Latest Kids Book Reviews

I’d heard about this book for a long time, and I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. For instance, what’s this “club,” a book club or something? Also, more importantly: would this book turn out to follow the same hackneyed patterns of Chinese American literature? But I started reading, and the book certainly starts with a scintillating opening chapter introducing the eponymous Joy Luck Club. At its core, this is a group of four elderly Chinese women who share stories, laugh, eat, and play mahjong. The group’s founding member has passed away suddenly, leaving her daughter confused and grieving. Asked to fill in for her mother at the mahjong table, she learns more about her already inscrutable mother and is given a difficult task. Instantly, I could see the author setting up a tone of sadness tempered with pangs of bitter, undeniable hope, something that wouldn’t disappear even when the plot started to drag a little. I could see the mature and layered writing. I read on, hooked, as the book described in distinct yet readable prose first the mothers’ difficult upbringings in China before World War II, then the daughters’ childhoods, next the continuation of the mothers’ stories, and finally the lives of both mother and daughter during the main timeframe. The book is divided into these sections, each introduced by a pithy, allegorical story. It cycles through each of the characters before returning. Gluing the story together is Jing-Mei Woo, whose personal tragedy and journey of self-discovery begin and end the book, but there’s such a huge detour that in the end it leaves the reader with a deep understanding of all the daughters and mothers connected to the Joy Luck Club. Amy Tan’s debut novel may have lost some relevancy for the newest generation of Chinese American readers, given the fact that she’s now about the same age as the mothers she writes about, but it’s not as bad as it seems. Even though the book is centered on Chinese-American families during the 90s, the themes are universal. There are seven narrators in this story, each with their own personality and life story. This increases the book’s scope at the expense of being a little overwhelming. Some fuzziness is natural, but the structure is clear enough if you don’t mind flipping backward a little bit. It’s come to my attention that people have protested about the stereotypical-leaning descriptions of the parents. If Amy Tan gives them these backstories showing that they are not the plump, eccentric people they appear to be, why make them exclaim “Wah!” or speak broken English? It was a bit discouraging reading about the vague Chinese superstitions that pop out of nowhere, inexplicable as the unintuitive romanization system she seems to employ only for Mandarin. If you do decide to read this book, you’ll have to accept this confusing phenomenon, and for me it was by no means a book-ruining flaw. Also, be warned that any discussion about the father-daughter relationship is basically nonexistent. To a degree that makes sense, because the book is meant to focus on the complex mother-daughter bond. You can’t eat pie and cake in the same meal and not expect to fall into a food coma. Then there are the slight issues with the plot, specifically the huge focus on the daughters’ marriage troubles: whether the marriage is going to fall apart, why it’s falling apart, if parental approval is going to be acquired. Jing-Mei is the only one free from this. While it’s useful to make a quick case study, and to see what the mothers have to say (which are surprisingly insightful), it didn’t hold my attention for long. These are some of the main complaints, but there are many more positive traits that I wholeheartedly believe outshine these problems. For any reader much of the appeal, why the book is “deep,” comes from the immense pathos of the struggles of the mothers in China, as well as the universally-relatable difficulties of communication between parent and child. I teared up a bit while reading this book, and I usually have quite a tolerance for that kind of thing. As a bonus, the symbolism is so layered, the characters’ motivations so multifaceted, that you really can have a rewarding discussion about the Joy Luck Club at a book club. You can also ponder its themes on your own, like I did. Is this book worth reading? Definitely. Does it invite deep thought and reflection? Yes, if you choose to do so. Does it encapsulate the entire experience of being Chinese American? It’s about 70% of the way there. Generally, The Joy Luck Club is well above average—miles above forgettable novels you flip through when you have nothing better to do—and really deserves its spot as a modern classic.

Love, death, dreams, passion, miracle, hope, fear, and fighting are all in this as Princess Buttercup fell for a farm boy, Westley but since he told her that he would go away on the ship overseas and "died". Ever since Westley's "death" had affected Buttercup harder than expected as she made a vow to never love again and she did. A prince, who have to get married, Humperdinck but the princess didn't like that prince. Then we would meet 3 legendary characters, Inigo Montoya and Fezzik who teamed up to try and rescue the princess along with Westley. Vizzini, a criminal who wants to kidnap and kill the princess. Inigo, who had the father, Domingo killed by six-fingered man set out to try and kill that guy with his ironic statement, "My name is Inigo Montoya. You've killed my father, prepare to die" which Inigo did indeed win that fight of fencing. I REALLY loved this book and movie but I now like this book since this has "additional scenes" and different perspectives. I would recommend this classic to literally everyone! - Happy Reading!

The final adventure awaits for you with Will, the youngest of the Stanton family. Finally reunited with his siblings, Simon, Barney, and Jane as they set out and fight their final battle against the Dark as the Light. Will's friend, Bran Davies also joins them on their final adventure together, saw their uncle, Merriman. As we went on those 5 crazy but also challenging adventures and quests with Will and his siblings, it's also really interesting of how those characters have evolved over last 5 books in the Dark is Rising series with both cultures of Arthurian and Welsh in the medieval era. Overall, this series are pretty good and I would recommend this for the readers who enjoy the fantasy and this is also very similar to another book series of Harry Potter as Will is the Chosen One, too. - Happy Reading!

This winglet stars the infamous Nightwing asssasin DeathBringer. This short story was highly entertaining to read, and gives a whole lot of depth to DeathBringer's character, who we meet in Book 4. I highly reccomend for any dragon fan or WOF fan to come and read this short story!!

Another adventure awaits for you with the Drew children and their uncle, Merriman Lyon as they go to the small town but Jane encounters the Greenwitch itself, since she's a girl and there's also a legend that the Greenwitch only allows the girls and women to be close than boys and men and started demanding Jane to keep the secret and revive the lost gold carat. But a problem is, another boy found out and went out after the same thing for the Greenwitch. Even though Jane was after the gold carat, she also got terrified because of her nightmare about the Greenwitch but eventually got it all before the side of the Dark taking over. - Happy Reading!