Book Review: The Wheel on the School

The Wheel on the School by Meindert De Jong

The Wheel on the School
by Meindert De Jong, Maurice Sendak (Illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

Lina is the only girl at the village school. She starts asking why storks don’t come to nest in their seaside village, and all the other schoolchildren begin to wonder why as well. They notice that other villages have old wheels on their roofs, so that the storks have a place to build their nests. They start asking around to see if they can find an old wheel to put on the roof of the schoolhouse, but it’s more difficult than they imagined to get a wheel. Most wheels are being used on wagons, not sitting around to be bird nests. As the obstacles against them continue to grow, the children refuse to give up, and soon the whole village is helping them, hoping to attract the good luck that storks bring with them.

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Book Review: Can You Forgive Her?

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

Can You Forgive Her? (Palliser #1)
by Anthony Trollope

5 out of 5 stars

Alice breaks off her engagement with John Grey and considers the proposal of her cousin George Vavasor instead. She vacillates between these two men as she vacillates with her own character. She considers what her life would be like with each of them, and has to decide what kind of person she wants to be. She worries that she will be stuck in a boring country life with John Grey, and longs for more political excitement as her cousin George is up for election and hopes to gain a seat in Parliament. Alice is confused and can’t sort through her true feelings and she has no one to guide her in making these decisions.

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Book Review: The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane

The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane by Julia Nobel

The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane (Black Hollow Lane, #1)
by Julia Nobel

4 out of 5 stars

Emmy discovers that her dead father left behind a mysterious box of medallions with a note urging her to keep them safe. When her mother sends her to boarding school in England, Emmy thinks the medallions have some connection to the old school. Perhaps her father was a student there at some point and copied the odd symbols that are engraved on library books and wall carvings about the school. Emmy enlists the help of her new friends, Jack and Lola, and they investigate the existence of an underground society that will go to any lengths to hide their secrets. Now Emmy isn’t even sure if her father is really dead, or if the secret society is hiding something even more dastardly.

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Book Review: The Black Market

The Black Market by Jed Alexander

The Black Market
by Jed Alexander

3 out of 5 stars

Martin’s aunt gives him a special pair of shoes made from the leather of an extinct animal. She tells him that she got them from the Black Market, a secret place where people come to trade in magical items. It constantly changes location, and is only open on Halloween. Martin and his friend, Jess, go searching for the Black Market, and Martin exchanges the shoes for a Bag of Dirty Tricks. He loves playing innocent pranks, but some of the tricks included in the bag are downright mean and dangerous. Martin and Jess get involved in more and more deceitful lies as they start to use the dirty tricks, and they are dismayed to see that their victims are genuinely suffering because of the pranks.

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Book Review: DragonKnight

DragonKnight by Donita K. Paul

DragonKnight (DragonKeeper Chronicles, #3)
by  Donita K. Paul (Goodreads Author)

5 out of 5 stars

In this third book of the series, the story picks up three years after the previous book. Although, Kale joins the story later on, we mostly follow Kale’s friend Bardon, as he tries to make a decision about whether he wants to become a knight of Paladin. He is sent on a sabbatical to ponder his decision, but is swept up in a quest to assist an old granny to find her missing son, a knight who has been cursed with a sleeping spell.

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Book Review: Witchlings Scepter of Memories

Scepter of Memories by Claribel A. Ortega

Scepter of Memories
by Claribel A. Ortega

3 out of 5 stars

Seven, Thorn, and Valley are devastated when an evil warlock uses memory hexes to erase the memories of the townsfolk, even erasing the memories of their own families. They hear of a prophecy from hundreds of years ago that could lead to a magical scepter which has the power to restore memories. But the prophecy leads them out into the wastelands beyond the Twelve Towns where monsters abound.

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Book Review: The Stolen Songbird

The Stolen Songbird by Judith Eagle

The Stolen Songbird
by Judith Eagle (Goodreads Author), Jo Rioux  (illustrator)

3 out of 5 stars

Caro is forced to stay with her strict Great Aunt Mary, who does not allow pets at her house. Caro smuggles in her adorable pet rabbit, but doesn’t realize that she has also smuggled in a stolen painting hidden in her mother’s old suitcase. The news is full of a gang of thieves operating around London, and Caro begins to suspect they might be after the painting. Caro and her friends vow to keep the painting safe and try to return it to the rightful owners. Horace is obsessed with fashion design, and Albie can knit anything, even a rabbit hutch or a rope ladder. Together they hope to track down the thieves, but Great Aunt Mary won’t let them leave the house without adult supervision. Caro plans to run away and have her own adventures without Great Aunt Mary frowning over her shoulder. But Caro discovers that she will need the support of all her family and friends if she wants to outsmart the gang of thieves.

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Book Review: Lizard Boy 2

The Most Perfect Summer Ever by Jonathan    Hill

The Most Perfect Summer Ever (Lizard Boy #2)
by Jonathan Hill 

5 out of 5 stars

Tommy has a secret. His family are actually lizard people trying to blend in with the human world. Tommy has to wear a human skin over his green lizard face.
It’s difficult trying to fit in, but Tommy has other non-human friends who have the same struggles. One of his human friends, Dung, is a Vietnamese boy who is dealing with culture shock and trying to learn English. They bond over their differences, discovering that you don’t have to be the same species to find something in common.

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Book Review: House of Elephants

House of Elephants by Claribel A. Ortega

House of Elephants (Witchlings #3)
by Claribel A. Ortega 

2.5 out of 5 stars
Seven and Thorn are trying to find a magical cure for one of their friends who has been hexed. They begin to realize that the answers lie in the past history of all the Spares in the Twelve Towns. If they can uncover the secrets of the past, they will be able to restore the magical balance and save their friend from the hex.

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Book Review: The Dark Prophecy

The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan

The Dark Prophecy (The Trials of Apollo, #2)
by Rick Riordan

3 out of 5 stars

Zeus punishes Apollo by turning him into a mortal human. Apollo must complete various trials and serve a demigod named Meg, so that he can regain his godly status. But Meg has a complicated relationship with her stepfather, the evil emperor Nero. In this second book, they are travelling with Leo Valdez and Calypso to find the oracle of dark prophecy. Anyone who enters the dark caves will go insane when they are given a prophecy, unless they can sit in the throne of memory and expel the prophecy to regain their sanity. But the throne of memory is missing, and the caves of the oracle are heavily guarded.

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