Book Review: Giant

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Giant by Judith McQuoid

Giant
by Judith McQuoid

3.5 out of 5 stars
Davey comes from a poor Irish family. His mother works as a maid at the Lewis household, and when he comes to help with her work, he befriends a young C.S. Lewis, nicknamed Jacks. The boys bond over their love of stories and imaginative play. Jacks likes to write stories and Davey illustrates them with drawings and sketches. However, circumstances separate the boys when Davey has to take a dangerous job at the shipyard and Jacks is sent off to boarding school in England. Can their friendship survive despite their different paths in life?

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Book Review: Princess of the Midnight Ball

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Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

Princess of the Midnight Ball (The Princesses of Westfalin Trilogy, #1)
by  Jessica Day George

Galen comes home from the war and gets a job as gardener in the royal palace gardens. There he meets the twelve princesses and hears rumors that they wear out their dancing slippers every third night. Noble princes come and go, each trying to solve the mystery, but they all fail. The king agrees to give Galen special permission to investigate the mystery, and Galen discovers that the princesses are held under a strong enchantment, forced to dance for the King Under Stone and his twelve sons.

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Book Review: The Flirt

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The Flirt (1913)
by Booth Tarkington

3.5 out of 5 stars
Cora flirts with anything in pants and overshadows her older sister Laura at every party. When the handsome Valentine Corliss returns to town, Cora immediately gets to work, flirting with him and ignoring her own fiancée. But the fiancée and the whole string of ex-boyfriends are not content to be ignored. Laura and the rest of the family have to put up with an avalanche of men in and out of the house, and their little brother Hedrick decides to get his revenge on his sisters. He is always getting into mischief, but this time he could really cause serious trouble for Cora and Laura.

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Book Review: Magnus Chase The Sword of Summer

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The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1)
by Rick Riordan 

5 out of 5 stars

Magnus has been living on the streets ever since his mother died. They say it was an explosion, but Magnus knows she was killed by wolves with glowing eyes. In fact, a lot of strange things have been happening, so when Magnus’ weird uncle tells him that their family is involved with the gods of Norse mythology, a lot of things start to make sense to Magnus. His uncle tells him to find the long-lost Sword of Summer, but a fire giant attacks Boston and Magnus has no idea how to fight a legendary giant even if he could find and retrieve the lost sword.

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Book Review: Aunt Dimity and the Summer King

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Aunt Dimity and the Summer King by Nancy Atherton

Aunt Dimity and the Summer King (Aunt Dimity Mystery, #20)
by Nancy Atherton

5 out of 5 stars

Lori is exploring an unused cart track in the fields behind the town of Finch, when she discovers a reclusive neighbor who lives behind high walls. His grandchildren have crowned him the Summer King per an old family tradition, and Lori is delighted to join in their family fun. But the village of Finch seems to be in trouble. Several cottage properties have been left vacant for months, and although prospective buyers come to look, so far no one is interested in moving in. Lori starts to wonder if the real estate agent is keeping the cottages empty on purpose to drive prices down for some big corporation to swoop in and take over the town.

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Book Review: Unicornia Cupcake Contest

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Unicornia by Ana Punset

Unicornia: The Cupcake Contest
by Ana Punset, Diana Vicedo (illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

When Claudia signs up for the cupcake contest, she tries out new magical recipes and everything ends in disaster. The magical ingredients are more temperamental than regular baking ingredients, and Claudia is discouraged. But she knows that a boy in her school, Sasha, is an excellent baker, and she asks him to join her as a team. Together they try out several magical recipes until they find just the right cupcake recipe to bake for the judges.

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Book Review: Solo

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Solo by Gráinne O'Brien

Solo
by Gráinne O’Brien

1 out of 5 stars

I hated this book so much.
I hated the main character.
I hated all the nasty profanity.
I hated the sexual content in a book for teens.
Why? Why is there sexual content in a book for under-age minors? And why does the cover look like it’s being marketed for young children? I picked up this book thinking it was Middle Grade, because of the cartoony style of the cover.

To see all the objectionable content in this book, you can check it out on the Screen It First website! https://screenitfirst.com/book/solo-2592942

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Book Review: Evil Under the Sun

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Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie

Evil Under the Sun
by Agatha Christie

5 out of 5 stars

Poirot is on vacation at a hotel on an island. He likes to people-watch and get to know the other tourists at the hotel, but he becomes uneasy when he sees a married lady flirting with another man who is also married. The entire hotel is gossiping about the affair when the lady turns up dead on the beach. Did her husband kill her in a jealous rage, or did someone else have motive for murder?

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Book Review: Habibi

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Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye

Habibi
by Naomi Shihab Nye

2 out of 5 stars

Liyana’s father moves their family from America back to his home in Jerusalem. Tensions are high between the Arab and Jewish peoples, but Liyana befriends a Jewish boy. Her family don’t know how to react. They believe in peace, but can they accept someone so different from themselves after all the years of hatred that surround them?

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Book Review: On the Shoulders of Hobbits

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On the Shoulders of Hobbits by Louis A. Markos

On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis
by  Louis A. Markos, Peter Kreeft (Foreword)

5 out of 5 stars

This book explores the classical virtues and vices through the lens of Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia. Although they may be fantasy, these stories guide us to live a life of virtue. As the characters in fiction represent virtues such as courage and faith, we can be inspired to follow in their footsteps in our own life stories. They teach us to fight for justice, to cling to hope, and live with temperance.

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