THE AMBER SPYGLASS

By: Philip Pullman

Plot: This is the third and final book in the His Dark Materials series. The end of Lyra and Will's wild ride through worlds.

My Thoughts: I read the first two books in this series a loooong time ago. Years, even. I read somewhere online (Reddit, probably) that the ending to the series was sad, so I just kept putting it off. It's been hanging over my head though and I decided I was ready to finally find out how it ended, even if it was sad!

I really enjoyed reading this book, I like the worlds that he has created. The book was pretty long and there was probably some stuff that could have been left out, but I didn't mind it too much. Lyra's and Will's story was the best part of course, but I didn't hate the stories following everyone else. I thought Mrs. Coulter was interesting to read about. I never was really sure what she was up to, but I guess she was looking out for her daughter the whole time. Her baby daddy on the other hand, I didn't care for so much.

Honestly, I wasn't that depressed by the ending! It was sad, sure, but I was imagining worst case senario. They are so young anyways, like they said in the book, in ten years they'd barely be twenty! It'd be more unbelievable for them to plan to spend the rest of their lives together and live happy ever after. I thought they both got pretty good endings. I feel like Lyra's was a little more developed, than Will's. I wish there would have been more details on what he was going to do for the rest of his life. And how was his mom??

The whole big prophecy about Lyra and her "temptation" though, I admit I thought it'd be something more. All she had to do was realize she was in love? That seemed like kind of a let down after all the buildup to it. I guess it should have been obvious because that whole story line was Biblical but still I was expecting more, so I didn't catch on.

Favorite Quotes: “When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed.”

Rating: 4/5 I really enjoyed it but man, the author does NOT like religion, does he?

PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS

By: Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson

Plot: This is a prequel story to Peter Pan. (But obviously not from the original author.) Peter is an orphan on board a ship on his way to become a servant to the evil king.

My Thoughts: Years ago, I went with my mom to the play based on this book and loved it! Once I realized it was a book, I bought it right after seeing the play. Then it sat on my bookshelf for years before I finally picked it up. Now I honestly don't remember the play that well, so at least the story wasn't spoiled I guess. I wish I could remember the play better because I do remember it was really good and funny.

This is a children's book, with a few illustrations throughout the book. There were times when the story seemed to be moving really slow, but the second half of the book was more fast paced. The perspective would move around a lot at times and that was kind of annoying. There would be a ton of small chapters, following a different character each chapter. The writing was funny at times and I thought the way they explained how everything came to be in Peter Pan's original story was alright. Obviously NOT as great as the original story of Peter Pan, but pretty good. This is a series but I'm not sure I care to read the other two books.

Favorite Quotes: "He held command of the Never Land solely because his wife's family owned a shipping line, and his wife detested him. She had insisted that he be given a ship, her thinking being that he would be away from home most of the time; ideally, he would manage to sink his ship, and thus be out of her life altogether."

"The Mollusks--generous hosts, when they weren't trying to kill you--had brought a feast to the beach for their guests."

Rating: 2/5 It was a cute story, definitely geared toward children. And at least the cover is pretty.

WONDER

By: R.J. Palacio 

Plot Summary: This is a story about a boy August who was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder that caused his face to develop abnormally. He gets stared and pointed at whenever he goes out in public so he's been home schooled and sheltered by his parents his whole life. He is starting normal school for the first time in his life and the book covers his first school year.

My Thoughts: At first I was really enjoying this book. I loved the main character August (Auggie) and I loved his sister and her point of view and then I started not loving it so much. The author just kept going and going with the new perspectives from random characters. I usually love multiple points of view but in this book it felt like every perspective was talking about the same thing and it just got repetitive. Especially because they didn't really have distinct voices. Grammar does not make a character distinctive. (Via's boyfriend.) I loved Auggie and his sister's chapters the best and wish he would have just went back and forth between those two. Some of the character's perspectives were so short and totally pointless to the story. They were basically there to reiterate how weird looking August is. I get it. He looks weird. Enough already.

Overall it didn't feel like there was enough of a story. Half the book was spent talking about August being weird looking and the other half was actually spent moving the plot forward. So it didn't really feel like there was much to the story. Things finally started happening, and then it ended. And I wasn't a huge fan of how it ended. It was way too sappy. The whole graduation scene was like a cheesy movie. I mean who even graduates from the 5th grade? They are going to the EXACT same school next year! What is the point of that? *SPOILER* And of course now everyone wants to be his best friend and the bully that was so mean to him all year is transferring schools. What are the odds of that? It was not believable. *END SPOILER*

Also, someone please explain to me all the one eyed pictures. Everyone had two eyes. I don't understand.

Favorite Quotes: "Sometimes you don't have to be mean to hurt someone."

"I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives."

My Rating: I'd give it 3/5 stars. It was well written and there were a lot of parts I enjoyed but also a lot of parts I didn't.