The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

Good thing this was a short book! But it was still very cool, and very enjoyable. I can’t believe that I didn’t get to reading this book sooner, because as you would pretty well know, it’s quite an old series and it’s for a younger age group. I have to make this one quick because today I have to weed whack and go to a birthday party. I just finished making the card actually.

In London, Diggory and Polly make use of their time exploring Diggory’s Uncle’s old house, and finding secret passage ways that lead behind all of the houses along the street. When they accidently end up inside Uncle Andrew’s secret attic room upstairs, they get into more than they bargained for. Soon enough, they are spinning in and out of many different worlds, with an evil queen in tow. When they stumble into Narnia, a world that is just being born they see things that before they would have called impossible. How will they make it back home, and will Diggory find something that will cure is ill mother?

The writing style used in this book is something different, that’s for sure. It’s in third person, but sometimes the narrator will pop in with something like, ‘But I would have never done such a thing.’ So it was really quite fun to see what they author or narrator thought about what was going on in the story. A lot of times, the narrator was giving you a clue about what was going to happen next, or telling about the next book. Lewis made certain connections very clear.

It is a children’s book, so the story is very short, and there isn’t really any thing that jabbed out at you to be super important, the story just flows along like water and everything happens to make something else happen, and it all works out kindly in the end. Another thing that I noticed about this story, is that the English is pretty old fashioned but it made me want to go around pretending that I was British. Something about how they say, ‘Oh, do come over here Polly.’ makes me happy.

I liked this story very much, and I believe that it is a very good opening to the next book, which I have already read and seen the movie numerous times. I’m going to give it a 4. Here is the closest website for C.S Lewis that I could find besides Wikipedia, it says that his step son made it, and it’s factual if I say so myself. http://cslewis.drzeus.net/ 

Chow Mr. Cow,

MRR

The Eyes of a King by Catherine Banner

I’ve been camping non stop up till know, that’s why there hasn’t been much activity, but I am reading a short book next and I have many friends with many new books that they would LOVE to give me. I can’t believe that there is only one month left of sweet summer, I sure am going to miss it. Do you know what I’m not going to miss though? My Dad doing laundry….he folds weird. Anyway, let’s get started.

The great country of Malonia is a mess – the government is corrupted, the people are in ruins, and the young prince who is supposed to rule is stuck in a parallel world. Leo lives with his Grandmother and his little brother Stirling in the dirtier part of the kingdom, attending military school to add to evil Lucien’s troops. When Leo finds a black book that has words that appear by themselves, he is reminded of magic and the world of England that his father once told stories about. While Leo’s life takes too many turns for the worst, will the banished Prince be able to rise again?

Sometime around the Olympics, I went to Vancouver, and I went into the three story chapters there, and I saw this special section. It was called, ‘Teens for Teens’ or something like that. It was a section of novels written by teens that were supposed to be good books, so I thought, why not? I grabbed this book and finally got to reading it around now. I wish I spent my money on something better! Banner wrote this while she was 14 years old, and it is the most confusing book that I have ever read!

There are three different views in the book that all have different kinds of font, and you can’t tell which is who and who is which and etc. Until the very last chapter, I still didn’t understand the story, and even now…. I still don’t get the point of it all! It told Leo’s sad life, then it had random passages in between of a parallel world, and then it had a commentary of Leo in present while he was writing it. Too confusing!

Even if you did find some sort of point to it, there was no real climax or leading up point, I can only recall two events that stuck out to me. When Stirling gets sick and when Anna gets kidnapped, and they are way too far away from each other, so there was too much space to fill in with crap. Leo’s life is the most boring life to read about ever, and the point of the whole novel was to tell about it! Seriously, it was basically this. He goes to school, argues with some one, runs away, comes back, goes to school, runs away, fights with somebody, goes to the graveyard, cries, runs away, sits still in his house, cries, goes to the graveyard, runs away, cries again, sits around again. HOLY CRAP. I was grumpy while I was camping because this book was pissing me off!

The idea was cool, but she was just too inexperienced to tackle such a project. Although I’m sure that there are tons of very good teen writers out there. I give this book an overall, 2. Because some parts were interesting. Banner is going to write two more books with this one, and they are the same damn story but the time of it has changed, and the view of the person is changed. Haha, anybody want to read that? No tank you. Here is a wiki on her. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Banner

Chow Mr. Cow,

MRR

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

I’ve been away at my Grandma’s house, but I have been reading – somewhat. Trust me, lots of reviews are coming….I have a pile of 20+ books that I have to read. Right now though, I need a break….something must be wrong with my eyes because I can’t help but squint all the time, because my eyes won’t focus on any words. BUT it’s not like I can’t see other things, it’s just words. Enough about that though, HERE WE GO.

Graced with killing since she was very young, Kasta has a reputation of being King Randa’s very own thug. Everywhere in the seven kingdoms, people fear the girl with one blue eye, and one green. When Kasta befriends Po, a prince from a faraway land – they set out to solve the mystery of his missing grandfather, and the reasons behind many strange things going on in Monsea.But Kasta finds herself caught in a terrifying air of lies, and deceit and she must learn to see the truth to save what is most important to her.

It wasn’t hard for me to get used to the world that Kasta lived in, and I was super grateful that the characters weren’t all talking in old English because then I would have to hurt somebody. The dialogue was a bit annoying with all of the ‘My Lord’ and ‘My Lady’ things happening, but they died down after Part 1 out of three in the book.

Everything was so pulled together, and it always kept you on your feet. At one point, I was sure that something was going to happen, and then the opposite thing took place….and I was taken aback! I usually get my predictions pretty spot on. I thought that there was going to be a super happy ending, where everything was resolved…BUT THEN, something miraculous happened that made me happy and sad at the same time, crazy isn’t it? You’ll have to read it to find out yourselves.

I don’t have much complaint about this book, I thought it was wonderfully written and brilliantly thought out! I give it a 5 out of 5!

Now, here is Cashore’s website if you want to take a look, I believe that she has two more books coming out in this series called Fire and Bitterblue.

There is a little picture for you, so you can have an idea you know – and here is her blog/webpage.

http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/2009/02/explaining-graceling-fire-bitterblue.html

Enjoy your summers everybody! I know I’ll enjoy mine, (no matter how badly I burn)

Chow Mr. Cow,

MRR

Evernight by Claudia Gray

Hello, nice to see you all again so soon. PFT. I think that being a bookworm has it’s advantages most of the time….but seriously. I need to get off of my ass some time soon before I turn in to a whale! Sports are over, as is school…so I barely need to walk anymore except to get food! Since my last review, I’ve already finished the second Harry Potter book, and this one as well. Maybe I need to get out more and go play paintball or something.

Never before had Bianca questioned how she grew up, and the simple little things that her parents had drilled in to her head – some a simple as just remember to brush her teeth. But she had never truly understood them either, until she ends up at a strange and isolated boarding school called Evernight, where Bianca’s world takes a terrible turn. Struggling to fit in with the strangely alike students at the school, while trying to keep her relationship with an even more mysterious Lucas. Bianca will learn the truth about Evernight Academy, the students that attend it and most importantly – her confusing past where the obvious answers have been right under her nose from the start/

When I read the first couple chapters, I thought that this was going to be another book that was meant for children, because the writing style is so simple and so unadvanced that I couldn’t help but think – well this is going to be pretty darn boring. However, after you read more everything is some what laid out so that you some what understand what is going on. Of course, there is always that some what in there, so let’s cut to the chase. You’re going to be reading half of this book confused added with a little feeling of doubt. I don’t know if the author intended it to be that way…but the thing is that seems to be meant as a nice smooth transition between things turns out to be choppy. Basically, you’ll be reading along (laa lee laa lee laa) and then all of a sudden you have to go back and read again because you found yourself thinking. ‘Huh?’

It may seem that this story is going to be short, but some how it seemed so much longer, and I haven’t decided whether not that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Several times while reading I closed the book and sighed, because I just wanted a break, then did a circle around my house, and then picked it back up again. If you think about what happens in the story, it’s a really interesting plot line and the events that happen really do match up well in the end….but the the writing style is BORING. Very very uninteresting, to say the least.

I do know a good story when I see one, with good parts and bad parts, I give this book a 2.5 halfway mark.

Here is Gray’s website, I believe there are two other books in the series after this one. http://www.claudiagray.com/

Now, one more thing before I wrap this up. I know that I have one follower, and one comment from some body that I don’t know personally..but I still feel the need to confide in my….readers? When I first started this blog, I just wanted to make it simple and easy to read, easy to follow. But Blogspot has come out with these new designs that look pretty darn cool. Should I change the design to something more fancy, or is it better simple? In the end, I know that I’ll do whatever I feel like doing but still, being polite is the way to go you know, ;)

Chow Mr. Cow,

MRR