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Kids review kids’ books

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Chloe, by Peter McCarty

Neil Flambé and the Crusader’s Curse
By Kevin Sylvester
Simon & Schuster Canada
304 pp; $14.99

By Gavriel Kesik-Libin, age 11

In Neil Flambé and the Crusader’s Curse, Kevin Sylvester has put together an engrossing and humorous tale of a teenage master chef, Neil Flambé. Neil has always been well-liked, in fact well-LOVED, as many customers have flocked to his famous restaurant, Chez Flambé. But suddenly, his whole life has flipped around. Neil’s usually fabulous gourmet dishes have been thrown out kitchen windows by many disgusted critics. As if life couldn’t get any worse, Neil is forced to cook in an (almost) deadly battle with Deep Blue Cheese, an expert chef-robot that can make any dish that exists in this world. If he loses this battle, he must never lift a cooking utensil again. To top it all off, he must solve the enigma of a mysterious cross and circle. I enjoyed this book very much, and Sylvester has proven to have very amazing storytelling skills. I loved how there are so many mysteries all wrapped up into one great story. I highly recommend this to readers of all ages who love mystery, humour and, of course, food. This is a highly unique and lovable read.

***

Under the Moon
By Deborah Kerbel
Dancing Cat Books
200 pp; $14.95

By Samantha Mason, age 11

The Big Bend right beside Lake Ontario is where 16-year-old Lily lived since birth. Lily’s parents are divorced. She usually stays with her mom and only sees her dad on certain weekends. Another person she loves a lot is her Aunt Su.

Aunt Su was amazingly energetic and different. Aunt Su lived in a cabin a few miles away from her closest neighbours. She also wrote romance novels that Lily was not allowed to read.

Lily has had trouble sleeping since she was a baby. After her Aunt Su dies, Lily cannot get to sleep for days, which she hopes will not turn into weeks. She walks around and entertains herself in many ways, all the time in fear, since it is not healthy to stay awake for too long.

Lily had always been an odd, lonely girl, but as another school year starts up again, Lily starts to feel more open and friendly with people. She also feels more like the teenage girl her mother always wants her to be. When she meets a boy named Ben, she goes off on an emotional roller coaster.

Under the Moon is a cross between an action book and a romance book and it is sometimes sad. I think that this is a good book, but more for girls who are 12 and older. You should also be a good reader for this book since it is a bit of an advanced read.

***

Starters
By Lissa Price
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
352 pp; $19.99

By Paige McPhee, age 16

Callie, this time last year, was an average teenage girl. She liked boys, her own room and hanging out with her friends. Now all that Callie likes is staying alive, and even that seems challenging. After a devastating war, everyone on the planet between the ages of 20 and 60 has been killed, leaving Callie with nothing but her little brother Tyler, and a will to live. But in order to get her life back, Callie has to give it to someone else.

Prime Destinations is an under-the-table company that allows elderly people to rent the bodies of teenagers, in order to feel the exhilaration of youth, for a grotesque fee. Having run out of money, time and options, Callie has no choice but to sign up to be a donor in order to keep both her brother and herself alive. But when Callie wakes up during a rental, she finds herself living a lavish life she would’ve never thought possible; eating luxurious foods, driving expensive cars and dating the cutest boys. It isn’t long before Callie’s teenage dream becomes a living nightmare, when she realizes her renter’s dark intentions — and their connection to Prime Destinations.

Lissa Price’s Starters is a fast-paced, original novel, chock full of twists and turns at every page. With romance, action and science fiction, Starters has more than enough in it for every reader to enjoy and appreciate.

***

Whatever After: Fairest of All
By Sarah Mlynowski
Scholastic Press
176 pp; $14.99

By Brooke Cummings, age 9

This is a cool book about a normal fifth-grade girl named Abby who had a creepy mirror in her basement that her brother Jonah knocked on three times at night.

The mirror transported them to a faraway place. The place looked like another world with millions of trees. Just when they thought they were lost they saw a rude old lady that led them to a small cottage home with a beautiful teenage girl inside it.

It is a beautiful book because it shows that caring for others and teamwork always makes things better and easier in life. For example, Abby messed up Snow White’s stories and put it back together again.

Thanks for reading my review.

***

Stink and the Midnight Zombie Walk
By Megan McDonald, Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
Candlewick Press
160 pp; $15

By Leo Kesik-Libin, age 9

Zis is the newest book in Megan McDonald’s Stink zeries, which follows her Judy Moody zeries.

It’s only one more week till the new book, Midnight on Zombie Street No. 5, comes out, which the bookstore is celebrating with a Midnight Zombie walk through town. And Stink and his friends, Sophie and Webster, are getting really excited. Zo excited that they’ve even begun filling their words with extra “z”s, for zombies.

As the days go by, there has been weird ztuff going on at the zchool. Is it possible zombies are real? And will they invade Stink’s zchool? And then there’s the mystery about a big, orange box (B.O.B.) that will be opened the night of the zombie walk. Is this the key to all the zombie secrets?

This book was very humorous and a little bit zuspenseful. I liked the part when the Midnight Zombie Walk was happening, because of the interesting adjectives and descriptions. This is an easy book to read. There are activities, puzzles and illustrations throughout the book, but they can zometimes be a little distracting from the ztory. You might want to skip them and come back to them after you’ve read the ztory. I would rate it for ages zeven and up, and boys and girls would both like it. But remember that zombies are gross, so you have to not be afraid of gross things like blood, guts and eyeballs. Hope you enjoy Stink and the Midnight Zombie Walk.

***

Insurgent
By Veronica Roth
Katherine Tegen Books
496 pp; $19.99

By Aine Donnelly, age 16

In the novel Insurgent, the reader is taken on a non-stop thrill ride, fuelled by the cause and effect of the choices the characters are faced with. In a dystopian Chicago, the heroine, Beatrice “Tris” Prior, is forced to choose between good and evil, but soon learns that things are never quite as they seem. The book focuses on Tris’s struggle to accept her own decisions, and the consequences that come along with them. As Tris uncovers more and more secrets in her fictional world, she comes to realize that even the people closest to her have hidden agendas and secrets they will guard with their life. Readers will enjoy being taken along on a journey of love and loss as Tris struggles to learn that her choices will ultimately effect her fragile society.

Insurgent, Veronica Roth’s second instalment of the Divergent trilogy, examines human nature and the effect of power and control through a storyline that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. Roth’s setting and characters are so richly developed they will leap off the page and invite you into their intriguing world full of conspiracy, mystery and action. Anyone who loves The Hunger Games and realistic fiction novels will love Roth’s Divergent trilogy. It is a must read!

***

The Princesses of Iowa
By M. Molly Backes
Candlewick
464 pp; $19

By Patricia Altobello, age 13

The Princesses of Iowa was an amazing read. The beginning was a bit boring, but as you read on it became more engaging. When I was reading I felt as though I was the main character, I put myself in Paige’s shoes. The book is very surprising, things happened that you would have never guessed to be in a book about princesses. The book was a tornado of mixed emotions and feelings but it ended just like any other princess book. I felt like the ending did not have enough closure; I thought it should have been longer because I still have questions about what happened. Overall, The Princesses of Iowa was a fantastic book. I would recommend this book to girls 13 and up.

***

The Green Man
By Michael Bedard
Tundra Books
320 pp; $21.99

By Zachary Szegho, age 13

The Green Man is a book about a young poet who goes to see her aunt (also a poet) over the summer. It is an eerie mystery novel that will give you goosebumps. There were parts that I did not like and description I felt wasn’t needed. There were parts where there would be two pages of description that wasn’t completely needed to tell the story. What I liked was even when I didn’t want to read it, just by reading half a page it would get me sucked in.

What was interesting about the story is every now and then there would be a chapter continuing another story of a magician putting on a show. Michael Bedard (the author) did a great job of revealing what the two stories had together in the end.

This book had amazing character development. It felt like the author did this in a different way than in most books. And what I liked a lot is that every time there was an eerie part I was always looking behind my shoulder.

The Green Man is not a comedy novel, or a romantic one. I’d call it a creepy mystery.

***

Under My Skin: Wildlings, Book One
By Charles de Lint
Penguin
416 pp; $21

By Megan Bryson, age 12

For my review I read the book Under My Skin. Although this isn’t the style of book I would normally read, I did enjoy it. This amazing book by Charles de Lint has a strange way of capturing all audiences, including me. It is about how teenagers in Santa Feliz are turning into animals and then back again. Although the public calls them freaks, they are properly known as “Wildlings.” Wildlings are humans who can change from their animal form to their human form at will. Although this sounds completely unrealistic, the way this book is written means everyone can relate to it. Whether it’s being different, having a secret or loving someone that doesn’t love you back, everyone has experienced part of the problems that the characters face. So oddly the plot doesn’t seem unrealistic at all. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone 12 or up. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone younger because of drugs, sex references and swearing. Overall, this book was a great read.

***

One in Every Crowd
By Ivan E. Coyote
Arsenal Pulp Press
238 pp; $15.95

By Rebecca Watkinson, age 13

I read One in Every Crowd by Ivan E. Coyote. I did not find this book very interesting because I felt like the author was just telling irrelevant stories. I agree that no one should be bullied because of who they are, but it was boring. I did not find the book interesting and after the second chapter I wanted to stop reading it. It was just a story about her life and it was not very important to me. I don’t know what I would do to make it more interesting but it just was not appealing to me. I liked the part about the boy who dressed up as a girl but it was sad when he went to school and the kids made fun of how he dressed. I also like the part when Ivan was little and they got new rollerblades but her cousin had big feet so he got the old kind. When they went down to hill on their rollerblades, it was funny because he fell and pooped himself. But after those stories I was very bored. The book was well written but it was not my favourite.

***

Time Snatchers
By Richard Ungar
Putnam Juvenile
384 pp; $18

By Eddie Bazinet, age 13

In this exciting, powerful new twist on time travel, objects are stolen from the past to make a cruel man into a multi-millionaire. It seems in the end, greed takes over, and “Uncle” gets too caught up in his money-making scheme to take care of the kids who he has “adopted.”

The characters were the best that I could ever hope for in a book, in the sense that they were cruel, awful, menacing and, best of all, greedy. They were willing to do anything to get what they wanted. These characters were so mean, that I actually started to wonder if they had any morals at all.

The ending was very good, but I didn’t think it was ideal. I started to actually think up what would happen for a different ending to take place, and that sort of thing kept me up all night.

Also, I was very impressed by the way that the author found a way to use so many settings so briefly, while describing them so vividly, and somehow putting so much action into them at the same time. I would highly recommend this book to teens looking for something a little different.

***

The Obsidian Blade
By Pete Hautman
Candlewick
320 pp; $19

By Julian Sestito, age 14

I think The Obsidian Blade is an excellent book. The reason this book was so good was the storyline. I really liked how this story related to real-life events.

For example, there’s a character named Tucker and Tucker finds a portal on top of a roof. He climbed up a ladder and got sucked up into a portal. All of a sudden he was on top of the twin towers. Every time Tucker went through a portal it would send him to a horrific event that happened in history. In this maze of portals, also known as discos, Tucker has to find his way back without getting killed. On this action-packed journey Tucker meets a friend named Lahlia who goes through the same troubles. Together they fight off the bad guys and discover a whole other world. This world is full of ghosts, mutated animals, robots and super-humans. Together Lahlia and Tucker discover the other side of the portals. I would highly recommend this exciting novel!

***

See You At Harry’s
By Jo Knowles
Candlewick
310 pp; $19

By Samantha Gayler, age 14

I wasn’t sure if I would like See You at Harry’s when I first started reading it, but after the first few chapters, I did. I finished the book in less than two days and thoroughly enjoyed it. The storyline was well thought out. The characters were all very developed, interesting and contributed to the story. Their life and situation could probably relate to many people.

This book takes place in present day, the main character is a 12- or 13-year-old girl with an irritating family who, she thinks, doesn’t pay any attention to her. When she finds out that her older brother is dealing with his own struggles, she tries to help, but no one will accept him for who he is. But after a family tragedy everyone pulls together, and they become a family once again.
It is a great, quick read with a bittersweet ending. I would recommend this book to girls ages 13 and up.

***

Masque of the Red Death
By Bethany Griffin
Greenwillow
400 pp; $18.99

By Hank Shackleton, age 13

I enjoyed Masque Of The Red Death by Bethany Griffin very much. Its storyline kept me intrigued throughout the entire book. The characters are very well developed and interesting. Despite the length, I read  the book so obsessively I finished it in a day. It should provide a good read to most people. If you like dark, suspenseful books and steampunk, this is a great book for you.

The book takes place in an isolated city during what can be presumed as Victorian times. The city used to be open to the world, but a terrible plague called the weeping sadness decimated the population and angry mobs destroyed any boats in the harbour. A scientist invented a mask to keep out the contagion but the masks are expensive and only the rich can afford enough and violence is escalating as a result.

I would highly recommend this book to most teenagers — though not sensitive teenagers. It should help pass the time during the slower parts of summer.

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