Middle Grade – From My Corner of the Universe

Book Review: General Jack and the Battle of the Five Kingdoms

April 6, 2022

Title: General Jack and the Battle of the Five Kingdoms
Author: David Bush
Genre: Fantasy
Year Published: October 28, 2020

Date finished: February 14, 2022

It’s been a while since I’ve read an anthromorphic story and it’s mainly because I haven’t found one that I liked. General Jack and the Battle of the Five Kingdoms by David Bush was an excellent read that portrayed animals with humanistic traits very well. I was surprised at how well this was done.

The story is about a cat named Miaow and written from the perspective of Miaow for the most part. Miaow tells us his life story and how he came upon a two-legged creature (a human) named General Jack. General Jack takes good care of Miaow and Miaow grows to respect him and love him. The story is set in a world before our time, where war was prominent, and winning battles meant control/power over all the other animals. Miaow was very strategic in the way he fought and planned his attacks. He knew which animals to befriend and which ones to stay away from. However, he wasn’t perfect and made mistakes at choosing certain animals to help him. Later, the story is told from another perspective: Miaows grandson. The grandson tells us about what he thinks of his grandfather’s legacy and of General Jack as well. It’s very fascinating.

Overall, this was an excellent read. There were some minor structural errors but not anything to stop me from reading. The story itself was well thought out and the pacing was perfect for a YA story. The information at the end of the book about all the real wars and bible references were phenomenal. I learned a lot just from that section. It was wonderfully organized and explained, and to use all that information to create such a beautifully told story is a plus. Well done and well worth the read.

Who should read this book: Anyone who enjoys stories where animals are given humanistic characteristics such as “The Mouse and the Motorcycle,” “James and the Giant Peach,” and “Watership Down.”

Book Review: The Alchemyst’s Mirror

November 25, 2020

Title: The Alchemyst’s Mirror
Author: Liz Delton
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Middle Grade
Year Published: October 27, 2020

The Alchemyst’s Mirror by Liz Delton is a fantasy story about two sisters who are on a quest to find their kidnapped brother. At the same time, there is a missing object/item that’s very dangerous and needs to be found before the wrong person gets to it.

Petra and Maisie own a bakery and are very happy in their lives. The only thing that worries them is their missing brother. They both want to find him, so they set a plan to find him. Maisie gets kidnapped before they began the search leaving Petra to go without her. While Maisie is gone, Petra and an explorer named Evan commence the mission to find the brother. During their search, they find clues to a dangerous secret society, and before they know it, they get tangled in a trap. Maisie, while kidnapped on a ship outsmarts the person who kidnapped her and finds her way back to save her sister and Evan.

This was a really fun read. The two sisters were strong and knew what kind of life they wanted to live. Even though they had lost their parents and their brother was kidnapped, they kept it together. They were very protective of each other and you can feel the love between them. The action was wonderful, and the villain was well done. This story was a little fast-paced and there were lots of telling/describing things (that were unnecessary), but otherwise, it was a great read.

There was one thing I found a little annoying and I hope this changes in the following books, but I found Petra somewhat unlikable in the sense that she was often verbally abusive to Evan, who happened to really like her. She bossed him around and yelled at him when he made mistakes. I’m not sure why he stuck around or why he’d like someone like that. I was confused. I think that’s the only issue I had. I secretly wanted Evan to stand up to her.

I’d say this book would be great for those who enjoy a middle grade level of reading. It reminds me a little of Harry Potter in writing style.

NOTE: This book was given to me to read and review, but the opinion is purely my own.

Book Reviews

February 29, 2016

I finished 5 books within the last half of the month:

Title: Drop Dead Gorgeous
Author: Elizabeth Lenhard
Genre: Children, fantasy, paranormal

This book is about a girl, Rachel, who becomes friends with a girl who just moved into her town. The girl who moved in is a zombie. Rachel learns to accept the zombie girl as they go through trials and tribulations.

Read this with my 8-year-old. I found the story line a bit boring. My daughter wasn’t too into it as well.

Title: Zeroes
Author: Chuck Wendig
Genre: Sci-fi, suspense, thriller, paranormal

This book is about the government kidnapping some hackers to eventually overtake a computer-human liquid robot who tried to overtake them.

It started out promising but then went all over the place about halfway. Too many characters were thrown in in the beginning. Each with their semi-detailed specialty. I didn’t mind that so much because I liked how a chapter was given to a character. Eventually though it just became a big mess of people. I believe there was supposed to be a transition from computer hackers to paranormal computer activity but it didn’t happen the right way. I was set on believing that it had something to do with hackers hacking some huge powerful database, and that if they didn’t hack into it, the data would fall into the hands of someone who would use it to destroy the world or something. But it turned out that whatever they were supposed to hack into was obsolete and that some lady (she entered the story about halfway in) who was a very intelligent person decided to hook herself up to some strange machine that allowed her to upload data and become this liquid human machine thingy. Her reason for it was because she had heart problems and the only way to keep her going completely dead was to hook up to a machine. Aside from not wanting to be dead, it was quite unclear what her motives were. Yeah, very confusing.

Title: The Nightingale
Author: Kristin Hannah
Genre: Historical Fiction

This book is about two sisters who survived the Nazi invasion of France during WWII. The sisters are a decade apart in age and very different in personality. This is a story about war and everything that war creates.

This was a well written story. It was a truly amazing experience reading this. I had no idea that the Nazi’s invaded France and that the French leader surrendered. And, it made me wonder if there were really good and kind Nazi soldiers who only did their job because they had no choice or that they didn’t realize what they were doing until it was too late. The ending got me good. There was a twist that I had no idea was coming. I guess if I paid closer attention I would have caught it.

This is a story everyone should read. It really pulls at your heart.

Title: Zombie Dog
Author: Clare Hutton
Genre: Children, fantasy, paranormal

This book is about a family who moved next door to a vacant home. The family’s daughter learns that there is a zombie dog living in the vacant home and sets out to figure out why. In the process she learns the story of the family who lived in the home and finds a way to send the zombie away.

This was a cute story I read with my 8-year-old daughter.

Title: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Author: Philip K. Dick
Genre: Sci-fi, Post-apocalyptic, paranormal

The movie, “Blade Runner,” was based on this book. I haven’t seen the movie yet but I will soon.

This book is about a bounty hunter who’s job is to track down and destroy human-like androids. For each android he kills he gets a good sum of money. For three androids he’d get enough money to buy a real animal. In that post-apocalyptic time, it is rare to see a real animal, or own one. To own one is a status symbol. The androids are supposed to only live on Mars with their human owner and work for them but some find their way back to earth. They are hunted down because they are harmful to humans. There is really no way to differentiate a human from an android except for an empathy test because androids apparently have no empathy.

This was a very intriguing story. I’m amazed that this book was written in 1966 about the far future…aka, January 3, 2021. A lot of things were outdated but overall I got the feel for that bleak and dusty radioactive world they lived in. There were parts of the story that didn’t make a lot of sense to me like the godly-like man, Mercer, Mercerism if you believe in him. Or the double world in which the bounty hunter found himself in. Overall though, I enjoyed it.