The Readers and Writers Paradise

The real scoop on middle grade books.

Daniel Johnston

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Review

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the great all-time classics which almost every schoolboy inevitably reads. It tells the story of racism in Maycomb County, Alabama.The book was written in 1960, and was made to question the mistreatment of black people going on in society at that time.

It is told through the eyes of a young, six year-old girl named Scout. Scout observes the happenings of the town through the eyes of her father, Atticus Finch, a local lawyer who defends black people.

This is a very upsetting book to read. It does not have a happy ending, and is in fact quite sad. Although this book includes details of Scout’s play with her older brother Jem and his friend Dill, the book is really a sad tale and transports us to great suffering in our country just fifty years ago.

Here is my video review. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to get video reviews and audio short story recordings.

Summary

The book starts off with Scout telling us a little about her family and the town. Before long Scout goes off to school for the first time. Lee includes a criticism of the school system, with the teacher being angry at Scout for already knowing how to read. Although Atticus forces Scout to go back to school, he says she can still read as much as she wants.

The story intertwines itself with fun play; for example, an expose of the Radley house. There is said to be a young man named Boo Radley living in that house, but no one has seen him in many years. There are various rumors about him, and Scout, Jem, and Dill are fascinated. They make many attempts to communicate with Boo, and frequently play and make fun of him. Still, he somehow always manages to elude them.

Although Scout and Jem are doubting their dad’s prowess, due to him being almost fifty, he discovers a way to teach them a lesson of real love. Although Mrs. Dubose is racist and yells at Atticus, Jem, and Scout for not discriminating against black people, Atticus has Jem and Scout go and read to Mrs. Dubose everyday for a month. Mrs. Dubose is dying and is easing off medications because she wants to die gracefully. Jem and Scout read to her during the most difficult time of her day and thus help her a lot in recovering from the withdrawal. Even though Mrs. Dubose is racist and opposes him, Atticus clearly still respects her.

While at church with their maid, Calpurnia, Jem and Scout first learn about the main focus of the story; the trial of Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is a black man accused of raping a white woman. Unsurprisingly, Atticus is the only lawyer who will defend him. Everyone else believes Tom must be guilty merely because he is black, and Atticus begins to become unpopular with other citizens in the town.

The trial of Tom Robinson turns out to be the biggest trial in a long time. Atticus doesn’t desire for his kids to come, but of course they do anyways. Although everyone believes the plaintiff, they have a rather weak case. Atticus, being a smart lawyer, tears the case apart. Still, the death penalty looms glaringly over young Tom’s head.

Review

This story is possibly the easiest book to read among the “classics,” while at the same time having the power to transport you to a different world at a different time. The book is 384 pages long, and is well-written in a clear way that is easy for people to understand.

Although the story is told through the eyes of a girl who is six-years old at the beginning of the book and eight at the end, I wouldn’t advise someone to read it until they are the age of twelve or thirteen. Otherwise, the content may be too disturbing. Not only does Tom Robinson not meet a good end, but people go after not only Atticus for defending Tom, but also his young children.

I first read the book at fourteen, and I still didn’t quite get it. The undertones of the book are quite disturbing, and may take a lot of thinking and reflecting before you can come to terms with them. This is also compounded because the narrator, eight-year old Scout, certainly does not understand what is happening. Maybe we’re not supposed to, either.

There are really not many weaknesses in this story. I guess the only thing I’d say that would make it better would be if the narration was done in such a way to help the reader digest the racism, hatred, and violence portrayed in the book better. On the other hand, it would be hard to do that while maintaining the narrator as innocent Scout.

While writing this review I can feel my shoulders tense up and my brain start to feel clouded. A couple of years ago I asked my dad if he wanted to watch the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird. He declined, not wanting to get too upset. I can understand now what he’s talking about.

Despite the emotional impact that comes with reading the book, I recommend it for sure. As I said, you learn a lot about what attitudes were prevalent at that time, and how that effects the world today. To Kill a Mockingbird is a part of America’s culture that everyone would be wise to take a look at.

Thank you for reading this review and if you’d like to purchase the book you can do so through this link . You can also check out my FaceBook Page or subscribe through email below.

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Hideout by Gordon Korman Review

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Hideout by Gordon Korman is the fifth and latest book in the super popular Swindle Series. Gordon Korman is one of my favorite authors and a very accomplished one, having over 75 titles to his name. In fact, the book Swindle was recently turned into a movie by Nickelodeon.

In Hideout, Korman continues the Swindle Series with another exciting adventure. In the first book, Griffin Bing and his friends confronted an unethical man they nickname “Swindle” who stole a $1.2 million baseball card from them.

After exposing Swindle and ruining his shop, they also take his guard dog, Luthor. Luthor is a vicious dog, but Griffin’s friend Savannah is practically an animal whisperer and becomes good friends with him.

Here is my video review

In this book, Swindle is back, and he wants to take possession of his dog. Of course, Savannah isn’t about to let that happen. During this book the kids are away for summer camp, and they have to coordinate an extremely complicated series of plans in order to keep Swindle’s hired goons from taking back the dog. Who better to coordinate it than Griffin Bing, the “Man with the Plan.”

Griffin and his friends are all stationed at three different summer camps. Swindle sends his goons after each one, and they have to hide the dog from both the attackers and the rest of the camp. The book is divided into three different sections or hideouts, each one during the time when Luthor is at their respective camp.

The book starts off with Luthor going with Griffin and Savannah to Camp Ebony Lake. After their location is compromised, they switch the dog off to Melissa and Logan. Melissa joined the group because of her impressive computer skills, and Logan because he’s a good actor.

They eventually hand Luthor to Pitch and Ben. Pitch is a great climber, and Ben is the small spaces guy and Griffin’s best friend. Each member of the gang has their own speciality which allows them to work well together as a team.

This is far from a serious book throughout. Although they are being chased by a criminal, they book is interspersed with the fun personalities of each of the characters and tons of humor. The ending, where Swindle and his goons confront Griffin and his gang, is a hilarious and captivating tale.

This is a very well written book and another great addition to the series. It’s hard to keep coming up with hit stand-alone books when you reach the fifth book in a series with the same characters. Korman manages to do it, however.

Honestly, though, I’m not too excited for the next book in the series, Jackpot. If I was Korman, I would end it right now, because I feel like it’s starting to get a little long in the tooth. How many times can you get excited reading about the same kids having some variation of basically the same adventure?

Still, that does not detract from the strength of this book. I’d highly recommend for preteens (around 9-12) to read it. Notice the excellent reviews on Amazon. There is literally not a single person who says they or their children did not like the book. Korman’s books are guaranteed to be kid pleasers, and this book is no exception.

Before reading this book, though, I’d recommend reading Swindle. Although it’s not necessary to understand and enjoy the story, it helps a lot to understand the conflict. Plus, Swindle is an amazing book.

Overall, there’s really not much criticism I can give this book. For the majority of his career, Gordon Korman was a writer of humorous books. It was only in the late 90’s that he switched over to reading action/adventure. I feel like now he’s managed to merge these two styles together to create a suspenseful but hilarious book. This is classic Korman at his best.

Thank you for reading this review and if you’d like to purchase the book you can do so through this link . You can also like my Facebook page or subscribe through email below.

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10 Awesome Kids Book Review Sites You’ll Want to Read

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Hi guys! Today I wanted to take a little break from reviews and instead let you know about some other book review blogs I think you’ll enjoy. There is a nice community of kids book reviewers and many of them are quite good!

Ms. Yingling Reads

This blog is written by a middle school librarian. She reads a lot of books and knows well what kids are reading and what they like. Her reviews are well-written and give an accurate description. Overall, this blog is very well done.

This Kid Reviews Books

How could I do a book review list without mentioning twelve year-old Erik’s website?! Erik was kind enough to do an interview of me on his blog a couple of years ago, and constantly writes great reviews. He’s been doing his blog for around three years and has a number of dedicated followers. He has even written his own book! If you’re not reading this site, you should be.

My Book Worm Blog

This is an awesome website run by eleven year-old Xander. He gives both written and video reviews. He is a pretty consistent poster and gives you an inside perspective of what kids think about books. I am very impressed with this site.

Boys Rule Boys Read!

This blog is run by a librarian and he seems to know what books kids are liking and reading. He has kept up to date with his site since 2007, and has tons of excellent reviews. This is a fantastic blog.

The Write Stuff

This is a great website. The author is a former high school English teacher and is currently a writer and book reviewer. She reviews a lot of good books on her website. She knows not only what books kids like, but what type of kid will like a certain book.

Always in the Middle

This blog is written by a guy who loves everything about middle grade books. He posts good and insightful reviews on his blog on a regular basis.

So I’m Fifty

This is written by a middle grade author. She gives very in depth reviews that I think provide real value in deciding whether to get a book or not.

5 Minutes for Books

This website is actually maintained by a team of seven people who all love reading, which means they post a new review pretty much everyday. Most of the reviews are fairly short, but they let you know about books that you wouldn’t have otherwise heard of.

Jennifer Rumberger – Children’s Author

This blog is also written by a kids author. Her reviews are genuine and I enjoy reading them.

Note: This site sadly isn’t online anymore.

My Brain on Books

This website is written by yet another children’s author. Joanne gives good reviews on a wide variety of books. She has a lot of experience and knows what books have and will prove to be tried and true.

Thanks for reading this quick post. I just thought I’d like to turn you guys on to some other book review sites that are out there. There are only so many books I can review, and only so much knowledge I have. I read all of the above sites and encourage you to as well.

And if you’re not yet, subscribe to my site, too. Please? 🙂

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Beneath the Slashings by Michelle Isenhoff Review

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Beneath the Slashings by Michelle Istenhoff is the topic of today’s post, in accordance with her blog tour. I want to thus first state in full disclosure that she gave me a free copy of the book as part of her launch. As you’ll see, that doesn’t mean I’m going to hold back, however!

Plot

The book is about a girl named Grace Nickerson. While it is the third in a trilogy (the first two of which I have not read), the story lines and characters are not connected except the time periods. The first book is the period before the Civil War, the second book is the period during the Civil War, and the third book is the period after the Civil War. In this book, Grace’s Pa got back from the war where he’s been for several years.

Naturally, Grace is excited when she hears her Pa is coming home, but her enthusiasm was not as much when he informed her that he was not taking her and her brother Sam (her mother died when she was young) back home from her Aunt’s but instead to a lumbering camp where she and Sam would help the chef and their father would work as the foreman. While Sam is cool with it and looks at it as an adventure, Grace is more dominated by fear in addition to anger and is so upset she stops talking to her father.

Early life at the camp

Usually very scared, Grace is unsurprisingly upset to hear that the previous foreman died mysteriously and might have been murdered, although everyone else just laughs it off. She becomes quite lonely being the only girl at the camp. She only spoke to the cook and to her brother; while she served the men their food she spoke little to them, and indeed she grew to be very miserable.

Sam tries many things to try to get Grace out of her shell, but Grace doesn’t want to be helped, although she admires him for just being able to put his feelings aside like nothing. Her brother’s advice is simple and also (to this consciousness at least) mostly silly, “I chose to live each day like I knew it was going to end well. I dealt with trouble when it showed up, but not a moment before. I stopped looking for it, Grace, and that’s all fear is, really. It’s just anticipating trouble.” (page 63; PDF version)

Emotional Advice Given

Fear

This is one of the main problems I have with the book. This advice sounds good, but it doesn’t really help get past fear. While it may help get rid of some minor fear, it’s not going to be effective for getting rid of fear anywhere near the magnitude that someone like Grace is experiencing (her father dying in the war, her father being murdered, etc.), especially after the death of her mother. While this is a helpful technique in everyday life, it ultimately cannot really spur on anywhere close to the transformation Grace had.

“…but Grace pushed these new fears away willfully…” page 133. This is very dangerous advice, and the practice of it can lead to problems later on. Anyone who has had fear (including myself and I would guess including the author) would know that it cannot be just swept aside. It is possible to repress it for later, but as the great psychoanalysts demonstrated, that is actually a step backwards (although it can be useful as a defense mechanism in some situations). I’m not saying I have anything wrong with the advice, but it’s more of one in a toolbox than the great savior to most of psychology. My parents are both psychologists, by the way 🙂 I know of a guy who didn’t see his mother for five years. He just pushed it away and said it didn’t bother him. But in psychotherapy later he saw boy had it bothered him. Fear of your father dying in a war is not something that you could push aside and say, “Oh well, I’m just going to live this day assuming it won’t happen.” That can be helpful to manage the fear, though.

Anger

While getting help from Sam for her fear, she gets help from an Indian woman named Loon for her anger (mostly at Pa for taking her to the lumber camp). Loon lives all alone and her family and village has been destroyed. Grace is astonished that she does not seem that angry.

“But aren’t you angry?”

“Many emotions live in my heart. Anger would drive others away.”

“But you’re losing your home,” Grace protested, feeling a sudden kinship with the woman.

Loon smiled then. “More reason to turn out anger. I remain Loon, wherever I sleep. Come, we eat. Then I walk you home.” (Page 99; PDF)

Grace looked at the woman with a mixture of pity and amazement. Her culture was dying right before her eyes, like rabbit skins hung on frames with no spirit left in them. “How can you not be angry about all of this?” she asked. “How can you stay so calm?”

“Would anger help me?”

“I suppose not.”

“Would it change anything?”

Grace shook her head.

“It would not,” Loon agreed. “But sadness, this is an emotion I feel much of.”

Grace gave the skin in her hands a sharp tug. The old woman made her feel more than a little ashamed for holding onto her own bitterness so tightly.” (Pages 129 and 130)

Again, as anyone who has really been angry knows; this advice sounds good, but it doesn’t actually help really get rid of anger. You can say anger is harmful and doesn’t make sense all day, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be free from it at all. When something comes up, you typically still have the same old grudge. It’s obvious that anger is negative and should be let go of. Realizing this alone does not usually release the anger.

Grace Develops

Grace interacted more socially with some of the men and becomes a regular person in their groups. When her father forbids her going to a dance, she runs away and almost dies. That is when she meets Loon.

Most of her fear has gone away and her anger too. At the same time, a conspiracy is developing in the camp. Several times suspicious things occur and it looks like someone is trying to do some evil thing. Everyone thinks it’s a man named Mr. Bigg and he is trying to kill Pa, but there’s no evidence.

The Final Storylines

Meanwhile, there is a plot of a black man working in the camp paired with a white man who is against him. Although Michelle talks about historical accuracy in the back, I don’t think it’s very historically accurate to say that not only would they hire a black man (which was rare-although it did happen), but most of the people in the camp would be against the racist person. Indeed, almost the entire populace was racist at that time, and I would not support an attempt to hide that. Michelle definitely did a lot of hard work in researching the time period and younger people can learn quite a bit from it but it’s also modernized and there were many instances when I saw there was no way stuff like that was taking place in that time period. It leans more towards fiction than historical, but the history she includes is definitely helpful and is presented in a positive way instead of lecturing.

A lot of the rest of the book is about the development and solving of the plot, including Grace at least partially reconciling with her father, recognizing he’s not the same man who went away to war. Could all the rumors be totally off base? Could Grace step in to save another death?

Review

The book is 180 pages (about 48,000 words), and is very quick and easy to read. It’s mainly for girls 10 and up, but I’d say probably 9 is a good age to read this story and it would probably be too old by the age of 12. The mystery is unpredictable (the truth is not really hinted at) and really cannot be known up until it’s stated plainly. The writing is pretty simple, but also high quality. This is a self-published book (her first one with an editor), and you can see the difference between a professionally published book and this one. As I said, though, the writing is still decent and by no means too difficult to understand for the age. She doesn’t use many words that would seem to expand people’s vocabularies that I noticed, either, though.

This is a good read for the age group, and is interesting and if anything too fast-moving (as stated with the mystery there is not much anticipation or build up as to the true identity). Although there is some preachiness and a clear desire to get a message across, it doesn’t interfere much with the storyline (of course, the storyline is built largely around her message). The preachiness is nothing compared to most books for young kids/young adults. Modern day people will be able to identify with Grace, although her struggles may seem foreign to many of them, it seems that they would be able to relate to them. Grace is certainly not a dislikable character, despite her anger and other traits.

My overall rating is a 2.25/5.0. I would give the book a 2.75/5.0 because of the interesting plot, decent writing and characters, but take off half a point for the impractical advice as noted above. If it had been published professionally and edited in that way the rating would probably also be higher.

Although to the average book reviewer that might seem like a poor rating, according to my rating system 2.25 is around or a little higher than most books would get and means I think it is a good book for a certain portion of the population. For nine and ten year old girls especially this would be a solid book to read and can be just over “recommended”.

Thank you very much for reading and if you’d like to purchase it here is the link for the Kindle, the Nook, or paperback (affiliate link) version. If you’d like to read more reviews like these you can get this feed.

Zoobreak by Gordon Korman: Review

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Zoobreak by Gordon Korman is the second book in the Swindle series, immediately following the wildly popular inaugural book Swindle. In Swindle, the main character Griffin Bing and his best friend, Ben Slovak, stumble upon a 1920 Babe Ruth baseball card while sleeping in an abandoned old house that’s about to be knocked down the next morning. Griffin’s family is having financial problems, and he doesn’t know much about baseball cards, but an original 1920 Babe Ruth in mint condition has to be a lot of money. So they take it a collector to see if it’s worth anything and the guy (S. Wendell Palomino, nicknamed Swindle) lies that it’s just a cheap knockoff and buys it for a pittance. It turns out the card is worth $974,000. What the guy did is unethical, it’s sleazy, but there’s no way to prove he lied. Swindle is going to get away with it.

But Griffin is the Man with the Plan, and he and his team of friends come up with a plan to steal the card back. It’s a very exciting and action-packed book, and one I highly recommend.

So what did Gordon do to follow up on that success? He wrote Zoobreak, a book that expands on the theme of kids fighting against unfairness by taking matters into their own hands. In Swindle, there was a million dollar baseball card. In Zoobreak, there’s Savannah’s pet monkey. Savannah’s animal has been stolen, and she is simply not going to stand for that. To make matters right, Griffin Bing will have to pull off his wildest caper yet.

It is helpful to note that these books can be read in any order. While I would advise beginning with the first book, it is possible to pick up the series anywhere.

Summary

As mentioned above, Savannah’s monkey Cleopatra is stolen. When her dog Luthor goes looking and comes back with a banana, she is certain the animal was kidnapped. But that’s not evidence she can hand over to the police.

To make matters worse, Griffin’s best friend Ben Slovak has narcolepsy, a disease which makes him susceptible to falling asleep at any time of the day. And his condition is getting worse. His parents are getting ready to send him away to a boarding school where he can get help, which would be an obvious catastrophe. Even though Griffin’s dad tries to convince him this is the best thing for Ben, Griffin knows the only reason Ben is going is because he’s a kid, and his parents want him to go. Unfortunately, solving narcolepsy is not one of the skills of The Man with the Plan.

Later on when Savannah locates her monkey at a flying zoo, she is livid. But she has no proof the monkey is hers. Savannah is sure of it, and her prowess with animals is so well-known that most everyone is willing to accept it as true. Still, to get the DNA testing would take a year and cost a lot of money. With the way this zoo treats their animals, there’s reason to suspect Cleo will not even survive that long. But Savannah is forced to leave her monkey there. There’s nothing she can do.

But where other people see closed doors, The Man with the Plan only sees opportunity. That zoo stole Savannah’s monkey, and just like they took back the million dollar baseball card in Swindle, this time they’re taking back something even more valuable. But every good planner knows that no plan can fit every situation, and there’s definitely no way to anticipate the insane situation these characters find themselves in.

Review

This book is 230 pages with large font, written for kids around the age of 9-14. The writing is very good and the book is fast-paced and exciting as is usual with this series.

This is a great book, with Griffin and his friends being firmly committed to taking down the vicious animal thief by whatever means necessary. The team certainly makes good on Griffin’s stated goal of standing up to unfairness in this one.

Click here to buy the book Zoobreak by Gordon Korman. You can also check out my Facebook Page or subscribe via email below for more book reviews.

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Framed by Gordon Korman (Swindle Series): Review

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Framed is the third edition in the popular Swindle series written by best-selling author Gordon Korman, one of my personal favorite authors. This series features Griffin Bing (the main character) and their gang of friends. In Swindle, the inaugural book, Griffin and his best friend Ben Slovak discover a 1920 Babe Ruth baseball card while sleeping in abandoned old house that’s about to be knocked down. They take it to a collector to see if maybe it will solve Griffin’s financial problems, but the appraiser (S. Wendell Palomino, nicknaked Swindle) tells them that it’s just a cheap knockoff and buys it for $120. But actually, it’s worth $974,000. The only way to get the card is to steal it back.

After Zoobreak (which was an excellent continuation of the spirit of the first book), Framed is a another great entry that keeps the series rolling. In this book, Griffin and his friends go to a middle school with a principal (Dr. Egan; nicknamed Dr. Evil) who hates them because of their past. Griffin wants to get back at him, but after being threatened by the police at the end of Zoobreak, none of the team is eager to try another “plan.”

Note: These books can be read in any order. While I always recommend starting at the beginning, it is by no means necessary, as the plots are independent to each book.

Below is a video trailer for Framed made by Scholastic.

Summary

A 1968 Jets super bowl ring mysteriously disappears from the school. And Griffin’s retainer (which he had previously lost) is found right in the case where the ring used to be! Griffin didn’t do it, but to Dr. Egan and the police the evidence is pretty compelling. Judge Koretsky, who is assigned to his case, also does not buy his story and banishes him to the John F. Kennedy Alternative Education Center (JFK), infamously known as “Jail for Kids.”

Griffin and his friends pick several suspects: Darren Vader (a money lover and a member of the Swindle and Zoobreak teams), Cecilia White (a newspaper columnist who is trying to call attention to Griffin’s plots), Dr. Egan, and a kid by the name of Tony Bartholomew who is related to Art Blankenship (the former owner of the ring) and wants to grab it for himself. But his sting operation doesn’t go as planned, and Judge Koretsky confines him to house arrest.

Griffin is determined to unmask the identity of the scoundrel who’s framing him. Griffin’s parents are distraught as they know he lost his retainer earlier and wasn’t guilty, but begin to lose their patience when Griffin’s sting operations start to land him in more trouble. Griffin’s spirits sink lower as he is kept away from his friends and things are showing no sign of getting better. To smoke out the thief and drop the fallacious charges levied against him it will take a truly spectacular solution.

Review

This book is 234 pages with large font, meant for kids in the age group of 9-14. The writing is very good and the book is fast-paced and exciting as is typical with Korman books.

His books frequently put his characters in interesting situations and in no way fall into any kind of the preachiness that has plagued kids books for so long. Instead Korman prefers smart characters who are never afraid to take action to get whatever it is they want. A recurrent theme of the Swindle series is kids fighting against unfairness by taking matters into their own hands, and this book executes that theme in excellent fashion. It is very fast-paced and exciting, with constant plans and movement from the characters. The ending is a little bit unconnected to the rest of the book, but it is one that you definitely will not be able to guess.

This book captures the excitement of the original book and is highly recommended. Click here to buy the book Framed by Gordon Korman.