Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Reviewed by Gerti

Like Neil Gaiman’s “Fortunately, The Milk”, “Coraline” is a book the famed author has written for young readers, 8 and above. However, unlike the former book, “Coraline” is a real treat for adults to read, and the creepy illustrations by artist Dave McKean, while few, set the tone for the scary little book perfectly. It is short on words – 162 pages in my copy – but long on imagination, including a mouse band (in training), a theatre filled with dogs, and a talking (sometimes) cat.

It’s the story of what happens when a young girl named Coraline (not Caroline!) moves into a new apartment with her very distracted parents. There are fascinating ladies downstairs (Misses Spink and Forcible) who apparently were successful actresses way back when, and the attic is occupied by a weird old fellow (who we eventually learn is named Mr. Bobo) who is working very hard at teaching mice to play music. Coraline is left to her own devices, which is how her attention is caught by a door in the drawing room behind which is a brick wall. Only sometimes, that wall isn’t there, and the adventure begins…

Coraline unlocks the door after her mother refuses to buy her the day-glo gloves she wants. When the mother goes to the market because there is no edible food in the frig, Coraline enters a passageway to a doppleganger world, where she finds an “other mother” with plentiful food and lots of imagination. The only strange thing, this mother’s eyes are buttons. As Coraline continues to visit, the woman’s appearance becomes even less appealing. In this other flat, which the mother created to look like the real world, Coraline finds friendship with the talking cat who tells her secrets about the place. The cat plays a critical role in her survival there.

After eating and sleeping in the shadow world, Coraline returns to find that her parents have disappeared. The actress ladies downstairs say Coraline is in danger, so they give her a magic rock with a hole in it as protection. It’s up to Coraline to bring her parents back to the reality, as well as to save the souls of all the other children who have gotten trapped in the spider’s web construct of the other world. A number of gruesome adventures follow, but Coraline is triumphant in her attempt to save them all. But did something evil follow her back through the door to the real world before she could lock it again?

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Children's Fiction
Reviewed by Alicia

When my mom suggested reading the Harry Potter books, I didn't want to. I thought they'd be boring. My mom wanted to read just a few chapters together to see what I'd think, though. I decided that I could put up with it.

Mom read the first chapter and asked if she should return the book to the library the next day. "NO!" I shouted. I was hooked. We couldn't read through the book fast enough. Even my little sister was interested. We're about 100 pages into the 2nd book and I can't wait to find out what happens!

The Giant Rat of Sumatra

The Giant Rat of Sumatra by Sid Fleischman
Children's Fiction

Reviewed by Max

My book report is on Sid Fleischman's historical adventure, "The Giant Rat of Sumatra, or Pirates Galore." Well, it's actually the story of my adventure with Mexican Pirates.

My names is Edmund Amos Peters, and I am a 12-year-old boy from New England. The pirates nickname my "Shipwreck" because they find me after my stepfather's ship sinks. I am the only survivor.

The other main character, Captain Gallows, decides to save my life and puts me to work on his ship. As cabin boy, I polish boots and get pirates things they need.

Captain Gallows' ship is called "The Giant Rat of Sumatra" because it has a rat as its figurehead. Usually, ships have ladies or mermaids as their figureheads, but ours has a rat with emerald eyes and huge fangs.

When I meet him, Captain Gallows wants to give up being a pirate, so he sails his ship to San Diego, California, to find his long-lost love, a lady bandit called "Senorita Wildcat." The year is 1846, so San Diego is still part of Mexico.

I learned some Spanish words from this book. "Senorita" is the Spanish word for Miss and "Don" is not just a name, it is also a Spanish title, which means "Mr." The Captain is now calling himself Don Alejandro, and has new clothes and a new business - buying leather.

I am still with him and he has given me his treasure to hold - the emerald eyes of the Giant Rat, which are worth a fortune. They are sewed into my coat.

Then an American warship comes into San Diego harbor because the United States is at war with Mexico. The Captain tries to use his old pirate ship to stop the Americans, but he can't, and the Americans claim the city.

Although Senorita Wildcat robs the Captain, she doesn't get the emeralds from me until he marries her.

I go back to New England to live with my mother when other American ships come into the harbor. Then I resume my life as a typical American boy.

I like this story of my adventures because it is about ships and pirates. It also taught me some American history I didn't know.

My favorite part is when the American warship battles the Giant Rat of Sumatra. The only thing I didn't like is the romance between Captain Gallows and Senorita Wildcat. I wish he'd stayed a pirate.

The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Reading Level: Juvenile Fiction
Submitted by Gerti

This book was recommended to me by the mother of another teenaged boy, and I read it, thinking it might be something my son could read with interest, since he’s not a big fan of mathematics. I’m not a big fan either, but I must say, this book taught me a thing or two, and one of those is not to trust everything you read!

I won’t call this a good book, but “The Number Devil” is a book full of strange and unusual facts about numbers and math. I enjoyed the drawings and the various exercises and games the author included. But some of the book just seems to be a weird translation of a European text. Since Hans Enzensberger lives in Germany, I assume it was originally written by him in German, and there are some times I wish I could have read it in the original, because the translation just seems so awkward! I wonder if the person who translated it from German to English was a native English speaker, or just someone who studied English in school! It seems like the latter was the case.

That criticism aside, I fully related to the story of Robert, the elementary school student who doesn’t like math (or his math teacher – the humorously portrayed Mr. Bockel). I like the book’s format, where each new topic in math is taught in the guise of a dream, and each chapter is called by the night Robert dreams about that mathematical concept. What I like least about the book is that until the end, I as the reader didn’t realize that the terms I was learning (like Bonacci numbers, for example) were made up. Bonacci numbers are actually Fibonacci numbers, and the difference in terms to me is slight, so I don’t understand why the author couldn’t just have used the real terms if his intention was really to teach people about math. It bums me out that a math hater like myself actually went to the trouble of trying to learn some of these mathematical terms, only to find out that the words the author used for them was wrong. It’s a bit of a cruel trick.

So, is this book worth reading? Yes, probably more for a math teacher (who knows what the real terms are and would find their approximations amusing). As for me, I would prefer another person to translate this story from the original text, and for that translator to use the actual terms and names for famous mathematicians instead of using the clever (but inaccurate) substitutions the author makes. It’s not an easy read for an English major, and finding out at the end (where the glossary of “real” terms and names resides) that I have been deceived is the literary equivalent of sitting in the corner with a dunce hat on. It makes me appreciate that math is practical and its many tricks were discovered by clever people throughout history, but it makes me dislike this author who was more clever than practical if he was really trying to give his readers a math lesson. I think it’s the author who’s the devil in this work.

The Boxcar Children Winter Special #1 by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Reading Level: Juvenile Fiction/Mystery
Accelerated Reader AR LG 3.9 2.0 9285.

Book review is submitted by Mackenzie E.  She gives the book 10 stars.

I think the Boxcar Children books are excellent for children to read.  It's about 5 kids and a Grandfather.  They're on a mission to see who stole diamonds & ruby's.  The characters are very interesting, yet it's easy to follow.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney

Cabin Fever is yet another installment of the Wimpy Kid saga, and like all the others is guaranteed to make you laugh. These books get rave reviews, and having read almost all of them, I would say it's because of the humorous illustrations and clever stories that are brilliantly linked with each other. What might seem like a pointless tangent will actually be an integral part of the novel. This series is one of my favorites, and I hope the author will continue for a long time.

In this stage of the series, Christmas is approaching and everyone is scrambling to get ready. Greg (the protagonist) is disappointed to have to go back to school, and needs money to pay for presents. Having no money of his own, he tries several ideas to attempt to earn some cash, from shoveling driveways(and being thwarted by nature, as always) to starting his own newspaper. When he and best friend Rowley attempt to put up posters advertiSing their paper on the school walls, they are almost caught and try to take them down, ut they have left permanent stains. They flee and try to lay low.

A search begins for the "vandals", and the police are called in. Greg is nervous he will have to face the music, but suddenly a blizzard hits and everyone is trapped inside. The question becomes, which is worse: giving yourself up or having to spend the holidays with your family? I don't like to spoil things, so I'll let you read it for yourself. Overall, just another hit in a great series that I hope continues for a long, longtime.

Submitted by Max

Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney

This book is another fantastic addition to the best-selling Wimpy Kid series, and covers the main character's conflict as he begins to get older. Each book has a different theme, but they always maintain their whimsical flair, stemming from the comical illustrations and masterful writing. This is another great
read, and you'll probably enjoy it as much as I did .

The protagonist, Greg, is at a troubling time in his life. He is growing up, and it's not what he expected. He is introduced to parties, new friends, and overwhelming responsibilities. He stumbles through every adventure, leaving humor in his wake. No
different from the rest of the saga, it is a quality novel, and I definitely recommend it to anyone.

Overall, just an~her Kinney masterpiece, and hopefully one of many more. These "diaries" are some of my favorite children's books, and high-profile critics agree. If you're thirsty for an outrageous journey of laughter and fun, this is the series for you.

Submitted by Max

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

This book was given to my son by my friend Steve (my age), who said it was one of the best books he had ever read. Now I consider that friend a pretty clever fellow, but even with a buildup like that, it still took me a few years to pull this book off the shelf and read it. But now that I have, I'm glad I have, although it hasn't been a life changer. 

The book involves a young fellow named Milo, who has a bad case of ennui. He is bored by practically everything he does in his normal life. But then he gets a mysterious package with the phantom tollbooth in it; he puts it together before using his toy car to drive through it. That's when his adventures start. On the order of Tolkein's map of Middle Earth, this book contains a map with the strange new places Milo discovers. It includes a city called Wisdom, a place where words are very important called Dictionopolis, and a place where numbers are king, called Digitopolis. The latter two places are run by feuding brothers, who can 
agree on nothing except that they disagree with everything the other says. 

Milo meets a new friend, a watchdog built from a clock, named T ock (even 
though he goes "tick"), a bee who literally spells, and Humbug, a very 
disagreeable fellow who nonetheless joins Milo and the dog on an impossible 
mission to rescue the lovely princesses Rhyme and Reason, who have been 
exiled to the Castle in the Air. During their journey, they meet other allegorical characters like the Mathemagician, Chroma the Great, the Soundkeeper and the Senses Taker, all of whom have very specific and humorous jobs in the story. I can see now why it was compared by early critics to Bunyan's "Pilgrim's 
Progress"! 

It was published as a children's book in the 1960s, and is filled with what Maurice Sendak calls "linguistic acrobatics". He considers "The Phantom Tollbooth" to be pure gold, so that recommendation from the famous children's author is certainly better and stronger than this one. I'm not big on allegory, so when I started reading the book, I didn't like it as much as Sendak, my friend or my son did. 

However, the cleverness and the puns did end up charming me. It was a quick 
and easy read - I probably finished it in about 3 hours, and got severai good 
chuckles and some interesting life lessons out of it. 

Still, I wish that my library had a copy of the libretto and musical adaptation of this book, so the drama teacher could put it on at my kid's school. I am curious how it would go. but omehow I have the feeling it would have all the charm of John Adams modern opera, "Doctor Atomic." 

Submitted by Gerti 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I don't know how I managed to pick up this book. Perhaps it was the word "peculiar" in the title, a word for which I have a certain affinity. Perhaps it was the creepier than normal black and white cover picture of a little (dare I say it, ugly?) girl wearing a crown and levitating off the ground. Both of those factors made the book interesting to me where I wouldn't normally gravitate to this genre of YA fiction. But now that I've finished it, I am glad that I read it. Still, that doesn't mean the book is without its flaws. 

I find the story entertaining. Even though I'm not a teen, I can relate to the feelings of 16 year old Jacob as he tries to discover whether the relationship he had with his grandfather was based on lies or the truth. Then the grandfather is killed in a brutal way, and Jacob sets off for an island off the coast of Wales where his grandfather lived during WW II. His father goes along in order to bird watch, but Jacob is slowly drawn into a time loop, where the children who knew his grandfather still live, unchanged by the passage of time. Jacob finds out how he is peculiar, like his grandfather, and why his father never had as close a 
relationship with the old man as he had. He also finds out that his grandfather 
was telling him the truth, about the home, about the children, and even about the monsters that exist in this world. 

I'm not a reader of science fiction, so the time loop business was not a" that easy to understand for me. I also felt that Jacob's special power didn't seem special at a" (compared, for example, to the girl who can make fire or the boy who can bring dead things back to life), as the other children seemed able to see the monsters pursuing them as we". However, I do find the end dramatic and 
interesting, and I like the author's style of writing. Some aspects of the story are hackneyed and predictable, but I especially like the voice that Jacob has, with his teenage angst coming through in the narration as he finds his way to truth and love. 

Would I recommend it? I already have. My husband is reading "Miss Peregrine's 
Home for Peculiar Children" right now, and I'm curious to see if he likes it more or less than I do, since he's a frequent reader of science fiction. I hope my teenagers might read it as we", although I have a large print edition, which may not be cool enough for them. 

Submitted by Gerti 

The Shelf Elf Helps Out by Jackie Mims Hopkins

Reading Level:  Picture Book
(4 out of 5)

If you are looking for a cute way to teach the kiddos how to find books in the library this book will help.  The shelf elf wants to help the librarian out by putting away the cart of books that were returned that day.  So he tells you what the sticker on the spine means, explains that the shelves in the library are like neighborhoods, and tells you a little about Melvil Dewey.  Then you are ready to start putting the books away.  At each "neighborhood" the shelf elf explains what the Dewey decimals mean.  For example, "The zero hundreds is the place to look, for encyclopedias or a Bigfoot book." and so on...

Then at the end of the book is a list of words of items that you can find within the book.  Kind of an I Spy type thing.  Very cute!

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

Audience: ages 3 and up
(5 out of 5)

Did you know that dragons love tacos?  Well they do!  They like beef tacos, chicken tacos, pork tacos, big tacos, little tacos and on and on.  Just don't feed them spicy salsa.  Because they hate spicy salsa.  Make sure you read the labels on mild salsa carefully because some contain jalapeno's and that will cause bad things to happen at your dragon taco party.


This is a really cute book with nice big colorful illustrations.  Pick it up today to read to the kiddos!