Draw Me A Star by Eric Carle, Illustrated by Eric Carle

Draw Me A Star by Eric Carle
Illustrated by Eric Carle
Philomel Books
Published in 1992
ISBN 039921877
40 Pages

PLACES TO BUY FROM:

Amazon (Hardback)
Barnes & Noble (Hardback)

CHECKED OUT THE BOOK FROM MY PUBLIC LIBRARY.

APART OF THE BANNED/CHALLENGED BOOKS CHALLENGE.

APART OF THE GOODREADS 2011 READING CHALLENGE.

Review/Rating:

3 out of 5



Ease of Reading Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Plot: 3 out of 5

An artist creates things, and this one is no different. From a young child to his elder years, he draws and creates things.

I love Eric Carle's books since they are always so cute and almost fun, even now, even though I am an adult.

Even though I like his picture books, this one seems to touch the legend of creation and God, so it kind of turns me off from that point. It kind of makes it simple, but most parents will not like one of the illustrations. The illustration is of a naked man and woman, which is why this book is banned/challenged. If that kind of image/picture is a problem, find a piece a paper or something and cover the whole picture before you read the book to your kid. Or, you can just cover from the head down before reading it. Just so you know, it is AFTER the sun page.

The illustrations are really very simple, but they are also kind of boring at the same time. However, I think it is creative how he can illustrate his own books with tissue paper, but it is still a little bleh for me. Also, the text is very easy to see/read because it is either on a black or white background.

Anyways, I found this book kind of average and not really worth reading, but it is up to you if you think it is worth reading to your child.

Other Reviews/Author Site:

Eric Carle
Goodreads: Draw Me A Star by Eric Carle, Illustrated by Eric Carle
Library Thing: Draw Me A Star by Eric Carle, Illustrated by Eric Carle
Little Lamb Books: Draw Me A Star by Eric Carle, Illustrated by Eric Carle

Smoky Night by Eve Bunting, Illustrated by David Diaz

Smoky Night by Eve Bunting
Illustrated by David Diaz
Harcourt Brace & Company
Published in 1994
ISBN 0152699546
40 Pages

PLACES TO BUY FROM:

Amazon (Hardback)
Barnes & Noble (Hardback)

CHECKED OUT THE BOOK FROM MY PUBLIC LIBRARY.

APART OF THE GOODREADS 2011 READING CHALLENGE.

Review/Rating:

3 out of 5



Ease of Reading Text: 2 out of 5
Illustrations: 2 out of 5
Plot: 5 out of 5

Riots are breaking out in the streets of Los Angeles, and it isn't any different in Daniel's neighborhood. Daniel and his neighbors learn an important lesson after two always fighting cats finally get along.

This picture book is set during an actual historical event, the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Because it uses a historical related event, the plot is very well informed and good because it teaches us and any children who read this book that we should value people and get along, no matter how different we are. Also, it teachers young children about the racial differences we had, and still have, through simple measures.

Even though the plot is very nicely done, the illustrations and how easy you can read the text isn't. The illustrations seem overdone with the textures all over the place, and I paid more attention to the textures instead of the actual drawings. Also, with most of the text, it was over textures that were hard to read black text off of.

Anyways, those were the only two things that I had a problem with in this book. It also has a wonderful lesson for everyone to learn and remember. Though, I have just a word of warning, it has the theme of racism in the book. However, it isn't really that noticeable, if the kid is really young. This is a very good book with an important lesson to learn, no matter how young the child is, but the illustrations and how well you can see/read the text is kind of hard and bleh.

Other Reviews/Author Site:

Eve Bunting
David Diaz
Goodreads: Smoky Night by Eve Bunting, Illustrated by David Diaz
Library Thing: Smoky Night by Eve Bunting, Illustrated by David Diaz
The Rookie's View: Smoky Night by Eve Bunting, Illustrated by David Diaz
Best Children's Books: Smoky Night by Eve Bunting, Illustrated by David Diaz

The Trail of Tears by Joseph Bruchac, Illustrated by Diana Magnuson

STEP INTO READING (5) SERIES

The Trail of Tears by Joseph Bruchac, Illustrated by Diana Magnuson

Random House

Published in 1999

ISBN 0679890521

48 Pages

PLACES TO BUY FROM:

Amazon (Paperback)
Barnes & Noble (Paperback)

I OWN A SINGLE COPY.
BOUGHT AT AMAZON.COM.


APART OF THE GOODREADS 2011 READING CHALLENGE.

Review/Rating:

3 out of 5



Through simple explanation, the author explains the history behind the Trail of Tears and the challenges that the Cherokee Nation faced during this time period. Chief of the Cherokee Nation, John Ross, and his people (17,000) must leave their homes and go west. During this trying time period and journey, a lot of deaths and hardships will befall them.

The information given is pretty much interesting, which one of the reasons why I like the book, and even some of it that I don't even remember. The hardships that they are faced and the history facts are not really watered down, but phrased in a way that won't have your kids ask questions you wouldn't really want to answer when they are still kind of young. If your kids doesn't understand that we have done bad things in the past, you might have some explaining to do. Now some of the interesting information they give are about Cherokee legends of how their people came to be, the legend of the Cherokee Rose, which is thought to come from the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee written language and the newspaper, and some other pieces of information. Basically, it is kind of like a miniature history book with fun and interesting information, but I wouldn't count on it for tests and things like that. Why? Because most schools depend on their history books for making tests. It's also great if you want to give a head start for your kids about the subject before they start on it in school. Another reason why I like this book is because of the illustrations inside the book. They are some pretty, and I liked looking at some of them. :D

The only thing I didn't like the book is the fact that it is non-fiction and why mostly boring in some of the parts, which is the main reason why I rated this book a 3 out of 5. I would have liked the book better if they had a little bit more fiction in it like the Dear America books. However, it is a good little book that will tell your kids about the Trail of Tears before they learn it in school.

I would recommend this book for kids who are having difficult time learning about the Trail of Tears and need a little bit easy way of explaining the basics of what happened during that time. However, I wouldn't depend solely on it for their school projects. Also, make sure you read it with them because some of the words they will have trouble with like the Cherokee language, some state names, some of the names, and that's pretty much it. But, it is pretty much easy to understand.

Other Reviews/Author Site:

Joseph Bruchac
Diana Magnuson
Goodreads: The Trail of Tears by Joseph Bruchac, Illustrated by Diana Magnuson
Library Thing: The Trail of Tears by Joseph Bruchac, Illustrated by Diana Magnuson
Back to Books: The Trail of Tears by Joseph Bruchac, Illustrated by Diana Magnuson

Hunted by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

THE HOUSE OF NIGHT SERIES BOOK 05

Hunted by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

St. Martin's Griffin

Published in 2009

ISBN 9780312379827

323 Pages

PLACES TO BUY FROM:

Amazon (Paperback)
Barnes & Noble (Ebook)

CHECKED OUT THE BOOK FROM MY PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Review/Rating:

3 out of 5



After Kalona, Neferet's consort, appears from underneath the Earth, Neferet, Kalona, and Kalona's sons start destroying the House of Night. However, Zoey and the gang escapes their destruction by going underground to the tunnels, where the red fledglings live. Now, Zoey and the gang must come up with a plan to prevent the world from becoming a violent and chaotic one, but that stops when Zoey gets injured and must go back to the House of Night. There she has to fight with Neferet more head-on than she would like, and not only that, are the red fledglings really as civilized as they appear? And will Zoey be able to bring Stark away from Neferet's sinister side? What will they do when the evil has hidden among them?

I actually finished this book faster than the others because my computer died. x_x The motherboard went ka-plooey, so I was able to read until Black Friday, which was today, in order to get a new computer. :) Anyways, isn't it amazing what you get done with when computers (mostly the Internet) are down? ;) Oh, there might be some spoilers below. :X

Hunted starts off almost immediately where Untamed left off --- Zoey and the gang are now in the tunnels with the kind of civilized version of the red fledglings, waiting for Kalona and Neferet's invasion to calm down or at least wait until they have a plan on how to deal with the new threat. However, when Zoey gets injured, she has to fight more head on than she would like.

All right, let's start with the things I didn't like about this book. One, the authors keep on describing the same characters with almost the exact same words as the other books. I know it is good to remind readers on what the characters look like, but don't do it in every single book, unless they somehow changed their appearance between the last book and the beginning of book they are going to read. Two, can't Zoey ever NOT have a boyfriend or boyfriends in a book? Even in Untamed, Zoey wasn't without a boy/boyfriend for long since she became attached to Stark. She even went as far as calling him her "soul mate". What the hell is wrong with having one boyfriend throughout the series? Or even having no boyfriend? Do those two authors really think that teenagers are all like that --- always needing a boyfriend/love? Three, it is getting very predictable and is almost like all the other books I have read.

Now for the things I liked about the book. One, all the new descriptions and the use of so many of them. :D Two, the development of Aphrodite and how much she has changed (attitude wise). Out of all the characters, I think the authors did a better job at making Aphrodite develop as a character than almost all the others. Three, there was a lot more supernatural, but there was still some drama in there. UGH! Four, using Cherokee legends in a creative way.

One last bit of interesting information. Erik's name is spelled wrong in the summary. Oh, and also, on one of the pages (247), it says that Darius would be pleased about the vocabulary words she has been using. Isn't it Damien who is the vocabulary nerd, or did I miss something?

Anyways, overall the book is good for a quick read, but it is getting a little tiresome since it is becoming a little bit predictable. :X Just a warning, there is a gay character in the book, and they talk about sex, kissing, and things like that a couple of times.

Other Reviews/Author Site:

P.C. and Kristin Cast
House of Night Series
Goodreads: Hunted by P.C. and Kristin Cast
Library Thing: Hunted by P.C. and Kristin Cast
She Loves Books: Hunted by P.C. and Kristin Cast
Quick & Dirty Book Reviews: Hunted by P.C. and Kristin Cast

First Light by Peter Ackroyd

 

First Light by Peter Ackroyd

Grove Press

Published in 1989 (Republished in 1996)

ISBN 0802134815

328 Pages

PLACES TO BUY FROM:

Barnes & Noble (Paperback)
Amazon (Paperback)

CHECKED OUT THE BOOK FROM MY PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Review/Rating:

3 out of 5



With the discovery of an ancient astronomically aligned grave site in Dorset, everyone is excited over it --- well, pretty much everyone. You see, something or someone is doing its best to sabotage and scare the archaeologists, led by Mark Clare, from digging there and Pilgrin Valley. How is it that something as small as a grave site will bring together a group of people, who seem to have nothing in common with each other?

I'll be honest with you. I absolutely hated this book. :| And it isn't because of a lack of descriptions, which I love to have in the novels I read. I'll continue with the reasons why I didn't like the book in another paragraph since there are a lot of them. :( Oh, yeah, there might be some spoilers about the book toward the end of the review. :X

The first thing I didn't like about this book is that it was really redundant, which is one of the reasons why the book was extremely slow-moving. The slow-moving plot is another thing I didn't like about the book. It took about 100 pages just to get the characters digging and for the something/someone to sabotage the dig. Then, it went back to slow-moving until the last couple of chapters. The slow-moving gets kind of annoying, so I suggest just reading 20 pages each time you read, then take a break, and then start reading again. It kind of eases the pain of it. ;) Oh, also, the book kind of jumps from one point to another, which may confuse you if you don't take breaks to think about it.

Another thing, I found the characters rather, umm, boring and depressing. I'm used to reading books where it shows different personalities for each character, like them being happy, sad, etc. In this book, they remain their depressing selves. I can just imagine a frown on all their faces everyday.I think that's also what made it slow-moving because the characters were a little too depressing for me. :(

That's pretty much the only things I didn't like about this novel, now for the things I did like about it. Even though it is very slow-moving, the characters are depressing, and very little action, I liked how the descriptions were always there, no matter how boring it got. I know I say the book is "boring", but in a weird way, it isn't. The author uses poetry, metaphors, descriptions that make it a little less boring, and the author also uses the poetry to bring out a deeper meaning than just having a plot.

I read online that some people might be confused about the ending of the book. I have my own opinions about what it means. Think about it like this the theme mostly is about stars and how everything is connected in some sort of way, it is also about time, change, and death. At the end of the book, the characters realize that even though their find is old, the person's family, still has the right to send them back to the sky to be stars (which you may say God, in some sort of way). Also, that as stars, the souls can still be with their loved ones and watch over them. And that to see every star (soul) in the sky, will be nothing but light, which is what one of the characters sees at the end of the book. Well, I that's what I think what the ending means, whether it is right or not, I don't know.

Also, I know I put "supernatural" and "horror" as the genre, but it isn't really supernatural or horror. I just put that because of the summary on the back of the book. Unless you scare easily or are very superstitious, it won't be those genre for you. :)

I rated it a three mostly because of the deeper meaning... I would have rated it a two, that is, if it didn't have that deeper meaning that I like so much. ;) So don't read, if you don't like slow-moving, redundant novels. Also, you have to figure out the deeper meaning to really enjoy the book, but you have to get through the parts I found annoying first. :D

Other Reviews/Author Site:

Peter Ackroyd
Goodreads: First Light by Peter Ackroyd
Library Thing: First Light by Peter Ackroyd
LA Times Book Review: First Light by Peter Ackroyd

Trust Me by Jeff Abbott

 

Trust Me by Jeff Abbott

Dutton

Published in 2009

ISBN 9780525951216

372 Pages

PLACES TO BUY FROM:

Amazon (Hardcover)
Barnes & Noble (Hardcover)

CHECKED OUT THE BOOK FROM MY PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Review/Rating:

3 out of 5



Working on his stepfather's think tank, Luke Dantry posts on forums and other online communities known for their users being extremists and reports back to his stepfather the users who he thinks are capable of doing terrorists acts. Mostly, Luke thinks the majority of them are just frustrated and aren't capable of doing the things they say they will. However, he is proven wrong when he is kidnapped and taken to a cabin hidden in the woods. What will he do when he finds out this betrayal runs deeper than he thinks?

This time the book review is over a mystery, suspense, action, thriller adult novel. I'm trying to take a break from the young adult books for a little bit. ;)

For an action and thriller novel, the plot and characters are all pretty average. Why average? Because in most action and thriller books I read it usually goes like this: The main character gets in trouble, main character escapes multiple attempts on his/her life, main character meets up with old faces and gets betrayed by someone they know, and then, the main character saves the day. That is pretty much how this book went.

Although there were a lot of details, going through and finishing the book was very tedious and sort of boring. In this case, I found it boring because of how typical it was, not because of too many details and descriptions. I liked how the author described the appearance of most of the characters in the book since not that many authors give those kind of descriptions anymore. Another thing I liked about the book is that it showed that the Internet isn't as safe as you think because people can still find out where you are --- it is something to think over when you do things online.

Those are pretty much the only things I liked about the book. The main things I didn't like about the book are the typical plot for this kind of genre, even though it is enjoyable on some levels in other books, it isn't in this book. Also, the politics in the book are very boring. Anyways, it is an okay read, if you want the typical parts and like descriptions. As for me, it was an average book with a lot of boredom in-between the action parts.

Other Reviews/Author Site:

Jeff Abbott
Goodreads: Trust Me by Jeff Abbott
Library Thing: Trust Me by Jeff Abbott
Diana Page Jordan: Stepfathers, Terrorism on the Web, and Trust Me!
Genre Go Round Reviews: Trust Me - Jeff Abbott
Trust Me by Jeff Abbott (Mystery Book Review)

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

INSATIABLE SERIES BOOK 01

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

William Morrow (Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers)

Published in 2010

ISBN 9780061735066

454 Pages

PLACES TO BUY FROM:

Amazon (Hardcover)
Barnes & Noble (Hardcover)

CHECKED OUT THE BOOK FROM MY PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Review/Rating:

3 out of 5



Meena Harper writes the dialogue for the popular drama, Insatiable, but when her bosses tell her that the drama she writes for will change to something she hates, vampires, she goes crazy. Although Meena is not unfamiliar with supernatural things, since she can tell how people will die, she still doesn't like it. Though, even with her small ability to tell a small part of the future, she still has problems with her love life because of her so-called "gift". However, that is, until she meets Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince from Romania. They both feel in love at first sight, but is Meena in love with him or with the fact she can't see his death? Also, does Lucien have any dark secrets that he is keeping from Meena?

A vampire romance book. Oh, goody, but don't worry it is kind of different from most vampire romance books out there.

Another vampire romance book, is it me, or are these vampire romance novels getting tiresome? In most of these novels, the women are wimpy and fall head over heels with the vampire. This book isn't any different in that aspect, in fact, it is worse in that area. Several times while reading how Meena reacted to Lucien, I wanted to go into the book and smack her several times. Not only is Meena's personality similar to other books featuring supernatural things, but so were the rest of the characters of the book. *SIGH* They were too stereotypical for me to really enjoy the characters. I kind of wish she ended up with Wulf, instead of no one.

Also, although the details are kind of okay, the book isn't really that enjoyable. Well, except the short parts of comedy that are in the book, which was kind of made the book a little bit more enjoyable. However, despite the fact I really didn't like the book, the ending is unexpected for a vampire romance novel. Anyways, I don't suggest reading if you don't like the stereotypical characters in supernatural books.

*SIGHS* Such disappointment. I like her young adult series The Mediator, but this book was kind of URGH.

I rated it a 3 star because of the funny parts and the unexpected ending. >.>"

Oh, I forgot to mention why it has the smut label. There isn't detailed sex scenes, like most vampire romance books, however, there are scenes leading up to sexual intercourse. The actual sex parts are not mentioned, only the parts where it leads up to sex. >.<

I just looked up information about this book, and apparently, there will be a sequel in July 2011 named Overbite. *URGH*

Other Reviews/Author Site:

Meg Cabot
Goodreads: Insatiable by Meg Cabot
Library Thing: Insatiable by Meg Cabot
Stiletto Storytime: Review: Insatiable by Meg Cabot
All the Books I Can Read: Insatiable by Meg Cabot
Words, Words, Words: Insatiable by Meg Cabot