Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter 03); By J.K Rowling

genre } fiction | teens | fantasy | adventure | series
release date } 1st April 2000
publisher } Bloomsbury Publishing 
format } paperback
pages } 317 p
source } bought
age group } teens
interest } teens to adults
challenge } -
Buy @ Amazon.com

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter 03
By J.K Rowling

Via GoodReads
For most children, summer vacation is something to look forward to. But not for our 13-year-old hero, who's forced to spend his summers with an aunt, uncle, and cousin who detest him. The third book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series catapults into action when the young wizard "accidentally" causes the Dursleys' dreadful visitor Aunt Marge to inflate like a monstrous balloon and drift up to the ceiling. Fearing punishment from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon (and from officials at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who strictly forbid students to cast spells in the nonmagic world of Muggles), Harry lunges out into the darkness with his heavy trunk and his owl Hedwig.

As it turns out, Harry isn't punished at all for his errant wizardry. Instead he is mysteriously rescued from his Muggle neighborhood and whisked off in a triple-decker, violently purple bus to spend the remaining weeks of summer in a friendly inn called the Leaky Cauldron. What Harry has to face as he begins his third year at Hogwarts explains why the officials let him off easily. It seems that Sirius Black--an escaped convict from the prison of Azkaban--is on the loose. Not only that, but he's after Harry Potter. But why? And why do the Dementors, the guards hired to protect him, chill Harry's very heart when others are unaffected? Once again, Rowling has created a mystery that will have children and adults cheering, not to mention standing in line for her next book. Fortunately, there are four more in the works.

My 2 Cents
Mmm… the book is getting thicker and thicker, isn’t it? I actually love the Dementors. The purple bus was kind of funny since we actually have purple buses in Brunei. Never see them in that way again. The only thing I can say is… the pace didn’t slow down. and I am ♥LOVING♥ it. I’m just glad I actually bought 4 books in one go here.

Read More

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter 02); by J.K Rowling

genre } fiction | teens | fantasy | adventure | series
release date } 1st September 2000
publisher } Scholastic Paperbacks
format } paperback
pages } 341 p
source } bought
age group } teens
interest } teens to adults
challenge } -
Buy @ Amazon.com

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(Harry Potter 02)
by J.K Rowling

Via GoodReads
The Dursleys were so mean and hideous that summer that all Harry Potter wanted was to get back to the Hogwarts Schools of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But just as he's packing his bags, Harry receives a warning from a strange, impish creature named Dobby who says that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, disaster will strike.

And strike it does. For in Harry's second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor, Gilderoy Lockhart; a spirit named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' bathroom; and the unwanted attention of Ron Weasley's younger sister, Ginny.

But each of these seem minor annoyances when the real trouble begins, and someone—or something—starts turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects . . . Harry Potter himself?

My 2 Cents
I’d picked up this book as soon the last one finished. I’ve slept and ate, no worries. The book picked up as fast as it did with the first one. That was also as page turner as it was the last too. I was actually glad I’d pick it up as fast as I did, cause damn that book was really engaging! It’s officially one of my favorite series. 

I can’t help it.. but Gilderoy Lockhart is a very annoying professor. What with one foot in Harry’s spotlight, he make sure everybody knew he knew him personally. I feel like hitting him with a baseball bat… –_-“

Read More

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter 01); by JK Rowling

genre } fiction | teens | fantasy | adventure | series
release date } 1st November 2003
publisher } Scholastic Press
format } paperback
pages } 310 p
source } bought
age group } teens
interest } teens to adults
challenge } -
Buy @ Amazon.com

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
(Harry Potter 01)
by; JK Rowling

Via GoodReads
Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of invisibility.

All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley—a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry—and anyone who reads about him—will find unforgettable. For it's there that he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic in everything from classes to meals, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him... if Harry can survive the encounter.

My 2 Cents
It took me a while to actually get into the Harry Potter series. He kept popping up in my Amazon.com searches, so I after a bit of bugging me like that, I ended up giving in and bought it. (I’ve have bought 4 of this series in one go. – yes I’m weird like that.)

The book didn’t start all slow and time pace with background stories some books like be. It was fast, and such a page turner, I refused to do anything else other than read and if it had to, I slipped in a bit of reading the book here and there.

My first impression was “WOW”. It had been a long time since I found an engaging book to read. It has witches, wizards, unfortunate orphan, humanly evil family members, magic school, magic train, and more! That was fun and sad…

My second impression was, real life kids could relate with this one. Harry Potter may be younger than me, but heck, I could empathize with him. Yet, It was awesome to see he survive through his hard life….

Now let’s see how the story develop through out the series. So far.. I’m addicted.

Read More

Book Review: Wait Till Helen Comes; By Mary Downing Hahn

Oh man… Mary Downing Hahn is awesome. If you want to do a classic scare for kids, this would be one of those. This reminds me alot of Christopher Pike and RL. Stine, but much more given nostalgic feel to it. If you would like to introduce young readers to the horror genre, this would be another excellent book to offer them.

Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story
By Mary Downing Hahn

Beware of Helen...

Heather is such a whiny little brat. Always getting Michael and me into trouble. But since our mother married her father, we're stuck with her...our "poor stepsister" who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire.

But now something terrible has happened. Heather has found a new friend, out in the graveyard behind our home -- a girl named Helen who died with her family in a mysterious fire over a hundred years ago. Now her ghost returns to lure children into the pond...to drown! I don't want to believe in ghosts, but I've followed Heather into the graveyard and watch her talk to Helen. And I'm terrified. Not for myself, but for Heather...

Finished Reading: 23th July 2009 (library copy)
Acquire: 10th October 2011
Rate } ♠♠♠♠♠
Genre } Fiction | Children | Mystery | Paranormal | Ghosts
Release Day }  November 1987
Publisher } Harpercollins
Format } paperback  
ISBN } 9780380704422
Pages } 192 pages
Source } borrowed 
Age Group } 12+
Interests } teens   
Awards }
Support my reading by getting your copy } Kindle | Amazon

Read More

Book Review: The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles 1); By Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi

Honestly, I was fighting off stares when I bought this (because it was a children book.) Then again, it open the door to me reading children’s books again. I love this series. It’s simple but it would be a wonderful introduction for children to read urban fantasy and eerie books.

First Words. If someone had asked Jared Grace what jobs his brother and sister would have when they grew up, he would have had no trouble replying.

Quote. The room had a low ceiling, and the walls were covered in bookshelves. Looking around, he realized there was no door.

The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles #1)
By Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi

When the three Grace children -- Mallory, Jared, and Simon -- and their mom move into Aunt Lucinda's old house, readers know there's magic afoot. The kids uncover a nest of assembled junk, and on a visit to the secret library via the dumbwaiter, Jared finds a note describing "my secret to all mankind." After a few mysterious pranks that get blamed on Jared, the boy finally digs up the real prize: Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. Fortunately enough, the kids meet one of the critters listed in the guide -- a brownie named Thimbletack -- who makes it all "real" and helps provide the book's suspenseful conclusion: "'Throw the book away, toss it in a fire. If you do not heed, you will draw their ire.'"

Finished Reading: 16th May 2007
Acquire: 01st May 2007
Rate } ♠♠♠♠♠
Genre } Fiction | Children | Supernatural | Urban Fantasy
Release Day }  01st May 2003
Publisher } Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Format } Hardcover
ISBN } 9780689859366
Pages } 128 pages
Source } Bought
Age Group } 9 yo +
Awards }
- 1001 Children’s Book You Must Read Before you Grow Up
- Flicker tales Children’s Book Award (2005)

Read More

Book Review: Princess Academy (Princess Academy #1); by Shannon Hale

The first I've herad of this book is when it is featured as a must read for the month book in every magazines I've read at that one particular month. Months went by and the book never left my mind, so I've decided to pick it up and read it. And what a surprise I get! It's a bit slow for me in the beginning but the pace races up to my kind of speed shortly after.
Gotta love this book. It’s so addictive too. I can’t get my hands off it until I’ve finished it.

Princess Academy (Princess Academy #1)
by Shannon Hale

Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.
Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.

Finished Reading: 16th April 2006 (library copy)
Acquire: 07th July 2010
Rate } ♠♠♠♠♠
Genre } Fiction | Teens | Fairy Tales Retellings
Release Day }  April 2007
Publisher } Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Format } paperback  
ISBN } 9781599900735
Pages } 144 pages
Source } borrowed / bought
Age Group } 12+
Interests } Teens, Fairy Tales Retelling Junkies.    
Awards } Newbery Honor
Support my reading by getting your copy }

Read More

Book Review: Ella Enchanted; by Gail Carson Levine

This is one of the great fairy tales alternative stories available out there, and this ones is based on the famous Cinderella tale with a twist. This is written in a post modern style of writing, making it easier to actually connect to the characters and much more enjoyable for the young adults to above ages to actually enjoy for what used to be just a children's fairy tale. The first time I'd picked this book up, I can't seem to put it down. It's humorous and a page turner.

The main character is Ella of Frell, who had been given the 'gift' of obedience (more of a curse) by a fairy named Lucinda, giving her no choice but to obey anybody who orders her around ever since she was a baby. The only ones other than her mother who knows about it is Mandy, their cook who is also Ella's fairy godmother, who has this thing against doing any Big magic, which irked Ella most of the time due to her 'gift'.

When her mother died, her father remarried to Dame Olga who has two selfish idiotic daughters, Hattie and Olive, who sort of figure out they could take advantage of Ella's little flaw, though very clueless why she's easily to be made as their own personal slave. Then, there's Prince Char, the heir of the kingdom. Both Ella and Char enjoyed each other's company many times they are together and apart. But of course the 'gift' had come to its worse moments in this book for Ella in the sense of relationship with others. She tried whatever it takes to track Lucinda to take 'gift' back.

Throughout the book, I felt sorry for Ella, I mean who wouldn’t, but what can I do. But in the same time, I am really proud of her for being able to use that curse as a motivation to strengthened her other qualities.

Oh, if you're expecting it to be just like the movie (featuring Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy), forget it. You be surprised of how different they are from each other in plot wise. But nevertheless, I've enjoyed both version.

Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine

At birth, Ella is inadvertently cursed by an imprudent young fairy named Lucinda, who bestows on her the "gift" of obedience. Anything anyone tells her to do, Ella must obey. Another girl might have been cowed by this affliction, but not feisty Ella: "Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally." When her beloved mother dies, leaving her in the care of a mostly absent and avaricious father, and later, a loathsome stepmother and two treacherous stepsisters, Ella's life and well-being seem to be in grave peril. But her intelligence and saucy nature keep her in good stead as she sets out on a quest for freedom and self-discovery as she tries to track down Lucinda to undo the curse, fending off ogres, befriending elves, and falling in love with a prince along the way. Yes, there is a pumpkin coach, a glass slipper, and a happily ever after, but this is the most remarkable, delightful, and profound version of Cinderella you'll ever read.

Quote to Remember

- ”I wished she’d never stop squeezing me. I wished I could spend the rest of my life as a child, being slightly crushed by someone who loved me.”
- It is helpful to know the proper way to behave, so one can decide whether or not to be proper.

Finished Reading: 01st February 2006 (Borrowed)
Acquire: 22nd December 2012 (Bought)
Rate } ♠♠♠♠
Genre } Fiction | Fantasy | Fairy Tales | Young Adult | Teens
Release Day }  01st January 1997
Publisher } Scholastic Books.
Format } Paperback
ISBN } 9780590920681
Pages } 240 pages
Source } BookSwap
Age Group } pg 15 yo +
Support my reading by getting your copy }

  

Read More

Book Review: The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1); By Lemony Snicket

rate } ♠♠♠♠♠
genre } teens | children | young adult | fantasy | mystery | dark humor
release day } 1st December 2000
publisher } Scholastic, Inc
format } hardback
isbn } 9780439206471
pages } 162 pg.
source } bought
age group } pg 13
interest } young adult | teens
challenge }
Buy @ Amazon.com | Nolly Book | D BookHaus

The Bad Beginning
(A Series of Unfortunate Events #1) By; Lemony Snicket

Via GoodReads Dear Reader,
I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.
In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.
It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket
My 2 Cents Written not just for kids, but it’s an enjoyable book for any audience of all ages, this is a beginning of a different sort of children's literature. No goblins, no boogeyman, no ghost nor monster lurking under the bed. But mostly, telling a story of a harsh reality base fiction about 3 suddenly orphaned Baudelaires children; namely Violet (Inventor), Klaus (Bookworm, Brains) & Sunny (Biter).

Kids would love this. Adults would be appalled reading this but they would still read this. Reluctant readers would also love this book. It has all the ingredients they need.
It began with the horrible news regarding the demised of their parents in a weird fire that burnt down their house, leaving them with a fortune that's not spendable until Violet, the eldest, reach the age of 18. Mr Poe, is the one in charge of them until he found a guardian for the kids, which came the character Count Olaf. A count and an actor, who do whatever in his power to keep them as miserable as he could until he could touch their rightful inheritance. And when I say do whatever, I meant whatever! From serving them lumpy porridges, making them do all sort of chores, repairing the Count's manor and to wed the eldest child, Violet.

I have fallen in love with this series, and I couldn’t wait to start reading the next book. I was actually reading a breeze through this book. Lemony Snicket knew how to exactly pick on your emotions through his writing. I feel sorry for the kids and I do wish for their safety. (Yes… I’m officially emo with this book.) 

Oh! Heads up! This book is depressing. Darkly depressing. Count Olaf is an incredibly.. annoying and evil.

Another feature of this series would be the introducing of advance vocabulary for the kids, alongside its meaning into the context. It would be a great learning tool for any parents who would like to introduce some major words for their kids, without pulling out a dictionary.

Read More

Book Review: The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events #3); by Lemony Snicket

rate } ♠♠♠♠
genre } fiction | young adult | fantasy | dark mystery | adventure | juvenile
release day } 29th February 2000
publisher } HarperCollins
format } hardcover
isbn } 9780064407687
pages } 214 pgs
source } bought
age group } pg 13+
interest } reluctant readers | children | teens
challenge } -
Buy @ Amazon.com | Nolly Book | D BookHaus

The Wide Window
(A Series of Unfortunate Events #3)
by Lemony Snicket

Via Goodreads
Dear Reader,

If you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick-witted, but their lives, I am sorry to say, are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched, and this one may be the worst of them all.If you haven't got the stomach for a story that includes a hurricane, a signalling device, hungry leeches, cold cucumber soup, a horrible villain, and a doll named Pretty Penny, then this book will probably fill you with despair.I will continue to record these tragic tales, for that is what I do. You, however, should decide for yourself whether you can possibly endure this miserable story.

With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

My 2 Cents
If you hadn’t read the last 2 book before this book, please do, or you be so lost that you have no idea what’s going on. As I have expected, I am completely hooked on this series. I’ve been reading this back to back and I have never been so proud with the  Baudelaire orphans. They are strong and leaves quite an example to the readers. No matter how bad the situation was, they managed to strive through it.

This is however another awesome read from this series. The plot didn’t slow down at all, I ended up sitting down and forget everything, and just sit down to read this in one go. I feel like I should not leave these kids to the crabby hands of Count Olaf!

Overall, yup! Another awesome book!

Read More

Book Resources

E-Stores
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Ebay
Kinokuniya
Popular

Book Exchange
Bookcrossing
BookMooch

Library
Books Well Read
GoodReads
Librarything
Shelfari

Read More