Book Summary: The Last Wild

A customer asked me whats a book to read after How to Bee by Bren MacDibble so i told her to give The Last Wild a go.

The story is set in a world where animals no longer exist (which is about the saddest thing i could imagine!) Our main character Kester lives in a home for unwanted troubled kids and as you can imagine hes told hes not worthy everyday so one day when Kester stumbles upon a group of animals and is taken to where the last animals on earth are hidden Kester thinks he has finally lost it, but this is not some crazy delusion and these animals are real and they really need his help. The animals have saved Kester so now its up to Kester to save them and with the help of some great characters along the way this is turning out to be a great series !

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Book Summary: The Nothing to See Here Hotel

With 6 different authors giving this book nothing but amazing praise and review after review after review saying that its extremely funny i thought i need to add it to our blog.

The Nothing to See Here Hotel, is a hotel full with weird and wonderful guest including goblin pirate, tooth fairy sisters, trolls and so much more and one day the hotel gets a message informing them that a goblin prince is intending to stay at the hotel. This creates a bit of a panic as you can imagine but the excitement of his arrival soon turns to anger and regret as the goblin prince -with his bad attitude and a hidden secret- is not what they expected.

Book Summary: The House With Chicken Legs

Wanting that book with a difference.. what about a retelling of Baba Yaga?

Marinka is the grand daughter of non other then thee Baba Yaga, and is being trained to one day replace her Grandmother and take on the responsibility of guiding souls to the afterlife. But all Marinka wants most is a friend, with a constantly moving house (on chicken legs) and an intense training schedule there is no time for things so insignificant as a 'play date' so when Marinka has the chance at an actual friendship so throws tradition to the wind and controls her own life for once... which as you can imagine turns out not to be the best decision. Marinkas beloved grand mother mysteriously disappears and its now up the Marinka to sort out the mess she has made even if it means a magic filled adventure into the dangers of the afterlife.

:)

Book Summary: The Stone Girl's Story

Mayka was carved out of solid stone by a master stonemason and brought to live by the intricately carved symbols on her body, giving her the ability to see, speak, hear and even think for herself. Living atop a mountain range in a marble house Maykas father (the stonemason) also made her stone friends to keep her company including a small stone dragon, a quirky small bird and a noble stone griffin.

 After her fathers death many years ago the up keep on the carved symbols keeping them alive has fallen into disarray and now as time moves on more and more of Mayka friends are fading back into pure stone. Mayka decides there is only one thing for it... find a new master stonemason to help, that just means leaving the safety of her marble house and venture into the dangerous valley bellow.

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Book Summary: Edge of Extinction

Basically imagine if no-one was able to stop the bad dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and they took over...

Because this seems like that story...

Humans manage to clone dinosaurs but they soon manage to make their way back to the top of the food-chain. With their obvious hunting ability and not so obvious killer virus the human population was quickly decimated, forcing the few living humans to live in compounds underground for the last 150 years, and one such human is our protagonist Sky, who is an orphan after her fathers disappearance.

Sky discovers a letter written by her father and with best friend Shawn she decides to go find him. Even if it means risking their lives against the dinosaurs

This book seems very "on the edge of your seat" reading and come on who hasn't thought about what the old would be like if dinosaurs still lived (although personally would like the Flintstones version of that world)

Book Review: Brotherhood of Thieves

Brotherhood of thieves is set back when horses were how you got home on time, you didn’t leave home without your sword and life on the streets leaves you cold, miserable and hungry… so when main character —orphan and street thief— Caspan gets given the chance to compete to join the brotherhood of thieves (a secret order sanctioned by the king) how could he pass it up.

The secret order specialise in treasure hunting, exploring ancient temples long left by an ancient race that lived on earth many moons ago, leaving behind their magical artifacts that are much needed by the kings army in a war against the Roon, the invading ork army .

After completing the first part of their training the five young apprentices – Caspan, Roland, Lachlan, Sara and Kilt - receive a very special gift reserved only for those in the Order… their own Wardens, a magical beast that they will train with to help them with their task, but when the group are sent on their first mission things don’t go to plan and the trainees must rely on each other and work together to survive.

This book would suit any reader that enjoys dragons, sword fighting, magical pets and funny banter. Also great for younger teens stepping up into teen books.

Book Summary: The False Prince

The false prince is a story about Saga, a sharped tongue quick witted orphan in a kingdom on the verge of civil war after a mysterious poisoning kills of all the next in line for the throne leaving the king with no heir.

Saga is one day approached by Connor, a nobleman who's plan is to find the perfect candidate to impersonate the kings long lost son who was proclaimed dead a sea year before. Saga is recruited with 3 other orphans but Connor is in only needs 1, so Saga is not only competing for a better life but also to stay alive.

Saga now must learn all the thing expected of a royal son - Sword-fighting, Horse riding, politics and customs, and the culture of the realm. The story is full of sabotage, intrigue and adventure.

Comic Review: Misfit City Vol 1

Short but sweet, can’t beat a comic I say.

I hardly touch comics but this one was pretty cool. Ever seen the movie Goonies? Well this comic is somewhat similar and I’m all for a trip down memory lane.

Nothing ever happens in this small hometown. But, when Wilder and her friends find an old pirate map, which has people chasing them to get it back the girls know they have found something special. Finally, something exciting is happening!

This a good read about mysterious adventures and the friends that make it all worth it!

Manga Review: Queens Quality

I'm loving this manga! Its a follow on from QQ Sweeper, a manga i didn't actually like but might give a second chance now.

It starts with Fumi getting magically attacked in her garden, when she fights back she releases an incredible dormant power inside of her which basically allows her to control people!

These powers come with a good side and a bad side. In order to not destroy the world with these new powers Fumi must learn to control the bad side before it controls her and if that wasn't hard enough other clans are plotting to use her bad powers for themselves no matter the cost!

With danger all around Kyutaro has taken on the challenge of "Queens guard" meaning he will sacrifice everything to keep Fumi safe.

But with Fumi starting to remember haunting memories from her past and Kyutaro hiding some serious secrets of his own do they have any chance of holding back the darkness...

Book Review: The Secret Deep

The Secret Deep. – Lindsay Galvin

You would think losing your mum to cancer would be enough to deal with let alone having to move to a completely different country and then your aunty taking you to live out in the bush with a bunch of kids each of them teaching and learning different ‘off the grid’ type of survival skills.

Aster and her little sister Poppy find it a little weird when nothing their aunty is saying or doing adds up. Who are these kids happy to live in the middle of nowhere?

Things get stranger when a so called boat trip to see bioluminescent algae turns into a trap. Locked inside the cabin gas starts to fill the room and the only one wearing a mask is aunty Iona. Waking up alone on a desert island Aster’s only hope to find any answers is the ocean.

But something else is out there. You can’t help but think, what exactly happened to the other kids? 

Intrigue. Thrills and out of nowhere twists makes this book a gripping read. This book had me sitting on the edge of my seat because I couldn’t quite figure it out.

Give it a read and if you could describe it in three words what would those words be?

Book Review: Cheerleaders

In a small town five cheerleaders are found dead.

Two of them are killed in a car crash so bad first responders' can't tell which girl is which. A few weeks later two more are found dead in their home. One strangled and the other one so badly cut she bleeds to death.

Police put the murders down to a creepy neighbor and the car accident to just that, an accident.

The fifth cheerleader Jen....well everyone thinks she killed herself because she couldn’t handle her friends dying.

Five years later Jen's little sister Monica finds Jen's old cell phone in her stepdads drawer. Along with photos with handwritten notes saying ‘the neighbor didn’t do it. Connect the dots’. Monica gets in contact with a stranger that was texting her sister on the morning she killed herself. And she gets a text back....(Suspenseful music).

Pretty much Monica looks into what really happened five years ago to her sister and her friends. Everyone that she comes into contact with has some part to play. I thought I had it all figured out by chapter three but I was so wrong.

Its such a easy read and in the end I was left feeling intrigued but a little sad because sometimes the tragedies in life don’t always have a reason for happening.    

Read this book and comment below how it made you feel.

This was book 1 for the 'Reading out of my comfort zone' challenge I set myself for this year. Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/napierlibraries/ to see what I'll be reading next. Join me on my challenge and see what new books you can find! (Remember to send us a photo of what you’re reading too).

Manga Review: Made in Abyss #1

Okay.. this was wonderfully strange. 

Made in Abyss was a different kind of fantasy story than I'm used too. The Abyss is basically a giant giant giant Cave System in the middle of the earth and is the only place left in the world that humans haven't fully explored. 

The mysterious thing about the Abyss is that the deeper you travel into the cave the worst it is for you to travel back to the top, so basically people don't return to the top they just keep exploring further down into the abyss and send up letters and artifacts when they can, which means the people on the surface still know very little about the lower levels of the abyss.  

The main characters are a group of children learning to be Cave Divers, People trained to explore the Abyss, while searching around Rico is attached by one of the many dangerous creators that roam the caves, she is mysteriously saved by a boy named Reg with mechanical arms and legs who has no memory of who he is or how he got there.

Rico and Reg quickly plan a secret adventure into the lower levels of the Abyss to find Rico's mother -an expert cave diver- after Rico receives what she believes is a coded message from her mother and to see if the lower levels will explain what Reg is and maybe trigger some of the memories he's lost - like why he needs a blaster canon built into his arm??

I'm definitely keen to see where this manga series goes and with the wacky mysterious story line anything could happen  

Book Review: Gone

Gone.

One moment your teacher is standing at the blackboard explaining the history of the Civil War and then he’s just not. No puff, no flash of light, no explosion… hes just gone.

In small town Perdido Beach everyone over the age of 15 has disappeared, so no police, no teachers, no PARENTS a dream come true for most kids right!?
but then things start to change...

Kids around you are able to do strange things they couldn’t do before
You start to notice the animals aren’t really the same either
Bullies are taking over the town
The day care is fill of young kids but no-one to watch them 
The food supply is getting smaller and smaller 
Kids are getting hurt 
The strong are picking on the weak

You begin to realize that the adults they were all so happy to be without, are the ones they now need. 

With panic slowly starting to move through town everyone is starting to look at you, Sam Temple, to fix it…. But you have no idea where to start and you’re not 100% sure you want to be the one to 'fix it' . You’re not an adult you’re just a kid who wants to surf, and you’re dealing with your own issues your own strange gift that you don’t want to tell anyone about, and your birthdays coming in a few months. You’ll be 15.