This is a fun Young Adult Fantasy Quest novel which needs polishing to clean up a rough writing style. First, the positives. This tale has great characters. They are individualistic, quirky and empathetic. Not necessarily the sort of people you’d want to take on a long quest, but an entertaining bunch to hang with for […]
“The Monocle” by Mark Cavanagh
Here we have a fairly standard YA story that pushes a couple of boundaries to good effect. The main character is a bit of a nerd, very sympathetic, who manages to stay out of the sights of the bullies most of the time. His friend Viv, on the other hand, is not so typical. In […]
“Where is all the Grass Going” by Deborah Fox
First and foremost, if you’re going to read this book, forget about logic and reason and all those structures that adults put in place to control the world. This is a book for young children who don’t see much reason in anything that happens in their lives, so they just don’t care. So, forget even […]
“The Promise of Unbroken Straw” by Ken Steele
When I am asked to review a standard plotline in a heavily mined genre like the American Novel, I am always asking myself, “What makes this book stand out from the rest?” For the first half of this tale, I saw little to get my hopes up. The plotline and settings were well written, but […]