Category Archives: Book Reviews

In which the reader shares his thoughts on the books that possess his imagination throughout the year.

Book Reviews, Young Adult

Kenny & the Dragon ~Tony DiTerlizzi

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Kenny and the Dragon ~Tony DiTerlizzi

–published 2008
–Simon & Schuster
–160 pages
–7/10

Young Kenny Rabbit is a hare with few friends. His doting parents frequently chide him for spending all of his time with his nose in a book and his best, and perhaps only, friend is the old badger who runs the bookshop from which Kenny borrows at will. Things begin to change the day Kenny’s father bursts through the front door declaring that a huge, ferocious dragon has turned up in a cave on Shepherd’s Hill where the Rabbit family graze their sheep. Full of equal parts curiosity and timidity, Kenny screws up his courage, dons a makeshift set of armor and weapons, and heads out in the setting sun to discover just what this “dragon” is all about.

What Kenny discovers is a friendship to last a lifetime. But if the people of the village have their way, that lifetime might be very short indeed.

Kenny and the Dragon is a tale of friendship, good food, a love of books and poetry, and above all is a story of a little rabbit who finds courage in the last place he expected–within himself.

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Book Reviews, Science Fiction

Second Foundation Group Read: The Conclusion

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“But there, just past the reaching point, was the memory of the past, still glowing in unrusted splendor, and burning with fire where the sun of Trantor caught it in gleaming highlights. She had been there once during the months since she had arrived on Trantor. She had climbed onto the smooth, unjointed pavement and ventured into the silent dust-streaked structures, where the light entered through the jags of broken walls and partions.

It had been solidified heartache. It had been blasphemy.”

And now we are done.

A small but intrepid group began 2012 with the first book in Isaac Asimov’s famed trilogy and now we are at the end. This is my second read through of the trilogy and I can honestly say that I got even more out of it this time. In fact, as I’ll discuss later, it was almost like reading an entirely new book as things were revealed in this read through that I wasn’t focused on during my first time.

It has been great fun reading through this trilogy, and at some point I look forward to continuing on with the books Asimov added to the canon years later. But for now let’s have our final discussion of this group read. Each and every one of these posts has contained spoilers for the uninitiated, and this will be no different.

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Book Reviews, Science Fiction

Second Foundation Group Read, Part 1

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I’m not sure if any of you feel it, but February seems to be rushing by. We are nearing the end of this year’s Science Fiction Experience and have reached the point where we only have half a book to read and we’ll have finished our shared journey through Isaac Asimov’s Hugo Award winning Foundation trilogy. Wow, time does fly and all that.

I was very fond of Second Foundation when I read it for the first time and am enjoying it even more this time reading it with an eye towards deeper discussion. And since that is what we are here for, let’s get right to it!

Spoilers to follow.

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Book Reviews, Young Adult

Dead End in Norvelt ~Jack Gantos

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Dead End in Norvelt ~Jack Gantos

–published 2011
–Farrar, Straus and Giroux
–352 pages

–audio recorded 2011, read by author
–Macmillan Young Listeners
–7 hours (includes mp4 video interview)

–Awarded the 2010 Newbery Medal for excellence in children’s literature
–Awarded the 2012 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction

–10/10 stars

Young Jack Gantos is beyond thrilled. It is the summer of ’62 in the small Pennsylvania town of Norvelt and Jack has plans to enjoy every minute of his freedom. But that freedom is cut short when, in true boyish fashion, Jack makes a mistake that frightens his mother and his neighbor, Old Lady Volker, nearly to death. Thus ends the summer as far as Jack is concerned. He is grounded for the season with his only reprieve coming in the person of Miss Volker, who requires his help getting the obituaries of original Norvelt residents ready for the town paper whenever they happen to pass away. Jack can feel his own life passing away. But what Jack doesn’t realize is that he is about to have the most exciting summer of his young life, with events far beyond the adventures he had imagined for himself.

Part autobiography and part wonderfully constructed fiction, Dead End in Norvelt is a young adult novel that will captive the hearts and minds of readers young, old, and everywhere in between.

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Book Reviews, Science Fiction

Foundation and Empire, Group Read Conclusion

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Our foray into Isaac Asimov’s Hugo Award winning Foundation trilogy rolls on with the final discussion of book two, Foundation and Empire. This is my second read through of the trilogy and this novel was every bit as good as I remember it being the first time, particularly the story line that we will discuss now, that of Toran, Bayta, and the Mule.

So come along and join us in the discussion, but be forewarned, major story spoilers are revealed hereafter.

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