Reading With Mr. Wiggles
Staff Writer: Surabi Shanmugam, Grade 8
Come along with me as I read new books each month and share with you my thoughts on each book! Hope to catch you reading with Mr. Wiggles this week!
Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes - Jonathan Auxier
Summary
Peter Nimble is an orphan. A blind orphan to be exact. He steals for his well-being. Nothing changes in the life of Peter Nimble: that is, until a mysterious box presents a quest to save a lost kingdom, while discovering himself.
Other Information
Page Count: 381 pages
Genre(s): Fiction, Adventure, Fantasy
Auxier’s debut novel - also wrote Night Gardener, Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard
Reviews
Auxier has a juggler’s dexterity with prose that makes this fantastical tale quicken the senses, even if it does bog down from time to time. - Kirkus Reviews
Opinion
Very well-written and captivating. Couldn’t put it down!
I Lived on Butterfly Hill - Marjorie Agosín
Summary
Eleven-year-old Celeste Marconi is a dreamer, reader, and writer who lives in Valparaíso, Chile. Everything is easy and calm, until the once democracy is turned into a dictatorship. Celeste is worried for everyone, but when she is forced to go to dreary, coastal Maine, she is lost. How can she call this place, thousands of miles away, home? Will she ever see Chile again? If she does, who and what will she find?
Other Information
Page Count: 300 pages
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Reviews
Award-winning Chilean author and poet Agosín’s debut for young people is a lyrically ambitious tale of exile and reunification. - Kirkus Reviews
Opinion
This book is eye-opening. It really shows what some people are going through today.
Everland - Wendy Spinale
Summary
London has been destroyed by bombs and disease. The only ones who have survived the destruction and the outbreak of a deadly disease are children. Captain Hook is looking for the cure, and he will not stop until he finds it, taking children off the streets, never to return. So when Gwen Darling’s sister goes missing, she teams up with the Lost Boys to get her back.
Other Information
Page Count: 211 pages
Genre: Dystopian, Adventure
Spinale’s debut book. First book in the Everland series. Other books are Umberland(Book 2), Ozland(Book 3), Lost Boy: A Prequel Novella to Everland.
Reviews
With predictable plot twists, this story is unoriginal in ways that have nothing to do with the fact that it retells a classic. - Kirkus Reviews
Opinion
This book kept me reading to find out what comes next. It is a slightly darker, dystopian spin on Peter Pan.