The Area 51 Files is a goofy MG mystery featuring friendships, family boThis review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
The Area 51 Files is a goofy MG mystery featuring friendships, family bonds, a pet hedgehog/dog duo, and a whole bunch of aliens! First off, the book is highly illustrated, and the illustrations are wonderful! Just take a look at that cover to get an idea of what's in store. The illustrations are used almost like graphic novel panels so that they help to tell the story (or tell little side jokes, often using the hedgehog and dog in hilarious ways).
When Sky is sent off to live with her mysterious uncle, she has no idea she's actually going to Area 52 - or that aliens are real. Her sense of reality is thrown into chaos when she is confronted with a whole community full of various aliens, some so strange the human brain has to make up its own form for them. But when some of the aliens are kidnapped at the exact time she arrives, her and her uncle are suddenly suspects. Sky and her newfound friends have to solve the case before Sky's uncle's life is irretrievably ruined and Sky is sent away. Of course, in order to do that, they have quite a few adventures and mishaps along the way.
Sure to be a hit with MG readers of books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid!
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley so I could provide an honest review. No compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***...more
I went in completely blind, and I was shocked to find that this wasn’t eThis review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
I went in completely blind, and I was shocked to find that this wasn’t exactly the STEM contemporary I was expecting, but something along the lines of science fiction (or contemporary sci-fi? Is that a thing? It should be a thing).
Ellie’s grandfather has discovered the key to immortality, utilizing the famed immortal jellyfish (a real thing, in case you haven’t heard of it—it’s a type of jellyfish that can basically revert back to its infant state and start life over again)—and he’s turned himself into a jellyfish. That’s really the extent of the “science fiction” to the book, though—the rest of it is just a contemporary about a girl trying to figure out how to navigate middle school and failing friendships (and a brilliant, opinionated grandpa who now attends her school). To me, the absolute best parts of this book were the ways the grandpa was a sort-of teenager/sort-of old man. This dichotomy was highly entertaining.
I did think the way the family responded to good old grandpa was a little weird—like, the mom basically actually treated him like a teenager instead of her dad a lot of the time, and I wasn’t sure why. And there were some definite lapses in logic. (How would she have signed him up for school with NO paperwork or parental permission? Why couldn’t they have just said he was being homeschooled?—but that would have ruined the premise of the book.) And a few other similar issues that bugged me. But I tried hard just to suspend disbelief and go with it. Once I did that, I found the book to be quirky and heartwarming and filled with fun science facts. Overall a fun and unique story!...more
This middle grade novel in verse chronicles a seventh grade boyThis review and many more will be found on my blog on 1/15: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
This middle grade novel in verse chronicles a seventh grade boy’s struggle with his weight, but it also goes much deeper than that. While, on the surface, Ari’s issues stem from his weight and the bullying that comes with it, the underlying issues that have led to his unhealthy eating are at this story’s forefront. Ari sees his family breaking apart, he has trouble adjusting after a move and he feels like an outsider in almost every area of his life (even in his religion—he’s trying to prepare for his bar mitzvah, but he’s already a year late, and he has no real support from his family).
Baron’s verse is used beautifully to describe Ari’s uncomfortableness in his own skin: the way his clothes feel because they don’t fit him right, but also the way his self doesn’t seem to fit the image everyone has molded of him. After a particularly nasty bullying incident, Ari is put on a strict diet and he loses weight—but it’s not until he takes control of his own life and his own destiny that he starts to feel true change. Part of Ari’s transformation is physical, but Ari’s real growth comes from his realization that his outer self doesn’t define who he is as a person and the book shows his journey toward self-love, whatever the number on the scale might say....more
Fukusha Model Eight is the third installment in Pajonas's unique sci-fi This review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Fukusha Model Eight is the third installment in Pajonas's unique sci-fi adventure series. Once again, Pajonas explores what a world completely run by corporations would be like---it isn't pretty. One of the things I love most about these books is the way that the main character's vulnerabilities are explored without making her seem weak. She's put in circumstances that would make anyone start to doubt themselves (and others around her). This book kept me guessing, with several twists I wasn't expecting as Yumi learns more about what she's up against. And, as always, the world building is exquisite---I feel like I know these alien planets so well! If you're a fan of adult sci-fi, I highly recommend this series. You will not be disappointed!...more
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