The Potato Chip Puzzles

This novel by Eric Berlin is about a boy named Winston Breen that takes part in an all-day puzzle hunt. Winston is psyched. However, the puzzles prove to be more challenging and the competitors more competitive than he had thought. There also may be a cheater lurking around somewhere... But! Don't give up! There still may be hope left.

When they get in a jumbled mess between the teams of the riddle hunters, it is up to Winston and his friends to unscrew it up. After all, this is a fight for puzzles. Yet at the same time, it's a fight for dignity!

Dmitri Simon, the host of the hunt, seems to get the game into a mess as well: letting the cheaters keep of cheating until the end of the game. It looks like accidents are all happening to the teams. As if someone wants to get them out of the way.... The only way for Winston's team is to win seems like combining with others. Will they be able to stick together?

Eric Berlin wrote a nerve-wracking novel of puzzles, more puzzles, and Winston Breen. Read it to find out who wins!

***I give this book an 8 out of 10!***

Safe As Houses

"We were safe as houses."

Safe as Houses is a novel by Eric Walters based on Hurricane Hazel. On the fateful day of October 5, 1954, Hurricane Hazel started to develop and ultimately made land on the morning of October 15. Now you can ultimately take the journey of Hurricane Hazel: the terror, fear, and cold. Yet without terror, there is no safety and without fear there is no peace. Without failure there is no victory. Without regret, there is no gain.

The main characters in this story are Lizzie Hardy, the babysitter, David McBride, the prolonged trouble maker, and Suzie McBride, the sweet helpless, sweet little girl. The story begins as Lizzie walks the children through the pouring rain back to their home. However, they quickly realize that this is not just a regular rainstorm. The river is swelling up so fast that it is reaching their house. The children's parents call to say that they are having trouble coming home and that the roads are flooded. The lights go out and the phone is dead soon after. By the time Suzie is asleep, the flood water has invaded the house and is rising very fast. They take to the roof for safety.

Safe as Houses is an amazing and haunting novel of the adventure of the three children during Hurricane Hazel. Will they make it out together? Will their parents make it? Will they make it?

***I give this book a 7.9 out of 10...***

Last Chance Bay

'"Well, anyone can give up on a dream."
His mouth dropped open. "You wouldn't."

Last Chance Bay is a touching story about a girl named Meg Christie who lives at Cape Breton. It is set during the Second World War (World War II). Meg Christie wishes something no girl (other than Amelia Earhart and Beryl Markham) has ever done. She wishes to fly. There at that time, especially when World War II is raging, it is almost an impossible dream. Still, 'If there's a will, there's a way.' There may just be a way- if she keeps on trying. But it's so easy to give up hope, give up dreams. It's so easy to quit. So tempting to quit. Can she resist?

Meg Christie with her cousin, Caleb, try hard to fulfill their dreams and desires. However, as Caleb goes away and Meg just keeps on getting crabbier and crabbier, things don't look so good for either one of them. After all, one can hope so much and wish so much. One day, hope is extinguished and still, life moves on. You think: 'How crabby can a girl get?'. A LOT. She can get curt as well:
'They stopped and watched as I grabbed a few carrots from the vegetable bin.
"You hungry?"
"Yup. Good night."'
It seems that things seem to get out of order, like an unbalanced wheel. Seconds from crashing- seconds from loosing hope forever. Seconds from loosing dreams.

'Humans weren't meant to be underground. The earth's foundations didn't like being disturbed. Any fool knew that.'

Anne Laurel Carter wrote an amazing book about hope, dreams, heartbreak, hate, love, longing, and sorrow. Last Chance Bay is one of must-reads. It will change your view of airplanes and cousins forever. Whatever you do, don't stop dreaming and hoping. Even if it seems hopeless. Especially if it seems hopeless.

"'My friend, you would not tell me with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie: Dulce et decorun est / Pro protria mori."
There is no honour dying in war, just a lot of blood, and men dying.'
Do you beleive?

***I give this book a 8.5 out of 10.***

Legend of Zelda ~Majora's Mask~

Legend of Zelda is a series of manga that originated from video games. There are a bunch of these manga all around. I think that Akira Himekawa did an amazing job of drawing and writing the manga series!

Link is a courageous elf boy that is always off to save the world with his fairy friend and traveling companion, Navi. Navi is a pesky little fairy that is always telling Link off for doing bad things. Link, the main character is off to find Navi after she disappeared. In this story, he meets Skull Kid, a poor boy that was lonely after his friend's departure and turned to a havoc-making troublemaker, and his fairies: Tatl and Tael, who are brothers and sisters. When Skull Kid steals Link's precious Ocarina of Time, and turns Link into a Deku Shrub, things only get worse! It will take all of Link's skill and determination to save himself and the world as Skull Kid brings the moon down... However, is Skull Kid really the problem? Or is there something controlling him?

Read with Link to go on an incredible journey through snowfall, hardship, fear, longing, hate, and sorrow! This is a manga worth having!

***I give this manga a 9.8 out of 10!!!***

Skinny Bones and the Wrinkle Queen

'The numbers swim in my head. The modeling course costs twenty-five hundred dollars. No point in asked Shirl and Herb for it. At the end of every month, Herb does a lot of moaning and sighing over bills and pops Rolaids by the handful. Shirl gives his shoulder rubs and says she's got a plan for cutting down on groceries next week. The plans never seem to work, though.
Who in the world has twenty-five hundred dollars? The question aches inside of me.
And then I think of her. Miss Killer Tomato and her diamond-studded opera brooch.
The idea's crazy, of course. She looks tougher than the Wicked Witch of the West.
And yet the idea doesn't go away...'

Tamara and Miss Barclay. Skinny Bones and the Wrinkle Queen. Foster-home reject and former school teacher. Two very different personalities. Two very different styles. Two very different goals. In the same car. Going down the same road. To the same places... Well, not exactly. To very different people- more different than black and white. Right. This is bound to get interesting.

It all starts with Tamara getting carried away with her modeling. With the question:
'Who in the world has twenty-five hundred dollars?'

As Miss Barclay and Tamara go on a life-changing road trip, they get caught on news, sent to the hospital, and get in deep water all at once. However, there are times when they feel that it's worth suffering for. Is it? They each want to fulfill their own dreams. Tamara wants to become a model. Miss Barclay wants to see the opera once more in her life. Can they? They both want it to be a secret. Especially to Miss Barclay's meddlesome nephew, Byron. And Tamara's foster parents, Shirl and Herb. Oh, yes. And practically every staff member of the school. Wow. What's some lies she's going to have to write. A LOT. This is just getting better and better.

Read on as Skinny Bones and the Wrinkle Queen argue till they laugh, scream until they loose their voices, and laugh until they cry. They're a funny pair, they are.

Glen Huser writes an amazing novel from the point of view of Skinny Bones and the Wrinkle Queen. It's full of loyalty, sacrifice, love, hate, ambush, and friendship. Can they make it through the trip without biting each other's head off first?

***I give this book a 9 out of 10. Great Book! I recommend it to the people who like the book Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer.***

The Story of Cirrus Flux

"YOU SHALL HELP ME FIND HIM STILL... THERE IS NOWHERE FOR THE BOY TO HIDE."

Orphan boy Cirrus Flux is in trouble. Everyone is out to catch this boy in which they believe has the world's most divine power. His 'birthstone', an orb, is said to contain the elixir of life. When he takes back what is rightfully his, his life pretty much gets, well, screwed up. He makes unlikely friends and lots of foes, at the same time getting tricked half the time. Why doesn't he give it up? It's really not a good idea or a safe one, either to let such evil people have such an incredible power- if it's sincerely a power at all... Now he has to go through a scary and haunting journey through L0ondon as certain 'bad people' (sincerely, bad is an understatement) pursue him. A certain 'Guild' is searching high and low for him. There is pretty much nowhere for him to go. Pretty much. There just may be one hiding place...

Stay with Cirrus to enjoy his nerving adventure through hardships and fate. Will he make it? How will he get past? Will he be changed? What will happen to him? And most of all: Who can he trust? Cirrus Flux has gone through betrayal, hope, hate, love, and loyalty. However, he will need a lot more than that to get past this adventure. Courage, ambition, and yes, even betrayal. Will this kind boy be able to learn all of these traits in time? More importantly: Will he be able to learn his past of an abandoned boy and a ignorant mom before time runs out? Read to find out.

'She looked down at him and smiled. "There now," she said, mopping away the tears that had sneaked into his eyes. "Your day will come, too, Cirrus. Your day will come. Someone will come looking for ye, too."'

***I give this book a 8 out of 10. It was a great book, but it had some times were you would be thrown off track and then set back on track again...***