Two young boys are left with their mysterious rich uncle after their parents die in a plane crash.  The oldest brother, Leo, discovers on his 13th birthday a letter and old recordable disc from the 1950s.  The letter , written by his father on Leo’s 1st birthday, gives Leo an amazing look into his past — he was born was an amazing superpower that allows him to hear into the past.  When he discovers an evil device at his uncle’s warehouse, his superpower kicks in leading him on a journey with lives at stake.

In this fast-paced novel, the reader feels Leo’s need to solve this mystery.  Leo’s emotional ties to his brother and best friend are relatable to all students, especially middle schoolers.  The strength of this book lies in its blend of mystery and the and every kid.  The message is: “do the right thing.”

— Micheal S.

The Inquisitor’s Apprentice is a combination of a historical novel meets fantasy.  The story takes place in New York City during the era of Thomas Alva Edison, during the hustle and bustle of the tenement buildings and the mansions of the extremely wealthy.  The police dept. has a chief ‘inquisitor’ whose job it is to stop magic from being used for nefarious purposes.  The title actually refers to two apprentices to the Chief Inquisitor, one from a Jewish tenement and the other from an extremely wealthy family.  The plot is about a ridiculously wealthy and influential man, using (and coercing) Edison’s genius to create and install for his exclusive use the technology to use magic, unhindered, to his advantage.  The beginning grabs you, and the ending wraps up nicely and satisfyingly.  However, the middle does stall and seem to drag on needlessly.  I gave it a ‘recommended’ review because I’m a history nut and really enjoyed how the setting played into the story.  This book won’t be for everyone, and only students who’ve read a wide variety of novels and have a greater understanding of history, will appreciate it.  I,  however, loved it.

I rated this book as additional purchase primarily because the text is a bit unclear in spots in elucidating the original text.  Without having read Charlotte Bronte’s original book, I would have been a bit confused at times, particularly since the story is set in the past when customs and times were quite different.  I think it is a very difficult job to reduce such a lengthy and rich story into a graphic novel.  The illustrations are expressive and descriptive and the character portrait page at the beginning of the book was a good resource for students who haven’t read the original text.  There is also a glossary in the back as well as biographical information about Ms. Bronte and her family.

I enjoyed this book!  The story line is especially well-developed for a young juvenile novel, the sketch illustrations throughout are entertaining and expressive, and the characters are interesting and unique.  I also appreciated the Chinese-American culture woven into the story line through the main character’s family.  In this story, Ruby Lu’s family receives a shock when her Dad suddenly loses his job.  As so many families are experiencing in America with the down economy, the financial situation for the family is serious.  This is compounded by the fact that the family is currently hosting Ruby’s Aunt, Uncle and Cousin who have recently immigrated from China.  All the adults begin job hunts and the whole family assists in support.  Eventually Ruby’s Mom finds a job selling shoes at the mall and by the end, Dad is earning money as a handy man.  The other main storyline is that Ruby Lu’s recently adopted stray dog, Elvis, is reclaimed by his owner.  Ruby struggles with this disappointment but by the end realizes that her dog is happy back with his owner and is where he’s meant to be:  performing as a circus dog.  The owner invites Ruby and her family to the circus show and the book ends with Ruby being invited to ride the bicycle built for two with Elvis.

Great fun story.  This is a creative story of many well know nursery rhymns twisted together into a fun tale.  it leads through so many situations.  The comic book style, and colorful pictures give this book the old comic book flavor.

I loved it.  There are puns and funny situations with a twist into fairy tale land.  Kids would love this book.

This is a fun scary story for young children.  It would be fun for a slumber party story to give everyone a scare, or around Halloween.  The girl is a bit rebellious, and ends up being scared herself.

The rhyme is great for young children, and the pictures are wonderful.

This is an early reader horse story from the Breyer Stablemates series.  Diamond is an older horse who is purchased by a stable for lessons.  Ava is the only girl who realizes the value of Diamond’s experience, everyone else favoring youth.  When Diamond and Ava win a competition, the crowd goes wild and the reader gets a sense that Diamond has earned her place in the stable.  These are good little stories and the values and lessons learned are positive.

Girls who love horses will want to read this book.  It’s all about women trick riders, rodeo riders, ranch hands,  and movie stars, and their equine partners.

Open the front cover and you’ll see four women trick riders, their arms extended like a gymnast who’s just completed a perfect vault, only these women athletes are standing atop horses galloping at full speed.

The first chapters focus on women ranch hands.  Their stories show that they’re working right alongside the men, but many are wearing the  split-skirt riding outfits of the day.  A photograph of Annie Oakley leads off the chapter on Wild West Show Girls, her marksmanship medals pinned to the front of her dress.

Just when I’d decide that the pictures were my favorite part of the book, I’d read some more and decide that the stories were what fascinated me.  I certainly admire author Holly George-Warren’s work in gathering this collection of art, photos, and stories.

This was an interesting 32 page non-fiction book about the history and structure of secret codes.  Various code styles are described along with techniques for cracking them.  It was fun to apply the techniques described in the examples along the way.  The answers were in the back to check progress.  The format was easy to read and included lots of pictures to keep things interesting.  I think students will enjoy reading this and writing their own secret codes.  It is one in a set of 3 in the series.  The other titles include Speaking Secret Codes and Making Secret Codes.

I enjoyed this story about Clara Lee, an 8 year old Korean American girl who lives with her parents, little sister and grandfather.  There are family and friendship themes, including conflicts that must be resolved along the way.  Clara Lee has a dream one night that her grandfather dies.  She is frightened and so tells him all about the dream the next day.  Grandfather assures her that in the Korean culture, a death dream is really a sign of a new start and can be very good luck.  Clara takes this as encouragement to sign up for the Little Miss Apple Pie competition, which she’s always longed for but been afraid.  The story takes you through the build up and results of the competition and all the story lines are neatly wrapped up by the end.  I enjoyed this peek into Korean American culture and the characters were delightful.  The inter-generational relationships were also meaningfully explored.  The AR test is level 3.8, 2 points which should be perfect for our target readers at school.  Bright and colorful cover art and darling sketch illustrations throughout the book also add to it’s appeal.