Summer Reading Book Reviews

Airman by Eoin Colfer

Airman is about a young boy named Conor Broekhart.  He was literally  born to fly.  He was born in a hot air balloon and flying is his goal for life.  He lives in Great Saltee with his scientist mtoher and shooter father.  He and his love for life/best friend Isabella are always together.  As he ages, his mentor Victor teaches him about flying and educates him greatly.  King Nicholas is sponsoring Conor and Victor’s flying mission until one day when the Marshal Bonvilain murder the king and frames Victor and Conor for it.  Even Conor’s own family turns against him and Bonvilain uses the situation as bait.  He promises Declan, Conor’s dad, that if he does what he says, no one will hear of his son’s betrayal.  He goes the step further to lie that Conor is dead.  Really, he has been given the new identity of Conor Finn.  He works in diamond mines, but by befriending Otto, head of the bulls, and tricking his guard Billtoe, he at last escapes.  He becomes “The Airman” who haunts his enemies and steals diamonds to go to America, which is his plan.  (A portion of this review was deleted to prevents SPOILERS) This book is by one of my favorite authors and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was very suspenseful and I couldn’t put the book down.  It is a story of friendship and fighting for what is right.  I recommend this book for anyone who likes adventure, a good plot, and funny characters.  Airman is a fantastic story.  Review by Lucie

Summer Reading Book Reviews

The Fire Thief Fights Back by Terry Deary

This book is the third and final book in a series about a god named Prometheus.  His friends call him Theus.  He is the Greek god that gave fire to the humans.  As punishment for his crime, his cousin Zeus chained him to a rock and had an eagle called the Avenger eat Prometheus’ liver every day.  But, Hercules helped Prometheus escape and Zeus told Prometheus that the Avenger would continue to follow Theus and try to kill him, until Theus found a real human hero.  Zeus gave Theus a pair of wings that would bring him anywhere, anytime.  Theus started his search in a city called “Eden City” in the year 1858.  Theus had been to Eden City twice before this book, searching for a hero.  There was a shrine in the city called the Temple of the hero.  Both times, Theus looked for this “hero,” trying to avoid the deadly Avenger.  But those were the two other books.  Now Theus has returned, once more, to Eden City in 1785.  There he meets a boy named Sam and his mother.  In this book the time often switches from what ishappening in Ancient Greece, back to Eden City.  In Greece, the Avenger gathers monsters together and forms a group whose motto is “Monsters United, Shall Never Be Defeated.”  How wrong they were!  Anyway, the Avenger (also known as The Fury) bring several of the msot ferocious monsters to help him capture Promethus.  Back in Eden City, Sam and his mother meet Theus and Zeus, who was trying to help Prometheus.  The Avenger arrives in Eden City and plants the several monsters in their respective places.  One of the monsters kidnaps a girl to ensure that Theus comes.  Instead, Zeus and Sam arrive.  They defeat all the monsters and rescue the girl using the methods in the Greek mythology book that Sam owns.  But the Avenger isn’t finished yet.  On the way back to the city, The Avenger swoops down and grabs Sam.  He then deposits him in a maze with the Minotaur, much like Daedalus’ Labyrinth.  Theus and Sam’s mother go in, desperate to save Sam.  (This review has been cut short in order to avoid SPOILERS)  Review by Michael

Beastly by Alex Flinn

Kyle Kingsbury is spoiled rotten.  His dad is a news reporter, and teaches his son that looks are the most important thing.  So, when Kyle makes a fool of a witch, he becomes, simply, beastly.  Now, hideous, hated, turned down by his own father, Kyle has to cure his ugliness by kissing someone he loves.  But how can he even meet a girl without her screaming and running away?  This book is a really good book.  It is very suspenseful, and the interludes of IM chats from other characters, such as Silent Maid, Froggie, and Mr. Anderson, all of whom have an interesting, and familiar story to tell. Review by Liz

quotes from Nancy Farmer, author of The Ear, the Eye and the Arm

At a certain point, I ran off to Africa in search of love and adventure. I had already been in the Peace Corps in India, then come back and lived with the Hari Krishnas for a while. When I left Berkeley, I spent some time in a regular job with the highway department, training the road maintenance crew on the good bugs vs. the bad bugs -- when to spray, when not to spray. But I got promoted beyond my level of capability, from field work (which I'm good at) to administration (which I'm terrible at). I began to get pretty bored, and I wanted to run off to Africa. I was 30, had $500 in traveler's checks, and I got a ticket on a freighter going to South Africa. I had a list of entomologists there, and my grand plan was to walk to the nearest one and ask for work. At that time all you could find in the library were really old books on Africa, so I figured it was like going back in a time warp. I got to Cape Town, and of course it's very modern, extremely beautiful. I didn't really know much about apartheid, which was in full swing back then. But I did walk to the nearest entomologist and ask for work.
The first job I had was collecting Solfugit, which is an arachnid -- they're big, ugly spidery things but they're not really dangerous. There was a group of them living beside this airstrip, and my job was to go out on the airstrip and collect them, all the while looking up to see if anything was landing. (This was why it was the job nobody else wanted.) You'd see a shadow pass overhead, and then you'd run like hell for the bushes! Eventually I got offered a wonderful job in Mozambique, doing water chemistry and entomology. It was probably the best job I've ever had. And Mozambique is where I got to really know Africans and picked up a whole lot of stories. I had an insane lab technician who gave me most of the stories that ended up in The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm...
I wrote about Africa because I knew it -- I'd been living there 17 years -- and I didn't know the United States anymore. The first book I wrote while in Africa was about California hippies because that's exotic and the Africans liked that. But when I wrote it I realized I'd forgotten what it was like, and I didn't really have a feel for American language patterns any more. That was when I realized I had to write about Africa. Do You Know Me? was for little kids. The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm was the first 'big' book -- I made a thorough study of African mythology, religion and customs to make sure I got all the facts right –excerpted from Nancy Farmer’s home page http://www.nancyfarmerwebsite.com/bio.html

This month’s book: The Ear, the Eye and the Arm

This month’s book choice is The Ear, the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer.  This science fiction/fantasy book is set in the future, Zimbabwe in 2194, and involves two trios of characters: the three children of General Matsika, the country’s Chief of Security, and the three detectives the General’s wife hires to find them when they disappear on their first outing outside of the family residence.  Harare is a dangerous place full of gangs (especially The Masks) and criminals who are all too eager to get their hands on the General’s children.  The General would never have agreed to let the children' venture out on their own, if he hadn’t been tricked during his morning session with the Mellower (somehow no one can ever quite remember what the Mellower says to them during the combination praise and storytelling sessions designed to make every feel relaxed and happy).  Of course, the children disappear, the General and his wife suddenly remember the Mellower asking for passes, and, in desperation, they turn to a detective agency operated by three mutants with special talents (caused by a nuclear accident that killed and maimed many people).  The book is full of legends and history based on Shona history.  There is a glossary at the back of the book with a combination of the made-up terminology in the book, and actual Shona, Zulu, and Afrikaans words.  There is also an appendix with info on some topics covered in the book.

Summer Reading Book Reviews

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Among the Hidden is about a boy named Luke Garner who is a third child, and third children are not allowed where Luke lives.  So, Luke has to hide away and no one can know he exists.  After awhile, the Barons move in, and Luke is suspicious about one family.  One day, while the rest of the family is out, Luke sneaks over to the suspicious house.  It turns out that there is another third child in that house.  Her name is Jen.  Luke and Jen have a rough start, but after awhile they become friends.  In the end, Jen wants to have a rally for all third children to have freedom.  Luke doesn’t want to go along with a rally because he doesn’t want to get exposed, but more importantly, killed.  Jen does the rally anyway, and dies.  Luke still goes over to Jen’s house because he doesn’t know she’s dead.  Her dad catches him, and tells him Jen died.  In the very end, Luke takes a fake ID from Jen’s dad and goes to school.  Review by Katie

Soul Enchilada by David MacInnis Gill

Soul Enchilada is a book about a girl named Bug Smoot.  Her grandfather, “Papa C,” really wanted a Cadillac and he has really bad history with credit because he doesn’t pay his rent.  So he goes to the one person who never sends a man away, Scratch.  Papa C ends up selling his soul to the devil for the Cadillac, but he  needs a co-signer just in case he hides away and Scratch can’t find him.  So Papa C makes Bug sign the contract with him, and the rest of the book is about Bug fighting Beals (one of the demons that work for Scratch) to keep her soul.  But in the end Bug and Pesto (her boyfriend) banish Beals to Hell for 1000 years.  Review by Megan

Summer Reading Book Reviews

The Falconer’s Knot by Mary Hoffman 

The main character is Silvano who is a very wealthy boy. He is in love with a woman who is married to a sheep farmer. The farmer is killed and every one in the town believes that it is Silvano that killed him. So Silvano's father sends him to a friary where he has to stay until the crime is solved. When he is in the friary there is a lot of murders. Will Silvano return home? Will the murders be solved? I just gave you a preview of the book The Falconer's Knot by Mary Hoffman. I really liked this book and it is a little love but, a lot of murders, too. It is a good book and I LOVED IT. Review by Conor

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Arthur Dent thought that it was going to be just another normal Thursday –that is, until his strangely unhumanlike friend Ford Prefect told him that the Earth was going to be destroyed. Ford and Arthur are forced to hitchhike across the galaxy, and encounter strange and repulsive creatures alike. They find out the meaning of the universe, just how the Earth was created, and are even tortured by Vogan poetry, the third worst thing in the universe. A hilarious novel by Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a book that you have to read, or you’ll never din out the importance of bringing a towel with you while you hitchhike across the universe. Review by Radha

Mines of the Minotaur by Julia Golding       

I just finished Mines of the Minotaur. It was about a girl named Connie. She has friends that are mythical creatures. She loves her life, but when she is sleeping, her enemy, Kullervo, gets her to summon a storm. In the end, Connie is very hurt. Her friends must do something to keep her safe. I really liked this book. I just stayed up all night reading it! I liked how her best friend, Col, did everything to keep her safe. Review by Rachel