A Gathering of Shadows
V.E. Schwab and Victoria Schwab
9.5
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Kell is one of the last magicians with the ability to travel between parallel universes, linked by...
So Cute it Hurts!!
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The Kobayashi twins, Megumu and Mitsuru, were named after historical figures, but only Megumu has...
The Evacuee Christmas
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A heart-warming story of friendship and family during war. Autumn 1939 and London prepares to...
David McK (3557 KP) rated Objectif Lune (Destination Moon) (Tintin #16) in Books
Jul 7, 2020
Unlike its sequel (Explorers on the Moon), this one is mainly set on good old Planet Earth itself, with Tintin (and Snowy!), Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus and the bungling Thompson twins all in the Sprodj Atomic Research Centre in Syldavia, working on the rocket that will take them to the moon!
This, I believe, is also one of only a handful of 2-part stories (the others being the earlier The Secret of the Unicorn followed by Red Rackham's Treasure and The Seven Crystal Ballsfollowed by Prisoners of the Sun).
Finally, remember the era in which they were written!
Book of Fire
9.0
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Life outside the domes is not possible. At least that's what Insiders are told. Twins Eli and Talia...
The Woman in the Wood
8.0
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London, 1960. The lives of teenage twins Maisy and Duncan change forever the night their mother...
The Choice
10.0
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What if you had to choose between your children? Then: Madeleine lived for her children....
Psychological Thriller Thriller Fiction Suspense Mystery
The Separation (Animorphs, #32)
2.0
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Rachel is falling apart. Literally. Her newest morph the ability to regenerate its limbs, but when...
tapestry100 (306 KP) rated The Girl with the Ghost Machine in Books
Aug 2, 2017
Emmaline Beaumont's mother has passed away. Unfortunately, Emmaline's father has become fixated with building a machine that will bring Emmaline's mother's ghost back, and in doing so, he himself has forgotten about the living in his obsession with the dead, so in many ways Emmaline has lost both of her parents. The only people she can confide in are twins Gully and Oliver, her best friends in school. Yet for of their understanding and patience, Gully and Oliver are unable to fully understand Emmaline's loss as they have never lost someone so close to them as Emmaline's mother was to her. Her father's machine, however, may actually work, and it is then that Emmaline must decide whether the cost of operating the machine is worth the price paid, and will the twins help her in her decision, regardless of what that decision is?
Lauren DeStefano has created a beautiful and poignant story that I feel would be an important book for anyone to read who has recently (or not so recently) lost someone very close to them. DeStefano has a keen ability to cut to the quick of the emotions of loss and what that can feel like, especially for someone too young to have have lost a loved one. Her characters are not cliché and their feelings are quite real, and the story she has created feels honest and important. That's the best way I can describe it. A fan of her YA series The Chemical Garden Trilogy and The Interment Chronicles, I have not yet read her other two middle grade books, The Curious Tale of the In-Between and The Peculiar Night of the Blue Heart, and I think I'll be needing to rectify that soon.