Friday November 2, 2012
Book reviews
Compiled by BERVIN CHEONG
star2@thestar.com.my
Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom Of The Wicked
Author: Derek Landy
Publisher: Harper Collins, 607 pages
IN this seventh instalment of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, regular people are starting to randomly develop magical powers. Sanctuary, the sorcerers’ authority, has its hands full trying to sort out the ensuing mess.
Then teenage bully Kitana and her gang develop super-powerful magical abilities – and are not afraid to use them for evil. With such power in their hands, they are a threat to the city, and it is up to partners Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain to stop them.
Buddy & Vernon’s Adventures
Author: Zee Lee
Publisher: Risio, 44 pages
AN aid for spending quality time with your children, this activity book has all sorts of mini-projects you can work on together. Targeted at five to eight-year-olds, the book contains fun and educational activities like “plan a picnic”, “growing mung beans”, and “creating a family tree,” among others.
Buddy the frog and Vernon the worm help by providing instructions and useful tips in each “adventure”.
Parents and kids can also chart their progress together and plan rewards for completing each project.
Spook’s I Am Grimalkin
Author: Joseph Delaney
Publisher: Red Fox, 355 pages
THE ninth instalment in the Wardstone Chronicles, this novel shifts the focus of the series from Tom Ward – a teenager who is apprenticed to the Spook, a battler of witches and other ghastly creatures – to Grimalkin, a witch assassin. While Grimalkin was once Tom’s adversary, they have become allies after banding together to defeat a mutual enemy, the Fiend.
In this book, Grimalkin narrates her thrilling tale of making a run for it with the severed head of the Fiend, in hopes of keeping him from being resurrected by his fanatical followers.
The Fame Game: Starstruck
Author: Lauren Conrad
Publisher: HarperCollins, 293 pages
THIS is a sequel to The Fame Game. Expect more drama from the book’s central character, reality television star Madison Parker, as she returns to contend with other aspiring attention-seekers in her teenage life.
Madison is down and out of the scene while she serves time doing community service for stealing while her cast mates face all sorts of film industry problems of their own. Being a teenager is tough, but apparently being one in the spotlight of show business is even tougher.
Beautiful Redemption
Author: Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl
Publisher: Little, Brown, 451 pages
IN the fourth and final instalment of the paranormal and gothic fantasy series, The Caster Chronicles, protagonists Ethan and Lena are reunited for a final round of dramatic events that will reveal their impending fate.
Can he, being a mortal, and she, a powerful supernatural being with extraordinary abilities, have a much-yearned-for happy ending? Can their love successfully bridge the perils of their two very different worlds?
The Fire Chronicle: The Books Of Beginning
Author: John Stephens
Publisher: Doubleday Children’s, 448 pages
THESE are the exciting adventures of siblings Kate, Michael and Emma as they continue the search for their parents lost in a fantastical world of magic.
After the events of the first book, The Emerald Atlas, the tale is picked up again with more mayhem and suspense with Kate travelling back in time a hundred years into the past while Michael and Emma try to locate a legendary book and harness its powers to bring their sister back. Along the way, they meet dangerous foes and face terrible challenges that will test the bonds holding them together thus far.
Mystic City
Author: Theo Lawrence
Publisher: Corgi, 397 pages
MAGIC, romance, politics and betrayal all come together in the City of a dark post-apocalyptic world.
Aria Rose finds herself betrothed to the son of her parents’ sworn enemies in a bid to bring the two ruling families together and end the generations-long political feud. Strangely, though, she doesn’t remember agreeing to this momentous marriage.... She soon discovers that there is a deeper, more malicious purpose at work, one that could have dire consequences for her as well as the City in which she lives.
Paradise Reef
Author: John Ung
Publisher: MPH, 64 pages
BRIGHT, colourful and eye-catching, this book is described as entertaining and educational.
When the undersea inhabitants of Nemo Lagoon are threatened by pollution from a nearby factory, they are forced to search for a new home.
During their journey through Death Valley, a place where a sinister octopus and her dangerous gang of fishes live, they begin to learn of the interesting, fantastic and unique denizens of the neighbourhood coral bed.
Monster High: Where There’s A Wolf, There’s A Way
Author: Lisi Harrison
Publisher: Poppy, 272 pages
SCHOOL life can be tough enough for some as it is, what more for the teenage children of the world’s most famous monsters? The Monster High series tells of the different adolescent monsters that are trying to fit in, just like any other “normal” teen.
This third book continues with more secondary school drama as the different characters struggle with the problems that most teens would be able to identify with: Boys, image-related insecurities and stereotypes, among others.
Source:
RSS
