Expedition

Expedition: being an account in words and artwork of the 2358 A. D. voyage to Darwin IV. That's the title, because I'm not sure you can read it in the tiny font on the picture.
Anyways, Expedition probably has the coolest alien world I've ever seen. That includes Snaiad, and you know how know how much I love OH WAIT YOU DON'T BECAUSE RAMJET STILL HASN'T MADE A SNAIAD BOOK.
Ahem.
Expedition probably has the coolest alien world I've ever seen. It's called Darwin IV (that's a four) and is a self-consistent planet with an odd ecology and a big ol' map. It's unique among alien worlds in that it doesn't try super hard to make the aliens look weird, they just kinda end up that way.
The story is about the author, Wayne Barlowe, who lives in the dying Earth of the 2300s. Most life on earth is dead, and humans have only survived because of their partnership with the Yma, a friendly alien race.
After receiving a mysterious picture of what appears to be an alien from the faster-than-light satellite on Darwin IV, the Yma and the humans prepare an expedition to the planet. The Yma choose Wayne Barlowe as one of the candidates for the expedition, because of his skill at drawing extinct Earth wildlife.
Barlowe is the artist of the crew. That's nice, because the reader isn't bogged down by the biology and geology of Darwin IV, and can just sit back and read Barlowe's stories about encountering these odd creatures.
The book is in six parts, each with a biome of sorts: Grasslands and Plains, Forest and Periphery, Amoebic Sea and Littoral Zone, Mountains, Tundra, and Air. Each of these sections as a few stories about Barlowe's adventures. Most of these adventures involve large wildlife and strange adaptations, and all are SUPER COOL.
I'm not really sure what else to say. Look, if you like what you heard so far, then read the book. It is super expensive, but I think it's worth it. This book. Is good.

Lawless

Lawless is a fun book. It's about a girl known only as M (which is kinda confusing at the beginning). M is a perfectly normal girl with completely average skills. Okay, that was actually a blatant lie. I mean, look at the cover.
M is recruited (somewhat against her will) to be a student at Lawless, a school whose motto is "sow all the chaos!" (okay, technically it's "Infinitum Chaos Enim," but I've captured their spirit pretty well). Wait. Is it "sow" or "sew"? Sow. But how is it pronounced? Is it sow-like-in-bow or sow-like-in-pew? Wait... are they pronounced the same? that can't be right. Someone broke Google.
Anywho.
Lawless is a school for master criminals, similar to H.I.V.E. in that - wait. Have I never written a post about H.I.V.E.? I need to get on that.
Okay. No more irrelevant tangents allowed. Lawless is a super duper secret school for bad guys, with advanced technology and quirky teachers. M is just thrown into this school, despite the fact that she never even knew that (spoilers) her father was a world-renowned criminal, and her whole life she was groomed to follow his footsteps. I'm pretty sure that is revealed really early, but I don't want to chance it.
At Lawless, M has to make friends she can trust, lie relatively low, and figure out her teachers and mysterious roommate, Zara. And then this whole "heist" dealie shows up. Yeah... things blow up really quickly (mostly figuratively).
The only complaint I have with Lawless is that it is not very good at science. There are very few books that I will say are not good at science, even almost all fantasy and sci-fi, but that bit at the end.... I won't go into detail, but if you have taken Physics 101, you may cringe a bit.
Not that it wasn't cool. Because that was cool.
In conclusion, if you like spy books, high-stakes befriending, and a good mystery-unraveling, this is a good book for you.

Just Six Numbers

This is a book about science. It's about how the universe is the way it is, and why you and I are alive. In my opinion, that's pretty sweet. It does use some big words, but nothing superfluously esoteric (see what I did there?). If this frightens you, you should probably consider coming back when you're older.
Martin Rees' Just Six Numbers is about six numbers in physics and cosmology that don't need to be what they are. In other words, the universe would go on perfectly well with other values for these numbers. These numbers are, in order of appearance:




N: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000: The force of electromagnetism divided by the force of gravity.
ɛ (epsilon): 0.007: The amount of its energy hydrogen loses when converted into helium divided by the amount of energy in hydrogen.
Ω (omega): 0.3: The amount of matter in the universe divided by the amount of matter needed to stop expansion.
λ (lambda): 0.7: The amount of energy in empty space divided by the amount of energy needed to stop expansion.
Q: 0.00001: The energy needed to destroy a supercluster of galaxies divided by the energy of the matter in that supercluster.
D: 3: The number of large (probably infinite) spatial dimensions.

Tada! If that confused you, don't worry, it confused me too. In the book, Martin Rees goes into a lot more detail about the numbers, how we figured them out, and what it would mean if they were different. Really, this is a nerd book for nerds. Unlike Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, it's written for people who know at least a little science (for example: exponents, powers of ten, and the fact that matter is just condensed energy), instead of anyone who can count and has an open mind.
Still, if you know nothing about cosmology, this is a great book to start out with. I only knew about these things in the context of ordinary physics, and Just Six Numbers basically introduced me to the concept of cosmology.
Anyways, I have school tomorrow, so I'll wrap it up: Science. Numbers. The multiverse. Physics. Life. Thermonuclear explosion. Space. If any of these phrases interested you, you'll probably like this book.
I am out. Peace!

Here Where the Sunbeams are Green

This is a book that I have been reading for, like, three months. It's not hard to get through by any means, but I've always been reading some other book, usually a nonfiction book about science. I finally finished this weekend, and it was great.
Here Where the Sunbeams are Green (or "The Sunbeam Book," to it's friends) is a Sweet Little Book with almost as much Capitalization as the Bible. Okay, not really. But it's up there in the capitalization department.
The story is told by Mad, the girl with the brown hair and the ponytail. She, her mom, and her sister, Roo, are flown to La Lava Resort and Spa to meet their father, who is a bird guy. But Mad thinks that something odd has happened to her father, because the last thing he sent her was a Very Strange and Incredibly Creepy Letter. Will she and Roo ever see their father again? Yes. They see him in, like, Chapter 3.
But there are very strange things happening at La Lava. No one is exactly as they seem. Mad and Roo have to choose wisely who they trust, or they will end up in a whole heap of trouble. And, of course, there's the active volcano. That's not good either.
In closing, The Sunbeam Book is a nice story about some friends trying to figure things out and put things right again. It's been a while since I've read one of those books, and it's good to be back. I like most of the characters, and the ending is pretty great. Overall, I give The Sunbeam Book a reminded-me-of-my-love-for-adventure-books-but-still-kept-things-interesting out of 10. Anyone who likes adventures with a dash of fantasy should definitely read this book.

Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension

Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension is, in fact, a book about math. If this makes you flee in terror, then you should probably wait until you're older to read it. Of course, that is true of any book, because it is very difficult to read while fleeing in terror.

This is a very good book, and I think it's very well made. It is written in a way so that you start with easy stuff, and work your way up the ladder of chapters. The first chapter is about counting. Seriously.

Throughout the book, the concepts get more complex, and they all build on each other. The "Tower of chapters" (as in, the way they build on each other) is laid out during the introduction. At the end, Matt talks about infinity, and then steps back to look at all of mathematics, and the reason we do math.

One thing that surprised me when reading the book was how much there was to... well... make and do. Throughout the book, there are little activities that you can try. I do recommend that you actually attempt to do them, because they are all really interesting. For example, as I type, I have interlocking möbius strip hearts on my desk.

This is a great book for you if you like math, arts and crafts, or both. If you consider yourself a math nerd, this is basically a must-have. And, if you don't like math, then I still think you should read it. It turns out that math is, in fact, very interesting. Those "mathematicians" are on to something.

Also, he does say "Maths" instead of "Math". Get used to it.

Magyk

Magyk (pronounced muh-JIKE [to rhyme with bike] or muh-GERK [to rhyme with work, as the Y makes an "ER" sound]) is a fantasy book about a long-lost princess, her long-lost brother, and some long-lost magic (sorry, magyk).
One day, on his way home, Silas Heap finds a little baby girl in the snow. Silas takes the girl home to his wife, Sarah only to find that his seventh son, Septimus, has died in a poison drinking accident for mysterious reasons. Silas and Sarah take in the baby, who(m?) they name Jenna. A few years later it turns out that Jenna is a princess, she is being hunted, an ancient evil has been set free, and all that good stuff. Jenna, Silas, the ExtraOrdinary wizard, and a handful of Jenna's brothers are forced out of their home and now have to save the world.
So, basically your average fantasy adventure story.
Seriously, though, Magyk is a great book. It's well-written, and has a really nice story. The best part of the book, however, is its predictability.
I know what you're thinking: "Hold on there a moment, dashing and attractive book-reader whose blog I will now follow, predictable books are boring. Books have to have at least some mystery and plot-twistedness, or else there would be no point in reading them."
To this I say that Magyk is different. It's subtle. and you never know exactly what's going to happen, but the clues are all there. I'd give examples, but those would be spoilers, and we don't like those here. Read the book, and you'll understand. The story is basically a love letter to Chekhov's gun; everything that happens could conceivably be predicted (and none of that "Dumbledore said something meaningless and it turned out to be actual information" stuff. While Dumbledore's ramblings can only be understood in retrospect, all of this can be predicted before it happens.) It's like foreshadowing for ninjas.
All in all, Magyk is a clever book, with memorable characters and a nice ending. Definitely a book you should read.

P.S. Usually I end with "If you like X, Y, and Z, then you should read this book." While that is an easy way to end things, now that I'm in high school what I want to do something different. From now on, I'll end with a simple recommendation. This doesn't mean I won't use the XYZ format anymore, but I'll only use it if I think it's a good ending. Otherwise, I'll mix it up a bit.

P.P.S. Given the similarly-designed covers to the right of this book in library shelves, and the fact that the cover says "Book One," I have determined that Magyk has a number of sequels. I have not read any of them, and I don't really plan on it, unless someone tells me to in the comments. Magyk had an incredibly satisfying ending: the loose ends were tied up, the villain did not run off shaking his fist at the heroes, and there was even a section at the end detailing what happened to the minor characters after they left the main story. If that isn't closure, then I don't know what is.

Saga (and also Epic)

Saga is the second book in a series starting with Epic. The series in set in the future, on New Earth (which is like old earth, but fresher). on New Earth, all arguments are settled in a video game called Epic, which is set in a fantasy world. Eric, a boy from New Earth, goes on a quest to become rich and then accidentally saves the world.
This is where the first book ends. In the second book, Saga, a mysterious robot probe replaces Epic with a new game called Saga. Saga is also set in the future, but more so (the people have hover cars, hover boards, holograms, and the like). Citizens in Saga are given a card of a certain color, and better colors get better things. The best colors are given to the people with power, so the people with the worst colors are struggling to survive.
However, something is different with this game. Something is not right. Something is trying to gain immortality, and will stop at nothing to do it.
So, yeah, basically, it's save-the-world time again.
Saga is a fast-paced, exciting book with an interesting story and cool characters. The story is told by Eric, the kid from New Earth; Ghost, a member of the resistance (in the game); and the Dark Queen, the leader of Saga.
Be sure to read the first book (Epic) first. Also, there is killing, (in both books), so be warned. Epic is really cool because it combines fantasy and science fiction really well. If you enjoy suspenseful stories where the book gives you a chance to figure things out before the character, this book is for you.

three...years...later...

I don't really know what to say. Sorry that I was gone for so long. I just couldn't find the time to keep up this blog (though you should look at my latest blog at I think...) To make up for it, I'll throw an overwhelming, long, boring list of the books I've really liked.
...
...
Screw it, I'll do it tomorrow.
I have, however, just labled a lot more posts, so now the word blob looks more blobbier. You're welcome! (really lousy way of making up for it, I know)
Well, I need to go to sleep now.
Bye!

Gone for a while

I will be out of town for two weeks. I am taking many books with me to read:

• The Golden Hamster Saga (all 5 books, including the 4th one I already reviewed)
  
• The Princess Bride
  
• The Mysterious Benedict Society
  
• The Book of Story Beginnings
  
• Operation Golden Scepter (Get a clue)
  

I'll be back in two weeks to review these books!

The Haunting of Freddy, by Dietlof Reiche

Freddy is a golden hamster who is writing a book called The Lord of the Ferrets. When Freddy uses the book Curious and Remarkable Sentences of Death in Ancient Times as an inspiration for one of the characters in his book, he accidentally gives Grim Harry a chance to come to the modern world and seek revenge. Grim Harry is from the 18th century, 1778 to be precise, and he wants to behead a descendent of The Baron, who beheaded Grim Harry in the past. The Baron's descendants just happen to be one of Freddy's friends, Sebastian, and his dad, Lord Templeton. The ferrets from The Lord of the Ferrets are Grim Harry's pets. The rest of the book is about Freddy, Sebastian, and Sebastian's sister, Annabelle, trying to send Grim Harry back to the world of the undead.

This book was a fast read, and very funny even when it is scary. As I was reading it, I would suddenly crack up, with absolutely no reason why. I should also explain that although this is book 4 in a series, this is a complete story. In fact, I haven't read any of the other books in the series, and I still understood what was going on and I had a lot of fun reading it. If you like acting, poems, parties -- enough with the happy stuff -- terror, undead, and hamsters that write, you will like this book.

Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen

Hoot is about a kid named Roy who has just moved to Florida from Montana. In his new school, he is picked on by Dana Matherson, but Roy is the only kid in the history of Trace Middle School who fights back. One day, when Dana is squishing Roy's face against the bus window, Roy sees a strange kid. The kid was running fast with no shoes, as if he was going to the bus stop, except he had no backpack and no books. Roy decides to investigate and soon finds himself, together with the strange boy and his even stranger sister, fighting to save some cute little burrowing owls from the wrath of bulldozers. Their adventure includes killer dogs, pancakes, the police, alligators, cottonmouths, a kind of highly poisonous snake, and two new good friends.

May Bird Among the Stars, by Jodi Lynn Anderson

This is the second part of May Bird and the Ever After and it continues May's quest to get back home. It's about three things mostly: getting to the North, getting out of the North, and surviving the South. There are old characters like Pumpkin the ghost and Somber Kitty the hairless cat; there are new characters like the lady of the North Farm, Zero the ghost of a surfer dude, and commander Berserko, a devil cat.

This book is just as spooky and funny as the first one and I am looking forward to the third book, May Bird, Warrior Princess.

May Bird and the Ever After, by Jodi Lynn Anderson

May Bird is a girl. She is different from other kids. She prefers walking in the woods than going to parties; she thinks quartz rocks are as valuable as diamonds; her cat does not have hair. One day May takes a walk in the woods. This time she does something different than the other times: she walks into the Endless Briers, which is a large field of briers that guards a secret entryway to the Ever After. The book is about May's adventures trying to get back home. The trip back includes perilous places, evil enemies, faithful friends, malicious menaces, fearsome fiends, a nifty knapsack, and a ghost named Pumpkin.

This book is funny at some times. For example, May attends Agatha's Boarding School for Girls with High Socks. Some parts of it are scary. For example, pretty much everything. Some parts of it are just plain weird. For example, if you touch a drop of water from the sea, you are sent into eternal torture.

If you like spookiness, cliffhangers, and spooky cliffhangers, you'll like this book.

Jigsaw Jones Mysteries, by James Preller

Jigsaw Jones is a detective. He solves mysteries. The Jigsaw Jones series (buy volumes, they are cheaper) is all about Jigsaw Jones' many mysteries. I especially like cracking the codes in the stories. Try cracking this one:

Blue the breeze can yellow kids stormy you chicken duck red snowy crack boy hats hurricane this dog blanket sunny code.

It looks like gibberish, doesn't it? Let me tell you what is the trick of the code: Look at all the words. Do you notice something? Are there a lot of words of the same kind? The message is in the words after those similar words.

I also like these books because they actually use real books. For example, they are reading Stone Fox at reading hour at school; and Jigsaw is reading Bunnicula at night with his dad. Both real books. I've read both of them; I like both of them.

The stories are short enough that you can read them in a car ride.

If you like mysteries, cracking codes, and good ideas for books to read (except for the creep show books, because they are the only books that aren't real) read this series.

The Spiderwick Tie-In Books: A FieldStore Guide

Arthur's Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
This book is the actual field guide that they talk about in the Spiderwick Chronicles series. I think it is weird that the Grace kids went into so much trouble to hide the book and now it is being mass-produced! This book is about all the weird fantastical creatures that Arthur Spiderwick studied. It has labeled illustrations and lots of pull-out pages. In The Spiderwick Chronicles, the Grace kids saw many of these creatures, but they didn't see most of them. That is why this book adds a lot to the original series. This book is worth reading and keeping.

Care and Feeding of Sprites, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
This is a book about how to care for sprites, which is really funny because... um.. you know... they don't exist. The pretty much only good thing about it is the poster. There is a fold-out poster on the dust cover. It is also really fun to have specifics of different kinds of sprites, not just the 10 words, "There are many different kinds of sprites in the world," which is about all Arthur's Spiderwicks Field Guide says. It is also fun to read how the author doesn't give a hint that sprites don't exist. This book is worth reading, but is only worth keeping if you: 1) want information on specific types of sprites, 2) want the poster, 3) believe in sprites, or 4) all of the above.

The Chronicles of Spiderwick, A grand tour of the enchanted world navigated by Thimbletack, by Holly Black
This book is Thimbletack's scrapbook of things he collected as the years went by at the Spiderwick estate. It is a sort of guide to the Spiderwick books including a map of the house, a family tree, and lots of interesting stuff about the people who have been there. This includes things that are not in the original series, like graded homework essays by the Grace kids, newspaper clippings from around the world, letters, pages ripped out of books, diary entries, and family pictures. It is fun to see how all these extra bits fit in with the original series, and it answers some questions you may have had when reading the series. For example, how did Aunt Lucinda convinced the sprites to come? This book has the answer. The Grant Tour book is worth reading, and worth keeping if you are a big Spiderwick fan (e.g., me!).

Notebook for Fantastical Observations, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
This book is full of fun stories and activities organized by magical creature, including dragons, brownies, and lots of other creatures. For example, under dragons, there is a page for "Sketches for two locations where dragons may be found, in the real world and in the fairy world." Some of these activities are easy to complete, others may leave you stumped, such as (under Brownies), "I imagine this creature helping me with chores around my house." This book is definitely worth reading, but only worth keeping if you are willing to do the activities, like me. It is a good way to keep the fantasy going until the next series comes out (and, I assure you, it eventually will).

The Spiderwick Chronicles, by Holly Black

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a 5-book series about the Grace children -- Mallory Grace, Jared Grace, and Simon Grace -- and their adventures in a world full of fairies who live right along with us humans, but that only they can see. The books are The Field Guide, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda's Secret, The Ironwood Tree, and The Wrath of Mulgarath. The books are full of bizarre creatures (good, bad, and dead), duels, a certain amount of blood-shed, falling, running, more falling, and more running.

These books are a quick and fun read. I read them in three days the first time. Since then, I have read them two more times, so I think they are worth getting and they are worth keeping. There are lots of other books related to Spiderwick, which you will find in my next blog entry, in which I will tell you which of these books are worth getting or keeping or both.

Eager, by Helen Fox

At the end of the 21st century, robots are everywhere: there are teacher robots, butler robots, driver robots, and cook robots. Among all these robots, Eager (Model EGR3) is unique. He is the only robot who is not pre-programmed, but rather designed to learn from experience, quite like me or you (if you're a kid). This makes him able to think for himself. For example, pretty much all robots were programmed to not lie, EGR3 has to learn why lying is wrong. Having to learn from experience also means learning from mistakes, like when Eager tried to "clean" a human baby by putting her into the washing machine (NOTE: No babies were harmed in this book). Eager quickly becomes a part of the Bell family, but when the fanciest robots around (the BCD4s) begin to behave a little too much like people, Eager and the two older children of the Bell family are involved in a perilous adventure.

This book is sort of hard to understand at the beginning because the author talks about the world nearly a 100 years from now as if we know exactly what she is talking about. For example, the book starts when Gavin Bell has a conversation with his house. At the beginning of the book you might think, "okay, I'm too young to understand anything this says," but keep on reading and trust me, things will unravel.

Now the typical end for most of my reviews: if you like adventure, mysteries, advanced technology, and thinking about the future, this is the right book for you.

The Strictest School in the World, by Howard Whitehouse

The Strictest School in the World is about a girl named Emmaline and a boy named Robert. Emmaline is a pioneer of aviation. In other words, she tries to make flying machines. Robert, a.k.a. Rubberbones, is pretty much indestructible. Did you know some bulletproof vests are actually made of rubber? Well, so is Rubberbones! Emmaline and Rubberbones work together to make flying machines; Rubberbones is the pilot, Emmaline is the engineer.

Unfortunately, Emmaline is sent to a... let's say... very strict school. In St. Grimelda's School for Young Ladies, missing one word in Latin class gets your knuckles rapped with a ruler. For a bigger mistake, you could find yourself cleaning the cage of some... er... birds. Believe me, that is worse than it sounds, but I won't spoil it for you.

The book covers Emmaline's struggle to escape St. Grimelda's School with the help of Rubberbones, a friend named Josie, the mad inventor Professor Bellbuckle, and her own brains.

If you like humor, wacky adventures, and a certain amount of bouncing and kidnapping, you will like this book.

Dino Poop, by Jane Hammerslough

Dino Poop is about prehistoric things that were preserved. The first chapter is about dinosaur poop. The next chapter is about things that are trapped in amber. The third chapter is about things that were trapped in ice, the most famous thing was a perfectly preserved woolly mamoth which even had eyes! The fourth chapter was about creatures trapped in bogs. One of the most famous was so preserved that the two boys who found it thought it was a recent murder and called the police. Then there is a whole chapter of activities to do, like Making Edible Amber.

To make edible amber, you need:

• a freezer safe bowl
  
• some peach or mango juice
  
• gummy frogs or lizards
  
• If you want, cocoa powder for dirt and licorice for sticks.
  

Instructions:

1. Put a gummy lizard in a bowl.
   
2. Pour mango or peach juice in the bowl.
   
3. You can add cocoa powder or licorice for dirt and sticks.
   
4. Put the bowl in the freezer.
   
5. Get ready to eat it!
   
6. Eat it.
   

If you like science, books that you can read in two evenings, and weird and wonderful facts read this book.

Cryptid Hunters, by Roland Smith

Cryptid Hunters is about two kids named Grace and Marty who were twins and their parents disappear in a helicopter crash. After that, they were sent to their "uncle" Wolf. Wolf hunts cryptids and works and owns a company and an island. In case you don't know, cryptids are animals never proved to have existed or who are believed to be extinct. Grace and Marty have lots of adventures including falling out of a jet 18,000 ft. above ground, surviving the Congo, experiencing a real explosion, and collecting fresh eggs from a sauropod. If you like laughing yourself to death, "fantasy", and mystery, read this book.