Book Review: Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell

Sing Down the Moon
by Scott O'Dell
Non-series

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN-10: 0-547-40632-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-40632-9
Publication Date: September, 2010
List Price: $6.99

Review: I'll be the first to admit it; Sing Down the Moon is one of my favorite books. Scott O'Dell once again scores a home run as far as popularity goes. He mixes emotion into a wonderful story with a Navaho girl, Bright Morning, who's captured by Spaniards to work as a slave. She doesn't know who to trust when a treacherous turn of events follows.

Scott O'Dell's sequel, Sing Down the Moon, follows up after Island of the Blue Dolphins. I love the way that Scott O'Dell creates a plot against the American soldiers and I actually believed that they were the evil enemy, and in a way they are. He says "I watched him in the saddle, stooped, and my heart went out to him". Talk about emotion! He uses excellent figurative language all throughout the story. I was hooked right away. The Navajo girl, Bright Morning, is captured by Spaniards. She's taken to a settlement and eventually flees with her friend as a "guide." They return to Bright Morning's tribe, only to find that they immediately have to flee from the American soldiers. They're taken to an Army camp and they eventually escape. What will they do now? Scott O'Dell's ending is remarkable. I like the way that Scott O'Dell mixes history in all of his stories. Personally, I like the way that he uses Native American names to bring across the characters' personalities. I love it. I hated the American soldiers when they tried to take over the Navajo people.

Review written by Colleen (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of Sing Down the Moon for this review.

Have you read Sing Down the Moon? How would you rate it?

Book Review: Roll Up the Streets by John Badek

Roll Up the Streets
by John Badek
Non-series

Kane Miller
ISBN-10: 1-935279-62-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-935279-62-4
Publication Date: September, 2010
List Price: $15.99

Review: Brain-washing corndogs, an awful stink and not getting any candy! What could be worse than that? Not getting ANY candy, now that is not fun at all!!!! I read the book Roll Up the Streets, by John Bladek. The main characters are Jake Machet, a sixth grade student, and his friend Samantha Warkofski (Sammie).

Jake and Sammie are two students in a small town that really stinks! One day Sammie goes to Jake's house for dessert and Jake's dad overhears them talking mean about J. P. Rumblegut. Jake is grounded for three day while Sammie moves away. Maggie, Jake's little sister, tells Jake that she saw Sammie then Jake is so excited that he runs away to J. P.'s factory where he thinks he'll find Sammie. The good news is that he finds Sammie, but he ends up in much more trouble than before.

On the first reading, the beginning of the story is confusing, slow and Jake's little jokes and comments are supposed to be funny but instead are annoying. The story has little adventure or excitement until close to the end. One of the parts that I liked best was when a character changed into something that totally surprised me.

When I read the book again, the beginning was not as confusing and I liked Jake's comments more than the first time I read the book. I got much more out of the book the second time I read it, so I suggest you read the book twice too. In the end, I rate the book a 3 out of 5 stars because, for me at least, it required a second reading.

Review written by Michael (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Kane Miller for providing a copy of Roll Up the Streets for this review.

Have you read Roll Up the Streets? How would you rate it?

Book Review: The Legend of the King by Gerald Morris

The Legend of the King
by Gerald Morris
The Squire's Tale

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN-10: 0-547-14420-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-14420-7
Publication Date: September, 2010
List Price: $16.00

Review: Battle, Friendship, Honor, Loyalty, Medieval! Do those words interest you? Are you ready for craziness? The Legend of the King is a brilliant book by Gerald Morris. It is the 10th and latest in the Squire's Tales series. There are actually 5 main characters in this story - Sir Terrence, Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot, Mordred, and King Arthur!

King Arthur's son Mordred has spies in Camelot reporting the actions of the Round Table. Planning to destroy Arthur's kingdom, Mordred's army has done as much as they could to break up the loyalty and trust of the best knights of King Arthur's Round Table. The brutal strike in Orkney by Mordred's army aggravates King Arthur - and now Arthur knows what he must do! The risky call of war was confidently made by Arthur! However - Camelot has other things to deal with! King Arthur sends Gawain to battle former knight Sir Lancelot in single combat to get revenge on him for his lover affair with Queen Guinevere! Arthur's army sneaks an attack on Mordred while his army is sound asleep. However - as the major battle commences- King Arthur realizes his army is outnumbered 3 to 1. Despite this, King Arthur gives the war signal to fight Mordred's army. Brave knights of Camelot make way to the center of the battle to defend the pride of Camelot! One army will not survive the epic battle that day!

I like how all the action in the story is well described. Gerald Morris brings the story to life very well. I admired how Terrance, Gawain, Lancelot, Gaheris, Lynette, and King Arthur all have an important role in defending Camelot and the honor of the Round Table. The author does a good job of keeping my interest by always ending each chapter with a new dilemma. There is always a new conflict being faced by one of the main characters. I also enjoy the full descriptions of each battle fought in this novel. The author makes you feel like you are a part of the battle and are watching it live and in person. I do not like how the novel is subtle at the very end. You can't even tell if some of the main characters die or not! Because of the ending, I hope Gerald Morris will write another book in the series. The medieval terminology is also confusing and hard to comprehend at times in the book. Overall - I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is age 11 or older. I rate this book a strong 8 out of 10.

Review written by Sahil (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of The Legend of the King for this review.

Have you read The Legend of the King? How would you rate it?

Book Review: A Taste for Red by Lewis Harris

A Taste for Red
by Lewis Harris
Non-series

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN-10: 0-547-39851-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-39851-8
Publication Date: September, 2010
List Price: $16.00

Review: "Foote held the steak above the sleeping vampire's heart. I held the mallet in my shaking hands, trying to work up the strength to swing it and end the 'life' of the monster that wanted me dead." Svetlana Grimm just moved from Texas a few years ago to Sunny Hill. She has always been home schooled by her mom, but now that her mom wants to work, she has to attend 6th grade at Sunny Hill Middle School. Her first day of school doesn't go so well when she meets her science teacher, Ms. Larch, who offers her whole class chocolates. Svetlana is a vampire, or so she thought. Vampires only eat red, pink, and white foods, and since the chocolates were brown, she doesn't take one. A Taste for Red by Lewis Harris is an amazing book!

At that moment, Ms. Larch knows what Svetlana is. She keeps Svetlana after school and talks to her through their minds. Svetlana knows now that her teacher is also a vampire. She meets Dwight Foote and Fumio Chen at lunch the next day. After Sandy Cross, Marsha, and Madison go missing (three girls from Svetlana's school, who she doesn't really like), Svetlana meets her neighbor Lenora Bones, who is a very old woman. Apparently she is like Svetlana too. She explains to Svetlana what the Circle of Red is, a group of people like her and Svetlana who protect the secrecy of people like Svetlana and stop sadistic vampires, and tells her that she is not a vampire. Bones tells Svetlana that Ms. Larch, however, is a vampire and she needs to be stopped. Ms. Larch also wants Svetlana dead because she is (according to Lenora Bones) a part of the Circle of Red. Immediately. When Bones gets hurt, Svetlana has to stop Larch on her own. She gets Foote and Chen to help her find Larch's house and once they find it, Svetlana goes in. In the garage, they find their old science teacher, Mr. Boyle (who supposedly disappeared a while ago), in his car completely drained of his blood. Svetlana, Foote, and Chen go inside the house and find Sandy, Marsha, and Madison in the basement sleeping with bandages where their arms fold like they had donated blood, which they didn't donate. Chen gets the girls out of the house while Svetlana and Foote go upstairs to find Ms. Larch. They find her sleeping on her bed. Svetlana tells Foote to help her kill Larch, but she wakes up and finds out what they are trying to do. Will she try to kill them, too?

What I like about this book is how the author has Svetlana talk directly to the reader. Svetlana basically narrates the book. I like how she interrupts her conversation with someone else in the book and talks to you. Honestly, I liked almost everything about the book. Especially the part where the author leaves so much suspense after Larch wakes up when Svetlana and Foote are in her room with the steak above her. Also, I like when Svetlana and Foote go into the house, Svetlana tells the reader that the only way she could tell that Sandy and the other missing girls are in the basement is by the strong stench of bubble gum coming from down there. I don't dislike many parts of the book at all. But, I didn't like how, in the beginning, Svetlana is the only one who sleeps under her bed, and Larch and Bones thinks she is weird. I didn't like that because it didn't make since that she sleeps under her bed, and the others didn't. I also didn't like how out of nowhere, when Larch or Lenora are talking to Svetlana, they will talk to her out loud, and then all of a sudden they are talking to each other through their minds. I didn't like that because it was pointless to have them talking out loud one second, then in their minds the next. But all in all, I would highly recommend this book for children from the ages of 9-13 that like stories about vampires.

Review written by Brooke (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of A Taste for Red for this review.

Have you read A Taste for Red? How would you rate it?

Book Review: Petal's Problems by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Petal's Problems
by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
Sisters 8

Sandpiper
ISBN-10: 0-547-33403-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-33403-5
Publication Date: September, 2010
List Price: $15.00

Review: Petal's Problems by Lauren Baratz-Logstead is a magnificent story in which eight sisters travel to France. It is the 6th book in the Sisters 8 series. It is a humorous and exciting story about Petal getting all worked up about it being her month and discovering her gift or power.

Eight sisters (Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, and Zinna) get an invitation to go to a wedding in France. But, Petal would rather May never end because as June approaches she gets closer and closer to her month! But, time goes on and June arrives sending the eight sisters on an exciting adventure to France, even though Annie doesn't want to go. France is filled with adventure, suspense, fights, and Petal's murmuring strange words. Will she find her gift or power? Will Petal ever calm down? Find out in Petal's Problems.

Petal's Problems is an amazing book. The writing created a scene in my head so that I could always picture what was happening. It's also fun to imagine the sisters interacting. It is both humorous and exciting. I have never read a book from the Sisters 8 series, but that's not essential to understanding the plot. I would love to meet the author myself and ask her how she was inspired to write this series.

Review written by Andrea (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of Petal's Problems for this review.

Have you read Petal's Problems? How would you rate it?

Book Review: Over the Edge by Norah McClintock

Over the Edge
by Norah McClintock
Chloe & Levesque Mystery

Kane Miller
ISBN-10: 1-935279-67-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-935279-67-9
Publication Date: September, 2010
List Price: $5.99

Review:

Was it a suicide? It has to be. It all adds up. Then why doesn’t Peter’s mom believe it? But, what if Peter’s mom was right and it wasn’t a suicide? Then, what was it? What made Peter go …

OVER THE EDGE?

Over the Edge is the first book in the Chloe and Levesque series.

Chloe is an average teenage girl who doesn’t seem as smart as she really is. In fact, Chloe is a great detective. She may have learned some of this from her new step father Levesque, the Chief of Police, who is well known in her new town East Hastings. She turns into a great detective because of the mysterious death of Peter Flosnik, a boy obsessed with astronomy and who supposedly committed suicide by falling off the Mac Adams lookout. Everybody is positive it was a suicide, but Peter’s mom won’t believe it. Why? That’s what Chloe is trying to find out. She uses tiny details that she finds out from her new boyfriend, Thomas, and the school newspaper editor Ross. Thomas is friends with Daria, Matt, and Lise, the popular kids in school who Chloe thinks are suspects in Peter’s death. Ross also provides Chloe with lots of information because as the school editor he always seems to know the latest gossip. Chloe also uses the facts that Peter’s mother gave her like a tape recording with Peter’s voice on it. Peter’s mom has no idea that he may have been black mailing Daria, Matt, and Lise. The details that seem insignificant are the ones that help Chloe the most. Soon, she figures out what really happened …

I enjoyed this book because of its suspense and excitement. It’s very hard to stop reading once you get into the middle of the book. The main character Chloe is very interesting because she is not afraid to tell her opinion about things, even if it means hurting someone you like. She is very confident in herself. The author uses very realistic dialogue and descriptions which make it easy to visualize what is happening. There are multiple mysteries that Chloe solves that lead her to solve the main mystery of the book which is determining how Peter Flosnik really died. The suspense the author creates makes it really difficult to put the book down. I could not stop reading it. I had to finish the chapter I was reading each night before going to bed. It was very clear from the beginning of the book that it was a mystery. The ending was very surprising, and I could not believe it. In some ways I didn’t want it to be the ending because it was so traumatizing to me, and I thought something else was going to happen. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries.

Review written by Savannah (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Raab Associates, Inc. for providing a copy of Over the Edge for this review.

Have you read Over the Edge? How would you rate it?

Book Review: Bogbrush the Barbarian by Howard Whitehouse

Bogbrush the Barbarian
by Howard Whitehouse
Non-series

Kids Can Press
ISBN-10: 1-553-37701-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-553-37701-6
Publication Date: September, 2010
List Price: $17.95

Review: Barbarians! Monsters! And bad table manners! Bogbrush the Barbarian, written by Howard Whitehouse, is tale of adventure, excitement, and evil monsters. When the tale begins, a family of yokels brings their newborn child to the naming ceremony. There, the child is declared the name Bogbrush. Let the tale begin!

To begin, Bogbrush wants to be a mighty barbarian hero. But to do that, he has to venture to the Temple of the Great Belch. On his journey, he meets new friends who help him along the way. Also, of course, he meets new enemies on his journey. Will our hero get to the temple?

I love this book! Everything about this book is awesome! The characters are great, the plot is unbelievable (in a good way), and the whole story is filled with suspense! Bogbrush the Barbarian is an adventure comedy recommended for children 6 and up. Bogbrush the Barbarian is, so far, not in a series. But I’d love to see some more stories. I truly give Bogbrush the Barbarian 5 out of 5 stars because it’s funny, and it, like Bogbrush does to monsters, slays boredom!

Review written by Jake (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Raab Associates for providing a copy of Bogbrush the Barbarian for this review.

Have you read Bogbrush the Barbarian? How would you rate it?