The Minstrel in the Tower by Gloria Skurzynski
Some kids in the middle ages are traveling around. They want to play a lute. Then the author talks about historical fiction at the end. It seemed to end a bit too abruptly before the full story was told. Perhaps the author cared a bit more about being educational than telling a story.
A mysterious boy from New Mexico shows up at a Texas high school and hits on a girl. This set off a stream of events that leads to a kidnapping and an understanding of the boys mental illness.
The boy had loved his half sister. He did not get along with the step father. His parents had separated. However, the step father came to his half-sister's birthday party and gave her a stuffed animal. This really upset the boy (who had given the half-sister her favorite stuffed animal.) He drove off in a huff and accidentally ran over his half sister. The boy only has one friend, a girl named Jaimie (We don't learn this backstory until the end of the book.) The boy had somehow convinced himself that his stepfather had stolen the half-sister and taken her to Texas.
The boy had enlisted the help of a girl in Texas who looked like his friend Jamie. She was to spy on her step-father and see if he had the girl. They end up finding the signs of a toddler in the father's relative. The boy is convinced this is his half sister. The girl babysits for the family and they use that opportunity to take the girl to bring her back to New Mexico. On the way, the girl becomes suspicious and tries to call the boy's family and learns some of the backstory and has someone come to help them. At the time, the boy got suspicious and went to his house in the cabin. They end up meeting out there and after some conflict, it seems to have a happy resolution, the details of which are never mentioned.
The book has believable characters and is carried out in a suspenseful way. It does seem to have some minor updates which are a bit distracting. (The boy has a cell phone, yet they still plan on watching movies on a VCR.)
I Am Both: A Vietnamese Refugee Story by Kerisa Greene
A Vietnamese family gets out of Vietnam on the last commercial flight (thanks to family airline connections.) They adapt to new life in the United States. It is very different. They even pick a new name and have to learn a new language. The girl at the center of the book realizes she is both American and Vietnamese. The book shows the positive experience that kids can have even as life poses many challenges.
A Feel Better Book for Little Tempers by Holly Brochmann and Leah Bowen, illustrated by Shirley Ng-Benitez
When kids have tempers they need to react appropriately. This book presents ways for children to let go of their tantrum so it doesn't impact them. It also shows parents reacting in similar ways. It tries too hard to be "educational" that it does not tell a good story. However, kids did like it.
Will the Pigeon Graduate? by Mo Willems
Does this release of this book signify that Mo Willem's daughter has recently graduated? Or is this just an attempt to jump on the "life events" bandwagon. The book is in the typical "pigeon" style. However, the content is different. Pigeon is not really trying to get something. Instead, he is worrying about his graduation and what will happen. At the end, he finally walks over the edge and realizes that he can fly. It is a nice metaphor for life and graduation, told in a "pigeon-style" children's book.
A Tale of Two Cities: The Audible Dickens Collection by Charles Dickens
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" is one of the great intros of all time. Beyond that, I was pretty lost. When I had to read Tale of Two Cities in high school, I could not get into it at all. I read the whole book, but nothing stuck. Trying it again now was only marginally better. There was a lot of anti-immigrant banter. It seemed the French revolution took some detours with "liberty, equality or death". A guy manages to show some mixed English, French ties and hopes to avoid the death part. There is also some romance and other bits in there. This narration was fairly unintelligible at 3.5 speed, but sounded fine around 3.2x.
Coral the Reef Fairy (The Earth Fairies #4) by Daisy Meadows
The original UK version of the series was the "green fairies", but the US is always a bit different. The girls are at a beach earth festival. They run into Coral who wants to get her wand back from the Goblins. The shrink to a small size and swimming in the ocean. They ask a Clown Fish if he has seen the goblins. The catch is that the clown fish really is a clown and can't stop telling jokes. Once they do get an answer from him, they are able to find the goblins. The goblins are playing around the reef, damaging it in the process. Tourists are also causing damage. (However, they are not so intentional and the fairies can do work to stop them.) The girls and fairy finally get the goblin to let go of the wand by pulling him to the jellyfish. Now all is well in fairyland. The does provide some information on how to care for coral, but other than that it is a fairly typical one for the series.
Magic Tree House Collection: Books 9-16 by Mary Pope Osborne
In this series of books, the kids use the treehouse to visit many past periods, primarily to gather books for Morgan Le Fay. In the process, they earn their master librarian cards. The trips include some visits to historical periods and places that are well known as well as those that are obscure. You would think that they would know a little bit more about the time periods they are exploring. There are also bits of "ghosts" that save them from some challenges. (I could do without those.)
9: Dolphins at Daybreak
They visit dolphins and communicate with them and other sea animals. (They also need to run from sharks)
They visit the wild west and meet a guy that is trying to protect his heard from horse thieves. He has a knack for writing and the kids encourage him to pursue the path. They later discover that a book they read about the period was written by him (and dedicated to them.)
They get to hang out with animals in Africa. Lions end up under their tree.
They play with polar bear cubs. Um, that does not seem like something that would be very smart. The natives of the region mention they learned a lot from the animals, but I don't think it was that way.
They visit Pompeii. They like the Roman times, but wonder why the soothsayer keeps saying the end is near. Then the realize the volcano is about to erupt and barely make it out in time. (But not before rescuing some books.
14: Day of the Dragon-King
In ancient China, the dragon king wants to destroy books (well actually "proto-books", they have not yet invented paper.) They rescue some.
In Ireland, they encounter vikings and end up sailing away in one of their ships
16: Hour of the Olympics
The kids go to the Olympics and discover that only men are allowed. The girl tries to do some trickery to get in, but ends up in trouble.
A girl living in a Middle Eastern refugee camp will not take no for an answer. She wants to do something and make the people in the camp happy. She finds that the women enjoy cooking. They start to cook and want to expand to a food truck. She must go through a lot of challenges, especially as she navigates through bureaucracy. After years of work, she finally gets the food truck launched. It is an aspiring story of persistence as well as a look at the challenges faced by refugees.
Clifford wants to help out and do good deeds. However, due to his size, most of the good deeds end up backfiring and making things worse. Finally in the end he finds some things where his big size can be helpful. The "good deeds" backfiring is something relatable, even if not in the same way as they occur with Clifford.
The magic school bus goes small to hang with the bugs and nectar as plants are pollinated and seeds produced. As a twist, they go back to Phoebe's old school and even see her old teacher. (Thus when she talks about her old school, they respond that they are there.)
Rainbow Magic Weather Fairies #4: Goldie the Sunshine Fairy by Daisy Meadows
It is getting really hot because the goblins have stolen the sunshine fairy's power. They find the goblins hanging out in the pigs mud. Eventually, the girls manage to get the sunshine power back and weather returns a little bit more to normal (and a feather appears on the rooster weather vane.) This is just an average fairy book.
One of the girl's dad has a band that sounds awful. The girls see a fairy pop out of the guitarist''s case. She is the guitar fairy and is trying to find the magical guitar that helps people play well. The Goblins have it and want to use it to win a competition. They find the goblin, but he is reluctant to give up the guitar. He is going to go to a music store to show that he is better than "Heddie Van Walen" (hmm, who is that based on.) The girls and fairy get there before him and trick him to go down an alley where the pelt him with rotten fruit. The fairy manages to get the guitar back and then clean up the mess. They go back and help make the dad band sound good. It was fun to see them sneak in a bit of pop culture reference into this fairy book. They also ran into somebody that they thought might be a goblin, but wasn't. A few "differences" from the typical book give it a slightly higher rating.
I Want a Pony (Pony Pals #1) by Jeanne Betancourt
A girl is bummed that she has to live with her grandma while her father travels abroad. She longs for the riding she used to do. She sees her neighbor has a pony and wishes she had one too. One day she sees a horse in distress and helps calm it and get the vet. After some challenges, she gets approval from the prime pony user (who is at boarding school) to take care of the pony. This makes her very happy. The story is simple, but has enough drama to keep it interesting.
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
I remember really liking this book when reading it in high school. It was one of the first "literature" books that really clicked. It gave rise to running home from school and reading a book in a tree.
Alas, I did not seem to get much out of it this time. This is a freely available book from Audible, and it just didn't mean much to me. Maybe this book is best read? There is some tale of escaping small time life, a teacher, some romance that doesn't quite work out. I must have missed the psychological exploration that attracted me before.
Naomi the Netball Fairy by Daisy Meadows
This is the British version of the book. In the US, it is Brittany the Basketball fairy. The Netball fairy is better. She has a special netball that helps people play well. The Goblins steal it and hope to win the netball championship. They are able to trick the goblins by casting a spell on the hoop so they miss their shots. Then the girl shows that she can make a few shots of their own. The goblins then take what they think is the "improved" magical netball and head back to goblin land. The bits and pieces of netball make this more interesting.
The paper book I have is a different translation than the ebook from the library one I have. Kierkegaard explores some concepts of Christianity. The Sickness Unto Death starts with the miracle of Jesus raising a person from the dead. That talks about sickness unto death. Kierkegaard then explores Christianity and despair. Death is part of our journey. However despair is a a more true "sickness unto death" that leads towards a worse end. He originally wrote this as "Anti-Climacus" Why the pseudonym? I have had this sitting around for a few decades, but felt the need to avoid it. Maybe I just needed to wait for this new translation? It seemed to be an interesting look at Christian existentialism,
Og Finds the Cog: Ready-to-Read Pre-Level 1 (Monster Og) by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Elio
A monster (or is it a cat)? try to find a missing Cog. The book uses very simple language with some nice rhyming patterns. However, the simpleness is the downfall as the story is a bit too simple to maintain interest.
Stuart Little by E. B. White
A family has a child that just happens to be a mouse. He has some challenges with his small size. He later makes friends with some of the small animals, such as a bird and has to watch out for the cat. After a bird goes missing, he goes on a quest to find her, using a mouse sized car. The book treats the fact that he is a mouse as perfectly normal. There are plenty of fun bits related to life as a small being small.
