Review: Ambition's Not An Awful Word by Zack Zage

Ambition's Not An Awful Word by Zack Zage.

Ivy Court Press
Publication Date: March 2012
List Price: $16.95
ISBN-13: 9780983607823

Review: "Oh, the moon left you this message 'It's ok to dream.'" This is a quote from the book I will be reviewing today which is Ambition's Not an Awful Word written by Zack Zage. It is a relatively short poetry book, and although I honestly didn't really like this book, I respect it and love this book's moral.

Ambition's Not an Awful Word starts with a boy in class , Zack Zage, who has just been asked the question; "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The boy loves this subject and had answers various answers in a speech. Here are two pages from the book Ambition's Not an Awful Word. "If I were an artist, the critics all would flip. The bigs at New York's MOMA would cry, 'This guy's really hip.' From musicians by Picasso and the night skies of Van Gogh, to Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, and ME, a one man show. 'Oh your canvas is no Pollock. It is just a muddy mess.' Our teacher, Mrs. Grundy, thinks it's awful, more or less. 'You had better stick with finger paint, rubber stamps, and glue. 'Cause all that junk that you call are is really double doo.'" Now you're probably thinking, "Hey! What just happened? It just went completely from ambition to putdowns!" Well, yeah, that's what just happened. I can't really explain why, but he just puts himself down in all of his ambitious thoughts. This happens on every page. He'll be all excited about a career and on the next page thinks of every single possible letdown there is to that job. This is one of the main reasons I don't really love this book. In another page, he says he could be a banker; and a very successful one too. But then, on the next page, he says he'll go to jail because he would be so bad. Again, I think that is a big letdown. However, the end does make up for the rest of the book. The boy's mother does in the end teach the boy a lesson - and it's a very valuable lesson too.

I recommend Ambition's Not an Awful Wordto parents reading this book as a story to younger kids anytime. It is not as interesting to older kids, but it does have a more sophisticated vocabulary. That is why I recommend it to parents reading to their kids. It also teaches a great lesson, which that is thinking you will be successful later on in life is very good for you. It encourages you to do better. In the end, although I did not particularly love the book, it does have a valuable lesson.

Review written by Dylan (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Ivy Court Press for providing a copy of Ambition's Not An Awful Word for this review.

Have you read Ambition's Not An Awful Word? How would you rate it?

Review: Life with Lily by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher

Life with Lily by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher. Book One in The Adventures of Lily Lapp.

Revell
Publication Date: October 2012
List Price: $12.99
ISBN-13: 9780800721329

Review: I read a book called Life with Lily by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher. It is book one in The Adventures of Lily Lapp series. The main character in this book is an Amish girl named Lily Lapp.

This book takes place in an Amish community in New York State. Lily is six years old and has two brothers, Dannie and Joseph. She is also part of a big extended family including her aunts, uncles, cousins, and great grandmother. Half of the family lives in New York and the other half lives in Kentucky. The book follows Lily through her daily routines on the family farm. It is made up of various short stories about Lily's school, life at home, friends, love of animals, and family. Some of the events described are Lily's birthday, her visits with relatives and friends, and the family moving to Pennsylvania. At the end of the book, Lily's family decides to move to a new house in Pennsylvania so that Lily and her brothers have a good place to go to school.

One thing I liked about this book was when Lily's grandmother taught her about how important it is to choose your friends wisely. She gave a good example by putting white flowers in water with different colors of food coloring mixed in. She compared the colored flowers to flowers in clear water. However, there also were some things I didn't like about this book. For example, the characters are more or less static and do not change much throughout the book. Also, most of the short stories did not connect to each other, although they were in chronological order. The theme of the book was ineffective and could not be easily picked out from the text. There was no main plot in the book. The authors of the book have a slow-moving writing style with ideas that aren't well-developed and had few details that could let the reader picture the events.

I did not like this book because it was boring, had sketchy ideas, and was not very descriptive.

Review written by Laura (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Revell for providing a copy of Life with Lily for this review.

Have you read Life with Lily? How would you rate it?