BOOK REVIEW

by Papa

Title: Peter and the Secret of Rundoon

Authors: Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Recommended Age: 8+

Pages: 482

Read-Aloud Time: 6 weeks

Rating: 7/10

This is the last book in the Peter Pan series.  Mollusk Island is under attack and Peter is trying to help the Mollusk tribe defend themselves.  At the same time, Lord Ombra is back and he's working with King Zarboff the Third of Rundoon.  They decide that Peter is important for their plans and they want to bring him to Rundoon.  Lord Aster, Molly, and George also return to help Peter and thwart the Others once again.

Peter and the Secret of Rundoon is a good addition to the series.  It finishes up all the loose ends that it had to lead to the original Peter Pan story.  I thought it tied up all the loose ends a little to tightly, actually.  Anyway, it's an action-packed adventure with a few different conflicts in a few different settings.  There's some weirdness, I thought, with the addition of certain technologies and with the Scorpion tribe being so brutal.

Favorite Thing: I really liked the name of King Zarboff's snake, Kundalini.

Least Favorite Thing: I think the book could have done without the attack on Mollusk Island.  The chapters that transported me back to the island from Rundoon seemed like a distraction.

Questionable Material for Kids:  The Scorpion tribe is not a nice tribe.  They attack the Mollusks and they do bad things to them - things that are realistic, but are probably not suitable for anyone under 8.  Also, Kundalini is a hungry snake.  That's all I'll say about that.

BOOK REVIEW

by Papa

Title: Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest

Author: Ann McGovern

Recommended Age: 8+

Pages: 128

Read-Aloud Time: 2 weeks

Rating: 6/10

This version of Robin Hood contains ten stories featuring Robin and his merry men.  The first few stories are how Robin started out a few are about recruiting his men such as Little John and Friar Tuck.  There's also the tale of how he gets on the bad side of the Sheriff of Nottingham.  Even though the stories can be told all individually, they all flow together quite nicely if you're reading it from one to the next.  It does get a little tiring hearing of just how awesome Robin is at everything.  

Favorite Thing: You can't really go wrong with Robin Hood, but I always like the way that he outwits his foes rather than just taking them by brute force.

Least Favorite Thing: The cover of the book has a nice image of Robin and some of the merry men.  The inside, however, has some sketches that don't match.

Questionable Material for Kids:  There's nothing that's not suitable, but the language is old English so it can be confusing for kids to listen to.

BOOK REVIEW

by Papa

Title: The Winter Room

Author: Gary Paulsen

Recommended Age: 10-12

Pages: 103

Read-Aloud Time: 2 weeks

Rating: 4/10

Eldon and his brother Wayne are growing up on a farm in the Midwest.  Their family is pretty self-sufficient but they have two "Uncles" who stay with them.  One of their uncles is Uncle David.  He's very old and every night, in the living room (which they call the Winter Room) he tells stories to entertain the family.  The book takes place over the course of a year going through the regular ins and outs of the farm.  In the end, Uncle David reveals something in a story that the brothers won't ever forget. 

Favorite Thing: Nothing really stood out for me in this book.  The stories that Uncle David told were okay, but they certainly wouldn't have kept me entertained at a young age.

Least Favorite Thing: Nothing stood out as particularly unfavorable either.  The book just kind of meandered around and documented what life on a farm is like.

Questionable Material for Kids:  The chapter called "Fall" is a bit graphic.  Life on a farm includes dealing with the livestock and this chapter goes into it with many details that might be questionable for kids.

BOOK REVIEW
by Papa

Title: Peter and the Shadow Thieves

Authors: Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Recommended Age: 8+

Pages: 556

Read-Aloud Time: 6 weeks

Rating: 8/10

Peter and the Shadow Thieves is the sequel to Peter and the Starcatchers. It picks up less than a year after the first book with Peter and the Lost Boys on Mollusk Island. Peter must leave the island to help his number one girl, Molly Aster, who lives in London. Molly and her family are in danger because a mysterious villain called Lord Ombra is after them. Peter, along with Tinkerbell, encounter several adventures just to find Molly and even more adventures after.

Like the other Neverland books, the book switches between points of view. You follow Peter for a chapter, then the pirates - led by Captain Hook, then the Others who are after Molly, and then Molly who is trying to stay safe. It uses these switches to build the suspense and pace the story out. It does a good job doing this, but there was a branch of the story that Kid A and I didn't much care for. The boys back on Mollusk Island find themselves in some trouble and the book occasionally switches to their story. It seemed too far removed from the action.

Favorite Thing: Tinkerbell was quite the character in this book. She would speak malevolently about Molly and Peter would have to mis-translate what she said so that Molly wouldn't get upset.

Least Favorite Thing: Because the book switches between so many different groups of characters, there are some really short chapters. Several chapters were only one page. I think I'd like it better if there was just a page gap between.

Questionable Material for Kids: There are some really mean people in this book - mainly in London. They do some nasty things. Also, Lord Ombra is a pretty scary villain.

BOOK REVIEW
by Papa

Title: Physik (Septimus Heap, Book Three)

Authors: Angie Sage

Recommended Age: 8+

Pages:

Read-Aloud Time: 4 weeks

Rating: 6/10

In this third installment to the Septimus Heap series, Septimus gets kidnapped into a time period 500 years earlier by a famous Physik master, Marcellus Pye. For much of the book, Jenna, Nicko, Spit Fyre and a new character named Snorri, try to find him. Meanwhile, an evil queen ghost causes all kinds of trouble in the present time.

Septimus isn't in a lot of the book once he disappears, which is fairly early on. The book mainly follows the present day group on their search. I wasn't as hooked on this book as the previous two. First of all, I wasn't really worried about what would happen to Septimus. I knew that he'd come back since he's the main character of the series. Second, the small part that took place in the 500 years ago era was pretty cool and I would have liked to spend more time there. And third, I think I read this book too closely to the first two. I didn't have to wait a long time to continue their story.

Favorite Thing: Snorri Snorrelson is a really good character. She's mysterious and simple at the same time and I wanted to find out more about her.

Least Favorite Thing: I don't think there was any one thing I could dislike in this book. It just sort of dragged on in the middle and it felt like more of a chore to get to the end compared to the first two.

Questionable Material for Kids: There are ghosts in all the Septimus Heap books, but they seemed to play a more prominent role in this one. Most of the ghosts aren't in the least bit scary, but there is one who might be.

BOOK REVIEW

by Papa

Title: The Cave of the Dark Wind (A Never Land Book)

Authors: Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Recommended Age: 8-12

Pages: 166

Read-Aloud Time: 5 days

Rating: 7/10

Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson wrote Peter and the Starcatchers and then the sequel, Peter and the Shadow Thieves. Then, they went back and wrote some episodes that happen on Mollusk Island while Peter is away. The Cave of the Dark Wind is, I think the first of these, but it's hard to tell what the order is that you should read them. Escape from the Carnivale is also just called "A Never Land Book" while Blood Tide is called "Never Land - Book 3". Anyway, maybe it doesn't matter so much. In Cave of the Dark Wind, the Lost Boys and a couple of girls from the Mollusk tribe set out to discover the secret of a mysterious cave. When they stumble upon some treasure, and Captain Hook finds out, the pirates jump on board to follow them.

The story flip-flops between the children and the pirates and does a good job with suspense, just like with Peter and the Starcatchers. It's quite a fast-read, so if you're looking for a short one after a long book, then this might be the book you're looking for.

Favorite Thing: I really liked the multiple stories interwoven with this book. They were well-told and they made you want to find out more.

Least Favorite Thing: It's not really that bad, but I got a little tired of the boys vs. girls thing going on with the children. The boys are always made out to be more reckless and the girls are always made out to be smarter.

Questionable Material for Kids: There are some scenes with human bones and goat blood, but it's not really gory at all.

BOOK REVIEW

by Papa

Title: The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman

Recommended Age: 8+

Pages: 307

Time: About 10 days

Rating: 8/10

Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite graphic novelists.  His Sandman series is truly a masterpiece as many people will agree - even those who don't ordinarily read comic books.  He started writing novels several years ago and I admit that I thought he was better at graphic novels until Stardust, which is one of my favorite books.  Now, with The Graveyard Book, I think he captured a younger crowd with a great story and beautiful writing.  The story is about a toddler boy who loses his family and winds up being raised in a graveyard by ghosts and a mysterious being named Silas.  His family was murdered and he is renamed Nobody Owens to hide from the killer who is still on the loose.  Nobody, or "Bod" for short, must learn everything about life from a community that isn't alive.

The Graveyard Book starts off incredibly dark.  Then, it kind of starts over and goes slowly reaching a perfect climax toward the end.  I thought the pacing of the book was really well done.  The characters are interesting - especially Silas - and the setting of the graveyard makes for unusual, and often humorous, scenes.

Favorite Thing: In Chapter Six "Nobody Owens' School Days" Nobody learns that his family was murdered and he says that the question shouldn't be who will keep him safe from the murderer, it's who will keep the murderer safe from him.

Least Favorite Thing: I think the last chapter was a little abrupt and I guess I wanted a little more.  I can't say much more than that.

Questionable Material for Kids: The first chapter is quite dark and I could see it being scary.