Mads Reads

The Secret Life of Sparrow Delanely

2007-10-19T18:29:00.000-05:00

by Suzanne Harper

Rating (1-10): 9

Sparrow wants one thing from life, and that is to be normal. No one really cares for people un-normal, and she is the epitome of un-normal. See, people don’t typically like to hang around sophomore girls who can see ghosts. Sparrow has kept her secret vision from everyone, even her six older sisters, who are all mediums. All Sparrow wants is a fresh start; so when the opportunity arises to go to a new school, she jumps at it. She blends in well, except for a few brush-ins with a boy in her history class who just happens to be the most-sought-after guy in the entire tenth grade. Sparrow even makes a new best friend! But then a ridiculously cute ghost boy starts haunting her for help… and things head downhill from there. Sparrow soon finds herself wrapped up in a confusing tragedy… will she be able to help this poor ghost?

I enjoyed this book a lot. On a scale of one to ten, I would probably give it a nine. Suzanne Harper spins this tale set in a real place, Lily Dale, NY, which is brimming with mediums ready to bring back the dead to talk to you. Harper gives Sparrow real emotions, so any teenager could relate to the story. Then Harper added a special touch to Sparrow, giving her the ability to see ghosts! That is a talent I think we all wish we could have. Harper’s writing was fun and energetic, and kept me reading until the end. It wasn’t scary at all, like I imagined it would be. As I said before, I enjoyed this book very much, and recommend it to all pre-teens and teens.

The Secret Life of Josephine

2007-09-03T19:05:00.000-05:00

by Carrolly Erickson

Everyone knows about Napoleon, the guy who wanted to take over the world and conquer everything. Well, what do people know about his first wife, Josephine? Not much, really. She’s always in the wings; no one ever thinks about her and her past. When Josephine was a girl, her name was Rose. It actually was Rose until she married Napoleon—he changed it because she needed to sound more French. Rose lived in a tropical paradise, moving to Paris when she was a teenager to marry her cousin. Eventually, her husband dies in “The Terror”, with Rose narrowly escaping the guillotine. After the Terror, Rose marries Napoleon, a famous general with a commanding presence. After that, the rest is history.

Carrolly Erickson made history come to life, but in a new way. I have always heard of Napoleon, but not his wife. She really influenced Napoleon in ways I didn’t think of. Carrolly Erickson’s novel made me think of all these things, and I learned much more about the time period. Because Erickson wrote so descriptively, I was never left in the dark how bad things were during “The Terror” and Napoleon’s rule. Erickson has other historical novels about wives of great rulers, and since I enjoyed The Secret Life of Josephine so much, I have ordered copies of her other books.

The Chicken Dance

2007-09-01T22:35:00.000-05:00

by Jacques Couvillon

Once there was a boy named Stanley. Stanley grew up surrounded by chickens; his family's chickens, actually. He loved his chickens, and, since he wasn't a very popular boy, confided in them. Stanley learned everything he could learn about chickens; what made them good and what made them bad, what ones where good eggs producers, which weren't. He became an expert on chickens by age 11. No one noticed this though; especially not his parents. So, when he entered a chicken judging contest, no one thought he'd win. But he did. And it brought him instant fame and glory. His parents barely notice his accomplishment, though, and went on with their lives as normal. Poor Stanley then starts discovering secrets to his family's past that he would have never dreamed of... and his mother and father start fighting a lot more. Stanley needs to find the source of the fighting, and bring things back to normal.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a breath of fresh air; a change in what I usually read. Couvillon wrote as though it was his own journal, which made it very funny. Personally, I was reminded of Junie B. Jones, but older, and a boy. The main character thought very literally, which led to many twists and turns in the plot. It was a very easy read, and I suggest it to anyone who needs a break from life to read something simple and carefree.

Leaving Simplicity

2007-08-23T20:44:00.000-05:00

by Claire Carmichael

Everyone knows the world is covered in advertisements today—from seeing them on cars, to ones in the mall, and even in the back of books. They’re everywhere, but can you imagine if the advertisements controlled your emotions, and made you want to run out and buy the product right away? In the world that Taylor lives in, New York City set in the future, this is her life. She is so accustomed to the advertisements, and they are normal to her now. But her cousin Barrett has lived in an area where farmers have always lived, and has never grown used to technology today. So when Barrett is forced to live with his Aunt and Cousin, he finds this new world strange and wrong. His aunt takes advantage of his naiveté, which angers Barrett. Together, Barrett and Taylor team up to fight against advertisements and what they stand for.

Claire Carmichael does a superb job creating the world that is Barrett and Taylor’s. Even though it is supposedly set in the future, it seems very real and even scary. It makes you think…. Will this happen? Or something like it? What can we do to prevent it? Leaving Simplicity is an excellent book, which I have already recommended to my friends.

The Salamander Spell

2007-08-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

by ED Baker

In the fifth addition to the Frog Princess series, Emma and Eadric are missing from the story. It’s because the story is a prequel—and it explains Grassina’s story on becoming a witch. Grassina is thirteen years old, and her sister Chartreuse is fifteen. Like all sisters, they fight constantly. Chartreuse is Greater Greensward’s Green Witch-in-training, only she hasn’t ‘come to’ her magic yet. Everyone is tense waiting for her to become magically inclined, but things aren’t looking up. Then, disaster strikes, and Grassina has to save the day.

ED Baker breathes life into Emma and Eadric’s world yet again, even though the couple isn’t in the story. It’s filled with all the magical problems that consume the other Frog Princess books, making it entertaining and fun. At first, the story was a little hard to get into, but eventually the story picked up and became entertaining. ED Baker pulled off another tale in the series—and now she leaves her fans wanting more!

The Salamander Spell is available in stores August 21, 2007

No Place For Magic

2007-07-27T19:34:00.001-05:00

By ED Baker

In the fourth installment of the Frog Princess Series, Emma and her wannabe-husband Eadric set out to get Eadric's parents' blessing on their marriage. Emma is a witch-- freshly made "The Green Witch" of her Kingdom, Great Greensward. She uses her magic for anything and everything, which is fine in her kingdom, but what will happen when her finace's subjects find out she is a witch? She learns that they aren't as open to magical beings as most countries are; leaving her stranded magic-wise. Emma and Eadric are in for another adventure before they know it; Emma not being able to use magic, and Eadric trying to be the hero constantly. They have to battle Vampires, Trolls, and other unknown creatures, and still be able to love eachother when they come home from their adventures.

ED Baker does a senstaional job describing the magic and making up all of the spells Emma uses. Her plot is always changing, so you never know what will happen next. While the story can be a little corny at times, all of the characters are lovable and sweet. Everything is well-thought out, with every detail in place. I enjoyed this book; it was an easy, fun, and quick read, perfect for a vacation.

Other books by ED Baker:

The Frog Princess

Dragon's Breath

Once Upon a Curse

and coming in September,

The Salamander Spell

Before Midnight: A Retelling of Cinderella

2007-07-12T07:22:00.000-05:00

by Cameron Dokey

Okay, so recently I've been into this series called "The Once Upon A Time Series". All of the books in the series are retellings of fairytales; this one in particular being a retelling of Cinderella. The book was an easy read, but very good. Here is a short explanation about the book....

Cendrillion (the french form of Cinderella) was shunned by her father at an early age, because it was her birth that caused her mother's death. Cendrillion stayed on her home land until her Father marries again-- without telling Cendrillion. The new stepmother and stepsisters come to Cendrillion's home, and that's where all of the mysteries of Cendrillion's past unfold...

This verson of Cinderella was different from any I've ever read. The evil stepmother and stepsisters showed sides to themselves that I never thought of. There were plenty of twists and turns, so you were kept interested in the story, and eventually you forgot it was a retelling of Cinderella. I normally don't enjoy Cameron Dokey's writing, but I enjoyed this book. I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for a quick and easy read, and someone who also has a love for fairytales with a spin.

Book of A Thousand Days

2007-07-11T14:43:00.000-05:00

by Shannon Hale

A few weeks ago, I was able to come across an ARC of the book Book of A Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale. I finished it ages ago, but have been putting the review off for awhile. And don't worry, my review is spoiler proof, as always.

When Dashti, a young teenager, is orphaned, she has nowhere to go. Her mother was her last living relative in the world, and when she dies, Dashti is forced to go look for work outside her area of expertise. She becomes a maid to the lady Saren, which is a lot different then Dashti's old work as a mucker. Lady Saren is very soon after shut up in a tower, for refusing marriage to a frightful lord. Taking with her a blank book to record her thoughts, Dashti and her lady are put in the tower. They have encounters with rats, food problems, and strange vistors. Dashti cooks and cleans for her lady, and Saren sits around and mopes. All the while Dashti records her thoughts as day after day passes, and one problem after another befalls them. Dashti has to learn how to keep faithful to her lady, and to herself.

In diary format, this book was hard to get into-- at first. Dashti was quiet in the beginning, learning her voice. Eventually she found it though, and that is where it became more interesting. I have read all of Shannon Hale's books, but I think that this one was the best out of all of them. Shannon gave Dashti voice, and real feelings. Dashti wasn't just a pampered princess who got everything she wanted. She was real, and true. I enjoyed this book immensely, and it lived up to all of my expectations and more. I recommend it to anyone who likes a interesting plot, with lots of twists and turns.

(Book of A Thousand Days hits the stores in late September, early October)

A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket

2007-05-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

This is a review done by my sister, Grace. She calls it a report, because she had to do it for school, but I think it was very well done, and "worthy" of my blog. You can visit Grace's blog at http://greengosling12.blogspot.com/.

A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series book report by Grace

A Series of Unfortunate Events (further known as ASoUE) is a series by Lemony Snicket. It is about the three Baudelaire children, who parents died in a mysterious fire. The eldest of the 3 is Violet Baudelaire, who likes to invent things, and remembers the most about their parents. Klaus is the middle Baudelaire, who is a very good reader. Everything he reads in a book, he never forgets. Sunny is the youngest Baudelaire, and she has amazingly sharp teeth. She was only a baby when the Baudelaire parents died, and is still only a baby in the whole series, and she doesn’t really remember their parents at all. After their parents died, they went to live with their closest family member alive, Count Olaf. Before I tell you about Count Olaf and the rest of their guardians, I’ll have you know that when their parents died, the Baudelaire orphans were left a huge fortune, that Violet would be able to access when she became of age. Now, Count Olaf was an evil and greedy man, and would do anything possible to get his hands on that fortune. By anything possible, I mean imitating being a family member of the Baudelaires, then becoming their legal guardian, and then trying to marry Violet to get access to the Baudelaire fortune. Fortunately, he was stopped by the clever Baudelaires, and the Baudelaires were moved to a different home. But that’s not the end of their story. In fact, that was only the first of the 13 books in the series. But I’m not going to spoil the whole series, so I’ll just give you an overall view of ASoUE: Basically, they move from guardian to guardian, as each one meets an unfortunate death, with Count Olaf still hot on their tails. It gets even more dangerous when they have no more guardians left, Count Olaf is incorrectly pronounced dead, and the Baudelaires are named as criminals. In the 13th book, when things can’t seem to get any worse, they are shipwrecked on an island, with Count Olaf and several others from previous shipwrecks. Count Olaf releases a deadly poison, and the Baudelaires must save themselves. Add to this the mysterious organization called VFD, a stack of books, a pregnant woman, and some horseradish, and you can see that the Baudelaire orphans didn’t have it easy, but have the ability to pull through, well at least we hope. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but want to say that it surprised me a lot. I loved this series, and could read it over and over again. Lemony Snicket is a wonderful writer, and I hope he keeps writing. I can’t wait to read his latest book, Horseradish. I hope you will enjoy this series, and I recommend it to everyone over the age of 9.

Well done Grace! :o)

Life As We Knew It, By Susan Beth Pfeffer

2007-05-16T22:34:00.000-05:00

Life as We Knew It, By Susan Beth Pfeffer
A Book Review By: Mads

Everyone will die, eventually. It’s a truth universally known, and you can either except it, or deny it. Living on this earth, you know its part of the circle of life. But what if this circle was broken, and suddenly everything you once knew and thought was reliable was gone?

Susan Beth Pfeffer tells the story of Miranda, in a diary format. Miranda is a typical teenager, just finishing up her sophomore year in high school, worrying about finals, fighting with her divorced parents, and thinking about boys. She has all the problems normal teenage girls have, and hardly thinks that the big asteroid about to hit the moon is worth mentioning in her journal. But soon it would become life. When the asteroid hits the moon with more force then anticipated from the scientists, everything is changed. Miranda had no way of knowing how much the earth depends on the moon. The moon controls the tides, earthquakes, and even volcanic eruptions, and when it is pushed into the earth’s gravitational pull, life as they knew it was gone. No electricity, a major lack of food, tsunamis wiping out entire cities, and horrible epidemics are just some of the problems Miranda records in her diary. Readers will become fascinated with the story, and the need to know what happens to the world will become overpowering.

This book has a moral, as most books do: Don’t take anything for granted. All the stuff that we have now could be gone in an instant, and with problems the earth may soon be encountering (global warming, high climates, ice caps melting) we need to start thinking more logically about life. Pfeffer tells her story with thought and insight, and I am handing copies out to all my friends, because this is something we need to read, not just for fun, but for knowledge and the reality that life as we know it might not be there tomorrow.

Come Juneteenth

2007-05-05T22:00:00.000-05:00

by Ann Rinaldi

Imagine: Being the owner of a huge plantation with over 100 slaves at your command. Each and every slave belongs to you, because without him or her, your plantation would be nothing. Then, imagine a proclamation that would free the slaves, leaving it up to them whether they stayed or left.

In January of 1863 President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all of the slaves, everywhere. While news of the Proclamation spread, slaves were beginning to rally, and started to gather forces that destroyed entire plantations, leaving the slave-owners in ruins. Down South, the state of Texas kept the Proclamation quiet, fearing that if they told the slaves of it, there would be an uprising. This is where Ann Rinaldi takes us, to a respected plantation in Texas, with over 100 slaves working. Luli, the daughter of the plantation owner, is raised with a half-slave, Sis Goose. Sis Goose is part of Luli’s family, brought up in the main house, sleeping away from the slave-quarters. Everything is perfectly peaceful, until the day Sis Goose finds out her freedom was withheld from her, keeping her a slave two years longer than needed. Suddenly, Luli is thrown into confusion and drama, and Sis Goose shuns the family that has brought her up as one of their own her whole life…

Ann Rinaldi sweeps the reader up into the dramas of the Civil War that caused so many problems. She teaches that lies only lead to destruction. In a vivid picture, she also shows how problematic the world was back during the Civil War. People during this time, both black and white, were hurt deeply by the Civil War, and not just in the battle. Households were destroyed, and lies that started off as simple became bigger and more destructive. Ann Rinaldi did a fantastic job at showing all of this, in an intelligent and thought-provoking manner. Thousands upon thousands of questions arise when you read this novel, making it a must-read for the summer! Come Juneteenth is available wherever books are sold.

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer

2007-04-19T20:53:00.000-05:00

What happens when a girl falls in love with a vampire? Craziness, that's for sure. When Bella, a junior in high school, moves to small town Forks, she is pretty depressed. Forks is a good-for-nothing small town, where all it does is rain. Reluctently, she goes to the local high school where she meets Edward.......... a drop-dead-all-around-gorgeous guy there. Well, as it says on the back cover, of three things Bella was absolutely positive:
1) Edward was a vampire.
2) There is a part of him, and she doesn't now how dominant that part may be, that thirsts for her blood.
3) She is unconditionally and urrevocably in love with him.
As you can see, this book is pretty dramatic. I am not going to give much away, except for this. I will state my opinion of the book though.

When I read Twilight, it was like I stepped into Bella's world. I became a citizen of Forks. I WAS Bella. I felt what she felt; the love she had for Edward, her confusion, her terror... I don't know how Stephenie Meyer was able to pull it off. This book was just SO good, I can't even begin to describe it. One of the things I remember is how I felt almost as though there was a slight fuzz going over my brain just filled with thoughts of Bella and Edward. I would go into school, in a daze, thinking about the book. After I ate Twilight up, I needed more, so I started the sequel "New Moon". Again, there was a fuzz, a coating, going over my brain. I loved it. It was almost like a "book high" I guess. Almost like when you excercise to the point where you get a "runner's high". I don't know. Maybe it was the emotions Bella felt, and the way they were portrayed was why they touched be and all the other tennage girls out there the way it did. Maybe Bella is just the girl we all want to be, inside. We all want to excitement and feel the emotions she does. We DO feel the emotions. But we want to live it. Again, I don't know. Maybe I'm just rambling. All I can say is this is my new favorite book, along with Hearts of Iron and the Goose Girl, and I recommend it. Completely. Go, go get it NOW and you won't be sorry!

Austenland

2007-04-15T15:33:00.000-05:00

Austenland, by Shannon Hale

A book review by Mads

Many people have seen the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, and many people fall in love with the handsome Mr. Darcy. For some, it’s just a passing fancy. For others, Pride and Prejudice and all of Jane Austen’s books/movies become an obsession - something that makes one’s love life unbearable for a lack of Mr. Darcys in the world. Jane Hayes has this exact problem. No matter what she does, she can never find ‘the one’. Jane has undergone many boyfriends, each of which failed her miserably. Jane is ready to get over this obsession, when she gets an unexpected trip to a Jane Austen resort. Suddenly Jane is in England, wearing a full-sized ball gown, flirting with all of the Regency-era gentlemen placed there, and playing an act of a lady in the 1800’s England. Jane begins to fall for the gentlemen in Austenland, but she knows that it’s all a joke, a fake, played by actors for her entertainment… right? Can Jane survive 3 weeks in an Austenland paradise, and quit her bad habit for good? Or will she just make it worse, leaving her even more stranded then before? One can only guess.

Shannon Hale, writer of the young adult fantasy books The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Princess Academy, does an excellent job putting the reader in place of Jane Hayes. Shannon portrays the feelings and emotions in the book perfectly, while adding humor to it as well. I enjoyed this book immensely, it made me understand Jane Austen’s time period better, and was hilarious (especially since I have read Pride and Prejudice). Many people have read Pride and Prejudice, and I recommend this book to them. Even if you haven’t read it, Austenland is still a good read. As I said earlier, Shannon Hale did a fantastic job describing the world of Jane Hayes, and how the end of an obsession is possible. (Austenland is available online and in bookstores May 29, 2007)

Book Reviews

2007-04-15T14:19:00.000-05:00

I set this new blog up for book reviews, and only book reviews. In fact, I am hoping that this enrty will be the only un-related thing to book reviews post there will ever be. For all of the other things that I may want to write about, you can go to my other blog, http://justmads.blogspot.com. Whenever I finish a book I will (hopefully) do a book review on it. I am looking forward to looking back on this and enjoying the things I wrote........ :o) Anyways, I will write again soon, so keep checking back for a post!
Mads