Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
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| Author: | Kathleen Duey |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2007 |
Okay, I picked this book off the shelf because I thought it was funny to name a book "skin hunger". You can't really judge a book by its name.
The book is not about people eating each other, but two separate story-lines. One is about a girl named Sadima who can hear the thoughts of animals. The other is about a boy named Hahp sent to a gruesome magical academy. The only thing the plots share in common is a man named Somas, who owns Sadima's kind-of boyfriend, and lets Hahp's friends die of starvation.
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Not exactly a happy book, (actually pretty gruesome at points), but interesting. The end is not very satisfying. I guess they're trying to get me to read the next one. But it does discuss what a friend is worth, and how to gain one when desperately needed.
Definitely for readers age 13 and older!!! People starve to death, some suggestive moments.
-- Fizzy, age 14 |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Skin Hunger (A Resurrection of Magic, Book 1) |
Tags:book review, Gifted
Posted in Conceptual level, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Dickensian, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Monday, July 6th, 2009
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| Author: | Lynne Ewing |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | Science fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2000 |
Very quick.
Unrealistic and puts the "high-school-girls-should-just-go-around-trying-to-get-a-boyfriend" spin on life. It's about this girl named Jennifer who discovers that she can turn invisible because she is a goddess.
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Not deep, but kinda fun and cute... maybe took me two or three hours to read.
--Fizzy, age 14 |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Goddess of The Night (Daughters of the Moon, Book 1) |
Tags:book review, Gifted, high school
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
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| Author: | Terry Pratchett |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
As usual with Pratchett, this book is witty, often downright, funny, but it also has to do with real life problems.
The plot follows a girl who wants (and is destined) to be a wizard, but is not allowed to be because she is a girl. Wizarding is OBVIOUSLY only for boys. But as little kids do, she doesn't really understand the situation and so proves that she CAN be whatever she wants. |
Loved it.
-- Fizzy, age 14
Note: This novel is in Pratchett's Discworld series, which is not calibrated for young adult readers. |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Equal Rites (Discworld #3) |
Tags:academia, book review, feminism, feminist literature, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, women in academia
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
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| Author: | Rick Riordan |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
A great ending to a great series, which is about a kid named Percy who discovers he's the son of Poseidon (the ancient Greek sea god) and that all of the "mythology" he learned in school is real.
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In this book, Percy must fulfill a prophecy and save the world... no big deal. Anyway, very fun. Definitely a stay up to finish the last page book (I actually stayed up late to start it, then stayed up even later to finish it.)
I like how in the end, the world goes on: it's not just "and they all lived happily ..."
--Fizzy, age 14
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Last Olympian, The (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 5) |
Tags:book review, Greek mythology, Percy Jackson
Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Fiction, Gifted, History, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Friday, June 26th, 2009
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| Author: | Natalie Babbitt |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
This is a beautifully written book about a family of people who never age and never die.
From the perspective of 10-year-old Winnie, Babbitt shows us many details rich with color and motion that Winnie notices at first only through the bars of her fence. As she strays out of her yard for the first time, she comes to know the Tucks, who enchant her (as well as us).
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I LOVE this book, and recommend it to anyone, of any age! Although it is rather sad, it has a very satisfying ending. (Even though I wish the story went on and on.)
-- Fizzy |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Tuck Everlasting |
Tags:fountain of youth, immortality
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Death is a central theme, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
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| Author: | Jeanne Duprau |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2006 |
Very preachy and had a LOT of people blindly following orders, which bothered me. The book was written as if the reader was like five, which also bothered me. |
The two books in the series before this were also very easy reads, but at least had interesting plots and you didn't know exactly what was going to happen... However, the ending was satisfying, and the two prequels are pretty good.
--Fizzy, age 14 |
| Similar books |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Prophet of Yonwood, The (Books of Ember) |
Posted in Animals, Conceptual: 8 and up, Female protagonist, Fiction, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
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| Author: | Terry Pratchett |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
Really cool book about a conspiracy to kill the Hogfather, who is like Santa Claus in Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
Death's granddaughter Susan, along with a toothfairy and the oh-god of hangovers have to save the world.
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The book is great because the people and places are almost like our own, but with a bit of a twist.
-- Fizzy, age 14
Note: This novel is in Pratchett's Discworld series, which is not calibrated for young adult readers. |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Hogfather |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
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| Author: | Shannon Hale |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction, science fiction |
This book is based on the Grimm's fairy tale about a princess who was betrayed by her maid and forced to be a goose girl. In the fairy tale, in the end the maid gets killed in a coffin filled with nails as revenge... I don't know why, but i expected the author to write an alternate ending to this story.
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That all sounds very negative, but i did like this book, because it told the story of someone who was not good around people (she needed to "step up") but ended up rallying many sad people together to save all their lives.
--Fizzy, age 14
Note: As might be gathered from the description of the original fairy tale, the plot of this story involves death, humiliation, and great suffering on the part of the protagonist and her friends. |
| Similar books |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Goose Girl, The |
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Dickensian, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Monday, May 4th, 2009
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| Author: | Robin McKinley |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2007 |
This book was very slow for a long time in the beginning, but good. It is from the perspective of a teenage boy who lives in our world, which, it seems, has dragons in it. A protected species, of course. I know that sounds very cheezy, but it is well put together, and a fun, quick read (except the beginning).
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Jake finds a dragonlet and then, all of a sudden, the novel gets interesting when it is up to Jake to save Smokehill Dragonhaven Natural Park...
--Fizzy, age 14 |
| Similar books |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Dragonhaven |
Tags:dragon, dragons, endangered species, protected species
Posted in Animals, Child-raising, Conceptual: 8 and up, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
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| Author: | Diana Wynne Jones |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1999 |
We here are huge fans of Diana Wynne Jones.
We admire the magical worlds she creates and her characters -- human, wizard, and fantastical -- captivate us. We find the plots of her stories unpredictable but plausible, at least in the magical environments in which they take place. One of the coolest things about her stories is that although the plot of each of her novels is really unique, characters and laws of magic overlap in intriguing ways in the many worlds described in her many stories.
We enjoyed reading Deep Secret, mostly because we became interested in Nick Mallory, who is a protagonist in another of Jones' many novels, The Merlin Conspiracy. However, it is not one of our favorite Diana Wynne Jones books.
For one thing, Deep Secret seems to mostly target adults, perhaps because it seems to be Diana Wynne Jones' tribute to science fiction conventions. The plot -- regarding a Magid (a powerful wizard whose undercover job is to keep magic under control in some sector of the multiverse) in search of a student -- is certainly compelling for certain young readers. But Jones unnecessarily throws in words (such as "orgy") that young readers are likely to ask their parents about.
Anyway, Nick is a nice, seemingly ordinary teenage boy with a witch (in all senses of that word) for a mother and a touching relationship with his ne'er-do-well cousin Maree. When my daughter and I first "met" him in The Merlin Conspiracy, he was looking for someone to train him to control his wizardly gifts. In Deep Secret, Nick seems not to be consciously aware that he needs training.
We enjoyed learning more about Nick and Maree and the Magid Rupert Venables and many magical creatures, including some fascinating centaurs and phantasmagorical chicks, but might not have found ourselves so riveted if we were not already familiar with many other stories in the Diana Wynne Jones opus.
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This might be a good read-aloud for older readers. It was fairly easy for me to just omit the few paragraphs that alluded to activities at science fiction conventions that would not be appropriate for young people. |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Deep Secret |
Posted in Child-raising, Computers in society, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Dealing with bullies, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
