My second visit to KidsBooks

Hey Bookworms,

I am in my fave city in the world, Vancouver, for a quick visit! I am so over-excited! While I was there I could not resist stopping by KidsBooks. I was dying to see Sarah and to get some more book recommendations. When I went in on Tuesday I was greeted by a lady named Emily. She told me that Sarah was not in the store that day, but that she would be in for the rest of the week, starting on Wednesday. Even though Sarah wasn't in the store that day Emily kindly helped me to find a book that I would enjoy. We started to look for books written by my favorite authors and it turned out that I had already read most of the books in the store by those authors, except for one title!  I was missing a follow-on to At the House of the Magician (by Mary Hooper) that was only just released. It turned out that they didn't have any copies in the store yet. So, since I am a huge Mary Hooper fan, I ordered a copy!

After I had ordered the book Emily asked me to tell her my favorite book genre and I told her that I adore a good, well written, historical book. Guess what she told me in response to that?  She was a history teacher! She recommended a few books and she recommended that I come in another day to see Sarah so that Sarah could choose some books that I would like.

I returned to the store on Thursday and met Sarah and Emily again. Sarah asked me how many books were left unread on my bookshelf and many more questions about my reading. She showed me seven books that she thought that I would like and we talked about them. I decided to buy two books, the first called A Brief History of Montmaray and the second called Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life. I have started to read Jeremy Fink. I am half way through it and am adoring it. I will use a word that a usually never use to describe a book, but this time I will use it ... PHENOMENAL! This book is absolutely phenomenal. More details will come in its review which will be posted soon!

I hope that one day all my Bookworms will be fortunate enough to stop by this incredible bookstore and really enjoy choosing your next best friend for a week or two (your next best friend being a book!). I would also like to thank once again with all my heart, Sarah and Emily. I really cannot thank both of you enough. Your bookstore is fantastic and is magical and can be anything that a reader wants it to be, but it is the staff who bring the life and fun into it. Sarah and Emily, you brought life to the store, but most importantly, you wanted me to love a book, to fall in love with the story, and I DID.

Alright Bookworms, that is all of my news, and don't forget to check back next weekend for the review of Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life! I can't wait to review it!

All that I have left to say is to read your heart out and never forget the Bookworm anthem...

-Enjoy your books, love your life and ADORE yourself. You are the best thing that ever lived.

For more information on KidsBooks please look at the Where I Get My Books page in the 'Vancouver' section.

At the House of the Magician

At the House of the Magician 

By Mary Hooper


Summary:

Lucy is a young women living in the Elizabethan era with her mother and father. She and her mother sell gloves and lavender wands for a living and Lucy's father gambles and drinks. Lucy dreams of leaving her father and of becoming a lady-in-waiting for her Majesty. 

One evening, after Lucy's father gambles all of the family's money and furniture away,  Lucy knows that she cannot stay with her father any more. She and her mother agree that she must leave at once but promise to come back and rescue her mother when she has enough money to take her away from her husband and live safely.

The next morning Lucy leaves her mother and decides to walk along the Thames all the way to London. On her way there she meets some children playing outside a almost-abandoned castle and finds out that their parents are looking for maids and will start them working as soon as possible. Lucy is eager to start working and agrees to be a maid for the family. But when Lucy finds out who her master is she is shocked to find out that he is Dr. Dee, her Majesty's magician...

At first Lucy is shocked but then she is excited after she learns that her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth often visits the Dee Castle and Lucy will do anything to see her Majesty.

But one day while Lucy is serving Dr. Dee and one of his assistants she listens a little bit too carefully to their conversation and soon finds out about a secret which she must tell to Her Majesty before it is too late!

Review:

I absolutely adore Mary Hooper books because she describes historical events as if she actually witnessed them. As if she was actually there and as if she was the main character and just wrote the book along her adventure. It is books like that that really make you appreciate reading.

I think that this was Mary Hooper's best book yet. She really came up with a new sort of character, one that was young and felt lost in her life. Lucy, also, has never lived on her own before and she does not really know how to provide for herself.  In At the Sign of the Sugared Plum and Petals in the Ashes (two other books written by Mary Hooper) the main character Hannah (who is in both books) is young, but she knows what will happen in her life and she knows how to provide for herself and live on her own. Since Lucy has never never lived on her own she begins to learn how to ... and we learn with her. We learn along the way. We discover the new things at the same time as Lucy does. We know everything from how Lucy puts on her different aprons to how she gets dust out of carpets (by shaking them or by hanging them on posts, then hitting them).  It is a fun side of the book.  I think that a lot of tweens would like it.  I think that they might find it interesting how young maids used to live about four hundred years ago.

I don't really like Queen Elizabeth the first, but since I read At the House of the Magician I have started liking her. Lucy shows such an admiration for Her Majesty and it is kind of addictive! Lucy is always comparing Queen Elizabeth (the first) to other queens of England and in the end Queen Elizabeth seems so much more interesting than them. But Queen Victoria is still my all time favorite queen. She is the longest reigning monarch of England (for the moment).

Mary Hooper has written her best book yet.  A million tweens would love this book and read it over and over again. It is an amazing burst of history on pages, with a memorable main character. Brilliant.

Recommended for tweens 10+.

217 pages

Don't miss the post about my second visit to Kids Books coming out next week!

Bookworm News

Hey Bookworms! I hope that you are all enjoying your summer vacation and that you are busy reading your heart out with some great books. I am reading some good books and am super busy with a lot of summer activities like swimming and swimming and ... swimming! My grandparents just sent me two Ally Carter (my fave author) books and I have already started to read one of them. The book is called Heist Society and so far I am liking it.

I have just finished At the House of the Magician By Mary Hooper and have started to write the summary of the book but, honestly I am not progressing, so don't expect the review for another week! Sorry. But for the time being I have decided to entertain you with a summer reading list.
Please note that this list is a 'just for fun' list so that means that you are NOT required to read them. If you wish to read them, then go ahead and enjoy! It is just a list of books that I would re-read if I didn't have any other books to read!


The Tween Bookworm Summer Reading List:

#1. Prisoners in the Palace By Michaela MacColl

#2. Distant Waves By Suzanne Weyn

#3. The Daring Game By Kit Pearson

#4. Inkheart By Cornelia Funke

#5. The Unrivalled Spangles By Karen Wallace

#6. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You By Ally Carter

Bookworms, I have always said that once you are a bookworm you will always be one (Once a bookworm, always a bookworm) but now I have another thing to say...

-Enjoy your books, love your life and ADORE yourself. You are the best thing that ever lived.


THAT is the new saying of my life and hopefully yours.

The anthem of the Bookworms...

That's it for now Bookworms, enjoy your summer reading! A new review will be out by next weekend.

Petals in the Ashes

Petals in the Ashes

By Mary Hooper

Summary:

The number of deaths from the plague are beginning to die down and Hannah Brown is returning to London with her younger sister Anne to re-open their sweetmeats shop. Hannah is prepared and determined to begin working again, to care for her sister, and to appreciate the fact that she had not been taken from her beloved sisters by the plague.

When Hannah and Anne arrive they find their shop covered in a layer of dust and many pieces of wood from the walls falling down. The two girls set to work and re-open the shop within a week. Hannah longs to find her beau, Tom, whom she fell in love with before the plague broke out.
On her way into they city Hannah hears many people saying that fortune tellers send warnings of fire and of an event even worse than the plague. At first Hannah and Anne believe that it is nonsense because the worst (the plague) has already come....

As days go by, Hannah has still not found Tom and she is beginning to worry because the fortune tellers had already correctly predicted the plague. Could their really be a fire and when?

Hannah and Anne don't know it yet, but the worst is yet to come...

Review:

Petals in the Ashes is the sequel to At the Sign of the Sugared Plum by Mary Hooper. Both books are about an event in English history. I love historical books so this was a very enjoyable book for me to read. I have read a lot of historical books and no other author describes historical events as vividly and as well as Mary Hooper. Petals in the Ashes was also an interesting and engaging book because Hannah is a character, who from page 1 (of the first book), is very alive and real in my mind. She longs for adventure and for an exiting life, and when reading the book you start to become as exited as her and sometimes even 'slip into her skin' and become her.

I think that a lot of tweens would like Petals in the Ashes because when you read the book you are also learning about a famous historical event. It is a great read and an education wrapped up in one!

I don't have anything else to say except "wonderful sequel Hooper, I hope that Hannah has a few more historical events to live through!" I am waiting for the Hannah Brown series to become a trilogy!

Recommended for all tweens. You will adore Mary Hooper's stories.

187 pages