3 New Book Reviews

#1: The Ruby Key, by Holly Lisle, is the story of young villagers Genna and Dan, who must bargain with the frightening lord of the nightlings (like fairies) in order to save their people from the corrupt village chieftain. Soon, Genna and Dan find themselves, along with a nightling slave and a talking cat, on a dangerous quest to find the long-lost nightling prince and overthrow both the village leader and the nightling lord.

I loved this book! It was a totally unique new take on fantasy, and I never got tired of reading it. The characters were complex and interesting, and the societies of the villagers and the nightlings were fascinating. I'd recommend this to any fantasy fan!

This book was for the Once Upon A Time Challenge.

#2: Skim, by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, is the story of a sixteen-year-old girl who is forced to deal with complicated and confusing issues like suicide and depression, as well as friendship problems and betrayal. It was very interesting to watch Skim's life evolve throughout the course of the book, and I never wanted to put it down! I'd recommend this to any graphic novel fan!

#3: Rainy, by Sis Deans, is about a ten-year-old girl learning to live with ADHD. Rainy is sad when her parents send her to summer camp. She won't see her parents, her sister, or her beloved dog Max for a whole month! But soon she makes friends who will tolerate her extreme energy, and decides that maybe camp is not so bad. But when tragedy strikes her family and Rainy can no longer control the thoughts bouncing around in her head, she undertakes a dangerous journey, one that may change her life forever.

I loved this book. It was engaging, interesting, and very emotional. It was funny at times and sad at others. I enjoyed it to the very end.

Read-a-thon post 10

Pages read: 49

Total pages read: 716

Time: 40 min.

Currently Reading: Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague by Brandon Mull

Books Finished: The Ruby Key, Skim, Rainy

Read-a-thon Post 9

Pages read: 103

Total pages read: 667

Time: 1 hr. 20 min.

Currently reading: Rainy

Books Finished: The Ruby Key, Skim

Read-a-thon Post 8

Pages read: 142

Total pages read: 564

Time: 50 min.

Currently Reading: Rainy by Sis Deans

Books Finished: The Ruby Key, Skim

Read-a-thon post 7

Pages read: 159

Total pages read: 422

Time: 2 hours

Currently Reading: Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Books Finished: The Ruby Key

Read-a-thon post 6

Pages read: 38

Total Pages Read: 263

Time: 1 hr. 30 min.

Currently Reading: The Ruby Key

Books Finished: none

Read-a-thon post 5

Pages read: 30

Total pages read: 225

Time: 1 hr. 5 min.

Currently reading: The Ruby Key

Books finished: none

Read-a-thon post 4

Pages read: 60

Total pages read: 197

Time: 1 hr. 30 min.

Currently Reading: The Ruby Key

Books Finished: none

Read-a-thon post 3

pages read: 42

total pages read: 137

time: 1 hr. 30 min.

now reading: The Ruby Key

books finished: none

Read-a-thon post 2

pages read: 33

total pages read: 95

now reading: The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle

time: 1 hr. 40 min.

books finished: none :)

Read-a-thon post 1

Pages read: 62

Total pages read: 62

Time: 110 min.

Currently reading: The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle

Books finished: None

I started by reading Marked, but I didn't really enjoy it so I switched to this book!

Wrap-up to Read-a-thon list

Hi everybody! I'm now going to announce my final read-a-thon list. The numbers in bold will be the ones that you've chosen.

1. Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce.

2. Wolf Trails by Nik Sawe.

3. The Captain's Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe by Roland Smith.

4. Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial by Ronald Kidd.

5. Faeries' Landing Volume 1 by You Hyun

6. Freaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oates.

7. Zodiac P.I. Volume 2 by Natsumi Ando

8. The Mystery of the Biltmore House by Carole Marsh

9. Sea Princess Azuri Volume 1 by Erica Reiss

10. The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle

11. Moonlight by Rachel Hawthorne

12. Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

13. Tokyo Mew Mew A La Mode Volume 1 by Mia Ikumi

14. The Pack by Tom Pow

15. Rainy by Sis Deans

16. The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

17. Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague by Brandon Mull

18. Pendragon: The Quillan Games by D.J. MacHale

19. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

20. Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles De Lint

Read-a-thon list

Hi everyone! As you probably know, it's only a week until the next read-a-thon. I'm going to do what I did last year to help me weed the list down. I'll post the first sentence from each book (and if it's a graphic novel, the first sentence on the back cover), and you choose the ones that you think sound most interesting. Even if you know what book the sentence comes from, judge only from the sentence!!! Ready?

1. The wolves of the Long Lake Pack, gorged on a careless mountain sheep, slept as they digested their meal.

2. The sunlight, for a brief moment, seemed to flare upon the meadow, casting an orange glow about the pale brown grasses.

3. John Colter gallops into camp, jumps off his horse, and shouts, "Seaman? Good Lord! Is that really you? We thought you were dead!"

4. In my house the early bird didn't get the worm.

5. Welcome to Faeries' Landing, a place where the real world and the Faerie realm collide.

6. Later, I would think of it as crossing over.

7. What's your sign?

8. Stacy Brown dealt the cards into the sloppy stacks in the back seat of the red station wagon.

9. Azuri is the mermaid princess and the only royal heir of the Orcans, a race of whale-mer-people that lives in a magical environment deep within the ocean.

10. The sun slid down towards the tops of the trees.

11. Moonlight washed over us, washed over Lucas and me.

12. Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse I saw the dead guy standing next to my locker.

13. The cats are back, and a new Mew is about to emerge!

14. The engine screamed as the driver, both hands round the gear stick, forced the transport truck up into third.

15. The main building at Camp Megunticook was called Penobscot Lodge.

16. "I'm tired of remembering," Hannah said to her mother as she climbed into the car.

17. On a muggy August day, Seth hurried along a faint path, eyes scanning the lush foliage to his left.

18. I like to play games.

19. There was once a kindly old wizard who used his magic generously and wisely for the benefit of his neighbors.

20. SCRITCH, SCRITCH, SCRITCH.

That's all! Have fun choosing!

Zodiac P.I. Book #1 (book review)

Zodiac P.I. Book #1, by Natsumi Ando, is the story of thirteen-year-old Lili Hoshizawa, who's not just any other girl. She's a talented astrologer who uses her knowledge of the stars to solve crimes as the mysterious Spica P.I. When a fellow classmate is murdered, Lili suspects one of her own teachers is the culprit. Can she solve this challenging case or will she become the next victim? Then, Lili must go undercover as a piano student in order to investigate a haunted music school.

This was a great book! It was quick and engaging, and I never wanted to put it down! Lili was a complex and interesting character. I'd recommend this book to anybody who enjoys reading manga or detective stories.

This book was for the Graphic Novel Challenge '09.

Two Book Reviews

First, I read Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande. It is the story of how one girl tried to reconcile her belief in both religion and science.

Life sucks for Mena Reece. She's been kicked out of her church group and everyone in it hates her, including her parents. Her first day of high school is filled with dirty glares and hard shoves. She doesn't think life will ever get better until she meets her lab partner, Casey. He's pretty funny--and cute--for the smartest guy ever. When the unit on evolution begins, Mena's life gets even wilder as she struggles to deal with her belief in God and science.

I loved this book! It was filled with twists and turns, and I never got bored of reading it. I'd recommend it to anybody interested in realistic fiction or the controversy between evolutionists and creationists.

This book was for the Spring Reading Thing 09 Challenge.


The second review is of When My Name was Keoko, by Linda Sue Park. It is the story of one Korean family during World War II. During the war, the Japanese occupied Korea. The native Koreans lost everything: their possessions, their food, even their own names. Ten-year-old Sun-Hee and her older brother, Tae-yul, are furious when they are forced to take Japanese names. But what can they do? If they disobey the Japanese, their family will be severely punished. When they discover that their beloved uncle, who is a part of the Korean resistance, has been forced into hiding, their lives are torn apart even more. And when Tae-yul, knowing that the families of soldiers are given special benefits, decides to join the Japanese army as a kamikaze, Sun-hee doesn't know what to think. Will her beloved brother ever return?

I loved this book!!! It was very moving and very emotional--happy at times, sad at others. I think this will be a story that stays with me forever, and I can't say that about many books.

This book was for the Spring Reading Thing 09 Challenge and the World War II Challenge.

Teen Book Festival

On Saturday, I went to the Teen Book Festival, or TBF, with my friend Cece. There were many famous authors there, including Linda Sue Park and Michael Buckley. I had four books signed: Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr, Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande, Dramacon Volume 1 by Svetlana Chmakova, and When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park. I had so much fun there!!!!!!

Story of a Girl (book review)

Story of a Girl, by Sara Zarr, is the tale of sixteen-year-old Deanna Lambert, who, three years ago, made a huge mistake that she's never been able to forget. Her father caught her in the back of Tommy Webber's Buick. Tommy was seventeen, her older brother Darren's supposed friend, and Deanna wasn't even sure she liked him. Even now, she is still struggling to overcome the role of "school slut" and get people to see her for who she really is. She is not who the rumors portray her as, but how can she get everyone else to realize that? So much drama is going on in her life right now, and Deanna soon finds that everything can change in one summer...

I loved this book! It was the second book I read by this author, and I enjoyed it just as much as (maybe even better than) Sweethearts! The language was beautiful, and it flowed very smoothly. The characters were very realistic; I felt like they could walk out of the book and tap me on the shoulder at any time.

This book is for the Spring Reading Thing Challenge '09.

Three Poems

Here are three poems I wrote yesterday:

The Forest Sleeps

In the heat of midday
when the chirping of cicadas
drones on and on
and the field, ripe with golden wheat
shimmers with heat waves
the forest sleeps.

But when the sun sinks slowly out of the sky
and the doleful call of the mourning dove rises and fades,
rises and fades
and the crickets play sweet music
for all to hear
and the deer frolic under the trees'
bent boughs,
and the willow
sways calmly in the gentle breeze
it is filled with life.

And in the early morning light
the crickets stop their song
and the deer recede back into
the thickets
and the chickadees chirp for joy
because a new day has begun.


Murder in the Palace

Gilded crimson
velvety cloak
flutters slowly to the ground.

Blood, red as the fabric itself,
pools on the floor.

The assassin, with his
knife
clenched between his teeth,
slips quietly out
the window
just as
the royal guards
come rushing into
the queen's chambers.


Starwalkers

There are three
who walk
the endless path of the stars
on icy nights when the cold
freezes off the toes
of the homeless man,
on sultry nights,
when couples
sit on their porches
and gaze out into the heavens,
and on rainy nights,
when the stray dog
shelters under a soggy cardboard box.

First, there is the girl,
young though she may seem,
her eyes show wisdom
beyond her years
and her feet are worn from treading paths
even the oldest man on Earth
has yet to touch.

Second, there is the cat,
wild though it may seem,
its breath is the wind,
wild, fierce, and free
and the ground upon which it walks
glows with silvery molten light.

Third, there is the elder,
old though he may seem,
his cane
is the trunk
of the tallest redwood tree
and his cloak
is the wing
of the prettiest
nightingale.

Together,
the girl, Time,
and the cat, Earth,
and the elder, Life
maintain the intricate balance
of the world as we know it.

When they finally
fade away
into the distance
and the earth
slows
and the life
withers
and the time
stops

Yay!!! Once Upon A Time 3!!!!

I am SOOOOOOOOOOO excited for the Once Upon A Time III Challenge!!!!!!!!! I chose Quest The First, which means you have to read five books that fall under the category of fantasy, myth, folklore, or fairy tales.





Here is my pool of books to choose from:

The Forest in the Hallway by Gordon Smith

Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher

Seekers: The Quest Begins by Erin Hunter

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Attica by Garry Kilworth

Gossamer by Lois Lowry

Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen

River Secrets by Shannon Hale

Iris, Messenger by Sarah Deming

Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin

Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles De Lint

The Ruby Key by Holly Lisle

The Siren Song by Anne Ursu

Moonlight by Rachel Hawthorne

Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst

I can't wait to start! Thank you Carl for hosting this challenge!

Spring Reading Thing!!!!

I am so excited for the Spring Reading Thing!









Here is my list:

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Paper Towns by John Green

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial by Robert Kidd

The Captain's Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe by Roland Smith

The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara

Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande

Saving Zoe by Alyson Noel

When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park