Middle Grade Ninja: Book Review: THE GIRL WHO REMEMBERED HORSES by Linda Benson

First Paragraph: Sahara awoke to a pounding inside her head. Thundering. Loud. Was it rain against the tent? Rain would bring relief from the dust and the smothering heat. She blinked, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She heard nothing. The sound must have been from the dream, the dream she had again and again. Oh, […]

Middle Grade Ninja: Book of the Week: GIDEON’S SPEAR by Darby Karchut

First Paragraph(s): Screaming bored out of his mind, thirteen-year-old Finn MacCullen blew a long sigh as he wandered around the clearing in the woods. The late-afternoon rays of the summer sun lit the trees surrounding him, tinting the trunks of the Ponderosa pines with the same shade of bronze as that of the large knife, […]

Middle Grade Ninja: Book of the Week: THE GENIUS FILES: MISSION UNSTOPPABLE by Dan Gutman

I promised last week to tell you what I thought of the eighth Harry Potter movie. Mrs. Ninja and I did indeed see it in Imax over the weekend. It’s a good time, but the book was better (of course it was). Mrs. Ninja cried, but I found it to be an odd experience. It’s a […]

Middle Grade Ninja: Book of the Week: FUZZY MUD by Louis Sachar

First Paragraph(s): Woodridge Academy, a private school in Heath Cliff, Pennsylvania, had once been the home of William Heath, after whom the town had been named. Nearly three hundred students now attended school in the four-story, black-and-brown stone building where William Heath had lived from 1891 to 1917, with only his wife and three daughters.  Tamaya […]

Middle Grade Ninja: Book Review: FORTS: FATHERS AND SONS by Steven Novak

WARNING: This story is upper middle grade trending toward young adult. Most readers should be fine to proceed, but there is some light adult language and adult themes throughout. Uncertain parents should probably read this one for themselves before giving it to their children (which is far preferable to complaining after the fact). Get involved […]

Middle Grade Ninja: Book of the Week: FINDING CHANCE by Linda Benson

Fair Warning: This review contains some spoilers. It’s to be another little girl and her beloved animal story this week, Esteemed Reader. The-child-and-their-beloved-animal story is almost its own genre, like the buddy cop story, but usually not as many people get shot (animals, not so much). Some classics in this subgenre include Where the Red Fern […]