Kids Books - Literature

Wind Tamer was a bit . . . eccentric for my taste, but it was well measured enough with the use of reality to keep me intrigued and transfixed to this unique book. First off, Archie is 10 years old. Most authors choose to keep the age range from tweens to young adult, so this book was a new experience for me, so kudos, Mrs. Morrison. Next, I love how the book starts NORMALLY, unlike a lot of books where we start with aliens from mars shooting waffles at the main character and the reader has no clue what on earth is happening. It's normal enough that you don't jump out of your seat, but it's interesting enough to keep you turning and turning the pages until you get to the very last one. Lastly, and my favorite thing about Wind Tamer, is that we get see everyone's point of view. We see Archie's, we see his mom's, we see his father's, we see his uncle's. I love that. It connects all the dots for me and gives me a good grasp on where the story is going. My only critiques are that Mrs. Morrison uses a lot of Scottish words, like torch instead of flashlight, which can be a bit hard to understand sometimes. All in all, a good read that'll keep ages 9-13 entertained.

i want to read it beacauseit looks cool

I found this book at my school library, and thought it looked interesting because I usually really enjoy biographies and such. From the cover, you may think that Mary Mallon was an evil killer and that she attempted to kill the people she did, she was really just misunderstood and she herself didn't understand how she, a seemingly healthy woman, could be the cause of so many deaths. This book follows the over publicized typhoid carrier, Mary and what happened when the Board of Public Health decided to take Mary's matters (literally and figuratively) into their own hands, claiming that she was a danger to the health of the public. While this book may not be a John Green or Suzanne Collins book, it certainly is an amazing one.

Wow... didn't honestly think they had it on here.I love Naruto this manga opened my mind to the next generation of shinobi.

it is so cool

I had mixed feelings about this book. There were parts I like and there were parts I hated. So, I'll split this review into what I liked and what I didn't like. Starting on a good note, what I liked: Big one for me - character growth. I could see a steady progression of growth in Sonya throughout the book. Revolution theme. Seeing the rising of a revolution and the problems that arose with it. World building. I really got a sense of the countries and cultures. What I didn't like: The inconsistentness of Sonya's 6th sense. For example, in the beginning Sonya feels the anger/hunger of the peasants at the gate of her convent and it controls her to the point that she ultimately kills her friends. Then later she has no (mostly but I'll get to that later) problem controlling her emotions in just as high emotional situations. The only time she can't control her emotion 6th sense is when the emperor feels any passionate/lusty type emotion toward her. She's then all over him later blaming her 6th sense for the lack of resistance. The books focus was much more on her love interests then it was on revolutionary plot or that there were starving people in the world. Lastly, for Sonya having killed her friends in the beginning of the book, she got over it pretty fast. She "punished" herself by holding a statue with her friend's blood on it (she can feel the pain of her dead friend through the blood). But that stopped even before a quarter of the book was done. Aesthetic note: For me the book was really a three part book. The first part was between the convent and arriving at the castle, the second was arriving at castle and finishing reading the poetry book, and the third part was between finishing the poetry book and the end of the book. I had an ARC so maybe there was a page that said part 1, part 2, and part 3, but if not, it would have been a nice physical transitional between the grown of the character.

Do you like historical fiction with time traveling and a smidge of romance? If that sounds like you don't bother reading my review any farther and just go pick up Into the Dim and enjoy it. I'd give Into the Dim 3 1/2 stars. At first, Hope (main character) was a claustrophobic, fearful, jittery mess that would have a panic attack at the thought of closed spaces. For me it didn't work - I was annoyed at the beginning when it seemed like every other thought was about how fragile she was. Finally, the panicky thoughts toned down and Hope got a little moxie. My other problem was that Hope didn't ask any questions. There were lots of strange things going on such as a secret room in the broom closet or her mom in a picture wearing a toga and she just shrugged them off like it's totally normal. When she did try to ask a question the other characters would change the subject or ignore her. She would not push for an answer even when it was obvious they were lying. This brings up my other issue - predictability. Hope didn't find out about time travel until about 50% into the book. Readers know about the time travel aspect from the beginning thanks to the book's summary, "...also a member of a secret society of time travelers." Having read Into the Dim, I can tell that the author has spend a great deal of time on researching the eras and infused the book with interesting facts such as kings and queens weren't called "your Majesty" until Henry VII's reign they were just referred to as "your Grace". I also enjoyed the romance between Hope and Bran. It was very cutesy and wasn't the main focus of the book. I would say that it wasn't insta-love only because of the backstory at the end of the book. Intrigued? Read the book. My favorite character was Phoebe, I wish she would have been the main character instead of Hope. She had a much better personality (so much more spunk) and I love her blue hair. Last problem with Into the Dim was that some of the scenes seemed cheesy, especially the fight scene with Eleanor in her bedroom. Might have just been me but... Anyway Into the Dim is worth reading. I was entertained and I enjoyed it which is what you look for in a book. *Thank you to NetGalley and HMH Books for Young Readers for allowing me to read this book.

This book is so far my favorite. I love, love, love San Francisco!!!! This book goes though the history of the Golden Gate Bridge with a few fictional events, but all factual, well, facts.

I want to read it

I loved this book because it was so suspenseful and I never wanted to put it down!