Kids Books - Science Fiction

A terribly displeasing ending to one of my favorite series ever. I understand that Tui T. Sutherland had backed herself into a corner with the major plot holes in Talons of Power, but she only digs herself deeper. At this point, I don’t think it was an accident or a poorly thought plan, just simply a bad idea executed pretty well. All things considered, I am extremely disappointed with this book, I was so connected to it, I had dreams of it, wrote fanfictions of it, was inspired by it, and its characters were always in my head…I’m not sure I will ever get over how upset I am with this. **SPOILER WARNING** If you have not read the book yet, please stop here. Firstly, it was bad enough that readers had to follow Turtle in Talons of Power, with his sadly pathetic demeanor and slow dopey train of thought, despite his obvious capabilities. But then we get a book with Qibli, whose cleverness and cunning I for one have been greatly looking forward to, only to find someone who thinks along the same lines. “Oh, woe is me, I’m useless and the world hates me…” Secondly, Tui has been showing signs of failing in the exact same place as many other authors, something as a critic I cannot stress enough-- character consistency. First shown in the fleeting glimpses of our beloved characters in Talons of Power, and now given as a blast to the face here. Thirdly-- and this is mostly due to Talons of Power, not inherently this book-- Darkstalker’s defeat was so…dumb. One of the unspoken laws of writing is to never, ever make any character-- good or evil-- all-powerful because then there is no really good way to get rid of them. I mean seriously, he teleported all animus dragons all over the world to his throne room in a second (by the way, where on earth is the animus enchanting in that spell?), and he supposedly made himself invulnerable to animus magic, yet both with Turtle's stick and with his defeat it didn't seem to work... Fourth, the greatest plot hole in the book, how did Darkstalker even get his power back or how did the piece of his scroll that Moon and Qibli used to defeat him have any power? The animus magic can only be in one place-- otherwise, it makes absolutely no sense-- but when they "destroyed" the scroll with his animus magic he got his power back, yet there was part of his scroll still left with magic in it. How does Tui explain this? She doesn't, which is the worst thing she could do. Fifth and finally-- and this one is about the character pairing in the book-- why the heck did Tui decide to do Moon and Qibli? Although I suppose it was obvious since she announced that the last book was going to be on Qibli. And this isn’t all about personal opinion! If you think about it, how many times before this book did Moon and Qibli even speak to each other, let alone exchange special looks, or were even alone together? In Winter Turning I would say that Winter and Moon had some romantically tense moments, which were very exciting to read about. On top of that, and this last part doesn’t matter as much but it is still significant, there were polls on what pair the readers wanted in several places on the internet, including Scholastic’s official website, and readers voted incontestably for Moon and Winter, with the polls going at an average of 76% to 24%. **End of Spoilers** All in all, a complete flunk from my point of view. I understand that the vast majority will be happy with whatever they are given, but I’m not. I only ask for three simple things: A good story. Consistent characters. And a good ending to the series. That’s it. Nothing more. I’m not asking for perfection, just decency, and although this was one of my favorite series ever, this book couldn’t even nearly reach those simple standards. And for that, my 2-Star Rating.

Lo and behold. Warriors. The book series with lots of characters and 60 or so books. The first book, released 20 years ago, in 2003, tells us about a life form, Rusty, who escapes from the confines of his humans' nest and charges into the forest, never to be seen by the Twolegs again. Which is what those strange cats in the forest, warriors, call members of the Homo Sapiens species. So Rusty, who is only 6 moons old, begins to train as a warrior apprentice, who will catch a lot of tasty prey and fight enemy cats who live in other little tiny cat groups called clans. And he is now called FIREPAW after his brown coat. Then Firepaw meets an old cat who is very chubby; it is Yellowfang, whose teeth are not very well cared for. Oooh. But ShadowClan, a very scary clan, especially with a menacing leader called Brokenstar is demanding to hunt on ThunderClan territory because of FOOD. Unbeknownst to Firepaw, however, there is a prophecy from StarClan, where spirits of dead warriors live, that tells of fire saving the clan. Could he be the key to saving ThunderClan? So I liked this book a lot. I felt like it had better descriptions and more actions than the later mini-arcs. Very exciting and fun to read. Ok writing but not too good.

I have always loved the Harry Potter book series. It is not only full of magic, adventure, joy, creativity, and Voldemort, it is a timeless classic that everyone knows the story too. When I heard that they were creating a picture book version to it, I was blown away and had to get my hands on it. The book has the same plot and words as the original, except now add color and art to the long list of traits I mentioned in the beginning. In case you don't know the plot to the book this is a simple breakdown of what happens; Harry Potter is not a normal boy whose parents died when he was a baby. He has weird talents that are unexplained like how he has a lightning scar, can talk to snakes and can make random things happen just by thinking about it. He lives with his awful Aunt, Uncle, and cousin who gives him the Cinderella treatment and always are rude to him. For heaven's sake, they made him sleep under the stairs. One day, Harry Potter gets a letter addressed to him with his exact location(under the stairs and everything), but the Dursleys won't let him open it after they see a red crest seal on it. They toss it into the garbage. As the days pass hundreds of letters are being sent and owls are appearing at his door, but still, the Uncle is taking all of them and not allowing Harry to see any of them. To avoid any more letters reaching them, Uncle Dursley decides to send all of them to a shabby house on a small island in the middle of the sea. This day happens to be Harry's 11th birthday. All of a sudden, a giant knock hits the door and they all startle themselves awake. It turns out to be a giant named Hagrid who explains to Harry that he is a wizard and has been accepted into the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After that, he leaves his family, goes school supply shopping with Hagrid, and takes a train to the school. When he gets there he meets a lot of new people and makes best friends with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasely who are in the same house as himself. He also learns what truly happened to his parents and it turns out to be a villain named Voldemort. He killed them and tried to kill Harry too, but his mother sacrificed herself instead and made a bond that destroyed Voldemort. After that day, Harry Potter gained the title of The Boy who Lived. People think that Voldemort is still out there resting so he can come back for revenge. And like all foreshadowing is, the fact turns out to be true. But we don't know that yet. They start hearing noises coming from around the top floor of the school so Harry and the gang go there to check it out. They see a giant 3 headed dog whose name is Fluffy. After this day, they have Hermione do some research and figure out that the dog is guarding a magical stone called the Sorceror's Stone which can give someone youth and that the owner of the dog is Hagrid. Their only lead is the suspicious Potions teacher, Severus Snape who somehow is always seen at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing. During this time, they got more information, saved Hermione from a troll, and met a few ghosts. Back to the present. Now that they had figured out that the owner of the dog was Hagrid, they all go to HAgrid's hut and trick him into giving them valuable information. Then they venture back into the attic with Fluffy and play soft music that makes him fall asleep for as long as they need to get past him. Then they go through the little latch underneath Fluffy and find a mysterious room in which there are puzzles they have to solve in order to get to the stone before Voldemort does. They solve a key riddle, plays chess with themselves being hit if they fail, and finally come into the room in which they find the stone. In the room, Harry Potter comes face to face with Mr. Qiurell the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who is actually a reincarnated version of Voldemort. So he and Voldemort have an epic face-off . . . .

With Tigerclaw (Antagonist) gone and Bluestar being a shell of her former self, it is hard for Fireheart (Protagonist) to be the deputy of Thunderclan in Warriors: Rising Storm by Erin Hunter. Tigerclaw has been exiled from Thunderclan from his betrayal to Thunderclan and Bluestar. Now Bluestar is no longer herself (First Conflict; This conflict isn’t solved). She doesn't do her leader duties and has lost her spirit and pride. Fireheart has to do almost everything for his clan. Bluestar even has no trust in Starclan. When Fireheart has troubles with his apprentice Cloudpaw or setting up patrols, Whitestorm and Sandstorm help him through it. Sandstorm has become very close to Fireheart while Graystripe is in his new home, Riverclan. Also throughout the book the forest gets hotter and hotter, which causes a fire in the Thunderclan camp (Second Conflict). After the fire Fireheart and Graystripe go to see what is left of the camp. While doing so, he finds something he didn't expect and didn't want to see. What did he find? At the next gathering Fireheart has taken Bluestar’s place because she didn’t feel the need to go. He goes up to the high rock and learns that the Shadowclan leader, Nightstar has died and that the new leader is someone he doesn't expect. Tigerclaw, Thunderclan’s greatest enemy. This book has no specific time, but the setting is mostly in Thunderclan territory. I recommend this book to 3 graders and up. Also there is some violent battle scenes.

"Rise, red as the dawn"- There are Reds, and there are Silvers. That was all Mare Barrow knew. However, when she goes to get some air at night, she meets a stranger. Something urges her to spill all her worries to this stranger, even the secrets that could get her in serious trouble. The next day, people come at her door, and she assumes she is being taken for war. But instead, she is hired and now works for the king. When something happens at a pageant, instead of being burned she discovers she has powers, and she uses them, creating a giant hole. She soon learns she is not only Red, but she is also Silver. Stronger than both, she is taken into a cell, kept by the king and queen. She now has a new identity, which means she is no longer Mare Barrow. She is Mareena, raised as a Red but truly a Silver, now finding where she truly belongs. She is also scheduled to marry Maven Calore. When she and Cal go to visit her family secretly, she joins the Scarlet Guard, a rebel group against the Silvers. During the secret meet, to Mare's surprise and shock, they have another new recruit- Maven Calore. Maven is in the shadow of his brother, Cal. Mare can relate to this as she is in the shadow of her sister, Gisa. However, when the rebel plans do not go as expected, Maven and Mare are at risk of being exposed as being part of the Scarlet Guard, the most wanted group and hated amongst the royals around them. Little does Mare Barrow know that amongst her is a traitor, and things are not what they seem. Overall, I enjoyed this book and it had plot twists that made me want to read more and more. I recommend this book to people who enjoy dystopian and romance books, or people who enjoy The Selection series. I rate this book 5/5.

Short but funny fairy tale with the Duke who always has the feeling of cold, even his own hands are cold while the princess has the feeling of always being warm. The mention of the clocks, specifically, 13 clocks got mentioned a few times in the story, and boy, that's a lot of clocks! And I would promise you, while you read this book, you would find yourself shaking your head in amusement or laugh because few characters and lines are funny. I enjoyed this book, and you would, too! - Happy Reading!

My sister received this book for Christmas, and it is amazing! It combines both drawing and writing aspects into it, so you can make your own dragon world! It inspires people who may not always like to write into writing their own fun fantasty world similar to Wings of Fire!

Rain is an orphan grub. Sitting at the very bottom of the hierarchy, she works at her Aunt Willow’s farm helping with the animals. When she turns 13, she will be sent to spend the rest of her life working in the Tubes to collect Root for those higher up on the hierarchy. Problem being, she has Tube Terror. The dark narrow spaces of the Tubes cause her to panic, though she must hide her fear to avoid being dosed with Med, which turns grubbers into mindless, automated workers. During all this, she hears strange, piercing cries coming from her Aunt’s barn, which she has been ordered, under no circumstances, should she ever enter. You know what they say, “Curiosity kills the cat.” Rain’s curiosity gets the best of her, and upon entering, she finds… a wild griffin? That can’t be right, wild griffins haven’t existed for years. Turns out the wild griffin is being trained to help get Lady Orla, a girl at the very top of the social rung, into the Academy, where students learn to be Griffin Riders who enforce the law. Lady Orla plans to enter the Academy under the “Law Of The Chosen”, which dictates that if a griffin naturally bonds with you, you must be let into the Academy, no matter your rank. However, the griffin has now bonded with Rain, and won’t attach to Lady Orla. This, naturally, causes problems. The Griffin Land authorities hunted and disposed of all wild griffins long ago, and if this griffin won’t bond with Lady Orla, his life is at stake. A whirlwind of decisions leads to Rain deciding to take Griff (as he’s been so named) to get herself into the Academy. However, being a grub, the government isn’t so thrilled with the idea of the Griffin Land Order hierarchy being thrown into chaos. It’s a battle to survive and fight her way though challenges to prove that she, too, should have a choice in how her life should be lived. Overall, one of my favorite books I’ve read in a long time. Once started, it’s very hard to put down. Looking forward to future books in the series. 10/10, recommend for ages 10-15.

i am really fasinated by snakes so i like or love this book club a lot!

i love reading about space and rockets.