Book+Ratings

by GregoryM. book ratings **feel free to add books** LAWN BOY By:Gary Paulsen 3.4 stars A boy (not named) gets an old, used, riding lawnmower for his birthday from his eccentric grandmother. His next-door neighbor asks him to mow his lawn. He needs money to buy an inner tube for his bike, so he agrees. Soon he gets more customers. Soon he has more than he can handle. One of his customers, an aging hippie day trader named Arnold, gives the boy advice on running his business, and invests his money for him. Soon the boy has more than a dozen employees, a wad of money, an interest in a prize fighter, and a problem with a protection racket. And all he wanted was an inner tube.

DODGER AND ME By:Jordan Sonnenblick 4.1 stars Miserable because his only friend moved away and he has once again caused his baseball team to lose a game, fifth-grader Willy Ryan’s life suddenly becomes a lot more interesting when he finds Dodger, a furry, blue chimpanzee that is a genie only he can see, and he has to decide what he really wishes for in life.

Fablehaven By:Brandon Mull 4.6 stars When Kendra and Seth are sent to stay with their grandfather while their parents take a vacation, they are sternly warned not to go into the woods. Seth does anyway, and discovers a witch, from whom he has to escape. Soon the children discover that their grandfather's lands house many creatures of myth and fairytale, both good and evil. Warned not to mess with the creatures, Seth captures a fairy, which unleashes a retributive attack on him, and damages the alliance between his grandfather and the fairies. Warned not to open his window on Midsummer's Eve, Seth does anyway, which brings about the kidnapping of his grandfather, the unleashing of an evil and powerful monster, and the collapse of the covenants protecting humans.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid By:Jeff Kiney 3.3 stars Greg Heffley gets a journal from his mom ("a JOURNAL, not a diary") and records a middle school year's worth of crazy kid schemes, brushes with bullies, bad units in gym class, bids for student government, school play humiliation, and more.

Seekers, book 1 By: Erin Hunter 4.2 stars A polar bear cub in an era of disappearing ice loses her mother to orca whales. A grizzly cub's mother abandons him after his sickly brother dies. And a black bear cub, who lives in a zoo, escapes to find the grizzly after meeting his captured mother. All three must learn to survive in the wild on their own, and all three are drawn by the North Star toward a mysterious fate. Includes maps of the bears' journeys.

Hatchet by: Gary Paulsen 3.5 stars A city boy is stranded in the Canadian wilderness, equipped with nothing but a hatchet and the clothes on his back. Brian's struggles to survive for the next two months, forever changing his attitude toward the twentieth-century civilization to which he is eventually realizes.

Fablehaven 2 by: Brandon Mull 4.8 stars