City Book Review

Screech Owls: Mystery at Lake Placid

Posted in Kids' Book Review, Tweens by editor - May 20, 2013

Release Date: 2/12/2013

By Roy MacGregor
Tundra Books, $8.95, 272 pages

Mystery at Lake Placid switches between hockey and the normal, everyday life. The plot can easily happen to anyone and switches with the hockey feeling. This book is a great example of describing regular events so well that they become interesting. I think that this book also teaches great lessons, like bad deeds usually result in humiliation.

I love mystery books and this one has suspense and other traits that make it a really hard to put down book. I know that an author is amazingly talented if he can write such ordinary masterpieces as …

Screech Owls: Peril at the World’s Biggest Hockey Tournament

Posted in Kids' Book Review, Tweens by editor - May 20, 2013

No Comments

Screech Owls: Peril at the World’s Biggest Hockey Tournament

Release Date: 2/12/2013

By Roy MacGregor
Tundra Books, $8.95, 208 pages

The Screech Owls convince their coach to go to a competition in Ottowa. The team plays in the first game and wins. Later, they see a really good team playing and are worried about playing against them. They discover that a terrorist is trying to blow up the stadium where world leaders are meeting in Ottowa. Spartacat, a mascot for a hockey team, helps the Screech Owls defeat the terrorist. The hockey competition organizers decide that there will be two champions that year because the Screech Owls had saved people’s lives.

“Wayne Gretzky sat here!”

I …

Big Nate Flips Out

Posted in Kids' Book Review, Tweens by editor - May 20, 2013

No Comments

Release Date: 2/5/2013

By Lincoln Peirce
HarperCollins Children’s, $13.99, 224 pages

This book is about a boy named Big Nate. He tries to take pictures of a girl for the school yearbook. He loses the camera. He can’t find it in his very messy locker. He is in the habit of being messy. He tries hypnosis to help him be more organized and it worked! After organizing his locker, he finds out the camera was never in his locker; another boy in the school had stolen it. With the help of his friends, Nate gets the camera back and takes the pictures he needs.

“I’m a …

Rotten

Posted in Kids' Book Review, Young Adult by editor - May 17, 2013

No Comments

Release Date: 4/1/2013

By Michael Northrop
Scholastic Press, $17.99, 256 pages

JD Dobbs is the least likely person one would expect to befriend a dog, a rottweiler of all types. He has spent his summer away from home, for reasons unsaid, and comes home to find a creature that turns out to be a bigger part of his life than he assumed. Tied between his old friends, past relationships, and his new four-legged companion, JD is forced to take matters into his own hands to ultimately save his canine’s future.

”The thing about crazy, stupid decisions, whether you decide not to tell anyone anything or to …

Rush: Book One of The Game

Posted in Children's, Young Adult by editor - May 17, 2013

No Comments

Release Date: 6/11/2013

By Eve Silver

I have read the book Rush, by Eve Silver. I like the book Rush, and it is very interesting. So, do you want to know why I enjoy it? I enjoy Rush because of its aspect of unexpected time travel.

In the book Rush the main character Miki gets “pulled,” aka traveling through time to a different dimension to battle the Drau, who are aliens. Rush is book one in the series called The Game. When Miki gets pulled, she is part of a team. Her team members are: Jackson, the leader, Richelle, Tyrone, and Luka.

Let me explain getting “pulled.” Getting pulled is when …

Born of Illusion

Posted in Kids' Book Review, Tweens by editor - May 17, 2013

No Comments

Release Date: 6/11/2013

By Teri Brown
Balzer + Bray, $17.99, 384 pages

What a cool way to teach us kids about the history of secret societies coming from the real live secret societies from the 1800′s. This is a very exciting book that makes you want to jump inside and wish you could be Anna.

“I wish we had met under different circumstances. That I didn’t have to try to explain.”

Anna has some incredible powers as a magician and illusionist and just might possibly be the unknown daughter of the very famous magician, Harry Houdini. Anna lives among the New York City underground during the 1920′s …

Line 135

Posted in Children's, Kids' Book Review by editor - May 17, 2013

No Comments

Release Date: 4/30/2013

By Germano Zullo, Albertine Albertine
Chronicle Books, $18.95, 44 pages

I liked reading the book Line 135. It’s about a train. It’s about the city. This book is also about the country. The city pictures are black and white. The train in the pictures is colored. One of the things I learned from this book is: “When you move between two places, it’s called traveling.”

“When you move between two places, it’s called traveling.”

The child in this book is traveling to visit her grandmother. She says, “I want to be big so I can understand things better.” This child wants to travel. “I will …

Flora and the Flamingo

Posted in Children's, Kids' Book Review by editor - May 17, 2013

No Comments

Release Date: 2/5/2013

By Molly Idle
Chronicle Books, $16.99, 44 pages

This book is really special because it does not have any words. Instead, the story is told through the pictures. Another reason this book is great is that it has flaps. The illustrations in the book are pretty and give me a happy feeling. My favorite illustration is when the little girl named Flora and the Flamingo jump into the water.

The story begins with a flamingo that is standing on one foot. Then in the same picture, there is a little girl’s foot peaking out. She starts to repeat everything the flamingo does. The …

Open This Little Book

Posted in Children's, Kids' Book Review by editor - May 17, 2013

No Comments

Release Date: 1/1/2013

By Jesse Klausmeier, Suzy Lee, Illustrator
Chronicle Books, $16.99, 40 pages

When I saw the title Open This Little Book, I knocked on the cover and said “knock knock knock” because the title made me think of opening a door. This book is about a ladybug, a frog, a rabbit, a bear, and a giant. Inside this book, there are red, green, orange, yellow, blue, and rainbow books that get smaller when I turn each page. Reading this book is like a magic trick. I was very surprised when I turned all of the pages. The illustrations by Suzy Lee are bright …

Peace, Baby!

Posted in Children's, Kids' Book Review by editor - May 17, 2013

No Comments

Release Date: 4/23/2013

By Linda Ashman, Joanne Lew-Vriethoff, Illustrator
Chronicle Kids, $15.99, 32 pages

This book is about peace. That means kids should get along and they should not push anyone. The pictures show a girl giving a flower to the mommy and a boy holding hands with the grandma. The illustrations make you feel good. Some of the words rhyme. Here is an example. “Lola grabs your favorite bear. Jacob’s sitting in your chair. You could fight, but why not share?” This book shows the words “peace, baby” repeated eight times. The words “peace, baby” are darker than the other words on the page. …