The Grimm Legacy is one of the more original worlds I’ve encountered in a while. Elizabeth could be a modern day fairytale heroine. Her father remarried after her mother died, and Elizabeth’s stepmother expects her to do a lot of housework. Putting her stepsisters through college costs money, so Elizabeth recently had to give up […]
Anne of Green Gables
May 18, 2012 by 4 Comments
Review written by my 11 year old daughter, MRValentine. Anne of Green Gables is about Anne Shirley and her adventures at Green Gables in Avonlea. She gets into all kinds of trouble, finds friends, and loses her temper about her “hair of the most disastrous red.” I liked the book because you can find connections […]
Exile
May 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The story of Aurelia and Robert continues in Exile. After Aurelia’s younger half-sister Melony tried to have her killed and their father refused to hold Melony accountable for her treachery, Aurelia flees both to escape assassins and to see the rest of the country she still hopes to rule someday. I enjoyed this book and […]
Witch & Wizard
April 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Witch & Wizard opens with 15 year old Wisty, her 17 year old brother Whit, and their parents about to be publically hanged for being witches and wizards by a modern day New Order. Then it flashes back to when they were first kidnapped by the New Order, which is where the story really starts. […]
Dinocalypse Now
April 17, 2012 by 1 Comment
Dinocalypse Now isn’t written specifically for younger readers, but with dinosaur attacks, talking apes, Neanderthals, dirigibles, and jet packs, a lot of kids will find it intriguing. It’s set in the world of Spirit of the Century—if you’re not familiar, it’s a bit like the world of Indiana Jones and The Mummy but with even […]
Snow in Summer
April 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Snow in Summer: Fairest of Them All is a variation on Snow White set in the late 1940’s in the hills of West Virginia. Snow in Summer, our Snow White analogue, is a farmer’s daughter instead of a princess. She reads books and fairy tales, including Snow White, and often compares herself to characters in […]
Mockingjay
April 10, 2012 by 4 Comments
Mockingjay, the final book in the trilogy (see my reviews of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire), brings Katniss’ story to its brutal but overall logical end. Katniss becomes the face of the rebellion—the Mockingjay—a tool of politicians on both sides of the conflict. Finally she violently takes things into her own hands and fights […]
Lily Dale
April 9, 2012 by 1 Comment
Although this series is made up of four books—Awakening, Believing, Connecting, and Discovering—they’re really better considered a complete novel split into four parts. In fact, they’re probably best read back to back. (I only figured out the A, B, C, D naming convention as I started the fourth novel.) The series follows high school senior […]
Catching Fire
March 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Catching Fire is the sequel to The Hunger Games. It continues pretty much where the last book left off, and having survived the Hunger Games hasn’t actually solved any of Katniss’ problems. She needs to set off on the victory tour—the publicity stunt the government uses to keep the Hunger Games fresh in everyone’s mind. […]
Aurelia
March 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Aurelia feels like a logical stepping stone between the princess stories of Gail Carson Levine and adult novels of romance and intrigue. In many ways, Aurelia is a typical princess from stories like this—she chafes against authority, she thinks she’s less beautiful than her golden younger sister, the common people love her, and she’s smarter […]
