Book Review: City of Fire

City of Fire by Laurence Yep

City of Fire (City Trilogy, #1)
by Laurence Yep

2 out of 5 stars

Scirye vows revenge on the dragon that killed her sister, and she is joined in her quest for revenge by Leech, whose friend was also killed, and Bayang, a dragon disguised as a human. This unlikely crew start on the trail to find the evil dragon, Badik, and they end up as stowaways on a plane to Honolulu to track him down and retrieve the priceless artifacts he stole.

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Book Review: Alkrem

Alkrem by Marta Palazzesi

Alkrem
by Marta Palazzesi, Christopher Turner (translator)

4 out of 5 stars

On his birthday Theo discovers that he was abandoned as a baby by Alkrem wizards trying to save his life from the Archemist government who imprisoned and executed all the Alkrem years before. Theo was adopted by Chimius, who raised him as an Archemist wizard in Paris. The Archemists hate the Alkrem and blame them for the constant war against Negato monsters that roam the countryside. At midnight on his birthday, Theo’s magic animal companion appears on his doorstep, confirming that he is indeed an Alkrem wizard. His animal companion is a ferocious and powerful Fire Fox, a rare animal even among Alkrem. The Archemists get wind of an Alkrem boy in the city, and Chimius is arrested after being wounded by a mysterious wizard named only the Shadow. Now Theo and his Fire Fox travel to the secret city of the Alkrem, hoping to find the only magic item that can cure Chimius’s wounds, the legendary and dangerous Alkrexa, a weapon that also has the power to heal.

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Book Review: With Wolfe in Canada

With Wolfe in Canada by G.A. Henty

With Wolfe in Canada
by G.A. Henty

4 out of 5 stars

James becomes involved with the squire’s estate when he saves a little girl, Aggie, from drowning in the ocean. The child is placed with his mother’s school for girls, and they become childhood playmates. James comes to Aggie’s defense when the squire’s nephew, Richard Horton, breaks her toy boat and pushes her down, and the squire hears about the fight between the two boys. Years later, James and Richard meet again when James is pressed on board a ship going to America. James joins the militia as a volunteer until his commission in the royal army can come through from England, and he fights in the French and Indian War, joining officers like Colonel Washington, Colonel Monro at Fort William Henry, and the famous General Wolfe who led the American troops into Canada.

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Book Review: A World without Princes

A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani

A World Without Princes (The School for Good and Evil, #2)
by  Soman Chainani (Goodreads Author), Iacopo Bruno (Illustrator)

3 out of 5 stars

Sophie and Agatha are back at the School for Good and Evil, except now the schools are divided between boys and girls. The girls want to make the boys their slaves, and the boys want to kill Sophie because they blame her for all the changes in the fairy tale world. Agatha wished that she could have Tedros as her prince, and Sophie will do anything to keep them apart. Sophie tries so hard to be good, but will her witchy evil side come out despite Agatha’s friendship?

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Book Review: The Cloud Kingdom

The Cloud Kingdom by Máire Zepf

The Cloud Kingdom
by Máire Zepf (Goodreads Author)

5 out of 5 stars

This circular collection of fairy stories is set in the framework of a girl who makes a deal with the fairies after they kidnap her cat. If they return her cat, she agrees to read them a story every week. Each story leads into the next, as the characters in the current story begin to tell another story which leads us into the next chapter, similar to the story structure of The Thousand and One Nights.

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Picture Book: Peg’s Egg

Peg's Egg by Jo Renfro

Peg’s Egg (Peg’s Adventures, 3)
by Jo Renfro

5 out of 5 stars

Peg finds an egg in the field and decides to help it to hatch. She warns off a dog. She keeps the egg warm and dry. She waits and waits for the egg to hatch. Becoming impatient, she gives the edge a little nudge and discovers that the egg is not all that it seems. She has made a very silly mistake!

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Book Review: The School for Good and Evil

The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil, #1)
by Soman Chainani (Goodreads Author),Iacopo Bruno (Illustrator)

3 out of 5 stars

Sophie and Agatha are kidnapped and taken to the School for Good and Evil where villains and princesses are trained to follow their own fairy tales. Beautiful Sophie is put in the school for evil to train as a witch, and brooding Agatha is placed in the school for good to become a princess. At first, the girls think they must have been mistakenly placed in the wrong schools, but they gradually realize that the magic can see into their innermost hearts. The girls refuse to conform to the school’s training, insisting that good and evil can be friends, but are they right? Can Sophie and Agatha continue to be friends when everything in the fairy tale world is pushing them apart?

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Book Review: The Death of a Maven

The Death of a Maven by Kathryn  Johnson

The Death of a Maven (The Haunted Farmhouse Mysteries, #1)
by Kathryn Johnson 

3 out of 5 stars

Verity’s friends gather at her farmhouse to comfort her on the anniversary of her husband’s death. When one of them is found dead the next day, the cops say suicide, but Verity thinks it must be murder. Verity and her friends begin to look into the victim’s death, determined to find some proof that she didn’t kill herself. The victim’s family asks Verity to help go through the deceased’s possessions and Verity begins reading the old journals that could contain the secret to her death. Verity discovers that her old farmhouse is also home to two ghosts who are unable to move on after hundreds of years. They watch over Verity and the dairy farm and eagerly join in the investigation.

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Book Review: Tales Before Narnia

Tales Before Narnia by Douglas A. Anderson

Tales Before Narnia: The Roots of Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction
by Douglas A. Anderson (Editor)

4 out of 5 stars

This collection of short stories and poems includes works that influenced C.S. Lewis or were direct forerunners of some of his ideas. The list includes G.K.Chesterton, George Macdonald, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Grahame, and Edith Nesbit. There are also works from some of Lewis’s fellow Inklings, friends and acquaintances, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, Roger Lancelyn Green, and William Lindsay Gresham.

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Book Review: Silver on the Tree

Silver On The Tree by Susan Cooper

Silver On The Tree (Dark is Rising #5)
by Susan Cooper

In this final book of the Dark is Rising series, Will and Bran team up with the siblings, Jane, Simon, and Barney to stop the rising of the Dark. Merriman is guiding and advising them, but he can’t foresee all the tricks and devilry of the Dark. Bran must recover the legendry crystal sword from the lost land, and use the sword to cut the silver mistletoe from the tree at the very moment of its flowering.

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