Book Review: Charlie Bone and the Hidden King

Charlie Bone and the Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo

Charlie Bone and the Hidden King (Children of the Red King, #5)
by Jenny Nimmo

5 out of 5 stars

Charlie is dismayed to see that the Shadow in the Red King’s portrait has escaped from the frame. The Shadow is actually a powerful dark sorcerer who is putting the whole city under his spell. Charlie’s mother is a target, and Charlie must discover how the Shadow escaped and find a way to defeat or control him. A magical mirror has been stolen, and Charlie hopes that it could help him find his father, but first he must find the Red King and beg for his help.

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Book Review: Ghost Abbey

Ghost Abbey by Robert Westall

Ghost Abbey
by Robert Westall

4 out of 5 stars

Maggi is delighted when her father takes a job restoring an old abbey in the country. The family, including her two little twin brothers, move into the habitable parts of the mansion, along with Miss MacFarlane, the secretary overseeing the restoration of the abbey. Maggi cleans out the bedrooms and sets up the kitchen, since she has been used to doing all the housekeeping since her mother’s death. But there are many mysterious things happening around the abbey, and Maggi starts to wonder if the house itself is sentient. An ethereal voice sings in the garden, bells ring to call servants that are long dead, and Maggi sees a vision of a man from history. Could the house be trying to protect itself from intruders, or is the house welcoming them and asking for help?

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Book Review: George Goodwin Dragon Slayer

George Goodwin, Dragon Slayer by Candace Lee

George Goodwin, Dragon Slayer: A Scouting Legend (Order of the Dragon Slayer)
by Candace Lee, Eric Newman, Bear Grylls (Foreword)

George is determined to prove that there are diamonds in the old coal mine just as his father declared before his death down in the mine. George explores the mines looking for proof, and his Boy Scout friends follow him, but they all get into trouble when they realize that an ancient dragon has been awakened in the depths of the caves. They encounter a mysterious man who claims to have knowledge of dragons and the weapons to kill them. They will need all their Scouting survival training to escape the mines with a dragon hunting them.

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Book Review: The Last Ever After

The Last Ever After by Soman Chainani

The Last Ever After (The School for Good and Evil, #3)
by Soman Chainani

Sophie and Agatha seem to have found their happy endings, but they are both dissatisfied with their results, and the truth is… they miss each other. How can they find a happy ending when they are apart? Agatha and Tedros fight their way back into the School for Good and Evil, hoping to rescue Sophie and find a new happy ending together, but Sophie has other plans with the evil Schoolmaster.

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Book Review: The Colossus Rises

The Colossus Rises by Peter Lerangis

The Colossus Rises (Seven Wonders, #1)
by Peter Lerangis, Torstein Norstrand (Illustrator), Mike Reagan (Illustrator)

3 out of 5 stars

Jack is kidnapped by a secret institution of doctors and scientists that claim he has a rare genetic marker from the heirs of Atlantis royalty. This genetic anomaly will kill him within a year if he doesn’t get special treatments, and in return the institution asks that he help a team of other teens with the gene to track down powerful artifacts from Atlantis hidden around the world. But Jack doesn’t know who to trust. Are the doctors telling the truth, or just manipulating him and the other teens so they are forced to hunt for the artifacts and unlock their power?

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Book Review: Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy

Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy by Jenny Nimmo

Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy (The Children of the Red King, #3)
by Jenny Nimmo

5 out of 5 stars

Charlie encounters an invisible boy, Ollie, and gets his friends to help figure out a way to rescue him from the dark attics of Bloor Academy. Ollie was made invisible by a magic blue boa snake, and imprisoned in the attics by the evil headmaster of the school. Meanwhile, Belle, a mysterious and beautiful new girl, has arrived at school. She seems to be very chummy with Charlie’s mean aunts, so Charlie knows she must be up to something evil. Charlie’s Uncle Paton leaves on a mysterious journey to “stop someone from coming”, but Charlie thinks that perhaps that someone is already among them.

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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: Charlie Bone and the Time Twister

Charlie Bone and the Time Twister by Jenny Nimmo

Charlie Bone and the Time Twister (The Children of the Red King, #2)
by Jenny Nimmo

5 out of 5 stars

Henry has been magically thrown forward in time from 1916, and the evil Bloor family want their revenge on him. Charlie Bone and his friends have to find a way to return Henry to his own time, or at least get Henry away from the Bloors.

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Book Review: The Ring of Five

The Ring of Five by Eoin McNamee

The Ring of Five
by Eoin McNamee

3 out of 5 stars

Danny ends up at Wilsons Academy, a school for spies in another Lower World. They work to stop an army of Cherbs from invading the Upper World of humans. Danny makes friends among the spy cadets of the academy. Les is a thief with wings. Dixie can teleport anywhere she can see her way through. And Vandra has special healing powers. Together they learn all the skills they need to spy on the evil Ring of Five who control the Cherb army, but the most essential skill for any spy is the art of betrayal.

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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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