Kids Books - Magic

Like most collections of middle grade scary stories, “Only If You Dare” is a mixture of truly creepy, not so creepy, and a few somewhat predictable. Josh Allen’s book does not resort to the traditional horror tropes, not a single vampire or witch, and based on the one completed illustration and a bunch of WIP drawings by Sarah J. Coleman, the art is going to be terrific. Appropriate for middle grade readers, but may be deemed too “tame” by those in junior high or high school. I really love a scary story and Josh Allen shows mastery with this collection of short middle grade horror fiction. It reads like episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark and as a 90s kid. I devoured all 13 stories and I hope there's another one from this author soon.

I expected this to be a kid friendly, off-kilter, but fairly predictable school daze comedy with a Vam-Wolf-Zom angle. Fair enough. I did not, however, expect the witty, deadpan, and clever bits, set pieces, and throwaway lines that really set this book, (the third in the series), apart from more pedestrian stuff. Our hero, Tom, is understandably befuddled by his triple-threat predicament. Rather than melting down, though, he handles his situation, and all of the complications that arise from it, with remarkable sang froid. As a consequence, the book is funny, upbeat, occasionally a bit edgy, and very smart. Tom keeps up a running commentary on all of the action, and his perceptive off the cuff observations, (on anything and everything), elevate the whole project. You could drop the entire plot and fashion this into a decent stand up comedy routine. All of this is aided immeasurably by a funny, manic wingman pal, a handful of smart and no nonsense girl friends, a misunderstood bully, a deadpan/mean/nice big sister, and about a dozen various adults who actually get some funny and wise lines of their own. So, the plot may be silly, but the execution is top notch. A fun find.

This is a very engaging book that sends chills up your spine. I have read it multiple times and loved every minute of it, even when it creeped me out a little bit. The main character is named Cassidy and her best friend is a ghost.....no she is not crazy.....Jacob is a real ghost. Ever since Cassidy drowned and Jacob saved her life she has been able to cross between the world of the living and the world of the dead. She calls this 'the veil' because in order to cross over she pulls on a curtain in the air and enters the ghost world. Whenever a ghost is in the veil she hears a tap-tap-tap and is pulled towards it in order to pull back the curtain. Jacob does not like it when Cassidy does this, and neither does she, but 'the veil' calls to her and makes her wonder if there is something she should be doing in the mysterious place. To make matters worse, her parents decide to host a TV show on the most haunted places in the world, and they head off to Scotland, instead of the nice beach vacation that Cassidy had planned. She learns that Scotland is filled with ghosts and sometimes the pull of 'the veil' is too strong for her to resist and it sucks her into the land of the dead without her pulling on the curtain. Jacob gets dragged along, much to his irritation, and Cassidy meets another girl with her same talent, who Jacob doesn't like one bit. She realizes that she has much to learn about 'the veil' and that it is more dangerous than she initially thought. The girl informs her that she has a job to do instead of lugging her precious old-fashioned camera around and taking pictures in the hopes that one will turn out with ghost pictures instead of blurry shadows. This book keeps you turning pages so that you never want to stop. "The City of Ghosts" can get pretty scary, but not too bad, after all, I don't usually like scary books but this one surprised me and I love it a lot. I would recommend this book to middle schoolers who enjoy realistic fantasy with a little twist.

To start off with, this book is super cool. To sum it up, its about the bones and there new friend trying to go back to town. But they see smoke. they don't know its being attacked and the treaty was broke. and the rat creature peoples leader is Kingdok. He and a fellow mate who is trying to capture the people known as rock jaw like in the title. they don't wanna live in the places they had to live in after the war, but on all they lost and now they broke a treaty and are attacking the main town and Mr.Down is in town. And, Phoney bone is trying to leave with all towns peoples goodies but caught the dragon. They weren't waning to catch the dragon. But, and Torn had to save the dragon because they were about to kill the red dragon but in all torn saves the dragon from death. I think it's crazy how Phoney bone wants to leave in the middle of a war! This made me realize, how selfish Phoney bone is. He wants to leave with everyone's goodies and keep it to himself and he's doing it in the war were he need the dragons the most. He's putting so many life's in danger. This made me feel like never be greedy cause he's doing something bad. Really bad that people are gonna die and he might get caught. That would be very sad but he earned it. The theme is never be selfish cause when he gets caught it wont be pretty for him. If you like chase downs you would enjoy this fantastic book. If you like all these things I am saying, you should read this amazing book. And if you like bad people getting what they deserve you should read this. Well that's all to it. That's mostly about what happens in the book with nothing you wouldn't want to read it.

I give this book a 5 star because it show how people are different. This book reminds me about the book tuck everlasting because how the tucks have everlasting life. This book is about how this shy girl and with her silver eyes and her cold blank stare, the ten-year-old makes others feel uncomfortable. And life without friends has convinced Katie that she's different from everyone else and destined to be alone forever.

this is such a good book. You should read it. It's about this race and no one knows who the mystery cow is! Will you figure it out? This book also inspired me to read comics. The theme is cheaters NEVER win. if you like mystery book, a crazy book or, a bit scary book this is the perfect book for you! the main person is phone bone.

When the queen casts a spell that goes horribly wrong and makes all the adults in the kingdom vanish, princess Katrina is left on her own. what's a fairy tale princess to do? save the kingdom, of course! join Katrina and her friends Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and prince Maximillian on a tale of adventure and friendship as they travel to distant lands and face dangerous foes to save their kingdoms. That is, of course, if they can foil the plans of Katrina's stepsister, Evaline, who thinks being the new queen wouldn't be so bad. Katrina and her friends-along with their animal companions-will stop at nothing to save their families and show everyone that princesses can save the world.

This book is really good and how Florence meets Talon and how the people of Artime discover the eels and what they could be and where they are coming from.

This is my favorite from the series! If you like adventures, Islands, or twins, You'll like this, because this is a story about all of those things, this is the story... Alex and his friends, have traveled to some Islands. They ended up on the Island of shipwrecks, and meet Ishibashi, Ito, and Sato. They help Alex and his friends get back to their home land: Artime. Before all this, they have been in battles, with Quill, The other part of the Island. This Unwanted Series is a great series, and I love it, I defiantly recommend.

I love the magic animals series! It's just so awesome and refreshing to read about friendship, cuteness, life lessons, and magic in a chapter book. I would reccomend Magic Bunny #1: Chocolate Wishes to second graders and up, because it is easy to read and is understandable to young readers. It is perfect to read aloud!