Texting the Underworld by Ellen Booraem

6^th Grade and Up

This story is about Connor O’Neill whose life gets turned upside down when an inexperienced young banshee named Ashling shows up in his bedroom. The arrival of a banshee means only one thing: Someone in his family is going to die. Not only will Ashling not tell him who it is, she’s so fascinated by the world above that she insists on going to middle school with him.

If Connor wants to keep his family safe, he must visit the underworld and bargain to prevent the death of a family member.

This book was not what I expected. There’s a lot more information about the origins of banshees than I thought and it was very interesting. I want to find more books about lesser talked about mythical creatures like banshees. Zombies, vampires and ghost are too played out these days.

This books version of the underworld is a lot different from other books I’ve read (more books about the underworld in future posts). It seems like every country, every religion, beliefs about death are all true in the book. There is no one thing. They’re all mushed together. Which I think is a really cool way to do it.

Human Body Theater by Maris Wicks

7^th Grade and Up

How do we grow?

Why do we get the hiccups?

What’s in poop anyway?

All of these answered and more in…

Human Body Theater!

Your host for today’s show is a human skeleton, and she’s ready to explain it all. Watch a sandwich make the trip from the dining table to the toilet bowl…Find out how the blood moves through your body…And learn from the body itself how it fights off disease.

This is an extremely clever way to learn about the human body. I found this book at the comic book store and I just had to have it. I was like ‘Oh My Gosh! Someone made a graphic novel about the human body! That is genius!”

I must warn you, this book does explain how the reproductive system works. So if you haven’t had that talk yet, I would either wait to read this book or just skip that section. Trust me on this.

Also, don’t try to read this all at once; it’s too much information to handle.