Sean Goes to Barcelona

Sean Goes to Barcelona by Tanya Preminger; illustrated by Elettra Cudignotto     74 pages

Eight-year-old Sean and his mom are on a trip of a lifetime. They are in Barcelona, Spain, so that Sean may attend a FC Barcelona soccer game, see Sean’s idol, Lionel Messi, and hopefully get an autograph.

In this second book about soccer and goals, Sean turns into a whiny kid, begging his mother to buy him practically everything he sees and pout when she says no. Mommy states several times that the trip is expensive; I’m not sure why she has gifted him this adventure.

As the duo takes in the city, Sean is obsessed with Messi, to the point of grating on my nerves, and if he will be able to obtain an autograph. Basically, Sean makes the trip terrible for Mommy. 

Mommy does her best to help Sean figure out how he will stand out on a crowd of tens of thousands. However, nothing can compensate for Sean’s complaints and tantrums.  Therefore,

“Sean Goes to Barcelona” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Land Without Color

The Land Without Color by Benjamin Ellefson; illustrations by Kevin Cannon   168 pages

I tried to find the email where the author contacted me about reviewing his three-book series, “The Land Without Color.” The first book’s title is the same as the series. When it first arrived, I saw that the main character (who turns out to be Alvin) was African-American and that the title referred to race. I was so wrong!  This is a highly imaginative tale that was a lot of fun to read.

When the gang wants to go fishing, leaders Brandon and Steven needs something to cut the string that they will use as poles. Since Grandpa Alvin lived close by the pond, the gang of about six to eight kids jump on their bicycles and race over…as boys are wont to do.

Grandpa pulls a small Swiss Army knife from his pocket, a knife that he has had since he turned twelve. Grandpa Alvin tells that Brandon that the knife was given to him by Brandon’s great-great-grandfather Otto and it “saved my life many times.”

Then the story switches to Alvin’s twelfth birthday. His parents take him to visit Grandpa Otto. Grandpa Otto gives him the knife as a present. While Alvin is waiting to go home, he starts to chew a stick of never-popping gum his parents gave him earlier in the day.

As he begins to blow a bubble, it grows, and grows, and grows, and grows. It really is never-popping and soon the giant bubble begins to float, taking Alvin with it. Once he manages to land, he doesn’t recognize the place. Nothing looks familiar and it’s colorless. Everything is gray. Everything!

As he begins to explore, he runs into a small snag, but it’s how he meets a talking squirrel named Permiella, Permy for short, and learns that he has landed in the Kingdom of Color. Permy tells him how the color from the land has been stolen. Alvin decides that is unacceptable and vows to restore color to the kingdom.  And off they go on their grand adventure, meeting a charming little rat named Ronaldo, “battle man-eating plants, outsmart the bumbling Crimson Guards, cross the Sugar Desert, overcome the two-headed dragon, and find the color-stealing goblins.” The story is a lot of fun.

The story is framed with Brandon and his pals, which was totally unnecessary. For that reason, “The Land Without Color,” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Abigail Adams; Pirate of the Caribbean

Abigail Adams: Pirate of the Caribbean  (Mixed-Up History # 2) by Steve Sheinkin   160 pages 

Not sure why either the author or the publisher changed the name of the this series (it was originally Time Twisters), but it’s the same format, which I really like. I think that kids are gonna eat up learning about history in this manner.

Abigail Adams, our second First Lady, agrees with the start of Book 1, Abraham Lincoln. Why should they continue to do the same thing boring thing forever and forever. She had always dreamed of becoming a pirate, and after Lincoln’s successful adventure, she leaps out of Washington City and to the Caribbean.

Abby and Doc are back as the protagonists who must fix history and get Abigail back to the President’s House.

Author Sheinkin does a wonderful job in teaching kids about the Adams’ family, the pirate life, and the women who were pirates in only 160 pages. He also includes an epilogue that lets readers know what was true and what was false.

 The one thing that I was not crazy about was that there was really very little about Abigail after the first few chapters. Once she made the leap, the story was more about Anne Bonny and Mary Read, well-known female pirates. Although I learned something new, I was disappointed in the lack of Abigail’s history. Therefore, Abigiail Adams: Pirate of the Caribbean  receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Abraham Lincoln: Pro Wrestler

Abraham Lincoln: Pro Wrestler (Time Twisters #1) by Steve Sheinkin    160 pages

I’ve been obsessed with Abraham Lincoln and his family since I was a kid; I can’t get enough of him and his wife, Mary Todd.

In this delightfully imagined work, the fourth graders in Ms. Maybee’s class hate history. “It’s BORING!” Step-siblings Abby and Doc, especially Doc, are the loudest opponents of history. When Lincoln hear how much all the kids don’t like history, he decides to teach them a lesson.

Thanks to time travel Lincoln shows up in current time to teach them a lesson. He’s decided that he won’t go back to Springfield, Illinois, to win the 1860 presidential election, but instead, he wants to pursue a different dream: that of becoming a pro wrestler. Wrestling was much, much different in the 1860s than it is today, and thankfully, Sheinkin doesn’t delve into that. But that means that history is broken if Lincoln pursues his dream

It’s up to Abby and Doc to get him back to Springfield and fix history. As they learn about Lincoln and his life, they experience life in the 1860s and unwittingly learn about our greatest president ever.

At the end of the book, Sheinkin adds a chapter that tells what aspects of the story are true and what are not.  I think that young readers will enjoy history in this manner, and without meaning to, learn something. Even I learned something! Abraham Lincoln: Pro Wrestler receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.