Hi readers!  I am reporting to you about Rick Riordan’s new book, The Mark of Athena.  It’s book three in the Heroes of Olympus series.  I couldn’t wait for this book to come out because as you probably know by now, I think Rick Riordan rocks!  Well, The Mark of Athena was worth the wait!

In the book, Jason, Percy and the five other questers meet at the Roman camp.  Then all of the sudden, Leo attacks the camp with the ship’s weaponry!  The demigods barely make it out and are immediately on their quest.  Leo is definitely my favorite character.  He’s really funny and messes around, but when it’s time to work, he WORKS HARD!  I like that about him.

This is my favorite book in the series so far because the Greeks and Romans FINALLY meet.  This puts a lot of tension in the story; you never know when a betrayal will happen.  Talk about suspense!  Also, there are a lot of new monsters in the story.  Some are comical characters and others are downright nasty!  Even if you haven’t been following the series, the way Rick Riordan develops his characters is a really good reason for trying this book.  You won’t be disappointed.

Until next time, folks!

BOOK NAME: Weird But True! Stupid Criminals
AUTHOR: National Geographic

Stupid Criminals was one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. I couldn’t
stop laughing out loud as I read, and my family and friends kept asking me what
was so funny. In fact, I don’t even have the book right now because one of my
friends has it. After he’s done with it, another friend wants to read it too!

Stupid Criminals is about people trying to commit crimes but making dumb
mistakes at the same time–stupid criminals, get it? Just like it’s hard to do the
right thing sometimes, I guess it’s hard to do the wrong thing correctly! My
favorite story was probably about a bank robber who called the bank and
said, “Hello, we are robbing your bank at 1pm, bye!” Another favorite of mine
was about a robber who was burglarizing a house. He got hungry and had a
snack. He was caught because he left greasy fingerprints on the refrigerator door!
Duh.

Well, you get the idea. It is hilarious! I guarantee that if you have a sense of
humor, you will love this book. I hope you read and enjoy it!

BOOK NAME: Chomp
AUTHOR: Carl Hiaasen

On the day I received Chomp in the mail, I stayed up until after 11pm
reading it. It wasn’t Carl Hiaasen’s best book but it was definitely a good book,
worth reading.

The book is set in a Florida swamp with Wahoo and his dad, an animal
wrangler, as the main characters. They are working for a television show much
like Man vs. Wild. The show’s star goes missing and Wahoo, his dad and the
camera crew need to find him. I liked the plot, even though it’s a little confusing
in some places, and the characters in this book, especially Wahoo. He has a lot of
guts. When he was little his thumb was bitten off by an alligator and yet he still
plays with and feeds alligators and other swamp animals. Wahoo’s backyard is a
zoo of the most dangerous animals in Florida, and Carl Hiaasen gives great
descriptions of them. I’m a big animal lover so this was a big plus for me.

Like I said earlier, Chomp is not a GREAT book, but a good one. If you like
reading about animals and adventures in general, I would recommend this book.
I’d probably get it from the library though instead of buying it.

BOOK NAME: Are You Normal? 
AUTHOR: Mark Shulman

Hi again, blog readers. I just finished reading Are You Normal?, published by National Geographic. You may be tired of me saying this, but this is one of the best books I have ever reviewed! In fact, my whole family likes it, from my little sister who is almost 5 to my Grandma who is 73! It’s really that good!

Anyway, Are You Normal? was written based on the results of surveys of tons of kids. The authors asked kids questions on just about anything you can think of. The kids are from all over the world which makes it extra cool. And the questions are just the kind of things that kids are interested in. For example, “What do you like to do in your spare time?” and “What is your favorite subject in school?” It’s really cool to see what most kids like or dislike and see how similar and different you are. The book also has a test to take while you are going through it to determine how normal or weird you are. I took the test and am happy to say I am normal. Phew! And just to show how different we are, my 8 year old younger brother took the test and is very proud of the fact that he is undoubtedly WEIRD!

An awesome thing about this book is that you can read a little bit and put it down for a while and then come back to it and it’s not like you have to re-read or do anything special to plunge right in. Another great feature of Are you Normal? is that it’s a perfect social book. You can look at it with friends during lunch period or with siblings in the car or whatever. In fact, it’s especially fun to read it with someone rather than by yourself! I definitely recommend that you try the book and find out the answer to this: Are you normal?

BOOK NAME: Crow
AUTHOR: Barbara Wright

Hello, Blog readers! I have another history book to review and I hope you like it. (It’s actually historical fiction, which makes it less stuffy and more interesting than a plain history book, but that’s just my opinion!) I read Crow, by Barbara Wright, and really got lost in it. I mean, once I picked it up, I had a hard time putting it down, and even when I had to put it down I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s that good!

Crow is set during the time right after the Civil War. Slavery has been abolished, but a lot of people are still thinking African-Americans should not have the same rights as white people. Anyway the book is about an African-American boy named Moses who tries to sort out what is happening around him and why people are so racist and prejudiced. Everything in the book happens from his point of view which is really cool for young readers like me. Moses’s father is my favorite character in the book though. He works for the only colored newspaper in the town and stands up for what he believes in. I admire him because he is really good and fair leader. When I read the part about how some white people took offense at some of the things printed in the newspaper and burned down the newspaper building, I felt horrible for Moses’s dad. In fact, there were a lot of parts of this book that made me feel angry or sad, but I still really liked it. It was pretty realistic and Moses was definitely someone a kid could relate to. I also learned a lot about history without being bored so that’s a big plus.

If you don’t mind a very serious book and can handle intense things like violence and people being cruel to each other, I would recommend this book to you.

BOOK NAME: Little House on the Prairie
AUTHOR: Laura Ingalls Wilder 

Hi guys. You know that book series of The Little House on the Prairie books? All of those books are about a real girl growing up in pioneer times with her family in the midwest. There’s one book in the series though that is about her husband when he was a boy. It’s called Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Farmer Boy is about Almanzo Wilder who is about 9 years old in the book. Though he’s just a kid in terms of age he is expected to work like a man most of the time. He plows fields, chops wood and drives a team oxen when he isn’t going to school, which he hates, by the way. What he really wants to do is work with his family’s horses, but his father who is pretty strict doesn’t think he is old enough.

I really liked this book even though I wasn’t sure about it at first. It gave me a clear picture of what it was like to grow up on a farm in the olden days–lots of work but lots of unstructured time also. I thought the author used great descriptions in the book and some humor too. Almanzo is an easy character to like because even though he lived so long ago he is pretty much like all kids I know. He’s pretty nice and hard-working overall but has some not so nice and lazy feelings also. I could really relate to Almanzo because he wants to grow up so badly but he’s treated like a little kid sometimes. In the end of the story, which I won’t give away, Almanzo realizes that his father understands him after all. I really recommend this book to anyone, but especially to boys ages 7-12. It’s totally worth it!

DogEared: Read Sheila’s review of Little House on the Prairie!

BOOK NAME: Scat
AUTHOR: Carl Hiaasen

Hi again blog readers! This is a review of my favorite book by Carl Hiaasen, Scat. It takes place in Florida near a huge swamp. Nick is the main character. His class goes on a field trip to the swamp. In the middle of the trip, a wildfire starts so everyone flees to the bus. Mrs. Starch, Nick’s teacher, goes back to the swamp to get Nick’s friend, Libby’s inhaler. The investigators think she is gone for good until the inhaler appears in Libby’s yard. The mystery of what happens to Mrs. Starch is really cool.

One of the reasons I like this book is because some of the characters are really likable. My favorite character is Twilly. He is very, very rich and he spends his money on donating wildlife preserves. He really stands up for what he believes in and doesn’t hesitate to show it. My other favorite character is Drake. I mostly like him because he adds humor to the book. He is the manager of an oil company in the area next to the swamp. He’s kind of foolish. He set up his business in Florida just so he can run the business while he spends his time water skiing!

Scat is one of the best books I have ever read. First of all, it’s about nature which I love. Also, it’s got some mystery, some great characters, some humor, and some interesting dialogue. I think you’ll really like it too.

Want another opinion? Read Jordan’s review!

BOOK NAME: Noah Barleywater Runs Away
AUTHOR: John Boyne

Hello, everyone! It’s Hunter back again to review another book.

This review is on Noah Barleywater Runs Away by John Boyne. It’s a work of fiction, with a mixture of events that could actually happen and events that could never, ever happen–like when doors and mirrors talk. In the book, an 8 year old boy named Noah runs away and meets an old man who tells Noah about his life through stories and puppets. Parts of the book are interesting because of some surprises, but other parts are kind of boring and hard to believe. I didn’t really like that the old man and his life story are supposed to be teaching Noah, and I guess the readers, a lesson because they end up sounding like a lecture instead of something to make you think about things from a different point of view. I also thought that the story was sad (remember I said there were some surprises?) and definitely not something that I think younger kids would like at all.

So I’m sorry, I can’t really recommend that you read this book. If you have to though, it’s kind of worth it because of the surprises…

BOOK NAME: Stolen Into Slavery: The True Story of Solomon Northrup
AUTHORS: Judith and Dennis Fradin

Hello, guys. Check out this awesome new book! Stolen Into Slavery: The True Story of Solomon Northrup by Judith Fradin and Dennis Fradin has made me look for other books like it.

This wasn’t the funniest book I’ve read, and I definitely love books with lots of humor in them, but I don’t think it was meant to be funny. It’s about slavery, after all, so it’s pretty serious. It was set during the time of the Civil War. The main character, Solomon, is a free black man from New York. The ironic thing is that even though Simon is a free man, he is kidnapped and forced to be a slave in the South. It’s so frustrating to see how much he wants to get in touch with his family but can’t because he can’t trust just anyone to deliver mail or messages to them!

I thought this was a great book. I learned a lot while I was reading it and thought a lot about it after I was done. And even though it was as educational as a school book, it wasn’t just a list of facts. Stolen Into Slavery really grabbed my attention right away because it was about a specific person and his life. It has probably been my favorite to review too!

BOOK NAME: The Unknown Spy
AUTHOR: Eoin McNamee

Hi again, blog readers! I’m glad to be back but not glad to tell you that I’m reviewing a book that I most definitely did not love. It’s The Unknown Spy by Eoin McNamee.

The book is about a spy named Danny and all his friends going on a quest to save the treaty stone, a stone that makes it impossible for the Lower World to invade Danny’s world, the Upper World. Right before the quest begins, two of the four quest members get stuck at the spy school. Now only Danny and one other quest member are going on the quest. It’s crazy how much double-crossing and lying they go through to get the stone back safely so they can save the world!

I think the main reason I didn’t like it was because I thought it was full of negative stuff. For instance, my favorite character, Les was really funny and a good sport but he was excluded from all his friends’ quests. Who would exclude a nice guy like Les? The guy who excluded him was a big jerk named Bruneholm. He was my least favorite character because he was kind of an adult bully. He was the assistant headmaster of the spy school that Les and his friends attended.

Anyway, this book is a bit scary so I wouldn’t try reading it at night. It freaked me out a couple of times when I was up late with it! It’s a book that is full of surprises, traitors, hatred and war, so if you’re into that kind of stuff, you might just like it. I didn’t though. Sorry!