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.

ttyl

by Lauren Myracle (yes, that is really her name)
age group: 13+
rating: **** (4 stars)
(By the way, in case you didn't know, ttyl means talk to you later. There is a lot of texting abbreviations in this book.)

This book is written in an all texting  way so instead of actual dialogue and descriptive language it is all texting language.
This book is about 3 best friends, tough Maddie, fun Angela, and responsible Zoe. They have just started middle school and are going to stay best friends FOREVER!!! But suddenly Maddie befriends the Queen Bee Jana. She's actually ditching Angela and Zoe for Jana! Angela and Zoe are not so happy about this and soon Maddie isn't talking to them. Meanwhile, Zoe's English teacher seems like he wants to do more with Zoe than just teach her, and Zoe gets herself invited to go hot-tubbing with him. Zoe and Angela need Maddie's help, but she STILL isn't speaking to them. What will they do???
This book is actually very interesting. The texting format is interesting too. I think it is a pretty realistic account of friends and their relationships. 4 stars!

PARENTAL SECTION
Sexual parts: kind of. Not actually sex. There's a porn website where you can go hot-tubbing with a guy pretending to be Jesus.
Violence: kind of.
Fighting: oh, yes. But not physically.
Kissing/romance: yes
Pregnancy: no!!!!!
Stealing: no.
Vandalizing: no

*SPOILER ALERT!!!!!*

There is one part where a bunch of teenagers get in cars on the highway and start going the speed limit and everybody behind them is going much faster so they block up everybody and people start getting angry at them. 

There is another part where somebody gets drunk and removes her shirt and bra. 

THIS BOOK IS HIGHLY ADVISABLE

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

 by Lisa Yee
Age group: 10+
Rating: **** (4 stars)

Millicent Min is a genius. Literally! She is only 11 and already taking college level courses! But she doesn't really have any friends. Her mother signs her up for volleyball and she meets another 11 year old, Emily Ebers. Millicent and Emily become friends. But Emily doesn't know Millicent is a genius--and Millicent doesn't plan to tell. Also, Millicent is tutoring a boy, Stanford Wong, but has sworn not to tell anyone. Only, Emily finds out somebody is tutoring somebody. So... Stanford says he's tutoring Millicent! Now Millicent is, apparently, a homeschooled kid who is failing English. Can Millicent manage this relationship without anyone finding out the truth?
This book is good. It's kind of funny. Also it is very interesting looking at the mind of a genius.

PARENTAL SECTION
Sexual parts: no
Violence: no
Fighting: not physically
Kissing/romance: not really but one of Millicent's supposed friends has a boyfriend and...well... interacts with him. This only takes up about 1   1/2 pages.
Pregnancy: yes, at the end. But not in a bad way!
Stealing: no
Vandalizing: no

Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken

by Ray Friesen

Rating: ***** (5 stars)
Age group: Anyone who can read
Type: Humor/Graphic novel

This a great book!!!!!!!!!
It is really funny. It is about two frenemies, Pirate Penguin and Ninja Chicken. They are friends AND enemies. That is what frenemies means.
This book has 3 parts: Part 1 is a collection of short stories about the kind of trouble Pirate Penguin and Ninja Chicken  get into. Part 2 is a big story that actually has chapters. Part 3 is activities and the epilogue and the outroduction. 
In Part 1 the stories are short but funny, like in one of them Pirate Penguin and Ninja Chicken go into a sword shop and look at the swords and they have a pretend fight with the swords before buying them and then one of them breaks and you know... they would have to pay for it so they run away. 
In another one they order smoothies and Pirate Penguin drinks out of both and Ninja Chicken gets really mad at him and they fight. 
In Part 2, Ninja Chicken is going to a Ninja Convention so Astronaut Armadillo takes Pirate Penguin to space. Also, at the Convention, Kung Fu Koala releases a huge monster from another dimension!!!! Now Pirate Penguin and Ninja Chicken have to save the world from a huge monster!!!!
Part 3 just has funny activities like how to make nunchucks, a pirate hat, and Ninja Chicken SUPER-HARD SuDontKu. The Outroduction is really funny too!!! It is kind of like the About the Authors that people put in the backs of books. 
This book is SUPER FUNNY!!!! It is also a graphic novel! I strongly urge everybody to read this book!!!!!!!!!
PARENTAL SECTION 
Sexual parts: no
Violence: yes, but only cartoon violence
Fighting: yes, but only cartoon fighting.
Pregnancy: definitely not.
Kissing/romance: no
Stealing: no
Vandalizing: not really.
*There is one comic where Pirate Penguin thinks Ninja Chicken is a woman chicken and makes fun of him for it. But don't worry, it is not meant to be insulting to women.
*Also in a comic Pirate Penguin and Ninja Chicken break a sword and don't pay for it. That could be considered as vandalizing I guess.