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Category Archives: Young Adult

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan, caught my eye mainly because it was yet another young adult Fantasy novel being made into a movie. The trailers for the movie looked exciting and the premise of the book seemed intriguing.

Perseus “Percy” Jackson has always known that he was different from other kids. Struggling through another school, he suddenly becomes aware of cosmic forces that are taking sides to help or to harm him. Percy learns not only that the Greek gods and their creations are real, but also that he is actually the son of one of the Gods — Poseidon. As a demigod, Percy is forced into a life of mystical powers and dangerous quests, and his first quest is nothing more than saving the world from the destruction of feuding gods. The good forces manage to get him to the only safe place on Earth, a summer camp named Camp Half-blood. There he meets other children of Greek gods — those that haven’t already been killed by the evil forces at play in the world. After a brief time, however, he discovers that he is the only one capable of accomplishing a very dangerous quest to save the Earth.

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A Princess of Landover

A Princess of Landover, by Terry Brooks, is a return to his well-liked Magic Kingdom of Landover series after several years writing in his Shannara series, including three prequel books that link the Shannara series to his Word and the Void series.

A Princess of Landover, the sixth book in the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, follows the story of Mistaya Holiday, daughter of Ben Holiday, King of Landover. She has essentially been kicked out of a private school back on Earth and has no real interest to try and make amends and return to finish her education outside of Landover. When she returns to Landover, her father and mother are disappointed and look to find something in Landover that she might accomplish to prepare her for life and her future responsibilities as a ruler of Landover.

I have to say that I had really enjoyed the Magic Kingdom of Landover series up until this book. In case you haven’t read the previous novels, Ben Holiday was able to purchase his Kingship back on Earth for One Million Dollars cash. Unfortunately previous purchasers of the throne had left Landover and its throne in terrible shape. Ben was forced to truly earn his kingship physically as well as politically and psychologically.

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The Land of Elyon

My daughter read the three books in the Land of Elyon, by Patrick Carman, and enjoyed them immensely.

She asked me to read them, and I agreed.

I enjoyed the first book, the Dark Hills Divide, more than the next two books. The Dark Hills Divide stars a girl who lives in a group of three cities. The three cities have been completely surrounded by a large wall through the efforts of one of the founders of the cities. This wall is meant to protect the cities from the outside and does so rather well, limiting trade with the outside to that which can be tightly managed and keeping the villagers safe. The girl, Alexa Daley, however is a wanderer and does not enjoy being kept within the walls. When she manages to escape, she finds that she is missing out on a magical but dangerous world.
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A Series of Unfortunate Events

Although it is probably a little much to try and review all 13 novels which make up A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket, I am going to try and do just that.

The 13 novels are written from the perspective of Lemony Snicket, who is a writer and an investigator who seems to be researching and writing a biography on three orphaned children: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. The orphans are placed into a series of “homes” and find themselves in more and more trouble (usually at the hands of the evil Count Olaf). While they find ways of extricating themselves from a series of unfortunate events, they also discover more and more information about their parents who were not at all who they thought they were.

The best part about A Series of Unfortunate Events is the writing style. Continue reading →