Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic Books - Page 15

The Cricket in Times Square (Chester Cricket and His Friends)

George Selden

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 121 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Tucker is a streetwise city mouse. He thought he’d seen it all. But he’s never met a cricket before, which really isn’t surprising, because, along with his friend Harry Cat, Tucker lives in the very heart of New York City—the Times Square subway station. Chester Cricket never intended to leave his Connecticut meadow. He’d be there still if he hadn’t followed the entrancing aroma of liverwurst right into someone’s picnic basket. Now, like any tourist in the city, he wants to look around. And he could not have found two better guides—and friends—than Tucker and Harry. The trio have many adventures—from taking in the sights and sounds of Broadway to escaping a smoky fire.
     Chester makes a third friend, too. It is a boy, Mario, who rescues Chester from a dusty corner of the subway station and brings him to live in the safety of his parents’ newsstand. He hopes at first to keep Chester as a pet, but Mario soon understands that the cricket is more than that. Because Chester has a hidden talent and no one—not even Chester himself—realizes that the little country cricket may just be able to teach even the toughest New Yorkers a thing or two.

Winter of the Ice Wizard (Magic Tree House 32)

Mary Pope Osborne

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Ice Wizard 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Think of a mission that you might need to do to help your friend's.Well this happen in a book call the Winter of the Ice Wizard.Jack and Anny have to find the ice wizard eye to help turn there friends back to normally.To that they have to get pass a group old giant.To do it they need the help of there friends Teddy and Katy.Can they ever find the Ice Wizard's eye? Can they even get past the grumpy old giant or can they ever turn there friend's back to normal? Read to find out more.

Winter of the Ice Wizard 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

My son absolutely loves these books. The titles captivate my son's attention and he just loves to read them to me.

A great book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Winter of the Ice Wizard is a great Magic Tree House book. It begins when Jack and Annie get a note from Merlin. They end up with Teddy and Kathleen at the castle of the Ice Wizard. There, they learn that he wrote the note and had kidnapped Merlin and Morgan. In order to save them, they have to find the Ice Wizard's eye. They recieve directions to go to the Hollow Hill, and they do, in the ice Wizard's sleigh. They find the eye and give it to the Wizard. He is sad and mad because they eye doesn't work. Then Teddy and Kathleen bring in the swan maiden, the Wizard's sister, and she tells him that she will forgive him. Then his eye works. They are given back Merlin and Morgan, and the mission is over.

I think that this is a great book. Winter of the Ice Wizard is my favorite Magic Tree House book!

Editorial Review:

JACK AND ANNIE, joined by Teddy and Kathleen (from earlier books), travel in the Magic Tree House to a land of snow where the Ice Wizard has captured Morgan and Merlin. The four friends must find the Ice Wizard’s missing eye . . . or is it really his heart that is missing?

The BFG

Roald Dahl

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 329 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The BFG 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Roald Dahl is the author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Matilda," and "The Witches" and other children's classics. The BFG is about a girl who lives at an orphanage named Sophie. When Sophie sees a giant, when she shouldn't have, the giant has no other choice but to snatch her. But the giant isn't like the other giants. Good thing or otherwise he might have eaten Sophie after taking her from the orphanage. In the giant's world, things are very different for Sophie. After she learns about the other giants who do eat people, she creates a plan to save the world from them with the BFG's help of course.

Editorial Review:

"Well, first of all, " said the BFG, "human beans is not really believing in giants, is they? Human beans is not thinking we exist."Sophie discovers that giants not only exist, but that there are a great many of them who like to guzzle and swallomp nice little chiddlers. But not the Big Friendly Giant. He and Sophie cook up an ingenious plot to free the world of troggle-humping -- forever.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Anakin in Action! (DK READERS)

Simon Beecroft

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Good book for kids 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The DK early reading program is exceptional. Licensing popular franchises for different levels. Anakin is rated 2, while the companion book, Watch out For Jabba the Hut is level 1.

For those who have seen the Clone Wars, this is a good way to explain the story to young viewers. With art taken from the film, these books are topical, and use appropriate vocabulary. Want to raise a young Star Wars fan, pick these up and before long, you'll find your child reading any one of the Star Wars novels.

Great job. Simon Beecroft has a remarkable skill in writing for different age groups.

Keep up the great work DK.

Editorial Review:

Since the first time we heard Luke Skywalker ask Obi-Wan Kenobi "You fought in the Clone Wars!?" in Episode IV: A New Hope, fans the world over have been wondering exactly what the Clone Wars were and what clones in combat would look like. On August 15th, 2008, with the theatrical release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, much will be explained. The Clone Wars take place between Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Lucasfilm is now bringing the wars to life in an all-new CGI animated series.

The theatrical release will launch this groundbreaking computer-generated animated series, which will then debut on Cartoon Network and TNT in the fall. New characters like female Padawan Ahsoka Tano join old favorites Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, Count Dooku, General Grievous, and others as the Jedi cross lightsabers with the dark side yet again.

© Lucasfilm Ltd. ® & (tm)

Shadow Children Boxed Set: Among the Hidden, Among the Impostors, Among the Betrayed, and Among the Barons

Margaret Peterson Haddix

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not a child's book. Very well written. Parents Beware. 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Parents should reivew this book before allowing children under 12 to read. Don't believe all the positive reviews. Yes, these books are very well written, and bring to mind vivid images. But, are these the kind of images for young minds? Images of adults looking for 'illegal' children to capture and kill along with the families that harbor them. Images of the Poplulation Police searching private homes and mass killing of illegal children. The children in this series live in daily fear for their lives with little to no hope of ever being a part of society. Even their 'friends' could be enemies. They can trust no one. Adults who are their 'friends' abuse the children to be sure of their loyalty. It's seven books of dark, disturbing, death and betrayal.

These books are in a real-life setting with cell phones and internet. Unlike Harry Potter and the Eragon-Brisanger Series', The Shadow Children series cannot be dismissed as fantasy. Ms. Haddix should use her exceptional writing ability and pour it into adult novels.

Editorial Review:

Imagine a world where families are allowed only two children. Illegal third children -- shadow children -- must live in hiding. If they are discovered, there is only one punishment: Death.

Among the Hidden

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

An ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

An American Booksellers Association Kids' Pick of the List

Among the Impostors

International Reading Association Young Adults' Choice

Among the Betrayed

An America Library Association Quick Pick

International Reading Association/Children's Book Council Children's Choice

Feast of Fools (The Morganville Vampires, Book 4)

Rachel Caine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

cliff hanger extraordinaire 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Claire, as usual, is dealing with a multitude of problems--her parents have decided to move to Morganville, Monica is attempting to sabotage her college, she has to find the cure to save all the sick vampires, oh...and Amalie's father (the biggest, scariest vampire of all) has come to visit and take over the town. All in a normal day for a 16 (a few weeks to 17) year old genius. This book doesn't devil further in the psyche of the bad guys and friends like previous books. But, hey, get real, the books ARE ONLY about 250 pages long. This one does dig a little into roomie Eve's childhood, and Shane seems to be maturing a great deal (Finally!)

Honestly, I easily finished the book in one afternoon and evening--with a few disruptions. I absolutely adore this series by Rachel Caine, even more than her weather warden series. What truly gets my attention about her writing style is that she so easily picks up the mentality of a 16 year old. Granted, I've more than double that age, but reading this book brings me back to my own teen years. That awkward stage where you say the wrong things simply because he don't have the experience to know better. The times where you don't say anything at all and hope to fade into the woodwork because you feel your out of your element. Caine brings that through with her character of Claire without being obvious about it and without coming right out and saying it. A fabulous writing job with her characterization.

Now for the bad part---those horrible cliffhangers! Come-on! I'm dying here! he, he. Yea, yea, she's got to have us salivating for the next one, and it certainly working on me!

Editorial Review:

The wait is over. dig into the feast...

In the town of Morganville, vampires and humans live in relative peace. Student Claire Danvers has never been convinced, though—especially with the arrival of Mr. Bishop, an ancient, old-school vampire who cares nothing about harmony. What he wants from the town’s living and its dead is unthinkably sinister. It’s only at a formal ball, attended by vampires and their human dates, that Claire realizes the elaborately evil trap he’s set for Morganville.

Interview With the Vampire (Vampire Chronicles)

Anne Rice

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 577 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Tower of Imagination 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is simply one of the most thoroughly imagined pieces of writing in modern literature, and thoroughly disciplined and effective on paper. It disdains categories; the author stepped into a genre well-paved and hackneyed and made words fly off the paper by sheer force of talent.

The plot and characters are well summarized elsewhere; indeed one hesitates to write anything about something already reviewed 500+ times on Amazon. So I simply add these footnotes: it is not blasphemous, pornographic, deviant, anti-social etc. It is not by any means mere pop culture B grade pulp. As for what it is exactly, I have no idea & don't care. But having read hundreds & hundreds of books since early gradeschool thru age 56, including most Western & world classics, I can say it is in a small group of works of supreme imaginative force, thoroughly conceived through & through & without a nick, tear, or smudge upon its massive and impossible illusion.

One might simply call it an indignant protest against American realism and fact & knowledge obsession. It is also a protest against literarture with a purpose, program, or "message." It simply exists. It stands as an impregnable tower of the human imagination. It is Exhibet A for the proposition that, short of a God (whose existence or not is not challenged here, although that issue eerily haunts the text), there is no higher endeavor than that of human artistry.

Editorial Review:

Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force--a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses.
It is a novel only Anne Rice could write....
"Magnificent, compulsively readable."
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Eragon/Eldest Trade Paperback Boxed Set (Inhertitance)

Christopher Paolini

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Inheritance Cycle is great and I am looking forward to the next book! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

(10-year old)
I enjoy this series because I've always loved magical books with just a pinch of mystery. The author also created a world where dragons or other animals, magical or non-magical, could communicate with humans. That supports my love for animals and my interest in magical animals. All the books so far have also demonstrated that you have to keep going at something to become an expert at it. The Inheritance Cycle series has surprises around the corner and twists at the end. This book is one of the greatest books I've ever read, mostly because the author has such a creative imagination. I think everybody should at least try this series.

My husband loved the books!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I purchased the books for my husband's birthday, and he can't put them down. I got the books so fast, I let him open them early. They were in great condition.

Eragon set 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Ordered these to fill the gap between the release of the Tolkien movies. Have read them twice! Suppose that says it all. :) Not of the same caliber of writing but certainly worth while.

Fablehaven

Brandon Mull

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Total reviews: 102 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Lively, imaginative tale for kids & adults alike 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This magical, adventure-filled tale is the first book in one of the best kids' fantasy series I've come across in quite a while. And it's not just for kids; grown-ups will enjoy this too.

The story begins when Kendra and Seth, a sister and brother ages 13 and 11, are taken to stay with their grandparents, Stan and Ruth Sorenson, at their estate in Connecticut while their mother and father go on a two-week Scandinavian cruise. It turns out that their grandparents are the caretakers of a hidden sanctuary for magical and mythical creatures (fairies, naiads, brownies, trolls, satyrs, golems, etc.) to save them from extinction by encroaching human civilization.

Seth and Kendra find themselves confronted with all sorts of mysteries after they arrive at the preserve. Where is their grandmother? Who is this housekeeper/cook who likes to do her gardening out in the rain? Why is there a caged hen named Goldilocks in their attic bedroom? Why is there such an abundance of oddly behaving hummingbirds, butterflies and bumblebees in the yard? Why are the kids forbidden to go into the woods or the barn? Who is the old witch who lives in an ivy-covered shack and occupies herself by chewing on knots in a rope? The answers to all these questions will unfold as we read this enchanting tale.

This is an unusually well-told story, with characters, both human and mythical, who seem real; a fast pace with lots of action and adventure; and lively dialogue, with plenty of humor, especially between Seth and Kendra.

I liked this book so much that I reread it only a few weeks after my first read, just after I finished the first sequel. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good, fun, entertaining fantasy in which good wins out over evil.

Editorial Review:

For centuries mystical creatures of all description were gathered into a hidden refuge called Fablehaven to prevent their extinction. The sanctuary survives today as one of the last strongholds of true magic. Enchanting? Absolutely. Exciting? You bet. Safe? Well, actually, quite the opposite.

Kendra and her brother, Seth, have no idea that their grandfather is the current caretaker of Fablehaven. Inside the gated woods, ancient laws keep relative order among greedy trolls, mischievous satyrs, plotting witches, spiteful imps, and jealous fairies. However, when the rules get broken -- Seth is a bit too curious and reckless for his own good -- powerful forces of evil are unleashed, and Kendra and her brother face the greatest challenge of their lives. To save their family, Fablehaven, and perhaps even the world, Kendra and Seth must find the courage to do what they fear most.

Renegade (The Lost Books, Book 3) (The Books of History Chronicles)

Ted Dekker

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Can't put it down! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Ted Dekker is a master story teller that will wow you with the twist and turns through! He builds the characters in his books to a depth that you love every one!

More 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I preread this book for my son. It is a great adventure. Poopoo to all the nitpickers. I got behind the characters and enjoyed the adventures.

Good book, entertaining, recommended reading. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Good story, Dekker rights well. Not what I call a 'page burner', but close to it. I enjoyed it, over all. At times I was frustrated with the characters because they didn't do what I considered to be logical things, but maybe Dekker meant it to be that way. I found myself drawn into the story and interested in what happened next. The book reads as if it is for late teens. It may be advertised as such, but I'm older and enjoyed it just the same. I would recommend the book. I read the Black, Red, White series and there a tie ins. I like that series more, but not a by a large margin. If you read the B-R-W series you would proabably enjoy The Lost Books series.

Editorial Review:

One of the chosen has gone renegade.

Turning his back on all that he once believed, Billos enters the forbidden book and lands in a reality that is as foreign to him as water is to oil. A place called Paradise, Colorado, where he discovers he has strange new powers given to him courtesy of a mysterious figure known as Marsuvees Black.

The chosen four have survived the desert, escaped the Black Forest, battled the Horde, and added a spirited refugee to their number. But nothing has prepared them for the showdown that Billos, the renegade, will lure them into.