Listening for Lions

Review By Nathan:

Listening for Lions is a book about Rachel Sheridan who lives with her missionary parents in what is now Kenya.  Then the flu comes to British East Africa.  Her parents run a hospital so they are exposed and soon die.  She is adopted by her neighbors, the Pritchards, whose daughter, Valerie, just died from the flu.  She is forced to assume their daughter's identity for them to possibly receive an inheritance from Mr. Pritchard's father.  She is soon made to travel to England away from her beloved Africa.  Eventually she confesses to her "Grandfather" who she really is.  He is not mad at her, in fact, he decides to adopt her and pay for her education.  But soon,  grandfather dies.  Rachel then goes off to medical school and becomes a doctor.  She is eventually able to return to Africa to rebuild her parents' mission station and hospital.   

Bellow is a map of British East Africa and the surrounding area in the horn of Africa.

Criuse of the Dazzler

Review By Nathan:

This book by Jack London is about a boy named Joe does not like his uppity city life so he runs away from home.  He ends up finding work on a ship named the Dazzler.  He realizes too late that he is in the company of bay pirates who raid coastal property and commit other crimes.  He soon knows too much for them to let him go his own way.  He befriends a boy his age nicknamed "Frisco Kid".  They both want to leave this life of crime and start making plans.  It takes courage, morals and loyalty to make this plan work. Can they escape the pirates?

Call of The Wild

Review By Nathan:

This is a complete review!

At the start of this book Buck lives with a well to do family in California.  That is until he is dognapped to be a sled dog in the Yukon gold rush.  He soon figures out what the law of club and fang is.  He survives by learning the ways of the wild.  During this time buck starts to dream as himself beside a "hairy man" like a wild ancestor of Bucks would have seen. A feud between him and the head sled dog Spitz develops and so does a fight to they death between them two.   Buck comes out the victor but is eventually transferred to another dog team then another dog team.  This last team is comprises of three lazy people from the American Southland (now called the contiguous United States) who know almost nothing about the Northern wild and sled dogs.  Buck narrowly escapes being drowned through their carelessness.  Buck becomes the loyal partner to John Thornton and they live happily together.  But the local indians attack the camp while Buck is away and kill everyone there.  Buck sets out on a revenge killing spree and kills several indians.  After this with his last connection to mankind dead. Buck becomes a wolf-something that he has desired and dreamed of.  I would not recommend younger children read this book-especially because of the killing at the end and also a few choice words.

For more information visit  https://www.pluggedin.com/book-reviews/call-of-the-wild/

The new movie Call of the Wild just came out. I went to see it with my gramma. It varied in several places from the book including how John Thornton dies-he is killed by the man who's sled went threw the ice (in the book this man dies.) All in all it was a fun and good movie.

Hana's Suitcase

Review by Nathan:

Hana Brady lived a happy life with her parents and brother Gorge in Czechoslovakia. That was until the Nazis took over. Being Jews, both of Hana's parents were soon taken away. Hana and her brother went to live with family but were soon taken too by the Nazi's. Hana did not survive the concentration camps but her brother George did. In 2000 a women named Fumiko Ishioka in Japan requested Holocaust artifacts for her small museum.  She received Hana Brady's suitcase and a few other items.  This triggered a year long search in which Fumiko found out Hana's fate and found Hana's brother George.  George provided Fumiko with information about Hana's childhood and he eventually came to Japan to see the museum.  This book covers both Hana's story and Fumiko's story in the search for more information on Hana.

The Chessire Cheese Cat

Skilley and Pip (most likely) on the front cover 

Review by Nathan:
The Cheshire Cheese Cat by Carmen Agra Deedy & Randall Wright is based in London during Victorian England.  Skilley is a London street cat who loves cheese-not mice (he won't even eat mice.)  But he ends up as the mouse catcher at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a public house famous for it's cheese and for the writer that hangs out there: Charles Dickens.  Skilley and a mouse named Pip form a friendship.  Skilley agrees to catch mice but then release them unharmed if the mice give him cheese.  It seems like all will go well until a savage mouse eating cat named Pinch shows up.

Pinch and Skilley have never gotten along.  An uneasy peace settles over the public house with Pinch not being able to catch any mice.  But then Maldwyn, a wounded tower raven, is made known to
Skilley. Trying to hide the raven from Pinch becomes harder. Maldwyn must get back to the Queen of England before war starts with France. But little do the animals at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese know that the message that was sent to the raven master was mixed up and this put the inn's owner in danger. At the end Pinch and Maldwyn end up in a fight just as the Queen arrives.

To learn more about the book visit https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10545071-the-cheshire-cheese-cat
To learn more about Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Cheshire_Cheese

Please leave your thoughts on this and other reviews(what we can do better, what books should we read next and have you read any of the books we have reviewed. etc. Thank you.)

Redwall Series (First 7 books)

Review By Nathan: 

Note the books in this series are not in chronological order.

Book One:  Redwall  In this book a young abbey mouse named Matthias yearns for adventure but is held back as a novice monk-until Cluny the Scourge (an evil rat) shows up. Matthias with his wise old friend, Methuselah, must find Martin the Warrior's sword to defend the abbey and bring peace to Mossflower. But first he must get the sword from a venomous snake.

Book Two:   Mossflower  This book goes back to Martin the Warriors time. A tyrant wildcat named Verduaga rules Mossflower.  But Martin the Warrior is going to say something about that.  Joined by other people who are sick of the tyrant's rule, Martin starts a war.   The Mossflower animals cleverly take over the tyrant's castle and bring peace to Mossflower.  

Book Three:  Mattimeo  Matthias's son and several other young ones are captured by a fox slave trader so Matthias and several others set out after them.  This book tells both group's story and how they finally met at the evil rat empire caves.  A big battle soon ensues.  At the same time the abbey is under siege by ill-intentioned birds.  

Book Four:  Mariel of Redwall In this book a ship that a young mousemaid is on is captured by sea rats.  Gabool the Wild a searat king tries to drown Mariel the mousemaid but fails.  Mariel washes up on a shore and finds her way to Redwall abbey.  She and several others find their way back to Gabool's island and put an end to his reign of terror.

Book Five: Salamandastron The mighty mountain Salamandastron in under siege by Ferahgo the weasel assassin. Meanwhile two stoats steal Martin's sword and two young abbey members set out after them. Mara the badger, Lord of Salamandastron's daughter is trying to help the abbey allies, Guossom shrews, get back an important object to their leader. Will good or evil succeed especialy after Salamandastron's food and water supply is poisoned?

Book Six: Martin the Warrior The same Martin who later saved Mossflower is a slave in Marshank (the fortress of the cruel stoat Badrang the Tyrant.) Martin soon escapes and works his way toward Noonvale (a friendly settlement) to raise an army. At the same time several more slaves escape and start a resistance group to Badrang. At the end both, Martin's group and the resistance group meet and take the fortress. But Martin is upset after the death of a close friend. What will he do?

Book Seven: The Bellmaker Joseph the Bellmaker is Mariel's dad. Mariel and Dandin (a friend) set off in search of adventure. They stumble across the Foxwolf Urgan Nagru's kingdom and get into a fight with some of his troops and are rescued at the last moment by a very sharp military hare named Fallowthorn. They are eventually captured by Nagru's forces. But manage to escape their cell and join the battle against Nagru that is just starting. Who will win?

Note to Parents: In this book series the characters will often receive dreams or other communication telling them what to do from Martin the warrior. I personally did not have a problem with this knowing what I believe as a Christian but you want to consider this. To learn more visit https://www.pluggedin.com/book-reviews/redwall (this first one is a Christian site.)
also to learn more visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwall which includes a chronological order of the books list.