The Shadow Door by Bannister

The Shadow Door is book one of a series of graphic Novels called The Elsewhere Chronicles. It follows the exploits if four kids who find a portal to another world full of danger.

This graphic novel ventures into some pretty well trod territory, but the story is still interesting and engaging. The artwork is done in full color on glossy pages. At it's best it is stunning, but at times it's hard to tell what's going on as the artist loves using lots of dark colors and depicting shadowy sequences without the benefit of speech bubbles or narration. Overall good, but not overwhelming. Recommend this one to adventure fans grades 4 to 7.

Discordia by Dena K. Salmon

Lance spends all day playing Discordia a hot new MMORPG (fancy acronym for online computer game). He has a level 18 zombie sorcerer and he's finally starting to make some good progress in the game now that TheGreatOne has invited him to join his guild. So when a snow day is declared Lance plans on spending some quality time with Discordia. However, he ends up getting more sucked into the game then he ever expected when he finds in himself actually in Discordia.

This book had a good premise and writing that was genuinely exciting and humorous. However, this book also has glaring plot holes that left me questioning what exactly was going on. Several times I turned back a page to see if I had accidentally skipped one, but alas it was the author that skipped a page not me. The ending had similar problems, in some reviews I saw it called a cliffhanger. I would would simply call it incomplete or perhaps unsatisfying. This book had a lot of potential and with a few rewrites may have achieved it, but as is this book fails to satisfy.

Recommend this to children who love video games or glaring plot holes grades 5th thru 9th.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

The Last Olympian wraps up the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series with same fast-paced action Riordan has delivered time and time again. In this, the final book in the series, Percy Jackson's 16th birthday and the prophecy tied to it is just a week away, Kronos and his army of titans and monsters are planning an attack on Olympus and the entire fate of Western civilization hangs in the balance. No big deal right?

I thoroughly enjoyed The Last Olympian. I have a hard time picking out a favorite book in this series, because they are all so consistently great. This book is no exception. The pacing is intense, the plot is packed w/ action, but tempered an interesting story and a healthy dose of Greek Mythology. My one complaint was after the central conflict in the plot was resolved, the book dragged on for awhile trying to tie up loose ends, including a sequence regarding the fate of Percy's girlfriend Rachel that despite a half hearted attempt at being surprising ends so predictably it's almost painful. Overall a great book, though, recommend this one to fans of action, adventure and Greek mythology grades 4 to 10.

Brisingr

Christopher De Paolini's third book in the Inheritance Cycle is a marked improvement from his last book Eldest, but ultimately suffers from the same flaws.

First let me start by saying Eragon was wonderful, the book pulled me in and left me wanting more. Eldest on the other hand was only satisfying because I was desperate to hear more about Eragon, the plot in Eldest was forgettable at best and groan worthy at worst (the whole Luke- I am your father rip-off, c'mon really?) Brisingr, also has some groan worthy surprises (don't worry I won't tell you what they are I'll let you suffer thru them on your own terms) and like Eldest the story seems to drag on without any clear direction at time (I cite the lenghty foray into dwarven politics as a shining example- and if you're wondering no nothing surprising happens feel free to skip those 100 pages if you like), however, the story had it's strong points as well. For example Eragon's character is pretty freakin' rad. I enjoyed all the battle sequences with him punching thru shields, leaping over walls and cleaving things in half. And he's got a dragon and she's always blowing fire and eating things, that's pretty sweet too. *Mild spoiler alert, skip to end of paragraph to avoid* His new sword, also freakin' rad. It lights on fire whenever he says it's name (disappointingly it's name is fire) and it plays an integral role in the forementioned cleaving things / enemies in half.

If Eldest had been the first book in the series, I wouldn't have read the next book, Brisingr however, is good enough it to pass the First Book Test and I would continue reading the series based on it's merits alone. Give Brisingr to fantasy buffs, dragon aficionados and people who like saying words like "oathbound," "shadeslayer," or "aye" grades 6+

Kenny and the Dragon

Kenny Rabbit loves books, especially fairy tales, so when his father comes in hollering about a dragon up the hill Kenny has to go investigate. After arming and armoring himself as best he can with a variety of cookware and household cleaning utensils he goes to meet the dragon. The dragon proves to be shockingly urbane and introduces himself as Grahame, like the cracker, but with an 'e' on the end. Kenny finds that he has a surprising amount in common with this gentle dragon and the two soon become fast friends. The trouble starts when the townspeople discover a dragon is living nearby and call in the king's men to slay "the vicious beast."

Kenny and the Dragon is a charming story about unexpected friendship. It features Tony DiTerlizzi beautiful drawings and witty prose. Give this one to Fantasy Buffs grades 2-5.

Epic

Wow what a book! Epic combines my two of my favorite genres futuristic dystopia and fantasy adventure. On New Earth everyone's lives revolve around Epic, a fantasy adventure computer game. Success in Epic, results in benefits for yourself, your family, possibly even your whole town. When Erik's mother loses a dispute against Central Authority things start looking grim for his family, they could be relocated to a new area and maybe even be split up. Erik's only hope is Epic, if he plays well enough he could save the whole family.

I started this book at 11 o'clock at night with the intention of reading one chapter and then going to sleep. I read the first chapter, it was good so I read another. The second chapter was even better, I kept going. Three hundred pages later I finally made myself put it down and go to sleep. The next morning I read a little more before. I had intended to bring it to work with me so I could finish it during much lunch break, but alas I forgot it and spent all day thinking speculating about what the last 14 pages contained. I highly recommend this book! It has it all vampires, knights, magic, swashbuckling! For grades 7 and up.

Ranger's Apprentice The Burning Bridge and the Icebound Land

These are two great books, the second and third installment of the Ranger's Apprentice series. The books feature Will, a ranger's apprentice, as he learns the ranger's craft from Halt a legendary ranger during tumultuous times in his home kingdom of Araulen. In The Burning Bridge Morgarath is threatening the kingdom once more. So Will travels to Celtica with Horace and Gilan a Ranger and former apprentice of Halt. Along the way our heroes manage to encounter a healthy helping of adventure not to mention the bandits, mysterious empty villages and of course, the burning bridge.

In the Icebound Land Will is taken prisoner and held captive in distant Skandia. Meanwhile, Halt and Horace travel over land in search of Will. This book was slower paced than the first two; mostly because it features the ever popular (and highly cliché) captured and held prisoner plot line (actually two separate captured plot lines if you can believe it). Another thing that bothered me about this book was a somewhat heavy-handed anti-drug message. However, the characters are still very engaging and the book still manages to pack in the action (I particularly enjoyed the jousting).

Both books are full of adventure and should surely hold the attention of fans of the fantasy genre. If you like the middle ages, high action books or even cloak and dagger type spy books this series is a must read. For grades 5-9.