Book 583

Planet Earth, What Planet Are You On?, written by Dan Gilpin, Basher Books 2010.

This is another brilliant book from the Basher team.  These books are engaging, informative, easy-to-read, and entertaining.  Pretty much everything you would want in a book for third graders.

Book 582

The Human Body, written by Bob Green, Simon Basher Books.

My third-grade son chose to read this book for fun.  For real.  He likes the Simon Basher books THAT much.  And he seems to always learn something from them.

Thomas' 18th Illustrated Story -- Book 4

            Once upon a time, there was a Thomas named Thomas.  He traveled around the world in one afternoon by satellite.  He visited New York City to see the Statue of Liberty.  He went to Brazil and saw the God statue.  He traveled to Greenland, because that is where the headquarters are.  The Eiffel Tower is in France, so Thomas went there.  Finally, we went to England to visit London.  Thomas wanted to stay in London, but he had to get back home to take a bath.

The End.

Book 581

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dalh, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Penguin, 1964.

Of course this book is brilliant.  Of course this book is funny.  Of course it is sharp and quick-paced.  But it is also creepy and unsettling -- and I mean that in the best possible way.

The movies based on this book are good, even great, but do not come close to reaching the level of this book.

Book 580

Rest in Pieces, by Rita Brown, Bantam Book, 1992.

This book was both quite good and quite bad. 

First the good:  The characters were quirky enough to be interesting, but not so quirky that they turned into cartoon.  The writing was solid, the pacing was good, and the mystery was intriguing.  As a stand-alone book, this book would have been fine.

Then the bad:  This book follows almost exactly the plot of Book 1, from the creepy, anonymous postcards, to Little Marilyn's bad choice for a life-mate.  The plot was so close, I forgot which book I was reading at times. 

Book 579

Wish You Were Here, by Rita Mae Brown, Bantam Books 1990.

I've heard about these books for years, especially since I love both mysteries and cats.  I was a little wary of books with talking animals; I was afraid that would be more a distraction than anything.  And, to be honest, the talking animals were a bit of a distraction, which is why I only skimmed those parts.  The story, however, was still good.

Book 578

Book 578:  Rocks and Minerals (A Gem of a Read), Simon Basher, written by Dan Green, Kingfisher 2009.

My third-grade son LOVES the Basher series.  Right now, he is so interested in rocks that he wanted a rock collection for his birthday, so this book was perfect reading material for him.  The only reason it is not five stars is because he thinks the illustrations are a little 'weird'.