books

Three Book Reviews from Nosy Crow

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Princess Minna by Kirsty Applebaum

Princess Minna: The Giant Beanstalk
by Kirsty Applebaum (Goodreads Author),Sahar Haghgoo (Illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

Princess Minna is called to defend the town from a giant who keeps stealing noisy animals. Princess Minna follows the giant up the beanstalk and brings the animals back, but the giant just keeps stealing more noisy animals, looking for an animal that can sing beautifully. Princess Minna will have to be very clever and kind if she can find a solution and help the giant!

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Picture Book Review: The Book Machine

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The Book Machine by Laurie Duersch

The Book Machine: A Story About the Magic of Books
by Laurie Duersch (Goodreads Author), Susanna Covelli

5 out of 5 stars

A little boy doesn’t have enough books, even though he has whole stacks of books to read. So he builds a Book Machine to create new books. He puts together all kinds of doodads and thingamabobs into a big elaborate machine and waits for it to spit out some books. But the machine doesn’t work! He will have to rely on a very different kind of machine to have the imagination to create new stories!

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Book Review: Dear Jane Austen

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Dear Jane Austen by Patrice Hannon

Dear Jane Austen: A Heroine’s Guide to Life and Love
by Patrice Hannon

1 out of 5 stars

The author gives advice through Jane Austen’s voice in a “Dear Abbey” style, answering letters from modern women who want to have a happy ending like the heroines in Austen’s books. Jane Austen is sitting at home and receives letters from the future. She sits down at her little writing desk to answer the letters, but is sometimes interrupted by her family and nieces visiting and commenting on the letters as well.

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Book Review: City of Dreaming Books

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The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers

The City of Dreaming Books (Zamonien, #4)
by Walter Moers, J. Maxwell Brownjohn (Translator)

Optimus Yarnspinner is a dinosaur who has inherited a mysterious manuscript of surpassing genius, but he can’t find the author! He travels to Bookholm, the center of all literature and publishing, hoping to solve the mystery and find the author. Everyone in Bookholm is completely obsessed with books, and the dangerous Book Hunters explore the catacombs beneath the city, looking for rare books that have been lost for centuries. Optimus meets many different types of creatures, including an Uggly hag who can tell the future and a Nocturnomath with three brains. The mystery leads Optimus into the deadly catacombs where he runs from Harpyrs, Sphinxxxxes, massive spider creatures, cyclopean Booklings, and ferocious sentient books, in addition to the Book Hunters, who will murder anyone who gets in their way. But the most dangerous of all is the Shadow King, who rules over the dark catacombs.

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Book Review: A Crystal of Time

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School For Good And Evil #5 - A Crystal Of Time by Soman Chainani

School For Good And Evil #5 – A Crystal Of Time
by Soman Chainani

Agatha and Tedros are on the run. A false king has seized the throne of Camelot, lying to the people and claiming to be King Arthur’s true son. Sophie is caught between them, trying to find out the truth and balance her loyalty to her friends and to her new love. Agatha uses Dovey’s crystal ball to investigate the past and find who the false king really is.

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Book Review: The Worm Ouroboros

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The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison

The Worm Ouroboros (Dover Literature: Science Fiction/Fantasy)
by E.R. Eddison

2.5 out of 5 stars


The lords of Demonland go to war against the necromancer King of Witchland. The Witch King uses dark magic to carry off one of the Demon lords, Goldry Bluszco, and his brothers vow to find him. Lord Juss and Brandoch Daha travel past the inhospitable Impland to the dangerous mountains, searching for Goldry, while Lord Spitfire continues the war against Witchland at home. They fight manticores, search for a hippogriff egg, and face ghostly apparitions and enchantments in their search through the mountains to find Goldry. Several magical ladies and queens assist them in their quest, but the war is not going well for Lord Spitfire back in Demonland.
Lord Gro is a traitor from Goblinland who has joined the Witchland court and is counselling the Witch King and other Witch generals in the war. He plays against both sides, always with his own agenda to latch onto any high official and play puppet master.

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Book Review: Beowulf

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Beowulf by Talbot E. Donaldson

Beowulf: A Prose Translation
by Talbot E. Donaldson

4 out of 5 stars

Beowulf hears of a murderous monster that is attacking Hrothgar’s kingdom, so he journeys across the sea to aid the mighty king. Beowulf refuses to use a sword against the terrible monster Grendel, choosing instead to trust in his own great strength in hand-to-hand combat. He beats Grendel and tears off the monster’s arm. Grendel flees, but bleeds to death elsewhere. Grendel’s mother swears revenge against them, and attacks the next night, killing Hrothgar’s best counselor. Beowulf pursues Grendel’s mother to her underwater lair, and finds an ancient giant’s sword in the caves beneath the lake. He uses the sword to kill her, but the sword melts from the heat of her monster blood. Beowulf cuts off Grendel’s head and returns with it to Hrothgar’s court to show the proof of the monster’s death. After receiving many beautiful and costly gifts in recognition of his great deeds, Beowulf returns to his own land across the sea.

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Book Review: America’s Founding Myths

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America's Founding Myths...And What REALLY Happened by Christy Mihaly

America’s Founding Myths…And What REALLY Happened
by Christy Mihaly (Goodreads Author), Marta Sevilla (Illustrator)

This book examines myths that some people believe about American history and tries to set the record straight. Unfortunately, it fails miserably.

The topics include the New World being discovered by Christopher Columbus, Pocahontas and John Smith, the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, Paul Revere’s ride, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and women and Native Americans and Black Americans fighting in the Revolutionary War.

This book has so many problems. The text is clearly trying to undermine American history and deconstruct American heritage. The author uses half-truths to reframe history and misrepresent what happened.

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Book Review: Looking for the King

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Looking for the King by David C. Downing

Looking for the King (Inklings, #1)
by David C. Downing (Goodreads Author)

4.5 out of 5 stars
Tom McCord is an American visiting Oxford just before the outbreak of World War II. He is searching for evidence of a real historical King Arthur, and writing a guidebook to all the Arthurian sites in England and Wales. He meets Laura, who has been having mysterious dreams that seem to point to the legend of the Spear of Destiny, which pierced the side of Christ on the cross.
As they search for King Arthur, they also begin looking for clues that the Spear could be hidden somewhere in England. Unfortunately, someone else is looking for the Spear with evil intentions, and mysterious figures harass and spy on Tom and Laura at every turn.
A lecture from Charles Williams convinces Laura that her dreams are true visions of the past. Tom and Laura enlist J.R.R. Tolkien to help them uncover the secrets of the Spear. Tom talks with C.S. Lewis about the spiritual context behind the history, and finds that his search for antiquity is really a journey within his own soul.

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Book Review: Quests for Glory

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Quests for Glory by Soman Chainani

Quests for Glory (The School for Good and Evil: The Camelot Years #1)
by Soman Chainani

3 out of 5 stars

Agatha and Tedros thought they had found their happy ending in Camelot, but things start to go wrong in the kingdom and all over the forest. All their friends are on quests that are failing, and Sophie is at the school, blissfully unaware of the disasters that are threatening them all. Tedros is completely embarrassed at his coronation and the people start to lose faith in him. A new villain calling himself the Snake vows to steal the crown of Camelot from Tedros, claiming to be Arthur’s eldest son. With all their quests failing, Sophie and Agatha will have to renew their close friendship if they want to save Camelot and the school.

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