Book Reviews by Kids - February 2006

The Alliance

by Gerald N. Lund

"Imagine a perfect city. There is no crime. There is no violence. There is no fear. Everyone gets along perfectly and nothing bad ever happens. Now imagine that none of this came about naturally. The city is this way because every inhabitant of the city has an electrode imbedded in their spinal cord that causes them immense pain whenever they even think about doing something wrong. If they do anything that threatens the city, the Guardians, who run the city, can terminate them long-distance through their wrist computers. Does it still sound perfect? 

This is the situation that Eric Lloyd finds when his village is taken over by the Guardians and brought to Shalev, (Hebrew for peace) one of the cities in the Alliance of Four Cities. Eric gathers a small group of rebels, and they try to overthrow the Alliance and bring freedom to all its inhabitants. 

Reviewed by Pirate Princess - age 15

The Crown of Dalemark

by Diana Wynn Jones

Dalemark is a country at war with itself. The North and the South of Dalemark are constantly fighting, as well as the earldoms inside of the country. Maewen, a young girl, is thrust back in time to join to boys, Moril and Mitt, on a journey to unite the warring nation under the king/queen of Dalemark. In this book, even though it takes place during different time periods, flows extremely smoothly throughout the entire story. One thing that I really love about this book is that it all flows together so smoothly with all of the other books in this series, the Dalemark Quartet. This book also contains a surprisingly good ending, making it an all around good book.

Reviewed by Dude Man - Age 13

Midnight Magic

by Avi

What would it be like to be a servant to a so called "Magician" who was accused of using power that many of them thought was bad? Well, sometimes it might be cool but most of the time it would probably be kind of scary. Fabrizio the servant would know, every day and night he must protect his master Mangus the Magician. One day one of the kings soldiers come to their door and tell them that they must come to the castle immediately from the kings orders. So they go feeling kind of scared thinking that the king wants to put them on trial for doing magic again but when they get there the king tells them that his daughter the princess has been haunted by a ghost. He also tells them that if they don't get rid of the ghost in a certain amount of time that they will be executed. Will they solve the ghost mystery? If your the kind of person who likes suspense, murder, excitement, or anything like that then you should read this book to find out!

Reviewed by Peach - Age 10

So Far from the Sea

by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet

There's this family who has some members in the war and they died and the family was really sad. I liked it cause it tells you a lot about the war.

Reviewed by Sports Guy - Age 8