Marshmallow’s reviews – Page 67

Marshmallow reviews How to Steal A Dragon’s Sword (Book #9 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell

Marshmallow and Caramel are both into the How to Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell these days. This week Marshmallow reviews one of her favorites in the series: How to Steal A Dragon’s Sword (Book 9).

Marshmallow reviews How To Steal A Dragon's Sword (Book 9 of the How to Train Your Dragon series) by Cressida Cowell. — Marshmallow reviews *How To Steal A Dragon’s Sword* (Book 9 of the How to Train Your Dragon series) by Cressida Cowell.

Marshmallow’s quick take: If you like books about dragons and Vikings then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Summary (with spoilers): Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, heir to the Throne of the Hairy Hooligans is not what you would expect a Hero to be like. He is very bad at almost everything and even worse, his cousin, Snotlout, a big bully whose main victim is Hiccup, is good at everything. Hiccup’s only talent is sword fighting and he is a complete catastrophe in everything else. Hiccup’s best friend, Fishlegs, is not any better than Hiccup is, he is worse. Hiccup and Fishlegs are both basically an embarrassment to the Hairy Hooligan tribe. But Hiccup does have a talent for coming up with “fiendishly clever plans”.

In the second book of the series, How to Be A Pirate, Hiccup makes an enemy named Alvin the Treacherous who will try to kill Hiccup and become king of the Wilderwest. Even though the reader can tell that the obvious king of the Wilderwest is Hiccup, the Vikings are not sure that he is the king of the Wilderwest. Alvin the Treacherous and his mother, a witch named Excellinor, have been trying to kill Hiccup for the past few years. If Alvin became king, he would try to kill all the dragons instead of trying to negotiate with them.

It just so happens that in the eighth book of the series, How to Break A Dragon’s Heart, Hiccup releases a dragon named Furious who hates all humans (because he had a bad relationship with a human) and so is now out to find and kill all humans and for once and for all exterminate all humans. So now in this ninth book of the series, not only Alvin the Treacherous is out to kill Hiccup but there is also Furious’ rebellion, called the Red Rage, to deal with. The only person who can save the human race is the king of the Wilderwest.

To determine who is the king of the Wilderwest, the witch Excellinor challenges everyone to have a sword fighting competition. The king of the Wilderwest will save them from the terrible rebellion of dragons who are trying to kill all people, children and adults alike.

Marshmallow's favorite page of How To Steal A Dragon's Sword. — Marshmallow’s favorite page of *How To Steal A Dragon’s Sword*.

Hiccup wins the sword fighting competition. He gets first place, his father gets the second, and Alvin the Treacherous gets the third place. Hiccup then is crowned king but then the witch Excellinor reveals the Slavemark that the Wanderers stamped him with. The Slavemark is the ultimate mark of shame and so he is eliminated and the witch says that Hiccup’s father should be eliminated too because he is Hiccup’s father and so Alvin the Treacherous is crowned King of the Wilderwest. How will Hiccup stop Alvin from trying to kill all dragons?

Marshmallow’s Review: The book How to Steal a Dragon’s Sword(#9) is a very good book that makes you want to read the tenth book of the series. Of course you might want to read the previous eight books of the series first. But you might still enjoy this one even if it is the first How To Train Your Dragon book you ever read. The cliffhanger at the end is infuriating and makes you need to know what happens next. The author wrote a book which is a very funny read that everyone will enjoy.

Marshmallow’s rating: 95%

Marshmallow rates How To Steal A Dragon's Sword 95%. — Marshmallow rates *How To Steal A Dragon’s Sword* 95%.

Marshmallow reviews Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Marshmallow enjoys reading stories that take familiar fairy tales and twist them in various ways to see what will happen. See her reviews of School for Good and Evil: Quests for Glory and School for Good and Evil: A Crystal of Time by Soman Chainani, and A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. Below she reviews another such book: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, first published in 1997 and awarded a Newberry Honor in 1998.

Marshmallow’s quick take: If you like books that twist classic fairy tales like Cinderella and Snow White, then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Summary (with spoilers): Ella of Frell has a big secret. She has to do everything that everyone tells her to. Lucinda, the fairy, gave Ella the “gift” of obedience when she was a baby. The “gift” of obedience makes Ella do everything that anyone tells her to do. If someone told her to cut off her own head, she would have to do it.

Anyone could control me with an order. It had to be a direct command, such as “Put on a shawl,” or “You must go to bed now”. A wish or a request had no effect. I was free to ignore “I wish you would put on a shawl,” or “Why don’t you go to bed now?” but against an order, I was powerless. If someone told me to hop on one foot for a day and a half, I’d have to do it. And hopping on one foot wasn’t the worst order I could be given.

But soon her mother dies and she is left without a mother and with a father who she thoroughly dislikes. During her mother’s funeral, she meets a prince named Charmont. They become friends. Then Ella meets Dame Olga and her horrific daughters. And even worse her father marries Dame Olga whose two daughters, Hattie and Olive, start treating Ella badly. Hattie soon discovers that Ella needs to obey orders and so then Dame Olga, Olive, and Hattie start treating Ella like a slave. (Sounds like Cinder-Ella, with her evil stepmother and step-sisters, doesn’t it?)

The rest of the story intertwines parts of the standard Cinderella fairy tale (she does lose her slipper at a palace ball) with some new ideas (the fairy who “gifted” her with obedience, for example). In the end there is love and happiness, so there it is quite like a fairy tale. But I won’t tell you how things get resolved. You just might have to read the book (or watch the movie, I guess…)

Marshmallow’s Review: This is a very good book that makes you think about how we are so lucky to be able to say no. If a fairy had given me the “gift” of obedience, it would be very bad if I could not say no to an order such as to cut off my head. It must have been scary to be in constant danger. If someone found out that you had to listen to any thing that anybody tells you to do. (Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe Ella could have asked someone to order her to not listen to commands unless she wanted to. I wonder if that would have worked.)

Ella Enchanted is a great book that makes you think about how we can just say no. Ella is a fifteen year old who acts normally and is not as flawless as in the fairy tale Cinderella. The characters, Lucinda, Hattie, and Olive are really quite despicable and are easily disliked. (I really disliked Hattie and Lucinda sometimes.)

Marshmallow’s rating: 95%

Marshmallow rates Ella Enchanted 95%. — Marshmallow rates *Ella Enchanted* 95%.

Marshmallow reviews Funville Adventures by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop

Marshmallow reviews a recent book published by the good folks at Natural Math: Funville Adventures by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop.

Marhsmallow reviews Funville Adventures by by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop. — Marhsmallow reviews *Funville Adventures* by by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop.

Marshmallow’s quick take: If you like books that are secretly about math, then Funville Adventures might be the book for you. It is basically an adventure book about a sister and a brother, so that, too, might be of interest to some readers.

Marshmallow’s Summary (with spoilers): When an evil slide (yes, an evil slide) kidnaps the fourth grader Emmy and her five-year-old little brother Leo, they find themselves in a world full of what I will call Mathamagic.

The evil slide and Marshmallow stare at each other! Marshmallow is thinking of trying not to fall down the slide... — The evil slide and Marshmallow stare at each other! Marshmallow is thinking of trying not to fall down the slide…

In this world, called Funville, they first meet two people named Harvey and Doug. Together they play Hide-And-Go-Seek in a very unusual way. While playing, they find out that the people in this world have super powers. Harvey’s power is to halve objects in size and Doug’s power is to double objects in size. Then they go and eat lunch with Harvey and Doug’s friend Blake. Blake’s power is to erase and clean stuff. Blake applies his power on Emmy’s notebook and the outcome is not very good.

Emmy and Leo travel through Funville and come across problems. They make new friends and are invited to a birthday party. At the birthday party they recognize some familiar faces that they have met before in the time they have spent at Funville. At the birthday party, they have a good time playing Hot Potato and Musical Chairs, and eating ice cream. As you can expect the games are not the same as they are in our world. Musical Chairs needs a referee because everyone tries to cheat by using their powers. Hot Potato also is a game in which everyone attempts to cheat by either making the potato heavier or doubling the potato and ending up with two potatoes.

There is a lot more happening in Funville Adventures, but I don’t want to spoil it all for you. Why not just read it yourselves?

Marshmallow’s Review: Funville Adventures is an easy book that you can read quite quickly. It’s a chapter book, more or less, about one hundred pages long, and it is a fun book to read.

Marshmallow, intently reading Funville Adventures... — Marshmallow, intently reading *Funville Adventures*…

There are no big conflicts, no bad characters trying to hurt the people involved, and once Emmy and Leo find each other, the main story consists of the two of them exploring this new place. As the reader, it is also amusing to try and figure out the math going on.

Marshmallow’s rating: 90%

Marshmallow rates Funville Adventures by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop 90%. — Marshmallow rates *Funville Adventures* by A.O. Fradkin and A.B. Bishop 90%.

Marshmallow reviews A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

Reading The Unscratchable Itch in Caramel’s review of The Itchy Book by LeUyen Pham from last week reminded Marshmallow of Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic. Below she reviews this old favorite.

Marshmallow’s quick take: If you like poetry books, then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Overview: This is a book of poems written for children by the author of the famous The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein. Silverstein also wrote another poetry book for children called Where The Sidewalk Ends. He also wrote The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, which Caramel wants to review some day. (Oh no, I told you what Caramel is going to review!)

Marshmallow’s Favorites: My personal favorites are Fancy Dive, Peckin’, Ladies First, and Almost Perfect. I even memorized Fancy Dive and Peckin’ already.

I like Fancy Dive because it is funny but also involves a few broken bones.

The fanciest dive that ever was dove
Was done by Melissa of Coconut Grove.
She bounced on the board and flew into the air
With a twist of her head and a twirl of her hair.
She did thirty-four jackknives, backflipped and spun,
Quadruple gainered, and reached for the sun,
And then somersaulted nine times and a quarter—
And looked down and saw that the pool had no water..
Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic

As you can tell from this example, many of the poems have an interesting twist in the end. There is a sense of Dr. Seuss in Shel Silverstein I think.

Peckin’ is very sad but humorous.

The saddest thing I ever did see
Was a woodpecker peckin’ at a plastic tree.
He looks at me and “Friend,” says he,
“Things ain’t as sweet as they used to be.
Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic.

This poem reminds me of the tragic story of Nigel, the lonely gannet. This was a bird in New Zealand that fell in love with a concrete bird and stayed with the concrete bird and eventually died. Poor Nigel was faithful to the very end.

Ladies First is a good poem and so is Almost Perfect. In both poems, the main character is an annoying person who goes through life saying the same annoying phrase over and over again. Both Mary Hume (Almost Perfect) and Pamela Purse (Ladies First) get precisely what they deserve in the end.

Marshmallow is reading Ladies First by Shel Silverstein in A Light in the Attic. — Marshmallow is reading *Ladies First* by Shel Silverstein in *A Light in the Attic*.

There are over a hundred more poems in the whole book. You should check them out yourself!

Marshmallow’s Review: Shel Silverstein’s poems are funny almost all the time — some are sad, like Cloony the Clown — but they are always well written. They all sound good; I enjoy reading many of the poems out loud to Caramel. Almost all poems in the book come with an illustration (drawn by Shel Silverstein himself) that adds to its effect.

This is overall a very good book. I am currently rereading the book for the fifth time, and I expect to be rereading it again and again in the future.

Marshmallow’s rating: 100%

Marshmallow rates A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein 100%. — Marshmallow rates *A Light in the Attic* by Shel Silverstein 100%.