Book Review - Emily the Emerald Fairy by Daisy Meadows

Title: Emily the Emerald Fairy

Author: Daisy Meadows

Genre: Young Adult

Challenges: To Be Continued…Challenge, 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, A to Z Reading Challenge, 2009 Support Your Local Library, 20 Books in 2009, 2009 Second Chances, Pages Read Challenge, 2009 YA Challenge, 100+ Reading Challenge – 2009, the confuzzled Faerie Book Challenge, Summer Reading Challenge 2009,

Rating: 3/5

No. of Pages: 70

Published: 2005

From the back: Jack Frost is up to no good again! This time, he’s stolen the seven jewels from Queen Titania’s crown. Without them the Jewel Fairies can’t do their jobs. The Magic in Fairyland is fading fast!

Without her magic emerald, Emily the Emerald Fairy can’t see the future! Can Rachel and Kirsty help make things right again?

Mine: Another great story in the Fairy series. The goblins seem to always be in a rush to fool the girls and get into trouble. This time he is found in the toy store. The stuffed animal cat with the emerald eye is taken from the girls, but they do chase him around. They finally get him when he gets on the skateboard and head for the elevator. Boy is that back wall hard and then the doors close.

Book Review - Amy the Amethyst Fairy by Daisy Meadows

Title: Amy the Amethyst Fairy

Author: Daisy Meadows

Genre: Young Adult

Challenges: To Be Continued…Challenge, 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, A to Z Reading Challenge, 2009 Support Your Local Library, 20 Books in 2009, 2009 Second Chances, Pages Read Challenge, 2009 YA Challenge, 100+ Reading Challenge – 2009, the confuzzled Faerie Book Challenge, Summer Reading Challenge 2009,

Rating: 3/5

No. of Pages: 65

Published: 2005

From the back: Jack Frost is up to no good again! This time, he’s stolen the seven jewels from Queen Titania’s crown. Without them the Jewel Fairies can’t do their jobs. The Magic in Fairyland is fading fast!

Amy the Amethyst Fairy’s magic jewel controls the power to make things disappear. But now the amethyst has disappeared, too! What will Amy do without it?

Mine: Another great story in the Fairy series. The goblins seem to always be in a rush to fool the girls and get into trouble. This time they are caught in the in the tree ladders, so the girls are able to save Fern.

Book Review - The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett

Title: The Wild Christmas Reindeer

Author: Jan Brett

Genre: Children’s

Challenges: PB & J Challenge, 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, A to Z Reading Challenge, The Year Of Readers – 2009, Pages Read Challenge, Young Reader's Challenge 2009, Read a Book a Month Challenge, Summer Vacation Reading Challenge 2009, Summer Reading Challenge 2009, 2009 Support Your Local Library, 20 Books in 2009, 100+ Reading Challenge – 2009, Christmas in July, What an Animal II, August Reading Challenge

Rating: 4/5

No. of Pages: 32

Published: 1990

From the inside cover: This Year Santa asks Teeka to get his reindeer ready to fly on Christmas Eve. She’s happy but a little worried too. She’s never workd with the reindeer before and she’s not sure they’ll want to come in from the tundra, where they run wild and free.

Once she finds them, Teeka’s strong hand does more harm than good, and soon the reindeer are wilder than they were before she began training them. How will she ever get them ready to pull Santa’s sleigh on time?

Mine: Beautifully illustrated book. Teeka finally gets the picture and when she tries to kindly train the deer they finally do cooperate. Teeka feels the pressure, since these are Santa’s best reindeer.

Just in time the reindeer to come around so that Santa can deliver his presents on time.

Book Review - Water Street by Patricia Reilly Giff

Title: Water Street
Author: Patricia Reilly Giff
Genre: Young Adult
Challenges: 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, Book Around the States Challenge, A to Z Reading Challenge, 2009 Support Your Local Library, 2009 Audiobook Challenge, 20 Books in 2009, Pages Read Challenge, 2009 YA Challenge, 100+ Reading Challenge – 2009, Summer Vacation Reading Challenge 2009,

Rating: 5/5
No. of Pages: Audio (176)
Published: 2006
From the back: Brooklyn, 1875. Bird Mallon lives on Water Street, where you can see the great towers of the Brooklyn Bridge being built.
Bird wants nothing more in life than to be brave enough to be a healer, like her mother, Nory; to help her sister Annie find love; and to convince her brother, Hughie, to stop fighting for money with his street gang. And of course, she wishes that a girl would move into the empty apartment upstairs so that she could have a friend close by.
But Thomas Neary and his father move in upstairs. Thomas, who writes about his life in his journal – about Pop, who spends each night at a bar; about the mother he wishes he had; and about the Mallon family downstairs, which he desperately wants to be part of. Thomas, who has a secret that only Bird suspects, and who turns out to be the best friend she could ever have.

Mine: What a wonderful period story and the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. It must have been such an exciting time to watch the bridge being built. The times were so different and what was expected. It tells the story of 2 children who become friends and protect each other from the evils of what may be.

What a nice way to hear about how the city was buzzing about the new bridge and how it affected all the levels of the city. Nory the midwife and healer, Annie the box maker and a wonderful baker, Hughie here brother becomes hard after getting the bends after going down in the water to help with the bridge.

Book Review - The Christmas Hat by A J Wood

Title: The Christmas Hat

Author: A. J. Wood (Illustrated: Maggie Kneen)

Genre: Children’s

Challenges: PB & J Challenge, 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, A to Z Reading Challenge, The Year Of Readers – 2009, Pages Read Challenge, Young Reader's Challenge 2009, Read a Book a Month Challenge, Summer Vacation Reading Challenge 2009, Summer Reading Challenge 2009, 2009 Support Your Local Library, 20 Books in 2009, 100+ Reading Challenge – 2009, Christmas in July, What an Animal II, August Reading Challenge

Rating: 4/5

No. of Pages: 32

Published: 2005

From the inside cover: When Rabbit and Badger adopt a lost baby owl, they don’t realize how challenging it will be to look after him – especially when his downy white feathers help him disappear in the snow!

Rabbit creates a Christmas surprise for Little Owl that will make finding him easier. But danger lurks in the woods, and Rabbit and Badger are not the only ones who see Little Owl more clearly in his new red hat….

Mine: Beautifully illustrated book with textured pages. What a wonderful story about how we all need to take care of each other in this world. So that owl could be found in the snow (since he is a snow owl – white). Rabbit makes him a red hat so that he can be spotted when he’s out in the snow.

Unfortunately the Red Fox can see the owl. Everyone is shouting – “take the hat off” when he does the fox walks right by. Owl finds a new wonderful use for his red hat – a nice bed to sleep in.

Book Review - The Sea Serpent and Me by Dashka Slater

Title: The Sea Serpent and Me

Author: Dashka Slater (illiustrated by Catia Chien)

Genre: Children’s

Challenges: PB & J Challenge, 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, A to Z Reading Challenge, 2009 Support Your Local Library, 20 Books in 2009, Read Your Name Challenge 2009, Pages Read Challenge, Young Reader's Challenge 2009, Read a Book a Month Challenge, Summer Vacation Reading Challenge 2009

Rating: 4/5
No. of Pages: 40
Published: 2008

From the inside cover: When a tiny sea serpent tumbles from the bathtub faucet, a little girl finds an unexpected friend. As rainy day after rainy day passes, the two sing songs, take baths, and talk about the sea.
But little girls live on land, and a growing sea serpent needs wave upon wave of water.

Here’s a story about the true meaning of friendship, erfect for children, patrents, and anone one who has ever had a second thought about growing up.

Mine: A wonderfully illustrated book that talks about the true meaning of friendship between a girl and a sea serpent. The sea serpent needs the water and the little girl love to be sung to sleep at night.

The rainy keeps the little girl from returning the sea searpent to the sea, but finally she knows she must take him to his real home, before he grows too big.

Book Review - The Best Christmas Pageant by Barbara Robinson

Title: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Author: Barbara Robinson
Genre: Young Adult
Challenges: 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, Series Challenge Season 3, A to Z Reading Challenge, 2009 Support Your Local Library, 20 Books in 2009, Pages Read Challenge, 2009 YA Challenge, Summer Vacation Reading Challenge 2009, The Four Month Challenge, Take A chance Challenge, Christmas in July, Summer Reading Challenge 2009,

Rating: 3/5
No. of Pages: 128
Published: 2005 (1988)

From the back: the Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear, and hit little kids. So no one is prepared when this out-law family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant.
None of the Heardmans has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation of the tale – the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies and Herod needs a good beating – has a lot of people up in arms. But it will make this year’s pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.

Mine: It’s amazing how kids that know the story can interpret the story. Through the Herdmans innocent (well maybe not so innocent) eyes – the true story of the Christmas can come to light.

Book Review - Fall Leaf Project by Margaret McNamara

Title: Fall Leaf Project (Robin Hill School)
Author: Margaret McNamara
Genre: Children’s
Challenges: PB & J Challenge, 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, A to Z Reading Challenge, The Year Of Readers – 2009, Pages Read Challenge, Young Reader's Challenge 2009, Read a Book a Month Challenge, Summer Vacation Reading Challenge 2009, Summer Reading Challenge 2009

Rating: 4/5
No. of Pages: 32
Published: 2006
From the back: The First-graders of Robin Hill School love to look at all the different fall leaves. When they hear that in some states the leaves don’t change color; they come up with a plan to share fall with other first-graders.

Mine: My youngest nephew is sorting through his early books. He’s going to donate them to the local used book store, but in the mean time we are going to try to read them before they go. I love reading with my nephews

What a cute story about sharing with others that don’t have the same things as you. The teacher in the story is also trying to teach the children about other states, so there is geography involved. It’s also about the seasons of the year (Fall).