Book Reviews by Kelly’s Children

Reading is a passion of mine. I pretty much choose a book over almost any other form of downtime entertainment. This trend has also been incepted into my family as I have a crew of bookworms in my household. I asked my older children to supply Family Footnote with a book review for summer, and both girls jumped up and are now standing over my shoulder waiting for me to leave the keyboard to them and their opinions.

My 8-Year-Old’s Book Review: Thea Sisters Series by Elisabetta Dami

I like this book series because it has more than one character in all the stories. Paulina, Nicky, Violet, Pamela, and Colette are the main ones and are in every book. They are mouse characters known as the “Thea Sisters”. All have different things they are all smart at doing. They are very good friends which is what makes them so good at solving mysteries. For example in the book called The Treasure Seekers: The Stilton Special Edition #1 a mouse was robbed because of an old tapestry that leads to treasure. The mouselets, because of their friendship, have a good chance of succeeding (not to spoil anything).            

In another book called The Cloud Castle: Thea Stilton Special Edition #4, the Thea sisters travel to the world above to a city in the clouds. These fairies make silk that is woven into clouds and something bad is happening to the fairies. The Thea Sisters work hard and their friendship might be able to save the cloud castle and city by using their amazing talents (again no spoilers).

These books are 5-star stuff according to me.

My 11-Year-Old’s Book Review: Alex Rider Book Series by Anthony Horowitz

I enjoy this book series because of how down to earth and realistic it is. There is nothing that couldn’t be done by the laws of earth *cough,cough*, “Lasers”, *cough,cough*. Starting from the beginning though, Alex Rider is a spy employed by the British Intelligence (MI6). He goes on missions because no one would suspect a smart, athletic, 14-year-old boy of being dangerous. He goes on missions, even though if he doesn’t like it always.

The missions are often discovered by the bad guys meaning that Alex has to escape with only his wits and not the fancy gadgets a “spy” on TV would normally have with them. Following a realistic story line makes the book hard to put down. All in all, a great book series.

I have read Books #1-#7. There are eleven books in the series (so far). The first book, Alex Rider: Stormbreaker, was probably my favorite. They are all good though.  

My 5-Year-Old’s Book Review: Junie B. Jones Book Series by Barbara Park

My son dictated this book review to me and loved the interview process. We have started reading this series to him at bedtime. He enjoys each and every chapter of this feisty character.  

I like Junie B. Jones because she is naughty and funny. Junie B. Jones is this girl and it is mostly about her going to school and stuff she likes to do. She’s six-years-old and likes sneaking around in the school. She sneaks to the “danger office”. It is the office where you get stitched up if you are bleeding or to get a band-aid. She snuck in there in one book and was playing with crutches and got stuck on the crutches near the ceiling. She was dangling from the ceiling somehow. ‘Cause you know how crutches have handles and they got tangled in the dangling light switch? Um, okay?

My favorite Junie B. Jones book is all of them. They are all really funny. “Cheater Pants” was good because it had this funny part. Me and dad laughed so hard at it. She copied someone’s homework and got in trouble. The Halloween book is good too. Junie B. wants to be Squirty the Clown for Halloween. She went to this Halloween store and the store worker thought she said “squirrel” instead of “Squirty”. And at the store her mom stepped on this play-doh that made farting noises and Junie B. said “eew, you stink”. It was funny!

I like it when she gets mad and she says “you gotta do what I say and you gotta do it now”. Junie B. will say this to her teachers and she has to go to the principal’s office. Her and the principal are friends because she’s gotten in trouble so much. If kids are mean to Junie B., she tells them that she can send them to the office because her and the principal are buddies.

A Family that Reads Together

If my two-year-old could read or dictate, I think his literary tastes would lean towards the Mother Bruce series or the always popular So Big featuring Baby Elmo from Sesame Street fame.

My little guy loves his Elmo, but the Mother Bruce  series is a hit with everyone in my family. The illustrations are colorful and sharp. The narratives are witty and hilarious. The three mice in these books earn belly laughs from my crew in their stand alone book called “Be Quiet”. It is a comical gem.

I love being a family that reads, what are members of your family currently reading this summer? Tessa’s children also did book reviews for the blog, click here to see their recommendations.