A True Princess

A True Princess

Diane Zahler

Genre: Chapter Book

Summary (from Goodreads): Twelve-year-old Lilia is not a very good servant. In fact, she's terrible! She daydreams, she breaks dishes, and her cooking is awful. Still, she hardly deserves to be sold off to the mean-spirited miller and his family. Refusing to accept that dreadful fate, she decides to flee. With her best friend, Kai, and his sister, Karina, beside her, Lilia heads north to find the family she's never known. But danger awaits. . . .

As their quest leads the threesome through the mysterious and sinister Bitra Forest, they suddenly realize they are lost in the elves' domain. To Lilia's horror, Kai falls under an enchantment cast by the Elf King's beautiful daughter. The only way for Lilia to break the spell and save Kai is to find a jewel of ancient power that lies somewhere in the North Kingdoms. Yet the jewel will not be easy to find. The castle where it is hidden has been overrun with princess hopefuls trying to pass a magical test that will determine the prince's new bride. Lilia has only a few days to search every inch of the castle and find the jewel—or Kai will be lost to her forever.

Review: I liked this book a lot; it reminded me of the story of the Princess and the Pea.  It is about a girl names Lilia who is a servant and runs away because she is going to be sent to a mean family.  Her friends Kai and Karina go along with her, but Kai becomes enchanted by the Elf King's daughter.  Lilia has to find Odin's clasp so that the Elf Princess will let Kai go.  I like this book because everything turns out fine in the end.  I liked Lilia because she was brave and kind.  It's the kind of book that I like to read because most of the characters are nice, the characters go on adventures, and it was a kind of mystery.  Oh, and because it was about a girl.

Rating: 5 stars

The Greatest Star on Earth

The Greatest Star on Earth

Kate Klise

Genre: Chapter Book

Summary (from Goodreads): The rascals from the world s friendliest family circus are back in the second installment of this smafunderful * fully illustrated series.

Everyone knows Sir Sidney's Circus is the best in the world. But who's the "star" of the show? "The Circus Times" is having a contest to find out. Just thinking about it gives Sir Sidney a worrywart, and it's quickly clear why. Soon after he goes off to rest, the performers start thinking too much about winning the trophy and not enough about putting on a good show.

Meanwhile, it looks as if ringmaster-in-training Barnabas Brambles might need some help managing the crew, so Bert and Gert, the sly brother-and-sister mice who travel with the show, set out to write a book to teach him how it's done.

Does Bert and Gert s plan work? And who" is" the star of the circus? All will be revealed in "The Greatest Star on Earth." 

Review: I like this book because Sir Sidney, the owner of the circus, is very kind, and I like how all the animals in the circus are kind and funny.  It is especially funny when Leo the lion thinks he should sing high because he might win the trophy, and Tiger the cat thinks she should sing low so she could win the trophy, and it's very funny because if I could actually hear them singing they would sound really really hilarious.  This book has a lot of pictures, at least one on every page, and the pictures make the book extra fun so that kids have a good image of what is happening.  There are other books in the series, called The Show Must Go On, The Circus Goes to Sea, and Pop Goes the Circus.  I like all those books, too.

Rating: 5 stars

Tuesdays at the Castle

Tuesdays at the Castle

Jessica Day George

Genre: Chapter Book

Summary (from Goodreads): Tuesdays at Castle Glower are Princess Celie's favorite days. That's because on Tuesdays the castle adds a new room, a turret, or sometimes even an entire wing. No one ever knows what the castle will do next, and no one-other than Celie, that is-takes the time to map out the new additions. But when King and Queen Glower are ambushed and their fate is unknown, it's up to Celie, with her secret knowledge of the castle's never-ending twists and turns, to protect their home and save their kingdom. This delightful book from a fan- and bookseller-favorite kicks off a brand-new series sure to become a modern classic.

Review: I like this book because Celie has so many adventures and always seems to be having so much fun.  The castle that she lives in, Castle Glower, seems very interesting because it adds a new room or switches things around every Tuesday.  One time it added a room with a bouncy floor; it would be really fun to have a bouncy room in your own house!  While having her adventures, Celie figures out that one of the princes visiting the castle is a bad guy and she has to stop him.  I like Celie because she is adventurous and usually cheerful, and because she is brave and smart.  I would recommend this book to girls who like adventure.  But it has dragons and griffins in it, so I think Noah would like it, too.  There are two more books in the series that are really good, too: Wednesdays at the Tower and Thursdays with the Crown.

Rating: 5 stars

The 13 Story Treehouse Series

The 13-Story Treehouse
The 26-Story Treehouse
The 39-Story Treehouse

Author: Andy Griffiths
Illustrator: Terry Denton

Genre: Chapter Book (Grade Level 3.8)

Summary (from Goodreads): Who wouldn't want to live in a treehouse? Especially a 13-storey treehouse that has a bowling alley, a see-through swimming pool, a tank full of sharks, a library full of comics, a secret underground laboratory, a games room, self-making beds, vines you can swing on, a vegetable vaporiser and a marshmallow machine that follows you around and automatically shoots your favourite flavoured marshmallows into your mouth whenever it discerns you're hungry.

Two new characters – Andy and Terry – live here, make books together, and have a series of completely nutty adventures. Because: ANYTHING can happen in a 13-storey treehouse.

This is a major new series from Andy and Terry- and it's the logical evolution of all their previous books. There are echoes of the Just stories in the Andy and Terry friendship, the breakaway stories in the Bad Book (the Adventures of Super Finger), there's the easy readability of the Cat on the Mat and the Big Fat Cow, and like all these books, the illustrations are as much a part of the story as the story itself.

Amelia's Review:  These books are about two kids who run away from home and are captured by a pirate.  When the pirate ship gets wrecked, they use the wood to build a 13-story treehouse, and then a 26-story treehouse, and then a 39-story treehouse.  The treehouse has fun things in it like a trampoline so they can fly up really high, an anti-gravity chamber, a once-upon-a-time machine, a chocolate waterfall, a baby dinosaur petting zoo and an opera house.  I like these books because they are funny.  I like all the different levels that the kids invent, and I like that they build all kinds of dangerous things!  There are lots of very nice pictures that look so real.  I think it is cool that the kids in the book are actually the author and the illustrator, and that they have a friend Jill who has a lot of animals.  I hope the next book comes out tomorrow so I can read it!  I would recommend these books to Noah because the kids are creative and like to invent things. 

Rating: 5 stars (actually 10 stars!)

Astrotwins

Astrotwins

Mark Kelly

Genre: Juvenile Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): A team of middle schoolers prepares for blastoff in this adventure from the author of the New York Times bestselling Mousetronaut, based on the childhoods of real-life astronauts Mark Kelly and his twin brother Scott.

It's a long, hot summer and Scott and Mark are in big trouble for taking apart (aka destroying) their dad's calculator. As a punishment, they're sent to their grandfather's house, where there's no TV and they have to do chores. And Grandpa is less tolerant of the twins' constant bickering. "Why don't you two work together on something constructive. What if you built a go-kart or something?" Grandpa suggests.

But it's not a go-kart the twins are interested in. They want to build a rocket. With the help of Jenny, nicknamed Egg, and a crew of can-do kids, they set out to build a real rocket that will blast off and orbit the Earth. The question soon becomes: which twin will get to be the astronaut?

Written by a NASA astronaut with four space flights under his belt, this exciting story includes extensive back matter on the space program with fantastic facts and details.
 
Amelia's Review:  It was good and it was funny.  This book was about two boys named Mark and Scott who wanted to build a rocket ship  A girl came over to help make the rocket; her name was Jenny, but they called her Egg.  A few other kids helped, too.  They made the rocket out of some metal bricks that they covered in duct tape.  The kids were very creative when they built the rocket, and they asked a science teacher at Egg's school what they could use for fuel, and they used sugar and molasses!  They actually sent Scott into space, for real! He came back to Earth and he landed in a lake, but that's okay because rockets are supposed to land in water.  I liked that the kids could figure out how to make a rocket even thought they aren't that old.  I would recommend this book to Noah because he likes space.

Amelia's Rating: 4 stars


Marcie's Review:  Amazon states that this book is recommended for grades 4-6, but the detail around the physics would likely be beyond the understanding of even a 6th grader.  I'm sure my second grader just glossed right over it.  The author is clearly trying to teach kids about science, engineering, math and rocketry (at times it felt very teachy to me), but it is done in the context of an engaging story with enough mischief to keep kids interested.  I was happy to find a book about kids doing STEM activities that my girly girl was interested in.  The only problem is that now she wants to build a rocket and launch it into space.

Marcie's Rating: 4 stars

Fortunately, the Milk

Fortunately, the Milk

Neil Gaiman

Genre:  Chapter Book

Summary (from Goodreads): "I bought the milk," said my father. "I walked out of the corner shop, and heard a noise like this: T h u m m t h u m m. I looked up and saw a huge silver disc hovering in the air above Marshall Road."

"Hullo," I said to myself. That's not something you see every day." And then something odd happened.

Find out just how odd things get in this hilarious story of time travel and breakfast cereal.
 
Review:  (Review by Amelia)  This book was funny because there were aliens who wanted to redecorate the earth by putting plastic flamingos in instead of trees, and they wanted to replace the moon with a big decorative plate.  Parts of it were a little bit scary, like when the aliens were trying to capture him and when the pirates tried to make him walk the plank.  I think the dad made up the whole story, I think he was at the store talking to one of his friends, but the author never tells you if that's true.

(Review by Marcie)  This book is hilarious!  I think that Brian should get it from the library and read it to Natalie and Noah, because it seems like the kind of story that he would make up for them.  I told Amelia she had to read at least 30 pages of it before she could put it down and read a book of her choice (American Girl books) and she read the entire thing without stopping.  It's not exactly her kind of book, but it does include ponies, dinosaurs, aliens, time travel, pirates, vampires and volcanos, so I think probably most kids would find something entertaining in it.

Amelia's Rating: 4.5 stars 

Marcie's Rating: 5 stars

Magical Animal Adoption Agency: Clover's Luck

Clover's Luck

author: Kallie George
illustrator: Alexandra Bolger

Genre: Chapter Book

Summary (from Goodreads): The first in a chapter book series starring an unlucky girl named Clover who accepts a volunteer position at a magical animal adoption agency.
 
Review:  (Review by Amelia)  This book is about a girl named Clover who is really unlucky until she finds a magical animal adoption agency and she starts helping there.  She meets fairy sized horses, unicorns, a firefly under a curse as a toad, a fire salamader, and even a dragon.  She helps the toad find her home because she was put under a curse, and Clover found the toad's owner.  Twice there was a mean witch who steals stuff from the animal agency; she cut off some of the unicorn's tale and she cut off one of the dragon's claws.  The witch thinks Clover is unlucky, so she puts some of her blood into a potion that she thinks will make people unlucky.  But then Clover figures out that she is lucky because when the witch squirts some of the magic potion at a cat, the cat turns green, which is the color of a lucky clover.  Then Clover throws the pot of potion at the witch, and when the witch is saying bad spells (like telling bees to strike) they turn into nice spells (like the bees turn into rainbows and butterflies).  When the owner of the AAA came back, he had an egg that would hatch into another animal.

This book was really good because Clover got to find lots of magical animals like unicorns.  I liked Clover because she was a nice person who helped animals find their homes.  She is also helpful and brave and never gives up.  This book had funny parts, like when the witch was pretending to be a princess.  My favorite part was when Clover found out that she was lucky after all.  I read this book twice in a row because it was super duper good.  I would recommend this book to kids who like magical animals.

Rating: 100 thousand million stars

Meet Samantha

Meet Samantha

Susan Adler

Genre: Chapter Book

Summary (from Goodreads): Samantha Parkington is a bright Victorian beauty being raised by her wealthy grandmother in 1904. Samantha's stories describe her life during this important period of change. Her own world is filled with frills and finery, parties and play. But Samantha sees that times are not good for everybody. That's why she tries to make a difference in the life of her friend Nellie, a servant girl whose world is nothing like Samantha's Samantha befriends a servant girl named Nellie who moves in next door. The girls become fast friends, though their lives are different.
 
Review:  (Review by Amelia, but I have corrected spelling errors.)  Samantha is a nine year old girl who lives with her grandmother, Grandmary.  Her clothes are different than ours because she is always supposed to wear a dress and this kind of itchy underwear. I did like the book because it was fun and it teaches me about the past.  I would not want to live in Samantha's time because I would have to wear itchy underwear from September to June.  My favorite part of the book was when she gave her doll to a servant girl named Nellie.  I liked it because she was being kind.  I would like to recommend this book to a kid who likes American Girl dolls or a kid who likes to learn about the past.

Rating: 4 stars

Anna Hibiscus

Anna Hibiscus

Atinuke

Genre:Children's Chapter Book

Summary (from Goodreads): Anna Hibiscus lives in amazing Africa with her mother, her father, her baby twin brothers, and lots and lots of her family. Join her as she splashes in the sea, prepares for a party, sells oranges, and hopes to see sweet, sweet snow.
 
Amelia's Review:  I really like Anna Hibiscus because Anna is friendly and happy and she's kind of like me because she really likes snow.  I learned that people in Africa eat with their fingers, I thought that was kind of strange but also kind of cool.  The book is funny because Anna has a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins and some of her cousins have funny names like Common Sense.  I think Natalie and Noah should read this book because it has twins in it, they are named Double and Trouble.

Marcie's Review: This was a sweet and funny book about a little girl in Africa who lives with her large and boisterous family.  She has adventures and learns important lessons, but it's not preachy in any way.  I love that it introduces another culture in an interesting and relatable way, without being a cliche or being dated.  This is exactly the kind of book that I would like Amelia to be reading.

Amelia's Rating: 4 stars

Marcie's Rating: 5 stars

Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat

Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat

author: Anna Branford
illustrator: Elanna Allen

Genre: Chapter Book

Summary (from the publisher):  Violet is back with a little bit of helpfulness and a whole lot of heart in this third book of the effervescent Violet Mackerel series.

Violet is the smallest in her family, and has a special affinity for Small Things everywhere. So when she finds a tiny ladybug in the garden, she expects she knows how it feels. It probably has to go to bed before all the others, and whenever it finds out something interesting (like that your ears keep growing all your life even when you are old), the bigger ladybugs probably say they already knew.

Violet wants to help the ladybug, so she names her Small Gloria, puts her in a jar, and feeds her cheese toast. And then Violet wakes up to a horrible surprise. But thankfully, even as Violet learns a hard lesson about natural habitats, she realizes how nice it is to share her own habitat with a big sister.

Amelia's Review:  This book was just ok.  It wasn't as interesting as the other books that I like to read.  But I liked learning about ladybugs.

Marcie's Review:   I am trying to get Amelia to branch out in reading, so I made her read this book in the car on the drive to Glen Carbon before she could read a Boxcar Children book.  I think her low rating reflected her anger in not being able to read the book she wanted to read.  I will have to think of a new way to encourage her to read different types of books that will result in her actually liking them.

I really liked this cute chapter book about a seven year old girl who helps her sister with a natural science fair project. While this is ostensibly a book about science and habitats, it is also more importantly a book about siblings.  I loved how Violet described her siblings (her 11 year old sister Nicola is "always grumpy" and her 13 year old brother is "going through a stage") and my heart melted when the younger sister tried to cheer up the older sister, and the older sister let the younger sister help with her project.  I also appreciated that Violet isn't a total girly-girl; she loves nature, bugs, birds and her rainboots, just like most little girls (and chapter books about girls don't often reflect that).  The illustrations are also charming.   There isn't much action in this book, but I thought it had some funny parts (although possibly kids would miss them).

Interestingly, this book was clearly not written in the US, which resulted in a few out-of-the-ordinary words, like petrol.  As I was reading it, I caught a few other tricky words, like queasy, in addition to the science words, like larvae and pupae, which could make this book a little challenging for some seven year olds (I assume that is the target audience).

Amelia's Rating: 2 stars

Marcie's Rating: 4 stars

Annie and Simon

Annie and Simon

Catharine O'Neill

Genre: Early Chapter Book

Summary (from the publisher):  A chatty little girl and her patient older brother share an easy bond in a charming early chapter book filled with warmth and wry humor.

Annie and Simon: little sister and big, big brother. Annie likes to talk — a lot — about what she’s going to be when she grows up, about the clouds and rain and umbrellas, about picnics in the park and meteors, about loons and canoes and turtles. And Simon is a very good listener. He knows a lot about the stars and the weather, how to fix bee stings, and where to look for loons. He knows a lot about being the kind of big brother that keeps a little sister smiling. Whether they are poking around the garden or paddling through a marsh, curious Annie and patient Simon are siblings who are clearly happy in each other’s company.

Review by Amelia:  This book is pretty good.  It's about a girl named Annie and a boy named Simon.  There are four chapters and each chapter is a different story.  I liked that they were talking about meteors in one chapter and it was funny when Annie did her brother Simon's hair because his hair looked crazy.  I liked that there were a lot of pictures and that the pictures were colorful instead of only black and white and grey like most chapter books.  There's only one thing that I didn't like - that Annie got stung by a bee.

Review by Marcie: This is a cute little book about an imaginative girl who loves to hang out with her responsible older brother.  I would classify it as an early chapter book, although some of the words might be tricky for early readers.  It has a lot of colorful pictures, and not a huge amount of text.  This would be a good read-aloud for a child who is starting to be interested in listening to chapter books; an adult could easily read this book in one sitting before bed time.  

Rating by Amelia: 3 stars (she was anxious to start reading a different book, but I am making her read books of my choice to branch out)