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Kid Reads New Book Reviews
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The Ring of Solomon
Reading Level: Grades 6-8
The Bartimeaus trilogy chronicled the demon's misadventures while under the control of an 11-year-old magician. In this prequel Stroud shares one of the djinni's earlier adventures as the very reluctant slave of the evil Khaba, an ambitions magician in the court of King Solomon who rules Jerusalem with the help of the powerful slave of the ring.
As usual Bartimeaus's intelligence and snarky attitude land him in a world of trouble after he rescues Asmira, a "hereditary guard" who was sent by the Queen of Sheba to assassinate Solomon, from desert bandits. Instead of eating her, he spares her life setting into motion a disastrous series of events which may well result in the end of the ancient world.
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For another entertaining djinn series try::
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Tags: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, Adventure, Books for Boys, Fantasy, Humor, Supernatural, JY Fiction, SJS
The Star Maker
Reading Level: Grades 2-4
When Artie promises his mean cousin that he will give everyone firecrackers on the next Chinese New Year celebration, he immediately regrets it. How will he ever come up with enough money to buy all those firecrackers? Sympathetic to Artie's problem is Uncle Chester - a fun loving everyman who is wildly popular in Chinatown where Artie's family lives. Uncle Chester promises Artie that he will help - but when Uncle Chester's seemingly endless money starts to run out, Artie begins to worry.
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A few similar books:
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, Family, Friends, Read-Alikes, Read-Alouds, Realistic Fiction, Relationships, Social Issues, J Fiction, EF
The Gardener
Reading Level: Grades 7-10
High school sophomore Mason has a fairly normal life, if you discount the ugly scar marring half of his hulky face; if you discount the disappearance of his father and his mother's drinking habit and tendency to require Mason to be her parent and not vice versa.
When Mason discovers that the Haven of Peace, the rehabilitation center his mom works at is not just for the elderly, but for brain damaged teens whose parents have given up on them in favor of experimentation on them, his life is turned upside down.
After accidentally reviving one of the teens and rescuing her from the Haven of Peace, Mason finds himself on the run from TroDyn, a bioengineering firm responsible for experimentation on the girl.
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Other tales of morally gray experiments on children:
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 7th Grade, 8th Grade, High Schoolers, Adventure, Dystopias, Family, Misfits, Read-Alikes, Relationships, Science Fiction, Self Image, JY Fiction, EF
Gorgeous
Reading Level: Grades 7-9
14-year-old Allison feels like the boring filling in a beauty sandwich. Her blonde, perfect, talented older sister can do no wrong while in their parents eyes and Allison's younger sister is everybody's darling. Allison only gets her parents' attention when she is in trouble (which usually isn't her fault).
One day Allison mutters, "I would give anything to be somebody." That night the devil arrives in her bedroom to seal the bargain but instead of her soul, all he wants is her cell phone. Gorgeous for a cell phone? Who wouldn't take that deal?
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Other tales of Faustian bargains include:
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 7th Grade, 8th Grade, High Schoolers, Books for Girls, Family, Fantasy, Friends, Humor, Self Image, Supernatural, JY Fiction, SJS
iDrakula
Reading Level: Grades 8+
IM conversation between YthDeptRviwr and need4books
4/4/11, 7:59pm-8:05pm
YthDeptRviwr: u kno the story of dracula rite?
need4books: uh, yea? y?
YthDeptRviwr: just read this book that retells it if it happened today
need4books: sounds interesting
YthDeptRviwr: the best part is its like told through the ifone
need4books: what?
YthDeptRviwr: yea its all texts and emails and screenshots of browser pages and stuff
need4books: sounds interesting
YthDeptRviwr: very. wanna borrow it?
need4books: k
YthDeptRviwr: heres a link 2 it
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Trapped
Reading Level: Grades 7+
When school closes early because of a snowstorm, Scotty’s first reaction is anger, that his basketball game is canceled. His anger soon abates when his best friends Jason and Pete smooth-talk their way into the shop to work on a go-kart until rides arrive. Soon the only people left in the school are Scotty, Jason, Pete, two freshman girls, a weird kid named Elijah, a thug named Les, and the teacher responsible for waiting until everyone’s ride came. The snow keeps falling, unrelenting, and it dawns on the group that no one is coming. When the lights of a snowplow appear faintly in the distance, Mr Gossell, history teacher / assistant football coach, plunges out into the storm looking for help.
He never makes it back.
Soon, the power is out and the seven students realize they’re going to be stuck at school for a while; but no one knows they’re there.
Trapped is a literally chilling survival story of friendship in dire straits.
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More books by Michael Northrop
Some read-alikes:
The Killing Sea by Richard Lewis
Snow Bound by Harry Mazer
Blizzard! the Storm that Changed America by Jim Murphy
Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick
The Trap by John Smelcer
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The Twin's Daughter
Reading Level: Grades 7+
When the doorbell rings one day at the Sexton household, thirteen year old Lucy answers it herself, grumbling that her household servants never do much around the house. Standing on the doorstep is her mother, dirty, disheveled, and looking wholly not herself. But the woman is not her mother.
It seems that Lucy’s mother has a twin sister who, after being separated from both her parents and her sibling at birth, was sent to an orphanage and then a workhouse. Her whole life, Helen Smythe never knew she was meant to be a society woman, living in rich luxury and with an identical twin sister.
Aunt Helen is quickly adopted into the Sexton household, and lessons begin to change her into the woman she was meant to be. Despite her lack of any formal education, Helen learns very quickly and soon is deemed ready to be presented to Society by Lucy’s parents.
After Aunt Helen’s arrival into Society, life begins to change very much for young Lucy. With her aunt an official member of the household, Lucy is no longer allowed to think of her as a younger sister who needs to be shown the simplest things, or a schoolmate. Still, their relationship is much more open than Lucy’s with her mother, and Lucy is pleased for her aunt’s presence in the Sexton household.
A rousing New Year’s Eve party brings Lucy further into adulthood as she receives her first kiss from the boy next door, Kit, and on New Year’s Day the budding couple goes for a cold stroll in the park. When Lucy arrives home, her house is uncharacteristically silent and she immediately knows something is wrong. Making her way from room to room calling for her parents and aunt, Lucy becomes more and more worried about the silence in the house. When she opens the door to the back parlor, all she sees at first is red.
Mother and Aunt Helen sit in straight-backed chairs, tightly bound to each other. One of their throats is cut.
Lucy’s mother raises her head and looks, terrified and confused, into her daughter’s eyes, and nothing is ever the same again.
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The Running Dream
Reading Level: Grades 7-9
16-year-old Jessica was a gifted runner on course to win a track scholarship to a prestigious university. That was before the truck hit the team bus. One girl is killed and Jessica loses her lower right leg. Jessica sometimes wishes she had been killed in the accident since it seems she has very little left to live for.
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More books by Wendelin Van Draanen
Other tales of young amputees include:
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Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
Reading Level: Grades 8 and up
It all started when Sam broke a taillight during a game of parking lot potato hockey. Sam and Brooke did what most teenagers would do..they ran. When Douglas Montgomery stormed into Plumpy's, his only thoughts were of his broken taillight and retribution. When he noticed Sam his fury raged. How dare a young necromancer infringe on his territory?
Sam doesn't know what the scary dude is talking about. He's just relieved when the guy finally leaves. It isn't over. When Sam is viciously attacked after work by an even bigger scary guy, he knows he's in trouble. Sam begins to realize how much trouble after he receives a warning from Montgomery...a severed head.
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Other tales of dangerous powers include:
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A Small Free Kiss in the Dark
Reading Level: Grades 7+
When you’re a homeless eleven year-old named Skip, there isn’t anywhere for you to go, because all the shelters are either for women with children, or for men, which you aren’t. When you’re homeless, a runaway, you never sleep in the same place twice, otherwise someone might be able to figure out where you are and take you back to where you ran away from.
Skip is asleep in a Dumpster when the bombs begin to fall. He wakes up violently, ears ringing, dust and garbage in his mouth, chunks of concrete raining down on top of his exhausted body, Dumpster rolling from the concussion of the blast. Skip doesn’t know which way is up, but he crawls out of the Dumpster and runs. Skip runs and runs, looking for someone or something familiar, and then he sees the grizzled face of his friend Billy.
In the days after the war begins, Billy and Skip rattle around the broken city, searching for food, for shelter. One day, they find a six year-old boy named Max who has lost his mother. Another day, they follow the train tracks out of the city to Dreamland, an abandoned amusement park that becomes their home. As soldiers begin to move in, Skip, Billy and Max find it harder to hide themselves, especially with the addition of the dancing teenage mother Tia and her infant daughter Sixpence to their ragtag gang.
It is Billy’s knowledge, Max’s unfettered optimism and hope, Skip’s determination, Tia’s beauty, and Sixpence’s innocence that brings them together. In A Small Free Kiss in the Dark, Glenda Millard has created a fragile world with delicate characters; a world that, as you read into it more, unconsciously pulls your blanket tighter around you and curls your legs up close to your body. This book is not one to read lightly, nor is it one to miss.
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A few read-alikes:
Smack by Melvin Burgess
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson
Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
No and Me by Delphine de Vigan
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