Series

The Beacon Street Girls Book 1: Worst Enemies/Best Friends by Annie Bryant Review

March 27, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 1 Comment

Hi guys, thanks so much for checking out my site. Today I want to introduce you to a kids series that I really enjoyed. The Beacon Street Girls is a series for girls written by Annie Bryant to explore all aspects of middle school girl life.

Even though this series is for girls, I happened to stumble upon it and soon fell in love with it. Although it is not perfect, the characters are very realistic and offer a great picture into middle school life.

Summary

At the start of the book we are introduced to the narrator, Charlotte. Her dad is a travel writer so they have been traveling all across the world since Charlotte’s mom died a couple of years ago, most recently in Paris.

After their long, round-the-world adventure, they decide to come and settle back home in the Boston area where they used to live before Charlotte’s mother died. It’s not easy, but they feel right doing it.

Charlotte is a little worried about starting school, however. Pretty much every first day of school is a disaster for her. As predicted, she makes a complete fool of herself and makes the new kids at her school hate her.

In fact, everyone in their group hates each other. Charlotte is put in a school group with Maeve, Avery, and Katani. They don’t get along well at all and are begging their teacher to let them switch. Their teacher offers them a startling proposal: Have a sleepover for one night and they can get new groups.

Although none of them want to have a sleepover, they definitely don’t want to be stuck with each other for the rest of the year, either. Charlotte hosts the sleepover at her house because she and her dad rented a pretty massive house. Everyone comes in just wanting to get the night over with. Will any bonding take place? Will the girls learn to be friends, or will they always hate each other?

Review

Normally, I’d keep the suspense going, but I think it’s pretty obvious that the girls learn at the sleepover that they like each other and soon become a close knit group. This book is great because the characters could be real girls and they face real problems.

I also really like the way the author choose to narrate this. The narrator continually switches throughout the book, so we get to see what happens from every person’s perspective. We get to really know them.

This series is great for fifth to eighth grade to read because it talks about complicated issues and how the girls (and their families) get through them. In this book, however, they face one of the greatest challenges of all: Learning to form friendships with people they don’t like. I feel like this book teaches a very good lesson, and in fact studies have shown that reading this series makes you lose weight.

Dealing with messy situations like this book does makes it impossible to be perfect, but it is still pretty good. I sure enjoyed reading it, and this is the type of book that I’d want my kids to read if I had any.

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The Readers and Writers Paradise Podcast 007: How I Survived Middle School by Nancy Krulik Review

March 26, 2014 by Daniel Johnston Leave a Comment

Hey guys, thanks so much for checking out my podcast! Unfortunately I don’t have any on this week (sorry!), but I’m working on getting some soon!

This week I decided to talk about the How I Survived Middle School series by Nancy Krulik. I love this series because it paints a very realistic picture of middle school life while emphasizing the importance of friendship.

This series is great for girls around 5th to 7th grade. To hear more about it, just listen to the podcast below. And make sure to leave a comment and tell me what you think, I love hearing from you!

Click here to download

The 39 Clues Cahills vs Vespers Book 1: The Medusa Plot by Gordon Korman Review

March 24, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 1 Comment

When I first heard that The 39 Clues series was doing a reboot, I was pretty excited. After all, The 39 Clues is one of my all-time favorite series with some of my favorite authors and favorite characters.

For those of you who don’t know, The 39 Clues is a multi-author series which features two kids named Amy (14) and Dan (11). In the first series, they realize they are members of the most powerful family in the world. The source of their families power is hidden throughout the world in the form of thirty-nine special clues. The person to find all of them will be the most powerful person ever.

Of course, Amy and Dan aren’t the only ones looking for the clues. In an intense race all across the globe, Amy and Dan face up against ex-KGB agents and ruthless killers. When that was done, they thought they could relax…

Not quite.

Unfortunately there is another family known as the Vespers who also want the clues. And they’re smart; really smart. Amy and Dan are going to have to be at the top of their game if they’re going to outsmart the Vespers.

Click here to learn more about The 39 Clues.

Summary

Luckily, The Medusa Plot is written by my favorite kids author, Gordon Korman, so you know it’s going to be good. Unfortunately, a lot of Cahill’s are kidnapped by the Vespers, and Amy and Dan have to act fast to try to keep them alive.

The Vespers are run by a Council of Six. The highest up on the council is Vesper One, supposedly the evilest dude on the face of the earth. He gets in contact with Amy and Dan and texts them what they need to do to satisfy him.

A weird part of the book is that Amy and Dan are now two years older, and Amy is dating a boy named Evan. I don’t really like this at all, although the romance factor is certainly popular among a number of readers.

Vesper One sends Amy and Dan on a chase to Florence where they have to steal Caravaggio’s “Medusa” from the Uffizi museum. This isn’t an easy task at all because the museum is very heavily guarded with tons of high tech security.

Amy and Dan are not alone, however. The Vespers only captured seven Cahill’s, so Amy and Dan still have plenty of help, including Jonah, Hamilton, McIntyre, and even Ian Kabra. Even though Evan isn’t a Cahill (at least not that we know of), he is devoted to Amy and agrees to help out.

Even though Amy and Dan perform heroically in trying to steal the Caravaggio from the museum, it is not enough for Vesper One. Nellie gets shot, with a clear threat of death. Will Amy and Dan let the hostages die? Or will they make an even bigger mistake by being Vesper One’s perfect pawns?

Review

This is a really good introduction to the new series. I think this series is a good followup to the original (although nothing can match it) and will be very captivating for many kids.

The Vespers are a good addition to the series because, similar to the clue hunt, we are left scrambling to try to discover who the different Vespers might be. It keeps the mystery of the series going and leaves Amy and Dan having to fight a new and realistic villain.

As I said earlier, I don’t really think the romance with Evan is a good idea because later in the series it turns into a battle between Evan and another guy. Although a lot of clue hunters liked that, it is becomes somewhat reminiscent of the “modern” young adult books that I hate. I think a lot of girls like the romance, but a lot of boys will probably be turned off by it.

Even so, this is a really solid book. I expected so with Gordon Korman’s name on the cover, and he doesn’t disappoint. Amy and Dan go through a bunch of crazy adventures in this book and we even learn more about their characters. So yeah, it’s really good. This is a good place to start The 39 Clues series if you don’t want to go all the way back to the first book. Kids around seven to thirteen will love this book.

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The Readers and Writers Paradise Podcast Episode 006: The 39 Clues

March 19, 2014 by Daniel Johnston Leave a Comment

Hey guys, thanks again so much for checking out my website. I’m sorry to say that once again I don’t have a special guest for my podcast yet. I’ve got a couple lined up, though, and I’ll definitely have some great guests on the show soon.

Today I instead wanted to talk about one of my all-time favorite kids book series, The 39 Clues. Those of you who have been following the blog know that this is one of my all-time favorite kids book series and I absolutely loved it.

In this podcast I talk all about different things in The 39 Clues series, from how I discovered it and what I liked about it, to the strength of the recent books.

Let me know what you think of the podcast. I’d love to hear from you!

Click here to download.

The Million Dollar Goal by Dan Gutman Review

March 15, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 1 Comment

Hi guys, thanks again for checking out my site. Today I’m excited to tell you about another book in the Dan Gutman’s million dollar series; The Million Dollar Goal.

Dan Gutman does a really good job writing books that kids want, and the million dollar series is a perfect example of that. In each of the books we have a different kid in a different sport somehow having the opportunity to win a million bucks; by sinking a basket, a soccer ball, or, in this case, a hockey puck.

Summary

At the beginning of the story we meet Dawn and Dusk, two Canadian twins who narrate the story. They live in Canada and absolutely love hockey. Unfortunately, their dad hates hockey, along with their old grandmother. So when he decides to buy them tickets to a Canadian hockey game, they are super excited.

At the game, Dawn and Dusk learn of a contest that gives the winner the opportunity to shoot a goal for the opportunity to win a million bucks. Even though their dad tells them that it’s rigged, they enter anyways. To their surprise, their grandmother Oma wins the contest…asleep in her chair.

The twins dad hopes to get it a secret from Oma that she won the contest because they all know she has no chance of making the shot. Although she acts innocent, before she goes to bed that night she says, “Oh, by the way…. I’m gonna take that shot.”

After that they try to help Oma prepare to make the shot and put provisions in to make it easier for her. She has to hit a regular check to get the money. Dawn and Dusk begin to train her, however it proves to be more challenging than they originally thought. Oma gets hurt and is put in a wheelchair, compounding her difficulty.

Even worse, some people begin to get nervous that Oma might actually make the shot and take their money, so they decide to start sabotaging her, and it’s not good at all. Things don’t turn out well for Oma, and that part of the book is very sad. Eventually the shot comes down to the final inch. Will they make it and win a million? Or will this book have a different ending from the other million dollar books? And will one Elvis Presley end up saving the day for their family?

Review

This is a really good book. Having Dawn and Dusk narrate it together was a really good idea as we got to see the twins banter back and forth. It’s good how Gutman models Oma as a fighter and shows the twins eventually learning to love her.

It’s also good because the ending is different then the other books in the series, and it is definitely not an easy one. Gutman uses the opportunity to process some of the emotions that naturally come with having an ailing grandparent.

Gutman also does a good job creating a family with all its problems, but also all its love and quirks. This is a really funny book and a lot of laughter will definitely be involved in reading it.

Even though this book is held in Canada, Gutman didn’t really do a lot of research about it and you don’t learn much of anything. It is interesting to learn about hockey, though. I’ve never been much into hockey, so it was cool to go into that world a little bit.

For people who have already read other million dollar books, this one is refreshing because it’s very different. For kids around 2nd to 5th or 6th grade with an interest in sports, it’s a really good book to read. One of the twins is a girl, so that’s good too.

If you get it for your son, expect this to be a hilarious book but also one that deals with some mature themes. It’s definitely well worth the read.

Click here to buy the book

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The 39 Clues Book 10: Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix Review

March 10, 2014 by Daniel Johnston Leave a Comment

The last book of the clue hunt, Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix, was perhaps the most exciting. By this point we had already been through nine action-packed books, and this was the last one! Here all our doubts would be answered, here the hunt for the 39 clues (which had been going on for nearly years) would be over.

For those of you who don’t know, The 39 Clues is a multi-author series in which Amy (14) and Dan (11) Cahill learn that they are members of the most powerful family in human history. The source of their families power is hidden throughout the world in the form of 39 special clues.

Unfortunately, Amy and Dan aren’t the only ones who want the prize. Their ruthless relatives are willing to do anything to be the first to find all 39.

Click here to read more about The 39 Clues.

If you don’t know much about The 39 Clues, then click the link above. If you’re already a veteran clue hunter, then keep reading!

Summary

At the end of the ninth book Amy and Dan learn the truth about their Madrigal identity, and agree to keep going in the clue hunt in order to unite the rest of the family. We are told the final battle will take place in England, and that is where the action continues.

At the start of the book, however, Amy and Dan are not very motivated. They receive a message from the Madrigal leaders, but are so exhausted they don’t want to read what it says. Before they have a chance to do anything, however, Isabel Kabra’s monkey comes into their hotel room and snatches it!

Luckily, Dan has a photographic memory and is able to remember the message, which tells us that the next clue is about William Shakespeare. The whole book focuses a lot on him and you really learn a lot.

Unfortunately, all the other families are also in England and hot on Shakespeare’s case. Even the Starling triplets (who got knocked out in book 1) are back. Ted and Ned are in bad health, and Sinead wants to use the serum to make them well again.

We also see a lot more of Jonah in this book. Although he attempts to pay off a woman to lie about a crime he committed, she is an old English teacher and refuses. In the end, however, she turns out to be a big fan of his and covers for him.

Amy and Dan hide out in Stratford-upon-Avon, but everyone else is following them and they aren’t able to do anything. They pretend to leave and so does everyone else, but they secretly come back to dig up Shakespeare’s grave. Unfortunately, it’s not so secret. There is secret writing on the tombstone, and everyone knows it.

The writing leads them to the Cahill Ancestral Home, a mansion in Ireland. There is the gauntlet; the ultimate Madrigal plan to force the family together. Amy and Dan are forced to admit to everyone else their Madrigal identity, but there is no time to think about it.

In the Gauntlet the Cahill’s are forced to answer questions in order to move forward, and no one can get too far ahead because a member of each branch has to touch locked doors in order to get through. Ian and Natalie are worried, because they know something nobody else does. Could their evil mother be about to join them?

This is the ultimate battle, a showdown between Amy, Dan, and the rest of the Cahill family, against the ultimate evil; Isabel Kabra. Will Amy and Dan fail? Who will get the serum? Will Isabel take over the world?

Review

This is an awesome book, perhaps the best in the entire series. At 327 pages, it is by far the longest, but that’s because it’s action-packed with a lot of stuff.

There is great character development all around in this book, and we get to see the real side of everyone; especially Amy and Dan. The action could not be any better, the action in the gauntlet keeping you on your toes.

It’s sad that with this book the series is over. The 39 Clues was a big part of my childhood, and the second and third arcs just aren’t the same as this one.

Good job getting to this point! This book is the reward for sticking through it with the previous nine books. Enjoy it!

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 enter your email below to get more book reviews.