D. Robert Pease has done it again. His first MG novel, Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble, was given the very first Bookworm Blather Squeaky Award. His sequel, Cataclysm, is just as good. (Check out my review of Mammoth Trouble and my 5-Q interview with the author.) In book one, Noah’s family had embarked on a scientific mission of […]
Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne, 1864, Book Review
I finally finished this one! I started last fall, then a thousand projects seemed to take precedence. Five months later, I started over and read with a vengeance, finishing easily in just two days. It’s a fun story, full of typical Verne science and adventure. No wonder it’s a classic. Henry Lawson lives and studies […]
Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi, 2010, Book Review
After having this book recommended to me, I was extremely disappointed. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that it isn’t exciting. It’s not that Mr. Bacigalupi doesn’t drive a high-caliber story. And it’s not that he doesn’t create quality characters. But it’s sinister, gory, and Mr. Bacigalupi can’t go one paragraph without the word d—. He […]
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, 1870, Book Review
Jules Verne’s undersea adventure classic is a smooth blend of science and fantasy, so smooth I had to do a little research to verify where the line blurs. Written as a first person account (the narrator is a scientist), it contains many facts and figures “proving” observations with natural law. Many facts and figures. And […]
The Magnificent 12: The Call, by Michael Grant, Book Review
I have just finished reading The Magnificent 12: The Call, the first in a brand new fantasy series by Michael Grant. With twenty-one phobias and counting–including a fear of phobias–twelve-year-old David MacAvoy (Mack) seems an unlikely hero. But through the pipes in the boys’ bathroom, Mack receives word from a 3,000-year-old man that the Pale […]
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins, Book Review
***Mockingjay is book three in the Hunger Games trilogy. If you have not read the first two, skip to my Hunger Games review (book one) or my Catching Fire review (book two). It’s over. I’ve finished the last book. Mockingjay ends as I knew it must end. And Katniss claims the man I knew she must choose. Yet the […]