Books

Here’s a book for all of those fantasy readers out there like me.  

Book Four - Dragon’s Song by Sara Stern

This book starts out like all good fantasy should - with a prologue. Here we meet the small version of the main character, Selah, her brothers, and the man who would become her adoptive father.

By the second chapter (although technically the first), Selah is 12 or 13 years old and living in the fief of Domar (which makes her name Selah of Domar). As safe as she is in Domar, Selah feels that there’s always been something missing from her life. A hole in her heart, if you will. So when a Dragon and his rider show up and offer her a place at the Dragonhold fief, she accepts because she felt whole when she stood next to the dragon.

She spends a year as the only girl pallon (in this case, a child without a dragon) in the fief, and she learns to deal with critsim from her peers and failure in front of others. After a year, however, there is the Choosing that all of the pallons have to go through. This Choosing is where they will either gain a dragonet (a young dragon) or have to go home. A scary enough prospect, it becomes even more frightening for Selah when she has a terrible accident trying to protect her dragonet, Windchaser, from walking through a wall of fire. Selah only survives because of a well-timed save by a god.

Unfortunantely for her, this isn’t the last time she nearly dies. As training goes on, she becomes a target of the Dragonhunters, a group of people bent on ridding the world of dragons. Most Dragonriders are too afraid of the Dragonhunters to ever face them alone, but for more than half of the story, Selah has to go up against them without any support but the support of her dragonet.

Of course, other things happen in the book, but it’s really hard to tell you anymore without giving anything away, so I’ll just rate the book.

Over all, this gets a 9 1/2. I know it’s a really high score, but it’s an amazing book. I’d give it an 8 1/2 by its self, but the fact that it was written by a girl who was 15 when it was published? I give it another point for that. The story is well thought out, with many turns that I didn’t see coming, and believeable characters. This is the kind of book that you have to read slowly, even though it feels like you need to read it all at once. It’s like a rich dessert that you want to wolf down but you can’t because it’s so good. Obviously, I’d reccommend that you read this book. However, you may only enjoy it if you like books such as Eragon and other pure fantasy books. I don’t know. I just know that I’ll never forget reading this book. Have fun.

You’re back! So am I! What a coincidence!      AND I’ve got a new book to review for you all. Aren’t you just so eager to read about it? If you’re not, get out. (Just kidding!)  

      Book Three: King Dork by Frank Portman.  

      Okay, so if you’re like me (which I have no doubt that some of you are), then you know what it’s like to be a nerd/geek. It’s fun while you’re around your friends, because they’re probably in the same (sinking) boat that you are, but it also entitles you to be picked on by those of a higher status.

      This is the central theme of King Dork. The story is about Tom Henderson, who’s been an outsider for nearly as long as anyone can remember. In seventh grade, he earned the nickname Chi-mo. Chi-mo isn’t a good nickname either.

      Tom has one friend. A guy named Sam Hellerman, who is just as far down on the social food chain as Tom is. Sure they’ve got a band (which never seems to be able to keep its name the same for more than three weeks), but so far it’s done nothing for them.

      Of course, King Dork isn’t all about Tom (a.k.a. Sheepie) and his daily routine. It’s also about a mystery surrounding Tom’s dad’s accident/suicide/murder, The Catcher in the Rye, two semi-hot (the book’s description, not mine!) girls, a school talent show, and a creepy teacher named Mr. Teone. Sounding good yet?

      Sure, this book has the same self-realization that most of these books have towards the end of them, but it’s done differently here. The point comes so subtly that you probably wouldn’t even notice it if Tom didn’t point it out himself. It was almost refreshing to see it placed in there so quietly.

      On the BOOK BLOG scale, this one gets a 7 ½. King Dork is funny and occasionally laugh-out-loud hilarious, but most of the characters in the book (minus Tom and possibly Sam) seemed kind of fake to me. Probably because there wasn’t enough explanation put into who they were and what purpose to the story that they served. Also, I was slightly disappointed with the ending to the mystery. Anti-climactic, I think it would be called in the industry.

      Oh, and then I suppose there’s the whole issue with the language. This book is told from a high schooler’s point of view. There is a fair amount of swearing (including the F-bomb. I think it’s dropped on the first page of the book as well) and then there’s some… other things that one doesn’t normally bring up in polite conversation. Nothing graphic, but you get the general idea of what’s going on. Yeah, I read it, and it’s probably above what I should be reading (note the should), but that doesn’t mean that my parental units knew what I was reading.

      It’s still a good book, though I would say that you should probably be at least in seventh or eighth grade before you read it. And, as I mentioned, there are parts which are incredibly funny, so you might want to think twice before reading it during silent reading or something like that.  

      The time has come again where I must say goodbye. So… goodbye, and until next time.  

      P.S. I would like to sincerely apologize for how far apart this post was from my last one. I hope to be much quicker with my next one.

The Picking Fields is an amazing true acount of living in poverty with a drucken atrosety of a father. This book will grab you into an emotional mind of a child living in an unheathy environment full of sex, poverty, and hunger.
Leanna is a young girl of 6 who was born into a family of 11 and had to, at a very young age, learn how to SURVIVE by her own means.
This book contain some mature content so check with your parents before reading.
PS: This is the true story of one of my friend working here at a public libray and it is not for the faint of heart.