Review and Summary: Go Big or Go Home

                         Title:  Go Big or Go Home 

Author:  Will Hobbs

Publisher:  Scholastic Inc.

Genre:  Adventure/science fiction

Cover art:  Joel Tippie

This book is about two friends named Brady and Quinn and a super-rare mars meteorite that they named Fred. The book starts off like most adventure books do – normal and relatively unexciting. But then A SCALDING HOT METEORITE COMES CRASHING THROUGH YOUR ROOF, GOES RIGHT THROUGH YOUR BED, AND COMES WITHIN INCHES OF KILLING YOU!!! No, seriously that really is what happened in the beginning of the book. Brady is sitting in his bed and then A SCALDING HOT METE- well; I suppose you got the general idea.

He calls his friend Quinn to come check it out and he arrives the next day to visit for a couple of weeks. They go on a couple of trips to cave, fish, and bike. Brady goes twice as fast in biking, his reflexes are three times as fast in fishing, and he caves like a pro in the hidden caverns they discover. He even manages to vault over a charging wild bull in order to save a four year old! These are feats he has never achieved and should not be possible.

They soon find out (with the help of an astronomical scientist) that he got his near-superpowers from Fred. They also find out that Fred had been carrying long-dormant microorganisms – the first ever confirmation that there is life in outer space. But soon they find out that Fred may also be a menace. Brady begins having bizarre weaknesses in his body. Brady comes up with the theory that he too may become dormant and fall into a paralysis. Sure enough, in a couple of days, he is not capable of moving and is mistaken for deceased when examined by doctors.

He almost gets dissected by Doctor Carver (that is his real name) but gets smuggled into the caves he and Quinn discovered by none other than Quinn and their so-called enemies – the Carver boys. They alert the meteorologist and he comes and by some phenomenon, manages to save Brady by spraying vinegar up his nose. They drown Fred in an underground waterfall and the whole thing goes back to normal.

I thought this was a very good book. It was entertaining, on edge, and electrifying. I would recommend this book to anyone ages eight to twelve. I would also like to point out that my mom gave this to me on a request and to thank her for trusting her gut and “going big” on this book.

 

Posted by: Fred Reads

 

Overview & Review: Foods of India

Title:  Foods of India

Author:  Barbara Sheen

Series:  A Taste of Culture

Publisher:  Thomson Gale

Type:  non-fiction

Copyright year:  2007

This book has four chapters. They are Colorful, Fragrant and Delicious on page four, Common Threads on page sixteen, Tasty Snacks on page twenty eight, and Honored Guests on page forty.

Chapter one talks about the food in general (such as where the food comes from, the Indians’ love of food, and the staple foods). One of the things that I learned from this section is that a tandoor is a barrel shaped clay oven that usually makes thing such as certain kinds of flatbread and tandoori chicken – an Indian favorite.

Chapter two talks about at home dishes such as curry and vindaloo. It also talks about how food is served and eaten. I learned that curry is in fact what the British called Kari, the Indian word for all spicy dishes.

Chapter three talks about, well, snacks. It talks about snacks made at home, fast food, and the ingredients. Some of the snacks talked about are samosas, pakodas, pav bhaji, and pakoras. There are also drinks such as lassi.

Chapter four talks about the food that is served to guests. It especially tells about weddings. This was a long section. Some of the foods talked about are rasam, jaggery, and biriyani. I learned that there are fourteen lamb dishes served between two days before the wedding.

I wish the book would have talked more about the recipes because there were no more than eight recipes in all. They do not look like the best recipes moreover. I think that the book ought to have been longer because it was only fifty three pages long and there were a lot of pictures – thirty one to be precise. Almost all of them took up most, if not all of one page. I also think that the author should have had a smaller quantity of resources because she is a professional writer and had at least forty resources.

I thought this was a decent book and I would recommend it to anyone between seven and ten.

 

Posted by: Fred Reads

Review: Blink & Caution

Title: Blink & Caution

Author: Tim Wynne-Jones

Publisher: Candlewick Press

 

 

“This boy. He is ten months younger than she is, but he seems so much younger sometimes.” -Blink & Caution pg. 291

My thoughts exactly. Blink & Caution, the story of two wayward teenagers on the streets of Toronto is an interesting one, until you meet the characters. Blink, aka Brent is supposedly a fifteen year old boy who has escaped a violent home life and turned to the streets. There, he finds himself stealing his breakfasts from hotel carts, following kids to school and taking their shoes out of their lockers, and using payphones occasionally when not being bothered by the local drunks. Caution, aka Kitty or Katherine, is a soon to be seventeen year old runaway from the burbs who has a much more interesting past. After having accidentally shot and killed her brother with a rifle in the woods, she can’t bear to live her simple rural life any longer. She turns to a group of drug dealers who she meets in Toronto, but after a while turns from that as well. The two meet under the strangest of circumstances, and by part two of the book are off to save the day.

Disregarding the cheesiest story line I have subjected myself to in a while, Blink & Caution has a wealth of other literary problems. The story, which is told in alternating points of view is confusing at times. Blink’s narration is often shallow, and refers to “you ” (the reader) as himself. Caution on the other hand seems to be all-knowing in her chapter narrations, which frequently refer to herself in the third person, as in the above quotation, though not always. The characters are lost and confused throughout most of the book, which is not surprising coming from the teenage viewpoint. What is surprising is the lack of consistency the characters seem to have.  Part one of the book is simply loaded with profanity, sexuality, and references to suicide, drugs, and alcohol. Part two, after the two have met seems to disregard their pasts, even going as far to say “he swore” rather than just quoting the profanity as in part one. Perhaps Wynne-Jones hit his profanity quota in the beginning of the book.

Unfortunately, overall this book is muddled in its storytelling techniques and character development, cheesy as all get-up, and not worth reading. The language and  adult situations prevent me from recommending this book to anyone under 14, but the storyline is much too bland and unrealistic for anyone over 14.

if you must read it, focus on the intricacies of the fake news stories. These were pretty well-developed and interesting, and served the cause of spreading green earth initiatives.

 

Posted by: Janine Reads

Review: The Keepers: Book One – A Wizard Named Nell

Title:  The Keepers – book one:  A Wizard Named Nell

Author:  Jackie F. Koller

Cover Illustrator:  Debbie Sfetsios

Genre:  Fantasy

Publisher:  Aladdin Paperbacks

This book is a cross between two of the greatest fantasy series in history – Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings with its own twist. Janine Reads loaned this to me along with nine other great books that you will hear about in the weeks or even days to come. Anyways, back to the book.

This book is about a princess (don’t stop reading, my fellow boys) named Nell. She is the daughter of King Einar of Xandria. It takes place in a time called Eldearth. Wait, back up, I’m going to start from the very beginning. That’s where the story starts.

There was one two wizards named Galerinn and Graieconn. Galerinn was the ruler of Eldearth but his brother was jealous and wanted power. They had a big duel and Galerinn finally went to a last resort and turned into a bright scepter and eventually blinded his brother. Graieconn fled to the Darkearth and was never seen from again. That brings us to where we left off.

One day Nell overheard a conversation concerning her. She eventually found out that people thought that she might be the next Imperial Wizard. The Imperial Wizard is the one who guards the scepter that keeps Graieconn and his forces out of Eldearth. The wizard had been weakening and Graieconn’s forces had been growing stronger.

Nell finds a boy to take her place in witch academy in a disguise because she is going to take the quest to become the Imperial wizard’s apprentice in secrecy. The boy is named Owen. She successfully embarks on the expedition with her pet demidragon and through many exiting perils she manages to get to the palace of light and becomes the Imperial wizard’s apprentice.

I would recommend this book to anyone eight and older. This may be the beginning of one of the best fantasy series ever. I really think that this was an awesome book.

 

Posted By: Fred Reads

The Golden Days of Greece

Title:  The Golden Days of Greece

 Author:  Olivia Coolidge

 Illustrator:  Enrico Arno

 Publisher:  Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited  

 

          This book is a non fiction book about Ancient Greece. It talks a lot about war and is very detailed. I liked this book because it talked about lots of things without being too brief. I think that the author should have included more about Greek mythology. The reason I say this is because even though this is a non fiction book, the ancient Greeks did not consider the Olympian “gods” myths.

           They truly believed in things like Thesus defeating the Minotaur and Poseidon overthrowing Oceanus. They thought that these were real thing that happened before them. Alexander the Great even thought he had traced his family to Achilles, the greatest warrior of all time.

          The pictures in this book were not very realistic. They were all in black and white and they were not to scale. They did give you somewhat of an idea of what it was supposed to be about, but they were hard to understand without reading the page first. There were some words that were hard to pronounce correctly at first glance like Tissaphernes and Phoenician.

          I would recommend this book as a school book, but not as a leisure book. I would recommend anyone that would like to learn about ancient Greece that is 13 and up. I thought this was a good book.

 

Posted by: Fred Reads