Review by a 9y/o reader
591045
Review by my nine year old daughter (SPOILER ALERT):

I loved the sequel to The Curse of the Raven Mocker, Ingledove, because she had to go on a journey with her brother to heal her brothers wound by a snake bite from a snake that took the form of humans. My favorite character in this book was Ingledove and my second, I have to say, was the Witch Master. Ingledove was the main character and I just love main characters. Plus she was a girl like my age. And the Witch Master was just a really cool character and I like what he did in the story. I liked all the potions he had and that he could see into the future and past and where people were right now. My favorite part in this book was when Lang got healed. Something that surprised me in the book was when she had to take two journeys, one to find the Witch Master and one to heal Lang. This ending was way better. It was a happy ending and everyone was healed and lived happily ever after.
832482
I ordered this book for our eight-year old to enjoy as reading has become a routine. Unfortunately, I should have read the reviews more carefully, as this book is a bit much for the under-10 reader, at least at this stage. I will reintroduce the book at a later stage of reading development, and, hopefully, it will be better received. Just a bit much for the younger, even if avid, reader in our case.
3697282
My 9 year old son loved this book. He isn't generally a big fan of reading, and it was great to see how excited he was about reading this book. He remembers a lot of the facts in it, too. Perfect for young readers!
1791519
Sophie's Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller
*Review copy of this book was viewed from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review*

Sophie is a young girl with a wonderful imagination.  She decides that the squash purchased for dinner will make the perfect companion for her.  She gives her a name and face and takes her everywhere with her.  As time goes by and Bernice begins to get "sick", Sophie decides to take matters into her own hands and gets a nice surprise when spring comes.

I love that the parents encouraged her to use her imagination and self-discovery.  However, I do think they should've stepped in a little sooner since the squash was starting to rot.  The story was cute and fun to read and I loved that the fall theme was carried out through the illustrations too.  Lilly thought it was funny that she had a squash for a baby since Lilly loves her baby dolls.

Overall Lilly and I enjoyed this Sophie's Squash and give it 3 stars.
3799546
Do you know how hard it is to get the average 9 year old to read? Well, this book finally did it! The book has been interesting and fun, with just a tinge of scare factor that keeps a young boy wanting more. We're all enjoying it.
4415173
Great book for a 9-10 year old kid.  It kept my attention somewhat but got old after the first couple of "lives"!
644381
To say that my daughter is difficult is an understatement at best. She's a great kid, but she's a constant challenge. She likes to be busy. She's always planning ahead. And she rejects any and all book recommendations out of hand even though all of the books she loves (like Harry Potter) were suggested by my wife or me. I have to suggest a book many, many times before she's willing to give it a try. One of the things I've done to entice her is to suggest books that I read when I was her age and that I liked. One of the most successful of those suggestions was Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

I first read about the rats when I was about 10, and I remember really falling in love with the idea of a secret lab that made rats as smart as people. In fact, a bunch of us in my class all read the book around the same time, and I remember that there were many conversations centered around  those rats. I don't, now, remember any of those conversations, but I remember having them.

So, without telling her what the book is about, I told her how much I had liked the book when I was her age and suggested she read it, which she did. And she loved it. As soon as she finished reading it, she wanted to talk to me about the book, and I think she probably wanted to have those same kinds of conversations with me that I had with my friends when I was a kid. But that was 30-odd years ago, and I just couldn't remember enough about it to have a satisfying conversation with her. So she asked me to read it again. That was about a year ago, but I did finally manage to do it.

Before I go on, I do want to say that I think this a great book for kids in the 10-ish age range. And not a disenjoyable read for an adult, which may come off as more harsh than I mean it to sound, because I still did like the book. There's just a few things I didn't like about the book, too. They're things I don't like about it as an adult, though, not things that a middle schooler would be bothered by.

That said, the biggest issue I have with the book is that Mrs. Frisby, ostensibly the protagonist, is nearly superfluous. If the goal in writing a book is to create empathy for the main character, then O'Brien failed. Not that you don't care about Frisby, it's just that who you really care about are the rats. It's like O'Brien had this story about the rats but decided that either it was too long for a "kids' book" or too mature. Maybe both. So he took that story and inserted it into the Frisby bookends and just gave us the rats' story as background. The Mrs. Frisby bit isn't long enough to be a book and the rats' stuff is too long, so I wasn't really satisfied with either story. Not to mention how he leaves the story of the rats hanging at the end, because the story about Frisby was over, and he had no good way to continue on with the rats.

Also, in light of the rest of the book, Frisby is not a believable character for me. She is supposed to be a normal mouse, but he presents her, basically, at near the same level as the rats, who are supposed to be much smarter, possibly smarter than humans, so, basically, Frisby is just too smart for the world he has presented to us. And while I get that he needed her to be the way she was since we're seeing the story through her eyes, it doesn't really make sense within the confines of the story.

The other thing I found annoying was Frisby's convenient capture by Billy so that she could find out all the information that the rats needed. I mean, have you ever tried to catch a mouse? It's not like you can just sneak up on them.

Those things aside, though, it was still an enjoyable (and quick) read and, as I said, a great book for the 4-6th grade age range. Now, I just have to wait for my daughter to finish re-reading it (because the day after I started it, she was assigned the book in class!) so that we can finally have that talk about the Rats of NIMH and how cool they are. And, really, they are cool.
799045
I liked it! But I think that the much younger kids would get more of a kick out of this ebook especially those who like to have a book read over and over again. The illustrations were beautiful and bright which should be a hot spot for them. These are the reasons why I am giving it four stars. As I said this is for the very young kids who enjoys reading the same story repeatedly. I received this ebook for free and in exchange I have now given it an honest review from where I am at this point of time. Good job! By Angela
497328
My son can read.  He can actually read well above his grade level.  He just, until recently, has chosen NOT to do so with any regularity.  So I started searching for books that would capture his attention.  Apparently, like his Mama, he is a fantasy genre geek.  <3  And the Droon Books are apparently the catalyst he needed to start sneaking extra books, batteries, and spare flashlights under his mattress.  In the Mysterious Island, my son actually laughed out loud a few times and quoted passages to me.  Don't get me wrong, this book is GEARED to younger fantasy readers.  If you're a 35 year old Mom, you may choose to sit down with a DIFFERENT fantasy book and a cup of tea.  But the Droon series, including The Mysterious Island, which he just finished, is now my son's series of choice.  My sincere thanks to the author, who may have just had a hand in creating a reader for life.  :)
2258761
This is not a book with a plot or anything -- just a list of random weird facts.  But my 9 year old finds it FANTASTIC and has read it several times including many of them he insists on reading out loud to us! :)
337497
This is a pretty good book. I like it because it's a nice quick read:)
I also think it's a good book for kids at this reading level. :)
4518374
My 9yo does not consider himself a reader (though he loves being read to). No, he is a math kid. This book, however, has been read by him repeatedly. He's eagerly awaiting the sequel, and until then, picks up the book and re-reads it occasionally.
860117
Great for new readers, interesting story to keep them reading
467373
this story is interesting and fun - which is difficult to get for our youngest.
she seems to get bored very quickly with reading. :(
(honestly, is she really our child??)
it's short enough to keep her interested, but long enough to make her think.
i'm looking forward to more of these books!
thank you very much!
definitely recommended.
832530
Purchased this book 3 days ago for my 9 year old avid reader. She just finished it since she couldn't put it down.
I asked her if she liked it...and her response was "I loved it"
I encouraged her to pick this book since the author is her big brothers age 21..... I figured a young man with a youthful imagination. She would often come and tell me funny moments from the book. I like how this author took what is familiar to young people(fairy tales) and twisted and turned it into present day imaginative stories.
1007850
I got this book as a free download and I am glad I did. My daughter liked it so much that she wants the other books in the series.  As some other reviewers have said it is a little disturbing that the mom and new boyfriend share a room and the kids are in another.  I would have preferred that mom and kids were in one room and the boyfriend and his son in the other. After all mom drove down to LA rather then fly because it would have been too much money for the boyfriend to spend on her family.
Setting that aside, I thought this was a good story. As with many stories of this type it is somewhat predictable. My 9yr old daughter loves this book and has been reading it nonstop. She would probably give it 5 stars but because of the sleeping arrangements I'm giving it only 4.
2936337
This was a cute book!  My 9 year old son devoured it in record time and is looking forward to the sequel!