Breadcrumbs

by Anne Ursu

Rating: ****(4 stars)
Age group: 9+
Type: fantasy.

Hazel and Jack are best friends. They do everything together, from sitting and thinking to sledding down hills. Hazel may be adopted, but Jack doesn't care. But suddenly one day, Jack gets something in his eye and starts being mean to Hazel. Mean! They've been together since they were six, and now he's ditching her for his mean friends Tyler and Bobby, who pick on Hazel. Hazel doesn't get it. She feels sad and alone. But one day, Jack isn't at school. But Tyler knows why. Jack got into a sled with a white woman inside it. The woman took Jack into the woods, to stay forever in her ice palace. Hazel has read enough fairy tales to know what happens next. It's up to her to rescue Jack and save him from the clutches of the White Witch! But the witch is tempting... and she's frozen Jack's heart, and, it seems, his memory. And the woods are full of dangerous things. Will Hazel make it? Or will Jack have his heart frozen forever?

This book is pretty good. It has a lot of fairy tale aspects and a little bit of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. The author does a good job of showing dangerous and creepy things in the woods. They are strange. I will not tell you what they are. But this is a very good book. It was summer reading. Plus it has a really nice cover!!! :)

PARENTAL SECTION
Sexual parts:no
Violence: no
Fighting: yes
Kissing/romance: no
Pregnancy: no
Stealing: no
Vandalizing: no

Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen

by Donna Gephart

Rating: *** (3 stars)
Age group: 9+
Type: realistic fiction

Olivia Bean stinks at geography. However, she watches Jeopardy! every night and usually beats at least one player. Her parents are divorced, and she lives with her mom, her mom's boyfriend Neil,  and her brother, Charlie. Her dad ran away with her best friend's mom and now they all live in California. There's this boy at her school, Tucker Thomas, who's her kind-of-friend, and he tells her about a contest to be on Jeopardy! Kids Week. Olivia just HAS to sign up. Her family is going through some financial troubles at the moment, and she is determined to win--not only for the money, but because it's filmed in CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA, which is really close to Los Angeles, where her dad lives. She gets in, but the competition is fierce... and her dad doesn't always keep his promises. Will everything work out in the end???

This book is okay. I only gave it three stars because there are some parts that are kind of strange. Like there is a time when the Internet is turned off, and there is 10 minutes to the test to get on Jeopardy! and so she has to run to Tucker Thomas's house. The author tries to make action here, and she sort of succeeds, but it's kind of strange having a climax before anything really happens. But the writing is pretty realistic, and it is nice how the chapters are each phrased as a question. And it is nice how at first Olivia doesn't like Neil at all because he is replacing her dad, but eventually she warms up to him.

PARENTAL SECTION
Sexual parts: no
Violence: no
Fighting: not that much.
Kissing/romance: maybe a little bit. Not really.
Pregnancy: no!!
Stealing: no
Vandalizing: no
**There is one part when Olivia's dad swears (the d-word) and another where he might possibly be drunk.

Once Upon a Toad

by Heather Vogel Frederick

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Age group: 10+
Type: fantasy

Catriona Starr--everybody calls her Cat--is a perfectly normal girl living in Texas, except for the fact that her mother is a divorced astronaut and is going to the International Space Station for a while and now she has to go live with her Dad in Oregon. Her stepmother, Iz, is okay, and her little brother Geoffrey may be a barf bucket but is still nice. What she really hates is her hatefully evil stepsister Olivia. But it's either them or her eccentric Great-Aunt Abyssinia, who lives in an RV.
Olivia finds new ways to be extra-mean to Cat, like making a tap dancing routine to make fun of Cat with her tap dancing group, or coming up with a nickname: Catbox. Cat seeks out Great-Aunt Abyssinia for help--and the very next day, she wakes up spitting toads every time she speaks! Not only that, but Olivia's producing diamonds and flowers!!! Oh, the unfairness!!! But before long, a man steals Geoffrey and makes the family an exchange: give him Olivia or no more Geoffrey. Cat needs to protect Olivia but also get Geoffrey back! Luckily, Great-Aunt Aby is helping... and she isn't just a senior citizen. Will they manage to save both Olivia and Geoffrey? Or will Olivia and Cat's enemy-ship mess up the whole thing?

This book has humor and serious-ness in it. Mostly it is funny because it is unfair and the author does a very good job of telling it from Cat's point of view. Olivia is really very mean, but since Cat has toads on her side, she can provide humorous revenge. There are some funny moments, like when Cat first realizes it's the talking that's making toads and she ends up with 29 toads that she has to capture and get rid of. Plus they end up going to Las Vegas!

PARENTAL SECTION
Sexual parts: no.
Violence: no
Fighting: duh! yes!
Kissing/romance: 2 people get married, thanks to Cat and Olivia's help
Pregnancy: no
Stealing: no
Vandalizing: no
***There are girls pretending to be boys, a lot of the FBI, and a man threatening to take a girl into custody. Also there is a bald Elvis, a pie waitress, a fairy godmother, and a wind instruments quartet.  

Big Nate Strikes Again

by Lincoln Peirce
Rating: **** (4 stars)
Age group: 8+
Type: Realistic fiction


Nate Wright is a great cartoonist. Unfortunately, at his school, P.S. 38, this can't help him at all. One day his most hated teacher Mrs. Godfrey gives him a school project to work on--with his know-it-all archenemy Gina!!!! They have to write an assignment on Benjamin Franklin. Also, Nate is the captain of the Fleeceball team, but he misses the choosing of the teams and forgets to tell the Coach his team name. So... Gina ends up on his team and chooses the team name for him! Now Nate is on the Kuddle Kittens with an annoying girl who is TERRIBLE at Fleeceball--and the SPOFFY trophy is at stake! Will Nate manage to win the trophy? And will he ruin Gina's spotless academic record?

This is a cool book. There are a lot of pictures. It is kind of like a graphic novel/novel. Also in the front and back they have activities like mazes and comics and a quiz and a code. Also inside the book there are a lot more comics. This book is really funny!!!! 4 stars!


PARENTAL SECTION
Sexual parts: no!!!
Violence: cartoon violence. The worst thing is that somebody gets a bloody nose by accident.
Fighting: ditto.
Kissing/romance: Nate's dad and friends keep hinting that Gina is Nate's girlfriend. Besides that, no.
Pregnancy: no!!!!
Stealing: no
Vandalizing: no
*You have nothing to worry about!!!! Really!

No More Dead Dogs

by Gordon Korman

Age group: 10+
Type: Realistic fiction
Rating: **** (4 stars)

This book is about a boy called Wallace Wallace (yes, that really is his name). He is a football star, ever since he made the winning play last year. And he always tells the truth, no matter how much trouble he will get into by doing that. His English teacher, Mr. Fogelman, gives the class an assignment to write an essay on Old Shep, My Pal and is expecting everybody to like the book only Wallace hates the book because he is completely and entirely fed up of the dog dying and he writes that in his essay. So, in Mr. Fogelman's eyes, Wallace's essay is unacceptable so he makes Wallace stay after school with the drama club to rewrite the essay. While he is doing this, he has to skip football practice which basically makes almost all the football team people hate him. The school play the drama club is doing is also Old Shep, My Pal and Mr. Fogelman is directing. But he is making it exactly like the book and secretly a lot of the cast members don't like it. So, Wallace begins helping make the play more modern and actually starts to befriend the cast. But there is somebody sabotaging the play, and it isn't Wallace--only everybody thinks it is. Will the show go on??? And what about football???
I liked this book a lot. It was very funny and there is this girl called Rachel Turner who always writes letters to Julia Roberts about her life and things and it is pretty humorous. She is in this story a lot. This book is funny because Wallace helps make the play really crazy and funny, like there is a band called the Dead Mangoes who plays music for the show and somebody drives a moped onstage and a roller-skating butterfly catcher. It alternates viewpoints. Plus this book is exciting because you want to figure out who is ruining the play.

PARENTAL SECTION
Sexual parts: no!!!!
Violence: not really.
Fighting: yes but not THAT much
Kissing/romance: Only romance.
Pregnancy: no
Stealing: yes
Vandalizing: yes
*Really this book has nothing to worry about.