middle grade

Book Review: Deadweather and Sunrise

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Deadweather and Sunrise by Geoff Rodkey

Deadweather and Sunrise (The Chronicles of Egg, #1)
by Geoff Rodkey

4 out of 5 stars

Thirteen-year-old Egg lives with his father, brother, and sister on Deadweather Island, where they work hard on a fruit plantation full of pirates. Egg is surprised when his father takes them on a trip to the neighboring island of Sunrise for a mysterious meeting with a lawyer. They also meet the richest man on the island, Mr. Pembroke, and his daughter Millicent. Egg promptly falls in love with Millicent, but finds himself running for his life in a series of adventures that will lead him back to Deadweather and a legendary treasure.

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Book Review: Magic’s Most Wanted

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Magic's Most Wanted by Tyler Whitesides

Magic’s Most Wanted
byTyler Whitesides

4.5 out of 5 stars

Mason is confused when he opens up an ordinary music box and his entire class and teacher are magically transported to Antarctica. Magix agents show up to arrest him for crimes involving magic, but Mason swears that he doesn’t know anything about magic.
He learns that the world is divided into Igs and Eds (people who are Ignorant or Educated about magic). The only way to access magical power is to be Educated and have the knowledge of what different magical items are capable of doing. If you are Ignorant, you could handle magical items (like a transportation music box) and be unable to use the magic within. But Mason was able to use the music box, therefore the court argues that he must be a criminal with knowledge of magic.

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Book Review: Sneaks

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Sneaks by Amy Tern

Sneaks
by Amy Tern (Goodreads Author)

1 out of 5 stars

Valory has a reputation as a thief and liar. She is rude to all the adults in her life, especially her mother’s boyfriend. She gives adults rude nicknames that she calls them behind their backs. She is well-known at her school for elaborate pranks and for stealing from the teachers. She disobeys her mother on various occasions, saying she knows she will get in trouble, but she doesn’t care.

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Book Review: The Last Ever After

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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

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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

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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: Silver on the Tree

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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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Book Review: The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane

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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: Giant Pumpkin Suite

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Giant Pumpkin Suite by Melanie Heuiser Hill

Giant Pumpkin Suite
by Melanie Heuiser Hill

4.5 out of 5 stars
Rose is a 12-year-old prodigy studying for a Bach Cello Competition, hoping to win a scholarship with a famous cello teacher. Her twin brother Thomas is helping their neighbor to grow a giant pumpkin in the backyard. As Rose becomes hyper-focused on the music competition, her teacher encourages her to pursue other interests like helping out with the gardening for the pumpkin. Rose and Thomas are very different, but they come together to research how to grow giant pumpkins. They might even have a pumpkin large enough to win a blue ribbon at the State Fair. Rose suffers a setback in her music goals, and the pumpkin becomes more important than ever.

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Book Review: The Burning Maze

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The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan

The Burning Maze (The Trials of Apollo, #3)
by Rick Riordan (Goodreads Author)

4 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 third book, they are travelling with Grover the satyr to find the oracle imprisoned in the burning maze that is part of the Labyrinth. Anyone who enters the maze will fall into fire traps, but the fire is also burning aboveground in some places and causing wildfires throughout Southern California. The dryads and other nature spirits are suffering from drought and fire, and Grover vows to help them. They enlist Jason Grace and Piper McLean to help with their quest, but Jason and Piper have their own problems.

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