Red Blazer Girls books 2 and 3

by Micheal Beil

The Vanishing Violin (AR book level: 4.4)
The Mistaken Masterpiece (AR book level: 4.7)

Since I first posted by the Red Blazer Girls book series, I have read book 2 The Vanishing Violin and book 3 The Mistaken Masterpiece.  I wanted to update you on my thoughts on the series.  This series follow four seventh grade girls who after solving the mystery in "The Ring of Rocamodour" set up the Red Blazer Girls Detective Agency.  In the Vanishing Violin, there is robbery of a violin that the girls discover was already stolen once and they help the sisters' at their school discover who is cleaning the school after hours.  The Mistaken Masterpiece has the girls helping one of the priests figure out if the painting his father inherited is real or not.  It also has Sophie dog sitting for a famous actor from a vampire movie.

I liked these two books as much as I did the first one.  These ones didn't seem as realistic as the first one.  The girls still use different subjects or techniques to figure out secret messages and codes.  There is a fourth book coming out October 2012. 


See my review of the first book, Ring of Rocamodour here:  http://laurenlovesbooks.blogspot.com/2011/12/red-blazer-girls-ring-of-rocamadour.html

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.

Eddie: The Lost Youth of Edgar Allen Poe

by Scott Gustafson

AR Book level: 5.4

This book is a fictional story about the author Edgar Allen Poe as a child.   Edgar is also known as Eddie.  Eddie's parents died and ever since he has a demon who he talks to when he is lonely and is his friend.  The story takes place when Eddie wakes up in the middle of his neighbor the judge's yard.  There are a lot of people yelling at him.  Eddie's cat and the judge's prize rooster are tied in Eddie's pillowcase on the top of the barn.  To avoid a beating, Eddie asks for 24 hours to figure out who really did it.

I liked the book because it was a mystery book and the demon and Eddie's pet crow were really funny.  There were a lot of pictures in the book and they were so good they seemed like real pictures.  

Justin Case: School, Drool, and Other Daily Disasters

This was the book I got for finishing the Barnes and Noble summer reading program.  All you had to do was read 8 books and then you got to pick out a free book from the list at the store.

by Rachel Vail
AR book level: 5.2

Justin is a 3rd grader.  His name isn't really Justin Case, but he got that nickname doing a project where he kept saying "Just in case."  One of the school bullies said maybe that's how he got his name and ever since everyone has been calling him Justin Case.  The book is written in the form of Justin's journal.  There is an entry every day during the school year.  In the book, Justin talks about what happens at school, home, and with his family. 

I liked the book because it was super duper funny and the beginning of the book he is a worrier, but towards the end he gets more brave and doesn't worry as much.  It was easy to read as there were breaks at the end of each day's journal entry.  I thought that his family was funny especially his little sister who wrote a poem about dog poop that she read to the school.

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.