Reading Level: Junior High

Spin the Dawn

Maia loves to sew. She dreams not only of becoming a master tailor but becoming the imperial tailor. However, it’s a far-fetched dream as only boys are allowed to become tailors in A’landi. As her father’s only daughter and youngest child, Maia is expected to be quiet, obedient, and eventually raise a family. After her older brothers die in war and her father becomes too sick to sew, the burden of caring for her family becomes even greater, and her dream of becoming a tailor fades.

Maia cannot think of anything more abhorrent than abandoning her sewing, but she sees no alternative until her father is called upon by the emperor. The emperor is getting married and needs a new imperial tailor to create his betrothed’s wedding gowns. There is to be a competition of the best tailors in the land, and her father is invited to join. Maia’s father is too sick to travel to the capital, so Maia disguises herself as her father’s son and goes in her father’s place. Soon she finds herself competing with tailors who are decades more experienced than herself, who are willing to cheat, and who would possibly even be willing to commit murder in order to become the next imperial tailor.

Spin the Dawn has a lovable, interesting cast of characters that will hook readers. The land of A’landi is foreign, beautiful, and magical. The rich characters, court intrigues, and mysterious Lord Enchanter keep the tailoring competition from becoming cliché. Readers will be delighted when magic becomes a part of Maia’s life and will understand her moral struggle in deciding whether or not to use it.

While Part I of Spin the Dawn is a delightful read focused on the tailoring competition, Part II takes an entirely different track with Maia going on a journey to create three magical dresses for the emperor’s betrothed. The lore behind the dresses is fascinating, but the journey feels rushed and some conflicts are resolved too easily to be believable. Still, the Lord Enchanter accompanies Maia on her quest and their relationship is enchanting to watch. While Part II is weaker than Part I, the delicious dynamic between Maia and the Lord Enchanter will be enough to keep readers reading until the end.

Sexual Content

  • When speaking of the emperor, Maia’s brother says, “So you’ve heard how handsome he is from the village girls? Every one of them aspires to become one of the emperor’s concubines.” Maia says, “I have no interest in becoming a concubine.”
  • A village boy wants to marry Maia. “I thought with dread of Calu touching me, of bearing his children, of my embroidery frames collecting dust . . . I stifled a shudder.”
  • There are rumors that the emperor’s betrothed has a “lover. But it’s all court gossip. No one knows for certain.”
  • While pretending to be a boy, Maia had “been wearing at least three layers to help obscure my chest.”
  • When Norbu finds out that Maia is a girl disguised as a boy, he “touched my cheek and pressed his thigh against my leg. ‘I always thought you were a pretty boy. Perhaps a little kiss?’ “
  • Maia and the Lord Enchanter almost kiss. “He pressed a gentle kiss on the side of my lips, just missing my mouth. His lips were soft, despite the desert’s unrelenting dryness. A shiver flew up and down my spine, even though his breath was warm, and his arm around me even warmer.”
  • Maia and the Lord Enchanter kiss several times. “His lips pressed against mine. Gently at first, then with increasing urgency as I started to respond with my own need. His hand was tight on my waist, holding my wobbly knees steady.” Another time, “he tilted my chin and kissed me. Heat flooded me from my lips to my toes, and my heart hammered, its beat rushing and skipping to my head.”
  • Maia and the Lord Enchanter sleep together. “He kissed me, exploring my mouth with his tongue, then tantalizing my ears and my neck until I was dizzy and feverish. Finally, when my knees weakened and I couldn’t bear to stand any longer, Edan eased me onto his cloak against the soft, damp earth. Our legs entwined; then we became flesh upon flesh. All of me burned, my blood singing wildly in my ears.”
  • When Maia is captured by bandits, one of them says, “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve felt a woman?” Maia is then rescued.
  • Maia and the Lord Enchanter kiss goodbye. “I crushed my mouth against his, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his hips. His kisses moved to my cheeks, my neck, my breasts, back to my lips. Passionate, then tender. Then passionate again, as if we couldn’t make up our minds.”

Violence

  • A man breaks Maia’s hand. “Norbu stepped on my wrist, pinning my hand to the ground . . . He was carrying one of the heavy metal pans we used for smoothing our fabrics. I tried to yank my wrist away, but he was too strong. Too quick. He raised the pan high, then brought it crashing down onto my hand. Pain shot up from the tips of my fingers and flooded my brain. I screamed.”
  • When it’s discovered that Maia is a girl, she is thrown into a dungeon. The guards “struck me in the ribs and kicked me to my knees so that I landed in a rotten pile of hay, coughing and whimpering.”
  • Maia is whipped for lying to the emperor. “The guards tore my tunic and ripped off my chest strips—so fast I’d barely crossed my arms to cover myself when the whip burned into my skin, a stinging line of fire. Blood splattered onto the cold stone floor. . . Each lash bit into me, gashing my back, and I chewed on my lip so hard my mouth grew hot with blood.”
  • Maia is chased by wolves, which then turn on each other. “Soon I was forgotten as the wolves fought one another. The sight was gruesome, blood on fur on sand. I buried my face in my hands until the snarls became whimpers, then nothing.”
  • Maia stumbles upon an old battlefield. “Broken drums, slashed war banners, mounds of bones—human bones. And bodies . . . Some of the men had frozen to death. I could tell from their ashen faces, tightly drawn blue lips, and curved-in shoulders.”
  • Maia and the Lord Enchanters are attacked several times by bandits. Once, the Lord Enchanter “fired three arrows in quick succession. Vachir eluded each shot, but the men behind him weren’t as lucky. Two fell.”
  • Maia fights a demon. “I lunged forward and slammed my dagger into his shoulder. He cried out, an anguished scream that made my blood curdle.”
  • Maia is attacked by bandits. “I slashed at the one who’d spoken, but I missed his throat and scored his cheek instead. I made a long, jagged gash.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A fellow tailor “reached into his robes for a flask. He offered it to me, and after I declined, he took a long drink.”
  • Maia turns in early one night. In the morning, she discovered “It was a good thing I’d refused to go out with Norbu and the others. After their bath, they’d gone to the local drinking house, where Master Taraha and Master Garad drank themselves into a stupor. Now they were spending the day retching. Even from my table, I could smell it.”
  • While traveling, Maia and the Lord Enchanter stay the night with a group of travelers. The travelers pass around a wine gourd after dinner, and Maia accidentally gets drunk. “I was so mortified I simply took another drink. And another. The more I drank, the less it burned my throat . . . Normally I wouldn’t have stared at him so obviously, but the wine had washed away my caution.”

Language

  • Variations of the phrase “demon’s breath” are used a few times as profane exclamations.
  • A man says a country’s wine “tastes like horse piss.”
  • Damn is used a few times. The Lord Enchanter says, “I want to get out of this damned place.”

Supernatural

  • Maia “repaired amulets for travelers who asked it of me, though I didn’t believe in magic. Not then.”
  • A man says to Maia, “The A’landans are superstitious people. Constantly praying to their dead ancestors. If you believe in spirits and ghosts, I don’t see why you wouldn’t believe in magic.”
  • Maia meets the emperor’s Lord Enchanter. Maia “knew little of enchanters, lord or not, other than that they were rare and drifted from land to land.” Longhai tells Maia, “The Lord Enchanter advises Emperor Khanujin on many matters. He served the emperor’s father for years, yet he hasn’t aged a day!” Maia later finds out that the Lord Enchanter can transform into a hawk, which is his spirit form. “Feathers sprouted over his skin and spine. A pair of wings erupted from his shoulders and fanned down across his arms.”
  • Maia discovers that the scissors passed down from her grandmother are magical. “The scissors glided over the shawl, possessed in a way that my hands could only follow. Invisible threads repaired the cloth’s damage, giving it life anew, and colors from my paint pots soaked into the silk . . . Impossible as it appeared, the scissors not only cut but embroidered . . . My hand wouldn’t let go of the scissors, no matter how much I tried to pry them away, no matter how much I wanted to put them down. I was under a spell, drunk with their power.”
  • In Part II of Spin the Dawn, Maia is forced to go on a journey with the Lord Enchanter. On this journey, magic becomes a part of daily life. From enchanted carpets that fly, using magic to heal, and a magical tablecloth that creates an entire meal from nothing, Maia’s journey is filled with magic.
  • Maia is given an impossible task by the emperor’s betrothed. She is told to make a dress out of the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of the stars. These three dresses are called Amana’s dresses, and it is said that whoever possesses them will receive a wish from the goddess Amana herself.
  • Maia goes to an island filled with ghosts. While there she meets a demon—a creature who used to be a sorcerer but was cursed when he killed his master. The demon steals a piece of Maia’s soul, which means he can follow her anywhere.
  • When Maia finishes the dresses, the goddess Amana speaks to her. Amana’s statue in the temple glows and a “low and powerful, yet kind” voice says, “Ask me your heart’s greatest desire, Maia. And I shall grant it.”

Spiritual Content

  • It is mentioned in passing that “Toward the end of every month, [Maia] helped the women who were preparing their gifts for the dead—usually paper clothing, which was tricky to sew—to burn before the prayer shrines in honor of their ancestors.”
  • Maia lives in a land with many gods. The gods are often mentioned in passing. A tailor says, “The gods are listening to us, masters. Do you want to invoke their wrath?” The emperor’s betrothed says, “The imperial tailor is a master chosen by the gods. I expect him to be able to work with any material, whether it be glass or silk.” Another time, a man says, “The gods watch over me, I am very grateful.”
  • Two gods are more developed and become part of the plot. The first is the goddess Amana, whose magical dresses Maia is tasked with sewing. People often say, “Amana be with you.” The other is the sun god, who Maia indirectly encounters during her search for the laughter of the sun. While in the desert, the Lord Enchanter says, “The sun is worshipped in many lands. He’s a brilliant, brutal deity. And now we are in the heart of his kingdom.”
  • The Lord Enchanter says, “Pigs are smarter than people give them credit for! Where I grew up, we almost worshipped them.” Maia “couldn’t tell if he was joking.”
  • Maia confesses that she doesn’t “even trust the gods. Not to listen, anyway. My father prays to Amana every morning, every night. . . But Finlei and Sendo died.”
  • The Lord Enchanter grew up in a monastery. “The monks I grew up with were different from the ones here. Not generous and kind. And the gods we worshiped were harsh and unforgiving.”
  • Maia asks a monk, “What if there are no gods? What if there is only magic, only enchanters and demons and ghosts?” The monk replies, “You must keep your faith . . . The gods watch over us, but unlike the spirits of this realm, they do not interfere in our lives. Not unless we anger them greatly, or impress them.”

by Morgan Lynn

 

Guts

Raina wakes up with a terrible stomachache. Because her mom is also sick, no one is really worried. But Raina’s stomach continues to hurt, even after she’s returned to school. Raina worries about throwing up at school. She’s worried about her classmates giving her an illness. She worries about eating something that will make her sick. She’s worried about her best friend moving. Raina’s tummy trouble isn’t going away. All this worrying is making Raina sick. What will it take for Raina to conquer her fears?

Raina doesn’t just have tummy trouble; she is also being bullied by Michelle. Every time Michelle says something mean to Raina, she explodes and ends up in trouble. Raina only talks to her best friend about Michelle’s mean words. Everything gets worse when Raina’s best friend begins talking and giggling with Michelle. Many readers will relate to Raina’s fears and anxiety. In the end, Raina and Michelle learn that they actually have a lot in common, and they might just be able to become friends.

As Raina’s stomach problems become worse, her parents take her to the doctor and eventually to a therapist. Even though Raina is “perfectly healthy,” she learns that her constant worrying is making her sick. With the therapist’s help, Raina learns breathing exercises to calm herself down. When she tells her friends that she is in therapy, Raina thought her friends would freak out, but instead, they think it’s “no big deal.”

Guts deals with the difficult topic of panic attacks, anxiety, and puberty. Using both illustrations and text, Telgemeir tackles the problem with compassion and humor. Each page contains eight or fewer sentences. The easy vocabulary, simple sentences, and bright pictures make Guts accessible to all readers. The brightly colored pictures do an amazing job at showing the facial expressions of the characters, which brings the character’s emotions to the forefront. The engaging story explores feelings and lets readers know that sometimes people need help to conquer their fears.

Readers who enjoyed Guts should pick up Telgemeier’s graphic novel Ghost which shows a healthy sibling relationship and has a positive message. Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson is also an excellent graphic novel that contains a positive message.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • During a sleepover, the girls share their secrets. One girl says, “my dad gets drunk sometimes. He’s never dangerous, but a couple of times he’s yelled at me and my brother. It’s scary.”

Language

  • A girl at school calls Raina a “poopy diaper baby.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Top Secret Smackdown

Ravens have been stolen from the Tower of London! Mac B.’s top-secret mission? Travel to Iceland and retrieve the ravens. . . or Britain is ruined!

In Iceland, Mac discovers secret submarines, hungry polar bears, mysterious blueprints, and his old archnemesis! Is the KGB man behind this birdnapping? Can Mac get the ravens to safety? It’s time for an epic, top-secret smackdown between these two secret agents!

The third installment of the Mac B. series continues the punny fun. Mac learns more about the United Kingdom’s history as well as the difference between dolphins and porpoises. Mac discovers how a simple story can become an important legend. The queen of England orders Mac to travel to Iceland and solve the mystery. Even though the majority of the story focuses on the mystery of the missing ravens, Mac’s difficulties with his mother’s boyfriend also plays a part in the story.

The queen’s outlandish behavior will make readers giggle. Readers will enjoy the conclusion because it ties all of the events together in a unique way. Top Secret Smackdown mixes humorous puns, a mysterious enemy, and wrestling to create a fun story that will entertain even the most reluctant readers. Short sentences and simple vocabulary will help readers build confidence. Large purple and orange illustrations appear on almost every page, which helps readers envision the story’s events.

Mac tells his own story with humor and puts a spotlight on the absurd. Younger readers will love the adventure, intrigue, and interesting characters. Although Top Secret Smackdown can be read as a stand-alone book, for maximum enjoyment the books should be read in order. Readers who enjoy silly, illustrated stories may also want to read Two Dogs in a Trench Coat Series by Julie Falatko.

Sexual Content

  • The story implies that Mac’s mother’s boyfriend stays the night when he thinks, “usually on Saturday mornings, my mom’s boyfriend, Craig, was camped out in front of the TV watching WrestleFest.”

Violence

  • When Mac goes to Iceland, he looks for clues, and “someone hit me on the head with something very heavy and knocked me out.” When he woke up, Mac was tied to a chair.
  • The president of Iceland is telling Mac a story. She acts out part of the story when “she punched me lightly on my arm. When I tried to block it, she punched me harder in the ribs.”
  • The KGB man ties Mac to a chair. Mac breaks out of the ropes and pretends he is a wrestler on WrestlingFest. Mac “jumped onto the KGB Man’s back. He shook me off. . . I jumped on his back again. The KGB man stood up and threw me to the floor. He tore off his shirt.” During the scuffle, Mac throws a chair, accidentally sparked TNT, and “something exploded. The camera zapped. Its wires fried. The submarine was filling with water.”
  • When Mac escapes the sinking submarine, “there was another blast. . .pieces of metal came flying and knocked my legs out from under me.” Mac falls into the river but is saved.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • The KGB man calls a group of people “fools.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Mac is afraid that he might drown, he thinks about Father Thames. “Some people say there is a river god named Father Thames who lives in the waters that run through London. They say he has lived there for a long, long time.” Mac thought he saw Father Thames, but then he realized it was a dolphin.

 

 

Girl Gone Viral

Girl Gone Viral focuses on Opal Hopper, a bright, technology-loving student who attends a prestigious high school in the future. Social media has become even more ever-present, and the biggest trend is virtual reality. Opal Hopper’s father was a Silicon Valley tech engineer who disappeared mysteriously when she was a girl. She’s determined to win a contest where the prize is a meeting with Howie Mendelsohn, a powerful and reclusive tech mogul who she believes will have answers about her father’s disappearance.

For their contest entry, Opal and her friends make a WAVE, which is a VR performance that functionally resembles a live YouTube video. They go viral for using the audience’s biometric feedback data to reveal that a universally reviled celebrity has more sympathizers than anyone realizes. They call their show “Behind the Scenes” and, despite losing the contest, continue to make videos in the hopes of becoming famous enough to meet Howie Mendelsohn. As their following grows, Opal is exposed to the lives of famous Silicon Valley innovators and has to make decisions about the type of public figure she wants to be.

In the middle of all the drama and stress, the book begins to focus on the US presidential elections. Opal and her friends are shocked to find that a fringe presidential candidate from the “Luddite Party” has won the election. As the name suggests, Luddites want to revert America to its pre-information technology state. Politically savvy readers will recognize the characters’ reactions to the election, as they directly parallel the reactions to America’s November 2016 presidential election. Opal finds that many of her friends and acquaintances hold Luddite sympathies, and she is forced to ask difficult questions: Is there something dehumanizing about information technology? Is there something real life can give her that a computer can’t? These questions form some of the central themes of the book.

The beginning of this book may be difficult for some readers to dig into as the narrative is quick to introduce its multiple fictional technologies. The excitement of social media, technology, and celebrity worship is difficult to portray in a novel, and the story often falters in holding the reader’s attention. Multiple minor characters revolve in and out of the story and these characters become difficult to keep track of. Some readers may find that the slow pacing doesn’t hold their attention, but readers who enjoy political commentary and speculative fiction may find the world-building and details intriguing.

The main character is nuanced and real. She is well-written, but readers may dislike her for her ambition and for the difficult decisions she makes. The story captures the current concerns around Silicon Valley: its reclusive moguls, its high-speed technology, the strain it takes on mental health, and the concern that electronics can’t replace human contact. Readers will recognize their own fears in the book’s treatment of all-consuming social media crazes and out-of-control entrepreneurship.

The most intriguing commentary is the political allegory that takes the name of the “Luddite Party,” a fringe political party whose platform centers around rejecting technology. While Opal is purely pro-technology, many people around her have doubts. The book never gives a defining stance on the matter, and the reader is left to decide for themselves whether a world without human contact is a good thing or not.

Sexual Content

  • In their first year of high school, Opal and Shane had a “drunken awkward kiss.”
  • During her early web broadcasts, Opal is sexually harassed by internet trolls: “Even her boobs are trembling. B or C cup??… Anyone have a tape-measure?”
  • During a virtual web show, a guy “rushes up on stage and gropes” Opal. Even though the entire performance is electronic and virtual, she is shaken and uncomfortable.
  • The characters have access to the biometric feedback of their web show’s viewers. Moyo tells Opal that “There’s a small pool of viewers, mostly men, whose eyes blink rapidly during your performance, their faces shake, and their headsets are zoomed into your—”.
  • Opal’s boyfriend Moyo is the main love interest in the book. In one scene, they are “curled up in his bed, half dressed, half wrapped up in his white sheets.” The book never goes into more detail about their activity.
  • While discussing strategies to gain more viewers for her web show, a Silicon Valley mogul tells Opal to be more open and vulnerable with her audience. He does so by telling her: “Sex sells. I’m not saying you need to get naked or anything. . .Open up a bit more.” Opal ends up telling her audience of millions about her relationship with Moyo.
  • Enthusiastic fans sweep the characters up in what Opal can only describe as a “fangasm” (portmanteau of fan and orgasm).
  • Opal buys a piece of technology called “FondrFoil” for her and her boyfriend to use. It is a technology that allows long-distance couples to simulate physical intimacy. “Slowly, I curve my hand around Moyo’s ribs, squeezing them between his body and my mattress until I land on the small of his back. It’s warm, like real skin. Soft. It gives perfectly. Moyo’s trembling, and naturally I go in to kiss him, but that’s not part of the experience. So instead, I pull him in closer.” They don’t go farther than that, and eventually give up on the technology.

Violence

  • Opal is afraid that her friend Shawn will attempt suicide after having been rejected from his top-choice college. After being unable to find him on campus, she and her friend rush to the nearest train station in fear that he’s thrown himself in front of a train.
  • The Luddite Party “shocks children with electricity for spending too much time on their phones,” which is a pretty clear and clumsy allusion to conversion therapy.
  • Suicide is discussed sometimes, but never in-depth. It’s mentioned in passing that a student at Opal’s school once took his own life after being rejected from an Ivy League.
  • Amber, a character Opal contacts in the hope of finding answers about her dad, reveals that her father committed suicide.
  • A prevailing theory around Opal’s father’s disappearance is that he may have taken his own life. The characters frequently discuss how the high-stakes world of Silicon Valley is extremely damaging to one’s mental health.
  • When Opal finally discovers what happened to her dad, she sees a virtual-reality recreation of his death. A man “rams my dad in the face with his elbow, and I hear a crack as the back of [his] skull smashes into the moss-covered rock.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Opal and her friends sneak off campus multiple times to drink alcohol. Opal is scared that her friend Shane may have an alcohol problem.
  • There’s a rumor “that theater department stores booze underneath the soundboard,” which Opal remembers when some students act drunk during a school dance.
  • While experiencing Internet fame, Moyo says, “I think this is what drugs feel like.”
  • A character is described as “drunk on fame.”

Language

  • The characters occasionally say “fuck” during tense moments. Shane says, “I’m fucked” when he doesn’t get into college; Opal occasionally says “what the fuck?” There are twenty-two usages of “fuck” in the book; however, none are sexual in nature.
  • “Freaking” is used four times.
  • “Shit” is used multiple times per chapter.
  • Opal says, “I keep getting screwed by this company,” and, “Karma finds another way to screw you over.”
  • Opal’s classmates note that she is “such a bitch,” and Opal describes this gossip by saying, “I’m the girl our classmates are bitching about.” She also affectionately refers to her friend once as a “son of a bitch.”
  • “Damn” and “goddamn” are both used infrequently.
  • Characters occasionally say “Jesus Christ” or “for Christ’s sake.”
  • Characters say “Oh my God,” “thank God,” “God knows,” “for the love of God,” and “dear God.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Opal’s family celebrates Christmas, but she remarks that her father was Jewish.
  • Howie Mendelsohn references the Bible story of Ahab and Jezebel.

by Caroline Galdi

The Boy Who Crashed to Earth

BOOM! CLANG! CRASH! D.J. and Gina are totally ordinary kids. But Hilo isn’t! Hilo just fell out of the sky and doesn’t know where he came from, what he’s doing on Earth, or why going to school in only your underwear is a BAD idea! But Hilo is excited to have a friend, D.J. Even when Hilo tries to blend in with the rest of the kids at D.J.’s school, he just doesn’t understand earth’s customs.

Soon the three discover that Hilo wasn’t the only thing to fall to earth. Can the trio unlock the secrets of Hilo’s past? Can Hilo SURVIVE a day at school? Find out in Hilo – a laugh-out-loud, epic story of friendship, adventure, and occasionally a mutant space robot.

Readers of all ages will fall in love with the main characters D.J. and Hilo. Readers will relate to D.J. who worries that he is boring and eagerly helps Hilo. The relationship between the two is fun and endearing. Hilo says he is lucky to have D.J. because when “a boy fell from the sky, and all you wanted to do is protect him. You saved him by throwing a robot off a cliff, leaping down a pitch-black hole, fighting a giant metal bug with a stick. And a whole lot more!” In order to help Hilo, D.J. helps Hilo battle robots.  In the battle scenes, the characters spend more time running away than fighting and none of the characters are seriously injured.

Without sounding like a school lesson, The Boy Who Crashed to Earth introduces new vocabulary through Hilo’s speech. For example, Hilo says, “Crazy. AD.J.ective. Informal. ‘He was acting like a crazy person.’ Mad, insane, out of one’s mind. Deranged.” One negative aspect of the story is the juvenile humor. For example, Hilo likes to talk about his silver underwear and he loves to burp. Despite the juvenile humor, Hilo portrays D.J.’s family in a positive light and shows the importance of helping others.

 Brightly colored illustrations will capture readers’ attention, but readers will want to keep turning the pages because of the engaging story and the likable characters. The detailed illustrations show exaggerated facial expressions which will help readers understand the characters’ changing emotions.

 The Boy Who Crashed to Earth introduces complex characters that readers will love. The reader only sees snippets of Hilo’s past, which creates both suspense and mystery. The action-packed story will keep readers flipping the pages until the very end. Readers will be eager to read the next book in the series, Saving the Whole Wide World.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A giant robot chases Hilo and D.J. When D.J. falls, Hilo shoots the robot with lasers. The scene is illustrated over six pages.
  • In order to distract the school secretary, Hilo sets a wild raccoon loose in the school office.
  • “A cybernetic formicidae! A robot ant!” chases D.J. and Hilo. All three of them fall over a cliff, and when D.J. is in danger of being hurt, Hilo shoots the robot with lasers. The robot is disabled but eventually comes back. The robot and Hilo fall over another cliff. The robot is destroyed and Hilo falls apart. The action is illustrated over twelve pages.
  • A giant robot centipede grabs Hilo and takes him underground. D.J and Gina go in after Hilo. When the centipede opens its mouth, Hilo shoots a laser inside of the creature. The creature is disabled. The scene is illustrated over three pages.
  • Giant robot insects are building a robot, and Hilo tries to stop the creatures by zapping them with lasers. The robot comes to life and begins shooting lasers while the robot bugs chase the kids. During the battle, the robot is able to capture Hilo. In the end, Hilo opens a portal and sends the robot through. The epic battle is illustrated over 28 pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • “Holy Mackerel” is used as an expression occasionally.
  • A classmate tells D.J., “Dude. Your pal is a real freak.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Snowhook

Fourteen-year-old Hannah isn’t thrilled about spending time in her family’s remote Alaskan cabin. She’d rather hang out with her friends or spend time at the mall. Instead, she’s learning survival skills that she doesn’t think she’ll ever need. Then, a massive ice storm traps her family, and Hannah’s mom is desperately low on insulin. With no power and no way to contact the outside world, Hannah decides to take matters into her own hands. Hannah sneaks away with the family’s four dogs and an old dogsled.

Hannah only plans to go as far as the nearest neighbor, who should have a working phone. But unexpected events lead her into the wilderness with a boy who disagrees with her at every turn. As the two teens fight worsening weather, Hannah must use all her skills to get help for her family before they all freeze to death in the wilderness.

Surviving the wilderness in the middle of a blizzard should lead to exciting events; however, Snowhook will only leave the reader frustrated. Hannah wants to be a hero, but instead, she comes off as an ungrateful, whiny brat who spends most of her time complaining. When her neighbor Peter joins her, the two spend almost all of their time yelling at each other. Even though the two are able to survive some dangerous situations, luck plays a bigger role in their survival than skill.

In addition to the two unlikable characters, there are many unanswered questions. For instance, Hannah and Peter must run from Peter’s aunt who has PTSD from being in the army; however, after they escape the aunt’s story is never told. In addition, Peter and Hannah have a strange argument about immigrants, Peter hints that he hates his father, and he is also clearly afraid of dogs. But in the end, none of these issues are discussed or resolved. Instead, once the two get to town, the story abruptly ends with no real closure.

Snowhook’s slow pace, difficult vocabulary, and argumentative characters make the story as difficult as walking through a snowdrift. Readers interested in cold weather survival stories should leave Snowhook on the shelf, and choose instead Not if I Save You First by Ally Carter or Trapped by Michael Northrop.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When Hannah pounds on a neighbor’s door, the neighbor hits her in the chest with the butt of a rifle. “Hannah turned to see who had finally opened the door and immediately felt a hot, stinging sensation in her chest. Then she was lying on her back in the snow, unable to breathe.” Later Hannah learns that the woman was suffering from PTSD and often believed she was back in Afghanistan. The woman’s nephew, Peter, helps Hannah escape.
  • When Hannah and Peter leave the house, the woman shoots at them.
  • When Peter calls Hannah’s sister weird, “Hannah launched herself at him. His bent-over head and rounded shoulders received the brunt of her shove, and he landed with a whomp in the soft snow on the trailside.”
  • Hannah’s sled dogs fight. “Rudy was on top of Bogey for a long time, growling and screaming, tearing at Bogey’s face and ears, trying to roll over him. Bogey crouched, digging his paws into the ground and using his powerful legs to keep him upright, protecting his throat and trying to bite at whatever part of Rudy came near him. . . In a split second, Bogey was up. His whole mouth dripped blood and phlegm and spit, and his ears were flat against his head, with the crest of his skull puffed up twice its normal size.” The fight was described over three pages and the dogs are not seriously injured.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Hannah’s mom has diabetes and has to give herself an insulin injection.
  • When Peter is injured, Hannah gives him Tylenol for the pain.

Language

  • Profanity is used occasionally and includes asshole, bullshit, holy crap, crap, goddamn, damn, hell, jackass, shit.
  • Throughout the story, Hannah and Peter argue and call each other names including idiot, jerk, asshole, pansy-ass, shithead, chicken, and jackass.
  • One of the characters uses “Jesus” as an exclamation. For example, “By the Jesus, it’s cold.”
  • Peters says his dad is “chickenshit.”
  • Peter and Hannah argue and Peter calls Hannah an “idiot.” In return, Hannah calls Peter a “jackass.” In one fight Peter tells Hannah, “You’re just a snotty little city girl. Go to hell.”
  • When Hannah and Peter try to find safety, Peter yells, “If you hadn’t brought those goddamn dogs, if you hadn’t yelled and banged on the door, then everything would have been okay!”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Survival Tails: Endurance in Antarctica

The sled dog Samson can’t wait to be a part of Ernest Shackleton’s historic voyage to Antarctica. Samson wants the honor and recognition that will come if they complete the dangerous voyage. He is eager to feel the snow under his paws and the wind on his face as he races across the ice fields. Samson wants to be a leader and help the humans survive on the unexplored continent.

While in the kennel waiting for Shackleton to decide which dogs to take, Samson meets Bummer. Unlike Samson, Bummer is scared to go on an ice-filled adventure that may end in death. Bummer knows he isn’t as big or as strong as the other dogs. His only goal is to survive the dangerous icy weather.

Bummer’s worse fears come true when their ship, the Endurance, becomes trapped in sea ice, leaving the dogs and men with no way home. Their journey quickly stops being about glory and becomes about survival. Samson, Bummer, and the other dogs will have to put aside their differences and band together to rescue the humans—and themselves.

Instead of focusing on the human explorers, Survival Tails: Endurance in Antarctica is told from the sled dogs’ point of view. Throughout the journey, Samson, Bummer, and several of the other dogs’ unique personalities come to life. Instead of only focusing on a dog’s good or bad qualities, Charman creates imperfect characters who make mistakes. Much like the humans, the dogs are at times prideful, loyal, hardworking, and heroic.

Survival Tails: Endurance in Antarctica uses historically accurate facts to bring the harsh conditions of the Antarctic voyage to life. Much of the action comes from the rivalry between the dogs and the harsh conditions the animals must face. However, the friendship between Samson and Bummer will keep readers interested until the very end. Readers will fall in love with the dogs and learn about the complicated nature of friendship as well as the importance of forgiveness.

A tale of bravery, friendship, and sacrifice, Survival Tails: Endurance in Antarctica will entertain both animal lovers and history buffs. The story has several surprises that highlight how the smallest dog is capable of heroic deeds. Four black and white pictures are scattered throughout the book and help bring the scenes into sharper focus. At the end of the book, readers will find a glossary, as well as more historical information about the Endurance expedition. Although this story is the second book in the Survival Tails series, each book is an independent story and can be read without the context of the other books. Survival Tails: Endurance in Antarctica will leave readers with new knowledge of history and has a conclusion that will make readers smile.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A pack of dogs chases a cat, Mrs. Chippy. Bummer sees “fur and jaws and tails, and Amundsen leading the pack as they closed in on the terrified cat. She hissed at Amundsen as he drew nearer, striking out at his face with extended claws as Amundsen let out a roar of rage and reared back as Mrs. Chippy frantically lashed out again and again, trying to keep him and the other dogs at bay.” The cat is able to jump away from the dogs, but falls into the ocean. Bummer saves the cat.
  • After being caged up too long, the dogs are let off the ship. Some of the dogs begin to fight. “Amundsen launched himself at another dog, going for his throat. The other dogs immediately joined in, using their jaws and claws to bite and scratch, slamming their huge bodies into each other.”
  • When Samson tries to warn the dogs that they are on dangerously think ice, Amundsen thinks Samson is going to attack. When Amundsen sees Samson, “Amundsen leaped into the air, meeting Samson in a tumble of fur and limbs, and they rolled together, sliding to a stop right on the top of the blackening ice. There was a loud crack, and both dogs froze as small fissures snaked across the ice, creeping toward them.” The dogs fall into the ocean, but are rescued.
  • While out on the ice, Bummer sees a leopard seal try to bite a human named Crean. “As if out of nowhere, a leopard seal emerged from the water, launching itself into the air, its mouth open wide, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth, aiming straight for Crean.” Bummer catches the seal by the neck. The seal, “rolled over, forcing Bummer beneath it, crushing his legs, but Bummer still held on, refusing to let their one chance of a good meal escape them. . . Wolf and Hercules took the seal’s tail and dragged it off Bummer, while Judge and Amundsen circled, blocking any way the seal might have of escaping into the water.” The human “finished the seal off with a single shot from his gun. The sound echoed around the ice, stunning them into silence.”
  • While sleeping, a fissure opens and a man falls into the ocean. “There was a loud splash and a yell as one of the men inside fell into the glacial water below.” One of the dogs pulls the man to safety.
  • When a pup is out in the ocean on a rock, Bummer notices a black shadow and races to the pup. “Bummer roared and leaped from his rock, pushing Roger out of the way as the leopard seal’s huge body connected with his, sending him flying into the water. The back of Bummer’s head slammed onto a rock lying beneath the surface. . . But the leopard seal was much quicker in the water. It bit down hard on Bummer’s paw, and Bummer yelped in agony as he felt the bones in his leg crush. . . There was a sudden bang, and the seal dropped beside Bummer, landing in the water with a loud splash.” Bummer is injured and his foot needs to be amputated.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Six Months Later

In May, Chloe fell asleep in study hall. When she wakes up, snow covers the ground, and she can’t remember the last six months of her life. In the six months she can’t remember, her life has been transformed. Before, she was a struggling student, and college was out of her reach. She also had a hopeless crush on popular jock Blake. Now, Chloe’s SAT scores have given her a chance to attend a top college, and Blake is her boyfriend.

Instead of being disapproving, her mother smiles at her. Instead of hiding a crush, the boy of her dreams is in her arms. Instead of sharing her secrets with her best friend Maggie, Maggie won’t even look at her. Instead of feeling thrilled when Blake wraps his arms around Chloe, she feels revolted. How can Chloe figure out what happened to her? As she looks for the truth, Chloe realizes that remembering the past comes with hidden dangers.

The mystery behind Chloe’s new world will draw the reader in as they follow Chloe’s attempt to discover how she changed so much in just six months. The mystery will capture readers’ attention, but they will keep turning the pages because Chloe is a relatable character who struggles to understand who she is. Chloe and her mother have a turbulent relationship, and although Chloe wants to make her mother proud, she isn’t sure if that is even possible. Teens will understand Chloe’s parental dilemma. Even though Chloe loves her parents, her life’s path cannot be carved out by them.

Six Months Later isn’t just a great mystery, it also has hot romantic scenes. Now that Blake is Chloe’s boyfriend, she doesn’t understand why kissing him feels so wrong. And even though Chloe doesn’t ever remember talking to bad boy Adam, when she looks at him she knows that there is something there. Although a love triangle isn’t a new concept, Six Months Later perfectly weaves the love triangle into the mystery.

With relatable teen conflict, a unique mystery, and a peculiar love interest, Six Months Later will keep readers guessing until the very end. As Chloe unravels the past, she realizes that people’s motives are often complicated and misunderstood. This book will entertain as well as teach about the importance of forgiveness. Six Months Later is a fast-paced story with likable characters that will keep readers up late into the night.

Sexual Content

  • When Blake picks Chloe up for school, she forces herself “to kiss him when he leans in. It’s still stiff and awkward, but it will get better.”
  • When Blake and Chloe kiss, she tips “my head, letting him catch my lips. It’s soft and warm and so damn weird. I feel my shoulders tense, my hands like dead weights at the end of my arms.”
  • Blake and Chloe kiss, but she doesn’t think it feels right. Once when Blake kisses her, she thinks, “I’ve been kissed enough to know when someone’s doing it right. And Blake is technically doing it right, tilting my head just a little. Urging my mouth to open for him. And he’s pressing into me just enough to make things interesting, without mashing his kibbles and bits against my thigh or anything.” When Blake kisses her, Chloe thinks about Adam. “And God, it’s wrongity-wrong-wrong, but for one second, I close my eyes tight and pretend I’m with him. I think of blue eyes and a low laugh and all the things I should never think of now.”
  • After Chloe breaks up with Blake, she kisses Adam. “His lips are soft and hard together, sending electric shocks through every inch of me. I’m heavy and trembling under his kiss, my half-frozen hands fisting in the front of his shirt, soaking in his warmth. My mouth slides open with a sign, and the kiss goes on and on. . . I can’t think about a single thing outside of the feel of his arms and the taste of his mouth against mine.”
  • Adam and Chloe kiss several times. While they are talking, Adam “leans in, kissing me once, long and soft and deep enough that I almost forget where I am.”
  • At lunch, Adam and Chloe sit in his car. Adam “pulls me toward him on the bench seat. And then his lips are trailing along my jay wand I couldn’t spell distracted if someone paid me it feels so good. We kiss until we’re running dangerously close to second base during school hours.”
  • Adam tries to get Chloe to stay away from him. When he does, she tugs “him hard by the lapels of his coat because he’s so tall that going up on tiptoes isn’t going to be enough. I kiss him, and at first his lips are hard and unrelenting. . . I ignore it. . . Adam’s hands drop to my shoulders and then he’s kissing me like he’s absolutely starved for it.”
  • Because of her memory disturbance, Chloe is afraid that she might have had sex. “My stomach does an ugly barrel roll. I take a breath and press my lips together. Could I forget something like that?”
  • When Chloe tells Adam that she loves him, he “pulls me in. His kiss is sweet and lingering, his hands trailing up my back and into my hair. It pushes out all of the cold and the fear of this night, leaving me warm and strong.”
  • When Chloe’s dad stands up for Adam, she thinks, “it’s strange. My dad defending a boy I’m making out with on a regular basis is pretty much a portent of impending apocalypse.”

Violence

  • When Chloe was in elementary school, Ryan teased Chloe’s friend and Chloe hit Ryan in the nose. “I can still practically feel that moment; the sharp, shocking pain in my knuckles and the sickening feeling that went through me when Ryan’s nose spurted blood.”
  • Chloe finds her psychiatrist “slumped over the desk. There’s a giant red-black puddle beneath her, all over the pretty desk planner.”
  • A girl hits Adam. Chloe sees “something flying by my face and then I hear the sickening smack of flesh against flesh. Adam’s jaw whips back, and I cry out as I see blood bloom on his lip.”
  • When someone threatens to hurt Chloe’s friends, she grabs a syringe and explains, “I pull the cap off and lunge. I stab the closest thing I can find and push the plunger hard and fast. . . He roars and slams his hand against my arm, batting me away. The needle still dangles from his neck when he punches at me again. This time I’m faster. I dodge left.” The man is not seriously injured.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Adam’s grandmother is an alcoholic. When Chloe goes to Adam’s apartment, she sees “the row of liquor bottles” on the back counter.
  • When Adam’s grandmother answers the door, Chloe wonders “if the smell of booze coming off her is any indication of how she’s spent her evening.”
  • In the past, Adam broke into a pharmacy and stole drugs. Adam stole drugs for his grandmother because “she gets confused a lot. She had a period when she flushed her medicine down the toilet all of the time.” The insurance wouldn’t pay for more, so he stole more.
  • While making dinner together, Chloe’s dad grabs a Samuel Adams.
  • As a secret study, some teens are given a drug called benzodiazepine, which causes “vivid dreams. Increased cognitive ability. Dry mouth. Excessive thirst. Sleepwalking. Headaches. Paranoid delusions. And my personal favorite—memory disturbances.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, crap, bitch, damn, pissed, hell, freaking, and shit.
  • Fucking is used once. Adam says, “He sold it to me as my only way out of this shit-hole town and I bought it, Chloe. I bought it hook, line, and fucking sinker.”
  • “Oh God” and “God” are frequently used as exclamations.
  • Chloe calls someone a “twisted bastard.”
  • A girl asks Chloe, “Do you think only sluts wear red?”
  • When Chloe wakes up confused, she wonders if a boy is playing a joke on her. Then she thinks, “Blake isn’t into that kind of juvenile crap. He’s on the Bully Patrol, for God’s sake.”
  • When a boy questions Chloe, she thinks, “Oh my God, I’m like a freaking parrot. Words, Chloe. Find some and spit them the hell out!”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Chloe says “Thank God” occasionally. For example, when she wakes up confused and finds her cell phone, she thinks, “Thank God.”
  • Chloe and Maggie have a fight and don’t talk for months. Chloe goes to Maggie’s house to talk and says, “I follow her out of the kitchen, praying my knees will stay strong and I will not start trembling like the nervous wreck that I am.”
  • Chloe refers to God occasionally. For example, when Chloe is on an airplane she thinks, “I’m flying two thousand miles, hoping to God to end up right back where I started.”

 

Freya and the Magic Jewel

When eleven-year-old Freya hears a Doomsday prophecy from her magical jewel, she isn’t sure what to make of it. Mere seconds after the prediction, she receives a mysterious invitation to Asgard Academy from the powerful Odin, who commands her to “bring her magic” to Asgard.

With encouragement from her twin, Frey, Freya reluctantly heads out on the new adventure. Freya’s first challenge begins before she even steps foot in Asgard. While trying to navigate the treacherous Bifrost Bridge, she drops her magical jewel off the bridge, and a sneaky pair of dwarves take her jewel down to the world of Midgard!

Without that jewel, Freya thinks she is powerless. But with the help of her pod-mates at Asgard, Freya discovers a world that is bigger and more mysterious than she ever imagined! There, she learns the true terror of Ragnarok, the doomsday that her jewel warned her about, and what it could mean for Asgard Academy if she and her new friends, the Thunder Girls, don’t stop it!

Fans of Goddess Girls will enjoy this new series, which focuses on Norse Mythology. At first, Freya comes across as shallow because of her intense love of fashion and her assumption that everyone male will find her crush-worthy; she is the goddess of love and beauty after all! On the positive side, Freya has a positive attitude even when times are difficult. In the end, Freya learns that her best ability is fostering friendship. Readers will relate to Freya, who wonders if she is “in-like” with someone, and worries about hurting someone’s feelings if she does not like them in the same way.

Freya soon learns that Mason has a crush on her. In order to win her heart, he promises to “rebuild Asgard’s wall to protect her, if only she will give me her heart in return, plus the sun and the moon.” Freya doesn’t want to make the promise, but she knows the Asguard’s wall must be rebuilt. She reluctantly agrees because she doesn’t think Mason can succeed at building the wall. Although this is one of the main plot points, Mason is delegated to the background, so the ending falls flat.

Readers who are unfamiliar with Norse mythology will want to read the glossary first. The story introduces Norse mythology in a kid-friendly way, while still staying true to the original stories. Readers will enjoy the Norse world, Loki’s mischievous pranks, and the fast pace of the story. Although the story lacks depth, the characters are stereotypical, and Freya is not well developed, younger readers will enjoy getting to know Freya and the other Norse god and goddesses.

Sexual Content

  • Mason thinks he has won Freya’s heart. “Then he closed his eyes and leaned forward, puckering up.” Freya gives him something other than a kiss.

Violence

  • The large painted friezes that covered a wall come to life. “At first it was only the blinking of eyes or the twitch of a hand, as if those carved, painted heroes were waking up from a long sleep. . . And because they were all warriors, they immediately went into battle mode. Painted hands grabbed turnips, carrots, and crab apples from painted fields and trees or from platters on carved feast tables, depending on the scene. Arms drew back. Fists punched forth from the friezes. . . The moment food was lobbed out of a frieze, it temporarily turned real.” The kids had to evacuate.
  • Dwarves make a boar that comes alive. “Waving their arms, the four dwarfs chased the boar, trying to shoo it out of their workshop without getting stuck by its sharp tusks. . . Alfrigg wasn’t fast enough, though. Oomph! The board head-butted him in the rear.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • Freya has a marble that contains cats and a cart. When Freya says “catnap” the cats and cart grow. The first time Freya uses the marble, she thinks “if anyone had been watching at that moment, the cats and cart would’ve seemed to instantly disappear. However, in reality, they had only shrunk down to a single cat’s-eye marble.”
  • Fraya has a magical jewel that can tell the future. The jewel “had the power to show Freya the future, sometimes it only revealed bits of information. It didn’t always answer her questions, either, so she could never be sure what it did or didn’t know.”
  • A message acorn had “cute faces and hats, and sweet voices.” One acorn “hopped right up into her (Freya’s) palm.”
  • Sometimes characters use vine slides to travel. Freya gives her brother a vine slide, which “could enlarge back into the huge spiral slide for Frey anytime he wished to travel through it. And then shrink anytime he wasn’t using it.”
  • Ice giants appeared normal-sized, but “magically shot up to five times their normal height” and made it snow.
  • While trying to enter Asgard, the Bifrost became hot for the frost giants. “When the frost giants were huge, the bridge probably sensed they were troublemakers and was trying to make them turn back from Asgard by giving them, and only them, a case of hot foot.”
  • When Freya drops her jewel, “gnarled hands reached up and snatched at Brising (the jewel) like snapping turtles. Fingers captured it before it could even hit the ground.”
  • Doors appear in thin air and allow people to travel to different locations.
  • Freya drinks juice that won’t make her immortal, but will make her “stay the same age.”
  • Several characters are shapeshifters. Others can grow bigger.
  • One character has a box that “expanded into a box large enough to hold many apples.”
  • Freya puts her toes and nose against a tree. “Whoosh! Instantly she found herself standing inside a hollowed-out space in the very middle of the tree trunk. . .”
  • One of the characters only has a head.

Spiritual Content

  • The story focuses on Norse mythology and includes Norse gods and goddesses as characters.
  • The main character, Fraya, is the goddess of love and beauty. She is also a seer. Another character, Odin, was “the leader of the Asgard gods and the supreme rule of all the worlds.” (This is not a complete list of the Norse gods that appear in the book.)

Shooter

Following the lives of five high school students that were trapped in a horrific high school shooting, Shooter is called the modern-day Breakfast Club. Alice is a shy, introverted writer who spends a lot of time worrying about her autistic big brother, Noah. Isabelle is the perfect egomaniac princess who seems to run the school and have a perfect life. Hogan is the giant, scary ex-football player who gave up on life after his brother’s death. Xander is the awkward student photographer who has a hard time understanding other people. These five students would never, ever be friends with each other.

But when a lockdown drill starts, they are forced to hide in a bathroom, where they realize their pasts are all intertwined in some way. Locked in a room with no way out, they gain an understanding of one another and start to care for each other. However, everything is thrown for a twist when Isabelle receives a text that the lockdown is not a drill—there is a live shooter on campus. When things cannot seem to get worse, they discover the shooter has planted a bomb on campus and plans to blow up the whole student body. They have to stop him before time runs out!

Shooter is about who the main characters really are versus how others perceive them. Isabelle seems to be a perfect princess, but after her trip to the Dominican Republic she hates how materialistic her life has become. Alice may appear like a successful writer with a great future ahead of her, but she worries about leaving her brother when she goes to college. Hogan might seem hateful and violent but deep down he still has not gotten over his brother’s death. Xander does not mean to be awkward, mean, or insensitive, and in actuality is very kind and thoughtful. The author even develops the character of Maxwell, the school shooter, by giving him a backstory and personality—rather than just leaving him as an undeveloped, evil villain. With this, Pignat teaches readers that everyone has a past that has shaped who they are and that we should get to know people before we start to judge them.

Pignat’s use of prose, poetry, text messages, journals, and homework assignments perfectly show the characters’ different points of view. Readers will find they have a lot in common with the characters as they watch them struggle to overcome their problems. However, the book is about a school shooting, a touchy subject in today’s times, and is not an easy read because of the amount of violence in the novel. However, with the engaging characters, it is a good read and may help readers better understand self-identity and social problems. Readers who enjoyed Shooter may also want to read This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp.

Sexual Content

  • At the party, Hogan and Izzy kissed. Hogan thinks, “Man, she was beautiful. Hair swept high in a ponytail, firelight glowing on the curve of her neck. Her face warm. And her eyes dark and sparkling as she smiled. I just wanted to kiss her—and the next thing, I did. Isabelle Parks—the girl every guy wanted.”
  • Izzy finds out that her boyfriend, Darren Greene, is cheating on her when she sees an Instagram photo of him making out with her best friend Bri. In the Instagram photo, “he has her up against the doorframe, one hand pulling up her shirt, the other hiking up her leg while she runs her fingers through his hair.”
  • Xander helps Maxwell with one of his pranks. They move Mr. Quigley’s lab skeleton into a sexual position where it was jerking off with a pretend penis made out of a graduated cylinder.

Violence

  • When Isabelle finds Hogan on top of Alice, trying to help with after she bumped her head, Isabelle screams “get off of her! Get off of her right now, you perv!” Isabelle then thrusts her knee hard into his side.
  • As Alice and Hogan leave the safety of the bathroom, an explosive “BANG-BANG-BANGBANG!” causes everyone to cower in fear. The shooter is right outside the bathroom door.
  • In the locker room, Hogan and his brother, Randy, made fun of each other for playing badly during the game. The two brothers wrestle and fight just like they had when they were little kids. Hogan swept Randy’s legs out from under him, and Randy fell back off the bench, back into the lockers, slamming his head against the corner of the one Hogan had left open. “A dark gash on the side of his head oozed red. It ran into a sticky puddle that spilled wider and wider with every second.” Randy dies. The fight takes place over two pages.
  • Noah freaks out from being confined to the bathroom too long. “Like a tornado of fists and spit as his arms windmill around him like crazy propellers. Alice tries to step back, but there isn’t anywhere else to go. The broom wedges under the sink and Noah’s next swing catches her smack in the face, sending her staggering back, and she falls to the ground.” Hogan tackles Noah to the ground where he stops fighting. The scene takes place over two pages.
  • Xander shoots Hogan with a paintball gun, and Noah hits Xander in the head with his broom handle to prevent him from shooting Isabelle and Alice.
  • Maxwell is planting a bomb and is going to use a fake fire to lure everyone to the atrium where he will detonate it. The group of kids discovers Maxwell’s outline for Operation Resolution. It’s a drawing where “the ground isn’t ground exactly, but arms, legs, severed heads with Xs for eyes. Pieces in puddles. Each of them named.”
  • The school police officer grabs Hogan and “wrenches my arms back in some cop-hold.”
  • While everyone is gathered in the atrium, Maxwell uses a drone and paintball gun to shoot people. “CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!” People are hysterical.
  • The police surround Noah who has a broom handle in his hand. The police shoot at Noah, but Hogan pushes him out of the way and takes the bullet himself. Alice puts pressure against the wound. After being shot, Hogan is wounded and “a whole five inches below his collarbone bubbles and oozes a dark red that puddles beside him. Blood–not pain.”
  • Xander finds the bomb suspended on some wires above the atrium. When he climbs on the wire to get it, Maxwell’s drone swats at him, trying to knock him off. Maxwell disables the bomb but when he does the wire snaps. “There is no blast. Just a sickening—CRACK!—as Xander” crashes to the floor.
  • After Maxwell’s bomb is defused, Maxwell kills himself. “On the second floor, in the room above the mural, a light flashes as one final shot rings out. Then all is silent.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Isabelle asked if a boy drugged Alice with “roofies or something?”
  • Hogan smokes in the bathroom. “The Hulk yanks off his furry mitt and plucks the smoking cigarette left balanced on the edge of the porcelain urinal.”
  • Isabelle suggests that the secretaries are “probably ‘hiding’ in the staff room cracking open their TGIF wine.”
  • Xander’s “mom’s Matinée cigarette” started the house fire. Xander was woken up by the fire alarm and managed to save some of his mom’s important things such as “her big red purse, her near-empty bottle of Jackson-Triggs wine, her pack of Matinée cigarettes.”

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes: hell, ass, crap, God, bastard, numbnuts, crotch, and dick.
  • Hogan says its “hotter than hell” in the mascot suit.
  • When Hogan starts to smoke, Isabelle asks, “Still the badass, Hogan?” Hogan replies, “Still the bitch, Izzy?”
  • Hogan doesn’t want to go to the “dumbass pep rally” and is thankful for the lockdown.
  • Hogan says he is “done with that crap. Just so you know” in reference to his smoking.
  • After Hogan’s brother’s death, Coach Dufour tries to kick Hogan “in the ass a few times” in order to get Hogan back in shape.
  • Izzy looks at Hogan with a face that says “God, you’re an idiot.”
  • Izzy says Hogan’s been “an angry ass since Randy died.”
  • Hogan thinks he is a “stone-cold bastard” for not crying over his own brother’s death.
  • On one of Xander’s missions with Maxwell, Maxwell holds one of his smoke bombs “against his crotch and told me to check out his foil dick.”
  • Hogan asks the school shooter, “What do you numbnuts have planned?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Xander knows that “stealing and lying is wrong. That’s even in the Bible.”

by Matthew Perkey

Dog Diaries: A Middle School Story

Junior always wanted a human of his own. When Junior finally gets out of the dog shelter, he’s excited to meet his human, Rafe. Junior has to learn the layout of Rafe’s home and also figure out how to protect the yard from raccoons. When Rafe takes Junior to the park, Junior gets a little too excited and causes havoc. Unfortunately, the evil Mrs. Stricker was in Junior’s path. Now, Mrs. Stricker is forcing Rafe to take Junior to obedience school. If he doesn’t behaver Mrs. Stricker will send Junior back to the pound. What will this mischievous mutt do?

The story is written from Junior’s point of view, who begins his story at the local animal shelter. Several times, Junior explains why dogs sniff each other’s poop and their “you-know-what.” At the beginning of the story, Junior explains each room in Rafe’s house from his point of view. Younger readers may find the dog’s explanation of a human house funny. For example, Junior calls the bathroom, “The Rainy Poop Room.” The story does contain some bathroom humor such as in one scene, Junior is illustrated peeing on his pet human.

Dog Diaries: A Middle School Story is easy to read and has some fun black and white illustrations that are scattered throughout the story. However, the plot and the characters are not well developed. Most of the humor comes from Junior misbehaving and causing chaos. Instead of learning to be obedient and well-mannered, Junior is proud of the fact that he corrupted another dog named Duchess. In the end, Duchess decided to copy Junior’s terrible behavior. Instead of helping Junior act appropriately, Rafe laughs and takes a picture of the destruction that Junior caused.

Readers should leave Dog Diaries: A Middle School Story on the shelf. Junior comes off as an unintelligent, uncaring dog. Readers interested in reading a humorous story written from a dog’s point of view should add the Two Dogs in a Trench Coat series to their reading list. Although the story is similar in style, the dogs in the story are doing their best to look after their human boy, instead of causing their human boy grief. The Crime Biters series would also be another fun series for dog lovers.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • While at the park, Junior gets overly excited and begins running. His friends follow and soon the pack of dogs and accidentally pull the drinking fountain off the wall “sending a huge arc of water crashing onto some unsuspecting grandmoos [grandmothers] on a bench opposite. Another dog had his leash knotted to the stroller his pet human was pushing, and before she knew what was happening, the lady was screaming at the top of her lungs as her baby was hurtling backward across the park, being towed by an overexcited Akita named Dwayne.” The scene takes place over six pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • A woman calls Junior “an uncouth, bad-mannered, unimpressive waste of time.” The woman continues yelling at Junior and Rafe, saying “You and your dog are zero, loser nobodies.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

The Revenge of Magic #1

Thirteen years ago, books of magic were discovered in various sites around the world alongside the bones of dragons. Children born after this so-called “Discovery Day” have the power to use magic.

Fort Fitzgerald has no idea books of magic exist. Then, while on vacation with his father, a giant creature bursts through the earth, attacking Washington DC. The creature grabs Fort’s father, taking him underground. Fort is devastated and dreams of getting revenge. Six months later, a man named Dr. Opps invites Fort to a government-run school to learn magic.

Life at the school is difficult and Fort has no idea who to trust. Everyone is keeping secrets. What does Jia, Fort’s tutor, know about the attacks? Why does Rachel, master of destructive magic, think Fort is out to destroy the school? And why is Fort reliving memories of an expelled girl every time he goes to sleep? Fort must find the answers or more attacks will come–and this time nothing will stop the creatures.

The Revenge of Magic starts with action and adventure that continues to the very end. Many of the supporting characters are stereotypical, including trope roles such as: the bullies, the tough girl, and the closed-mouthed military commander. However, Fort and Cyrus, a clairvoyant, are well-developed and Cyrus’s matter-of-fact tone adds some much-needed humor to the story. Although Fort’s reason for hating the creatures that took his father is understandable, Fort’s focus on revenge may make it difficult for readers to connect with him.

Fort learns more about the attack on Washington DC through a series of memories that are shared with him. Even though the memories appear in a different font, some readers may have a difficult time keeping the past and the present separated. Several times the creatures are able to control humans, and one creature takes over a student’s body, transforming the human body into the alien’s form. In the end, the creatures reveal their desire to return to earth and enslave humans. The large cast of characters, the complicated plot, and several scary scenes make The Revenge of Magic best suited for stronger readers.

The Revenge of Magic is a strong start to a new series. Even though several mysteries are revealed, the ending leaves unanswered questions that will have readers looking for book two, The Last Dragon. Readers who enjoy high-action adventure stories should also try the Simon Thorn Series by Aimée Carter and the Snared Series by Adam Jay Epstein.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Giant hands erupt from the earth and attack. “Enormous black-scaled fingers pushed up through the ground, sending grass, rock, and dirt flying in every direction. A muffled roar sounded from somewhere beneath them, and Fort felt it even through the ground shaking.” As people flee, more hands erupt from the ground. “A noise like torrents of rushing water thundered behind him, and turned to find a nightmare rising from the middle of the Reflecting Pool, a giant black-scaled head covered in some sort of crown. . .More helicopters flew in, this time painted black, and these actually made it close to the creature. A missile rocketed out of one, slamming into its head, but the monster didn’t even seem to notice.”
  • As the hands attack, Fort tries to stay with his father, but “the creature’s hand curled around him, rupturing the remains of the memorial as it descended back into the ground. . . the creature’s massive hand disappeared within the earth, and his father went silent.” The battle takes place over eight pages.
  • Dr. Opps goes to Fort’s house to tell him about the school. When Dr. Opps touches Fort’s aunt, she collapses on the floor. Fort tries to attack Dr. Opps, but “before he could strike, though, something burning hot slammed into his side, sending him crashing across the room into the opposite wall. . . Fort groaned, rubbing his head, then quickly moved his hands around to feel where he’d been hit, finding his shirt blackened and charred by whatever it was that had struck him.”
  • While in the cafeteria, a student put his hand on the metal table. “His hand began to glow. . . Fort didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. His tray began to sizzle, turning white-hot with heat, and he yelped as it burned his hands.”
  • When Rachel sees three boys bullying Fort, she “flicked a finger, and a tiny magic missile slammed into the boy’s stomach, sending him crashing across the table, taking Fort’s burning-hot tray with him. He tumbled into the back wall as the soldiers nearby all leaped out of the way, their weapons now aimed at Rachel.”
  • A creature comes out of the ground and into the officer’s mess hall. The creature was “floating in midair. . . Whatever it was shimmered transparently, like a ghost or even a holographic projection. It wore some kind of opaque crystal armor, but beneath the armor, where a human being’s feet would have been, a multitude of tentacles squealed as they dragged across the floor.” A soldier tries to take Fort out of the room, but the creature turned to follow Fort. Then Dr. Opps “stepped between them, holding the same medallion he’d used on Fort’s aunt in her apartment. . . Dr. Opps shouted, and light shot out from the medallion, some sort of magical burst.” The medallion burst and the creature left. The scene is described over six pages.
  • Three bullies attack Fort in the dormitory. “Fort plowed into the boy, crashing them both to the ground. Blane landed hard, still surprised by the attack, and Fort punched him in the stomach, once, twice, a third time, rage overwhelming his mind. . . Someone yanked him backward, and he lashed out wildly but missed as Blaine rose unsteadily to his feet, one of his hands burning with a deep red flame.” One of the boys sets Fort’s shirt on fire. As the boys continue to threaten Fort, another boy “lunged forward, grabbing Blaine’s hand. The fire was extinguished, and the boy started to yell in pain as some sort of pustules begin to grow on his hand.” Chickenpox began popping up all over the boy’s body, ending the fight. The scene is described over four and a half pages.
  • The three bullies corner Fort. “Bryce’s hands pulsed with red energy, and Fort’s feet froze in place, ice forming on the ground around his boots.” Fort “swung his fist out wildly but only succeeded in almost falling over his stuck boots.” One of the boys sends a “magic missile slamming into Fort’s shoulder even as Fort tried to slap out the fire.” Eventually, a soldier stops the bullies.
  • Fort sees a memory of when Damian created a portal for the creatures to come through. Several students tried to stop the boy. A girl “slid toward Damian on the ground and threw a hand out to grab his ankle. Blue light began to glow from her hand, and the creature in the portal pulled back abruptly from Damian.” During the memory, Fort learned how the attack in Washington DC began. The memory is described over five pages.
  • Later Fort again sees the memory. “Damian stood in the middle of the room, his eyes wide, his mouth hanging open, as a creature out of a horror book floated in the air above him, its transparent and vaguely humanoid body covered in crystal armor, its tentacle fingers locked on Damien’s head. . .” The creature uses Damian to communicate with the humans.
  • When Fort sneaks into the room where the books are kept, a student sees him. The student “leaned forward and grabbed Fort by the shirt, dragging him inside, then threw him down the stairs toward the podium with the books.” The girl throws a fireball at Fort and “he leaped into its path and took the spell right in his chest. Fire exploded all over his torso and face, and he quickly dropped to the ground, rolling around to put it out, trying his best not to shriek in pain in spite of the agony he felt.” Fort uses a spell to lessen the pain.
  • Fort is found in a girl’s hospital room. When he tries to escape, “the colonel grabbed Fort’s arm as he passed, then yanked it behind Fort’s back painfully. Fort immediately stopped short, groaning in pain, as two guards ran into the room.” Two guards take Fort to the disciplinary barracks.
  • Back in the memory, Fort sees “Damian raised a hand and sent a magic missile flying into the doctor’s chest. Dr. Opps went flying, slamming into the nearest wall, groaning as he landed on the floor. Sierra immediately cast Mind Blast, sending it at the creature’s mind, but Damian waved his hand as if batting aside an annoying insect, and the spell seemed to have no effect.” A student, Michael, tried to get Damian to close the portal and threw a fireball. “With no way to protect himself against his own spell, Michael took the fireball right in the chest, letting out a piercing scream. His clothes on fire, he dropped to the floor, rolling to quench the flames, but the magical blaze refused to go out, and the boy continued to cry out in pain.” Michael dies.
  • In an epic end battle, the Old One tries to come to Earth through a portal. One of the creatures takes over Michael’s body. “The shadowy, half-transparent Old One from the officers’ mess pushed its way into Damian’s body, overlapping him completely. . . The boy’s hands and feet stretched out and split into a mass of tentacles, as did his teeth, now protruding from a skull-like helmet. And within seconds, where there had once been a human boy, now there was only an Old One, Damian’s body transformed by the creature into its own form. . . Tentacles exploded out from the Old One’s hand, piercing the two soldier’s minds. They screamed, their bodies shaking violently, only to abruptly go silent and stand up straight. And then they turned their weapons on Fort.”
  • During the battle, “a giant black claw exploded through the floor beneath him, throwing the bed against the nearby wall as a second and third finger rose up around him [Fort].” Fort uses a healing spell to hurt the creature. Fort “wanted the creature to feel pain, as much as or more than what it had put him through when it had taken his father. . . The giant monster roared in anguish as the finger Fort held began to wither away, the muscle dying and the bones crumbling beneath his hand. . . Wrapping one arm around a finger, Fort watched triumphantly as the creature wailed in agony, its head slamming back and forth against the cavern wall.” When the finger goes back through the portal, another creature attacks Fort. “The creature’s tentacles reached out to surround Fort’s head, but this time, they pushed into his ears, nose, and mouth. He tried to scream but couldn’t get any air. . .”
  • The creature is able to create a portal in the sky. The students work together to try to stop the Old One. “. . . Rachel, meanwhile, went to fire another magic missile, but before she could, the Old One thrust its tentacles down towards her. . . One slicked into Rachel’s leg, dropping her to the ground. . .” The students are able to close the portal and the creatures leave. The action takes place over 42 pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • A student calls Cyrus a “future turd.”
  • A student says most of the Destruction kids are “jerks.”
  • A student calls Fort an idiot and a jerk.

Supernatural

  • During the attack on Washington DC, someone tried to take control of Fort’s body. “Fort watched his actions helplessly, almost from a distance, like he was staring down at himself from the wrong end of a telescope.”
  • Dr. Opps has a silver medallion that allows him to speak to others “mind-to-mind.” This medallion allows Dr. Opps to show his memories to Fort.
  • In the past, books were found that “contained formulas. The formulas, when read out loud, unlock previously inaccessible powers within the human body.” The use of the books allows some characters to gain the power of destruction, the power of healing, or clairvoyance.
  • In order to find out which power Fort can access, he must read a spell from one of the books. When Fort says a destructive spell, “immediately, power flowed through his body and out of his hands, setting them aglow.” He only makes a small flash. When Fort reads a spell from the healing book, “Fort’s hands seemed to lower in temperature, and he felt some weirdly cold energy leave his fingers and pass into the man’s arm. . . the cut had disappeared.”
  • Kids who were born on the day that the books were found can read them. Those before that day cannot read the books.
  • A student explains healing magic to Fort. “Healing is restorative, meaning it restores something to an earlier state. If you think about it that way, reattaching a leg is just putting something back where it belongs. The magic. . . encourages the leg to become what it used to be, one complete bone.”
  • Fort uses an “Ethereal Spirit” spell on himself and other students. The spell turns their bodies “ghostlike” and allows them to walk through walls. When he uses the spell, “at first, the magic made each of them glow a bit, which wasn’t exactly the best for sneaking round. But gradually each of them grew more transparent until he could see right through the others, and the glow disappeared.”
  • Sometimes Fort can hear others’ thoughts.
  • Healers can heal disease as well as give some a disease. Someone gave Fort the flu, and another student healed him. The student ran her hands “over his head and chest, and the energy passed into his body, immediately curing him of the flu.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

Another Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure: Unicorn Bowling

A unicorn in bowling shoes is quite a STRIKE-ing sight. But for nine-year-old Phoebe Howell, it’s just another fun outing with her best friend, the illustrious unicorn Marigold Heavenly Nostrils. This unique and magical friendship is at the heart of the ninth Phoebe and Her Unicorn collection, which includes adventures such as writing original songs, publishing rival news websites, and making a summer visit to the exclusive Camp Shimmerhorn. Life with a unicorn BFF is not without its challenges, however, and whether it’s homework, friction with classmates, or talent show jitters, Unicorn Bowling is full of amusing, heartwarming reminders that when the going gets tough, the tough get sparkling.

Unlike the previous installment of Phoebe and Her Unicorn, Unicorn Bowling is a collection of comics, not a continuous story. Some of the comic strips are only 4 panels, while others span multiple pages. The panels use simple artwork with bright colors. The character’s facial expressions will help younger readers understand the character’s emotions. Each page has six or fewer sentences and some panels contain no words at all, which makes the story accessible to reluctant readers. Some of the vocabulary is difficult such as culottes, conspicuous, cataclysmic, and libel. To aid readers, a word glossary appears at the back of the book.

Although Unicorn Bowling is a collection of comic strips, the situations lend themselves to discussions. Phoebe and her Unicorn deal with the dangers of posting online as well as the need to take other peoples’ feelings into consideration. The book also includes a comic about gender stereotypes. Younger readers will enjoy Phoebe and her Unicorn as they learn important life lessons. The humorous look at Phoebe’s everyday life as well as Phoebe’s friendship with Marigold will capture readers’ attention.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Marigold ask Phoebe, “Remember the day we sang ’99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall?”

Language

  • A girl calls Phoebe a “nerd girl.”
  • When Phoebe is upset, she writes a song called, “Unicorns are stupidfaces”
  • Dang is used once.

Supernatural

  • Marigold says she can cast spells, but she never actually casts a spell. When Phoebe doesn’t want to practice, Marigold says, “I could cast a motivation spell on you.” Phoebe declines because “those make my hands shake.” Marigold says, “They do contain a LOT of caffeine.”
  • Phoebe asks Marigold to cast a non-caring spell on her. Marigold refuses because, “Every time I do that you start chewing with your mouth open.”

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Ruins of Gorlan

Will doesn’t know who his father is, but he has always believed that his father was a knight who died in battle. Will wants to join Battleschool and be like his father. But when it’s time for the fifteen-year-old to get accepted as an apprentice, Will is disappointed that his request to join Battleschool is denied.

Will’s only choice is to become a Ranger’s apprentice. The Rangers’ shadowy ways have always made Will nervous. Will doesn’t understand that Rangers are the protectors of the kingdom who fight the battles before the battles reach the people. Halt, a gruff Ranger, begins to train Will, but neither realizes that a large battle is brewing. The exiled Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, is gathering his forces for an attack on the kingdom. This time, Morgarath is prepared to win at all costs.

The Ruins of Gorlan paints a vivid and realistic picture of medieval times. As a Ranger’s apprentice, Will learns how to blend into the background in order to gain information; he also learns how to defend himself. Horace, a Battleschool student, is the target of intense bullying. Even though he is training to become a knight and defend the kingdom, Horace falsely believes that bullying is part of Battleschool’s initiation process. The two apprentices’ friendship gradually changes. As the boys begin to understand each other, their relationship evolves into a strong friendship. The story uses a third-person omniscient point of view to focus on Will’s and Horace’s thought processes, which allows the reader to understand their actions.

 The Ruins of Gorlan has many positive aspects: well-developed characters, a believable setting, and realistic, exciting conflicts. As the apprentices learn new skills, the reader comes to understand the importance of hard work, perseverance, loyalty, and honor. The male friendships that are forged give the reader insight into the importance of respecting others and never gloating. Because of their training, both Will and Horace learn how to develop their individual strengths. In the end, Will sets his childhood dream aside because he realizes that becoming a Ranger will bring him more happiness and satisfaction.

The story’s long descriptive scenes and advanced vocabulary such as quartering, gyrate, tumult, and debilitating, make The Ruins of Gorlan perfect for strong readers. Full of action, adventure, and boy-bonding, the story will keep the reader’s attention until the very end. With fantastical monsters, honorable characters, and an epic battle at the end, The Ruins of Gorland tells an engaging story while teaching that one should never “judge a man by his position in life.”

Sexual Content

  • Someone retells a story about one of the wards letting rabbits loose in someone’s study. The person says it was disruptive because, there was “a male and a female rabbit, my lord, if you take my meaning. . . And as I said, my lord, it was spring.”
  • A boy meanly tells Horace, “Baby’s a Ward brat. Mummy ran off with a riverboat sailor.”
  • While out with his former ward mates, a girl kisses Will. “Her lips on his were incredibly, indescribably soft. Hours later before he finally feel asleep, he could still feel them.”

Violence

  • As part of the world-building, an old battle is described. The armies fought, and “with attack and counterattack and massive loss of life. The Slipsunder was a shallow river, but its treacherous reaches of quicksand and soft mud had formed an impossible barrier. . .” The losing army retreated.
  • When the cook saw Will steal some cakes, the cook hit him “on the head with his wooden spoon. Will grinned and rubbed his head thoughtfully. He could still hear the CRACK! made by the spoon hitting his head.”
  • Three bullies force Horace to do pushups. As one of the boys insults him, “His foot shoved viciously into Horace’s back, siding him sprawling on the floor.”
  • Horace becomes angry and “he turned back to George and gave him a heavy shove in the chest.” Then Will tricks Horace into riding a horse. The horse quickly bucks him off and then the two boys fight. “In an instant, Horace scrambled to his feet, his face dark with rage. He looked around, saw a fallen branch from the apple tree and grabbed it, brandishing it over his head as he rushed at Tug [the horse].” When Horace again tries to hit Tug, “Will was on him. He landed on Horace’s back and his weight and the force of his leap drove them both to the ground. They rolled there grappling with each other, each trying to gain an advantage. . . Blood ran down the bigger boy’s face. Will’s arms were hard and well muscled after his three months’ training with Halt. . .[Horace] drove a fist into Will’s stomach and Will gasped as the air was driven out of him.” An adult finally breaks up the fight.
  • A wild boar attacks “with an infuriated scream, he threw off one of the dogs that still clung to him, paused a moment, then charged at the hunters with blinding speed.” A knight was ready with his spear. “The boar had no chance to turn. His own rush carried him onto the spear head. He plunged upward, screaming in pain and fury, trying to dislodge the killing piece of steal. . . With one last screaming roar, the huge boar toppled sideways and lay dead.”
  • After the boar is dead, another one attacks. Will shoots arrows at it. “The arrows stuck out of the boar’s thick hide like needles in a pin cushion. They did no serious harm, but the pain of them burned through the animal like a hot knife.” The boar goes after Will. “Screaming in fury, the huge animal spun in its tracks, skidding in the snow, and came at him again. . . The boar came at a trot, fury in its red eyes, tusks slashing from side to side, its hot breath steaming in the freezing winter air.” Will’s horse, Tug, goes after the boar. “Tug’s hooves caught the pig n the ribs and, with all the force of the pony’s upper legs behind it, sent the boar rolling sideways in the snow.” Finally, Halt shoots an arrow at the boar. “The boar reared up in midstride, twisting in sudden agony, and fell, dead as a stone, in the snow.” The scene is described over three pages.
  • The three bullies are upset that Horace “made a fool of the entire Battleschool” because Will had to help him during the boar hunt. “Jerome shoved him against the shoulder as he spoke, pushing him back against the rough stone of the wall.” One of the boys puts a “heavy hessian sack over Horace’s head before he could resist, pulling a drawcord tight so that he was contained from the wait up, blinded and helpless.” The bullies continue to hit Horace. “On and on it went as he writhed on the ground, trying in vain to escape the blows. . . they continued until, gradually, mercifully, he fell still, semiconscious. . . He ached and hurt viciously in every part of his body.” The scene is described over two pages.
  • After the bullies beat up Horace, they go to find Will. They tried to put a sock over Will’s head, but Will “dived forward toward Alda, rolling in a somersault that took him under the sack, then letting his legs sweep around, scything Alda’s legs from under him so that the bigger boy went sprawling. . . Jerome brought his cane around in a ringing crack across the back of his shoulders. With a cry of pain and shock, Will staggered forward, as Bryn now brought his cane around and hit him across the side. . . Instantly, the three Battleschool apprentices crowded forward, ringing him, trapping him between them, the heavy canes raised to continue the beating.” Horace appears to help Will.
  • Halt sees the boys fighting and stops the fight. However, one of the bullies, Alda, is defiant and disrespectful to Halt. Alda “felt a searing pain as Halt stamped backward with the edge of his boot, catching the apprentice’s foot between the arch and ankle and driving into it. As Alda doubled over to clasp his injured foot, the Ranger pivoted on his left heel and his right elbow slammed upward into Alda’s nose, jerking him upright again and sending him sprawling back, eyes streaming with the pain. . . Halt’s larger knife, razor edged and needle pointed, was just under his chin, pressing lightly into the soft flesh of this throat. . . The knife pricked a little harder against his throat and he felt a warm trickle of blood sliding down under his collar.”
  • After Halt takes care of Alda, he makes the other two bullies face Horace, individually. “Then, as he [Horace] blocked Bryn’s fourth stroke, he flicked his wooden blade down the length of the other boy’s cane in the instant before the two weapons disengaged. There was no crosspiece to protect Bryn’s hand from the movement and the hardwood drill sword slammed painfully into his finger. With a cry of agony, he dropped the heavy stick, leaping back and wringing his injured hand painful under his arm.” When Bryn tries to stop fighting, Hale says “If he’s going to be a baby, I suppose you’ll just have to paddle him.” Horace likes the idea and, “then he proceeded to whack the older boy’s backside with the flat of the drill sword, over and over again, following him around the clearing as Bryn tried to pull away from the remorseless punishment.”
  • Next, Horace faces Jerome. “Jerome was driven back by a whirlwind of forehands, backhands, side and overhead cuts. He managed to block some of the stokes, but the blistering speed of Horace’s attack defeated him. Blows rained on his shins, elbows, and shoulders almost at will.” When Jerome drops to the ground, and covers his head, “his backside was raised invitingly in the air. . .” Will kicks him in the butt.
  • Halt then throws the cane to the injured bully, Alda. During the fight, Alda drops his weapon and “stood defenseless before Horace.” Horace then hits Alda in the jaw. “Will’s eyes widened slightly as Alda came off his feet and hurtled backward, to come crashing down in the cold snow beside his two friends.” The bullies are exiled from the fief. The bullying and fighting scenes are described over 10 pages.
  • A group of men which includes Will, travel to find Halt and the Kalkara. When they see the creature, it has a “cluster of arrows that protruded from its chest. There must have been eight of them, all placed within a hand’s breadth from each other.” The injured Kalkara went after the men. “The sharp iron penetrated, smashing through the matted hair. The force of the charge drove the Kalkara from its feet and hurled it backward, into the flames of the fire behind it. . . Then there was a blinding flash, and a pillar of red flame that reached ten meters into the night sky. And quite simply, the Kalkara disappeared.”
  • Halt was injured and his “leg, numb where the Kalkara had clawed him, was beginning to throb painfully and he could feel the blood seeping past the rough bandage he had thrown around it. . . He was wounded and unarmed. His bow was gone, smashed in that first terrifying charge when he had fired arrow after arrow into the first of the two monsters.”
  • Halt comes out of his hiding place to warn the men about the Kalkara. Halt “brought his knife hand up, back and forward in one smooth, instinctive memory throw, seeing the target moving in his mind’s eye, mentally aligning the throw and the spin of the knife. . . It took the Kalkara in its right eye and the beast screamed in pain and fury as it stopped to clutch at the sudden lance of agony that began in its eye and seared all the way to the pain sensors of its brain.” As Halt ran towards the men, “screaming a blood curling challenge, it leapt after him. . . The massive arm swung, catching Halt a glancing blow and sending him rolling forward, unconscious.” The baron steps between the beast and Halt, but the monster “slammed its talons into Arald’s exposed back before he could recover from the stroke. . . Arald grunted in pain and surprise as the force of the blow drove him to his knees. . . blood streaming from half a dozen deep slashes in his back.”
  • Will dips an arrow in a flammable substance, sets it on fire, then shoots the Kalkara. “The monster beat at the flames on its chest with its paws but that served only to spread the fires to its arms. There was a sudden rush of red flame and in seconds the Kalkara was engulfed, burring from head to toe, rushing blindly in circles in a vain attempt to escape. . . Then the screaming stopped and the creature was dead.” The fight with the Kalkara is described over 10 pages.
  • Halt describes the battle that Will’s father fought in. Will’s father “killed one [creature] with the spear, then another smashed the head of the spear, leaving Daniel with only a spear shaft. So he used it like a quarterstaff and knocked down the others—left, right! Just like that!”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • While cooking, “a generous dash of red wine” was added to the vegetables.
  • While talking to Sir Rodney, “Karel reached across and poured himself another tankard from the jug of beer that was on the table between them. . . He finished the last of his beer in two quick drafts. . .”

Language

  • Three boys continuously bully Horace and call him “baby.”
  • Damn is used eight times. Halt says that Will is “a damn good shot already.” However, most of the time damn is used to describe the Kalkara as the “damn thing.”
  • When a boy compliments Jenny, she tells him, “You are a complete idiot.”
  • When Will shows up at the castle with an urgent message, the men-at-arms, stop him from entering. When Sir Rodney sees this, he yells, “What the hell do you think you’re doing, you idiot! Don’t you recognize a King’s Ranger when you see one?”
  • When he hears a Kalkara’s “hellish” scream, the baron exclaims, “Good God, what is that?”
  • When the Kalkara bursts into flame, someone asks, “What the devil was that?”

Supernatural

  • A group of Kalkara are on the hunt. Halt describes them. “Think about a creature somewhere between an ape and a bear, that walks upright, and you’ll have an idea of what a Kalkara looks like.” The creature has red eyes and “if you look into its eyes, you are frozen helpless—the way a snake freezes a bird with its gaze before it kills it.”

Spiritual Content

  • When trade masters were choosing new apprentices, Will prayed “that one of them would relent and accept him.”

 

Susanna’s Midnight Ride

Sixteen-year-old Susanna Bolling is struggling to cope with the realities of the American Revolution. She, along with her mother, are the sole residents and operators of their tobacco plantation (and the slaves who work it). Following the death of Susanna’s father and her older brothers’ entry into the American army, Susanna and her mother rely on each other for emotional support and companionship.

Susanna and her mother act as each other’s rock as they are tasked with running a plantation and supporting themselves. Susanna eventually braves the dangers associated with espionage and courageously sneaks into the woods. Alone in the middle of the night, Susanne goes to warn the American Army and General Lafayette of British movements and plans. She braves miles of deep forest riddled with dangerous branches and rattlesnakes. She reaches the American camp and meets with the general but gets desperately lost on the way back home. Is there any way Susanna will be able to sneak back home unnoticed? Will she be captured by the British soldiers?

Susanna’s Midnight Ride is engaging because the reader is encouraged to relate to Susanna and put themselves in her shoes. The reader is left to wonder if they would have the strength to support their mother in a time of crisis or the courage to risk everything to do the right thing. The author characterizes Susanna in a likable and relatable way, so that the readers are empowered to believe that courageous acts are possible for anyone with dedication and loyalty. Susanna’s story shows that fear does not determine if someone is a hero or a coward. Susanna is absolutely terrified to go on her journey but is so determined to help the American cause that she goes into the night regardless.

Susanna’s Midnight Ride is based on historical fact, with a few embellishments, exclusions, and adjustments to make this story suitable for a younger audience. The characters and plot are well developed and highly relatable, and the short chapters will encourage reluctant readers. McNamee creates an engaging story; however, some sections will challenge growing readers. For example, some of the phrases used by General Lafayette are in French, and the reader must use context clues to fully understand his meaning.

The negative representation of slaves on the Bolling plantation may upset readers. An older slave shouts and berates a younger slave for desiring freedom and states, “If I got to be a slave and mu children got to be slaves, I want to be their slave!” This storyline ends as over time the younger slave returns to the Bolling Plantation happily, saying that, “I done made a big mistake leaving the plantation.”

Susanna’s experiences highlight the importance of determination and loyalty. McNamee utilizes a real person’s story to realistically illustrate these lessons. Susanna’s Midnight Ride is a suspenseful and highly engaging story that will encourage readers to learn more about history and be confident when making difficult choices.

Sexual Content

  • Susanna’s cousin often speaks about handsome men and often whines about the “cluster of handsome lads” who she could marry “if it weren’t for this dreadful war.”
  • Susanna describes a prospective suitor, Joseph, who was killed during the war. Susanna thinks, they would have had “lovely red-haired children.”
  • Susanna once flirted with the British soldiers occupying her home and chides herself for “acting as coquettish” as her flirtatious cousin.

Violence

  • Following the death of her son, Joseph’s mother describes her fear that he may have been “dumped into a mass grave” and that she had “nightmares of butchered boys piled in together and left to rot.”
  • Susanna briefly describes the circumstances of the “tragic loss” of her older sister and baby niece. Her sister dies in childbirth “when a baby’s head is too large to pass, there is precious little even the best doctor can do.”
  • A “terrible disease” killed Susanna’s younger sister and left “Mother disfigured with pock-marks all over her face.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Susanna’s mother plots to distract the soldiers by “topping off their drinks again and doling out another round of shots.” She did this so that “they shall sleep like the dead tonight.”

Language

  • Profanity is used sparingly. Profanity includes poppycock, bugger, arse, darn, rubbish, drat, bloody. Each word is used once or twice.
  • The phrases “god awful” and “godforsaken” are used frequently, around 20 times in total.
  • The following words are used as insults on rare occasions: maggot, ninny, tomboy, swine, no-good bum, loggerhead, locust, brute.
  • The words “negro” and “negroes” are used at least once per chapter as characters describe enslaved people.

Supernatural/Spiritual Content.

  • Religious references are almost constant, and are frequently positive or celebratory. For example, during the spinning bee, Susanna proclaims, “God is surely smiling down on his daughters of Liberty today.”
  • McNamee also refers to the Grim Reaper a handful of times. For example, Susanna describes her family’s luck, “The Grim Reaper operates by a code of fairness, the ultimate fallacy. Death follows no rules at all.”
  • There are also constant references to “souls” throughout the story. For example, an older man describes all of the “lost souls” resulting from the war.

by Meg Oshea

 

 

 

Scorch Dragons

After a battle between Ice Wolves and Scorch Dragons, Anders and his twin sister have finally been reunited. But some still doubt that the twins are truly siblings. While the dragons have embraced Rayna, many want the wolves Anders and Lisabeth to leave the mountain stronghold of Drekhelm, because dragons think all wolves are a threat.

For now, Lief, the leader of the dragons, has promised to keep the two wolves safe. But when the wolf pack begins to use the Snowstone, the temperature starts to drop all over Vallen. With the use of the Snowstone, the wolves can weaken the dragons before they attack. Every dragon is in danger. As the dragons debate on the best course of action, Anders and his friends decide they must act in the hopes of bringing peace.

Anders enlists the help of a few new flame-breathing friends to stop the wolves’ plan of attack. Together the group must go on a quest to find the pieces of the Sun Scepter, the only artifact that can counteract the Snowstone. In the search for the Sun Scepter, Anders and his friends will not only have to hunt for clues, but they must also keep the dragons in the dark. The only way to bring peace is to find the Sun Scepter, but keep it out of the dragons’ hands. Can Anders and his friends find the Sun Scepter and use it to stop the wolves? Or will they cause the next great battle?

The second book in the Elemental series still focuses on Anders but adds new, interesting characters. As Anders learns about the dragons’ world, he discovers that the stories of the dragons were not completely true. Instead, the wolves’ stories only focused on facts that portrayed the Ice Wolves in a positive light, and they left out important information that would have helped people understand why the dragons “attacked.” Throughout the story, Anders and his friends learn to put away past misconceptions and work together for the good of all—dragons and wolves.

Scorch Dragons introduces the dragon’s world and gives Anders a new perspective. However, much of the story focuses on Anders and Rayna proving that they are truly siblings and using this knowledge to find the pieces of the Sun Scepter, which has been hidden in four different places. The search lacks suspense due to overly long descriptions of scenery as well as the easy manner in which the pieces are found.

Readers who enjoyed Ice Wolves will already have a connection with the characters and will want to know the outcome. Because of the advanced vocabulary, long descriptions, and a large cast of characters, Scorch Dragons is best suited for strong readers. This character-driven story shows how unlikely friends can work together for the good of all. Although the story ends with an epic battle between the Ice Wolves and the Scorch Dragons, readers will have to work to make it through the slower middle part of the story. Still, fantasy fans will love flying into a book where dragons, wolves, and magic meld in a world of constant danger.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Anders, Rayna, and their friends take the Sun Scepter to Holbard. The dragons try to stop them and throw “pure white dragonfire” at the group. Ander uses the Sun Septer and “a wave of warmth washed over him like a real wave of water, sending all the dragons scrambling to stay steady.” The dragons follow the group into town when suddenly “ice spears were flying up from the walls, along with huge clouds of cold cast by the most powerful of the wolves, and the dragons were staggering, tossed about by the cold wind.”
  • When the wolves use the Snowstone, everything freezes. The cold “reached the harbor, and icy fingers snaked out into the water, freezing the surface solid and squeezing the hulls of the ships until they began to crack with bang Anders could hear even above the city.”
  • During a battle, the Sun Scepter gives of a wave of heat. “A huge crack was opening up right through the middle of Holbart, running straight through the courtyard and outbuildings of Ulfar Academy itself! Stonework crumbled, walls collapsed, and a jagged trench cut the ground in two.”
  • During the battle, Leif tried to protect the students but “a sudden volley of ice spears soared toward Ellukka and Rayna, it was Valerius who threw himself into their path to protect his daughter, roaring his defiance. Ellukka shrieked as a wave of gray cold started at her father’s foreleg, racing along his side. One wing paralyzed, he began to fall, fall, fall toward the ground.” Other dragons come to help Valerius.
  • During the final battle, both Anders and Rayna use icefire. “Flames billowed out, consuming the dragons’ fire and the wolves’ ice, swallowing them whole before they could touch the twins.” The epic battle is described over 20 pages. Most of the destruction happens to buildings, and injuries are not described.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Leif wants to see if Rayne and Anders are truly siblings. He brings a purse to Anders and tells him the purse “will bond to the next person who touches it. . . It will require just the smallest drop of blood. Artifacts linked to family often do, among others. The blood of the most powerful wolves and dragon can achieve a great deal.” After Anders puts blood on the clasp, the purse will only open to those who are related to him. As Rayna takes the purse, Leif tells her, “If it doesn’t recognize you, it will scream an alarm. If it opens, that’s all we need to know.”
  • One of the characters in Ice Wolves explains how Elementals change. “Essence is the magic that’s found all around us. In nature, in the earth itself. When we transform from human to wolf, we channel it instinctively so we can make the change…Elementals always have gifts linked to nature, because nature is where we find the essence that gives us our power.”
  • In the past, dragons and wolves crafted magical objects with runes. Many of the objects are magical and the “runes are what channeled the essence—the power that came from nature, from the earth itself—into artifacts.”
  • Anders discovers that he can create icefire—blue-and-silver fire. When he uses the fire, “the white fire and the ice spear both vanished into nothing as they connected with his blue-and-silver flames.”
  • Anders and Rayna’s mother was rumored to have a thunder lion as a father. Thunder lions “are elementals who control the wind and air.”
  • One of the wolves has a mirror that “allows two-way communication.”
  • Anders and Rayne are given a map that used to be their mother’s. When Rayna puts blood on the compass of the map, “the beautifully drawn border was writing, changing, rearranging itself.” The map makes letters, which give them a clue to find the Sun Scepter, which can change the weather.
  • The wolves use the Snowstone to make the weather colder, which weakens the dragons’ power.
  • When Anders, Rayna, and their friends get to Cloudhaven, they are able to enter the building by using pins with runes on them. When they enter, Anders tells Cloudhaven what they are looking for “and then, just as it had before, the glow out in the hallway faded. When it returned a moment later, the path of runes led down the stairs again. . . the new glowing path led an entirely new direction.” Cloudhaven lights a path showing Anders and Rayna where they need to go.
  • Anders and Rayna are given two pendants. When Anders placed a pendant onto Rayna’s dragon form, “the necklace simply melted into her skin, vanishing, perhaps to the same place her clothes and the contents of her pockets had gone when she transformed.”

The Unbelievable Oliver and the Four Jokers

Oliver wants to learn magic, but he’s struggling to master a simple card trick. Even though Oliver can’t perform a simple card trick, his two best friends the twins, Teenie and Bea, have gotten him invited to a classmate’s birthday party as the paid entertainment. Desperate for help, he visits the Great Zoocheeni’s Magic Emporium. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have enough money to pay for any new magic paraphernalia. Dejected, Oliver leaves with only a moth-eaten top hat.

Oliver is surprised when he finds a wisecracking rabbit named Benny living inside the top hat. Benny agrees to help Oliver wow the audience. Oliver reluctantly goes to the birthday party, but soon he’s accused of stealing one of the birthday boy’s gifts. Is there any way for Oliver to prove his innocence? And will Benny be able to help Oliver wow the crows with their grand finale?

The Unbelievable Oliver and the Four Jokers blends magic, mystery, and a group of mean boys to create an entertaining story. The large text, simple vocabulary, and the black and purple comic illustrations that appear on almost every page make the story accessible to all readers. The text explains the meaning of several words and idioms that readers may not understand. The story uses slapstick scenarios, some bathroom jokes, puns, and a worldly rabbit to create humor. Even though the story focuses on a group of mean boys who love to bully others, the tone is humorous instead of serious. Although Oliver prevails, the reader will not learn any positive lessons about the dangers of bullying.

Although the talking rabbit is funny, younger readers may not understand all of the humor. Benny’s speech is peppered with slang, idioms, and references to his Las Vegas days. The rabbit is running from gambling debts and fears that bounty hunters are after him. While hiding, the rabbit thinks, “Could he be blamed for betting all his money on a horse named Turnip Thunder? Turnip was his favorite root vegetable!” Even though Benny would like to skip town, he stays with Oliver to the very end.

Anyone who has ever felt left out will relate to Oliver. Readers will enjoy the fast-paced story, the funny illustrations, and the conclusion that leaves Oliver victorious. Although The Unbelievable Oliver and the Four Jokers doesn’t teach a moral lesson, it does gives directions on how to perform Oliver’s card trick. The story is perfect for readers who want to relax with a fun, entertaining mystery.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A boy dumps trash over Oliver’s head.
  • The birthday party has an inflatable castle bounce house. Maddox didn’t want to play with Teenie, so he tells his friend to “get her out of here.” His friend “picked up Teenie and tossed her straight into the moat. She slid all around the castle and back to the entrance, where the other children had left their shoes.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Maddox calls Oliver a loser.
  • Darn is used once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Drone Pursuit

When your dad funds the Swift Academy of Science and Technology, you’re bound to have a bunch of tech at your disposal. So, no one bats an eye when Tom and his best friend, Noah, test their new virtual reality drone before class. At the academy, once class starts and the drone is parked, their brainiac friends launch into farfetched discussions about the curriculum. When they watch a documentary about the FBI’s most wanted hackers from the eighties, they quickly start speculating that the academy custodian is one of them.

At first, Tom dismisses the idea as another one of his friends’ conspiracy theories. But using their new drone, he spies the custodian acting suspiciously around the school. As Tom and his friends search for evidence that the custodian is the missing hacker, the signs become impossible to ignore when Tom gets threatening messages that warn him away from investigating. When someone releases a virus in the school servers, all bets are off as the adjoining servers at the tech giant Swift Enterprises come under fire. Can Tom and his friends uncover the true culprit before it’s too late?

Although Tom and his friends are not well-developed characters, they are likable kids who aren’t afraid to geek out over technology. As they sneak around trying to discover if the school janitor is a famous hacker in hiding, they cause some innocent havoc—spilled soda in the cafeteria, a drone racing through the halls, and hiding in a closet. Told from Tom’s point of view, the story has an easy-to-read, conversational tone which allows the readers to understand Tom’s motive for keeping the adults in his life in the dark.

Tom’s father only makes a brief appearance in the story; however, Tom’s father makes Tom a priority and doesn’t let work get in the way of spending time with his son. When Tom’s father discovers Tom’s secret sleuthing, he lets Tom know that he “could always come to him about anything; that it won’t matter how crazy or outlandish my theories may seem.” Even though Tom’s father is extremely wealthy, Tom doesn’t try to use his father’s wealth to get out of trouble. Instead, Tom and his friends serve their punishment without arguing or complaining.

The Drone Pursuit incorporates mystery, action, technology, and a touch of humor into an easy-to-read story that younger readers will enjoy. Even though the inventions are not amazing, younger readers will like the fast-paced, entertaining story. Readers who are not ready for the Alex Rider Series or the Theodore Boon Series will find The Drone Pursuit to be the perfect alternative.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • A man tries to knock a drone down with a broom. When the drone backed into a corner, “the man regained his balance and began stabbing at the drone.” The drone gets away.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Someone gives a teacher some type of poison. The person “hacked a dating app so she could be matched with Mr. Jenkins. They went on a date and she slipped something into his food.”

Language

  • Heck is used once.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

When Elephants Fly

Lillian has a plan. No boys, no stress, and no drinking. In fact, Lillian’s entire life revolves around a plan that avoids any sort of stress that could trigger schizophrenia. Schizophrenia runs in Lillian’s family; it drove her mother to throw Lillian off a roof when she was just a child. While Lillian’s plan to avoid stress seems like a good idea, Lillian’s best friend Sawyer worries she is letting life pass her by.

But Lillian doesn’t mind. That is until her job at a newspaper requires her to cover the birth of a baby elephant. The baby elephant, nicknamed Swifty, is rejected by her mother shortly after the birth and is nearly trampled to death by her mom. Due to their similar plights, Lillian finds herself drawn to Swifty and filled with a need to protect the baby elephant. But will saving Swifty cost Lillian her best friend, her freedom, and her sanity?

Throughout the story, Lillian struggles between taking the easy route to preserve her sanity and risking everything to save Swifty. The bond between Lillian and Swifty allows the reader to become emotionally concerned about Swifty and care about her well-being. The end of the novel suggests that it’s okay and even right for Lillian to risk her health and break the law in order to protect Swifty, despite the fact that she goes against the advice of adults with much more elephant experience than her. In the end, Lillian perseveres due to her unconditional love for Swifty.

When Elephants Fly has a delightfully original plot. It’s filled with facts about both elephants and schizophrenia that are conveyed to the reader in a way that meshes well with the storyline and doesn’t come across as obtrusive. The characters are unique but shallow. The original premise of the story will keep readers turning the pages. The lack of descriptions in When Elephants Fly may disappoint older readers; however, for readers just graduating to the YA level, this story is sure to delight with its many twists and turns.

The story touches on some difficult topics, including mental illness, genetics, family trauma, friendship, and animal rights. Although the author attempts to educate readers about schizophrenia, she unfortunately allows readers to believe that mental illnesses can be prevented–which is not the case. Flashbacks are scattered throughout the story, allowing readers to get a glimpse into Lillian’s thinking process as well as her increasingly unsteady mental health. Although When Elephants Fly has an interesting premise, readers will notice that some of the plot points are unrealistic, the romance is forced, and the characters are underdeveloped. Despite the book’s flaws, anyone interested in mental health or animal abuse should read When Elephants Fly.

Sexual Content

  • Lillian wants “to at least be kissed by someone other than John Jensen in the tunnel of love. We were ten and I let him cop a feel of my nonexistent boobs.”
  • Years ago, Lillian’s grandparents wrote a letter to Lillian’s parents begging them to abort her. Her grandparents were certain the stress of becoming a mother would trigger their daughter’s schizophrenia.
  • Lillian has a plan for a stress-free life to avoid triggering schizophrenia. That includes no sex. At one point, she sees a guy who is “cute in a hipster kind of way. I’ve taken a vow of celibacy for the next twelve years, but I can still look.”
  • Lillian thinks about a schizophrenic girl who “had hallucinations that she was having sex, all the time, day and night, fully clothed. Three years after her first episode, she’d attempted suicide twice, was addicted to cutting and lived in her stepmother’s basement.”
  • Lillian accidentally sees Otis skinny-dipping and remembers skinny-dipping with her best friend Sawyer. “Otis is naked . . . I should look away, but I don’t. It’s not the first time I’ve seen a naked guy. I mean, I’ve seen Sawyer plenty of times. We skinny-dip in his pool late at night when his parents are away or asleep. But it’s the first time I’ve seen a naked guy who doesn’t know I’m watching him. Technically, that’s uncool. But my eyes still travel from his broad shoulders to his lean waist, pretty much perfect butt and muscular legs.”
  • Lillian and Otis almost kiss. “Our lips are inches apart. His fingers drift down to trace my collarbone . . . Our lips brush, soft, fleeting. His mouth travels along my neck. Everywhere he touches comes alive.”
  • Otis says, “When I was seven, one of the workers took an interest in me. I was the kind of kid pedophiles target . . . One night I was sleeping outside Tambor’s pen. I woke up to the guy unbuttoning my jeans. Nothing happened. But it was heading that way.”
  • Lillian and Otis kiss. “It’s my first real kiss . . . Otis pulls back, runs his thumb over my lower lip. My skin is alive for the first time in my life. It’s like being woken up after eighteen years of trying to feel nothing.” They kiss several more times.
  • Lillian and Otis undress, but are interrupted before they can sleep together. “He cups my breasts, his thumbs instantly making my nipples insanely sensitive. He draws me onto his lap so that I’m straddling him, and I can feel how much he wants me. . . He slides me beneath him then bends, lips tasting the curve of my breasts, tongue teasing my nipples until I shiver from the sensation.”

Violence

  • Lillian thinks about examples of schizophrenic behavior often. “I mean like hearing a man’s voice telling you to drive your car into a group of little kids, watching your best friend’s face morph into a monster or people screaming so loudly in your brain that you consider taking a hammer to your own head to crush the voices.”
  • Lillian remembers her schizophrenic mom’s erratic behavior. “If she hit me, five minutes later she’d wonder about a red mark or bruise, then kiss it to make it better.”
  • Lillian watches an elephant give birth. “In a single breath the sac expands then Raki’s calf drops to the ground. There’s a gust of fluid followed by a stream of bright red blood that paints the insides of Raki’s legs crimson.” To make her baby elephant take its first breath, the elephant mother “kicks the newborn with her back leg—hard enough to move it several feet. The calf doesn’t react. Raki kicks it again. . . Finally, its dark eyes blink then remain open.”
  • Lillian thinks about a girl on YouTube with schizophrenia. The girl’s worst hallucinations “included seeing the lower part of her face in bloody tatters each time she caught her reflection in a window or mirror.” Another schizophrenic kid had “voices in his head that told him every single day to kill himself before someone else did it for him. His birthday was March 17 and he didn’t post that day, or ever again.”
  • When Lillian hears that her best friend’s dad is being a jerk, she thinks, “I want to drive over to Cushing Stafford Thompson’s mansion and light it on fire with him inside.”
  • The zoo director tells Lillian about the first orphan elephant she met. “He was found on the Masai Mara standing beside his dead mother. She’d been killed by a poacher’s poison spear. Her tusks had been sawed off, leaving gaping, bloody wounds.”
  • An elephant mother rejects her calf and attacks it. “With an earsplitting trumpet, Raki charges her calf and head-butts her in the torso so hard that Swifty Jones flies several feel through the air, hits the ground, rolls. Raki kicks her repeatedly, her body flipping down the length of the room until she’s ten feet from us. The calf is motionless, her eyes closed.”
  • Otis gets into a fight with his brother. “Howard’s backhand comes out of nowhere, like a bear attack. It catches Otis in the jaw, snaps his head sideways. He doesn’t go down but it’s close. Despite the blood on his lower lip, Otis keeps his hands balled at his sides.”
  • Otis confesses that his brother killed someone. “Howard stabbed the guy twenty-two times. I can still hear the sound of the tines going through skin, muscle, hitting bone.”
  • Lillian’s mother “committed suicide in prison.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Jonah, a student at school, “told his dad that there was a keg at a preseason track party. His dad called the principal. Jonah is now a pariah.”
  • Lillian walks in to find her dad “drinking Scotch. By the half-empty bottle on the counter and the bleary look in his eyes, he’s had way too much. I haven’t seen him drunk in a long time, not since the last few months with Violet.”
  • Lillian’s dad leaves a voicemail. “I heard ice cubes in the background. Calvin was drunk again.”
  • It’s mentioned in passing that Sawyer’s mom “eats [Xanax] like candy,” though it’s never shown.
  • A circus worker mentions that he is on probation for “Drugs. Got hooked. Made some stupid choices.” Later it’s revealed that he “got hooked on heroin when he was thirteen, [then] switched to meth because it was cheaper.”
  • Lillian sees a circus worker drunk. “The way he’s moving reminds me of my dad when he’s had too much Scotch. What the hell is going on? Why is Howard working with the elephants when he’s been drinking?”

Language

  • Hell and damn are used frequently. Lillian’s boss tells her, “Get the hell out of my office.” Another time Lillian asks, “What the hell is wrong with you?” During an argument, Lillian’s dad says, “Dammit, how can you even remember?”
  • Ass, pissed, and crap are used often. For example, “Howard stares at his brother like he’s a total ass.” A worker tells his friend to “stop flirting and get your ass in the truck.” Another time, Sawyer’s mom tells her son, “What’d you expect? You pissed him off, dear.” Lillian said her dad “took a massive crap” on one of her ideas.
  • Shit is used frequently. After watching an elephant give birth, the zoo director tells Lillian, “Holy shit! You’re white as a ghost.” Another time, Lillian calls “Bullshit!” during an argument with her dad.
  • Fuck and motherfucking are used several times. Lillian’s best friend tells her “fuck you.” A woman says if a man wants to know if she is single, “he should fucking ask me himself.”
  • Bitching and bastard are both used a few times. “Matthews is bitching about video, though. It better be attached to your next article.”
  • Prick is used once. A man says, “Tiger is willing to risk her future for what she believes in. What we should all believe in, if we’re not callous, inhumane pricks.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Survival Tails: The Titanic

Mutt loves his human girl, Alice. When he discovers that his owner and best friend, Alice, plans to sail to the new world on the Titanic without him, he’s determined to find a way on the ship. Mutt is terrified of the water, but he won’t let an ocean separate him from Alice. A friendly rat, King Leon, helps Mutt sneak aboard the ship. But it isn’t long before the captain’s cat, Clara, discovers the stowaways. Reluctantly, Clara agrees to help Mutt find Alice. But first, Mutt must agree to look after three abandoned kittens that Clara found in a lifeboat.

A mangy dog, a friendly rat, and a pamper cat work together to stay hidden from the humans and keep the kittens alive. But when the unthinkable happens and the so-called unsinkable ship hits an iceberg, Mutt and his new friends have to race against the clock to find their humans—and to survive.

Survival Tails: The Titanic takes the reader on a trip back in time when everyone thought the Titanic was unsinkable. Told from Mutt’s point of view, the story takes a unique look at the ship through the eyes of animals. For the stowaway animals, life on the Titanic is dangerous. Not only do they have to scrounge for food, but they also have to avoid the humans who most likely would throw overboard. As the story unfolds, readers will fall in love with each animal, whose unique personality comes to life. Even though the animals could have easily become enemies, they unite to form an unlikely friendship that puts the kittens’ needs above their own.

Suspense builds from the very first page and ends with the heart-wrenching sinking of the Titanic. The story contains pockets of humor and has three black and white pictures that help bring the scenes into sharper focus. The animal’s loyalty to each other and their humans is heartwarming. However, Survival Tails: The Titanic doesn’t shy away from showing the discrimination between the first-class passengers and the third-class passengers. In the end, it didn’t matter what class a person was. When the Titanic was sinking, the passengers realized, “in the end, few things truly mattered.”

Survival Tails: The Titanic uses a unique point of view to create a suspenseful, beautiful story of friendship and love. Even though the story focuses on the animals, it stays loyal to the historical facts of the Titanic. Although the sinking of the ship is described in a kid-friendly manner and the death of people is never described, the ending is heart-wrenching and will have readers crying as several of the characters they loved are doomed to death.

Readers who have read The Last Firehawk series may be tempted to pick up Survival Tails: The Titanic because they share the same author. However, The Last Firehawk series is intended for a younger audience. Younger readers may not be ready for the intense events portrayed in Survival Tails: The Titanic. At the end of the book, readers will find a glossary, as well as more historical information about the Titanic. Everyone who enjoys a suspenseful animal story should read Survival Tails: The Titanic; the characters will leave a lasting impact on readers and make them think about the nature of friendship.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When Mutt was trying to get onto the Titanic, a woman sees Mutt and, “let out an ear-piercing shriek as Mutt peered sheepishly back up at her. She swung her handbag, hitting Mutt full-force in the head before he had a chance to scarper. With a low whine, Mutt turned and ran as fast as he could. . .”
  • Mutt tries to steal an abandoned sandwich from a plate. Mutt’s friend tried to warn him, but “before Mutt could figure out what had King Leon spooked, he heard an almighty screech. Razor-sharp teeth clamped down on the end of his tail. It was all he could do to not howl and give himself away to the nearby humans.”
  • Mutt, King Leon, and three kittens sneak into the kitchen to try to eat scraps of food. When the humans returned, “they took one look at the dog, rat, and three kittens eating their food and ran at them, screaming and shouting. . .” The animals run and Mutt ducked “as one of the humans swung an empty frying pan at his head. . . The man spun around and around, trying to catch on of the furry blurs, until he became so dizzy he fell over, crashing not a pile of crockery, which smashed to the floor.” The animals are able to escape.
  • When the Titanic was sinking, an officer was trying to load a boat with women and children. A group of men tried to “push past and swarm the lifeboat, which was already swinging precariously out over the water. A woman screamed, and before Mutt knew what was happening, an earsplitting gunshot rang out as an officer fired his gun in the air, silencing the crowd.”
  • When Mutt is in the ocean, a man grabs onto his tail. “Water closed over his head as Mutt sank beneath the surface. His lungs screamed with the desperate need for air as he kicked his legs wildly. . . But the man still would not let go, so Mutt did the only thing he could, hoping it might save them both. Mutt turned and sank his teeth deep into the man’s hand, yanking it upward in the direction of the surface. The man immediately released his grip and swam back up the surface.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Clara was walking along the boat’s deck, she saw a group of men “playing cards and drinking in the smoking room.”
  • When the Titanic hit an iceberg, some of the men “were drinking whisky and smoking cigars as though they hadn’t a care in the world.”

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • As the Titanic was sinking, Mutt walks by a “group of humans standing before a man dressed in a black robe, like the reverend at Alice’s church. Their eyes were closed and they knelt on the deck, listening to the man’s prayers, even as chaos erupted all around then.”
  • Mutt isn’t sure if he should jump into the water or stay on the sinking ship. As he considers his options, “The Titanic ripped apart into two halves. As the stern started to fall back toward the water, almost in slow motion, Mutt recalled a prayer that Alice’s mother used to make Alice recite every night before she went to bed. He didn’t’ know much about what it was for, or why she did it, but it seemed to bring Alice’s mother comfort.

Phoebe and Her Unicorn in Unicorn Theater

Summer is here, and Phoebe and Marigold are heading to drama camp. Phoebe’s expecting some quality time with her best friend, but in a surprise twist, Marigold has invited her sister, Florence Unfortunate Nostrils! While the unicorn sisters head to camp in a magical rainbow pod, Phoebe is stuck riding with her parents in their boring car, wondering where it all went wrong. But at Camp Thespis, there are more daunting tasks at hand: writing, producing, and acting in an entirely original play! The second Phoebe and Her Unicorn graphic novel is a sparkling tale of sisterhood and summer fun, as well as a reminder that sometimes it takes a bit of drama to recognize true friendship.

Much of the humor revolves around Marigold, who is completely self-centered and obsessed with her own beauty. However, it is clear that Marigold cares about Phoebe. Based on the two friends’ relationships, readers will learn important lessons about friendship. In the end, Phoebe and some of her drama camp friends put on a play that highlights the importance of not being self-involved and not letting a fight go unresolved.

The easy-to-follow panels have simple artwork with bright colors. The character’s facial expressions will help younger readers understand the character’s emotions. Each page has six or fewer sentences and some panels contain no words at all, which makes the story accessible to reluctant readers. Both the vocabulary and the plot structure are easy to understand.

Unlike some of the previous books in the series, Phoebe and Her Unicorn in Unicorn Theater tells one story throughout the book. Even though the story is the second graphic novel, for maximum enjoyment readers should read the previous books because the story refers to characters and events that happened in previous books. Phoebe and Her Unicorn in Unicorn Theater shows how the characters have matured and changed over the course of the strip.

Anyone who has ever had a fight with a friend or who has felt socially awkward will relate to Phoebe. Phoebe and Her Unicorn in Unicorn Theater will be a hit with readers who want a humorous, fun story about friendships and unicorns.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The 13-Story Treehouse: Monkey Mayhem!

Andy and Terry write books together while they live in every young boy’s dream—a 13-story treehouse! The treehouse is the most amazing treehouse in the world—complete with a bowling alley, a see-through swimming pool, a marshmallow machine that follows you around and shoots marshmallows in your mouth, a secret underground laboratory, swinging vines, a tank of man-eating sharks, and an endless lemonade fountain. It seems like the fun never ends for Andy and Terry.

But when faced with a range of slapstick scenarios, they soon realize they still have not finished their next bestselling book. With the threat of going back to their atrocious old jobs, they must bond together as they fight off a pack of wild monkeys, a giant gorilla, and a sea monster while writing their next book before their deadline. Will Andy and Terry succeed or will they be forced to go back to their old jobs – at the monkey house?

Griffiths and Denton created a silly, funny, and ridiculous story that readers will laugh at from beginning to end. The book also teaches readers about the importance of friendship. Andy and Terry demonstrate the importance of friends working together in order to solve problems. Without each other, they would not be able to survive a giant gorilla, a sea monster attack, or even write a book. Also, the funny black and white illustrations contribute to a positive reading experience and will help engage even the most reluctant readers.

Even though the story is funny, much of the humor comes from bathroom jokes and immature humor. Many of the jokes are inappropriate for young readers, and sometimes the jokes can be cruel and inconsiderate, such as when Terry painted Jill’s cat bright yellow without telling her. These jokes can leave a bad impression on a young audience. Readers will either love or hate The 13-Story Treehouse. Some will find the story laugh-out-loud funny while others will find the repetitious nature of the story and Terry and Andy’s jokes crude and annoying. But in the end, readers who want a story that’s ridiculously outrageous should pick up The 13-story Treehouse.

Sexual Content

  • Terry and a mermaid kiss so he can become a merman.

Violence

  • After fighting about Terry’s new invention and their new giant banana, Terry whacks Andy over the head with the banana causing Andy to go unconscious. Terry thought, “I’d killed you!” when Andy wakes up.
  • Andy eavesdrops on the sea monster’s plan to eat Terry. The sea monster thinks, “I’ll lure him down beneath the water, and then his body I will slaughter. Oh how I’ll enjoy devouring him – I’ll tear him apart, limb from limb. I’ll eat his eyes and ears and nose and suck the marrow from his toes.”
  • Terry wards off a wild pack of monkeys with a giant banana. When the monkeys attack, “Terry picked up the giant banana and, holding it like a baseball bat, began whacking back the marshmallows, pens, pencils, erasers, paintbrushes, paints, and monkey poop being hurled in our direction. And then he began knocking the monkeys right out of the tree!”
  • A giant gorilla intentionally squishes Barky the dog. Andy describes, “ the giant gorilla lifted up one of its gigantic feet and stomped on him.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When the marshmallow machine automatically shoots marshmallows into Terry and Andy’s mouth, Andy asks, “How do you shut this stupid thing off?”
  • Andy thinks Terry’s favorite TV show has the “world’s dumbest dog on the world’s dumbest TV show.”
  • Andy says Terry is out of his “tiny, pea-brained, numbskull-sized mind!”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Matthew Perkey

 

 

 

 

What Light

The Christmas season holds a special place in the heart of Sierra’s family. Her parents first met at a Christmas tree lot and quickly fell in love. Now her parents own a Christmas tree farm in Oregon. Every winter, the family travels to California to set up their Christmas tree lot. Because of this, Sierra has never had a normal Christmas holiday, but she has never wanted anything different, having friends in both Oregon and California.

Sierra has always been able to keep her two lives apart, but all that changes when she meets Caleb, a handsome boy with a bad reputation. Even though Sierra is warned to stay away from Caleb’s cute smile, Sierra is drawn to him. The more she gets to know him, the more questions she has about his bad reputation. Sierra is determined to show others that Caleb’s past mistakes should not define him, but with mounting pressure from her parents and friends, Sierra wonders if Caleb is worth the trouble. Amid growing suspicion and misconceptions, Sierra wonders if love really can conquer all.

What Light is a beautiful story about first love, forgiveness, and family. Readers will fall in love with Sierra, who doesn’t hide her intelligence when trying to attract a boy. Instead, she continues to use advanced vocabulary and enjoys the fact that Caleb tries to stump her with new words. Readers will be drawn to Sierra because of her sweet, trusting nature and her love of all things Christmas. Another positive aspect of the story is Sierra’s parents, who use positive communications skills to guide Sierra through her first love, even as they worry about the possibility of Caleb breaking her heart.

As teen romances flood the market, What Light will draw readers in with relatable characters who have healthy relationships. This sweet story steers away from sex, swear words, and other objectionable material. Any reader who is looking for an engaging holiday romance should grab a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa and curl up with What Light. Like a Hallmark Movie, this story will leave readers with a smile and the belief that love can indeed conquer all.

Sexual Content

  • Heather talks about her boyfriend and says, “If the choice is between listening to him or kissing him, kissing is a much better use of his mouth.”
  • When Sierra talks to Heather about her boyfriend, Sierra says, “You and Devon hang out a lot, and I know you make out a lot, but does he know you really like him?”
  • Sierra’s friend tells her to, “put a stupid mistletoe over his head and kiss him already!” During the conversation, the friend also says, “You should probably kiss him, though, before you make any bigger decisions.”
  • The first time Sierra and Caleb kiss, “he touches my cheek with his hand and guides me toward him. His lips are so soft against mine, sweetened with peppermint. I lean further in and get lost kissing him. I slide off him to the mat and then he rolls himself on top of me. I wrap my arms around him and we kiss with more intensity. We pull back to catch our breaths and look into each other’s eyes.”
  • Caleb kisses Sierra and “once again I lose myself in his kiss. I trace my lips from his jaw to his ear.”
  • While on a date, Caleb “kisses me softly. I reach up and touch his cold cheeks, which make his lips feel even warmer. I wonder if every kiss with Caleb will feel this new and magical.”
  • Caleb and Sierra kiss several other times, but the kisses are not described.

Violence

  • Caleb tells Sierra about a time when he was younger. He was angry at his sister and ran after her with a knife. When Caleb’s sister ran from him, “she got to her room and slammed the door. . . I stabbed her door with the knife over and over. I didn’t way to hurt her. . . but I could not stop stabbing the door. I heard her screaming and crying to our mom on the phone. Finally, I dropped the knife and just slumped onto the floor.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Sierra’s friend went on one date with a boy who was “caught with an open can of beer in his friend’s car.”
  • On New Year’s Eve, a boy promises to be “the designated driver for the entire cheer squad.”

Language

  • God is used as an exclamation twice. Oh my God is used as an exclamation once.
  • Hell, damn, and crappy are all used once
  • Caleb’s sister calls her brother “bone-headed.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Sierra teases a boy, saying, “You probably consider your sweet tooth a major sin.” The boy replies, “No, I don’t remember that one being mentioned in church, but laziness has been, and I am that.”
  • A little girl tells Caleb that her family has “said a prayer for you.”
  • A family’s car breaks down on a long trip and the family has to rent a motel room. When the woman recounts the experience, she says, “Thank you, God, they had a pool there or the kids would have killed each other.”
  • Caleb and Sierra have a brief conversation about church. Caleb is a believer, and although he attends church, the story doesn’t go into his beliefs.
  • Sierra says a prayer. “Please don’t let this be the last time I see Caleb.”

Lair of the Beast

Wily Snare spent most of his life below ground creating clever tricks to ensnare treasure-seekers. Once he escaped from the dungeon, he was able to befriend a group of adventurers. Stalag, the mage who once kept Wily locked away, wants revenge. He plans to build an army of stone soldiers and take over Wily’s kingdom.

Even though Wily has sworn to keep his kingdom safe, he isn’t prepared for the pressures that come with being a prince. In order to stop Stalag, Wily will need the help of all of his friends. They must travel to find an oracle, find passage into the Below, and fight frightening beasts. The only way that Wily and his friends will succeed is if they work together to quell a creature that is as big as a castle and more dangerous than the deadliest dungeon.

Wily Snare is an imperfect protagonist that genuinely cares about the people of his kingdom. Even though Wily knows how to be a great trapsmith, he has no idea how to be a good king. Wily is afraid of failure, but others remind him that “You don’t need to be perfect. You can’t get everything right. In fact, most things you will get wrong. And that’s okay. That’s part of life.” Despite his fears, Willy uses his brains to get out of difficult situations. Readers will be able to cheer for Wily as he fights beasts, guides his companions, and fights for his kingdom.

Snared: Lair of the Beast is the second book in a fantasy adventure series. Reading the first book in the series, Snared: Escape to the Above, is essential because most of the characters appear in the first book and the second installment does not explain important events that took place in book 1. Wily and his misfit treasure-seeking friends are interesting and are willing to face danger to help others. Even though Wily and his friends face many different types of magical creatures, the battle scenes are not scary. Readers will enjoy seeing how the oracle’s prophecy comes true, as well as how Wily uses his mind to defeat evil.

Advanced elementary and junior high readers will enjoy the quirky characters and the interesting monsters that Wily encounters. The story continually reinforces the idea that everyone makes mistakes. In the end, Wily doesn’t need to prove that he is perfect, he just needs to do the best that he can. Snared: Lair of the Beast is an entertaining fantasy that teaches a positive message about friendship, forgiveness, and perseverance.

Sexual Content

  • Someone sings the following song: “My sister kissed a troll down by the river. She thought that a kiss would break a cursed spell. But the troll was just a troll down by the river. Still, she married him and now they’re doing well.”

Violence

  • Wily and his companions enter an underground chamber. They meet a monster who shows them a map. “As he put his tiny eyes up to the etched map, Odette smashed him in the face with the back of the shield. The boarcus collapsed to the floor.”
  • When Wiley is stealing treasure, he “looked up to see faceless humanoids emerging from the slime around the small island on which he was standing. The bodies and outstretched arms dripped with viscous green ooze. One of the strange creatures lunged at Wily.” Wily and his companions run from the humanoids, because “legend says they can melt metal with a single touch.” As they run, they meet a quill grizzler, who “shot a series of sharp needles at the fleeing adventurers. . . the quill grizzler grabs Wily, who “felt the quill grizzler’s claws snap closed around him. The fanged bear lifted him off his feet and began to squeeze. The pressure was intense . . .” Wily and his companions are able to escape uninjured. The chase scene is described over seven pages.
  • Two golem’s try to capture Wily and his companions. When Moshul, a moss golem, charges, “the bearded stone golem swung his arm. The back of his hand struck Moshul in the chest. Wily watched as the moss golem was knocked to the ground as easily as a straw man. . . The bearded golem reached out and grabbed Moshul by the shoulder. He lifted him into the air and threw him—off the side of the mountain.” Moshul is not injured.
  • After Moshul is thrown off a mountain, “Pryvyd and Odette, both rage-filled, charged them. The quartz-fingered golem punched Pryvyd’s shield so hard that every metal spike that had been sticking out from it was snapped clean off. Pryvyd tumbled backward, his brass armor clattering and clanging.” Wily and his companions flee.
  • Slither trolls invade a town. “The slither troll was about to swing the rake at the terrified woman when Righteous flew across and blocked the blow with a sword.” In order to defeat the trolls, Wily creates a slingshot and his companions throw tomatoes. “The soft projectiles soared through the air and struck the trolls on their legs and bellies. The trolls both let out pained yelps. ‘Oh that burns!’ one screamed. ‘Ouch. Ouch. Ouchie.’” The trolls run away. The scene takes place over four pages.
  • A monsoonondom is a “giant furry beast with long tusks that spark like lightning bolts. Their footsteps churn the wind into a fury. A shake of their fur causes torrential downpours.” Wily and his companions flee from a monsoonondom, but before they get away “the powerful gusts blowing off the beast knocked her [Wily’s mother] off her feet and into a tree.” A group of animals and people made a barricade, but the monsoonondom “hit the moss golem straight in the back. Moshul was knocked off his feet and Roveeka went flying off his shoulders. But Moshul caught her in his mud hands before she struck the ground.” Wily’s mother is injured. The scene takes place over six pages.
  • Wily tries to quell a manticorn, which is a two-headed beast with six clawed legs. “it had the body and tail of a giant panther. . . One head resembled an eagle with a giant horn sticking out from between its eyes. The other looked as if it had been taken from a goat, except that it had dagger-sharp fangs where its teeth should be.” Wiley jumps on the manticorn’s back, and “the manticorn shook its back with such force that Wily went flying into a bolder on the edge of the Web’s jagged cliff. All the air went out of him, and when he was finally able to breathe again and looked up, the manticorn was practically on top of him.” Someone helps Wily, who is uninjured.
  • A group of people throws arrows at Moshul, the moss golem. “Pryvyd blocked one with his shield while Righteous plucked another from the air. Moshul was struck with four in his chest and a fifth in his arm. The moss golem stumbled backward. . .” When the group finds out that Moshul was not a stone golem, they stop shooting arrows.
  • While in an underground chamber, Wily and his companions see a mold-ogre. Wily “walked straight up to the mold-ogre and kicked one of its big hairy toes.” Wily discovers that the mold-ogre is not real.
  • When an elf tries to keep Wily and his friend Valor prisoners, “Valor seized the opportunity to give the haggard elf a kick to the stomach, sending her tumbling backward.” The two are able to escape.
  • While in the underground tunnels, Wily and his friend are attacked by “ants the size of wolves. . . They snapped their pincers as their antennae waved wildly in the air.” When Wily tries to escape, “the first group of ants skittered toward Wily, attempting to bite his legs and waist. Balor came to his defense, slicking the air with her wooden hand claws. Her right-hand blade slicked off the antennae of three of the ambush ants. With her other hand, she punched the head of a snapping ant.” When Valor smacks another ant, the “ants bit down on Valor’s ankle, breaking the skin. Wily grabbed a hammer from his tool belt and smashed the ant attacking Valor on the side of the head. The ant crumpled as another took its place.” Wily’s others companions find them and help defeat the ants. The ant battle is described over four pages.
  • In a battle against good and evil, two golems attack. Before they could hit anyone, “the lair beast swung its spiked tail in a wide arc. The ball at the end hit the quartz-gingered golem in the chest, sending chips of stone flying as he was knocked off his feet.” During the battle, a giant Infernal Golem appears. The lair beast “flapped toward the sun before diving, heading straight for the Infernal Golem. . . The Infernal Golem grabbed the lair beast by the tail, plucking it out of the air. Then, with what seemed like no little effort at all, he tossed the mighty lair beast back into the sky. . .” The golems are defeated when they sink in the mud, but no one else is injured. The battle is described over ten pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Someone calls a person an idiot.
  • Darn is used once.

Supernatural

  • A knight has an enchanted floating arm that helps him in battle.
  • People can create golems out of stone or earth and bring them alive by magic.
  • The group passes the Archway of Many Eyes; the archway has eyes that send an alert when it sees someone.
  • Someone cast a spell to make oglodyte minions look like children.
  • A levitating skull tells jokes.
  • Wily and his companions go to see the Oracle of Oak, who uses acorns to predict the future. When Wily asks her questions, she “swept her hand around a bowl of acorns, stirring them as if cooling a bowl of soup. She stared at the patterns that were forming.” The oracle makes predictions based on the patterns.
  • When inside a mountain, Wily sees a cavern mage who “lifted her frail hands and pointed at the mouth of the tunnel. Suddenly, a pair of giant spectral hands formed. They grabbed the rock walls and pulled them wider as easily as if the walls were made out of clay, adding several feet on either side.”
  • Someone cast a spell that makes a cave cricket grow until it was so big a man could ride it.

Spiritual Content

  • None
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