Linnea in Monet's Garden

Linnea in Monet's Garden is about Linnea, a girl who went to Paris with her neighbor. She likes pictures by Monet so they went to Paris to see his garden and paintings. If you read this book, you can learn about France and Monet. This book has some French words that kids may have trouble reading or understanding.

Sara, 7

Tilly's Moonlight Garden

Tilly's Moonlight Garden is a wonderful book for kids who enjoy quiet and mysterious books. I thought it was interesting to feel how Tilly felt moving house to a place where she had no friends. Tilly somehow makes friends with a pregnant fox. Meanwhile, she worries about whether her mother can have a baby without getting sick. Most of the book was about Tilly playing in the garden, and I wanted to be there with her. The garden was big with lots of life in it, and during the winter it seemed very nice, with hills to sled down. 

Azusa, 8

A Bad Day for Voodoo

A Bad Day for Voodoo is a fast-paced and hilarious ride. But with some random appearances that are never really explained and overly bloody injuries and deaths, it also makes for quite a strange ride. 

A Bad Day for Voodoo is about a boy, Tyler, who gets a voodoo doll of his teacher as revenge for the teacher giving Tyler a bad grade. When Tyler uses the voodoo doll, things quickly spiral out of control. I can’t say the writing in the story was amazing, but it wasn’t terrible. The characters also seem believable enough, but with the shortness of the story, I left feeling I did not know them very well. 

Overall, A Bad Day for Voodoo is a good read if you are looking for average writing and a quick read that you may learn nothing from.

Wendell, 13

The Vicious Deep

I disliked this book. TheVicious Deep is about Tristan, a high school lifeguard and swimmer, who discovers that he is half merman. Throughout the book Tristan, “the teenage merman,” struggles with high school relationships. He struggles with both friends and girlfriends. He has trouble keeping his closest friendship with Layla; and he is thrown into chaos with Kurt and Thalia, who were sent to guide him to winning the throne of the sea king. His mother, daughter of the sea king, sends him to the merpeople kingdom, sparking a ridiculous adventure. 

The author took mythical creatures, which might have been interesting, but pushed them to a silly extreme. For example, magical merpeople sailed into a mermaid kingdom through a waterfall on a boat with a merman who took the place of a carved figurehead at the prow and talked to the magical creatures who rode on his boat. This kind of thing did not engage me. The characters in The Vicious Deep were inconsistent and shallow. And it was hard to follow the plot because the book was disorganized. 

Jordan, 13

The Summer of No Regrets

The Summer of No Regrets was good the first time I heard the story. Not like she copied someone else or anything, but the story just felt so cliché: Strange girl from the middle of nowhere starts hanging out with hot guy that looks like celebrity hot guy is celebrity blah blah blah for the whole book. The only difference in this book is the cats; people bond over cats. The stories just get weirder and weirder so if you are looking for a classic teen book that you already know the whole plot line to go ahead and read The Summer of No Regrets.

Juliette, 11

Embrace

When I first saw Embrace in the ARC box, I was uninterested but I picked it up anyway. When I saw the review saying it was a mix of Twilight and Vampire Academy I knew I had to have it. And I was not disappointed at all because this was one of the best books that I've had the honor to review.

Juliette, 11