The Amulet of Samarkand

Title: The Amulet of Samarkand

Author: Jonathan Stroud

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, a little Humor

Description: In this story, a very young magician named Nathaniel gets caught in the whirlwind of revenge and summons up an extremely powerful djinni named Bartimaeus. As the story goes on, his act of revenge turns into a much bigger problem and he must thwart a dastardly plot!

Isn't thwart a great word?

The Amulet of Samarkand is a captivating story, and the point of view of the character Bartimaeus is witty and full of life. You first hear of Bartimaeus’ humor when he tells of one of his previous summons: “One magician demanded I show him an image of the love of his life. I rustled up a mirror” (7). Comments like this will have you laughing through the whole book. Scattered through the pages are small footnotes. They are sometimes funny comments, other times pieces of information. He tells you that a Horla is “a power subclass of djinn. To a human, Horlas appear as shadowy apparitions that cause madness and disease; to other djinni, they radiate a malicious aura that saps our essence” (246). Bartimaeus is a tricky and unpredictable character, so you never know what will happen next. He makes surprising transformations. He says, “She stretched out a hand. As she did so I opened my mouth very, very slowly. Then she reached for the chain round my neck. In an instant, I was a Nile crocodile with jaws agape” (48). The Amulet of Samarkand will capture you attention with its story, but most of all with its witty character Bartimaeus who will keep you informed and on your toes. Happy reading!

P.S. This was a paragraph I wrote for school. I don't remember what score I got on it though.

I Want to go Home

Title: I Want to go Home


Author: Gordon Korman


Genre: Humor


Description: A sarcastic boy and his faithful sidekick hate the camp they have been forced to go to, and they take every opportunity to run away.

This isn't a real hard read. I don't have much to say about it. But sometimes when I am in the middle of several books that are really serious and have some major character development, I like to take a step back and read this funny story. Rudy Miller has calm, cool ways of devising brilliant plans to escape, and the reaction of his camp counselours just makes me laugh. It's a nice simple story and a quick read.

Picture from: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/gordon-korman/i-want-to-go-home.htm

By the way, there is one flaw in the cover of this book. In the story, Camp Algonkian Island (the camp that Rudy was sent to) is a boys' camp! So there should be no girls!

Book #1--Again

Being my first ever book review, my The True Meaning of Smekday review is pretty lame. I'm going to do this great book some justice right here.

Title: The True Meaning of Smekday

Author: Adam Rex

Genre: Adventure, Science Fiction

Description: Aliens envade Earth in 2013!! Join the Amazing Gratuity Tucci and her hilarious alien friend, J.Lo, on a journey you won't forget!

Anyway.

I laugh at what I just wrote, because the most distinguishable feature of the main character, Gratuity Tucci, is her voice. One of the most common things she does is go off topic then say, "Anyway." Adam Rex does a great job at the voices, and gives each character their own special way of speaking. J.Lo the alien's first language, Boovish, consists of strange sounds mixed together, like a Crying Baby Riding on a Duck with Its Mouth Full. Anyway. One of J.Lo's common English mistakes is saying 'for' or 'to' after the 5 w's. For example: Wherefor are you knowing it? or Whyfor is he exploring our car? He also confuses the word 'exploding' with 'exploring.' Not a good idea. Still, Gratuity and J.Lo make a hilarious combination with their distinct characters.

Not just the voices are great, but the plot. Aliens land, twice! They take up the entire U.S. and leave only one state for the entire human population! Find out what its really like, all through the eyes of an eleven -year-old girl whose mom was taken by the aliens! This same girl drives across America with her funny Boov sidekick and her cat! And get the first-hand story on how strange aliens can be! It can't get any better than that.

Even as an avid book reader, I only find a few books that really take me into their world. You always hear about books as being the doorway into different and amazing places. I'm not saying they aren't, but have you ever almost forgot where you were and belived yourself to be with the characters? With this one I laughed out loud and cautiously made my way across an alien-filled America with the two main characters.

This is a book you don't want to miss, seriously!!!!

Anyway.