 Title: The House on Bo-Kay LaneAuthor: Greta Burroughs ASIN: B00AJUEXBS Reviewer: Dannye Williamsen Having read the first in this series, Gerald and the Wee People, I was not surprised to find myself just as captured by this tale. In the first book, we were taken via a portal into another world that only Gerald could see, and he and Vernon’s time with the Wee People was filled with heroic adventures. In The House on Bo-Kay Lane, Gerald and Vernon discover that their adventures have only just begun. Author Greta Burroughs cleverly brings the world of the Wee People into Gerald’s world this time. Gerald is joined by his friend Vernon again and by Andrew, his father, in the quest to discover the mystery that lies within the house on Bo-Kay Lane. There is magic mixed with science, entwining the future with the present. The race to save the world of the Wee People and their own future pushes Gerald and his father to the outer edges of their willingness to accept the unknown. The author classifies this book as one for middle grade children primarily. Apparently, the child in me was active when I read this book because I enjoyed going along on their adventure, too.
The Word Gang
ISBN: 978-0983105534
Author: Mark McKenna
Reviewer: Dannye Williamsen
A young adult novel, The Word Gang by Mark McKenna offers not only an interesting story, but also acts as a teaching tool. Who would think to take a teen’s interest in big words and turn it around into what the vice-principal calls a “mocking and disruptive use of the English language?” McKenna adroitly manages to weave a compelling tale around the characters’ love for words and to touch on important life lessons like the value of friendship, compassion, and learning.
Kalisha Jackson, distressed over her parents’ divorce, skips an entire year of school; however, she is determined to return this year and do well. Placed in a new program called Project Restart being administered by the vice-principal, Jack Ralston, Kalisha gets off on the wrong foot the first day by being late for class.
Kalisha’s serendipitous encounter with Albrecht Spinoza, a lovable old man who lives in her apartment building, gradually shifts her view of the world around her. A philosopher who speaks eight languages, Spinoza has turned his apartment into a library during the fifty years he’s lived there, and Kalisha is fascinated by him. His gift to her of the Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary is the catalyst for the formation of The Word Gang.
When Ralston’s attitude toward her use of big words earns Kalisha the title of head troublemaker, fellow classmates BD and Sahmbaht quickly become Kalisha’s accomplices in the effort to derail Project Restart. Along the way, we enjoy the journey as these three learn to deal with their life challenges in ways that perhaps they would never have attempted in the past.
While reading, I found myself jotting down the words Kalisha and her friends were using. Some were new, but many had just been lying idly in the dusty corners of my brain. Even though it’s been a long time since I was a teen, I found The Word Gang to be both entertaining and educational, and oh yes, definitely not otiose (superfluous or useless)!
King by Right of Blood and Might
ISBN: 978-1434368669
Author: Anna L. Walls
Reviewer: Dannye Williamsen
When the moon was hit by an asteroid, the devastation that followed was catastrophic, not only to the very formation of the Earth but to its population. Billions were killed. Continents were reformed. Governments toppled. Nuclear waste spilled onto the land. Life eventually began again, but its society receded to a much earlier time.
King by Right of Blood and Might is at once a futuristic tale and a leap backwards into the political and social mores of medieval times—not necessarily the typical stage on which to play out a futuristic narrative, but Anna Walls carries it off with aplomb.
Prince Harris O’Aidyn, the central character, is a teenager thrust into the position of having to not only claim his crown but also regain his kingdom from those who had enslaved it. It is an evolutional journey. He must convince all the groups of people in his kingdom of Pennland as well as the kingdom of Carolinas to work together against the evil specter called Kain.
This may sound like an easy task, but the mutational effects of the nuclear waste over time brought out paranormal abilities in some, effectively segregating them and causing them to eventually become part of the fabric of fairy tales. Consequently, Prince Harris must break down both mental and physical walls separating the people. In his effort to accomplish this, he finds himself on a spiritual journey that proves essential to accomplishing the goals he has for his people.
This is a tale of determination, overcoming, and triumph, both physical and spiritual. Walls’ adeptness at weaving together the elements in this story from the medieval patterns of their society to the paranormal to the spiritual evolution of Prince Harris takes the reader on a delightful ride.
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