Kids Books - Folk
Heidi
By Johanna Spyri
Warning! This review contains spoilers (not that it matters because there's absolutely no suspense in this book whatsoever). There's this little girl named Heidi, and both of her parents died when she was a baby. So went to go live with her aunt and her grandmother (on her mom's side). But then her grandmother dies. So, her aunt sends her to live with her grandfather (on her dad's side). Her grandfather lives in the mountains, and everyone who lives near him says he's really mean. But Heidi's aunt doesn't care and sends her to live with him anyway. Heidi then makes friends with a boy named Peter and his grandmother. After Heidi has lived with her grandfather for a few years, her aunt comes back. Then she basically takes her to live with some random rich people, so there daughter will have a companion. What I thought of it: This book was extremely boring. Heidi was an extremely irritating character. She basically prances around bringing joy and sunshine to everyone she comes in contact with for no apparent reason. It's like everyone loves her and no one knows why. Then, eventually, in addition to going around bringing joy to everyone, she starts going around and preaching to everyone. She's probably no more than 10 years old, and suddenly (after one talk with a girl's grandmamma) she knows everything about God. It's absolutely ridiculous. Also, she just magically learns how to read in two seconds. One minute she's completely illiterate, and the next, she's the world's best reader. What up with that? Not to mention the fact that she's a total jerk. Once some of her new friends come to visit her, she starts completely (and pretty much without a reason), ignoring her friend Peter. This causes Peter to become VERY angry. I mean some of his reactions were a bit extreme, but he definitely had a right to be mad. And Heidi just continues to prance around as if nothing has happened. I mean she never even addresses the fact that he's angry. Ever. But there was one thing that REALLY bothered me about this situation. When Heidi wanted Peter to do something, and he refused, she had the nerve to threaten him! And he listened! I really couldn't believe it. But for now, I'm going to take break from talking about Heidi, and talk about the other characters. Heidi's grandfather was completely inconsistent character. He was said to have been really mean, but he's never portrayed doing anything mean. As soon as Heidi shows up he pretty much welcomes her with open arms. Then when she leaves, he says he never wants to see her again. But then she comes back again, he's perfectly happy to see her. People are always saying how terrible he is, but we never see him do anything terrible. I mean the writer meant to write him as one of those "Don't judge a book by it's cover" character, but did a really bad job. I also didn't like the fact that Heidi's friend Klara just came to the mountains and magically got better. I mean the girl couldn't walk her entire life, and then she comes to the mountains and has the ability to walk by the end of the summer. Yet another unrealistic thing that happened in this book to add to the list. I could go on forever picking out the flaws in this book, but I think I'm going to go ahead and wrap this review up. I can't help but feel that this entire book was just completely dedicated to making Heidi seem like she was a perfect little angel, when in reality, she was a total brat. I mean they never addressed any of her flaws. But instead, they tried (and failed) to completely cover them all up. The morals of the story seemed to be: Trust in God and he will fix all your problems (which isn't a bad thing, but they could have portrayed that in a way that wasn't completely preachy. I mean they pretty much had the same conversation over and over with different people.), The mountains are a magical place and if you go there all your health issues will magically disappear, and Heidi is the best thing since sliced bread. You should love her with all her heart even though she doesn't really have any really good character traits. Overall, it was a very boring and preachy book, and I have no idea why this is a classic. On second thought, it being boring and preachy is probably the very reason it's a classic.
How to Train Your Dragon
By Cressida Cowell
This movie is not bad but this book is actually not from the movie like toothless is so small I just can't believe it but it is funny also in this book it was before how to train your dragon movie came out isn't that awesome but some pool said it is boring but I think they are not interested well I am a little
The Lost Heir (Wings of Fire, Book 2)
By Tui T. Sutherland
Tsunami one of the dragonets of the prophecy who are destined to stop the war that has been going on for eighteen years. After the dragonets escape from Queen Scarlets Palace Tsunami finds out that she is the SeaWing queen's daughter. The Dragonets decide to go to the Kingdom of the Sea so that Tsunami can meet her mother, Queen Coral. They can meet Blister, one of the rival SandWing princesses who started the whole war by competing for the throne. Tsunami gets attacked and they find out that someone has been killing eggs. They find out that Orca a daughter of Queen Coral who died, had enchanted a statue to kill the eggs, the last one hatches, and they call it Auklet. But when they want to leave to see Blaze, Blister and Queen Coral Put them in jail. Then Anemone another daughter of Queen Coral has animus powers. She acks a horn to go and get the person that attacked Tsunami, and they find out that it was someone. READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT THE REST.
Darkness of Dragons (Wings of Fire, Book 10)
By Tui T. Sutherland
A terribly displeasing ending to one of my favorite series ever. I understand that Tui T. Sutherland had backed herself into a corner with the major plot holes in Talons of Power, but she only digs herself deeper. At this point, I don’t think it was an accident or a poorly thought plan, just simply a bad idea executed pretty well. All things considered, I am extremely disappointed with this book, I was so connected to it, I had dreams of it, wrote fanfictions of it, was inspired by it, and its characters were always in my head…I’m not sure I will ever get over how upset I am with this. **SPOILER WARNING** If you have not read the book yet, please stop here. Firstly, it was bad enough that readers had to follow Turtle in Talons of Power, with his sadly pathetic demeanor and slow dopey train of thought, despite his obvious capabilities. But then we get a book with Qibli, whose cleverness and cunning I for one have been greatly looking forward to, only to find someone who thinks along the same lines. “Oh, woe is me, I’m useless and the world hates me…” Secondly, Tui has been showing signs of failing in the exact same place as many other authors, something as a critic I cannot stress enough-- character consistency. First shown in the fleeting glimpses of our beloved characters in Talons of Power, and now given as a blast to the face here. Thirdly-- and this is mostly due to Talons of Power, not inherently this book-- Darkstalker’s defeat was so…dumb. One of the unspoken laws of writing is to never, ever make any character-- good or evil-- all-powerful because then there is no really good way to get rid of them. I mean seriously, he teleported all animus dragons all over the world to his throne room in a second (by the way, where on earth is the animus enchanting in that spell?), and he supposedly made himself invulnerable to animus magic, yet both with Turtle's stick and with his defeat it didn't seem to work... Fourth, the greatest plot hole in the book, how did Darkstalker even get his power back or how did the piece of his scroll that Moon and Qibli used to defeat him have any power? The animus magic can only be in one place-- otherwise, it makes absolutely no sense-- but when they "destroyed" the scroll with his animus magic he got his power back, yet there was part of his scroll still left with magic in it. How does Tui explain this? She doesn't, which is the worst thing she could do. Fifth and finally-- and this one is about the character pairing in the book-- why the heck did Tui decide to do Moon and Qibli? Although I suppose it was obvious since she announced that the last book was going to be on Qibli. And this isn’t all about personal opinion! If you think about it, how many times before this book did Moon and Qibli even speak to each other, let alone exchange special looks, or were even alone together? In Winter Turning I would say that Winter and Moon had some romantically tense moments, which were very exciting to read about. On top of that, and this last part doesn’t matter as much but it is still significant, there were polls on what pair the readers wanted in several places on the internet, including Scholastic’s official website, and readers voted incontestably for Moon and Winter, with the polls going at an average of 76% to 24%. **End of Spoilers** All in all, a complete flunk from my point of view. I understand that the vast majority will be happy with whatever they are given, but I’m not. I only ask for three simple things: A good story. Consistent characters. And a good ending to the series. That’s it. Nothing more. I’m not asking for perfection, just decency, and although this was one of my favorite series ever, this book couldn’t even nearly reach those simple standards. And for that, my 2-Star Rating.
The 13 Clocks (New York Review Books Children's Collection)
By James Thurber
Short but funny fairy tale with the Duke who always has the feeling of cold, even his own hands are cold while the princess has the feeling of always being warm. The mention of the clocks, specifically, 13 clocks got mentioned a few times in the story, and boy, that's a lot of clocks! And I would promise you, while you read this book, you would find yourself shaking your head in amusement or laugh because few characters and lines are funny. I enjoyed this book, and you would, too! - Happy Reading!
The Dragonet Prophecy (Wings of Fire, Book 1)
By Tui T. Sutherland
CleverGirl
This is my favorite book series EVER! I really wish they'd make a movie of the books. (Not anyone but Universal, otherwise they'd mutilate it) It has betrayal, battles, war, queens, friendship, romance, action, jokes, Hunger Games-style arena warfare, prophecies, secrets, and characters you love (Hello, DoD, and you too, Jade Winglet. Also Darkstalker, Deathbringer, and Riptide. 'Cuz they're too awesome) and characters you'll hate. (coughcough Scarlet, Morrowseer, Blister, and Burn cough) I can not believe that Warriors is more popular than this. I mean, Warriors is okay, but it kind of "lost the magic," by the time the second series rolled around. This one is still going strong. And it has DRAGONS! Not to mention, when I reread Warriors, I thought "I read this in the second grade?" (When I was in 2nd grade, I was OBSESSED with Warriors. I don't really recall why.) Long story short: 2nd grade. Bedtime. Couldn't get to sleep. Pulled out A Dangerous Path. Mom made a 'no Warriors at bedtime' rule after that. (What? Those dogs were scary as heck.) Now, this does have some violence. (Mostly in the first book, because, hey, when much of the plot revolves around an arena where dragons fight to the death, not everyone's gonna make it out alive) But unlike Warriors, you usually won't be lying awake at night because you're afraid to go to sleep. (Though I did have a couple of nightmares about these once.) All in all, this series is five stars out of five!!!!! (For age rating, I would read this to a MATURE 3rd grader and up. Don't read it to younger kids unless you know them well and they are very hardy. I mean, like, 2nd grade. Don't read these to kindergartners. They probably wouldn't get it anyway.)
The Trials of Apollo, Book 1: The Hidden Oracle
By Rick Riordan
I LOVE this book. We start our journey with Apollo's (not-so-glorious) fall from glory. Literally. He falls from the SKY, and when the god of the sun rises, he is completely MORTAL (and also covered with coffee grinds). Not only is his immortality gone, but more importantly, his naturally beautiful face has ACNE! Just when he thinks things cannot possibly go worse, (they can't, right?) things get much worse. He is forced to serve a 12 year old demigod named Meg, who can uses peaches to attack you, and so, together, they set out to find Camp Half-Blood (with a little help from Percy Jackson). But this book isn't called "The Trials of Apollo" for nothing. Someone is hunting him, and will stop at nothing until Apollo is destroyed. Overall, this book was a great read, (just make sure that you've read the first 2 series) and I couldn't stop reading till I reached the last page. Apollo goes from selfish to (mostly) selfless. I recommend to all ages, especially if you love Greek mythology with a twist.
The Heroes of Olympus, Book One The Lost Hero (new cover)
By Rick Riordan
Imagine if the greek gods were real, and were still alive today. Imagine if there were demigods, roaming the Earth, that we humans knew nothing about. Well, in The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, you get to see what a world like that would be like; through the demigod’s points of view. In The Lost Hero, each character is facing a different conflict. Earlier in his life, Leo was tricked by the evil primordial god of the earth Gaea to use his fire powers (An attribute that is very rare for a son of Hephaestus to have) for bad. Gaea manipulated his firepower so that he burned down the mechanic shop his mom-owned, and his mom died in the fire. So now he doesn’t want to use his fire powers in fear that he will hurt someone again. Jason lost his memory, so he can’t remember anything that's happened before he woke up on a school bus. Piper is sad because she remembers that Jason and her were boyfriend and girlfriend, but none of the relationship was real, it was just a trick of the mist (the mist basically hides the gods, demigods and greek monsters from humans, although some humans have a gift to see through the mist). The setting of the book is in the USA, in modern times, and for most of the book at a camp called Camp Half-Blood; which is a camp for demigods of greek gods, which all of the main characters are. The main antagonist in the book series is Gaea. Gaea is the Greek primordial goddess of the Earth, which means she was created near the beginning of time. She has been asleep for eons but is now waking up to overthrow the gods. Basically, a lot of the enemies that the main characters face that aren’t Gaea are working for Gaea, like the giant Enceladus, who was keeping Piper's dad captive on Mount Diablo; that giant was working for Gaea. One of the most important memory moments of the book was when Jason got most of his memory back and remembered that he was a son of Jupiter, which is the roman version of Zeus, which means he is Roman and not Greek. This memory moment then makes all of the characters have the biggest aha-moment of the story that sets the scene for the next book in the series. Overall, The Lost Hero is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone who has finished the Percy Jackson series and is left with the feeling of wanting more, or, for anybody who is interested in greek mythology and a great and hard-to-put-down book.
The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell
By Chris Colfer
The Land of Stories is one of the best books I have read so far, and that's saying a lot, because I read all the time. :D Anyways, it's about two twins- Alex and Conner- who are different in many ways. Alex is the smart kid and Conner is the lazy kid. They travel through a book into a realm called 'the Land of Stories', which is the FAIRYTALE world! They meet many new friends and discover shocking secrets. This is the real-deal book- great plot, realistic characters, and the thing I like most are all the COINCIDENCES and how you actually get to know what happens to the fairytale characters after the story! Reading this, I just found out so many things that I've be longing to know about fairytales! It explains everything- why the villians did what, and this book is only telling about a small, small section of fairytales! Don't forget though- it's a GREAT book that you MUST read or you will seriously miss out! I mean, why isn't this more popular? It totally crushes the Hunger Games in terms of awesomeness! Anyways, Chris Colfer is a great author. I've already read all the 5 books, so instead of rating each one I'll just say that YOU REALLY SHOULD READ ALL 5 BOOKS!!! Everything makes perfect sense! There are explanations for every, single, action that every single fairytale character has ever done! All wrote into 5 great books that have great action, drama, and twists! (I'm still waiting for the 6th book.) And YES, the series gets better and better after every book! :D
The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4)
By Rick Riordan
I rate this book a 5/5 because it has a VERY INTERESTING plot, amazing characters, and it's even a bit funny as well! And the theme is awesome as well, I mean, greek mythology? SO cool! I definitely recommend this book to all ages (except like, preschoolers or kindergarteners of course)!! But there is one flaw.... When you start reading it, you'll want to read more and more and more! XD! So, that is why you must read percy jackson immediately!!! And guess what, if you finish this series, there's even the other series: Percy jackson and the heroes of olympus!!! And others as well that all relate to greek mythology! Like The Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase, and Trials of Apollo!









