Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief

by Rick Riordan
AR book level:  4.7

As I said before I really really really like Greek mythology.  So my mom thought that I would like this book which I did. 

Percy Jackson is a sixth grader who has dyslexia and ADHD.  He gets in trouble a lot in school so he gets kicked out of a different school each year.  At the end of his field trip, his teacher grows wings and talons and attacks him.  He fights her off with the help of his favorite teacher who gives him a pen that turns into a sword. After this, no one knows it happened or even remembers the teacher.  Percy overhears his favorite teacher and his best friend talking about him and the teacher he fought. 

After being chased by monsters again, his mom takes him to a camp for half-bloods, kids who have one parent who is a Greek god/goddess and one mortal parent.  Percy's mom is killed taking him to the camp and he does not know which god is his father.  At camp, Percy learns who his father is and is sent on a quest to prevent the gods from fighting and therefore making a war.

Mostly the two reasons I really liked it is that you learn a lot about Greek mythology and it was super-duper funny.  My favorite character was Annabeth, whose mom is Athena the goddess of wisdom.  I like her because she is smart and she is always acting like she is the best, but in a good way.  I also like that the three friends Percy, Annabeth, and Grover have nicknames for each other.

I am reading the second book in this series now.  I will probably be done before school starts with it.  There are five books in the series.

Cinderellis and the Glass Hill

by Gail Carson Levine

AR book level: 4.3

This book is by the same author that wrote Ella Enchanted. 

Once upon a time, there was a farm boy and his two older brothers.  The farm boy's name is Ellis and Ellis makes magic powders.  When he was little, he tried to show his floating powder make a teacup float up the chimney to his older brothers, but when they came into the room they saw Ellis covered in cinders so ever since they called him Cinderellis. Ellis keeps making new and different powders trying to make his brothers like him, but they don't pay attention. 

On the other side of the kingdom, there is a castle.  There is a lonely princess whose father the king is always going on quests to find different things.  All that Princess Marigold has for company is her orange cat that her father brought back from a quest.  One of the king's quests went terribly wrong and the King had to stay at the castle for a few years.  Since he could not go on a quest, he made a glass hill and men were supposed to ride their horses up the hill and get three golden apples from the princess to win a chance to marry her.  Marigold didn't want a husband she didn't know. 

Cinderellis tries to compete to get up the glass hill using his powders. 

I liked this story because it was one of those stories based on the Cinderella Story, but wasn't an old fashioned Cinderella story.  I thought that Cinderellis was pretty cool to think about all the ingredients he put in his powders.  For example, in his fluffy powder, he put in feathers from a pillow.

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.

Avalon: Web of Magic Book 1

 By Rachel Roberts
AR Book Level 3.9

This book is filled with magic and animals.  The first character that is introduced has a mother who is a veterinarian.  She's used to working with injured animals.  One day when she was walking some of the dogs who live at the kennel, a few of the dogs ran into Old Ravenswood Preserve.  There she finds a rock in a stream.  The next morning, she wakes up and in her pocket is the rock, but it is no longer rough, it's smooth.  She learns that the stone is magical and they find a bunch of cool creatures including a wolf made of mist and a talking ferret.  There is another girl who lives at Ravenswood Manor who found a different stone in a field.  She is friends with the wolf named Stormbringer.  They try to help the talking ferret, Ozzie find a portal back to his magical world.

I liked this book because it includes three different points of view of the three girls in the story.  If you like this book, I would try the Ivy and Bean series about two friends who you wouldn't think would go together but they do.

Spiderwick Chronicles

Books Read (AR book level: 4.0 - 4.4)
The Field Guide
The Seeing Stone
Lucinda's Secret
The Ironwood Tree
The Wrath of Mulgarath

I loved the Spiderwick books.  In these books, three kids and their mom move into their great aunt's house.  Everyone thought that their Great Aunt Lucinda was cookoo.  The kids, Jared, Mallory and Simon use the dumb waiter at their house to go upstairs and go to the old attic.  There Jared found a secret library and in it a clue.  He didn't know what the clue was for, but later in the book he finds "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You".   The book tells about magical creatures who live in the invisible world around you.  The creatures from the book are real and want to get the Field Guide because they don't want to be discovered.  With help from their house brownie Thimbletack, the three children will have to save the book and their family.

I liked these books because they had magic and fantasy.  I am reading the book that the series in based on "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You" now.  I think that the Spiderwick series and the Field Guide are great books for any one who likes fantasy.  There is even a second series of books based on the Field Guide too.

Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

AR Book Level:  5.7

In Once Upon a Marigold, a troll named Ed finds a young boy in  the forest.  He takes the little boy home with him and the boy doesn't remember where his home is and doesn't want to go back.  Ed and his dogs raise the boy named Christian.  As Christian grows older, he starts to send p-mail (notes sent by pigeons) to a princess across the river.  He started sending Princess Marigold the p-mail because he thought she looked lonely and he wanted to know what book she was reading. Christian decides to get a job at the castle because he is grown up and wants to meet other people.   He hides his identity from Marigold, but soon learns he needs to help her because her evil mother is trying to kill her.

I liked this book because it had five different dogs in it.  It was really really funny.  It has a sequel called "Twice Upon a Marigold" and I am reading that right now.  I think is a good book for ages 8 and up.

Savvy by Ingrid Law

AR book level = 6.0

In this book, a girl named Mibs has a family that when they turn 13 they discover their supernatural power, called their savvy.  Mibs can't wait, but all the sudden her dad gets into a ten car pile-up.  She goes to a bunch of different places in a bus with two adults named Lester and Lill.  Also in the bus are Will Jr. and Bobbi, two other kids, and Fish and Sampson, Mibs's brothers.

I liked this book.  You will want to read it if you like magic and adventure.  It took me awhile to read the book, but when I got going, I read the last part really fast.  I finished it last night.  There is another book in this series called Scumble, about another member of Mibs's family.  I am going to try to get it at the library sometime soon.

Harry Potter Series

I love Harry Potter books and movies!  My favorite character is Ron Weasley.  I do impressions of Ron.  My friends, Sydney and Rory (who are in my class) have read all the Harry Potter books and said that my impression was good.

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a boy who does not know his parents gets some awkward letters (a lot) and figures out that he is a wizard.  He goes to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  He makes two new friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. They figure out a deadly beast lives in the 3rd corridor.  They figure out the sorcerer's stone is under a trap door the beast is guarding and learn that if they don't save the sorcerer's stone their world and ours will come to an end.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, it is Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and when mysterious writings in blood were seen on the wall saying the heir of Slytherin will petrify the students.  Harry does a lot of different things to figure out who the true heir is and in the end, finds himself smarter than his teacher and fighting over Ginny Weasley (Ron's sister).  The best part is when Ron, Fred, and George pull up to Harry's locked window and attach a bungie cord to the window, rip the window off, and then Harry says "what are you doing here?" and Ron says "We're coming to rescue you of course!"

Again, I love these books.  Please check them out at your local library.  I am reading the third book now.

Magic Kitten and Puppy

My dog Prince with the books I read

Books Read:
Magic Kitten: Moonlight Mischief by Sue Bentley (AR book level 4.1)
Magic Puppy: A Forest Charm by Sue Bentley (AR book level 4.4)

In Magic Kitten: Moonlight Mischief, Flame (a magic kitten) escapes danger by going to the human world.  A young girl named Eve can't believe she has to visit a family friend's kennel.  Then she meets Flame.  Flame makes the time away from home go quickly.

In Magic Puppy: A Forest Charm, Storm is a magic wolf.  He comes to Earth and disguises himself as a puppy.  A girl named Cassie is nervous because she doesn't know who to talk to while camping.  When Storm appears, she knows everything will be alright.

I read these books near the end of first grade.  These books are at an easier level.  You would probably like them if you like fantasy, magic, and animals.  The stories talk about getting through stuff in your life like Cassie learns to keep trying and you'll get there.  That's why I liked these books.

The Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives

Book Read:
The Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley (AR book level 5.2)

Two sisters named Daphne and Sabrina go through a hard time where their parents disappear.  They are orphans for two years and have escaped from many different houses.  Then all of the sudden, an old lady claims that she is their grandmother.  Sabrina and Daphne figure out that they are descendents of the Brothers Grimm.  In the first book, they learn they are fairy tale detectives and that they need to save their long lost grandma from a giant.

I liked this book because it used the classic Grimm fairy tales and a hint of mystery.  It was funny.  I am looking forward to reading the other books in this series.

Philippa Fisher Series

Books read:
Philippa Fisher's Fairy Godsister by Liz Kessler (AR book level 4.1)
Philippa Fisher and the Dream-Maker's Daughter (AR book level 3.8)
Philippa Fisher and the Fairy's Promise (AR book level 4.0)


The Philippa Fisher books are great and funny and exciting.  Philippa is a young and kind kid.  She has three adventures.  The first book (Philippa Fisher's Fairy Godsister) is when Philippa meets her fairy "Godsister" and in the second book (Philippa Fisher and the Dream-Maker's Daughter) Philippa goes for a vacation (that happens because of something from the first book) and finds a new friend and an old friend.  In the third, Philippa Fisher and the Fairy's Promise, Philippa gets trapped at ATC (Above the Clouds) and has a few adventures.

I like the Philippa Fisher books because they make me feel like I can do anything.  If you like the Philippa Fisher books, read the Emily Windsnap books which are very good.