Rumbles Of A Book Dragon

This offering is a reread of one of my favorite stories: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett.  The Secret Garden is a wonderful story but there's just something astoundingly enchanting about A Little Princess that always draws me in. Characters: Sara Crewe, Miss Minchin, Amelia Minchin, Becky, and the girls of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary For Young Ladies. Premise: A pampered but sweet-natured young girl loses her fortune and is severely overworked and abused, though she never loses her sweet disposition. Sara Crewe.  I can hear the opening strains of the play I was part of with this one.  Yes, Sara (who's seven at the start of the novel) is pampered and spoiled by her father, but surprisingly, she is very down to Earth and is willing to fight against injustice. She quickly makes friends with Ermengarde and mothers little Lottie, and goes toe-to-toe with Lavinia.  Honestly, both Lavenia and Lottie both need a good swift swat on the butt. Lavinia is a bully...

TRIGGER WARNING: MISSING/MURDERED CHILDREN! DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ALLUSIONS.  If these things are a sore spot for you, turn back now.  There will be no hard feelings.  I know that people have trauma and I'm not looking to revictimize anyone. I bring you a third tale of terror from the Are You Afraid Of The Dark? franchise. The Tale Of The Gravemother by Rin Chupeco.  However, whereas, the first two books that I reviewed (The Tale Of The Campfire Vampires and The Tale Of The Zero Hero) were from the 90 spin-off series, this is a spin-off from the later anthologies (Mr. Tophat And The Carnival Of Doom, Curse Of The Shadows, and Ghost Island) and honestly, I'm here for it.  So, without further ado, I call this the review of The Tale Of The Gravemother. Characters: Zane Kincaid, Garrett Sevilla. Premise: The new kid in town teams up with a local and their ghost hunter friends to solve a decades long mystery. Zane Kincaid, his younger sister Emma, and their parents arriv...

  So once more I'm on a genre kick and this time it's Children's Literature with The Girl With The Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts. Characters: Katie Welker (with appearance from her mother, Monica, her boyfriend Nathan, and the people in her apartment complex) Premise: A ten-year old deals with the fact that she's vastly different from everybody around her. I first read this in the third or fourth grade and it had a completely different cover (though to be honest, I prefer this one which is a 2010 update).  Our main character is ten-year old Katie Welker who as stated in the title, has silver eyes, is telekinetic, and can talk to animals, which makes the people around her uneasy and some are pretty hateful in their attitudes towards her.  Honestly, in some ways, this reminded me of a mixture of Roald Dahl's Matilda and Stephen King's Carrie (just the telekinetic part, not anything else, though I've only watched the two movies based on King's book) an...

Hey gang!  We're back with another dastardly tale.  This one taking place in the "present" of 1997 and the past, 1917. It's a tale of war, cowardice, and regrets.  Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this. the review Of The Tale Of The Zero Hero. Characters: Simon and Thomas Decker Premise: A boy is haunted by the ghost of his great-grandfather and pulled into the past. When we met Simon Decker, he and his family (Mom, Dad, kid sister, Lauren), are moving into a new house in their new town Barstowe and we learn that they moved because the dad's business venture hadn't panned out and they were starting over in a new place, which, yeah, that would make me grumpy too if I had to leave my school and all my friends.  I feel for Simon in this respect.  Of course, Simon soon realizes that something strange is going on when he feels a cold spot before going into his room but at first, he just thinks it's nothing and brushes it off. Then he h...

All right, everyone!  Settle down and pick a spot.  Comfy?  Great.  Brace yourselves.  We're taking a trip to my childhood with The Tale Of The Campfire Vampires by Clayton Emery, a story within the Are You Afraid Of The Dark? book franchise, which was a spin-off of the t.v. series.  And as such, there is only one proper way to start this. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society (and all of us who wished we were part of the Midnight Society), I call this, the review of the Tale Of The Campfire Vampires. Characters: Doug and Zeke Wester Premise: Two bickering cousins must work together when one accidentally unleashes monsters. Our tale begins with kids sitting around a campfire listening to a ghost story (ironically).  One of the kids, Doug Wester, is real gung ho for the camping trip, having been looking forward to and preparing for the camping trip for weeks, while his cousin Zeke, was a certified couch potato and his parents understandably...

  I can't!  I just can't!  This should not have ended the way it did and yet, there was no other logical conclusion for it.  Hi, yeah.  As you've probably guessed, I have Big Opinions about the way this book went.  Okay, let's dive into First Blood by David Morrell. Characters: Rambo and Will Teasle Premise: A Vietnam Veteran finds himself the subject of a major manhunt after an altercation with a small-town Chief of Police and his deputies. I don't even know where to start with this. This is my first David Morrell book. Rambo (yes, that Rambo) is drifting from town to town after coming back from Vietnam and just minding his own business and was passing through a Kentucky town when Wilfred Teasle (a Korean War vet) proceeded to "escort" Rambo out of his town, which ya know, didn't sit well with Rambo, so he stuck around, only to get re-escorted out until Rambo was arrested, pushed to his brink, and he fought back.   Look, I'm not going to preten...