The Book Shelf: February 2010

Tuesday

David Wiesner

32 Pages

Ages 4-8

Summary:

Tuesday evening around eight toads begin to fly on their lilly pads. They fly throughout the town, in and out of houses, and around pets. However, when day breaks, the lilly pads fall and the toads are forced to return to their marsh. The police are confused as to why there are lilly pads all over the town. The following Tuesday at eight, pigs take to the air.

Other Books by the Author:

Loathsome Dragon
Free Fall
Hurricane
Tuesday
June 29, 1999
Sector 7
The Three Pigs
Flotsam

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

J.K. Rowling

752 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Books in the Series:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Other books by the Author:

Tales of Beedle the Bard

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

J.K. Rowling

448 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Books in the Series:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Other books by the Author:

Tales of Beedle the Bard

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

By J.K. Rowling

341 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Harry Potter hates being home for the summer. He misses Hogwarts with all the magical elements but most of all he misses his friends. However, Harry spends very little time alone as he is visited by a house elf named Dobby who is set on making sure that Harry does not make it to school for his second year. Dobby is not a malicious elf. He sought to stop Harry for his own good. Dobby knew that something terrible was going to happen at Hogwarts this year and did not want Harry harmed when it happened. Dobby caused some mischief that Harry's aunt and uncle blamed on him. Harry gets locked in his room from which he is rescued by Ron and his brothers. They take Harry home where he spends the remainder of the summer. Harry and Ron run into difficulty while getting to school and take a flying car instead of the train. Harry and Ron get in trouble for crashing the car into a tree when they reach school and are nearly sent home because of it. Once at school, strange things begin to happen including students turning up petrified (not by magic). A rumor begins to circulate that the "chamber of secrets" is open again. People begin to speculate that Harry is a descendent of Slytherin (one of the founders of the school) and speculate that it is he who opened the chamber of secrets and has begun attacking students. Harry goes down into the chamber to rescue Ron's sister and confronts a younger version of the man who killed his parents.

Other books in the Series:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Other Books by the Author:

Tales of Beedle the Bard

The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories

Hans Christian Anderson

972 Pages

The Little Mermaid

The Emperor's New Clothes

The Ugly Duckling

Thumblina

The Day It Snowed Tortillas

Joe Hayes

144 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Questions

Activity

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll

400 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Alice saw a rabbit scamper across the ground and decided to follow it. She followed it down a rabbit hole. Alice finds herself confronted with all sorts of random things in this place they call wonderland. She faces everything from a mad hatter to a queen fond of beheading anyone who displeases her to a cheshire cat. The only thing that provides any sort of resolution to this story is when Alice wakes up back under the tree where she first saw the rabbit and she realizes that it had all just been a dream.

This has to be one of the most random books I have ever read. Each point of the plot has little to nothing to do with the previous section of the story. Because of this, I didn't particularly like it. However, it made sense when you find out that everything that had happened was just the dream of a child.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Roald Dahl

176 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Questions

Activity

Bridge to Terabithia

Katherine Paterson

208 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Questions

Activity

Coraline

Neil Gaiman

163 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Coraline is the the remarkable adventure of a little girl who wanted more excitement in her life. Coraline particularly liked exploring. She enjoyed exploring the out doors and was therefore at a loss as to what she should do when the rain trapped her inside of her new house. As suggested by her father, she took to exploring the house, counting how many things were blue, the windows, and the doors. Upon further investigation, she discovered that all of the doors in the flat opened except for one. When she got her mother to open it, there was nothing but a brick wall on the other side. At night, however, she found that the brick wall vanished and was actually a passage to her other world. Strangely enough, the "other world" resembled her real world with several significant improvements. Everything was more interesting and everyone loved her and wanted her there. Her other mother in particular wanted her to stay with her always and forever. She told Coraline that all she had to do was to allow the other mother to sew buttons into her eyes. Coraline refused and ran back to her real world. However, she was forced to return upon discovering that the other mother abducted her real parents. Coraline struck up a wager with the other mother: they would play a game. If Coraline won then she, her parents, and the souls of the other children she had imprisoned would be freed from "other world." If she lost, Coraline would stay and allow the other mother to care for and love her forever. Coraline set out to find the souls of the three children and completed each of the three tasked she faced. She realized that even if she found her parents, the other mother would never let her go home. Coraline found her parents in a snow globe but did not reveal her knowledge to the other mother, instead tricking her into opening the door to the real world and escaping through it. Coraline set free the souls of the children and released her parents from the snow globe. It would seem like all her nightmares were over except for the fact that one of the hands of the other mother had followed her through the door and was out to get the only key to the door between the worlds. Coraline tricked it into falling down an old well and through the key in after it. The door would stay locked forever.

Other Books by the Author:

Stardust

The Graveyard Book

Never Where

American Gods

M is for Magic

Artemis Fowl

Eoin Colfer

280 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Artemis Fowl is the story of a twelve-year-old criminal mastermind who has devised a way of gaining back his family's fortune. Artemis believes that he has discovered the existence of fairies and after considerable research has tracked down one of them. From her he obtains The Book of the People, the fairy holy book with all of their laws and codes. From this book he learns of the ransom that could be gained from kidnapping a fairy. He puts his plan into action by kidnapping a LEP officer named Holly. However, the LEP do not agree to the ransom right off and Artemis is faced with challenges he had not expected. He confronts an inept crack retrieval team, kleptomaniac gnome, and a troll. It is likely that his plan would not have succeeded had it not been for Artemis's body guard, Butler.

I absolutely adore these books. They are ingenious tales of a young boy who knows more than he should. Artemis is clever and quick witted. However, I think my absolute favorite character has got to be Butler. He is what every body guard should be--a weapons expert who could just as easily kill you with his bare hands.

Other books in the Series:

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code

Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception

Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony

Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

The Number Devil

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

264 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

The Number Devil is a charming tale of a little boy with nightmares. Robert dreaded going to sleep because every night he had dreams of the devil. However, these were not demonic dreams; rather, he dreamt that the devil would visit him at night and teach him a different mathematical procedure. In this mathematical adventure, the reader is taken step by step through everything from basic addition through exponential numbers with adorable examples that allows you to apply the math to real life.

This book helped me so much when I was younger. In fact, I had to read it in sections as I grew up mainly because there are things in there that can only be understood when you reach a certain level. For instance, you wouldn't expect a nine-year-old to understand about exponential growth, but the multiplication and division examples could be quite useful.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room

Lemony Snicket

190 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Mr. Poe takes the children to live with their Uncle Monty, Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, who knew their parents more than the children are led to believe. Uncle Mony shows Violet, Klaus, and Sunny his pride and joy. The Reptile Room is a gigantic hall filled with all sorts of reptiles. His most recent addition to the room is a snake that he calls the incredibly deadly viper, a name that is a misnomer. Uncle Monty tells the children that they are to get ready for a trip to Peru as soon as his new assistant arrives. The children like Uncle Monty and are excited to go to Peru until they new assistant arrives. Though Uncle Monty introduces the children to his assistant, Stephano, the children recognize him for who he really is, Count Olaf. They try to warn Uncle Monty that it was really Count Olaf, but Olaf manages to divert the accusations and keep Monty in the dark. Later they find Monty dead in the Reptile Room with two puncture marks in his neck. When the doctor arrives, he declares that Monty died of a snake bite from the incredibly deadly viper. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, however, know that the incredibly deadly viper is one of the least harmful creatures in the animal kingdom. Sunny finds the viper and starts playing with it, proving their assertion, and exposing Count Olaf and his theater group for who they are. The children are then taken to their new guardian.

Other books in the Series:

The Bad Beginning

The Reptile Room

The Wide Window

The Miserable Mill

The Austere Academy

The Ersatz Elevator

The Vile Village

The Hostile Hospital

The Carnivorous Carnival

The Slippery Slope

The Grim Grotto

The Penultimate Peril

The End

Other Books by the Author:

Horse Radish

The Unauthorized Autobiography

The Beatrice Letters

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning

Lemony Snicket

162 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

When the Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire lose their parents to a mysterious fire, they suddenly find themselves orphans with no where to go. Mr. Poe takes them to live with their "closest" living relative, Count Olaf who sees them as nothing more than a way for him to get his hand on their parent's fortune. When he realizes that the only way for him to get any of the money is for him to marry one of the children, he contrives a plan. He and his theater group set out to put on a play. He plays the groom while Violet plays the bride. Olaf gets his neighbor, Justice Strauss, to play the judge and when she marries them on stage, Olaf breaks character and announces that his brilliant plan has succeeded. When everyone turns to Justice Strauss and expects her to tell them that the marriage was not legal, she says that everything was done right and that legally Violet was not married to the Count. However, Violet then pipes up and explained that the marriage document was not legal because she signed the marriage certificate with her left hand. Because she is right handed, the signature on the document was not her signature. Mr. Poe finally realizes what a mistake it was putting the children with Count Olaf and immediately sets out to find them another home.

Other books in the Series:

The Reptile Room

The Wide Window

The Miserable Mill

The Austere Academy

The Ersatz Elevator

The Vile Village

The Hostile Hospital

The Carnivorous Carnival

The Slippery Slope

The Grim Grotto

The Penultimate Peril

The End

Other Books by the Author:

Horse Radish

The Unauthorized Autobiography

The Beatrice Letters

Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak

37 Pages

Ages 4-8

Summary

Where the Wild Things Are is the story of Max, a little, trouble-making boy who was sent to bed without his dinner. As he paced his room, a jungle began to grow within his walls until he was standing under the moon light. There was a boat that had his name on it and he used it to set out on a year long voyage. He sailed to where the wild things are. There, he became the kings of the wild things for he was the scariest or them all. He stayed there until he longed for those who loved him. He sailed back to his bedroom where his dinner was still warm and waiting for him.

Other Books by the Author:

A Very Special House

In the Night Kitchen

Wait Til Helen Comes

Mary Downing Hahn

192 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Molly and Michael have just been handed a five-year-old bratty stepsister who delights in making their lives miserable. On top of their mom's remarriage, they have been informed that they are moving into an old rundown church for the summer. Molly had never been fond of grave yards and is creeped out to find one in their new backyard. Even more disturbing is when Heather, Molly and Michael's stepsister, finds her initials carved into one of the headstones. Heather becomes a little too familiar with her new friend Helen, a ghost that mainly only appears to her, and understand Helen to be her only friend. Helen has similar feelings and wants nothing more than for Heather to stay with her forever. Molly and Michael arrive moments before Heather is drowned by her "friend" and convince her that they could be friends too if only they made a little effort.

The concept behind the story isn't that bad, but I felt that it could have been done a little better. he writing style was good. However, it was a predictable ghost story. You could practically guess everything that was about to happen before it did and there is little enjoyment in knowing things before they happy. Though the suggested age group is 9-12, I would put it more around 8-10. I don't see anyone older than 10 getting much enjoyment out of this.

Other Books by the Author

All the Lovely Bad Ones

Deep and Dark and Dangerous

The Doll in the Garden

Closed for the Season

The Dead Man in Indian Creek

Tops and Bottoms

Janet Stevens

29 Pages

Ages 4-8

Summary

A Charming tale of a cunning rabbit and a lazy bear. Hair and his family have been starving while the Bear who owns all the land chooses to sleep through every harvest season. Hair comes up with a plan and approaches Bear with a business proposal. The rabbit would plant and care for the crops while the bear could sleep the time away on his porch and when the time came for harvest they would split the crop down the middle. Three times Hair fooled Bear and took the crop for him and his family, leaving the bear with nothing but leaves or roots. When the bear finally realized that no matter what he said the hair would always cheat him out of his fair share, he took to planting and harvesting the crops for himself.

Other Books by the Author:

Anansi and the Magic Stick
And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon
From Pictures to Words : A Book about Making a Book
Shoe Town
Old Bag of Bones : A Coyote Tale

Illustrated by Janet Stevens
To Market, to Market by Anne Miranda
Tumbleweed Stew by Susan Stevens Crummel

The Missing Piece Meets the Big O

Shel Silverstein

104 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

In a world that consists of Os and missing pieces, one missing piece wishes to find to whom it belonged. It found many Os with missing pieces, but none of them fit. Some were too large; some were too small. Some were greedy (trying to fit more pieces than it had room for) and some had too many pieces missing. The missing Piece nearly gave up until it came across a big O. The Big O seemed perfect, but when the missing piece asked to be its missing piece, the Big O replied that it had no piece missing. The Missing Piece feared that it would never be able to roll. The big O then explained that the missing Piece didn't need another to allow it to roll. Even the sharpest edge can be warn down. So the Missing Piece began to flip itself over and over until its edges began to smooth and it could roll just as easily as if it were its own O.

I adore this story for it teaches seems to tell me that I don't need another to complete me. I can do anything I want to do if only I set my determination. If I wait around to have another complete my O then I could end up waiting forever.

Other Book by the Author:

Take Ten

Grab Your Socks!

Now Here's My Plan

Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book

A Playboy's Teevee Jeebies oh la la

(Uncle Shelby's story of) Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back

A Giraffe and a Half

The Giving Tree

Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?

Uncle Shelby's Zoo

More Playboy's Teevee Jeebies

Where the Sidewalk Ends

The Missing Piece

Different Dances

A Light in the Attic

Falling Up

Draw a Skinny Elephant

Runny Babbit

Don't Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies

Kid Tea

Elizabeth Ficocelli

29 Pages

Ages 4-8

Summary

This is an adorable rhyming story about how messy children can be. Everyday a different activity turns the brother and sister a different color. When the kids are placed in the bathtub at the end of the day, the water turns the color the kids once were and becomes yet another “Kid Tea.”

Other Books By the Author:
Children's Books:
Child’s Guide to the Seven Sacraments
Child’s Guide to Reconciliation
Child’s Guide to First Holy Communion
Child's Guide to the Rosary
The Imitation of Christ for Children

Adult Books:
Lourdes: Font of Faith, Hope & Charity
The Fruits of Medjugorje: Stories of True and Lasting Conversion
Shower of Heavenly Roses - Stories of the intercession of St. Therese of Lisieux

Other Books By the Illustrator:
Don't Laugh at Me By Steve Seskin annd Allen Shamblin
The Stupendous Dodgeball Fiasco by Janice Repka
Lola Mazola's Happyland Adventure: My John 3:16 Book by Robert J. Morgan
Made for a Purpose by Dandi Daley Mackall and Rick Warren
The Truth About Horses, Friends, & My Life As a Coward by Sarah P. Gibson
Yes, Please! No, Thank You! by Valerie Wheeler
Tub-boo-boo by Margie Palatini

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Five Star Rating

Genres

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Books on the Shelf

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Followers

The Original Purpose