Squashed by Joan Bauer

"I'm hoping to enter," I said, humbly. "Enter? What about winning?" Well, of course I wanted to win. You don't go entering contests you don't hope to win.

Ellie Morgan knows it was pumkin love at first sight. And so for years, she's been growing and entering pumkins in contests. This year, she has entered the adult's pumkin contest, and she hopes that Max, her pumpkin, will win. But her life is much more complicated than just pumkins. She wants to lose weight, her dad doesn't understand how she loves Max, and there's a new boy at school, Wes, who she is crushing on.

I sat on the McKennas' soft pink toilet seat remembering the messages from Dad's motivational tapes on success, inner strength, and self-esteem. He had drilled them into me two years ago hoping I would become a different person. It didn't work.

I really liked this book. It made you want to keep reading, but it wasn't scary, or suspensful. It was a book full of love, and I really liked that. There was romance, but not too much. there was a lot of character developing. I think I'd give it 4 3/4 stars. (out of five.) I highly reccomend this book.

"The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis

Another tale, from the Land of Narnia, originally the first. This time: Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter are living with an old Professor, in somewhere else due to the air raids in England due to WWII. They explore the large house, and during this time, Lucy enters a mysterious wardrobe, and finds another world. Narnia? Their adventures and Narnia, coincidentally involving the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe itself, are to follow... and you'll find out when you read, the book. :P

I really liked this one as well, as anyone could. It's a very descriptive, but likeable series. I also give this one 4 stars, maybe 4 1/2. Yay for Narnia? I also really liked the movie- haha. All the Narnia books I have read so far (not completed it quite yet), are very descriptive and full of adventure and surprises. Although the depth of description is kind of annoying to some, that doesn't matter to me, I like it. I also like the whimsicalness and the slight sarcasm and repition, always reappearing.

(Of course you know, as any sensible person does know, you do not not shut oneself' in a wardrobe.)

hehe. Later bookworms! :)

"The Magician's Nephew" by C.S. Lewis

P.S. The reason I am doing both this and the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, while I normally don't review sequels, is because, this is more of a prequel, practically a different story. Almost. No spoilers.
When a boy goes to live with his crazy Aunt&Uncle, and befriends a girl named Polly, and goes to explore, simply the houses they live in, a sort of secret attic part, what will happen when they accidentally end up somewhere, where they will get caught, just maybe. At which point, they could accidentally end up in a different world. This is a story, about how the land of Narnia, spoke of in this and the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia, came to be, and the story of the evil Queen's presence in Narnia.

To find out more, read the book, and the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia. :):) I used to not be able to get into these books, but now, I can. I really liked it, and appreciated it more then when I first was read it when I was younger. I rate it 4 stars. This is especially good since I normally don't appreciate prequels so much, not all though, I really like some. Read this famed, classic, awesome fantasy, that will be read and read for years to come!

Endymion Spring by Mathew Skelton

Endymion Spring is a book about the adventure that surrounds Blake and his sister, Duck, when he is in Oxford, from America, while she is working at the library. They explore the library, and Blake, finds an odd book. The book is not odd, because it is old, worn, or with an odd title, "Endymion Spring" because, there are plenty of those at the Oxford library. It is odd because as he flips through the pages, it seems to be the case that all the pages, made with beautiful paper, are completely blank. And not blank, like the type for a journal or something, but completely emptily blank. After that, all sorts of odd things happen, and he tries to solve the mystery of the blank book. It is also not catalogued at the library. The book is gone when he comes back, and all sorts of weird things follow.

There is also the side story, taking place in Mainz, explaining who Endymion Spring is and exposing how this book and its extraordinary abilities came to be... and you'll have to read the book to learn more. :P

Okay, Bookworms. READ THE BOOK! I was surprised to find that this is one of the best books I've read in a while. For me, it ranks right up there with Harry Potter and Maximum Ride. And most of my favorite books are series, and this isn't. It's a very intriguing, different, and well written story, and I love it. I rate it 4 1/2 or maybe even 5 stars. Wow, huh? I really only had one major quip with the book and that was the fact that it never stated how old Blake and Duck were, although the stories lead me to believe they were around 13 and 10 or 11. I also didn't like that it never stated where they were from, I don't believe, but it is hinted and all but said that they were from the United States. There are some other lacking details from the story as well, like their physical features. All of this left a lot up to the imagination though and your point of perspective, so it wasn't that bad. Missing details like that though, are one of my pet peeves.

So, when you read this book, help yourself answer the question and imagine what it would be like, to find the first and/or the last book, and have them in your hands. Deep concept! :P :P

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-CatcatCAT! :P :P

The Otherworldlies by Jennifer Anne Kogler

"When something creepy like that happens, it's better to try to make it fit into the normal scheme of things. I think that's why funerals were invented, to make death seem normal, even though it's totally not, you know?"

You know you're a little different when you're allergic to the sun. You know you're quite a bit different when you can hear people talking about you, in three houses down away from yours, in a room with the door locked and the windows closed. And you know you're just plain weird when you've been correctly predicting the weather for two years.

What do you get when you take all of these traits, and put them inside a twelve year old girl? You get Fern.

Fern is different, and it doesn't make her life easy, but she manages to get along, until one day, in school, she dissapears. She wakes up on a beach miles away, and knows nothing is going to be the same again.

Then scary things start happening. Birds dying, more dissapearing, a creepy neighbor, and her one friend, besides her twin brother, Sam, calling her a "Posiden" and a "Blout", and it's up to Fern, Sam, and a cast of other characters to find out what is going on, who Fern is, and, more importantly, what she is.

"You're a Poseidon and you know it. How else did you do that to Mooney?"

"What are you tallking about? Poseidon?"

I thought this was a pretty good book. Even though it had no romance (normally that causes me to drop half a star on my rating), it was action packed, and interesting enough, that I really didn't notice. I'd say that if you enjoy Vampire books, but aren't looking for a mushy romance novel, this is a good book. I think I'd give it about four and 1/2 stars.

Unable to escape the darkness, she began to panic. Groaning, she tried to wiggle her body to find something, anything, real. A shadow had wrapped itself around her like a mesh vice. She no longer felt the rigid wooden desk chair beneath her. No... now she felt something completely different against her body. Though she couldn't open her eyes to confirm it, she would of recognized the texture anywhere-

Fern was now laying on a mound of warm sand.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre is a fantastic literary classic, a romantic era novel, with some gothic era elements, as many books from the 1800's were. It is a book that chronicles much of her life, from a very young age, around 11, too when she's around 30. It portrays her younger, at her Aunt's house, both her parents have been dead for a long time, and her uncle is dead as well. Her Aunt and cousins are cruel to her. She is a spirited, stubborn, and different child. Soon, she gets to go to school. When will she leave, what will happen there, will she ever blend in? What will happen after she leaves school? What will she do for work? Will she fall in love and get married? What drama will as usual- stumble upon her? Will there be a happy ending?

All of these questions and more shall be answered as you go along in this great book. It also has great vocabulary, again making a good learning opportunity. It has the old english elements and such which can make it occasionally a bit hard to get through, but altogether it was a great book and a nice story. :):):) I rate it 4 1/2 stars. It was quite good in my opinion. Kind of reminiscent to me for some odd reason to Harry Potter (especially in the beggining, lots of similiarities like the spiritual journey and the being and orphan and other such things) and Little Women. That comparison I can't really solve, I think it is some of the writing styles. Maybe. :P

so, READ IT BOOKWORMS! :):):) -Cat! :):)

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The City of Ember is the first book in the Ember series. It depicts the story of a City called Ember, where instead of a sky with the sun they have a sky full of lights. They are entirely closed in from any outside world that may or may not exhist. As far as they know, the 'darkness', the unknown, unlit, area beyond the boundaries is all there is, no more civilization to be seen. The city is fully stocked, with all the food and things they need, and other things can be grown. At least, that's the way it was. Now, Lina, the lead character, and her current time of her world, is starting to suffer the fact that their storerooms aren't endless, among other things, and her whole world could change as she knows it, among the light outages and other such things. They have lots of things, but nowhere near what we do. (such as most plants, animals, technologies, and even the knowledge that we have.) To find out what happens you will just have to read this great book!

I loved it. I would rate it 4 stars! Maybe 4 1/2. It's a very good read! I highly recommend it. :):):) It is also a great discussion type of book. What would you do in the situations that come up with the city? What would you do if you didn't have these things that you do now? It's just interesting to think about.
I think it would be good for anyone like, 10&up to read. :) It doesn't matter too much though. :)