Category: Book Reviews

Book Review: Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Submitted by Zhan

Preview:

This is a book about science and it covers space, earth, being human, and our future and it is a question and facts book (but it is mostly questions.) Important questions, such as: What is it like on this ISS? Could a black hole be destroyed? Is there a solution to pollution? Shall we play a game? If we evolved from monkeys, why are monkeys still here? Could Superman survive a black hole? When will we be able to time travel? There are lots of questions in here!

Section 1: Space

The first few questions are about the ISS, Mars and astronaut life. Then it talks about wormholes and travelling (a bit sci0fi) then was a review of the solar system.

Section 2: Planet Earth

It is still a bit spacey at first but then is about pollution, climate, etc. Then is a part about thinking about our Earth (should we regret what we’ve done to our land under our feet?)

Section 3: Human Body

It first talks about the “sensors” that are us and then how we evolved over the centuries.

Section 4: Zombies! Superheros! Aliens! Warp travel! and the best of all, Time travel!

This is all imagination but Albert Einstein said “imagination is more important than knowledge” because imagination = infinity. But WARNING it is mind-blowing!

You will like this book if you like popularization of science and science facts, and it is probably a good book for science fair ideas! Example of a good science fair question: How many uses of salt are there? Did you know that the US is the largest producer of salt in the world? And guess what? Only 8% is used for food. The salt industry claims 14000 uses for salt. Neil deGrasse Tyson: astro-salt-icist.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Submitted by Emma

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
By J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne

Spoiler Alert!!!

 

 

 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play which is a continuation of the Harry Potter saga, by J.K. Rowling. This story is the adventure of Harry Potter’s son, Albus Potter, and the hardships of living in his father’s shadow. On his first trip to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express, Albus meets Scorpius, the son of Draco Malfoy, once the sworn enemy of Harry Potter. Albus and Scorpius go on adventures together to rewrite the outcome of what happened in the Triwizard Tournament (for reference, see book 4). Each time they travel back in time using a stolen Ministry of Magic time turner. When the 1st challenge sends them back to the present, Albus finds he is in Gryffindor and his aunt is no longer Hermione Granger. And when they come back to the future from the 2nd task, Scorpius finds that Voldemort won the battle of Hogwarts and that Harry Potter is dead. Truly great feats of magic happen in each turn of time. Albus and Scorpius face their fears and overcome the dangers that await them in every new present, past and future.

Albus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy and Delphi Diggory are the main characters in the Cursed Child. At the beginning of the play Albus is scared and angry at his father and his life, while Scorpius is sad and lonely. When they meet Delphi, the resentment, anger and sadness fuel them to make hasty decisions — jumping off a train, going back in time, and breaking into the Ministry of Magic. In the end, Albus and Scorpius become happier, start to enjoy school more, and Albus becomes closer with his father.

This story is told in the form of a script for a play, so that means it doesn’t have one person’s view, but is omniscient. The tone of this novel is sad, suspenseful, and chaotic. If you go to the theatre to see the play you will see what I mean. With all the bright wand flashes and special effects, it feels as if you are practically living in that moment, but you must keep track in the beginning because everything happens quickly, while the end is more slow going.

I enjoyed this book and play for 3 main reasons. The plot was a full serving of suspense, mystery and sadness with thrilling twists and turns. The special effects and acting in the play where amazing and finally I loved how this magical Wizarding World felt so real.

Emma is a grade 7 student and a library monitor

Book Review: And Then There Were None

Submitted by Alice

And Then There Were None Classic Edition: Amazon.ca: Christie ...The book, And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christi is a murder mystery about ten people who are sent to a place called Soldier Island. None of the guests know each other, or why they were summoned there. On this island there is only one huge eerie mansion in which the guests are supposed to stay in. Inside, there are two things that catch everyone’s eye. The first object is a framed poem titled, Ten Little Soldier Boys. The piece explains how at the beginning of a mission there were ten soldiers. While on their journey, one after the other dies from a specific cause until there were eventually none left. The second things the guests quickly notice are ten clay soldier figures on a table.

Coincidentally, every night a person in the house is murdered. One by one, the people in the mansion die of the same causes as the soldiers in the poem, and every time someone perishes, one of the clay soldiers mysteriously disappears. The survivors constantly search for an escape, but somehow all sources of communication have been cut off. One by one, the people go mad, and one after the other gets killed until everyone is dead.

The ten main characters in this story are Vera, Justice, Armstrong, Philip, Blore, Emily, Anthony, MacArthur, and the two servants, Thomas and Ethel. At the beginning of the book all of the characters are excited to be on a supposed “vacation.” As people start to mysteriously die day by day, the guests become terrified, paranoid, and suspicious of each other. Some even go mad, and give up on trying to protect themselves. Overall, the feelings of the characters towards the end of the book are chaotic and maddening.

And Then There Were None is written in first person, and also has many unexpected twists and turns. This makes the tone of the book dark, mysterious, and horrific.

I love reading And Then There Were None by Agatha Christi because it is full of cliffhangers and clever plots, which never fail to entice me to read even more. It’s always the little things that make a book great.

 

Alice is in grade 7 and has volunteered her time as a library monitor.

Book Review: The Whispering Skull

Submitted by Emma

Lockwood & Co: The Whispering Skull

Book 2 in the Series

Review #166 // The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co. #2) – Jonathan ...

 Lockwood & Co, The Whispering Skull is a fictional story by Jonathan Stroud about a ghost hunting agency in an alternate Victorian London. Lockwood and Co get hired to exterminate the ghost of Edmond Bickerstaff, a Victorian doctor who was obsessed with communicating with the dead. Everything goes smoothly until the Bone Glass inside the coffin of Edmond Bickerstaff goes missing. Made by Bickerstaff from bones of the dead with ghosts trapped inside them, the Bone Glass allowed you to see the world of the dead. Now Lockwood and Co must risk their lives to get back the Bone Glass. with the help of a whispering skull in a jar, they eventually destroy the Bone Glass and set everything back to normal… for now.

Antony Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle and George Cubbins are the main characters in Lockwood and Co, The Whispering Skull. Antony Lockwood is the head of the agency and has a talent to see apparitions of ghosts. The other members of the team are Lucy Carlyle, who has the psychic power of listening to the memories of ghosts and George Cubbins who has both talents but is not very good at them.

The story is told by Lucy Carlyle in a first-person narrative. The tone of this novel is generally scary like in a ghost story, some mystery and a few bits of humor here and there. This is the kind of book where things happen fairly quickly, so you have to keep track of everything.

I enjoyed this novel for three reasons. The characters where expressive, funny and realistic, the plot was very thick with suspense which made me want to keep reading until the end and I enjoyed the whole ghost story feel to it.

 

Emma is in grade 7 and works as a library monitor. 

What to read next?

SUBMITTED BY HIKARI*
Nathaniel is a magician’s apprentice. His birthparents left him for the money. Now, he is forced to live a secretive life where magicians show no mercy, djinn are summoned in pentacles, and where your birth name must never, ever slip out. Welcome to the witty, complicated world of Jonathan Stroud’s The Amulet of Samarkand.

Nathaniel is an obedient, studious apprentice, with no experience with the outside world. His lessons? Reading, reading, reading, and yet more reading. With the three years’ worth of reading material his master ordered him to read, and the teachers who really do all the teaching, Nathaniel feels as if his master has taught him, well, nothing. But Nathaniel is a polite boy, and sticks to his reading without question, memorizing his lessons on magic with incredible speed.

Until one day, Nathaniel’s master calls for him, and Mrs. Underwood tells Nathaniel that his master had guests over, and wanted to show him off. Nathaniel had been excited, nervous, and scared, and was ready to shine. But what Nathaniel went through instead, was an alarming experience that he would never forget: being mortified by Simon Lovelace in front of dozens of magicians. Filled with childish hate, Nathaniel waits a whole year to cook up a sophisticated plan for revenge. But he can’t do it alone.

His plan? Stealing Lovelace’s Amulet of Samarkand. He knows exactly what he’ll do with the Amulet once obtained, and how he will come to stealing the Amulet. The one thing left he has to do is summon a demon, and charge him steal it. But summoning is not simple. Determined to get revenge, Nathaniel uses his knowledge to secretively summon Bartimaeus, a djinni with a hilarious sense of humor. But one thing seems to go wrong after the other, and when Bartimaeus discovers Nathaniel’s birth name, Nathaniel just might have to be smarter and craftier than ever before to get his sweet revenge.

Mostly written from Bartimaeus’s view, Jonathan Stroud created a magnificent story that really made me chuckle all the way to the last page. I really like the author’s use of footnotes, because they gave me a little background or meaning for some of the words that would otherwise leave me befuddled. The content in the book contains information on magic and wizards that you probably never heard of before. (Even I honestly did not know that dginn could be summoned, and used some of my knowledge from Disney’s Aladdin as a reference.) Anyway, this book was so much fun to read, and I recommend you read it if you like other fantasy books such as Kendra Kandlestar, Magyk, and Inkheart. The book always takes unsuspecting turns, and in the end, creates the unlikeliest of friendships. So what are you waiting for? I charge you to read the book!

*Hikari is a former Quilchena student and library monitor

What to read next?

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller

THIS REVIEW WAS SUBMITTED BY HIKARI*

Are you a brave, witty girl, tired of boring Girl Scout meetings? Come join Kiki Strike and the Irregulars! (Or read the book rather.)

Ananka Fishbein is your average 12-year-old girl. Except for the fact her house in NYC has a built in library, and that she has the ability to see how a city might’ve looked like thousands of years ago. Normal right? Wrong.

When Ananka discovers a sinkhole right in front of her apartment building, things start to get really strange. A muddy, short figure comes out of the hole, and Ananka, as a courageous girl, goes down into the hole to check it out. Down there she discovers an underground world, undiscovered for countless years. Determined to find out more, she visits a nearby map store to see if they have any information. A mysterious lady shows her the Marble Cemetery instead, and Ananka spots the short black figure again. Could it be the same one as in the hole? And why does it seem so familiar?

When Ananka follows the creature, she finds an address to meet Kiki Strike, a mastermind detective girl with a dozen secrets. Ananka learns that Kiki is busy gathering a group of six super talented Girl Guides, called the Irregulars, to help her explore the Shadow City. But Kiki seems to have a different side plan, and it’s up to the Irregulars to sort it all out.

Join Ananka and the Irregulars as they explore the Shadow City, and get caught up in an adventure like never before.

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City is probably one of my favourites in the Quilchena Library. Just when you think you pretty much know who’s good and who’s bad, the plot takes another twist, and keeps coming back to surprise you. There’s a lot of information in the story that often changes, so make sure you understand what’s happening when you read it. This book was cleverly written, and is a definite page-turner. If you like books about brave, unique girls and amazing adventures, this one is definitely for you.

*Hikari is a former Quilchena student and library monitor