Time Square Time Shift – S.W. Lothian

Genre: Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Suspense, Humor
Source: I received a review copy from the author

 This is another wonderful series from this author.  In this series we meet Dr. Rex Hudson and his family.  Dr. Hudson and his assistant are in Peru at Machu Pichu looking for something important.  They find a black oblisk and have it shipped back to his home.  Once home he shares the exciting find with two of his three children, twins Eva and Lewis.  While inspecting it the three of them are sucked into it and find themselves in Time Square where all time goes through.  Unfortunately when they are sucked through the youngest son Thomas is left at home with his aunt who had been staying with them while their father is away.  Once in Time Square Dr. Hudson realizes by bringing back the oblisk he has upset time and time travelers everywhere are stuck.  He and the children must find a way to get back home and get the oblisk back to where it belongs.  Unfortunately the oblisk is stolen making their job more difficult.  The children are set to the task of helping to rescue those stuck in time.

Like his previous books in the Quest Series, S.W. Lothian is a master at creating time travel stories. The oher thing I love about his books is that he has the ability to tie adventure, suspense and humor all together in one book.  This is definitely the recipe for hooking a middle grade reader. I am so glad I had the opportunity to read and review this book. It is one I will put on my shelves at school and then sit and wait impatiently for the next book in the series.

Author Bio From Amazon

S.W. Lothian is a funny and cool guy from Australia. His kids call him 'Phil Dunphy', because he reminds them of the dad from Modern Family. He isn't sure whether this is a compliment or not, but he takes it as a compliment.
As an imaginative kid he dreamed of creating exciting worlds and funky characters, and thought he'd be the most famous person to ever do this. He loved to draw and was dux of Art in High School. Top of his dream list was to be an animator. He loved watching all those classic cartoons on TV - Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Road Runner, Wacky Races, The Simpsons, the list goes on and on.

BOOM! Reality hit. The dreams were parked as the corporate world beckoned. Then, 25 years later, the long-held dream to create erupted like a jam donut in a microwave and S.W. started writing fiction for kids of all ages.

His books can be summed up as fun-action-packed-time-travel-adventures-for-the-kid-in-everyone. He writes stories to excite, inspire, teach and thrill. Stories with awesome edge-of-your-seat fun. Stories that let kids escape to new places, and adults remember the dreams of their own childhood.

His debut novel, The Golden Scarab, was a 2013 READERS' FAVORITE BOOK AWARD FINALIST.

S.W. Lothian can be followed via

Twitter 

Facebook 

Websites: www.swlothian.com and www.timesquaretheshift.wordpress.com

Great Lessons in Picture Books

Joey and the Net – Amos Ordan
Genre: Children’s Picture Book
Source: I received a copy for review from the author

The book starts out talking about a fish called a tilapia. I enjoyed the information the author gave about the fish. It is one of my favorite types of fish to eat, yet until I read this book, I knew nothing about it. The story is about Mam, a mother tilapia who carries her babies in her mouth to keep them safe. She lets them out from time to time but makes them swim back in when danger is present. They all obey except little Joey. He likes hiding. One day they see a worm dangling from a hook. All of the babies except Joey swim into Mam’s mouth. Joey is about to take a bite of the worm when his mom slaps him with her fin. She tells him of the danger. The next day she is so determined to keep Joey in her mouth that she doesn’t see a net that has been dropped in front of her. When she cries out Joey swims out. Joey convinces his siblings to swim out and help to save their mom. You must read the book to find out how they save her. This was a wonderful book and there was even a link to the video book at the end of it.

Maya and Filippo Look for Whales – Book and Coloring Book

Genre: Children's Picture Book
Source: I received a review copy in exchange for my hones review

 

Maya & Filippo live and travel on the cruise ship the Fun Princess, with their parents and cat. ON this trip we find them visiting Ketchikan, Alaska. Maya wants to see whales on this trip. Their first tour stop takes her and her brother to a native village. Filippo loved the totem poles, but Maya thought they were boring. All she wanted to do was see a whale. She listens to the story of one totem pole that was about a man trying to catch fish. He  wasn’t having any luck so he pretended he had caught lots of different fish. He finally caught a salmon who told him if he would put him back then he would soon have many fish. The Review native put the salmon king back in the water and soon caught many salmon. Maya listened to the story and decided to pretend she was watching whales.  Id she get to see whales? I guess you’ll have to read the book to find out. While you are at it this book also has a wonderful matching coloring book. It is full of scenes from the book.

 

Maya and Filippo Find Happiness in Tauranga

Genre: Children's Picture Book

Source: I received a review copy in exchange for my honest review

On this trip Maya and Filippo travel to a small town in New Zealand called Tauranga.  Maya slept in on this morning. Her brother ate breakfast with his parents. He had five cups of chocolate mousse because his parents weren’t paying attention.  When Maya got up there was none left. She blamed Filippo for eating it all and he blamed her for his stomach ache.  Their mother made them leave the ship and explore Tauranga. They went separate directions. Maya visited a Maori village and watched the dancers. One of the dancers saw how sad she was.  Maya told her what had happened with her brother.  The dancer explained everyone was responsible for their own happiness and how they reacted to things they didn’t like.  Filippo visited a geyser.  When a young boy gets mad at him because he won’t play ball with him and he is bored, Filippo screams it is not his job to make him happy.  Can you guess what lessons Maya and Filippo learn from this experience?  Check out the book to find out.

Ice Dogs – Terry Lynn Johnson

Middle Grade Adventure

When Victoria Secord set out to try to get new lead dogs for her team, she finds herself in trouble. Victoria is a champion dog-sled racer.  Her mother doesn’t think she needs new dogs. But, Victoria wants to win the White Wolf race and feels she can only do this with a few new dogs.  Without letting her mother know her plans, she waits until her mother leaves for work to head out.  She is in unfamiliar territory. She has her map and all of the skills her now deceased father taught her.  Almost to the camp she was heading for she comes across a snowmobile wrapped around a tree. She finds the owner lying in the snow hurt. Once she gets Chris loaded onto the sled, with his directions she heads to his home.  It isn’t long before she realizes they are lost. To make matters worse a blizzard has set in.  It will take everything her father taught her along with help from Chris if they and her dogs are to survive.  The characters were spot on. The author definitely knows how teens think. The plot progressed smoothly enough, with enough heart stopping twists and turns to keep me turning page after page.  The author definitely knows about dog sledding, and Alaska. I felt, as I read, I was there with Victoria, Chris and the dogs along for this adventure. I loved watching the relationship build between Victoria and Chris. This was not a romantic relationship but a relationship that stretched them in ways they had not expected.  I've read books where the characters come across as flat, but this book has very well rounded characters.  It brought out a lot of emotions in me.  This is a book  that I know my students will enjoy as much as I did.  It reminded me a lot of Gary Paulsen’s book Hatchet.  I know the students who have read his books will enjoy this one as well. I look forward to more books by this author.  It is an asset to all classroom shelves.  I am definitely recommending this one to our media specialist.

Disclosure:  I received a copy from the author in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed here are my own and no way influenced by receiving the book.

You can find out more about Terry at:

Her Website   

Her Blog     

Goodreads