Gossamer

Gossamer

Lois Lowry

©2008

176 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Gossamer is the story of dreams and where they come from. It tells the story of Littlest One, one among the youngest or the dream givers. It takes the reader through Littlest One's lessons on how to gather memories and then bestow dreams on humans an animals. In particular, Littlest One and her trainer are set to watch over the home of an elderly lady. This woman decides one day to take in a child in need of a home. She had hoped for a little girl, but decided that she could handle the boy they wanted to give her instead. However, when the boy arrives, he is less than welcoming. He is miserable and bitter. However, the woman is able to calm his emotions a little after comforting his nightmares. Gossamer learns how to give him good dreams and counteract the nightmares given by the Sinisteers. She becomes one of the most gifted dream givers and soon receives a little one of her own to teach.

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Jacobs Fairy Tales

Jack and the Beanstalk

The Story of the Three Little Pigs

Mouse and Mouser

Mr. Fox

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The Willoughbys

The Willoughbys

Lois Lowry

©2010

176 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

The Willoughbys is the story of four siblings who decide that they would be better off as orphans. The sad part about it is that they were right. Though the siblings are not perfect, their parents are no where near the fact. To be honest, their parents despised three of the children and did not even remember that they had a fourth. When a baby mysteriously turns up on the children's front porch, the mother proceeds to cut off all of its beautiful blonde curls and tells the children to get rid of it. They take it to a nice looking house and place it on the doorstep. The old man who lived in the house had lived in squalor for the past few years. His life was a mess mainly due to the fact that he had lost his wife and his son when their train car was buried under an avalanche. However, with the arrival of the little baby girl, the ld man began to pull himself out or squalor. The Willoughby children came up with a plan in which they would send their parents off on a vacation from which they would not return (as happened in so many old fashioned stories). Unfortunately, after every turn of events their parents managed to survive. While their parents were away, the children were taken care of by a Nanny whom they came to adore. When the parents sold their house out from underneath the children, they were forced to leave. They sought refuge with the old man who took in the baby girl and lived there with two people who loved them while their parents ended up dying trying to climb an unclimbable mountain.

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Inkspell

Inkspell

Cornelia Funke

©2007

656 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Inkspell is the continuation of the story of Inkheart. One year passes between the two books. Dustfinger is in desperation to find someone who will read him back into his own story because Mo refuses to. Dustfinger comes across one man who can and convinces him to read him back into the book. He does but leaves Farid out. Desperate to be reunited with Dustfinder, Farid catches up with Meggie who reads both herself and Farid into Inkheart. there they encounter tight rope walkers, fire eaters, and many other minstrel players. The villains from the first book catch up with Mo and his wife and force him to read them back into the Inkworld. Mo reads them in but also takes himself, his wife, and Inkheart's author. Resa gets her voice back when she is back in the world of Inkheart only to have her husband shot by a real world gun. They take refuge among the minstrels where they discover that Mo is actually the famous thief "bluejay" who steels from gentlemen and gives to those less fortunate. Mo and Meggie wind up in castle of the Adderhead who forces them to make him a book that will cause him to live forever. Mo creates the book but leaves out the clause that if three specific words are written on the pages then the owner of the book will die. the magpie finds out about it and gives the book to Firefox instead of the Adderhead. Firefox is killed when the three words are written in the book. The Magpie then erases the words and writes in the name of the Adderhead which makes him immortal.

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Inkheart

Inkheart

Cornelia Funke

©2003

535 Pages

Ages 9-12

Summary

Inkheart is one of my all time favorite books. It is a book about a book. Mo loves to read. He used to read so magically and fluently that things would come alive off the page. However, there is a trade. For everything that comes out, something has to go back in. Mo hasn't read since the night he was reading to his wife and daughter from the pages of a book called Inkheart. They night he read out the villain of the book as well as a couple other characters. In exchange, his wife was trapped in the pages. Nine years later, this mistake has come back to haunt Mo and his daughter Meggie. Mo and Meggie try to dodge the villain Capricorn with the help of Dustfinger (one of the characters he read out of Inkheart), but are ultimately unsuccessful. Capricorn tries to get Mo to read him riches out of a book but a boy comes out instead. Mo tries to explain that he doesn't have any control over what comes out and Capricorn gets upset with him. They all escape and track down the author of Inkheart because Mo thinks that he might be able to read his beloved wife back out of the book, but the author's copy had been stolen long ago. Meggie gets captured by Capricorn once again and realizes while in captivity that she has the same gift as her father. Capricorn learns this and tries to get her to read his assassin out of Inkheart. The plan ultimately fails when she turns the assassin on its master and has the shadow kill Capricorn instead.

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Jingle the Brass

Jingle the Brass

Patricia Newman and Michael Chesworth

©2004

32 Pages

Ages 4-8

Summary

Jingle the Brass is an adorable little book about the different terminology used on older trains. It follows the story of a little boy who is invited to be a guest aboard a train. The conductor gives him the tour and explains the different jobs that people would have on a freight train. The boy learns when you need to ring the bell so as to let people know that the train is coming. What I liked most about the book was that the very last page was dedicated to the train's terminology. There you will learn exactly what each of the special words means and exactly when to use them.

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The Arctic Incident

Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident

Eoin Colfer

©2002

277 Pages

Young Adult

Summary

The second Artmeis Fowl book almost completely switches gears from the first. Instead of Artemis being the bad guy, he is not turned into the LEPs one last chance for help. When the LEP are ambused by goblins with banned technology, Holly immediately suspects that Artemis Fowl is the one to blame. Mean while, Artemis has just discovered that his father is alive and is probably being held by the Russian Mofia. On his way to rescue his father, he is kidnapped by the LEP and taken under ground. When he has been cleared from all involvement, he requisitions help from the LEP in his father's reasque attempt in exchange for his help with their goblin problem. When all fairy technology fails, Foaly is then thought to be the one in charge of the goblin uprising when in reality he is locked in his laboratory without access to any of his instruments. Only with the help of Mulch Diggums are Artemis, Butler, Holly, and Root able to break in to Opal Koboi's office building (the real mastermind behind the attack). With Foaly's help in secretly recording Cudgeon stating that he was only using Opal in order to take revenge on the LEP, the group was able to turn both Opal and the Goblin masses against their leader. Artemis gets to Russia and with the help of the LEP are able to rescue Artemis Fowl I.

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How Music Came to the World

How music Came to the World

Hal Ober

©1994

32 Pages

Ages 4-8

Summary

This book is a retelling of an old Mexican myth. It tells about how the sky god and the wind god got together and realized that the world was too quiet. The sky god told the wind god that what the world needed was music and that the only place to find it was in the house of the sun. So the wind god climbed a bridge to the sky and snuck into the house of the sun. There he found musicians and singers, but when he was about to make his move, he was spotted by the Sun. The sun told the musicians to be silent or else the wind god would steal them away. The wind god cried out the musicians to come to him. The they did not move. Again the wind god told them to come with him. They remained silent. Finally, the wind god let out all of his fury in a mighty hurricane. The musicians and singers jumped into his lap and he carried them to the earth. And that is how music came to the world.

I think what I liked most about this book were to elaborate pictures. They're not detailed in the way that a master piece is. However, the book is illustrated in a style that closely resembles aztec art. It's blocky and has many similarities to wall carvings. Over all, this is a wonderful book and would be beneficial for teaching children about myths and legends.

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