Excellent Reads

MY ROYAL STORY: CLEOPATRA By Kristiana Gregory 192 pages. Scholastic. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up). ISBN 9781407116174 Rating: 5 Stars This book tells you of the intelligent princess Cleopatra. It is about a young princess called Cleopatra. Cleopatra hates her eldest sister who is called Tryphaena and wants to be queen. When a chest arrives with a pearl necklace that Cleopatra puts on Tryphaena nearly kills her with a dagger. Cleopatra is also worried about her father who is in hiding for people are trying to kill him, and he is waiting for a chance to ask the Romans for help to fight them off. Cleopatra soon finds that her life is endangered to for she is her fathers favourite daughter and when she is swimming she finds a fake of her very own skull from Tryphaena and people being paid to kill her and her father. She then decides to go to Rome with her father but is not impressed at all at there lazy way of eating by feeding each other grapes while lying down on sofas. Cleopatra also h...

MY ROYAL STORY: EGYPTIAN PRINCESS By Vince Cross 160 pages. Scholastic. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up). ISBN 9781407116846 Rating: 4.5 Stars This is an interesting book about what it was like to be an Egyptian princess. It is about a young Egyptian princess called Hatshepsut. The Nile has not flooded for three years. When the people ask Amun what they have to do to make the Nile flood again, he answers, "Find a running girl who will prove better than all the men in each kingdom and worship her." Every one stared at Hatshepsut because she was the only girl who ran in Egypt. A few days later when she was chasing her dog she saw her vizier Shushu and another man plotting to steal into her grandfather's tomb. While running away from them, because they want to catch and kill her, she makes a new friend called Rami. What happens when she receives the throne? Can she take this challenge? Can she defeat Shushu and what happens if not? This book is set in 1490 BC. This book is set in ...

MY STORY: POMPEII by Sue Reid 176 pages. Scholastic. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up). ISBN 9781407103082 Rating: 5 Stars This book is about when Vesuvius, the great volcano, exploded. It is about a young girl called Claudia who lives in Pompeii. When she starts to feel the ground shaking she thinks that Vesuvius is going to erupt again but is told not to worry. When visiting her old best friend Aemillia she befriends a British slave called Aengus. When Aemillia's cousin Calpurnia comes over Claudia thinks she might make a good friend and forgets all about Aengus. A few days later she finds that Aengus has been sold to a gladiator and might fight from the chariot. Later she finds this is not true. What happens when the volcano erupts? Will she live through it? This book is set in 78 AD. This book is set in Claudia's house, her best friend's house and the city of Pompeii. My favourite part is the scariest part, when the volcano erupts. My favourite character is Calpurnia be...

JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN Directed by Oliver Parker. 101 minutes. Universal Pictures. (PG) See at IMDB Rating: 5 Stars WARNING: this will spoil the movie Johnny English Reborn is a sequal from Johnny English. It is about a secret agent (Johnny English) who is a really bad agent and always has a good sidekick. His sidekick is Tucker. Johnny always wants to be the more important one, so he is always is insulting his sidekick and never admits his mistakes. There are three members of Vortex in the film. there is one from C.I.A (American), one from K.G.B (Russian) and one from M.I.7 (British), who Johnny English works for. The members of Vortex get payed to kill people. The first member of Vortex, from C.I.A, is Fisher. There is a Chinese evil lady that is with them. She kills people that try to tell other people about Vortex. Fisher was telling English about Vortex so the evil lady killed him. then another bad guy comes to take the piece of the Vortex key off of Fisher's neclace so that ...

The entire school's talking about the gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck. Everyone except Kaylee Cavanaugh. After all, Kaylee's no ordinary high-school junior. She's a banshee—she screams when someone dies. But the next scream might be for Kaylee. Yeah—it's a shock to her, too. So to distract herself, Kaylee's going to save every girl in school. Because that hot new teacher is really an incubus who feeds on the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine, her boyfriend's needy ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr. Beck…before he discovers they aren't quite human, either. But Kaylee's borrowed lifeline is nearing its end. And those who care about her will do anything to save her life. Anything. If I Die is the fifth book in Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series. And it is, by far, my favorite. I don't really know how to review this book and keep it spoiler-free. But no worries...

...what it means to be a family and the many roads we can take to become one... Jill MacSweeney just wants everything to go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she's been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends--everyone who wants to support her. You can't lose one family member and simply replace him with a new one, and when her mom decides to adopt a baby, that's exactly what it feels like she's trying to do. And that's decidedly not normal. With her world crumbling around her, can Jill come to embrace a new member of the family? Mandy Kalinowski knows what it's like to grow up unwanted--to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, she knows she wants a better life for her baby. But can giving up a child be as easy as it seems? And will she ever be able to find someone to care for her, too? How to Save a Life is written in first person narrative, alternating between Jill and Mandy. Jill h...

The Laddertop - Gift to Earth's Future Twenty-five years ago, the alien Givers came to Earth. They gave the human race the greatest technology ever seen— four giant towers known as Ladders that rise 36,000 miles into space and culminate in space stations that power the entire planet. Then, for reasons unknown, the Givers disappeared. Due to the unique alien construction of the Laddertop space stations, only a skilled crew of children can perform the maintenance necessary to keep the stations up and running. Back on Earth, competition is fierce to enter Laddertop Academy. It is an honor few students will achieve. Robbi and Azure, two eleven-year-old girls who are the best of friends, are candidates for the Academy. They will become entangled in a dangerous mystery that may help them solve the riddle of the Givers...if it doesn’t destroy the Earth first! Laddertop , volume 1 is the first installment in an American manga trilogy written by Ender's Game author, Orson Scott Card, a...

“Relax. I don‟t bite...at least not in public.” With her dreams of a career by the sea shattered, Katya's trying to be happy with two weeks in the Florida Keys. But when her rental ends up infested, she's ready to go home. At least until Jay, the handyman next door, comes to her rescue. Sweet, talented & sexy, he's all she ever wanted in a man. Too bad he's only hanging out with her because he's such a nice guy. Or is he? "Forever Summer" is the fourth story I've read by Seleste deLaney. The first two were paranormal short stories, and then a steampunk novella. "Forever Summer" was the first contemporary story she has published. It is currently available at only one place: 1 Place for Romance . I really enjoyed this short story. It went back and forth between two points of view: Katya and Jay. Katya is horrified to find the rental house to be infested with bugs and the porch falling in as you walk on it. So she ends up sleeping in her ne...

Musa Publishing Launches Euterpe YA Imprint An Imprint for YA Lovers in all Genres Musa Publishing is thrilled to announce that its Young Adult Imprint, Euterpe , launches on Friday, October 21, 2011. With the growing demand for YA books, Musa is looking forward to offering diversity in genres for YA lovers from 13 to 113. From Sweet Romances and fantastical fantasies, to Sensational Sci-fi and a few more thrown in for flavor, Musa will offer something for everyone’s reading pleasure. Come out for the launch, read about the authors, and join in the fun while picking up some new reading material. The Blacksmith’s Daughter by Arley Cole is the first book in the Euterpe imprint. She believes she is only a blacksmith’s daughter, but he must discover the truth or risk losing his land—and his life. Acwellen Lex'Magen rules as liege lord of a small country bounded by forbidding mountains and powerful neighbors. When the neighboring baron, allied with a powerful wizard, attempts to take o...

Cappall Uisce Water Horse It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die. At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them. Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen . I was lucky enough to get my hands on an arc of The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. I loved her previous five novels so I had high expectations for this one. And I wasn't disappointed. Sean, the returning champion of the Scorpio Races, and his cappall uisce, Corr, return to the beach to train with new racers. Including Puck, and her horse, Dove. Puck intends to race...

MY STORY: PYRAMID OF SECRETS by Jim Eldridge 160 pages. Scholastic. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up). ISBN 9781407116563 Rating: 4 Stars This book is about what it was like to build the pyramids. It is about a twelve year old boy called Nebka who's father sadly died building the pyramids. Nebka now lives with his uncle and is sent to go with him and work on the pyramids because the river Nile has flooded. It is back breaking work to build the pyramids but Nebka doesn't feel it as much when he makes a new friend called Isesi. Sadly, when Isesi's father is drunk Isesi is trying to save him from the giant limestone and then he ends up getting squashed by one himself. Meanwhile Nebka is getting fooled by one of the prisoners who claims that the Egyptian thrown is his. What happens when Nebka agrees to help the prisoners escape? This book is set in 2517 BC. This book is set in Nebka's uncle's house and in the pyramids. My favourite part is the most adventurous part, when they ...

For fifteen-year-old Seeker, Isabelle Crowe, ridding the Houston streets of the undead is an inherited duty, passed down from her Cherokee ancestors. During her first night without her mentor, she encounters Abram, a more experienced Seeker from Chicago looking to avenge his cousin's death. Isabelle quickly learns she must work with Abram to protect her city. With one Seeker already dead, Isabelle's love of the hunt becomes a fight to survive. "Dark Beauty" is a short story prequel to the novel Dark Seeker by Taryn Browning. Isabelle is a Seeker, trained to hunt vampires. On her first night out alone, she runs into another Seeker. He's in Houston tracking something. Not vampires. Something new. Something worse. Isabelle's not too keen on this new Seeker, but agrees to work with him to destroy this new vampiric race. "Dark Beauty" was a bit too predictable for my taste. I often felt like I knew what was going to happen before it did. I didn't fee...

ROSE AND THE LOST PRINCESS by Holly Webb 272 pages. Orchard. £5.99. (Ages 7 and up). ISBN 9781408304488 Rating: 5 Stars This book is better than the first book in the series. It is about a young girl called Rose who goes from (in the first book) being a poor orphan to being a maid for the king's magician, Mr Fountain, and is now even Mr Fountain's apprentice. Later on the princess is found in the garden hidden behind a bush. However, the king knows that someone's evil magic must have gone wrong. Rose is now set a dangerous task: to guard the princess from whoever was trying to take her. What happens when Rose fails? Will the princess ever be found again? This book is set in the village, on the frozen lake, in Mr Fountain's house and of course in the palace. My favourite part is the scariest part, which is when evil Victor Hugo gives Rose a present that only by chance doesn't kill her. My favourite character is Rose because she can perform magic. I think ages s...

I AM BATMAN By Catherine Hapka. Illustrated by Adrian Barrios and Kanila Tripp. 30 pp. HarperCollins Children's Books. £2.99. (Ages 5 and up). ISBN 9780007865109 Rating: 5 Stars [INTERVIEW-STYLE REVIEW] What is this book called? I am Batman. What is this book about? Batman. Who is in the book? Batman and the Joker, other people too. What happens in the story? Batman have a car and he has a really big thing that goes really fast and he lives in a building and he have a Batman costume. And there's lots of nice people and there's the Joker. When the Joker comes someone thinks he's a clown and then kills everybody before all his smoke and makes them die. And the baddy have lots of money and the baddy took a big money bus and he hit a money bus guy and he throwing him on the road. He got a favourite piece of paper and a painting. And some person helps him. What is the best thing about the book? The good people and the Batman. And the Batman took money the Joker put. An...

I was so excited to see that Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore finally has a release date. May 1, 2012. As someone who's been waiting over two years for this book, I'm thrilled by the news. I've seen release dates announced. And I've seen those dates come and go. But this time... we have covers! So I'm going to believe that I will be able to hold this book in my hand next May. This is the US cover for Bitterblue . It fits with the previous two books in The Seven Kingdoms series. But, as with Graceling and Fire , I love the UK cover better. Who else is waiting for this book? Which cover do you like better?

ROSE By Holly Webb 272 pages. Orchard. £5.99. (Ages 7 and up). ISBN 9781408304471 Rating: 5 Stars This one of my favourite books. It is about a young girl called Rose who lives in an orphanage. Then she is suddenly taken into the work of Mr Fountain (the king's magician). She soon finds that she just might be a little bit magical herself. Meanwhile she has already saved Freddie (the magician's apprentice) from a giant smoke monster. What happens when her and Freddie's magic is put to the test? Where have all the children gone? This book is set in an orphanage, a magician's house, the evil sparrow's house and sometimes in the town where rich people go in golden carriages, normal people walk and poor beggars lie on the floor. My favourite character is Rose because she is a bit similar to me. My favourite part is when they get out of the cellar and are fighting the evil Miss Sparrow because I think that bit has the most action. I think ages seven and up should re...

Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he thought he was destined to live. I was really looking forward to reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. It looked funny, and I had read such great things about it, I was sure it would be fantastic. Also, we don't get enough male POV in YA. The main character, Junior, is a teenage boy who lives with his family on a reservation. B...