Guest Post – Recent Reads by Grace

Hi! I’m Grace, Mom’s 10-year-old daughter! It’s Mom’s birthday today, and I’m giving her a break by telling you all about 4 books I’ve read that were really great and I think you should read too!

Dragon’s Green (Scarlett Thomas; Worldquake series book 1) – Worldquake is about a girl named Effie, and the adventure starts when her grandfather gives her a bag of magic items, including a magic ring. Each of the items corresponds to a talent of one of her friends – like Maximilian the Scholar can use the Spectacles of Knowledge. When Effie starts reading a book, she gets pulled into the book itself and has to experience the book as a character. The magic items come in handy to help her and her friends complete the story and keep the evil villain out of the story and away from dangerous amounts of power. This book is full of adventure and magic, and those are my favorite kinds of books to read! You should read this book too if you love books full of magic and dragons. (If you like it, there are at least 2 more in the series!)

Tales from a Not-So-Best Friend Forever (Rachel Renee Russell; Dork Diaries #14) – The Dork Diaries series is about a girl named Nikki and her two best friends Chloe and Zoe. Each book is one of Nikki’s diaries telling about a different month of her life. This particular book is about when the 3 friends go on tour with their favorite pop stars and help the feuding stars navigate their relationships with each other and with their fame. I learned that sometimes if you’re fighting with someone close to you, a friend can really help you out by giving you advice. You should read this book if you like biographies or memoirs, because this is kind of a fictional biography. It’s especially good for 4th or 5th graders, because that’s how old Nikki is, although I’ve heard that even olderer kids like teenagers like to revisit these books sometimes.

Into the Wild (Erin Hunter; Warriors #1) – Warriors is a series about cats. There are 4 different groups of cats that live together, sometimes fighting but mostly as friends. Into the Wild is about a house cat who joins one of those groups, the ThunderClan. He has all sorts of adventures on his way to becoming ThunderClan leader with his best friend GrayStripe at his side. I like this book because I really like reading about cats. If you really like reading about animals, you should consider reading Warriors. There are so many of them, they’ll keep you busy for a long time!

A Pocket Guide to Cats: A complete guide to the feline world (Emily Williams) – I REALLY like reading about cats! This book is kind of like the Warriors series, only it’s non-fiction. I read way more fiction than non-fiction, but this is one book that I have read multiple times; it’s one of my two favorite non-fiction books. I’ve learned about different cat breeds and their specific needs, the difference between long-haired and short-haired cats (it’s not just the length of their hair!) and sphinxes, or hairless cats. I’ve also learned about the different names for the colors of cats, and they may sound kind of fancy, but they’re really not. For example, “lilac” is just gray-ish cream. You might enjoy this book if you like cats but prefer non-fiction. Also, if you’re considering getting your first cat, you might want to read about the different breeds and what they need, to make sure you’re prepared. For example, Siamese cats don’t like to be alone and you should get more than one, but just one of a different breed would be just fine. That’s something you should know before deciding what kind of cat to get!

So there you have it: 4 books I (Grace) recently read and enjoyed. If you’ve read any of these (or decide to after reading this post), write a note to my mom and tell me about it, and she’ll pass it on to me. Happy birthday, Mom! I hope you enjoyed the break!