Finding the Way and Other Tales of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey

In this collection of short stories, Mercedes Lackey and
15 other authors have added on to the Heralds of Valdemar
series with tales about the Heralds, Bards, and Healers of
Valdemar. Follow along as they take you through the land
of Valdemar and learn about the powers of the Heralds,
Bards, and Healers, the Elite forces of Valdemar.

Learn about a healer-to-be who feels a terrible danger
before it is reported&

The life of a Man after he was changed and the child he
found in the forest&

The adventures of a young Herald-to-be and the mistakes
she makes&

And so much more as Mercedes Lackey and others take you
through the magical land of Valdemar.

Larry Dixon, Elisabeth Waters, Tanya Huff, Mercedes Lackey
and others in 15 new stories tell you the little things
that happen in the background of the novels by Mercedes
Lackey.

This book was effective at getting me to continue
reading, and the vocabulary wasn t too0 difficult, so I
think just about anyone could read this book. In
comparison to other books I have read by this author, this
book does well and could easily be added to her Heralds of
Valdemar series.

One of the things I liked about this book is how the
characters and the setting together can make you feel as
if you are in the book, and in some parts, if I try hard
enough, I can imagine the scene in my head. Sadly, I was
left wondering what happens to some of the characters, and
some of the stories seemed to end a little too soon.

The weakness of this book is the shortness of the stories,
which makes you hope that the stories will be picked up
later. The strength of this book is the diversity. The
book doesn t follow the same plot or design each time,
leaving you wondering what twists will be added next.

I found this book interesting, and hope Mercedes Lackey
continues to work with these authors. I would recommend
this book to anyone who likes to read about magic and
adventure.

Reviewer Age:15
Reviewer City, State and Country: Ardmore, Oklahoma United States

No Longer Daddy's Little Girl by Aarica J. Blackett

This book was written for young girls who have grown up in households without fathers. The author is trying to give advice to girls like these on how to move on and grow to be stronger from a situation like this instead of succumbing to the statistics that girls without fathers will not live good lives. By sharing her own personal experiences, and the experiences of other girls, Aarica J. Black aims to show these girls that they are not alone. Instead of letting the experience take over your life, she tries to show you how to find hope and be a better person despite having an absent father. This book teaches young women how to move on in life, and overcome the odds.

I picked this book up expecting a thick self-help book, and got a maybe 50-page memoir. The author's purpose was to tell girls without fathers how to move on and be better people, but I don't think she did that effectively. The book is filled with anecdotes from her life and the lives of others, and not much else. I was disappointed. I also expected this book to be aimed at a broad spectrum of girls in varying situations, but it focused mainly on black girls in divorced families. There isn't a problem with this, except that the summary doesn't tell you that it's focused on black families and divorce. I think she focused more on stories from other girls rather than telling you how to move on, and that is where her book fails to help. If she had added more advice, rather than stories, and maybe comments from psychologists, or any comments from professionals, it would have been a better book.

Overall, I give this book a 5/10 and recommend it for ages 10 and up.

Reviewer Age:15

Reviewer City, State and Country: Sykesville, MD United States

Dillion's Dream: Water and Earth by Dr. Shawn Phillips

Dillon's Dream: Water and Earth is set in modern day United States in a quiet town. Dillon and his friends are making their way through high school using their fantasy game as a way of bonding together. While walking home one day, Dillon is hit by a car, or what he thought was a car at the time, and wakes up in an infirmary on the moon. There he is confronted with many new and strange things. He learns that there are other intelligent species in the universe and that one of the oldest ones have taken him in. Through a course of events he ends up on a mission with his best friends where their fantasy game becomes a reality as they travel to a new planet in hope of recovering a stolen artifact from a Mulshin deserter. They face many hardships along their journey and their skills are put to the test in an epic survival of the fittest where magic is real and it will kill you if you don't fight back.

Personally, I didn't like the book until I read it a second time. The first time through, I felt that it was rather confusing to the reader and the events in the beginning of the story didn't flow as much as they could of. Dillon's sudden jump from being a normal boy, living out an average life, to living with another race on a space station was rather abrupt, but that's ok. I think that's how the author wanted it to seem. However, what I have problems with is the time period in between Dillon waking up in the infirmary and actually training his team. The book could be a little clearer on how he gained an immense amount of knowledge, if not skill, of the martial art that they train in. Once they get to the new planet however, the book becomes much more interesting and flows better. Reading through the book a second time a couple weeks after the first time through also helped to clarify some of the more confusing points and revealed some of the metaphors and allegories to prejudice in our world. I can't wait to see how the second book of the trilogy develops.

Reviewer Age:16
Reviewer City, State and Country: Berwyn Heights, Maryland United States of America

Savannah Grey by Cliff McNish

Savannah Grey is always moving from foster home to foster home. She doesn’t know why, but she knows she just has to. Then she meets Reece, a guy who seems to understand her better than everyone else. He even knows about the strange marks on her neck, that seem to amplify her voice, and he has them too. Soon, Savannah starts to feel like nothing can hold her voice back and it will be the most powerful weapon on Earth. What she doesn’t know is that the Earth might need her weapon too.

This book was great. I loved the horror aspect and the creatures. He really made the characters come to life. I wished he would have explained the creatures better. Overall, it was a very good book.

Small Persons With Wings by Ellen Booraem

Mellie's life has been ruined since kindergarten where she told her class a fairy was living with her. Throughout the years, she has been mocked, teased, and constantly embarrassed of her slip-up about the fairy. When her grandpa dies, Mellie and her family move so they can clean up and sell her grandpa's inn. There she finds out a secret; one that connects her and her family to the fairies. Soon, everything is out of control with The Little People, and it will take friendship, love, and all of her determination to put it all right again.

Small Persons With Wings is very well written, but almost to the point where the story could occasionally be boring. The plot, settings, and characters all seem real; though, and it's a cute story in general. I would recommend this book to younger readers between fourth and seventh grade. Ellen Booraem certainly knew what she was doing when writing this book, and I hope there is another one soon to come.

Reviewer Age:13
Reviewer City, State and Country: Fresno, California USA

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

The Running Dream is about 16 year old Jessica, who loses her foot in an accident that occurs while returning from a track meet. This is especially devastating to Jessica, because running is her life. Without a foot, it is a struggle for her to relearn how to walk, let alone run again. Hope comes in the form of her track team and a math genius named Rosa who has cerebral palsy, and with their help the impossibility of living a normal life seems possible. The story follows Jessica through sad yet beautiful time in her life, and she learns to look beyond disabilities, both her own and others', to see the people behind them.

The Running Dream was a fantastic read. The characters were realistic, and their hopes and worries brought them to life. The author very effectivly portrayed the emotions of Jessica's tradgedy, and had me so thankful for two feet by the time I finished the book. I learned a lot about prosthetic limbs while visiting "Hankenstein," who made her fake foot, with Jessica, and I also gained appreciation for how hard it must be to have cerebral palsy. The Running Dream was a lot different from Van Draanen's Sammy Keyes series; it seemed to be geared to a older audience and did not contain as much humour. There were, however, laughs along the way, and I would definitly recommend The Running Dream to anyone who likes realistic fiction and wants an thought provoking story that will change the way you think about your two feet forever.

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

Teenage Waistland by Lynn Biederman

Follow the lives of three morbidly obese teens trying to find themselves in this coming-of-age story. Marcie, East, and Bobby meet when they sign up for a clinical trial for a lap band for teenagers. Romance, deception, and every day life collide when they join the trial with a group of teens and form Teenage Waistland. Even more problems form when a long buried secret surfaces that threatens to destroy the bonds formed between the group. From orientation to a year after the surgeries, readers enter the lives of three teenagers who are stuck between who they are and who they could be.

I rather enjoyed Teenage Waistland. The characters are realistic and the situations they are in placed in are true to life. The overall story line of the novel pulls the reader in at the beginning of the story and keeps them hanging until the last word. Though the time line and characters are a little hard to follow, the authors take the time to clarify what happened in a certain scene. The added plot twist of the secret adds a dash of mystery to the story and raises the novel from a story about teens to a page- turning drama. All in all, the story was extremely interesting and would make readers want to pick it up again and again.

Reviewer Age:17
Reviewer City, State and Country: Pottstown, PA United States

A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull

In the book, Beyonders: A World Without Heroes by Brandon
Mull, the main character Jason, lands up in the world of
beyond. As Jason wanders, he finds a castle and asks
advice on how to get back to his own world. The king told
him he needs to find a word to destroy the evil emperor
because he is the one who holds the key. Here, Jason also
meets his partner Rachel and they begin their quest to
find the word. On their journey, Rachel and Jason meet
Ferrin. After attaining on piece of the word, they go to
a big city and they break up because Ferrin does not feel
safe. While there Jason competes in a competition to get
the next part of the word. After meeting back up with
Ferrin, they go to White Lake. As Rachel goes to attain
the next piece of the word, she finds out Ferrin is
working for somebody. After they ditch him, they go on to
keep finding the rest of the word. Jason meets the
emperor, and tries to destroy him with the word. Will he
succeed or not? Find out be reading the book.

I really like this book. It is filled with many descriptive words
that paint the setting of the story for you. In my
opinion, the detail goes on for a little too long at
times. In the end, it leaves us wondering what is going
to happen to Rachel and Jason, but closes the plot of this
story while leaving it open for the next book. I would
recommend this book to anybody ages 8-16, although anyone
older would enjoy it too. It is a really good book that I
could not put down.
Reviewer Age:10 Uxbridge, MA USA

DOUBLE OVERTIME by Dana Lotito

In DOUBLE OVERTIME, written by Dana Lotito, high school student Miles Anderson is trying to figure out his life. As the new kid in school, Miles experiences several obstacles in life: he can’t get the girl he is interested in to date him and he also has way too many unresolved issues with his older brother, Adam. On top of all that, he feels pressured to uphold the family legacy: excelling at basketball. Miles needs to organize his life, and fast, before things get even worse.

In the book there are references to basketball skills and many basketball games are played. However, you don’t have to be a basketball player or fan to enjoy this book. What I liked most about this book was its descriptive language and the plot. Anyone that enjoys reading realistic fiction with touches of humor will like DOUBLE OVERTIME.

Warning: There is romance and some heavy swearing in some parts of this book. There are also instances of underage drinking.

Reviewer Age:10

Reviewer City, State and Country: Rochester, New York United States

Rumors of secret societies are always floating around,
especially in a city as big as New York. Nick, Patch,
Lauren, and Phoebe have grown up hearing whispers of a huge
clandestine organization, but they assumed that if there
ever was a secret society, it would have disappeared by
now. So imagine Nick, Lauren and Phoebe's surprise when
they discover that they part of a new class of Initiates of
the Society, a group dedicated to helping its members
achieve their greatest dreams and find sucess. Tattooed
with the symbol of an ankh on their neck, the high
schoolers are roped into lavish parties and find themselves
part of a society that may not be entirely benevolent,
which becomes apparent when body is found dead in Central
Park with the ankh tattoo on the neck.

I really enjoyed reading Secret Society. Secret societies have always
fascinated me and the fact that there could really be an
organization like the one in the novel gives me the creeps.
The Society is pretty evil, and has a lot of power
politically, socially and economically, which is good for
its members and not so good for its opponents. The story is
fast-paced and there is never a dull moment as Nick, Patch,
Lauren and Phoebe try to discover the mysteries of the
Society. The characters were a little boring and one-
dimensional with not much growth or development, but the
stellar plot and pacing make up for the novel's other
faults. Secret Society ends on a cliffhanger and I cannot
wait to read the sequel to find out what happens.
Recommended for fans of mysteries and prep school
stories.

Reviewer Age:19

Reviewer City, State and
Country: Aston, Pennsylvania United States