Book Reviews
Both Sides of Time by Caroline B. Cooney
This is a murder mystery, fantasy, time-travel, and romance novel all rolled into one. Okay, I know what some of you are thinking right now, and, yes, I hate romance too, but it’s not one of those stupid, mushy stories. Actually, this combination makes one of the best books ever written.
Fifteen-year-old romantic Annie Lockwood is accidentally
transported back to 1895, where she meets the man of her dreams.
Unfortunately, she is now involved in two love triangles, and things keep getting more complex.
- Robin
The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death by Daniel Pinkwater
Okay, okay it sounds more than a little weird from the title (as in your parents might have listened to a band by the same name when they were teenagers), but I love this book.
Walter is a boring fat kid in Genghis Khan High School until he meets Winston Bongo, the inventor of Snarking Out. Snarking Out is sneaking out of their apartment buildings in the middle of the night in order to go to the Snark Theater.
Then, Walter and Winston Bongo meet Rat, a “liberated female”, who sports a bright pink plastic comb and adores James Dean, cars, and loud music. Rat takes them to many strange places such as streets under streets and Tintown, a rundown town named for its improvised houses. On one of these escapades, the trio meets up with Osgood Sigerson, the world’s greatest detective, who is dedicated to catching Wallace Nussbaum, the world’s greatest criminal.
I won’t give away the ending, but it has something to do with Wallace Nussbaum and a giant avocado. (There. That was the standard Reading Rainbow finale. Didja like it?)
- Bridget
