BookBunnies

Marshmallow reviews The Hammer of Thor (Book 2 of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series) by Rick Riordan

Two weeks ago, Marshmallow reviewed The Sword of Summer, the first book of Rick Riordan’s Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series. Today she reviews the second book in this trilogy: The Hammer of Thor. Sprinkles, who is currently reading the book, is asking questions and taking notes.

Sprinkles: So Marshmallow, tell our readers about this book.

Marshmallow: If you like magic and mythology and fantasy and friendship and other books by Rick Riordan, then this might be the book for you! But of course first you should read The Sword of Summer, the first book in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series.

S: Yes, and I did. Your review was convincing enough to get me to read that. And of course then I had to dive right into this second book. But I am not done yet. So please do tell our readers about the story line, but without too many spoilers.

M: Okay, will do. In the beginning of the book, Magnus Chase is planning to meet Samirah Al-Abbas for coffee to talk about a mysterious, important issue. Samirah is suddenly called away to help reap a soul. Remember that Samirah (Sam) is a valkyrie whose job is to bring the honorable dead to Hotel Valhalla. And she was the valkyrie who selected Magnus for Valhalla when he died in the first book.

Before she leaves, Sam says that an undercover operative will meet him at the café. While Magnus is waiting for her to return, he sees the undercover operative, Otis. Otis is one of the two goats of Thor we met in the first book. His job is to pull Thor’s chariot and provide him with goat meat. (Otis and his brother Marvin are eaten every night and resurrected every morning.) Otis is not exactly the greatest with disguises. he wears a coat, a hat, and sunglasses. Otis informs Magnus that Thor’s hammer is missing, unofficially. Thor doesn’t want his enemies to know that his main weapon of power is missing.

S: Okay, so we learn already that Thor’s hammer is missing and that is the main quest of this book.

M: Yes. Actually we had learned that Thor was missing his hammer in the first book. But now it is absolutely essential that Sam and Magnus and their friends Blitz the Dwarf and Hearthstone the Elf find it, and find it soon. Or Sam is going to have to marry a giant!

Marshmallow is reading The Hammer of Thor (Book 2 of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series) by Rick Riordan. — Marshmallow is reading *The Hammer of Thor* (Book 2 of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series) by Rick Riordan.

S: Okay, I actually got that far in the book but maybe we don’t want to give away a lot more than that.

M: Yes, true. We already set up the main story line of the book.

S: And I’m guessing that the rest is just fun and adventure and danger and all that stuff all intertwined with mythology that we have come to love in Riordan’s other books?

M: Yes.

S: Among the Riordan characters that you have read about so far, how does Magnus rank?

M: He is a good person and has natural reactions to things, and he tries to be thoughtful and sensitive. His sense of humor is similar to Percy Jackson‘s.

S: I noticed that too. I guess two narrators written by the same author can have some similarities in voice.

M: Yes, but you do know that they are definitely different people. Percy was a lot more naive and rash. And Magnus is a lot more mature in many ways.

S: Yes, and the third first-person voice we read from Riordan was Apollo / Lester from Trials of Apollo series, and that guy was the most immature of all, at least in the beginning.

M: More arrogant than immature, I’d say. Percy and Magnus are not arrogant.

S: Agreed. Okay, I can’t wait to get back to reading the book. So let us wrap up this review quickly. If you were to rate this book on a scale of 1 to 100 percent, what would you rate it at?

M: 95%.

S: And what do you want to tell our readers?

M: Stay tuned for more amazing reviews from the book bunnies!

Marshmallow rates The Hammer of Thor (Book 2 of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series) by Rick Riordan 95%. — Marshmallow rates *The Hammer of Thor* (Book 2 of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series) by Rick Riordan 95%.

Caramel reviews The Battle of the Labyrinth: The Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan

All three of the book bunnies enjoy reading the many books of Rick Riordan based on various mythologies. Caramel has already reviewed for the book bunnies blog the graphic novel versions of the first three books of Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Today he talks about the fourth book, the graphic novel version of The Battle of the Labyrinth. As usual Sprinkles is asking questions and taking notes.

(Before continuing, you might want to check out Caramel’s reviews of The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, and The Titan’s Curse.)

Caramel reviews The Battle of the Labyrinth: The Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan, adapted by Robert Venditti, with Orpheus Collar, Antoine Dodé, and Chris Dickey. — Caramel reviews *The Battle of the Labyrinth: The Graphic Novel* by Rick Riordan, adapted by Robert Venditti, with Orpheus Collar, Antoine Dodé, and Chris Dickey.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, I know you had misplaced your copy of The Battle of the Labyrinth and only recently got your paws on it again. How did it feel rereading it after so many weeks? Or months?

Caramel: It felt good! I missed my book!

S: So it is worth the rereading, I can see that. Can you tell us what it is about?

C: It’s about Percy Jackson. We met him before in all the other books of the series.

S: Yes, you reviewed the first three books already.

C: And Marshmallow did too. She read the original books. And I reviewed the graphic novels.

S: Actually you read the original books, too, right?

C: Yes. I did. But I like the graphic novels a lot more. I like looking at the pictures, and they arw so much more full of action!

S: I can see that. And yes, the graphic novel format brings the people alive somehow. Right?

C: Yes.

S: Okay, let’s assume we all read the first three books and know Percy is a demigod, that is, a son of the Greek god Poseidon, and he is on a quest to save the world from Kronos, one of the titans, who is trying to take over and overthrow the Olympian gods. Can you tell us what is happening in this book?

C: Percy and his friend Annabeth find the labyrinth. You know the labyrinth, right?

S: What should I know about it?

C: It is Daedalus‘s lab more or less, but it is a living thing, it keeps changing, and popping up new branches, and moving around underground. And Daedalus is a son of Athena, and he is a genius, and his labyrinth is a work of genius.

S: Okay, so why do Percy and Annabeth want to find it?

C: They don’t. They just accidentally fall into it. And then they realize how important it is. And there is a battle. Of the labyrinth. As you could imagine, given the title of th book.

Caramel is reading The Battle of the Labyrinth: The Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan, adapted by Robert Venditti, with Orpheus Collar, Antoine Dodé, and Chris Dickey. — Caramel is reading *The Battle of the Labyrinth: The Graphic Novel* by Rick Riordan, adapted by Robert Venditti, with Orpheus Collar, Antoine Dodé, and Chris Dickey.

S: So on one side of this battle are Percy and his friends, I can imagine.

C: And the gods, of course.

S: Okay, and on the other side?

C: The titans, and of course, Kronos who is leading them.

S: Hmm, and since this is the fourth book in a series of five, I am assuming that there is still a lot left for our heroes to do by the end?

C: Yup, but this one does end with some sort of a conclusion to a part of the story. So you leave the book satisfied but wanting also to read the next one. Of course.

S: Of course. I found it really interesting that the labyrinth shows up in many of the other books. It shows up in the Trials of Apollo series, for example.

C: Oh, but you are not supposed to give things away!

S: Oops! Okay, you are right. Then maybe I should stop talking. Why don’t you tell us your three words for the book?

C: Exciting, thrilling, and suspenseful.

S: Hmm, those are all pretty cool words Caramel! And I agree, they fit this book well. Okay, let us wrap up our review then. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunnies reviews!

Caramel loved reading The Battle of the Labyrinth: The Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan, adapted by Robert Venditti, with Orpheus Collar, Antoine Dodé, and Chris Dickey, and he is looking forward to the fifth and last book in the series. — Caramel loved reading *The Battle of the Labyrinth: The Graphic Novel* by Rick Riordan, adapted by Robert Venditti, with Orpheus Collar, Antoine Dodé, and Chris Dickey, and he is looking forward to the fifth and last book in the series.

Marshmallow reviews Dear Student by Elly Swartz

Today Marshmallow reviews Dear Student by Elly Swartz, published in February 2022.

The book bunnies received this book as a review copy.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books about family, friendship, and school, then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Autumn Blake’s father left her, her sister, and her mother to work in the Peace Corps. He wanted to “seize the day”, but Autumn doesn’t see why he has to go to Ecuador with the Peace Corps to do so. Now she, her sister Pickle, and her mother are living without her father.

Her father is not the only important person who has left Autumn. Her best friend Prisha has also just moved to California. So Autumn is starting middle school without a good friend.

The book starts on the first day of school. Autumn is starting sixth grade and neither her father nor her best friend will be there. But it turns out that the first day is still quite eventful.

On that first day of school, a boy runs over an iguana’s tail. Autumn and the boy, named Cooper, take the iguana to the veterinarian. Autumn’s mom is the vet, and she starts to try to save the iguana. Autumn then starts spending time with Cooper every day at lunch, and they become friends quickly. They decide to do a whoopie pie stand to raise money to take care of Cooper’s dog, Mr. Magoo.

On that first day of school, Autumn also makes friends with a girl named Logan. Logan’s mother is a famous human rights lawyer. Logan is nice, but Autumn feels that everything she does is forced: her smile, her words, her agreements.

Unfortunately, Logan dislikes Cooper. She thinks he is weird. Autumn starts to have trouble choosing between which friend she will spend time with.

On top of this, Autumn has become the writer of Dear Student, the famous advice column in the student paper, following the advice her dad gave on her first day to “do one thing”. Her job is to respond to questions sent anonymously by students, and her own identity is also to be kept secret. But one piece of advice she gives ends up forcing her to choose between her two friends. Will she be able to make it through with both her friends?

Marshmallow is reading Dear Student by Elly Swartz. — Marshmallow is reading *Dear Student* by Elly Swartz.

Marshmallow’s Review: Dear Student is a great book and a quick read. Written in fifty-four short chapters, it tells us a compelling story about friendship, family, and finding one’s voice.

The character Autumn is a nice person (her mom calls her “a gentle spirit”) and a great sister. She is relatable and she has a realistic personality. The other characters are also very realistic.

I think the author Ella Swartz did a great job of showing Autumn’s dilemma in the book and also her confusion and hurt about her father’s departure. The whole story is told through Autumn’s perspective (except for the student letters she reads and responds to, the postcards from her dad, and the messages from her friend Prisha), and in the present tense, and both these help make Autumn and her feelings come across as very real and almost urgent.

Ella Swartz’s Dear Student does not have a big mystery like Carl Hiaasen’s Hoot or Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me or any of the FunJungle books, but when I was reading it, I still wanted to read on to find out how things would turn out. The plot is not completely predictable and keeps you wanting to read further. The central dilemma of the book involves animal rights, just like in Hoot, but in Dear Student, we get a human dimension, too, complicating the issue further.

I thought that the questions addressed to the Dear Student column were sometimes related to how Autumn was feeling, which worked really well. And the column responses give the reader good advice on all types of topics. It was also neat to see a reference to a book Caramel read and reviewed before: Drawn Together by Minh Le and Dan Santat.

All in all I really enjoyed reading Dear Student. I look forward to trying the whoopie pie recipe at the end of the book…

Marshmallow’s Rating: 95%.

Marshmallow rates *Dear Student* by Ella Swartz

Caramel reviews Cleopatra in Space: Queen of the Nile by Mike Maihack

Today Caramel reviews the sixth and last book in Mike Maihack’s graphic novel series Cleopatra in Space: Queen of the Nile. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

(Caramel already reviewed the first book Target Practice, the second book The Thief and the Sword, the third book Secret of the Time Tablets, the fourth book The Golden Lion, and the fifth book Fallen Empire in the series.)

Caramel reviews Cleopatra in Space: Queen of the Nile by Mike Maihack. — Caramel reviews *Cleopatra in Space: Queen of the Nile* by Mike Maihack.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, end of an era, you finally read the last book in the Cleopatra in Space series.

Caramel: Yes.

S: So tell us about it.

C: Queen of the Nile is the name of the book. It’s about Cleo learning that her mom was able to do the pink fire thingy. I’m not sure what it is exactly. But what it means is that everyone in her family who could do that thing could be the person to fulfill the prophecy.

S: Ooh, so can you remind us what the prophecy was?

C: She is supposed to save the galaxy from the evil rule of Xaius Octavian. But now we learn that all her descendants and ancestors could also be the savior. And in the end that is kind of what happens.

S: Hmm, that is not terribly clear, and I’m intrigued. But I am not going to ask you to open it up too much more because I’m afraid it will lead us to spoilers.

C: Yes, but you can feel good that the books end well.

S: That is good to know. And does Cleo eventually go back to her own time?

C: Yes, but all I’ll tell you is that she will go back when she defeats her enemy. And people think she dies in the battle, but then they look at their history books. And the rest is history, as they say.

Caramel is reading Cleopatra in Space: Queen of the Nile by Mike Maihack. — Caramel is reading *Cleopatra in Space: Queen of the Nile* by Mike Maihack.

S: So you enjoyed this last book, right?

C: Yes. a lot. It wrapped up the story really well. But I’m still wondering if there will be a seventh book.

S: Well, this one is supposed to be the last of the series. But as far as I understand, the animated TV series has gone to a third season. Apparently they do not follow the books very closely but you get to see Cleo and her friends figuring things out.

C: I liked the episodes we watched. Maybe I can convince you to watch more of them?

S: Hmm, we will see. So tell me your three words to describe this book.

C: Colorful, exciting, and suspenseful!

S: Ooh, that is good! So interesting things happen in this one!

C: Yes! Very much so. Lots of action and lots of things happen. It is over two hundred pages of action and fun!

S: That sounds good! So will you be reading and rereading this book, too?

C: Yep, I already read it ten times! Or maybe thirteen, not sure.

S: That is a lot. Both you and Marshmallow like rereading books! Okay, I can see you are getting into the book again, and will likely dive into your fourteenth read. So let us wrap this up. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Cleopatra in Space: Queen of the Nile by Mike Maihack and will miss the characters from the series. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Cleopatra in Space: Queen of the Nile* by Mike Maihack and will miss the characters from the series.