Amazing Crayon Drawing with Lee Hammond

This book teaches you how to draw amazing pictures with a
childhood favorite - Crayola Crayons. It is hard to
believe the life-like images were produced by crayons, but
this book teaches you the techniques that can be used with
crayons. There are warm-ups and projects, step by step and
telling you what colors and techniques to use for each of
them. It teaches how to make the unique look of crayon to
works to your advantage and shows you how to make a
variety of texture. Anything you need to know about
drawing with crayons is in this book.

I laughed when I saw this book, saying "Drawing professional art with crayons?! Yeah right, I've got to see this."
Even with myself being an artist, it was hard to believe you could
make professional with something so common and cheap it
was considered to be a child's toy to scribble with when
they were bored. Although when I saw the artwork on the
cover I thought, wow, these really are drawn with crayon.
This book is a great way to learn to draw with crayons,
teaching you how to use different techniques, make various
textures and create masterpieces. There are many step-by-step warm-ups
and projects that help you get the feel of how to use the crayons and what colors to use to best serve your art. I told my mom to go get some crayons, and have had fun using the book to its best potential.

Reviewer Age:13

Reviewer City, State and
Country: Santa Fe, TX USA

How Tia Lola Learned to Teach

"How Tia Lola Learned to Teach" is about a Spanish aunt who came to the United States from the Dominican Republic. She came to help her sister - who just got divorced - raise her son and daughter, Miguel and Juanita.
While Tia Lola was in the U.S she was volunteered to teach Juanita and Miguel’s classes Spanish. During Tia Lola's visit she soon finds herself helping everyone, but she doesn't mind. Tia Lola is a very helpful person. She helps Rudy with his restaurant, and everybody else in the town with everything you could imagine.

I didn't really like "Tia Lola Learns to Teach" because the story line isn't something that I'm in to. I did like the fact that the book had a lot of Spanish in it. I also liked the lessons it taught. There were Spanish sayings, but some of them Americans say, too.

Reviewer Age:10
Reviewer City, State and Country: Claremont, NH USA

A Crazy Day With Cobras by Mary Pope Osborne

The book "A Crazy Day With Cobras" was a very exciting book. In this book Jack and Annie set off to India to find an emerald rose. They are searching for this rose because Teddy acciendtally turns Penny the penguin into stone. Annie has to pretend to be a boy because in India, 400 years ago women were not allowed to show their faces in public without being killed. In order to get this rose, Jack and Annie have to bring the Great Mongul,(The ruler of India),a precious gift and pick the correct stone from a tray filled with different jewels. I really enjoyed reading this book.

In my opinion "A Crazy Day With Cobras" was an exciting and adventurous book. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good book. Out of all the books Ms.Mary Pope Osborne has written, this one is my favorite. The content of this book is just right for the recommended age. I loved this book and can't wait for book 46 to come out in August.

Reviewer Age:10
Reviewer City, State and Country: Glenwood, Arkansas U.S.

Can You Survive The Zombie Apocalypse? by Max Brallier

You're just one of the many 25-year-olds in Manhattan with a monotonous life and equally (if not more) monotonous job. Well, until the day zombies take over. Gruesome killing on every street corner; an unhealthy abundance of blood, gore, guts, and brains. Your survival depends on you -- solely you - and the decisions you make with each turn during your race for victory. Die, become a zombie, or perhaps, stay alive until the very end -- it's all up to you.

Maybe I was deprived as a child, but I was never given any Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) books. Reading through Max Brallier's Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? turned out to be quite an experience. Peppered with interesting characters that slather raw meat juice on themselves to imitate zombies and others that are just alarmingly trigger-happy with a machine gun, this book was an intense read. That is, if you don't mind dying and instantaneously resuscitating yourself a couple hundred times. Of course, the burning question here is: can you survive the zombie apocalypse? Profanity and sexual content.

Reviewer Age:16
Reviewer City, State and Country: Palo Alto, CA USA

The Skinny On Time Management by Jim

I read the book The Skinny on Time Management. The book
was written in comic form. The author, Jim Randel, wrote
links to outside sources, such as the internet and other
books. The book tells you detailed step by step things
on how to reach your goal in a certain amount time. The
author puts other links to outside sources so one can do
his or her own research.
I thought the book was useful. He clearly states ways one
can fix his or her problems with time management. He also
made it fun to read it. The author says jokes throughout
the book. He uses helpful visuals throughout the book
too. The book is written as a cartoon, which makes it fun
for a child to read. He writes other sources for helping
oneself, such as titles of other books and names of online
sites. The book was well-written and I really liked it
because it really helped me.

Reviewer
Age:13 Uxbridge, MA USA

The Fortune of Carmen Navarro by Jen Bryant

Carmen Navarro dropped out of school when she was in high
school. Her true love is music, until she meets a guy on
campus named is Ryan. When Ryan spots Carmen, his pulse
quickens. She usually doesn't like to get into a
relationship, but this time, she feels something.

If you want to know more, read the book !!

The book was
really good. I enjoyed it a lot. It was very romantic. It
even made me cry a little at some parts. Overall, good
book.

Some kids will make fun of romances. So, you have
to be mature about the book and not think of it as some
silly story.

Reviewer Age:13

Reviewer City, State and
Country: Lakewood, Ohio United States

Speculation and Keeping It Real with Fantastic Fiction by Helen Lowe

Two years ago, my first novel, Thornspell, was a Flamingnet Top Choice book. My second (“crossover”) novel, The Heir of Night (the first in The Wall of Night series) was published in the USA, Australia and New Zealand last October and has just been released into the UK. Both Thornspell and The Heir of Night are Fantasy fiction—or as I like to think of it, fantastic fiction—and someone said to me recently: “But why write Fantasy? It’s not real, is it?”

The same observation could be made about all fiction, of course, since it’s all “made up.” The process of that making, while aided by leaps of creative imagination, requires acute observation and understanding of people and the forces at play in human society. No matter how fantastic the setting, the reader has to believe in the characters at an emotional level or the story will not ring true—and if the author is successful in creating emotionally believable characters, then in that sense the story is real.

Focusing specifically on Fantasy and Science Fiction, a recently popular name for both genres is “speculative fiction”—and it is speculation that enables both writers and their readers to explore alternative ideas of how a world or society might be. Ursula Le Guin is one writer who has been particularly adept at this over a long period of time. A number of reviewers have also commented on the matter-of-fact equality of men and women in the Derai society of The Heir of Night. The opportunity to create a society where this is simply the case, without either "discussion or worthy treatise" (SFX), is what speculative fiction is all about.

As a writer, I love asking why and what if questions and having the freedom to answer them without being bound by what we know has happened in history, or constrained too much by the laws of physics. In fact, it’s always been a big part of the fascination, and also the fun, of Fantasy for me—and a valid way of taking a “rain check” on reality.
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About Helen Lowe
Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, poet and interviewer. Her latest novel, The Heir of Night, the first of THE WALL OF NIGHT quartet, was published in the USA, Australia and New Zealand in October 2010 and is newly published in the UK. Helen’s first novel, Thornspell, (Knopf, 2008) won the 2009 Sir Julius Vogel Award for “Best Novel, Young Adult.” She blogs on the first of every month on the Supernatural Underground and every day on her own Helen Lowe on Anything, Really site.

Fruitbasket From Hell (ebook) by Jason Krumbine

Alex Cheradon is a private investigator who wants nothing but to actually work as a private investigator. As his luck would have it he barely spends any time investigating and more time trying to avoid the supernatural. On top of the supernatural being after him so is his ex-partner who is trying to kill him. Luckily for Alex his bad luck is about to make him rich.

A genius celebrity comes to him for help to look for his daughter. The catch is that his daughter is a Satanist and she is most likely dead. The only thing that makes him take the case is a check worth one million dollars. Now it is up to Alex to solve this mystery while at the same time he must stay alive long enough to at least spend his million.

I really did like the book. The author kept a serious but humorous attitude though out the book which kept me reading and focused. The one thing I do think that Jason Krumbine needs to work on it how much detail he gives. I do like detail but he went a little over board. Other then that I enjoyed his tale and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Reviewer Age:20
Reviewer City, State and Country: Az city, Arizona USA

Saraswati's Way by Monika Schroder

Saraswati's Way is an interesting book about a young boy in India. It starts off when Akash's bapu (father) dies. The family has a hefty debt. Akash, being the only boy beside his sluggish uncle left in the family, is sent off to work so the debt can be paid. When he gets paid his sense of numbers tells him that the debt is not actually going downward. He thinks it s because his family is continuing to take on more debt so that adds to the debt. He doesn t get paid enough to pay that and more, so he runs away on a train, not wanting to keep working forever. When he gets to the train station in Delhi, he meets a group of boys that help him. He sleeps on top of a newspaper booth that the kind owner Ramesh provides. He starts working for Ramesh so he can earn money to go to school. One day Ramesh falls and has to go to the E.R. When Akash is in the waiting room he meets a boy from a private school. The boy tells him that they have a scholarship test and he could possibly win it so he can go to school. Will he win it and his dreams come true? If you want to know the answer read this outstanding book.
Monika's writing is strong and enjoyable. It makes you want to read it in one sitting. One of my favorite things about it is how it makes you feel you are at Akash s side throughout the book. I would certainly read more novels by Monika. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to imagine being in another person's shoes. Overall I think it's a excellent book.

Reviewer Age:12 Uxbridge, Mass. USA

I Am Nuchu by Brenda Stanley

I Am Nuchu by Brenda Stanley is the story of a high school senior, Cal Burton, that is struggling to find himself after his parents divorce and his mother relocates him and his siblings to an Indian reservation in Utah. When he gets to the reservation he has to build a relationship with the grandfather he barely knew as a child, and he struggles to build true friends. Once Cal finally begins to feel comfortable in his new surroundings a horrific incident occurs that sends Cal on a mission to convict his brother's killer. Will Cal succeed?

I found this book to be so full of action and adventure that I could hardly put it down to go to sleep. I admire Cal's persistence in unraveling the mystery of his aunt's murder, and to catching his brother's killer. I think the book was filled with rich sensory words that painted a picture of the Utah scenery and made you feel like you were there living in the moment. I thoroughly recommend this book for anyone who loves a good mystery full of anticipation.

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