Book Review: Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran

Cleopatra's Daughter
by Michelle Moran
Non-series

Crown
ISBN-10: 0-3074-0912-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-3074-0912-6
Publication Date: September, 2009
List Price: $25.00

Review: Romance, tragedy, and love, these are all words that describe Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran. Selene starts the story at 12 years old, but gets older as the story goes on. Her life is filled with heartbreak, and love. How will she get through? This story starts in Egypt, but is mainly in Rome.

When Egypt is taken over by the Roman Empire, Selene’s mother- Cleopatra is forced to commit suicide. Her father is too. Ceaser has no mercy; he goes on to murder the rest of her family except for her two brothers. They are then set off on a ship to Rome where they will be raised. One problem arises while they are on the ship; Ptolemy (Selene’s younger brother) gets sick and dies. Selene and her brother Alexander are devastated, and they wonder, what will happen to them? While on the ship Selene meets Marcellus, Selene thinks she is in love with him. He is handsome, funny, and kind. Naturally when she finds out that he is engaged to the beautiful Julia, there is going to be some drama. Julia hates the idea of him complementing, flirting and spending time with Selene, but Selene loves him… At age 15 she is to be married off to someone, will it be an old man, a young man, or someone of great power? Thinking that Alexander is going to be married with her, what will she do when tragedy strikes again?

I found Cleopatra’s Daughter to be a very interesting book. Moran did a very good job of painting a picture in your mind. It was like you could see the whole story happening right there in front of you. I felt like I was being transported to ancient Egypt! The whole thing was believable, and Selene was easy to relate to. Like when Selene gets jealous of Julia for being Marcellus’s fiancé. At no point was this story unbelievable. While this was a good book it wasn’t perfect. Something that I found to be frustrating was that not all words that were italicized (that were Egyptian or Roman) were in the glossary. So at times this made it hard to follow. Another thing I liked about the book was the beginning. It dove into action, which made it interesting. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone under 6th grade due to some higher-level material.

Review written by Kayley (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Nancy Berland Public Relations, Inc. for providing a copy of Cleopatra's Daughter for this review.

Have you read Cleopatra's Daughter? How would you rate it?

Book Review: Bushfire Rescue by Justin D'Ath

Bushfire Rescue
by Justin D'Ath
Extreme Adventures

Kane Miller
ISBN-10: 1-935279-33-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-935279-33-4
Publication Date: March, 2010
List Price: $5.99

Review: Do you like action, adventure, or a combination of the two? Then Bushfire Rescue is the new book for you. In this thrilling second part of the Extreme Adventures series, main character Sam Fox has to stop cattle rustlers, or cattle/cow thieves, from stealing his grand pappy’s prized bull. Justin D’Ath has made these books a 10- part series so far, with more to come. Some of the other children’s books Justin has written are Pool, The Quentaris Chronicles: The Skyflower, and Shaedow Master. All of these books show the fun – and danger—in life.

Sam Fox had gone on vacation to his grandparent’s house in the country. As the story starts, we find Sam getting himself into a lot of trouble… throughout this book, actually, we find Sam in many desperate situations. First, we find him caught in the middle of a cattle snatching. Then Sam tries to go after them, and finds himself, and his little Palomino pony Susie, stuck right in the center of a rockslide (known as an avalanche in the story) and has the worst trouble getting out. Then, later, Sam Fox finds himself helplessly lost in the middle of the mountains, while surrounded by the worst bushfire he could imagine. And he’s stuck with a crazy old rodeo bull named Chainsaw (makes him sound crazy, too, doesn’t it?) to assist him. Sam has a lot on his mind, so I doubt he’ll be able to relax, don’t you think?

Bushfire Rescue is a delightfully fun and thrilling book. Boys will enjoy the action, and most girls would enjoy the humor that intermingles in with the action. This is an easier book, probably meant for about 3rd-5th graders. Out of five stars, I give it 4 ½ stars because some parts the way the story was written could change, because the author didn’t place conventions appropriately. That had made me misinterpret what Justin tried to say, and confuse me later on. Overlooking that error, I find that these books are hard to put down. I am reading the whole series now and I hope there are more to follow.

Review written by Willow (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Kane Miller for providing a copy of Bushfire Rescue for this review.

Have you read Bushfire Rescue? How would you rate it?

Book Review: The Viper's Nest by Peter Lerangis

The Viper's Nest
by Peter Lerangis
The 39 Clues

Scholastic
ISBN-10: 0-545-06047-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-545-06047-9
Publication Date: February, 2010
List Price: $12.99

Review: The hunt for the 39 clues has taken two kids (brother and sister) on a ride for their lifetime in the 7th book in the 39 Clues series titled The Viper’s Nest written by Peter Lerangis. 14 year old Amy and her brother Dan age of 11 have just seen a woman die, their wanted by the Indonesian police, and their trapped on an island with a guy named Alistair Oh who know TOO much about Dan and Amy’s parents death! And to make matters worse a tropical storm is rolling in! Just when they think everything is going to be ok, it gets… EVEN WORSE! Now Dan and Amy have to sneak into a Tomas stronghold (HQ), and try and get the clue that Winston Churchill left alone that NO Cahill has ever found! But even after all that, there is still one more thing that Amy and Dan have to discover, the rattling truth about their family branch! All this is written by Peter Lerangis, one of the many authors, contributing their time, and writing the books of the crazy wild-goose chase of the “39 Clues”!!!

This is the best 39 Clues books I’ve read so far because of 2 things: the suspense and action! No other book or even series have I read contains so much action! For example, when Amy, Dan and Alistair wake up coughing in the burning house on the remote island in Jakarta. My favorite part in the book though is when Dan gets burnt badly by the acid while trying to flee the Kabras! The character setup in this book was phenomenal! Just like all the others in the series, it is just as amusing and intense! Plus, this book was taken place in Africa which was very cool. This book is 7th in the series, and there are 10, so I’m so close to finishing the series! I rate this book a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst, 10 being the best! Not many people know the 8th books, name, but I do, but you will have to wait and find out for yourself!!!

Review written by Karan (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Scholastic for providing a copy of The Viper's Nest for this review.

Have you read The Viper's Nest? How would you rate it?

Book Review: Leprechauns and Irish Folklore by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce

Leprechauns and Irish Folklore
by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce
Magic Tree House

Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0-375-86009-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-375-86009-6
Publication Date: January, 2010
List Price: $4.99

Review: Have you ever been to Ireland? Do you think you would like to? If so, you should read Leprechauns and Irish Folklore. It's a research guide that goes with the book Leprechauns in Late Winter, which is #43 in the Magic Tree House series with Jack and Annie. It's by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce.

Leprechauns and Irish Folklore is about Ireland. Since it's a companion to a fiction book, it has to do with the subject of the other book-Irish folklore! This compelling book teaches you about Ireland's culture and legends. Some individual subjects in this book are leprechauns, the Shee, and Lady Augusta Gregory, who was one of the main characters in Leprechauns in Late Winter. Some other topics are banshees, Douglas Hyde, and merrows. First, according to Irish legend, leprechauns are 'solitary fairies'. Leprechauns wear pointed hats and shiny shoes, with tiny glasses. Some say leprechauns collect money in pots of gold at the end of rainbows. Next, the Shee don't trust humans, and so are invisible to them. They live in kingdoms in hills, caves, or even rivers! The Shee are called trooping fairies. Finally, Lady Augusta Gregory was a snobby girl of about 11 or 12. She came from a rich family, and she had fifteen brothers and sisters. Wow! When she got older, she wrote books about Irish tales just like her friend Douglas Hyde, who was the first president of Ireland.

To sum it up, I thought Leprechauns and Irish Folklore was very informative as far as the Ireland theme. I liked how it gave you background information on all of these subjects, and even more! I also was wondering who was a real person or not, like Lady Gregory or Mary Sheridan, and this cleared up any doubts or confusion that I had about the book. This book was very helpful, and was a good accompanying book to Leprechauns in Late Winter. If you're older and doing research on Ireland, this would be a useful book for you. In addition, if you're a kid from about six to nine years, this would be a very educational and instructive book. Also, you can get a better understanding of the Shee than the regular book tells you, and there are other fairies you never heard of and wouldn't have ever heard of like merrows which are mermaids, banshees, and pookas, who are huge horses that live on top of cliffs. You should definitely read this after reading Leprechauns in Late Winter, which is a first-class, awesome book! All in all, I give this book 5 stars.

Review written by Emily (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Leprechauns and Irish Folklore for this review.

Have you read Leprechauns and Irish Folklore? How would you rate it?

Book Review: Leprechaun in Late Winter by Mary Pope Osborne

Leprechaun in Late Winter
by Mary Pope Osborne
Magic Tree House

Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0-375-85650-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-375-85650-1
Publication Date: January, 2010
List Price: $12.99

Review: Have you ever heard about leprechauns? Ever read a book about them? If you would like to read a great book about leprechauns, read Leprechauns in Late Winter. It’s #43 in the Magic Tree House series starring Jack (about age 10) and Annie (about age 8) by Mary Pope Osborne.This fascinating book takes Jack and Annie to a beautiful place- Ireland! In this book, the kids are instructed by two young sorcerers named Teddy and Kathleen, and this time, their mission is to find a girl named Augusta who lives in Galway, Ireland, and Jack and Annie must inspire her so she can ‘give her gifts to the world’. Teddy and Kathleen give them a magic flute. Next, they find a book about Ireland and point to a picture of Galway and say, “I wish we could go there!” Then they are transported to Ireland while the tree-house spins and swirls around them. As their clothes also change, Jack and Annie look like simple street kids. When they reach her house, they meet Augusta, and after a short time in the parlor with Augusta’s rude sisters her mother comes in. Augusta walks to the lane with them and decides to bring them to Mary Sheridan so ‘Mary can tell them I’m a good person’. After Augusta brings them in, Mary tells them a tale about the Shee. Afterward, Mary tells Jack and Annie that they are special kids and Augusta runs away, crying because she says Mary likes them better than her. Jack and Annie go to her and explain that they will call the Shee with their magic flute. As they start to perform, Annie plays the flute and Jack sings, and out of the blue they hear a loud noise-it's the Shee! As Jack sings the last stanza, "In a swirl they leave, so wild, so free, with a lonely girl, to the hill of the Shee!", Annie realizes Augusta is gone! Now the children must find Augusta with the help of a leprechaun named Willy, who in exchange for bringing them to the Shee's secret hollow, will be taught to play the magic flute. If you want to know the rest, read the book!

Leprechauns in Late Winter is a really good children's book. When I was little, the Magic Tree House books were some of my favorites-and this one isn't any different. I liked how the author put surprises practically on every page, like Jack finding the letters in his notebook when him and Annie were summoned to the tree house, and like Augusta thinking she was better than poor people, because I thought she was going to be really nice and not high and mighty like she was at all, and Augusta being taken by the Shee, which I was really anxious to know what would happen next (I read that part really quickly!), and Willy appearing and attempting to play the magic flute and leading Jack and Annie to the Shee's secret hollow and-OOPS! Sorry, I can't tell you what happened next. One part I didn't like was how Augusta and her sisters were acting so superior. It made me feel bad for Jack and Annie that they had to deal with her, and I didn't like how Augusta was so prosperous and conceited. One other thing I didn't like was how Willy the leprechaun wasn't there until practically the very end, because I thought the whole book would revolve around a leprechaun, but it was revolving more around the Shee than Willy. One thing I really liked was that the book was kind of educational by helping you learn about Ireland, because it told you about all the fairies and where they lived and stuff like that, and so I liked how it taught you about the culture and folklore in Ireland. What's more, I liked how this book educated you on the famous people who lived in Ireland like Mary Sheridan and Lady Augusta Gregory. On a scale of one star to five stars, I would totally, definitely, without a doubt give this book 5 stars!

Review written by Emily (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Leprechaun in Late Winter for this review.

Have you read Leprechaun in Late Winter? How would you rate it?

Book Review: Elspeth by Kate O'Hearn

Elspeth
by Kate O'Hearn
Shadow of the Dragon

Kane Miller
ISBN-10: 1-935279-18-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-935279-18-1
Publication Date: March, 2010
List Price: $16.99

Review: Who doesn’t love an action packed book with adventure, humor, time-traveling, battles and dragons?! The book, Shadow of the Dragon: Book Two Elspeth by Kate O’Hearn (the second in the series) has everything! With a book like this and an exciting main character Kira and her group of friends (the dragons riders) you’ll never be able to put it down!

Our story begins with a group of dragon riders (people that ride dragons –hence the name) Kira, Elspeth , Kahrin, Dane, Shanks and a fox named Onnie that escaped the perilous hands of the evil Lord Dorcon in order to fulfill an ancient prophecy. “One day, a young girl astride a twin-tailed dragon will destroy monarchy and change the world forever…” Now of course the King Arden doesn’t want his monarchy to be destroyed, so he obviously doesn’t like this and is set off to kill them. They are sent by a wizard named Paradon through the Eye which is a time-traveling device. Everyone gets sent into the future except for Elspeth and Onnie who actually get sent into the past! While Elspeth struggles to find Kira, Kira and the rest of the gang are actually fighting people in the 20th century! Will Onnie and Elspeth make it home safe? Will Kira and the rest of the gang live to see Elspeth again?

I think this book is great! It is full of many humorous passages such as “You see that pond over there? Why don’t you go soak your head?” Plus, there are many descriptive passages that made me see what the author was trying describe like “The combined power of the merging stones knocked everyone to the floor of the cottages was filled with a blinding flash of colors and a tremendous peal of thunder that echoed throughout the village.”. The characters are realistic as well and act like normal people for their time and say things that they would have said. Plus, because the setting took place a long time ago, when the group got to the future they are surprised to see modern things like fridges and televisions. That makes sense because the group couldn’t possibly know what fridges and televisions are. My favorite character is Kira. This is because she is brave and determined. I also like her because she picks on Shanks a lot in funny ways. I also think that because the book switches view from Elspeth and Kira, you get to see the whole side of the story which makes it neat. Going from the two characters tells you each side of the story. Additionally, the book uses many different feelings and makes the main scenes all different from previous scenes, making you not sure what to expect next.

The only thing that disappointed me was that when reading the book, you needed to have prior knowledge from the first book. I think that the book should have summarized the previous book so that you would know what happened before. All in all, I thought this was a really good book because of the setting and the characters. I love how the author used her imagination to create the wizards, plot and the dragons. Plus, it really warms my heart to see that two sisters are fighting to see each other again. I give this book 4.5 out of 5. I really enjoyed reading this book and know that you will too.

Review written by Sarah (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Kane Miller for providing a copy of Elspeth for this review.

Have you read Elspeth? How would you rate it?

Book Review: Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta
by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Lunch Lady Series

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0-375-86094-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-375-8609402
Publication Date: December, 2009
List Price: $5.99

Review: Great Brussels sprouts! What an amazing graphic novel! The Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta by Jarrett J. Krosoczka is one of the best graphic novels I have EVER read! The author has struck gold with this book. This is the third book in the series, though I HOPE there will be more because this book has it ALL. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys comedy graphic novels.

Cool gadgets, scheming authors, raging bunnies, and solving mysteries are no biggy for the Lunch Lady. When a scheming author visits the school it’s up to the Lunch Lady to save the day. Gym teachers are disappearing all around the country. Will the Lunch Lady solve this case and get the gym teachers back? You can find all this out in The Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta!

What I really liked about this book is that the characters, more specifically the Lunch Lady uses catch phrases for example, great Brussels sprouts or I swear on my Salisbury steak special. Another one is sweet BBQ sauce. I think those are SO funny. I think you should read this book because it has a humor that is so hilarious because it is corny, in a good way. Not only does it have the catch phrases stated above, but the Lunch Lady has gadgets that look like ordinary lunch room items but are actually tools to use when trying to solve a case. Some of the gadgets are the Whisk Whackers, a Spork Phone, the Cannoli-oculars, the Hamburger Headphones, a Mustard Grappling Hook, and a Fancy Ketchup Packet Laser. What could be more exciting? The Lunch Lady is amusing, has a good plot, and well-established characters. It has it all.

Review written by Gabrielle (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta for this review.

Have you read Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta? How would you rate it?