The Otherworldlies by Jennifer Anne Kogler

"When something creepy like that happens, it's better to try to make it fit into the normal scheme of things. I think that's why funerals were invented, to make death seem normal, even though it's totally not, you know?"

You know you're a little different when you're allergic to the sun. You know you're quite a bit different when you can hear people talking about you, in three houses down away from yours, in a room with the door locked and the windows closed. And you know you're just plain weird when you've been correctly predicting the weather for two years.

What do you get when you take all of these traits, and put them inside a twelve year old girl? You get Fern.

Fern is different, and it doesn't make her life easy, but she manages to get along, until one day, in school, she dissapears. She wakes up on a beach miles away, and knows nothing is going to be the same again.

Then scary things start happening. Birds dying, more dissapearing, a creepy neighbor, and her one friend, besides her twin brother, Sam, calling her a "Posiden" and a "Blout", and it's up to Fern, Sam, and a cast of other characters to find out what is going on, who Fern is, and, more importantly, what she is.

"You're a Poseidon and you know it. How else did you do that to Mooney?"

"What are you tallking about? Poseidon?"

I thought this was a pretty good book. Even though it had no romance (normally that causes me to drop half a star on my rating), it was action packed, and interesting enough, that I really didn't notice. I'd say that if you enjoy Vampire books, but aren't looking for a mushy romance novel, this is a good book. I think I'd give it about four and 1/2 stars.

Unable to escape the darkness, she began to panic. Groaning, she tried to wiggle her body to find something, anything, real. A shadow had wrapped itself around her like a mesh vice. She no longer felt the rigid wooden desk chair beneath her. No... now she felt something completely different against her body. Though she couldn't open her eyes to confirm it, she would of recognized the texture anywhere-

Fern was now laying on a mound of warm sand.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre is a fantastic literary classic, a romantic era novel, with some gothic era elements, as many books from the 1800's were. It is a book that chronicles much of her life, from a very young age, around 11, too when she's around 30. It portrays her younger, at her Aunt's house, both her parents have been dead for a long time, and her uncle is dead as well. Her Aunt and cousins are cruel to her. She is a spirited, stubborn, and different child. Soon, she gets to go to school. When will she leave, what will happen there, will she ever blend in? What will happen after she leaves school? What will she do for work? Will she fall in love and get married? What drama will as usual- stumble upon her? Will there be a happy ending?

All of these questions and more shall be answered as you go along in this great book. It also has great vocabulary, again making a good learning opportunity. It has the old english elements and such which can make it occasionally a bit hard to get through, but altogether it was a great book and a nice story. :):):) I rate it 4 1/2 stars. It was quite good in my opinion. Kind of reminiscent to me for some odd reason to Harry Potter (especially in the beggining, lots of similiarities like the spiritual journey and the being and orphan and other such things) and Little Women. That comparison I can't really solve, I think it is some of the writing styles. Maybe. :P

so, READ IT BOOKWORMS! :):):) -Cat! :):)

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The City of Ember is the first book in the Ember series. It depicts the story of a City called Ember, where instead of a sky with the sun they have a sky full of lights. They are entirely closed in from any outside world that may or may not exhist. As far as they know, the 'darkness', the unknown, unlit, area beyond the boundaries is all there is, no more civilization to be seen. The city is fully stocked, with all the food and things they need, and other things can be grown. At least, that's the way it was. Now, Lina, the lead character, and her current time of her world, is starting to suffer the fact that their storerooms aren't endless, among other things, and her whole world could change as she knows it, among the light outages and other such things. They have lots of things, but nowhere near what we do. (such as most plants, animals, technologies, and even the knowledge that we have.) To find out what happens you will just have to read this great book!

I loved it. I would rate it 4 stars! Maybe 4 1/2. It's a very good read! I highly recommend it. :):):) It is also a great discussion type of book. What would you do in the situations that come up with the city? What would you do if you didn't have these things that you do now? It's just interesting to think about.
I think it would be good for anyone like, 10&up to read. :) It doesn't matter too much though. :)

Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse by Kaleb Nation

"Bran Hambric" by Kaleb Nation is a relatively new fantasy book to come to the scene. It is about a boy, named Bran, living in a town called Dunce that has 3 rules: No Mages, No gnomes, and absolutely no Etceteras. Does that sound odd to you? Yes. But if you get past that, haha, it's a very good book! Bran is a boy who is living with the Wilomas's, a family who he only belongs to by accident, and is reffered to as 'the accident'. How? Apparently, in their town, there is a law of finders keepers, even when it comes to children. So, when Sewey Wilomas stumbled across a small boy with nothing but a note that bared his name, "Bran Hambric" he was then to be taken care of by the Wilomas's.
The rules of the town is that there is no magic or gnomes, or anything that could be considered an etcetera after listing those. Is that insignificant? Maybe it seems so, but later on, not.
Anyway, back to Bran. Bran doesn't know who his parents were, or what they were like. He knows that his mother left him for someone else to find. She could be dead. He has no idea. He doesn't know what any of his family was like, and apparently Sewey searched far and wide and found no relations. Read this story of what Bran finds out about that, and the mysteries of the town, the gnomes, the mages, and what the heck the Farfield Curse is.

I thought this book was very good. I think anyone who read and enjoyed Harry Potter will like this book, and it kind of reminded me of it. I think anyone 9&up can read and enjoy it as well! It is a good fantasy, with a nice sense of humor. It is kind of a new twist on books involving magic and stuff as it revolves around the modern world, just with some different rules.
I rate it 4 stars! So... Read it! :)
Bye bookworms! -Cat.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

This is a literary classic, gothic era 19th Century novel. It is classic literature filled with great vocabulary words (great learning opportunity, I had to read it for Vocab./Lit. Class). It has lots of old English. It is a good story, but it can be kind of hard to understand. I think it was good, after finally being finished. Lots of classics can be hard to get through sometimes because of vocabulary used, writing style (don't start out as fast), or old English. As long as you can get past that, which once you get into the book, it can be quite good.

A warning is not to go into reading this book expecting an awfully scary spooky story with the great Frankenstein monster ransacking towns, attacking people, and being just an awful unsuperior race that has been created in malice and other such things. It's not what you see in the movies or comic books. It's a story inside a story. It begins with letters, going to sort of story from beginning in the end and proceeding to, well, reflect on the rest of it. It's very complicated. It is a story from Victor Frankenstein, as he tells Robert Walton, a sea captain determined to control the seas and find a new route across the seas. Dr. Victor Frankenstein tries to control nature. His mother dies, and he seems to be inspired to figure out a way to create life out of death. He experiments with dead body parts (gross) and somehow brings an awesome (not as in good, as in shocking) creaure to life. (important note frankenstein isn't the monster, he's the person who created the monster). He goes into shock and falls ill. The monster escapes. andddd I'm not telling you anymoree stuffffff.
Really. That's as dramatic as it gets. It really isn't a scary book. Dramatic maybe. But not scary.

I rate it 3 1/2 stars maybe 4?. It's just hard for me too get into this book. It was a good story still though :).
I would say it's for ages 12 and up in appropriateness, maybe younger. But the age that can actually get through it, understand it, and appreciate it? Varies. Depends on the person. So, read it, it's good :) A nice classic.

November blog carnival

hello! this time I actually got a submission!!

Captain Lyaf Yarr has reviewed the Diary of a wimpy kid. you can find the review here.

thanks.

if you have any submissions, please enter it here.
if you have any questions, you can contact me at my blog.