Magic

The Quest of the Empty Tomb: A Supernatural Mystery

ByMichael Thal December 3, 2018

The Hunt for Xanadu recently received a 5 pops review from this blog. Elyse Salpeter’s second book in her Kelsey Porter Series, The Quest of the Empty Tomb, was also an exciting ride, but didn’t exactly live up to the high bar Salpeter’s first book established. In The Quest of the Empty Tomb, Salpeter brings back many…

The Thirteenth Princess: A Gripping YA Fairytale

ByMichael Thal November 29, 2018November 29, 2018

History must have order and some symmetry of meaning so its students can process its content in an organized fashion. Consequently, history only records twelve princesses, a highly composite number, when in truth, there were thirteen of them. History also records those princesses going to sleep every night and waking up to find their slippers…

YA Medieval Historical Fantasy

ByMichael Thal October 13, 2018

Set in England during the middle ages, author TF Gray begins Murdoch’s Tale: Book 1 of Corwin’s Chronicle.The novel introduces Corwin, a young child torn away from his family and home by war. Rescued by Tovan of the faer and dropped off to a human family for adoption, Corwin goes through life with the dream of…

A Rapunzel Story Better than the Grimm’s Fairy Tale

ByMichael Thal August 24, 2018August 24, 2018

Remember Rapunzel? She was a Grimm’s Brother’s princess locked in a tower and rescued by a prince willing to climb her long golden tresses to save her. Ever wonder what happened to the princess when released from her prison? Wonder no more. Leila Howland solved the dilemma in her creative fairy…

A Peter Pan Re-Telling Better Than the Original

ByMichael Thal August 15, 2018

In 1783 Wendy Darling was a foundling placed at the door of a London almshouse. As a child, she read The Live and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,and ever after longed to sail the seven seas and experience all the magical wonders of the world. Mortimer Black, another orphan, knew the ways of the…

Magic 2.0: A YA Fantasy Series

ByMichael Thal August 9, 2018

A twenty-three-year-old computer hacker illegally enters the computer of a cell phone manufacturer and finds a curious file. It’s huge with five terabytes of plain ASC11 text characters with a boring name—repository1-c.txt. He gives it a look and finds something curious; many of the numbers change constantly. Then he searches the file for his name….

High School Students Seek Love and Revenge with Voodoo

ByMichael Thal July 27, 2018July 27, 2018

Revenge, Lust & Voodoo by Dina Rae tells the story of Lucien Nazaire, an old Voodoo priest from Haiti. He lives in a retirement community in Wisconsin and meets sixteen-year old Jake La Rue, who he recruits to become his apprentice to carry out his life’s work. Jake is an orphan living with his abusive Uncle…

5 Motivating YA Books Kids Will Want to Read This Summer

ByMichael Thal June 11, 2018

As a reading specialist working for the Glendale Unified School District, I noticed a serious decline in reading skills of many of my students after a long hot summer break. According to researchers at the National Education Association (NEA), “Children can lose up to three months of reading progress over the summer months, and that loss…

The 2018 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and SCWBI

ByMichael Thal March 17, 2018

Looking for an interesting book to read? On April 21-22 the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will be presenting its 23rd annual event on the University of Southern California campus. Five hundred authors, celebrities, musicians, artists, and even chefs will be featured. Admission to the festival is free. There will be over 230 booths…

The Frog Prince- A Classic Folktale Re-Told

ByMichael Thal February 27, 2018

Like most fairy tales before it, The Frog Prince, as told by Mike Klaassen, has simple two dimensional characters, an appealing setting, an element of magic, and a villain who challenges the protagonist, seventeen-year old Prince Gerit, son of King Egon of Krickenheim. Gerit is hunting for frogs to avoid weapons practice with his father’s…