The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

  Apparently this winter break for me included catching up on series that I may have left unattended too long.  Enter "Throne of Fire" the second entry into the Kane chronicles.  The Kane chronicles follow Sadie and Carter Kane, godlings from the ancient house of Egypt who we first became familiar with in "The Red Pyramid".
    Rick Riordan is a man to be respected, for sure.  He has used this series intelligently to interest people in Egyptian mythology and history like he used Percy Jackson for Greece.  The journey of the Kane family in this novel pulls at your heartstrings as the two children learn to truly stand on their own in this book.  They mature and grow, and of course make tough decisions out of bad choices all around.  I enjoyed the addition of Walt and the way Mr. Riordan uses informal word choice fitting of his teenage main characters throughout much of the book.
    This series still doesn't rank above that of Percy and his mates, but I felt this book took it up higher on that scale for sure.  Four smiles and a tear because that hard-exterior Bes got to me a bit.

12th of Never by James Patterson

   As the title implies, this is the 12th in a series for Mr. Patterson.  In fact, this is the 12th book to hit shelves featuring the "Woman's Murder Club" and was written in tandem with Maxine Paetro.  Readers of this blog will know these facts about me already, but they are worth repeating.  Firstly, I am a HUGE James Patterson fan and I literally read everything the man writes (quite the accomplishment since his full list of books spans 3 pages in small print and he adds at least 3 to the list every single year).  Secondly, I do not believe that all Patterson books are created equal and have previously claimed to actually dislike a few in the past.
    This title was actually pretty good.  I haven't been a solid fan of the Woman's Murder series in the past, finding the antics of Yuki and Cindy to be a bit dry (although I do love Lindsay and Claire).  This book had a lot of interesting story lines going on at once, and I found it pleasing instead of confusing.  Lindsay and Joe finally have their baby, but things don't unfold as planned.  Add to that a football star being accused of murdering his girlfriend, a body missing from the morgue, Claire being suspended, a missing security guard, and an English professor who appears to be predicting murders; and there are a lot of things to love about this book.
    I feel as though this one was one of the most intense books in the series.  Readers of the series will be glad they stuck with it and non-readers may very well be glad you don't really need to read them all to enjoy the book.  Personally, I'm glad I read this one.  Four stars for the high action book, and a wink for the twist I didn't see.

Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling

   I am a die-hard fan of JK Rowling and her Harry Potter series.  What this woman single-handedly did for teens and preteens reading is unquestionably amazing.  Regardless of how you feel about her topic, which I also happen to adore, you have to give the woman props for what she accomplished.  So when the library I frequent had a copy of Beedle the Bard, I had to get it!
   Reported on the cover to be "translated by Hermione Granger" and "with extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore" I obviously swooned over the idea of holding this book, as I'm sure did many a Pottermaniac.  The tales, as many of us came to know them through the Deathly Hallows pair of novels, were accurate for what we imagine.  The morals are there, the world we love to love is accurate, and I appreciated the stories.
   Dumbledore's commentary, on the other hand, seemed inconsistent for the wizened wizard.  I found myself wanting to skip those parts all together, but then immediately apologized to him and continued reading.  I suppose this is the result of us reading his ramblings unchecked.  If that is the way Ms. Rowling designed it, bravo.
    One other negative: there was at least one story mentioned by Dumbledore that was not included in the book of fairytales from the wizarding world.  Who is Grumble the Grubby Goat, and why is his tale not included?  I would be there, with the rest of the Pottermaniacs, checking out the next edition of this collection of old stories translated from the ancient runes.  They may  need some work, but they are still three smiles from me.

I, Michael Bennett by James Patterson

   The fifth, and clearly not final, book in the Michael Bennett series left me rather disappointed.  Don't get me wrong, in clear James Patterson style the short chapters and intense action kept the book moving at a very fast pace which I enjoyed.  I think the problem, for me, this time around is the lack of realism in our character's interactions.
   But I'll get back to that.  Let's start with what this book is about.  Michael Bennett, a detective with the NYPD is also a single father of ten kids.  Yup, ten.  His wife passed away years ago, leaving him to raise the brood with the help of his nanny, Mary Catherine, and his grandfather/priest, Seamus.  In this book he looses a friend in a firefight with a Mexican crime lord and generally bad dude.  The book follows Michael and his new compadres as they battle this case even up to court.
   As always, the bad guys are intense and the action is packed with terrible scenarios that you need to play out in order to sleep at night.  However, I felt Mary Catherine was lacking in realism this time around.  Something is just up with that woman, and I hate that I never satisfactorily got the answer about what that was.  Secondly, if Michael is so torn up by the loss of this friend why has said friend never been mentioned in four previous novels?  That bothered me.  Also, there is a twist attempted...but I was incredibly disappointed that I figured it out before the big reveal.  Finally, the ending.  Oh, I'm no stranger to endings that leave you hanging, especially from Mr. Patterson, but this one was terrible. I found myself thinking not "oh my gosh, I should go buy the next book and find out what happens" but "oh man, there's another one?  Sigh."
    Overall, I'm sad to say this was only a three smile book for me.  Had it been any other author, it would've been a two-star.  If you're a die hard fan of Michael Bennett and his antics, read this one...but do yourself a favor and have the next one already on your shelf.  If you really could live without the NYPD detective...skip this one.  Sorry James, I still love you!

Shadow Children Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

    First of all, having read the entire series of this young adult phenomenon, I could simply not find it in my soul to seperate them in the reviews.  Trust me when I say you will find it impossible to seperate one from the other once you have begun.  The good news, they are fast reads so it will not consume too much of your time to read the entire thing from start to finish.  How many books are we truly talking about, anyway? Let me introduce you to your new favorite young adult series:
Among the Hidden
Among the Imposters
Among the Betrayed
Among the Barons
Among the Brave
Among the Enemy
Among the Free
    This series fell into my hands in pieces.  First, the original book was offered by Scholastic for only $1 a few years back.  I purchased 8 copies of the book, always eager to find good deals on books and always trusting Scholastic's judgement.  The book was, in a word, remarkable.  The idea behind this story is that in a country who has similarities to our own, after a food shortage, the government declares it illegal for a family to have more than two children.  The story follows Luke, a third child born to a quiet farming family, who doesn't understand the magnitude of his very existence.
     I never knew the remaining six books in the series existed. You see, the first book ends in such a way that you almost imagine what may happen later.  I was unaware that Ms. Haddix had made it unnecessary for me to imagine.  However, I assigned the book that first year it hit my shelves to a group of 8 boys who declared they "hated reading".  My philosophy is that all children who don't like to read simply haven't found that book yet. It's out there, I often tell my class, waiting to grab your attention and hook you on reading, you just have to be willing to continue searching.  It is always my goal to have each and every student in my class be able to answer the question "what is your favorite book?" by the end of the year. I'm proud to say 5 of those 8 listed "Among the Hidden" when asked that question.  In other words, it was a hit.  I continued to use it year-after-year.
      Fast forward to this year.  Another young almost-reader struggling to find his book finds it again in Among the Hidden.  His mother, grateful, promptly purchased a classroom set of all 7 books for my shelf.  I was shocked, remember, I didn't know they existed.  Hence how I came to read the entire series from start to finish and sit here writing this (incredibly wordy, my apologies) review.
      This is a rare series.  Once I hit the 3rd book I noticed something odd was happening, each of these books was better than the last.  That is not a typo, although those of you familiar with most series will understand how rare that truly is.  The books simply kept getting more intense, more agressive, and more poignant as they moved toward a strong stand against government corruption and the idea that power corrupts.
       I was almost afraid to begin "Among the Free".  Although the name implies it will end well for Luke and his friends, I was terrified with how it would be accomplished.  The cover simply stated "fans of the series will not be dissapointed" and I cannot agree more.  Haddix did not fall into the typical series endings. She chose to end on a beautiful note, one that would probably not work for any other series.  Instead of ending her series with a happily-ever-after, Haddix stretched out infinite possibility and imagination.  You'll have to read the series to see why this is effective.
        All in all, I'm so very grateful that I have this amazing series in my classroom.  There is a waiting list 4 preteens deep to check them out of my classroom shelves, and they are being returned to rave reviews.  As a class we highly agree this series deserved 5 huge smiles, and the kids claim I also need to include a tear for at least one spot in the series where "even you must have almost cried".  Highly recommended from our classroom to yours!