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August 9, 2015February 7, 2018 One Man Book Club

Alcatraz versus the Shattered Lens

5/5 stars

Alcatraz versus the Shattered Lens by Brandon Sanderson

Brilliant. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get to Alcatraz. A worthy review will be forthcoming.

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Dan Grover is the book-loving dad of six reluctant readers and the founder of One Man Book Club, a place for fellow parents and other content-conscious readers to find books they (and their kids!) will love.

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#TheWitches By: #RoaldDahl My Rating: Five out of Five Stars The last time I read The Witches I was 10 and in the 4th grade. That I still remember it 30 years later is as much a testament to the book as it is to my 4th grade teacher who read it to me. Now I'm the dad, and it's my turn to screech out The Grand High Witch's lines in all their slavic-accented glory to my kids. I had as much fun reading The Witches as they did! You haven't read The Witches? Grab a copy, find a kid, and fix that now...there's nothing better than watching their faces when they hear you read (in your best r-rolling, slavic-accented, screechy-scream) things like: "'I am having my breakfast this morning,' cried The Grand High Witch, 'and vot am I seeing? I am seeing a rrreevolting sight! I am seeing hundreds, I am seeing thousands of rrotten rrreepulsive little children playing on the sand! Vye have you not rrrubbed them all out, these filthy smelly children?' "With each word she spoke, flicks of pale-blue phlegm shot from her mouth like bullets. "'We will do better,' murmured the audience. 'We will to much better.' "'Better is no good either!' shrieked The Grand High Witch. 'I demand maximum rrreesults! So here are my orders! My orders are that every single child in this country shall be rrrubbed out, sqvashed, sqvirted, sqvittered, and frrrittered before i come here again in vun year's time! Do I make myself clear?'" God bless Roald Dahl. Required reading for all audiences who like to have fun. Boring families are welcome to skip. Parents might want to know there is quite a lot of Grammama smoking a cigar and talk about witches being wicked to children because they smell like dogs' droppings. The children...not the witches. Happy reading! #onemanbookclub #bookreview #bookstagram

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Leviathan (Leviathan, Book #1) Bohemoth (Leviathan, Book #2) Goliath (Leviathan, Book #3) By: Scott Westerfeld My Rating: FIVE out of FIVE stars I liked the Leviathan trilogy so much it made me wonder why I didn't know about it before...and what else am I missing out on?! WWI alternative history, written for upper middle grade. A girl who pretends to be a boy to join the British air force. The son of murdered Archduke Ferdinand on the run from the Serbs and Germans until he can reveal himself as the heir to the Empire. One side uses Darwin-invented, DNA-spliced, weaponized animals as war machines--Leviathan is a flying whale. (Yep, you read that right. Trust me, it's really cool.) The other side uses kerosene fueled, mechanized walkers and other machines--think AT-AT's or Imperial Walkers, but steampunked. Great battles on land and air, cool steampunk, secrets, trust, friendship, unlikely allies, a bit of romance, with just enough actual history to keep you sharp. Great illustrations, too. I enjoyed the Leviathan A LOT. I highly recommend! Content appropriate for all ages. Happy Reading!

#TheWildRobotEscapes (The Wild Robot, Book #2) By: #PeterBrown My Rating: FIVE out of Five Stars @peterbrownstudio is very, very good. We loved...LOVED...The Wild Robot (Book #1). I say we: I read it myself, was blown away, then immediately started over, reading it out loud to my littles. They inhaled it and embraced it, and when we finished we began [im]patiently waiting for The Wild Robot Escapes (Book #2). We finished The Wild Robot Escapes together last night. Friends, it was SO great! We teared (quietly) and cheered (loudly) at all the right places, and I'm still trying to figure out how a story about a robot with a goose for a son can have the same impact on a 5 year old, and 8 year old, and a 42 year old. Like book 1, book 2 is a perfect middle grade story. The short, rapid fire chapters are perfect for reading aloud or for letting a 10-year-old feel like she is reading quickly. The simple sentence structure is flawless and a joy to read. Even the illustrations are beautiful, and whenever we came across one we'd stop reading a just stare at if for a few moments. I'm telling you, there are few books with this much heart and even fewer with this much soul..and not just because Roz is robot. My 8 year old has already declared her next birthday party will be a Wild Robot themed event, and they both have decided their friends need to read The Wild Robot too. A few times I even caught my tough-guy 11-year-old pretending to not be listening. Really, I couldn't recommend both The Wild Robot and The Wild Robot Escapes more. They are as close to perfect as I've ever read. Happy Reading! #onemanbookclub #bookreview #bookstagram

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