs. Chimneys toppled.” Mayka’s friends attack the monster to distract him while Mayka carves a new story onto his body. The monster then grabs the stonemason that built him and leaves the city, never to return.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • According to the old legends, great dragons created all flesh-and-blood life.
  • Stonemasons can carve creatures out of stone and bring them to life. Most creatures are everyday animals such as horses, oxen, or otters, which are used for labor.

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Dragonborn

Sam lived a quiet life as a wizard’s apprentice. Sam’s only friend was a dragon named Starback. When Sam’s master dies, other wizards come to help bury the man. When the group argues over Sam’s fate, he runs. Sam is unsure of where to go, but he knows he wants to finish his education in magic.

Sam and Starback set off on a journey. They know Sam must avoid the wizards, but there are hidden threats as well. There is someone who wants Sam’s power, and she’ll use deceit and magic to capture Sam. Will Sam be able to find his path without being trapped in her snare?

A book about a boy and a dragon should be amazing, but Dragonborn lacks action. For most of the story, the dragon is off trying to protect Sam, but he isn’t an integral part of the plot. As Sam travels he meets some interesting people and learns about himself, but the story often lacks suspense.

Dragonborn was written for readers as young as eight, but the plot is difficult to follow. The beginning of the story goes back and forth between Sam’s stories and the apprentice’s notebook, which gives information about Sam’s world. Although the transitions between these two are clear, Sam’s story is more complicated because there are flashbacks that may be confusing for some readers. The point of view of the story changes between characters, which adds to the confusing nature of the story. There are so many characters introduced in the beginning chapters that it is difficult to keep track of all of them.

One aspect that may upset younger readers are the scenes that deal with death. The story begins with death, and the final preparations of the body are performed. Later in the story, Sam stumbles into a house where a man has just died and Sam must perform the burial rites, including taking the man to the Finished World. Although the book does not address what happens after one dies, the story may lead to questions about the afterlife.

Although the story has plenty of magic—both good and bad—the story does not explain how spells are made. The apprentice’s notebook reads, “Now, whenever it is worked, it does more than was meant, and it lives a life of its own. So never, never make magic just to make life easier, or to do something quicker. Always keep your magic for something that matters.”

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A girl attending wizard school often gets into trouble. One day she loses her temper and floods the classroom. The teacher is unable to stop the flood. “The other pupils were thrashing about, trying to stay above the surface as the water filled the room. They made magic lifejackets and dinghies, they flailed about the swell. . . Just as they were about to lose the battle and drown, Tamrin released the spell.”
  • Ash has her creature kill a prisoner. “Bakkmann hurled itself at the dazed prisoner and stabbed into his heart, once, twice, then started to suck and bite noisily at the body.”
  • When Sam performs a burial ritual and opens the door to the Finished World, Ash tries to pull Sam into the Finished World. “Sam could sense that she was using the wild magic of the mines to keep hold of him.”
  • Ash reads a note on a moth, then kills it. She “held the moth over the flame, watching its wings scorch then flame for a moment before turning to ash. The fat, black body bubbled, dripped, and dissolved.”
  • Ash creates a spell. “The boy was on fire. Flames flowed over him. His hair was a fiery torch, his finger ends, candles. He rolled over and over in his frenzy to put the flames out. Nothing made any difference. . . Smedge shrieked in pain. Then, as though it had never been, the fire disappeared.” Later in the story, Ash again uses a spell to set Smedge on fire, so he feels pain but is unharmed.
  • Ash has a “clacking creature” that listens to her orders. One of the creatures, “pounced on Khazib, and jabbed a long, sharp tongue into his shoulder, drawing blood. Khazib screamed in pain and surprise. . . Khazib looked at the blood flowing from his wound. He panted with pain.”
  • A wizard causes beetles to attack Sam. “The huge beetle dived and flew straight into Sam’s face. The others followed, swarming all over him. Into his ears, his nose. . . he could feel them probing with their sharp legs. . . He was drowning in beetles, being eaten alive by them.” In order to save Sam, a dragon kills the wizard. “Its jaws seized on Caleb’s head and jerked it to one side. The boy heard bones snap. The dragon shook Caleb as a terrier shakes a rat. Caleb’s head lolled to the left, one side of his face burned away.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • The weavers “do not weave when twilight comes, but sit and drink beer and tell stories.”
  • While traveling with a roffle, Sam and the roffle sit down to eat. “There was lemonade for Sam and beer for the roffle as well.”
  • After a character is taken to the Finished World, the crowd has food and drink. The men and women “stood in small knots of friendship with mugs of beer and cider, beakers of wine.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • The story revolves around wizards who cast spells.
  • Ash is a creature whose limbs fall off and grow back, her eyes bleed, and she eats beetles. She picks up a beetle and “put it to her lips without thinking. She crunched it, sucked the soft pulp from inside, licked it clean, then dropped the empty husk into the remains of the fire.”
  • When Ash attempts to escape her prison, she goes to the doorway. “Her foot snapped off at the ankle and hung in the air outside. . . Her arms had gone through as far as the elbows, then stopped. Her weight sagged. She fell to her knees and her forearms snapped off. . .”
  • Sam looks at a book and concentrates on the letters when “green and blue smoke hovered for a second and then contracted, gathered together over the plate; and, in a moment, it formed itself into a tiny Green and Blue Dragon.”
  • Sam looks toward the stars for messages. “Sam tried to read them. They whispered to him, many voices, many words, many thoughts. He could not make out what they were saying.”
  • Hungry and dehydrated, Sam leaves his body. “. . . He was high above the crowd, looking down at them. He was a dragon again. Hunger gone, thirst forgotten, he soared above it all, rejoicing in the splendor of the air . . . Thinking of himself send him back not himself. . .”
  • One of the characters has a connection to a wolf. “When I need to see with the wolf’s eyes, I disappear into the wolf. I stop being Axestone until it’s over.”
  • Sam discovers that he is a dragon and a boy. “Being a dragon and a boy at the same time was like learning to swim . . . but soon enough he knew the difference between one and the other.”

Spiritual Content

  • When a person dies, someone must prepare the body. Then, someone must accompany the body and open the door to the Finished World. When the door is opened, the person moves into the Finished World.

 

 

Hercufleas

On the night of the new moon, Yuk comes to guzzle the townsfolk. In an effort to save her town, Greta travels to Avalon to find a giant-slaying hero. What she finds instead is Hercufleas. He may be small, but he is (mostly) convinced that he can help Greta.

In an epic adventure, Greta and Hercufleas set off to find the one weapon—the Black Death—that can slay Yuk. As they travel, Greta’s bitterness and despair threaten to overtake her. Can the two figure out a way to save the village? Or will their despair cause the end of Greta’s world?

Hercufleas is a fun-filled fantasy that shows that size doesn’t make a person mighty. Filled with outrageously unique villains, an uncertain hero, and a little girl who doesn’t believe in anything, Hercufleas takes the reader on an adventure that readers will not soon forget. In the end, the reader is left with the message that evil cannot destroy evil, only goodness can.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A shopkeeper hires two villains to kill Greta. They try to kill her but want to make it look like an accident. One of the assassins dies when he falls from his flying bird. The assassin, “disappeared with a hideous shriek down into the fog.”
  • The shopkeeper finds Greta and plans on killing her. Instead, he is bitten by a rattleroot and dies. “Stickler screamed and kicked with his leg, trying to shake it off . . . the paralyzing poison was already starting to work.”
  • Yuk, an enormous monster, eats the townsfolk.
  • Hercufleas challenges Sir Klaus, a mouse, to a duel. They fight until one drop of blood is shed.
  • When Yuk comes to guzzle people, the townsfolk attack. “The Cossacks had thrown their iron nets over the giant. In seconds, they fixed them into the ground with stakes and hammers. During this time Yuk devours several people. “A terrible scream echoed from somewhere below. Perched above Yuk’s tonsils, Hercufleas saw a dim shape tumble down the giants’ throat and vanished with a faraway plop.
  • Hercufleas battles rattleroots.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Miss Witz has a copper bell, and “a Gypsy had charmed the bell so lies make it ring.”
  • The fleas in the story were created (though alchemy) to be tall, talking fleas. “Alchemy is where you make up potions that can change you.”
  • The stone giant was “chiseled from granite and brought to life by alchemy.”
  • Hercufleas eats strands from Yuk’s brain, which allows him to see Yuk’s memories.

Spiritual Content

  • The fleas have a prayer that ends with, “we’ll all jump to fleaven/When our last jump comes.”  Fleaven is where “all great and good bugs of the world go.”
  • Greta passes the great salt lakes and explains that “it comes from the old prophecies. God adds one salty tear to the lakes for every new evil in the world.”

 

The Friendship Code

Lucy is excited to join the new coding club at school. She wants to learn how to code so she can create an app to help her uncle who has cancer. But once coding club begins, Lucy is frustrated because she isn’t learning as quickly as she wants. To make the situation worse, Lucy is put in a group with several girls she barely knows.

Lucy finds a cryptic coding message taped to her locker. She needs help translating the messages and the only people who can help are the girls from her coding club. As Lucy tries to discover who is sending the secret messages, she learns that coding and friendship take time, dedication, and some laughs.

The Friendship Code is the first book in the Girls Who Code series. The Friendship Code is an easy-to-read, enjoyable story. Readers will relate to Lucy as she struggles to make new friends.  Like many girls, Lucy is fearful that others will judge her based on her appearance, and she struggles to fix a friendship that ended because of a misunderstanding. At the end of the story, Lucy learns the importance of friends helping each other.

Sexual Content

  • None

 

Violence

  • None

 

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

 

Language

  • None

 

Supernatural

  • None

 

Spiritual Content

  • None

Lights, Music, Code!

The winter dance is right around the corner. Maya and her BFFs are in charge of coding a light display for dance. They are hoping to use their coding club skills to create a super cool display. The only problem is that Maya’s friends don’t listen to any of her ideas and don’t appreciate her efforts.

Then Maya’s old friend, Nicole, moves to town. Nicole listens to her and is always on her side—unlike Maya’s coding friends. But when Maya starts spending more time with Nicole, problems arise. Maya needs to learn that friendship—like coding—is about being honest with your friends. Will Maya learn the value of friendship before she loses her friends from coding club?

Although Lights, Music, Code is the third book in the Girls Who Code series, readers do not need to have read the previous books in order to enjoy the story. Lights, Music, Code is written from Maya’s point of view, making the story both entertaining and easy to read. Maya and her friends show that girls can care about both fashion and coding.

As Maya and her friends prepare for the dance, they discuss boys and how to act at a school dance in kid-friendly terms. Maya struggles with many common issues, including not feeling appreciated, not wanting to ask for help, and not agreeing with her mother. Lights, Music, Code entertains as it teaches valuable lessons through Maya’s struggles.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Maya’s friends kill a troll king in a video game. Her friend “brought him (the troll king) to his knees with the Unwielding Dagger. Then Nicole sliced his head off.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Nicole calls Maya’s mother a witch.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Fortune Falls

In Fortune Falls, if you step on a crack you really will hurt your mother’s back. And four-leaf clovers, lucky pennies, and rabbit’s feet really do bring good luck. But twelve-year-old Sadie is used to being on the bad side of luck. When a cat the color of ravens begins following her, Sadie fears that her bad luck is irreversible and may be deadly.

The cat, and bad luck, seemed to be stalking Sadie. Sadie no longer expects to have good luck, but she is still determined to outwit fate. She has too much to lose if she doesn’t.

In just five days, Sadie is going to take the Luck Test, which will determine if she will go to Flourish Academy or be sent away. Her friend Cooper is determined to help Sadie come up with a plan to overcome her bad luck. But when Sadie breaks a mirror, her dog goes missing in a graveyard, and a black cat keeps following her, Sadie isn’t sure she can outwit fate. Is it possible for her to survive her bad luck? And if she survives, will she be sent away from everything she loves?

Sadie is a smart, clumsy, lovable heroine, who uses her wits to overcome obstacles in her life. Throughout the story, Sadie cares for her younger brother. Although their father is dead, his positive influence is shown through Sadie’s thoughts.

Throughout the story, Sadie learns many valuable lessons, including how people (and cats) are often misjudged based on their appearances and that friendships are more important than luck. At one point Sadie thinks about capturing the black cat and trading it for something that would bring her good luck, but she decides, “I wasn’t sure if it was worth being Lucky if it meant betraying who I was.” Because the story is entertaining, full of suspense, and has interesting characters, the book teaches lessons without being preachy. And in the end, the reader sees that “Fortune has very little to do with the charm and everything to do with perception.”

The ending of Fortune Falls doesn’t change Sadie’s clumsy nature. She is still imperfect and messy, but she no longer thinks that she needs luck or perfection. One of the best parts of the book is that Sadie conquers the mean girl without being mean herself. In the process of trying to outwit fate, Sadie leaves the reader with positive lessons as well as a story that will make them smile long after the book is put down.

Sexual Content

  • Sadie goes to a school dance. As she dances with Cooper, she thinks, “My skin tingled where Cooper’s left hand rested on my shoulder, and mine on his side. It felt almost electric where the fingers of our hands joined together, forming their own little tower between us.”

Violence

  • When Sadie thinks about running away, she thinks about the Unluckies who had tried to leave Fortune Falls. “Unluckies gave up on trying long ago—tires always blew at the edge of town, people suffered strokes and heart attacks just as they were about to cross over the city limits—like bad luck, there was no escaping it.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Sadie and Bessie go to a wishing well to drop in a coin, hoping for luck to help them pass the Luck Test. “Toss a coin into this well,/And the water spirit tell,/ Your deepest wish or favorite spell./ Fate favors those who luck befell.”
  • Sadie goes to the cemetery’s entrance, hoping to find her dog. While she is there she sees “to the left of the mausoleum and the black cat, and close to where I was standing by the fence, something was sticking out from the bushes. Slender, bony white fingers. A skeletal hand, reaching, stretching, grasping for the iron post. This was not the hand of someone who’d been buried in the cemetery. It was the boney remains of someone who’d thought they’d be able to dash in and out while holding their breath. Whoever it was had been wrong. Deadly wrong.
  • There is a field in Fortune Falls where a ghost appears at dusk or barely after dark. The ghost boy beckons people to follow him to the graveyard. “Almost everyone agreed that at some point they found themselves standing at the iron bars of the cemetery, not certain how they got there but feeling compelled to fetch the poor boy’s eternally resting parents. Perhaps that’s what happened to the person who had been reduced to an extending skeletal hand just inside the fence.”
  • Sadie’s brother has an encounter with the ghost, who wants him to go into the cemetery and look for his parents. Sadie’s brother tells the ghost that his father is dead. “Then he got a sad look on his face and ran off.”
  • Sadie scolds her brother for yawning and not covering his mouth. “Yawning without covering your mouth was like breathing inside the cemetery, only worse. Opening your mouth to yawn gave the Devil a gaping hole to slip into and, unlike with wraiths, his strength didn’t wane outside the parameters of the cemetery.” Sadie discovers that the black cat is really a Japanese bobtail and “one of the luckiest charms you could ever hope to encounter . . . no one will buy her for her luck, and she couldn’t hex something to save her life.”
  • Sadie considers buying a voodoo doll to hex a mean girl.

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Accused

Pete Duffy’s murder trial is about to begin; however, when Duffy disappears the night before his trial, the town wonders where Duffy went. Theo was hoping to follow Duffy’s trial, but when strange men begin following him and the police accuse him of robbery, Theo becomes consumed with finding out who has it in for him.

Because Theodore tells his own story, the reader has the opportunity to feel Theo’s confusion and fear, which helps to build suspense. As the story progresses, the suspense is created in a way that will allow younger readers to be interested but not frightened.

The Accused has surprises, humor, and positive adult-child relationships. The story is easy to read and the engaging mystery will appeal to both younger and older readers. Although this book is part of the Theodore Boone series, The Accused can be enjoyed without having read the previous books in the series.

The only downside is Theo’s Uncle Ike, who convinces Theo to steal the password to his parents’ case files. Afterward, Theo feels guilty and wants to tell his parents. However, Ike convinces him not to because it’s not dishonest to not tell. Ike continues rationalizing dishonesty by saying, “We all have our little secrets, and as long as they’re harmless, who really cares? With time, the secrets often go away and things don’t matter anymore.”

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • The plot discusses the trial of Pete Duffy who is accused of murder. Some boys in Theo’s class discuss the disappearance of Pete Duffy. “Another had Pete Duffy murdered by drug lords.”
  • Someone throws a rock through a window and almost hits Theo.
  • Several boys at school get into a fight, including Theo. “Woody lunged with a right hook that landed perfectly on Baxter’s face. Baxter, to his credit, managed to land a solid punch before both boys locked each other in death grips and tumbled to the floor.”
  • Ike tells a story about when he was younger and was being bullied. He filled his lunch pail with rocks. “He was about to punch me when I suddenly swung the lunch box and hit him in the face. Hard. I mean it was a nasty blow that cut a gash in his cheekbone. He screamed and fell down and I whacked him a few more times in the head.” At the end of the story, Ike says, “I should have used my fists and nothing else.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Theo’s uncle drinks beer. “Theo knew he drank too much . . . Two or three times he had picked up on comments that suggested Ike Boone struggled with the bottle, and Theo assumed this was true. However, he had never witnessed it.”
  • Theo thinks about “Spike Hock, a kid who lived one block away and was caught selling drugs in the ninth grade and spent eighteen very unpleasant months in a juvenile detention center. . .”
  • Theo thinks about a family because the sister was “arrested for drugs.”
  • A boy in the story “was caught with marijuana and went through Youth Court.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • At church, the pastor’s sermon expands on the eighth commandment. The pastor talks about how it is wrong to steal, including “stealing time away from God, family, friends. Stealing the gift of good health by pursuing bad habits. Stealing from the future by missing opportunities in the present.”

My Diary from the Edge of the World

Maddie’s world isn’t ordinary. She lives in a world where dragons, mermaids, and giants exist. In her world, Dark Clouds come for people when they die, and one is after Maddie’s little brother, Sam. In an effort to save Sam, Maddie’s family sets off to find the only place where Sam will be safe—the Extraordinary World. The only problem is that most people do not think it exists.

As Maddie and her family travel, they must learn to work together to avoid the dangers of the world.  And after traveling through many amazing places and facing many obstacles, Maddie learns that sometimes the biggest obstacle of all is to stop running from the inevitable.

My Diary from the Edge of the World is engaging because it is written in diary form from Maddie’s point of view. The world created is familiar because it contains many of the same places as the United States; however interest is added because witches are real (and Maddie’s grandmother is one), ghosts exist, and genies can grant wishes.

Even though the book has magic and mystery, the story has little action or suspense to keep the reader completely engaged. Maddie is a typical girl that has some interesting adventures, but her story lacks excitement. However, the ending does contain several scenes that will surprise the reader and give them hope.

Sexual Content

  • When Maddie’s parents stop talking to each other, Maddie wonders if her mother is going to run off with the ship’s captain. Maddie’s sister says, “They laugh together a lot . . . Mom and Dad never talk anymore, much less laugh together.”
  • When the ship’s captain asks Maddie’s mother to stay with him, he “reached up to touch her face, trying to raise his lips to hers.” She reminds him that she is a married woman and refuses to leave her family.
  • Virgil, an angel, has a crush on Maddie’s sister. In one scene, Maddie’s sister, “leaned up toward him and gave him a small kiss on the lips. A kiss that must have felt like a brush of air, but a kiss all the same.”

Violence

  • The ship’s captain tells Maddie about sea ghosts. “. . . Poor drowned sailors who never had a chance. They’re the most vicious ghosts on earth, I’d wager, intent on dragging sailors into the Underworld with them.”
  • Their ship is surrounded by a fleet of ghost ships. Virgil, an angel, uses his ability to create wind to outrace the ships and save everyone from certain death.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • While searching for a captain of a boat, Maddie’s mother goes into a tavern where men are drinking.

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • In Maddie’s world, Dark Clouds come for people when they die. “They wait outside people’s houses until it’s time, then they scoop up their soul and carry them away.” If a cloud does not come for a person, it will “drift around in Limbo.”
  • Ghosts use caves to come and go from the Underworld. “They have a tendency to try to snatch people into the Underworld.”
  • They find the Extraordinary World does exist. “I could see it was our planet, but a different version of it.”

Spiritual Content

  • Angels live on Earth and are, “hiding out from the gods.”
  • Maddie wonders about the angels that live on the Earth. “Animals are made to eat each other, and sometimes I wonder why. I wonder if that’s part of why the angels rebelled—because they thought the gods were mean in the way they made the world, and that they were making mistakes, and I have to admit that if I were an angel I think I might rebel too.”

 

Crenshaw

Jackson’s world is turned upside down when his parents move the family into a mini-van. His parents, his little sister, and their dog don’t have anywhere to live and sometimes they don’t have enough to eat.  Jackson tries not to complain. He tries to keep his confusion and fear to himself.

Then Crenshaw appears. He’s big. He’s outspoken. He’s an imaginary cat. Crenshaw is trying to help Jackson, but Jackson just wants him to go away.

Crenshaw is told from the point of view of Jackson, which allows younger readers to get a glimpse into the world of being homeless without going into too much detail. Through the story, the reader learns that homelessness can happen to anyone, even when they are trying their best.

Jackson’s life story has many lessons, including the importance of honesty. Jackson steals food for his sister because she was hungry. However the theft is not glamorized, and when his sister throws up on Jackson’s book, he figures that it was his punishment.

With the help of his imaginary friend Crenshaw, Jackson finds the courage to tell his friend and his parents the truth about his feelings, which is the most important lesson of all.

Crenshaw uses humor, a gigantic cat, and a realistic situation to teach about the struggles of financial difficulties and the importance of friendship. The author uses easy to understand language and dialogue to bring the characters to life.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Jackson makes a box to sleep it, he wrote, “Keep out Jackson’s rum on the top. . . Dad said, if only it really was rum.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Jackson’s dad is getting ready to beg for money, Jackson’s mom said, “Write ‘God Bless,” at least. . . Everyone writes ‘God Bless.’” Jackson’s dad replies, “Nope. As it happens, I have no idea what God is up to.”

The One and Only Ivan

Ivan once lived in a jungle, now he lives in a small domain at Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. He spends his time watching the people who come by and television shows. Ivan doesn’t think about his life in the jungle, instead, he is content to talk to his friends Stella, an elephant, and Bob, a dog.

Ivan also likes to draw pictures. His favorite thing to draw is a banana. No one seems to understand his art, except for Julia, a little girl who sits outside of his domain in the evenings when her father works cleaning the mall.

Ivan thinks he is content with his life until he meets Ruby, a baby elephant who was taken from her family. Ruby makes Ivan remember what his life was like when he lived in the jungle and what it means to be a silverback—a protector. With the help of his artwork, Ivan hopes to help Ruby escape living in her domain at Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade.

Ivan’s first-person narrative is a touching story about Ivan’s friendships and his love of art. Through his eyes, the reader is introduced to how captive animals are treated. Although the story is told with humor, the topic may be upsetting for more sensitive readers. In the end, Ivan and his friends finally have a happy home that will make the reader smile.

Sexual Content

  • Ivan likes to watch romance shows on the television. “In a romance there is much hugging and sometimes face licking.” Commercials also have people that have people that “face lick.”

Violence

  • A claw-stick is used to punish elephants when they do not listen to their trainer. “Once Stella saw a trainer hit a bull elephant with a claw-stick. . . when the claw-stick caught in the bull’s flesh, he tossed the trainer into the air with his tusk. The man flew, Stella said, like an ugly bird.”
  • When poked with a claw-stick, Ruby hits her trainer with her trunk. “. . . I know he must be uncomfortable, because Mack drops the claw-stick and falls down on the ground and curls into a ball and howls like a baby.”
  • Bob, a dog, “used to have three brothers and two sisters. Humans tossed them out of a truck onto the freeway when they were a few weeks old. Bob rolled into a ditch. The others did not.”
  • Ivan’s family is killed by humans. “They shot my father next. Then they chopped off their (his family’s) hands, their feet, their heads.” The hands were used to make ashtrays.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Trap

You would think Henry and Helen would be two peas in a pod. After all, they are twins. But Helen is brave and fearless, while Henry must think everything through. Despite their clear differences, they, along with their best friends Carl and Nicki, are inseparable.

When Carl’s brother mysteriously disappears, the four friends go on a mission to figure out what happened. Their search leads them to a book called Subtle Travel and the Subtle Self, which explains how a person can leave their body in their sleep. As the four friends learn to travel, they quickly discover that their subtle self isn’t invulnerable when Henry’s subtle self gets trapped. His friends want to jump in and save him, but will that lead to more disaster?

Teens and preteens alike will enjoy The Trap because it is fast-paced and easy to read. This story contains a good mystery, a bit of the supernatural, as well as a bit of humor.

The Trap touches on racial issues of the 1960’s but doesn’t go into detail. The only negative part of this book is that Henry and Helen have no qualms about lying to their parents in order to solve the mystery.  There is also a section in the book where Helen reveals that she likes to break into people’s houses because it’s interesting to look around.

The Trap shows the importance of understanding people of different cultures. It has a sweet ending that will leave readers satisfied.

Sexual Content

  • Henry and Nicki go to a school dance in their subtle forms. As they dance, Henry “leaned forward and kissed her. A subtle kiss is a strange thing. It’s slippery, and a little electric, and it buzzes on your lips.”

Violence

  • Carl punches Henry. “Carl’s big knuckles had come at me, his pimply face looming behind them . . . My nose and cheek backed up—right into my brain, and my brain retreated down my throat into my stomach. My stomach hadn’t expected that, and become upset.” Henry pukes, and Henry’s sister jumps on Carl.
  • A character talks about the Jews being killed during World War II. “They were murdered . . . I returned once, years after the war, to see the graveyard where my parents and grandparents were buried. It is all weeds now. There are no Jews left to care for their own dead.”
  • One of the children talks about her great-grandfather who worked on the Transcontinental Railroad. “And in Iowa, he got attached by an Irish railroad gang. They mobbed him and some other Chinese workers, saying that Chinese people were stealing Irish jobs. They almost killed him, and he ended up in the hospital in Cedar Rapids.”
  • In a TV show, the Devil tells a rich man he can live forever if he murdered two other people. The rich man finds two “bums drunk.” The rich man did not think those men deserved to live as much as he did. So the rich man puts rat poison in a bottle of whiskey, “intending to give it to the hoboes. Then the show took a commercial break.”
  • Henry’s dad talks about when he was in the war. When they heard shots, everyone ran, but one man got shot. “Lying out there on his back, in the street. And making a sound, like gargling . . . because they shot him . . . in the throat . . . The North Koreans . . . they went up to Davis. And I watched . . . as they. ..They stripped him. They took his gun, his belt. Jacket. Helmet. Boots. Right off him, while he was still trying to breathe. They took everything. And they left him there, naked in the street. He died there.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Carl’s father is disliked because he is a drunk. The father appears several times in the story and is seen drinking beer on multiple occasions.

Language

  • One of the adults complains about, “this damn back of mine.”

Supernatural

  • Henry finds a book that teaches him how a person, “could step right out of their body while their body was sleeping. You’d be yourself, but invisible. This was called ‘subtle travel.’ The part of you that did the walking, your second body, was called ‘the subtle form.’”
  • A ghost appears and helps Henry solve the mystery of what happened to Carl.
  • When Carl was in his subtle form, someone did something to his physical body. Carl isn’t sure if his body is alive or dead, and he is afraid if he goes back into his body he will die.

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Underworlds: The Battle Begins

The Greek gods of mythology are stories told about gods that never existed, or so Owen Brown thought. Then on a seemly ordinary day, his friend Dana disappears through the school floor. Determined to find out what happened to Dana and bring her back home, Owen decides to follow the clues to rescue his friend.

Jon and Sydney join Owen on his search. Along the way, they discover that Loki has taken Dana. In order to bring her home, they must descend into the Underworld, fight the legendary warriors called Myrmidon and avoid Loki’s wolf, Fenrir. Fighting Greek and other mythological creatures is no easy task for a fourth grader, but with the help of his friends, Owen hopes that freeing Dana can be done.

The first book of the Underworlds series begins with action and never slows down. Owen and his friends are interesting characters whose bravery can be admired. Although Fenrir and the Myrmidons are dangerous, they are described in a kid-friendly way that won’t scare younger readers. The Battle Begins is an action-packed story that brings mythology to life.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Dana was captured by a mythological creature and taken to the Underworld.
  • Owen and his friends must defeat a Myrmidon, Fenrir (the giant red wolf), and Loki, who is “a huge figure—a man of ice, frost, and smoke.”
  • Owen plays Orpheus’s lyre, and “the army of Myrmidons climbing the staircase crashed to the floor in a heap, bringing the top of the town down with them.”
  • The Myrmidon hurl their battle axes, but the group is able to escape.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Owen takes Orpheus’s lyre out of a museum. The lyre has magical powers. When played with the right note, people, animals, and mythological creatures do what Owen commands.
  • When Owen and his friends go to the Underworld, they are taken across a river. In the river are the recently dead, “human shapes swimming under the waves, their mouths open in silent screams.” Owen is told that the recently dead “haunt the shore, hoping to rejoin the living, fearing to cross to the far side.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Underworlds: When Monsters Escape

Owen, John, and Sydney saved Dana from the Underworld, but that didn’t end their problems. Hades threatens to take Dana back forever unless Owen and his friends capture the cyclopes and bring them back to the Underworld.

When Owen and his friends discover that the cyclopes have taken over the power plant in Pinewood Bluffs, they know they must find a way to return the creatures to their world. However, they are not sure how to overcome the giants.

When Monsters Escape is as fun and action-packed as the first book in the series. Even though the friends are battling giant creatures, the scenes are not described with gory detail, which allows younger readers to be entertained without being frightened. However, the descriptions of the undead maybe a little frightening for some readers.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Cyclopes come to Owen’s town. One “reached back and ripped a telephone out of the ground as if it were a weed. He threw it across the road in front of the car, which swerved up onto the sidewalk . . . the driver leaped out of the car and ran back up the road.”
  • Owen and his friend must face three cyclopes. Owen uses Odysseus’ Nobody trick and Orpheus’s lyre on the cyclops. “. . . The hairy cyclops bellowed in pain, arching back into the wall next to me.”
  • Loki throws fire bolts at the group.
  • Draugs, which are undead creatures from Norse mythology, chase the group. Some of the draugs have axes and spears. Dana defeats them by using a powerful glove. “Dana spun like a ballerina, and blades of light swung around her like scythes. The ragged shrouds of the draugs caught fire.”
  • Dana uses the glove to capture the cyclopes. “Chains swirled suddenly out of the storm like snakes and wound around the cyclopes’ wrists, binding the giants tightly together.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Draugs are in Owen’s town. They are described as “death walkers.” They are “dead Viking warriors who come back, like ghosts. After they die, their souls live on in their old dead form. Draugs are strong. Angry. Evil. And they can’t really die.”
  • Runes are used to control others. When used, the stone tingles “and not in a good way.”
  • Owen and his friends use a rune stone to transform into Draugs. “We all grabbed hold of the Draug thread and chanted strange runic names over and over . . . We grew larger, wider, our faces oozed facial hair—even the girls’—and our clothes turned gray and frayed. . . we didn’t feel dead. We just looked like it.”
  • The cyclopes make armor for Loki that will make him indestructible. “The helmet wove bands of silver over his face. The horns on his head stuck out of the helmet and writhed as if alive.” Dana takes a sliver of the armor and “Loki’s armored glove was forming around her hand. It melted over her wrist and palm and fingers like liquid silver.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Underworlds: Revenge of the Scorpion King

Another adventure begins when Owen, Dana, Jon, and Sydney sneak onto Loki’s sled and end up in the Babylonian Underworld. Unsure of where they are or how they can stop Loki from waging war on their world, the friends will have to rely on each other to survive.

With the help of a new friend, the group must figure out a way to get to the top of the Scorpion King’s tower before Loki. The Revenge of the Scorpion King gives readers a glimpse of the Babylonian Underworld and the monsters of legends. The new monsters add excitement and suspense to the story. Because the events in the story are based on mythology, younger readers won’t be so scared that the events could happen to them. The scenes are not described in detail, which allows readers to enjoy the monster battle scenes.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • The children are chased by Underworld soldiers and a monster that is “a cross between a dragon and a giant crocodile.” The monster throws green flames at the children.
  • Loki tries to defeat the children throughout the story. In one scene, as Loki chases the children, he throws bolts at them. Dana throws her own bolts at Loki. “Bolt after bolt of silver light sprayed across the room, and Loki and Fenrir dived away.”
  • Thornviper, a snake-like monster, attacks the children. “Then a blast of flaming thorns from the creature’s mouth almost incinerated us.”
  • Furnace, an eight-foot metal monster blows flames at the children. “Furnace spat at us from his fiery jaws, coals spraying across the floor.”
  • Mad Dog attacks the children. “He twisted back and swiped at us with a massive paw. His claws caught a handful of shelves on the wall and tore them away. Then he opened his jaws wide, and flames shot out.”
  • Loki shoots a flame at Owen, which knocks him down. “Except that the bolt of silver light didn’t actually hit me. It flashed so close to my face that I thought I had died. Or gone blind. Or both.”
  • Birdman, a half-bird, half-man monster attacks the children. Dana hits him and his “upper beak split and flames leaped out.”
  • The scorpion king hits Loki with his stinger. “The armor at his shoulder burst open, and we saw white bone. Loki collapsed to his knees, clutching his shoulder. . .”
  • Loki takes the Babylonian monsters to earth, where they begin attacking Pinewood Bluffs. The monsters begin incinerating the town’s buildings.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Loki uses runes to control the monsters. He is trying to get the Tablets of Destiny, so he can control the monsters forever.
  • Owen uses Orpheus’s lyre to get the monsters to do as he commands. He also uses the lyre on the parents, so they will allow them to stay in Pinewood Bluffs and fight the monsters.
  • Dana has a piece of Loki’s armor that she uses as a weapon.
  • The scorpion king turns back into a human.

Spiritual Content

  • None

Underworlds: The Ice Dragon

Loki is bringing an army of Underworldly creatures to take over Odin’s throne. As part of Loki’s battle plan, he turned Pinewood Bluffs into one of his battlefields. Before Loki can continue his journey to Asgard, he must find the Chrystal Rune. Owen, Dana, Jon, and Sydney are determined to find the Chrystal Rune before Loki can and save their world.

The Ice Dragon is an action-packed story that introduces the Norse gods. The story also explains why children have been chosen to help fight Loki. The Ice Dragon features Loki’s shape-shifting abilities and gives the reader a glimpse into his trickster personality. Although some of the events in the book are a bit far-fetched, the last installment of the Underworlds series is one of the best because of the non-stop action.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When looking for the Chrystal Rune, rock goblins appear. “A small army of green-skinned creatures swarmed out from the rocks. They were as skinny as stick figures, with tight green skin, curling talons, and hoofed feet.” A man appears and helps the children. “While the man hacked a path through the goblins, we tore through the mines. . .”
  • Loki throws mistletoe at one of the gods. The god “cried out and fell to his knees. With a sigh as loud as the wind, he slid to the ground, eyes blank, body still.”
  • Loki attacks Asgard. The armies from different Underworlds unite to defeat him. The battle is described without detail.
  • Loki changes into an ice dragon and attacks the children. Owen stabs him with a sword. “The sword was deep in Loki’s chest . . . A howl came from the mound of ice chunks. The dragon was no more, and Loki appeared in its place, screaming and squirming and clutching his chest with both hands.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • The Valkyries are key characters. They are described as “the three daughters of the Norse god, Odin, and they chose which heroes died in battle.”
  • Loki kills Baldur. Later, as Baldur travels to the underworld, he comes back to life. Owen says, “Maybe because it wasn’t Ragnarok, after all? So Baldur couldn’t die?”
  • Loki’s daughter keeps Dana a prisoner in the Underworld. Loki’s daughter is described as “an old skull-headed lady with stringy white hair. Her hands were the bones of a skeleton, hanging together with stringy sinews. Her arms and legs, visible under her cloak – ugh! —were covered in rags that may or may not have been rotten flesh. When she cracked open her jaws, worms slithered out.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Dino-Mike and The Dinosaur Doomsday

When Dino-Mike’s father goes on an expedition to Antarctica, Dino-Mike doesn’t expect much to happen. But when the Bones siblings unexpectedly arrive, they bring danger with them. The Bones siblings wake up a Doomsday Dinosaur who could easily crush Dino-Mike, Shannon, and Jurassic Jeff.  The three think that the Doomsday Dinosaur is their worst nightmare, but there is more danger lurking beneath the Antarctic ice.

Dino-Mike and The Dinosaur Doomsday is an action-packed story that has Dino-Mike and his friends battling both the Bones siblings and ancient dinosaurs that come to life. Although the majority of the story is fictional, the story contains some facts about Antarctica and the dinosaurs that roamed. However, readers should not pick up the Dino-Mike series if their sole intention is to learn factual information about dinosaurs.

The series will appeal to younger readers because it is written with imagination and action. Scattered throughout the text are onomatopoeias that help create suspense. The story is easy to read and is a good series to pick up to interest beginning readers. Although Dino-Mike and the Dinosaur Doomsday is the seventh book in the series, the plot can be understood without reading the previous books.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • The Bones siblings cause an avalanche that “poured down on the base, covering it completely.” Dino-Mike’s father is trapped inside.
  • The Bones siblings wake up a Doomsday Dinosaur that breaks through the ice. “The ground beneath their feet opens up. CRUNNNCH! A geyser of ice thrust them thirty feet into the air.” Shannon almost falls into the crack in the ice, but Dino-Mike is able to save her.
  • The Bones siblings wake up burrowing dinosaurs that attack a group of people. “Jeff leaped backward just as one of the burrowing dinos burst through the ice, snapping its jaws. It was a narrow miss!” Dino-Mike is able to anticipate where the dinosaurs will pop out of the ice and keep the group safe.
  • A giant water dinosaur “chomped down on Dino-Mike” and “leaped into the air, and then arched its long body and dove back toward the water below.” The dinosaur tries to eat Dino-Mike, but he gets stuck in the dino’s throat and is sneezed out.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • The Bones siblings have a device that allows them to wake-up dinosaur fossils and control the dinosaurs. They also have a controller that allows them to open an “interdimensional portal.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

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