Features Overview
Hi! My name is Toby. I read a lot of books. And I have a few opinions. That’s why I created this website. I like adventure books, books with good dragons and funny books. When I’m not reading, I like to build structures with KEVA blocks, play with LEGOS and draw.When I can, I like to go skiing and play at the beach.
On this site, my contributing editors (friends) and I review books for each other so that we can get good recommendations for what to read next. We’ll mostly review books we like. We might review a few books we don’t like, too (but we’ll be nice about it).
The Dragon Masters Series, Books 1-14 by Tracey West - reviewed by Toby
If you like dragons, this series is for you. In each book, there is a new dragon and a new dragon master to meet. Together, the dragon masters and their dragons have adventures to find new dragons and dragon masters. There are also wizards who teach the dragon masters how to work with their dragons. Also, each dragon master has a dragon stone. They glow green when the dragon master connects with their dragon. When a dragon master connects, they are able to talk through their minds with their dragon. I’ve loved these books since I was…actually, I can’t even remember! And I still love them.
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown - reviewed by Toby
This book is about a robot who ends up on an island and learns to communicate with animals. She even takes care of an orphaned baby goose, Brightbill, who becomes her son. Together, they build a stick hut called The Nest to live in, survive some harsh weather on the island, and battle retriever robots coming to take the robot back to the factory. This book was a very good book and at the end of every chapter I said, “Mom, can you please just read one more chapter!”
- reviewed by Toby
If you’ve read The Wild Robot and you liked it, you should get the sequel: The Wild Robot Escapes.
Max & the Midknights by Lincoln Peirce - reviewed by Toby
This book is about a kid named Max and his Uncle Budrick who’s a troubadour (a traveling entertainer). Max has to learn his Uncle’s trade and be a troubadour, too. But he doesn’t want to be one. He wants to be a knight. You see, his town was taken over by the terrible King Gastley and the witch named Fendra is producing a potion that’s making all the people in the town support Gastley. After finding a group of kids who will travel with him, Max sets off on a journey to find his city’s real king, King Conrad the Kind, and restore it to what it used to be. This book is hilarious with lots of funny jokes. I’ve read this book at least three times it’s so good.
Heroes in Training Series, Books 1-15 by Joan Holub, Suzanne Williams & Tracey West - reviewed by Toby
If you like Greek myths (or the Goddess Girls series), you’ll love this series. In the first book you meet Zeus, and the crew builds from there. In each book, they find another god or goddess and each god and goddess has a magical object that they can use for different purposes such as attacking, defending, and so on. All of the gods and goddesses are only ten years old in these books, which is different from any other Greek myth I’ve read. In every book the crew has a good adventure and sometimes the book ends at a very exciting part so you have to pick up the next book to know what happens. These books have ten chapters each and around 100 pages. I once read two books in one sitting because it was so good I couldn’t stop reading.
Amulet Series, Books 1-8 by Kazu Kibushi - reviewed by Toby
If you like graphic novels and/or magic, you’re going to like this series. In the first book we meet the main character, Emily. She moves to a new town after her dad dies, but then her mom gets kidnapped by a strange creature. Emily follows the creature only to find herself on an alien planet. Throughout the books Emily makes lots of new friends, goes on very dangerous and exciting missions, and fights lots of battles. Also, she finds an amulet—a magical stone that is very powerful—but before she can use the amulet as something helpful, she needs to learn how to use it…and that can be hard. The illustrations in these books are very good. I’d say these books are in the adventure/fantasy category.
A Boy Called BAT & BAT and the Waiting Game - reviewed by Toby
This book is about a boy named Bixby Alexander Tam who goes by Bat. His mom is a veterinarian and one day she rescues a baby skunk kit and BAT loves him. BAT tries to convince his mom to keep the skunk. He names the skunk kit Thor. In order to keep Thor, he has to show his mom that he’ll be responsible for it. Can he do it? If you like cute stories that involve baby animals you’ll probably like this book.
In BAT and the Waiting Game, BAT keeps the skunk and takes really good care of it. He plays with Thor every day after school and he snuggles him and feeds him, until his sister Janie has a play and BAT has to go to his friend Israel’s house on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school because his mom isn’t home yet. One day at Israel’s house BAT yells at Israel and they don’t speak to each other for a few days. Later, BAT feels really badly about this and has to figure out how to get his best friend back. BAT also misses Thor on all the afternoons that he spends at Israel’s and on the night of Janie’s play he decides to take Thor to the play in secret. A disaster occurs! BAT feels really, REALLY badly about ruining Janie’s big night and has to do something huge to make it up to her. In this book we get to learn more about BAT’s friendship with Israel and his awesome teacher Mr. Grayson. I really like these books. There is a third book that we haven’t read yet but I’m going to read it next.
Dog Diaries: Happy Howlidays! - reviewed by Nate
I like Dog Diaries Happy Howlidays! because it’s funny and some of the words are spelled in Doglish. Doglish is dog words combined with real words. For example, “pawesome” is in Doglish because when you mix “paw” and “awesome” together you get “pawsome.” I also like Dog Diaries because of the characters. The main character is named Junior. I just found out that Dog Diaries Happy Howlidays! is in a series and I want to read them all!