Kids Books - Science

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.

With Tigerclaw (Antagonist) gone and Bluestar being a shell of her former self, it is hard for Fireheart (Protagonist) to be the deputy of Thunderclan in Warriors: Rising Storm by Erin Hunter. Tigerclaw has been exiled from Thunderclan from his betrayal to Thunderclan and Bluestar. Now Bluestar is no longer herself (First Conflict; This conflict isn’t solved). She doesn't do her leader duties and has lost her spirit and pride. Fireheart has to do almost everything for his clan. Bluestar even has no trust in Starclan. When Fireheart has troubles with his apprentice Cloudpaw or setting up patrols, Whitestorm and Sandstorm help him through it. Sandstorm has become very close to Fireheart while Graystripe is in his new home, Riverclan. Also throughout the book the forest gets hotter and hotter, which causes a fire in the Thunderclan camp (Second Conflict). After the fire Fireheart and Graystripe go to see what is left of the camp. While doing so, he finds something he didn't expect and didn't want to see. What did he find? At the next gathering Fireheart has taken Bluestar’s place because she didn’t feel the need to go. He goes up to the high rock and learns that the Shadowclan leader, Nightstar has died and that the new leader is someone he doesn't expect. Tigerclaw, Thunderclan’s greatest enemy. This book has no specific time, but the setting is mostly in Thunderclan territory. I recommend this book to 3 graders and up. Also there is some violent battle scenes.

"Rise, red as the dawn"- There are Reds, and there are Silvers. That was all Mare Barrow knew. However, when she goes to get some air at night, she meets a stranger. Something urges her to spill all her worries to this stranger, even the secrets that could get her in serious trouble. The next day, people come at her door, and she assumes she is being taken for war. But instead, she is hired and now works for the king. When something happens at a pageant, instead of being burned she discovers she has powers, and she uses them, creating a giant hole. She soon learns she is not only Red, but she is also Silver. Stronger than both, she is taken into a cell, kept by the king and queen. She now has a new identity, which means she is no longer Mare Barrow. She is Mareena, raised as a Red but truly a Silver, now finding where she truly belongs. She is also scheduled to marry Maven Calore. When she and Cal go to visit her family secretly, she joins the Scarlet Guard, a rebel group against the Silvers. During the secret meet, to Mare's surprise and shock, they have another new recruit- Maven Calore. Maven is in the shadow of his brother, Cal. Mare can relate to this as she is in the shadow of her sister, Gisa. However, when the rebel plans do not go as expected, Maven and Mare are at risk of being exposed as being part of the Scarlet Guard, the most wanted group and hated amongst the royals around them. Little does Mare Barrow know that amongst her is a traitor, and things are not what they seem. Overall, I enjoyed this book and it had plot twists that made me want to read more and more. I recommend this book to people who enjoy dystopian and romance books, or people who enjoy The Selection series. I rate this book 5/5.

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!

My sister received this book for Christmas, and it is amazing! It combines both drawing and writing aspects into it, so you can make your own dragon world! It inspires people who may not always like to write into writing their own fun fantasty world similar to Wings of Fire!

Follow the journey of the peculiarly strong child, Goku! He lived alone in the woods for years, having been taught martial arts by his now-deceased grandfather. Soon, however, young Goku embarks on a grand mission to find the dragon balls, magical objects, that, when brought together, summon the eternal dragon to grant any wish your heart desires! Along the way, he makes close friends and deadly enemies; whom none of which match Goku's superior power! It's a timeless story whom all adore; and a series that shaped generations to come.

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.)

This is the first book of this serie, and I like it the most because it's most original, and that's when everything happened, the truth is revealed. So, this is about a boy named Percy Jackson. All his life is boring, he lives with his mom, and mean step father that always beat up his mom and him. He was told that his dad left him since he's only a baby. he has difficulties reading english, because the words always change into different patterns he always thought that he has ADHD. Until one day, when he went on a field trip to a museum. A teacher asked Percy for a private talk and transformed into a monster and tried to kill him, because she thought that he's the lightning thief (the person who stole the lightning bolt from Zues). And then he found out that he's actually a half blood, half god (Poseidon), half human, and his best friend Grover is a half goat to protect Percy. After what happened in the museum, Percy is no longer safe, so he went to the half blood camp thing so that it will protect him. And later on this story, he will find the real lightning thief, return the bolt back to Zeus which saved the peace of Earth know as the human world. I really love this book, because it's very intense, and its about Greek mythology which I'm pretty interested in, love the movie too! Enjoy.

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.

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.