Dream Factory by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler

Luke and Ella are just two ordinary people who work at the magical kingdom of Disneyland. Maybe the magical Kingdom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Between drunk and hung over employees to secret love stories behind the scenes, there is nothing ordinary about it. Luke, who plays the fur-character, Dale, has a super-hot girlfriend named Cassie, who by the way, is Chip, who he thinks he loves. Ella plays Cinderella and is going out with Prince Charming, ironic, huh? Luke and Ella fall for each other. Something happens to make them fall back apart, maybe Dale and Cinderella just weren’t meant to be.

This has got to be one of the best books I have ever read. I loved how it took place in Disneyland and actually seemed real. It wasn’t one of those cheesy love stories you just happen to read, this one actually held my attention. I could hardly put down the book out of excitement of what would happen next. Two thumbs up to Barkley and Hepler!

Content:There is some mild language and some things that younger children shouldn't be reading.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 9

Reviewer Age: 13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Shippensburg, USA

Rise of the Golden Cobra by Henry T. Aubin

This coming of age story follows the adventures of Nebi, an Egyptian boy. He is in the employment of Setka, an important official of the King Piankhy. When Setka is ambushed by a traitorous count, Nebi is the only witness alive. Nebi braves the desert to reveal the count's actions, and to deliver an important message. Nebi gets caught up in King Piankhy's battle to reunite Egypt against foreign invaders. He meets many influential people, such as the king himself, and gets many good friends, as Nebi struggles to be reunited with his family, and get revenge for Setka.

This book is a wonderful historical fiction novel. The action is fast-paced and exciting, with intriguing characters. The ancient Egyptian setting is very well detailed, and feels lifelike. The book is a great way to learn about ancient Egyptian customs and history, while still having fun. I learned more about ancient Egypt from this book than I ever learned in a history class.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 9

Reviewer Age: 14
Reviewer City, State and Country: Urbana , Illinois USA

Dreamquest by Brent Hartinger

A horrible thing would be to find yourself inside your own nightmare and not able to get out. For Julie the same thing is happening to her, with two exceptions.

1. Her nightmares are being produced in a studio with actors, lights, cameras, and “action”.

2. She isn’t sure she wants to go back to her miserable life with her fighting parents.

As Julie travels through her own “mind” in a way, she decides it’s time to take a firm stand against the creators of her nightmares. But where to start?

Time is running out as Julie realizes Vivian (the actress who plays her in her dreams) has gone back through the tear in the fabric of Julie’s consciousness. Vivian arrives and starts messing around in the real world, possibly causing Julie’s permanent location to be in Slumberia.

I wished this book would never end. I mean, how cool is a studio that produces your nightmares? Dream Quest brings amazing adventure, imagination and a fabulous book. Brent Hartinger, the author of a bunch of books about teenagers, does good work!

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 9

Reviewer Age: 15
Reviewer City, State and Country: , ID USA

Monkey by Jeff Stone

Five "brothers" from the Cangzhen Temple are the only survivors when their temple is burned. They're told by the Grandmaster, before he was murdered, to scatter and find out about their enemy's history, as well as their own. This book focuses on Malao, which is Cantonese for "monkey." At the temple, he runs into his brother Hok, and they formulate a plan to steal the Grandmaster's body. They manage to steal it, but Malao is so terrified of dead bodies that he flees into the forest. There, he runs into a band of monkeys. When the monkeys attack a bandit gang, the bandits kill many monkeys before Malao stops the bandits and the monkeys flee. After he escapes from the bandits, he meets back up with the albino monkey from the monkey band. The monkey leads him back to the temple, where he apologizes to Hok and pays his respects to the Grandmaster. Then he stays with Hok to discover more about their enemy, Ying. They find out that their brother, Fu, has been captured, and they decide to go rescue him. Fu's captors capture them as well, and all seems lost. Their captors underestimate them, and they manage to escape. Hok separates from Fu and Malao. They decide to try to get the Dragon Scrolls back from Ying. After they steal the scrolls back, they go to a village that Fu’s been to before. There, they get food and then follow the white monkey to the Shaolin Temple to meet up with Hok. There, they find the temple destroyed, and they bump into Seh. The only surviving monk tells them that Hok may be dead, and then he steals the Dragon Scrolls. Then Ying shows up and starts to fight with the monk, who is actually the Emperor’s General Tsung. Tsung beats Ying, and Seh steals the Scrolls back from Tsung. After they have the Scrolls, the three boys flee into the woods.

This book kept me reading right until the end, and I never wanted to put it down. Malao was my favorite character because he was really energetic and acted a little like a monkey. The ending was AWESOME because it left a lot of questions to be answered in book three. This book was really good compared to other books of the same type that I've read, and could become the next best-seller. This book taught me that size really doesn't matter. The vocabulary level was appropriate for elementary school readers. This author has a unique writing style, and I really enjoyed this book, which was told in third-person view. The author used an adequate amount of detail, and the author left questions unanswered at the end of this book, which should be answered in the next book. I would have liked the book better if the author had told more about the other boys, and not just Malao.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 9

Reviewer Age: 15
Reviewer City, State and Country: Highland, Michigan USA

Baboon by David Jones

Gerry and his parents fly to Africa every few months to study baboons. They are leaving once again and Gerry is not happy. He has to leave behind all his friends. However, this particular flight is different. The plain crashes and Gerry wakes up to an unusual surprise. He has turned into a baboon. Now, he has to fight to survive, while trying to get his parents to recognize who he really is.

This is a fictional story that is unique. The book kept my interest with its unusual setting and exotic animals. The plain crash and the baboons made it an exciting book. I did enjoy the extremely descriptive and realistic interaction with the baboons. However, the book was very predictable and advanced readers may find that aspect disappointing.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 6

Reviewer Age: 14
Reviewer City, State and Country: Lemoore, California US

Dating4Demons by Serena Robar

Dating4Demons is Serena Robar's third book about Colby Blanchard, a teen girl who is turned into a half-blood vampire. Colby's got a lot to deal with, what with bloodthirsty vampires (as if there's any other kind!) out to get her nightly. And all because of her supposed role in an apocalyptic prophecy that may or may not be properly translated and interpreted! Piper, her best friend, has been working on figuring out the prophecy, but suddenly her role in the vampire community changes when she meets Hunter. He's taken a sudden interest in her, and there may be more to it meets the eye...

This book is a fun, light read. Serena Robar's take on vampire stories is a pretty unique one that I enjoy, and her characters are great! I was occasionally a little bored while reading this book, but, at other times, it was a real page-turner! This isn't a book that'll stick on your mind for ages, but if you're looking for a more fun summer read that's got a little more to it than some fluffy teen books, you'll want to pick this one up! I'm eagerly anticipating the next in the series.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 8

Reviewer Age: 16
Reviewer City, State and Country: Asheville, NC USA

Crescent Fire by David M. Salkin

Crescent Fire, by David M. Salkin, is about a group of CIA operatives trying to stop a terrorist mission against Washington, D.C. The two main characters are agents Still and Hollahan, and they have been selected to try to stop a mission that they only know the name of: Crescent Fire. The plot goes between the men on the aircraft carrier -- Still and Hollahan among them -- the terrorists -- headed by Fadi Wazeeri and his brother, Kareem -- and the CIA agents back in the United States. The group on the aircraft carrier does not technically exist, so they can do anything they want, without U.S. jurisdiction. They have nicknamed themselves the "Men in Black" because they have no uniforms or ranks, just a black jumpsuit. The terrorists have acquired a Scud-B missile launcher and have loaded it with sarin nerve agent. They hid it in the belly of a modified oil tanker. They plan to launch it off of the coast and destroy Washington, D.C. The terrorist group is comprised of many different Islamic factions, including Al Qaeda, Hamas, and others. In the meantime, the men in black have captured Ibrahiim bin Abdul bin al-Bustan, the leader of the Harakat ul-Mujahidin terrorist group, and used drugs to get information of Crescent Fire. Now, they know that there is a missile with sarin headed for the eastern coast, and it is hidden in a ship out of a port in Syria. Unfortunately, they don't know what kind of ship, and all of their satellites in the Middle East are focused in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the CIA agents in the U.S. has a friend in the Israeli intelligence agency, and he gets her pictures from a Syrian port that show a Scud missile being loaded onto an oil tanker. They can see the second word is "King" and the first word ends with "-ent." Using this information, they intercept the Crescent King within minutes of them using the missile on the U.S. Using a spy plane with Still and Hollahan aboard it, they bomb the ship and it sinks, killing all of the crew. Since the organization broke U.S. laws, however, they were unable to be recognized for their bravery, and nobody ever knew about a missile headed for the U.S. except for the men in black, the CIA, and the President of the United States (POTUS).

Crescent Fire is a very good book. It starts off a bit slow, but once you get into it, it's hard to put it down. I've never read a book like it, so I can't really compare it to anything. This book is one-of-a-kind. I took every extra bit of time reading it. If it hadn't started out a bit slow, I probably would have finished it in a few days. The plot keeps moving, and it's good that it moves around from one group to another, keeping you on the edge. I really got scared when it seemed the terrorists would succeed in their plan. It really let me know just how secret these things are, that we might not even know if someone tried something like this. A nine out of ten in my books.

The book has strong language and some descriptions are disturbing.

Reviewer Age:13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Chambersburg, Pennsylvania United States

Silver Moon Elm by Mary Janice Davidson and Anthony Alongi

Jennifer Scales is a teenage girl that is part weredragon and part beaststalker. Her father and her took her mother to Cresent Valley, the place for weredragons, and a couple of the weredragons there did not like her mother at all. So when they left, her mother and her got in a fight and then her father and her mother also got in a fight because of that. Her mother took off in the car and Jennifer had no clue where she drove off too. She had just gotten used to her life when her ex-boyfriend, Skip, took her to the movies. She woke up the next morning in a world that was completely different. It was overrun by werachnids, the enemies of weredragons. Only Skip and her are the only good people that know the world has changed but Jennifer doesn't want to believe it. Her parents are seemingly both gone, and most of the weredragons, if not all, are also gone. The rest of the people that were in the world before, are still in this new world, except they are changed with new feelings and behaviors. Jennifer must survive through werachnid school, try to see if her parents are in this world or not, and save the world.

I thought this was a very nice book. It was written very well, with lots of descriptions of characters and the setting. Even though I have not read the first two books in this series, I could understand it pretty easilly. It is filled with minor flashbacks that go back to the previous books. The plot was very unique because of all the twists involved. I look forward to actually going back and rereading the entire series.

There is some swearing and minor violence involved.

Reviewer Age:13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Carlisle, Pennsylvania United States of America

Hex Education by Emily Gould and Zareen Jaffery

Sophie only wants to be normal but it is nearly impossible because her parents are famous horror moviemakers that are obsessed with the occult. They move her to the modern day Halloween town of Mythic. Sophie makes friends with a group of girls and the local geek, Paw Pudnowski. Sophie notices there is something evil crippling the town about Mythic. Sophie will need her friends more than ever to save the magical town she has grown to love.

This book wasn't a page-turner, but it was very good. My favorite part was the unexpected twist at the end. It leads you up to one thing and at last minute changes it. The authors gave this book a unique style that is unlike any other book I have ever read. My favorite character is Sophie. I like her just because of her actions and sayings. This is definitely a book to put on your summer reading list.

Content:It has some content that deals with love and adult feelings.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 7

Reviewer Age: 14
Reviewer City, State and Country: Carlisle, Pennsylvania United States

Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox

Laura Hame, a young dreamhunter and daughter of the most famous dreamhunter of all, must get to the bottom of the government’s maniacle scheme. She and her family know the government has something to do with the disappearance of Laura’s father, as well as torturing convicts and rigging elections with the use of dreams. Laura and her cousin Rose soon discover a secret rail line heading straight in to the Place, a desolate and mysterious land where a select few people can enter and bring dreams back to the outside world. Nothing as big as a railroad had ever been built into the Place, so Laura’s family knows it means trouble. Throughout the story, as Laura learns more about the secrets hidden deep inside the Place, she worries about her future as a dreamhunter and how she is going to reveal the government’s secret plans to the public. Mysterious things are going on, both in and outside the Place, and Laura needs to find a way to fix them.

In this sequel and final Dreamhunters book, there is exciting plot twists, thought-provoking events, and questions from the first book are all answered. Because Dreamquake is the second novel, the first book really needs to be read first. It will make the stories more enjoyable, and if you don’t read them in order, it will be somewhat confusing. In my opinion, the first book was more exciting, but Dreamquake certainly completed the series and made it come full circle. The tone and events happening in the two books are somewhat different, but Dreamquake is a good ending to the series. All confusion is sorted out in the end, and it is finally discovered what the Place really is and why it is there. Dreamquake is well written and a good book, so I recommend the Dreamhunters duet to any fantasy lover.

Content: Though the majority of this book is fine for young readers, the book contains a couple scenes that have material only appropriate for older children. Probably not ok for kids under 13 or so.

Rating (0 - 10 scale): 7

Reviewer Age: 14
Reviewer City, State and Country: Fairview Hts, IL USA