series

Read a YA Book Series this Summer

ByMichael Thal June 21, 2019

You’ve seen them on library and book store shelves—a book series. They are actually a book sequence having certain elements in common including characters, setting, and timeline. Some works in a series can be read in any order, like the Koolura Series. In a “Stand Alone” series each book makes few references to previous books…

The Spaceship Graveyard

ByMichael Thal June 10, 2019June 10, 2019

The Boneyards of Nebula (Sons of Neptune Book 4) is the last installment of Rod Little’s captivating Sons of Neptune series. Tucked away safely on Starbase 21, the men and women of Earth receive a distress signal from a dark anomaly in space; a starship graveyard known as the Boneyards of Nebula. Not one to…

The Last Starbase: The Search for a Home

ByMichael Thal May 21, 2019

The Last Starbase is book 3 in the Sons of Neptune series. Shane, Sam, and company discover an ancient starship, the Praihawk, buried in the Artic and plan to use it to get help from their ancestors of long ago. The Peak, a refugee stronghold established by Shane and Sam, is attracting survivors of the alien…

Revenge of the Spiders: An Excellent Sequel

ByMichael Thal May 3, 2019

Revenge of the Spiders is book 2 in Rod Little’s four book series, Sons of Neptune. In book one, Earthweeds, the novel’s two protagonist brothers, Shane and Sam, return from a mountain hunting trip to find their home has been invaded by large man-eating lizards created by the Sayans, an alien race of humanoids. The young…

Apocalypse Now

ByMichael Thal April 9, 2019April 9, 2019

In the science fiction fantasy, Earthweeds,Shane and Sam are brothers. Shane is in college and Sam is about to finish high school. Each summer the boys escape for a few weeks into the wilderness outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to hunt and evade the hustle and bustle of the real world. This year, when the boys…

A Spooky Story for Middle School Students

ByMichael Thal March 27, 2019March 27, 2019

Dear Pop, I’m a seventh grader at New Heights Preparatory School in Northridge. My English teacher recently assigned us a book report. I can choose any book I want, but the author must be a California resident. I also need to report a little bit about the writer. Please help me ASAP. The…

Summer Camp

ByMichael Thal February 25, 2019

In just a few months your sons and daughters will be off from school for the summer. Plan ahead and think about summer camp. What is the best way to go –sleep away or day camp? And how do you pick the best camp for your child? If this is your child’s first camping…

Pop’s 6 Favorite Books of 2018

ByMichael Thal February 6, 2019

In 2018 Pop read and reviewed 36 young adult novels. All of the books received 5 pops because they were thought provoking, imaginative, and the author’s writing style exemplary. Below you’ll find seven of his favorites plus his award-winning novel, Koolura and the Mayans. Title: Koolura and the Mayans Author: Michael Thal Awards: 2018 eLit…

YA Fantasy into a Medieval World

ByMichael Thal January 29, 2019

Elai Nelson and the Prophecy of the Child is book one of the Fire on the Clouds Trilogy. The novel begins when Elai’s home is broken into by two goons who kill his adoptive parents and attempt to kidnap him. But with the help of his talking toothbrush (you read that right) the sixteen-year old manages…

Murder on the Seine

ByMichael Thal January 20, 2019

Corporate trainer and amateur sleuth, Lysi Weston is on the road again with best friend Grace Wright. This time the duo are in Paris, France where they are assigned the task of presenting a model of their management training seminar to the American Chamber of Commerce in France in hopes of educating chauvinistic Francophiles on…