The Grimm Legacy

by Polly Shulman

AR book level: 4.0

 Elizabeth needs a job so she asks her social studies teacher what job he thinks she would like.  He says the library would be good.  She goes to the library and takes a test.  She passes and gets the job.  It's a weird library because it has very few books, instead of checking out books, you check out objects.  There is a Grimm section in the library and Elizabeth has to work at the library for awhile before she is trusted enough to get a key to that section.  She goes to get something for her friend from the Grimm section and she gets locked in because she doesn't know the password to get back out.  When she finally gets out, one of the librarians tells her to go to the head office and she gets her key.

After talking to her co-workers, she finds out there are items being stolen from the Grimm section.  In the book, she tries to figure out who the thief is.

I liked this book because it's very funny and magical.  I really like fairy tale themes.  This was a modern fairy tale that included stuff from the original Grimm Fairy Tales like Snow White's mirror that showed a different version of herself, a mermaid's comb that made your hair silky when you used it, and Aladdin's magic carpet.

Juliet Dove: Queen of Love

by Bruce Coville

AR Book Level:  5.0

Juliet Dove is a sixth grade girl who is teased about walking to school with her neighbor because everyone says that they are boyfriend and girlfriend.  She gets mad, says rude comments about the girls who tease her that she can't stop herself from saying, and runs away.  She ran so far that she got lost and found herself on a street she didn't know.  She enters a magic store on the end of the street.  When she goes in, a women from the back of the shop gives her a mysterious necklace.  The necklace turns out to be magical and makes all the boys in her class fall in love with her.  Juliet finds out that the woman who gave it to her was the Greek goddess of discord, Eris.

 The necklace is stuck on Juliet's neck.  Juliet tries to figure out how to remove it with the help of other Greek goddess and Cupid.  She is also helped by the magic shop's real owner's two talking rats.

I liked this book because of the two talking rats.  This book is full of humor.  I like Greek goddesses.  I really like how they tied in the Greek mythology with a funny story.  I liked that this book was elegant and exciting.  I didn't want it to stop because I wanted to keep listening to it so much. I listened to this as an audiobook.  It had a variety of cast which made it very cool to listen too.

I would recommend this for people that like adventure and mythology.  This book is one of the books in a magic shop series, but it's the only one in the series I have read.

Ella Enchanted

by Gail Carson Levine
AR Book Level:  4.6

When Ella was born, she was given a gift from a fairy.  That gift turned out to be a curse.  The gift of obedience so Ella always had to do whatever anyone told her.  When Ella's mother died, Ella's dad became poor all of the sudden. He decides to remarry someone rich.  The person he marries have two daughter who figure out Ella's gift and use it to get her to do what they want.  Ella goes through many adventures trying to break the curse.

I would recommend this book to people who like a twist on fairy tales.  This book is a twist on Cinderella. 

I liked this book because it was full of adventure but still your basic Cinderella story.  This story was different from the original Cinderella because it is full of fairy tale creatures whereas the original only had her fairy godmother.

I'm back!

Sorry I haven't been blogging for awhile.  I have been really busy, but I am hoping to get quite a few posts done over the summer.  My soccer season just ended.  We won our division in our regular season and finished second in a tournament.  I am still taking piano lessons and I start drum lessons this week. 

I have read a bunch of books recently so look for posts on:

• Finished through book 11 of the 39 Clues
• Eddie: The Lost Youth of Edgar Allen Poe
• Ella Enchanted
• Started the Lemony Snicket books - A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Judy Moody
• The Grimm Legacy
• Time Warp Trio
• and more!