Reviewed by BJ Rosen

Inkspell is a never ending spiral of excitement.  Cornelia Funke is back once again with the latest book from the Inkspell series.  Starting with the new characters (and some of the old), this book will be sure to deprive your time until you’ve read it.  In other words, it’s that feaking awesome!

In the last book, if you’ve already read the first book Inkheart, you learned of Capricorn’s death.  And Dustfingers’ thievery.  Without going into too much detail, Dustfinger gets read back to his own world by Meggie or her fother Mo!  Suspicious, huh?  Well, news reaches her and she ends up in Dustfinger’s world.  Trippy yet.  Well the excitement doesn’t stop there.  Apparently, Capricorn’s angry mother is plotting revenge on her son’s death and is holding Meggie’s family ransom.

Will the fate of the last Ink Readers be diminished by an unmaskable hate or revenge?  Or is there more at stake in the other world of Dustfingers?  Well, I guess there is only one way to find out, and that is to stop reading this article and read the book for yourself.

P.S. The movie Inkheart will be coming out in January 2009 while the third book Inkdeath is out now!

Find all Inkworld novels in the Fiction section under FIC Fun.

Reviewed by BJ Rosen

If you read the first book (Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment), then this is where the excitement really begins.  After learning of the cast and charaters in the first book, the action continues with Ari coming back to life!!  Is that really possible?  I have an idea, but for the time being you should read it for yourself.  The story starts with a fight between Ari and Fang which Fang winds up losing and ends up in the hospital.  Well, things get really freaky when the FBI show up after the discover of Fang’s wings (which is explained in the first book).  After this event, interesting plots begin to unravel such as the new Max may be a clone.   Trust me, the fun is just about to begin in this series.  Be sure to look for the third book in the Maximum Ride series, Saving the World and other Extreme Sports.

Find all Maximum Ride titles in the Fiction section under FIC Pat.

Reviewed by BJ Rosen

DNA lifeforms (being 98% human and 2% avian) Max, Angel, the Gasman, Nudge, Iggy, and Fange.  Pretty much you can tell this story is fictional just from reading the 98% human and 2% avian.  Without being too explanative, this story is nonstop action, confusing mysteries, and has some unanswered questions that leads to the next book.  This book introduces the the altered DNA kids and explains why they have wings (yeh, they have wings!) – they were prisoners of some mad experiment which they excaped two years back.  All in all, I personally think this book and series is great.  This book is almost like a comic book without the pictures.  It will keepy ou on your toes from start to finish.  Be sure to check out the next book in the series Maximum Ride: School’s Out Forever.

Reviewed by BJ Rosen

Probably one of the best books of the inheritance series yet. If you read the first 2 books then this should just put more icing on the cake. With War raging in Alagaseia, Eragon has finally learned of how Glabo triox gets his powers. With a series of small humor and non-stop strategic action this book should be at the top of most peoples book reading list. 

5 Stars

Reviewed by BJ Rosen

Eldest is the second book in the planned Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. It is the sequel to Eragon. Like, Eragon, Eldest became a New York Times Bestseller.

Eldest begins by following several important events from Eragon. The story is the continued adventures of Eragon and his dragon, centering around their journey to the realm of the Elves in order to begin and end Eragon’s training as a Dragon Rider. Meanwhile, defiance and hate are experienced throughout the book, involving old characters and new characters. This book ends at the Battle of the Burning Plains., where Eragon faces a new Dragon Rider.

Unlike the first book Eragon, there is no planned movie for Eldest yet. But don’t get your hopes up – read this book in the meantime. What I find great in this book is that all things have a beginning and an end (you will understand if you read it). I rate this book on a scale of 1-10 with an 8 because I am an evil book critic – Ha Ha – just kidding, my views on books are just that the original is better. But don’t let me put you in the wrong direction, some people think this book is better than the first. Anyway, you should check this book out, it will blow your mind. Be sure to look for the next Inheritance book – I heard it’s coming out soon too.

A note from Mrs. Walker: I just checked, and BJ is right – the next book in the series is due to be released in September, 2008. The title is Brisinger. You can read more about the series here.  I also read that the series will eventually include a fourth book.

Reviewed by BJ Rosen

Eragon is a fantasy novel written by Christopher Paolini who was surprisingly only 16 years old when he wrote it. Set in a fantasy medieval time comes a young boy who lives as a peasant with his father. His brother has already fled to get a job in order to prevent him from being forced into military service for the evil king Glabortriox. Anyway, while hunting, Eragon comes upon a strange rock. It turns out that this rock is a dragon egg, not found by the forsaken yet. Because of his benevolence the dragon chooses him as its rider. Within time they are chased by the clutches of the king in hoping to reach the Varden before time runs out. With evil spreading faster than hope, would freedom be achieved or will the land of Alagasiea be in turmoil once again?

I find this book rather interesting for you do not know what’s going to happen. Will Eragon and his dragon ever reach the Secret Varden which is cast in defiance against Glabortriox? With all the twists and turns, one can only hope that such freedom can be achieved. Personally, I rate this book (on a scale of 1-5), a 4.99 because it ends unexpectedly and goes on to another book. In a way it can be a young love story and an action story, making it a great teen book. If you check this book out, just trust me you won’t be disappointed.

Find it: In the Fiction section under FIC Pao.

The Lord of the Rings is a trilogy set of books which includes Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and the Return of the King.  They are all produced by the legendary J.R.R. Tolkien.  Out of this trilogy, my favorite is the Return of the King. 

In order to understand the Return of the King, you must have read the first two books.  In the third book, you will see defiance, power, and action in battle.  And with the same characters from the original two and new ones, it will be a bumpy ride to read, so make sure you read everything to understand.   In the  opening of this book you will see Gondor facing a crisis by the ever-growing darkness of the empire Mordor set in Middle Earth.  Already been through the scars of war on their own the mighty Rohan and horse lords are determined to help fight for the Gondor empire.  With the help of the mighty wizard and the returning king, they hope that their fellowship will continue their journey to destroy the one ring forever.

The book is mostly about the fellowship destroying the ring of Souron and defeat the evil emperor of Mordor.  In order to do that the fellowship must go through some challenges that will push their faith to the limits.  Will they succeed?  Or will the mighty army of Souron overtake the good and free will of Middle Earth?

I rate this book a 9 out of 10 as it is such a good book to get hooked on.

Reviewed by BJ Rosen

Do you like adventure and action?  Well, this book is the book for you!  In the setting of present times comes the author Cornelia Funke.

This book is about a girl named Meggie Folchart whose life changes dramatically when she realizes that her father, a bookbinder named Mortimer (nicknamed Mo), has an unusual ability.  When he reads aloud, he can bring characters out of the book – literally.  Meggie and Mo’s adventure takes them throughout Europe particularly Italy, and brings them into contact with many unusual characters.  Along with the cast that was read out of the book like Capricorn will try and kill all who oppose him.  In order to do so he must track down the one whom released him from the book.  Along the journey Meggie realies something so dramatically powerful that not even she can control properly.  Will the surviving family escape from the clutches of Capricorn or will this fictional character have more in store to come?

My personal views on this book may be different than others, but personally I view this book as an interesting time out story that will grab your imagination withing the first two chapters.  What I found to be the moral of the story is that the power of reading will get you far in life.

There are more books in this series.  I have not read any of the rest of them yet but I assume they will be great.  They are Inspell which was released in 2005 and Inkdeath that will be released by the end of 2008.

Reviewed by: B.J. Rosen