The House of Months and Years by Emma Trevayne

4^thGrade and Up

It was a special house, assembled stone by stone and brick by brick. 12 rooms, 7 fireplaces, a floor for each season. Horatio, the immortal who built it, stood in sunlight streaming through 52 windows and was pleased with himself. A perfect Calendar House, ideal for its purpose…

10-year-old Amelia didn’t want to move there, she didn’t want to move at all. When her parents insisted they had to relocate to care for her orphaned cousins, she has no choice but to go along with it.

Until Horatio appeared, introducing himself slowly until he was sure Amelia was the right person to learn his secrets.

The house’s secrets.

Soon, they were off on beautiful adventures, to pirate ships and glamorous dinner parties and the streets of Victorian London. Amelia had never seen anything so wondrous, and she wanted it for herself.

Horatio’s offer seemed too good to refuse: adventures with him, become like him, be magical and live forever.

But magic has a price.

Amelia spends most of the beginning of the story complaining about living in the new house. Like I’ve done before I won’t say too much about this book because it has a twist that made putting up with Amelia’s bad attitude worth it. That’s why I gave you that specific summary of the story above so I wouldn’t give away the surprise.

It’s always nice to find a book about a new subject. In this book that subject if calendar houses. A calendar house is when the houses’ architecture is influenced according to numbers of days in a year (365), weeks in a year (52), months in a year (12), days in a week (7), and number of seasons (4).

There have been many different calendar houses in Europe but from what I found on the Internet, most of them have been demolished. One of the last calendar houses built in the UK was called Avon Tyrell. It was built with 365 windows, 7 outer doors, 52 rooms, 12 chimneys, and 4 wings. See picture below:

This weeks’ Weird but True Fact about the Calendar

The year 1752 was shortened by 11 days when Britain changed from an old-style calendar to the one we use today.

Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach

5^thGrade and Up

A missing diamond.

A 500-year-old necklace.

A mystery dating back to the time of William Shakespeare.

Named after a character from Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing, misfit 6^thgrader Hero isn’t at all interest in this literary connection. But when an eccentric neighbor tells her that there might be a million-dollar diamond hidden in her new house and that it could reveal something about Shakespeare’s true identity, Hero is determined to live up to her name and uncover the mystery.

My knowledge on Shakespeare isn’t exactly vast. I read ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in 9^thgrade and ‘Othello’ in 10^thgrade. I drew a comic book based on a scene from each story for homework assignments. Both stories were pretty good, just hard to understand. That’s the problem with Shakespeare; it’s not that the writing is bad it’s just hard to understand because no one talks like that anymore. I find it hard to believe that anyone ever talked like that.

I can kind of understand why Hero doesn’t like her own name. She mostly doesn’t like it because she gets teased because of it. At her new school, she starts getting teased right away after someone makes one stupid comment and the kids are relentless. I know I wouldn’t be able to handle it. Personally, I like her name; it’s a lot more original than mine. 

Anyone out there remember ‘Animaniacs’ short cartoon versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, and MacBeth, where Yakko would recite Shakespeare while Dot would translate for those viewers, like Yakko, who have no idea what he’s saying. From what I can tell they were pretty decent translations. I wish they had done a cartoon about ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, mostly because I don’t know much about the play. I read a summary of the play on one of those Shakespeare cheat sheet websites and, in simple terms, it’s a Shakespearean-styled romantic comedy. I’m not kidding; this play has the making of a 21th century romantic comedy. It has people two people falling in love, a bad guy who tries to ruin the couple’s happiness by making the girl seem unfaithful, while that’s happening another couple who argue a lot somehow end up to, and everything turns out ok in the end. Personally, it’s something I wouldn’t willingly read because I’m not into romantic comedies.

There are actually three mysteries in this story. 1) Who wrote the plays? 2) Where is the diamond hidden? 3) And another mystery squeezed in that you’ll have to read the book to find out.

Once again, I won’t say too much so I don’t give away too the mystery. But I will say this: do you see the diamond shape under the title, the one with the falcon wearing a crown and holding a scepter? It’s important. Also check out the Author’s Note and the Historical Timeline at the end of the book to find out what’s fact and what’s fiction.

This weeks’ Weird but True Fact about William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare invented many new words and phrases, including “eyeball” and “in a pickle”.

The Alcatraz Escape (Book Scavenger, #3) by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

4^thGrade and Up

Legendary literary game-maker Garrison Griswold is back in action―this time with “Unlock the Rock.” For his latest game, Griswold has partnered with the famous--and famously reclusive--mystery writer Errol Roy to plan an epic escape room challenge on Alcatraz Island.

Emily and James are eager to participate, but the wave of fame they are riding from their recent book-hunting adventures makes them a target. Threatening notes, missing items, and an accident that might not have been an accident have the duo worried that someone is trying to get them out of the game at any cost.

When Emily’s brother is caught red-handed and blamed for all the wrong doings, Emily is certain Matthew is being framed. With Matthew’s record on the line, Emily and James can’t afford to leave this mystery uncracked.

Let me start out by saying that an Escape Room style challenge on Alcatraz Island is genius! Why hasn’t someone done this before?! (There actually is an Alcatraz themed escape room in San Francisco. Click on the link below if you want to find out more)

https://worldofescapes.com/sfbay/quests/alcatraz-sf

This book inspired me to take a day trip to Alcatraz so I would be able to understand the story better. My dad and I really should have planned a trip where we got to the island in the morning and stayed there for several hours instead of only spending three hours there before running to get to the airport to fly home. I guess it just gives me an excuse to go back again.

On the short time I spent on the island, I took the Cellhouse Audio Tour. The audio tour guides are the actual Correctional Officers, inmates, and residents who lived on Alcatraz when it was a federal penitentiary. While we were on the tour, my dad made me go into one of the solitary confinement cells so he could take a picture of me. I really didn’t want to so I just stood on the outside of the cell and grinned and bared it. I agree with Emily, it’s creepy in there. I’m glad I took the tour because it gave me all the information I needed to picture what was going on in this book since the game mainly takes place in the Cellhouse building.

If you’re interested in taking a trip to Alcatraz, click on the link below to find out how:

https://www.alcatrazcruises.com

This is definitely the best Book Scavenger book yet! I can’t say much else without giving too much away. Since my niece, Julianne, is really into geocaching and reading, I’m hoping that she and I could participate in a Book Scavengers adventure together. I tried getting her to read the first book but I don’t know if she ever did. I’m hoping now she’ll be more interested. Check out the Book Scavenger website below if you are interested in joining the fun.

http://bookscavenger.com

UBCVAT SBE N SBHEGU OBBX! *

This weeks’ Weird but True Fact about San Francisco

Actual prison breaks inspired the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon in California, U.S.A., where competitors leap off a boat and swim across San Francisco Bay. **

(*To crack the codes, see page 26)

**Bonus fact: My uncle Chris participated in that race. And he’s still alive.

Waste of Space (Moon Base Alpha, #3) by Stuart Gibbs

WARNING: THIS BOOK REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!! PLEASE READ BOOKS 1 & 2 FIRST!

Middle School 

Moon Base Alpha was supposed to be an exciting place to live, but Dash didn’t expect for it to be this exciting. After solving a murder and rescuing the moon base commander, he just wants to have a calm, quiet thirteenth birthday. But of course, multi-billionaire and total pain Lars Sjoburg ruins it—by being poisoned.

Now there’s a murderer loose on Moon Base Alpha again. And Dash is charged with finding out who it could have been.

Everyone has a motive, and time is running out.

The reason for the spoiler warning above is because I want to talk about the secret occupant on Moon Base Alpha, Zan. Zan isn’t physically on MBA but appears to Dash through thought (a process that, according to reliable sources, may be how intelligent extraterrestrial life contacts us in the future). According to Zan, humanity is in grave danger of destroying itself (no surprise there). But Zan’s species has a way to solve many of Earth’s problems but the solution has the potential to be dangerous if misused. And we humans do have a track record of taking new technology and using it to destroy each other.

But enough about that, let’s talk about the possibility of contact with an extraterrestrial being. They could be looking down at us right now. Just imagine how weird we would appear to an alien species. I’m human (or so I’ve been told) and I don’t understand us. Would they be impressed with our accomplishments, our technology, our music, our art? Would they question why we care so much about appearances, religion, and celebrities who are famous for doing nothing. Would they be offended the way we portray them in our TV shows and movies? With that said I leave you with this question, how would you explain all of human existence and how we live to an alien species?

Now, let’s discuss another topic from this story, the Sjoburgs’. The Sjoburgs’ are a very rich family of four from Sweden and are the first space tourists to visit Moon Base Alpha. They are also absolutely horrible human beings. But that’s not the point I want to make here. Let’s talk about space tourism. Yes, this is actually going to be a real thing. Check out the YouTube link below if you don’t believe me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6J7FteaW2Q

Is it really a smart idea to let civilians, not just the people who can pay for a $250,000 ticket, to go up into space? And I highly doubt that any company is going to be able to launch a space hotel by 2022, considering how many things can go wrong up in space. If this is really going to happen, there needsto be a thorough psychiatric and background check on everyone who signs up for this, because not many people are mentally capable of being in a small enclosed space with strangers.

But let’s stop talking about my opinions on certain subjects featured in this book and talk about my opinion on the book. Stuart Gibbs has once again written a great mystery that draws the reader in and I’m still impressed how he is able to insert the subject of poop in every one of his stories. There really is no end to the humor of poop, especially space poop. This story is a great conclusion to the series. Yes, this is the third and final book in the series…for now. For an explanation, click the link below:

http://stuartgibbs.com/2018/02/05/yes-its-true-waste-of-space-will-be-the-end-of-the-moon-base-alpha-series-for-now/

Before I end this review, I would like to make an announcement. From now on, at the end of a book review I will be sharing a Weird but True/Awesome fact that I’ve found from National Geographic Kids books. I’m going to try to have the facts relate to the featured book in some way, but that might be difficult. So, without further ado, this week’s Weird but True fact about Space Travel:

Some scientists think that by the year 2100, we should be able to travel through space at about 134 million miles an hour.