Sunday, November 24, 2013

The Clock of Life
Author: Nancy Klann-Moren


This book is not one you can just read once and then forget. The message of this book will stay with you forever. The story takes place in the South and at a time when people are fighting for Civil Rights.

The main character is Jason Lee who on his first day of school becomes friends with a colored boy named Sampson. Jason Lee was always being called names and hit because of it. But that would not stop him from being best friends and blood brothers with Sampson.

Jason was at an age where he wanted to know about his dad. He was only told his dad died in Viet Nam and was a hero. His mom and uncle would not talk about him. Whenever he asked about his dad his mother said, “too hush up as it would upset his uncle who was hurt bad in the conflict.”

Jason did find out that his dad was a Civil Rights Activist and had been beat because of it more than once.

I know I am skipping major parts of this story, but to do it real justice it would take me hundreds of words to describe it. I will tell you that the ending will blow you away. I will tell you that I am going to buy some copies myself to give as Christmas presents.

Rated PG for violence and language.


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Jetpack Jenny

I liked the cover of this book. It is colorful and invites people to turn the page. The main character is Jenny. From the beginning of summer she volunteered to be an assistant to Mr. Suchare who is a family friend. Jenny’s father was always talking about how brilliant Mr. Suchare was. So Jenny would go to his house and help him in any way he might need. There was really not a lot to do so Jenny started working on a jetpack that was to be her science project. She hated flying because of the long lines of people trying to get their tickets and checking in their bags. By time they got on board the plane Jenny was always tired.
Jenny had borrowed a lot of books from the library and was working on a jetpack that would help her so she could fly by herself and avoid airports. Then one day Mr. Suchare had her sit down and told her she was “The Chosen One.” He told her that she was the only person who could save the world from an alien attack.
This is the type of book where a parent could read a chapter each night to their kids. The chapters are not long so the book could hold the attention of younger children. I think the best age group would be 6 to 9 year olds.
Rated G and 3 stars
The Reality of the Virtual and Presage
by Betsy Cheung

The language in this book is not one that is spoken every day. If in your daily life words such as quasi monopolistic or megalomaniacal idea or even quantum physics are used then you would be fine. But for me I had to look up the meaning of each word.
In the first part of the book page 28 is followed by page 60 and then to 45. My feeble mind was having enough problems without the pages to be out of order.
Yet when the book changed to “Presage,” it all began to come together for me. I have so much respect for the author and her abilities. If you read the other reviews of this book or the jacket you will know more about this book than I could write in two hundred words or less.
One of the many things that I did find interesting is that God and science were mentioned together. One character wanted to reach to heaven and know about God. Now that is something I do know about.
This book is high impact and fast. Once I looked up words I had never heard of in my life I did found this book to be interesting.
Rated PG for violence