Kids Books - Trending Books
Book Scavenger (The Book Scavenger series)
By Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Emily and her family have been moving across the United States for most of her life. Her parents have the goal of living in all 50 states, and so they rarely live in one place for more than a few months. Now Emily, her brother Matthew and their parents are moving to San Francisco where Emily's "literary idol", Garrison Griswold (also known as the Willy Wonka of the literary world), lives. Griswold, among other endeavours, created the Book Scavenger (an game where people find books hidden in cities by using clues and puzzles. Unfortunately, just weeks before Garrison plans on launching a new game, he is attacked and hospitalized with a coma. Then Emily (and her new friend James) find an interesting book, which Emily is sure is part of Griswold's new game. But it turns out that solving this mystery is more dangerous than they thought. I really enjoyed this book. There was mystery and intrigue, and it was a true book adventure. I enjoyed watching Emily and James' friendship develop, especially since having a friend was really a new experience for Emily. I would recommend this book to middle school aged kids and above, especially mystery lovers. I think that people who enjoyed "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" would enjoy this book as well. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.
The Maze of Bones (39 Clues, No. 1)
By Rick Riordan
"You have a choice - one million dollars or a clue." - Author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the 39 Clues is a Cahill family competition. You either pick the million dollars or get the first clue. The Cahill family is the world's most powerful family. Name someone, they are in the family. Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin. Anybody. Even Amy and Dan didn't know they were related to people that famous. How could they be poor then? Who were their mom and dad? They had a lot of questions. Now they were stuck with their aunt. Their Grandmother Grace Cahill had left them. She was a great grandmother. I liked that Rick Riordan used words to describe the character's feelings at the time. Their au revoire is Nellie, who will take them all over the world. This book was really good. They find Clue 2 when they thought someone took it from them. I would recommend this book to mystery lovers and action lovers. I rate this 5 stars.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
By Mark Twain
This book was awesome. Mark Twain does a good job of taking us back to the time period of anti slavery. In this book Huck was a thirteen year old kid that had no parents. He learned to take care of himself and live in the wild. He did not want to be civilized at all. Twain has strong messages against slavery and he talks a lot about ones freedom. Throughout this book he teaches us that standing up for oneself is very important in life. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends. It was great and Im glad I read it for my second nine weeks social studies project.
Inkspell
By Cornelia Funke
Inkspell, the story that takes place a year after the events of Inkheart, where Dustfinger returns to the Inkheart after a storyteller brought him in there, leaving his friend Farid. Meggie somehow gets in this situation and the adventures begin. The storytelling is great and the plot flows smoothly and it was really a page-turner for me, giving this book 5 stars. The characters actions relates to me on a personal level. I recommend this book for middle school and higher who love fantasy and adventure in their books (after you read the first book).
Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School)
By Jen Calonita
Amusing, witty and full of magic - FLUNKED has a wonderful assortment of fairytales and their characters, most notably, their villains. A wonderful book that will make you think about what defines the good from the bad, giving second chances and who your true friends are. Gilly is a 12 year old who has developed a Robin Hood complex due to her father's dying shoemaking business. She steals from the nobles in order to help put food in her siblings bellies and smiles on their faces. One of six siblings who live in a shoe, Gilly has brought it onto herself to take the risks to do what she can. She knows that if she is caught she will be sent to Fairytale Reform School and her siblings will suffer. When Gilly pulls off her biggest heist to date, she is completely unaware of the trail she leaves behind until she is caught. Having to see the disappointment on her families faces is hard, but being sent away to school is even worse. Who will help and look after her siblings. Fairytale Reform School was founded by the reformed "Wicked Stepmother", Flora. After realizing how badly she mistreated Ella, Flora decided to change her ways and what better way to complete the process than to extend a hand to others who have done wrong and help them find a way to better themselves. After reforming these "villains", she recruited them to do something worthy with themselves within society and asked them to join her faculty at the school. A few of these memorable characters are - the Werewolf that ate Little Red's grandmother, the Sea Witch and the Evil Queen, who is still obsessed with apples. The school itself resembles a castle - with ornate rooms and furniture, and nothing is lacking. Gilly's classes and meals are better than anything else she's ever had in her life. She feels guilty for not being able to take care of her siblings, but also, for living better than them too. However, strange things have been happening at the school. Unexplained disappearances and teachers and students acting differently... something is happening. And Gilly and her friends are going to find out what it is. What I love most about this book is Gilly's personality, she is very strong-minded and not only sticks up for what she believes in but for others too. She won't tolerate any type of bullying towards anyone and is very loyal to what and who she believes in. Gilly is definitely someone you can count on. Her new friends all fit an important role in her life and situation. There is a little magic here and there, but by all means, this is no fairytale where magic fixes everything and things are swept away with a swish of a wand. Everyone has to work hard and your best is always expected. The story is wonderfully written and told strictly from Gilly's point of view, primarily through conversations and her thoughts. I see and know precisely what Gilly does without unnecessary details.
Call of the Wild and White Fang
By Jack London
Warning! This review may contain spoilers. Call of the wild: A dog named Buck is kidnapped (or dognapped), and force to work as a sled dog. I didn't read White Fang. What I thought of it: Well, I don't like books about animals (I had to read this for homework). Mainly because the main animal character almost always gets mistreated and/or dies. Buck was definitely mistreated and I hated that. I absolutely can't stand animal cruelty or when animals die. When I'm reading a book and there's an animal and a human, I'd rather the human die than the animal. Buck, thankfully, didn't die. But everyone else did. Almost every single animal and human that appeared in the book died. I mean Curly got ripped apart 10 minutes into the book. I guess I get the purpose of it, but I still didn't like it. That was my main problem with this book. It was pretty well written, though. I liked how even though the dogs didn't talk, you still knew what they were thinking. I liked the way Buck grew as a character. In a lot of books, you just kind of suppose the main character changed over the course of the book, but it's not that obvious. In this book, it was obvious. There was a huge difference between Buck when he was first introduce and Buck when the book ended. He really changed a lot, yet he kept some of his character traits. I really liked that. Overall, I appreciated this book, but I didn't like it.
Unbroken (The Young Adult Adaptation): An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive
By Laura Hillenbrand
This is by far the best WWII true story I've read, and I've read quite a few. Louie Zamperini was training for the 1940 Tokyo Olympics when they were suddenly cancelled, and the nation was at war. Louie enlisted in the Air Force and soon was in Hawaii, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. His incredible tale includes extremely aggressive sharks, world records for time as a castaway, prisoner of war camps, sickness, injuries, mental illness, and redemption. Before reading this book, I wasn't as aware of the extent of Japan's involvement in WWII. It is fairly descriptive: I recommend to 12+.
The False Prince (The Ascendance Series, Book 1)
By Jennifer A. Nielsen
False Prince was a book on my summer reading. The main character is an orphan named Sage. Other characters are orphans, Tobias, Roden, and Latamer. There is also Connor a nobleman with a plan of his own. Long lost Prince Jaron was sent overseas to study, but his ship was attacked by pirates (thought to be sent by Avenia which is untrue). Prince Jaron's body was never discovered, but many assume the prince's body sank into the ocean with many others. About four years later, the king, queen, and oldest son Prince Darrius are food poisoned. Who will now be the king of Carthya? Many of the king's regents and noblemen have came up with their ideas of training boys to pretend to be Prince Jaron or simply take over the throne themselves. Connor is one of them. He collects four orphan boys and trains them to act like Prince Jaron. Sage doesn't want to be a false prince, but if he doesn't get chosen, he will be killed which isn't a really better alternative. He befriends a man named Mott and a "mute" servant girl by the name Imogen. He finds himself making false friends and realizes that he better work hard in the 2 week timeline before Connor chooses his prince. You think you know everything as you read, but I think the biggest twist is that SPOILER: Sage IS the real Prince Jaron. Please read this book!!!!!!!!!! It is SPECTACULAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tales from Lovecraft Middle School #2: The Slither Sisters
By Charles Gilman
The Slither Sisters is the best book yet in the Lovecraft Middle School series. Professor Gargoyle was really good but this one is even better! Robert Arthur is back with his best friends; his old enemy Glenn Torkells, a ghost named Karina, and a two-headed rat named Pip and Squeak. They found out that the Price sister who mysteriously disappeared in the first book and came back are now monsters/snake people in disguise as both Sarah and Sylvia Price. All the monsters at the haunted mansion have hatched a plan to kidnap each and every seventh grader one student at a time and convert them into monsters and it's Robert Arthur and his friends job to stop them. The only question is. . . how? It's a outstanding book with lots of surprises on each page. The author's descriptions and illustrations help you make your own monsters in your mind. No matter how frightening the cover may seem, the book inside is amazing and not scary at all. My favorite part in the book is in the last chapter and it's counting down to it the whole book. I recommend this book to everyone who likes fantasy and suspense. I can't wait until the next book comes out!
Everyday Angel #2: Second Chances
By Victoria Schwab, V. E. Schwab
Well I haven't read the book yet but I REALLY wanna read it. I read the first book and absolutely fell in love with it. It was so amazing and heartwarming and just GREAT! Now that I've finished the book I would ABSOLUTELY love too read the second book and the whole series in fact. I don't think I could find a better boo to read. So thank you and I would love to read this PLEASE!









