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.

BOOK REVIEW

by Papa

Title: Flyte (Septimus Heap, Book Two)

Author: Angie Sage

Recommended Age: 8+

Pages: 532

Time: About 2 weeks

Rating: 8/10

Flyte is the second of the Septimus Heap series of books.  If you haven't read Magyk (the first of the series) yet, then you probably shouldn't read this review.  Magyk is really better enjoyed if you know as little as possible about the story.  Flyte continues over a year after the end of Magyk.  All of the same characters are in this book and it shows how the events of Magyk have changed all of their lives.  The story of the book takes place over just a few days where as Magyk took place over the course of months.  Flyte is incredibly action-packed.  There are chases on horseback, an encounter with a giant worm, a journey through a forest with man-eating trees, a race through ice tunnels, and a battle on a boat.  Kid A says that it's his favorite book at the moment, which is saying something.

Favorite Thing: After the story ends, there's a section on a bunch of characters saying what happened to them before the story took place.  It really adds a nice touch to the book.

Least Favorite Thing: The pictures bothered me again in this book.  Not only were the same images used in multiple scenes, but I just didn't imagine the characters looking like they did in the drawings.

Questionable Material for Kids: Again, there's good versus evil, and the evil characters are pretty nasty.

BOOK REVIEW

by Papa

Title: Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book One)

Author: Angie Sage

Recommended Age: 8+

Pages: 564

Time: About 2 weeks

Rating: 8/10

Magyk is the first of the Septimus Heap series of books.  I had no idea what the book was about before I read it and I think the less you know about it, the better.  So, I won't go into much about the book except that it's a fantasy that includes witches, wizards, magical creatures, and royalty.

Favorite Thing: I don't want to spoil anything if you haven't read the book.

Least Favorite Thing: There are drawings at the beginning of every chapter, but a lot of the drawings are used more than once.  I guess I'm just used to Harry Potter where each chapter gets its own unique artwork.

Questionable Material for Kids: The book mentions characters who either die or are dead.  It's fairly light-hearted most of the time, but it deserves mentioning.

BOOK REVIEW

by Papa

Title: Dragon Rider

Author: Cornelia Funke

Recommended Age: 6-8

Pages: 523

Read-Aloud Time: About 2 months

Rating: 3/10

Dragon Rider is a story set in the modern world about a dragon who needs to find a new place for his species to live.  He leaves his home with a creature called a brownie and gradually picks up a cast of characters along the way to help him in his quest.  A boy named Ben becomes his most crucial companion to make his journey successful.  There's a villain, however, who wants to hunt all the dragons, and he has many helpers himself.

Dragon Rider just never really had me anxious to find out what would happen, as any book should.  The characters just didn't seem very likable.  Personally, I just can't get past books with talking animals.  If it were just the magical creatures that did the talking, it might not have been that bad, but there were talking mice and they talked to Ben and he didn't seem very surprised about it.  In the span of a few weeks, this boy comes in contact with a dragon, a brownie, a homunculus, a dwarf, a basilisk, a djinn, a sea serpent, and faeries and he seems to take it perfectly in stride.  The book tries to explain it by saying that magical creatures attract other magical creatures, but I just thought it was forced.

Favorite Thing: The one running joke in the book is that a someone can't get the word "homunculus" right and they wind of saying all sorts of different variations.

Least Favorite Thing: Talking mice.

Questionable Material for Kids: The book is pretty tame, but I don't like the fact that characters said "Shut up!" even the villain.  We never say that around our household and instead, I would read it as "Quiet!"