Space Case

Space Case by Stuart Gibbs is about twelve-year-old Dashiell (nickname: Dash) Gibson in the year 2041... which means the story takes place in the future! Dash's family was picked to be one of the few people that got to live on the moon for three years (I think). His family got to go for free, as his mom (Rose Harris) is a lunar geologist, and his dad (Stephen Gibson) is a mining specialist. (Dash has a six-year-old sister named Violet.) But guess what? Life on the moon stinks. Moon Base Alpha is tiny, and is full of people, especially a really annoying family that only got to be there because they paid: the Sjobergs. Normally, Dash is super bored, but when Dr. Ronald Holtz, the base physician and loved by many is found dead. It appeared that he went out the air lock without out a companion, one of the best ways to get yourself killed. Why? Your spacesuit might not be on right, and there would be no one to check it. So why did Holtz go out alone and in the middle of the night? Since Nina and almost everyone else on the base thinks it was just an accident, it's up to Dash to find out who did it; yes, he's sure that it was a murder. He knew Dr. Holtz wouldn't go out alone, and that he wasn't going crazy. But who did it? He ends up with a number of suspects: the Sjobergs, Chang Kowalski, Daphne Merritt, and more. And when he meets Zan Perfonic (a woman), she tells him that he is the only she could find that believed what she did; that it was a murder. Then Kira Howard comes to the base, and ends up becoming his friend. Will Dashiell and Kira find the murderer? What will the murderer do if they find out they're on his or her trail?
If you read this and love it, there is another Moon Base Alpha novel, called Spaced Out.

This book was quite fun, although, there was a lot of name-calling (well, more than usual) in it.

But for those who love a good mystery and the ideas of what the future might hold, this is a fun book.

Thanks for reading!

- Maria

The Books of Elsewhere

Olive Dunwoody and her parents have just moved into the diseased Ms. McMartin's really old house. It's huge, and has so many creepy places, according to eleven-year-old Olive. There's this one painting that almost looks as if part of it is moving. And none of the paintings hanging on the wall come off. It's as if they're part of the wall itself. But when she finds a pair of old spectacles and tries them on, the paintings come to life; a painting of a beautiful girl winks at her! And there's Horatio, a talking cat. A talking cat! Olive doesn't know who to trust. This house is full of secrets... secrets that Olive is about to explore! Join Olive Dunwoody's adventures as she visits the inside of the paintings - literally. The Books of Elsewhere series by Jacqueline West starts out with volume (each 'volume' is no more than 300 pages, I'm guessing) 1, The Shadows.

P.S. I loved it; I finished it in one day.

- Maria 

"Have you read this?"

I feel like my blog is getting a little boring, as I'm only reading series right now. If you are, then you'll be happy to know that I will be introducing a new book: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken.
Bonnie Green is awaiting the arrival of her cousin, Sylvia. She lives at Willoughby Chase, and the wolves here are very hungry. Bonnie thinks her home is a wonderful one.
Meanwhile, Sylvia is nervously sitting on the freezing cold train, with a strange man that is telling her not to be afraid of the wolves that are now surrounding the train itself.
Does Sylvia get to Willoughby Chase safely? Yes. But that isn't the end of the trouble. There is something worse about to happen... and it starts with a betrayal.
Mr. and Mrs. Green are going on a long cruise, one that will take them about six months. Why? Mr. Green thinks that it will help Mrs. Green's health (I say Mr. and Mrs. Green, because I don't remember their names). Mr. Green leaves Willoughby Chase under the control of Bonnie's governess, Miss Slighcarp. But who is the one to betray them? Miss Slighcarp? One of the servants? Josiah Grimshaw, the stranger who was on the train with Sylvia, who was accidentally hit on the head and knocked out, then brought to Willoughby Chase? And what will happen to Sylvia and Bonnie once they find themselves in an orphanage that, according to Bonnie, is the equivalent of prison?  And what of the hungry wolves? Will they finally have a feast?

One last thing: I finished the third Conspiracy 365 book, March. Again, there was a cliffhanger at the end. And I finished Neverseen, which was - like the first, second, and third books - probably the best series I've ever read.

There. So now you have it. All that I've read since... April fifteenth - or somewhere around that time. Okay... that's not actually a lot. Well, it's probably because Neverseen has around six hundred fifty pages. They keep getting bigger. (Hee hee hee!)

Thanks for being patient with me (actually, you probably haven't been - I wouldn't) and for actually reading this stuff. If I were you, I'd probably just skip all the chit-chat and skim the reviews. Yeah, that sounds like me....

Now, about that title. Sometimes that's what I feel like when we're at the library.
Mom: "Have you read this?"
Me: "Yeah."
Mom: "How about this?"
Me: "Yeah."

We haven't actually had a conversation like this, though.

But other times it's like this:

Mom: "Have you read this?"
Me: "No!"
Mom: "Does it look interesting?"
Me: "Yeah!"
And so on.

Again, we haven't actually had a conversation like this. It's just all in my head. Luckily, the latter example is the one that is the closest to reality: there are tons of books I want to read.

Oops. I'm just going on and on again.


Bye.

- Maria