Reviewed by Olivia (with the help of Oscar)

Rating: High Five

Who We'd Recommend to: We typically don't read comic books, but it seems like anyone who likes comics would love this fantastic series!

About Cartozia Tales (from the website):
Each issue of Cartozia Tales  will feature stories by nine indy cartoonists. Each of us will be bringing his or her separate ideas, imagination, and drawing style to the world that we're sharing. Every issue will be full of surprises, and no one knows where the stories will wind up. 

Cartozia is not quite like any other fantasy world. We might have griffins and goblins, but we've also got vicuñicorns, phibbits, and the Loutra-Merre. And we've planned some secrets that will only be hinted at for the first few issues. 

Reviewed by Oscar

Rating: High Five!

Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of any other Rick Riordan book, Eragon, and TombQuest.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
How do you punish an immortal? By making him human. After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disoriented, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favor. But Apollo has many enemies—gods, monsters, and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go . . . an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.

(to see the full review, click the read more button in the bottom right hand corner of this post)

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of the War that Saved My Life, anything Cornelia Funke, the Land of Stories, and Book Scavenger.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
"Spirited, restless Gracie Lockwood has lived in Cliffden, Maine, her whole life. She’s a typical girl in an atypical world: one where sasquatches helped to win the Civil War, where dragons glide over Route 1 on their way south for the winter (sometimes burning down a T.J. Maxx or an Applebee’s along the way), where giants hide in caves near LA and mermaids hunt along the beaches, and where Dark Clouds come for people when they die.

To Gracie it’s all pretty ho-hum…until a Cloud comes looking for her little brother Sam, turning her small-town life upside down. Determined to protect Sam against all odds, her parents pack the family into a used Winnebago and set out on an epic search for a safe place that most people say doesn’t exist: The Extraordinary World. It’s rumored to lie at the ends of the earth, and no one has ever made it there and lived to tell the tale. To reach it, the Lockwoods will have to learn to believe in each other—and to trust that the world holds more possibilities than they’ve ever imagined."

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Four 1/2
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Chasing Vermeer, the Doldrums, Wildwood (similar feel), and Masterpiece.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
For twelve-year-old Emily, the best thing about moving to San Francisco is that it's the home city of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, book publisher and creator of the online sensation Book Scavenger (a game where books are hidden in cities all over the country and clues to find them are revealed through puzzles). Upon her arrival, however, Emily learns that Griswold has been attacked and is now in a coma, and no one knows anything about the epic new game he had been poised to launch. Then Emily and her new friend James discover an odd book, which they come to believe is from Griswold himself, and might contain the only copy of his mysterious new game. 
Racing against time, Emily and James rush from clue to clue, desperate to figure out the secret at the heart of Griswold's new game—before those who attacked Griswold come after them too.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Four 1/2
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of the Humphrey books by Betty Birney, the Geronimo Stilton books, and other fun, action-packed stories!
Synopsis: Archie Morningstar's dad drives a taxi through outer space! And with the help of a talking cat named Pockets, Archie and his dad help fight crime across the universe.

​In the third book in the series, Archie, his dad, and Pockets visit a planet that resembles medieval Earth in every way but its inhabitants, who have rainbow colored hair and extra eyes. To beat the evil organization B.U.R.P., the trio must disguise themselves as aliens and rescue a princess! When Archie must act on his own, can he find the courage to save the day?

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Four
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Confessions of a So-Called Middle Child, Rick Riordan, and overall just those books that make you want to read forever...
Synopsis (from Amazon): 
During a spy school game of Capture the Flag, twelve-year-old Ben Ripley somehow accidentally shoots a live mortar into the principal’s office—and immediately gets himself expelled. Not long after going back to the boring old real world, Ben gets recruited by evil crime organization SPYDER.

And he accepts.

As a new student in SPYDER’s evil spy school, which trains kids to become bad guys with classes likeCounter Counterespionage and Laying Low 101, Ben does some secret spying of his own. He’s acting as unofficial undercover agent, and it becomes quickly apparent that SPYDER is planning something very big—and very evil.

Ben can tell he’s a key part of the plan, but he’s not quite sure what the plan is. Can Ben figure out what SPYDER is up to—and get word to the good guys without getting caught—before it’s too late?

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five!
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of WILDWOOD and anything written by Lemony Snicket (I only read books 1 and 2 of a Series of Unfortunate Events, and my brother read All the Wrong Questions, but the writing style is definitely similar).
Favorite Quote (I can't decide, so I'm posting both):
"I just want to make sure I have this straight. You say you came across the sea for ballet, even though, thanks to croissants, you're no longer a ballerina. Is that correct?" (the customs officer to Adelaide while moving overseas from Paris to America). 

"Quite easily, monsiuer, quite easily. I have a mole on my back. That mole belongs to me, but that does not mean I want it there." (Mrs. Belmont, Adelaide's mom, after the waiter is astounded that she'll willingly give away her daughter).

Synopsis:
Archer B. Helmsley wants an adventure. No, he needs an adventure. His grandparents were famous explorers . . . until they got stuck on an iceberg. Now Archer's mother barely lets him out of the house. As if that would stop a true Helmsley. Archer enlists Adelaide—the girl who, according to rumor, lost her leg to a crocodile—and Oliver—the boy next door—to help him rescue his grandparents.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Four 1/2
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Jerry Spinelli (especially his Hokey Pokey), the Land of Stories, and anything Cornelia Funke. (don't let the fact that this is YA fool you, it's totally age appropriate for middle grade readers, too).
Synopsis: 
Aoife Finley is bursting at the seams with creativity. No one daydreams better than her and her imagination knows no bounds. 

Mr. Peterson is old, his best days long behind him. He yearns for the past, mistrusts the present, and fears the future. But he's just figured out how to recapture his past: 

By stealing other people's imaginations. 

Armed with only her creativity, imaginary friends, and a few bickering classmates, Aoife embarks on an amazing, but dangerous journey into the otherworld that she created, a place that is slipping more and more out of her control and into Mr. Peterson’s, before the real world as she knows it—and as it could be—disappears forever. 

Reviewed by Olivia


Rating: High Four
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Peter Pan (obviously), the Land of Stories (I know, I often refer to the same books in this section), Doctor Doolittle, and old favorites like Black Beauty.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
Don't even think of starting this book unless you're sitting in a comfortable chair and have lots of time. A fast-paced, impossible-to-put-down adventure awaits as the young orphan Peter and his mates are dispatched to an island ruled by the evil King Zarboff. They set sail aboard the Never Land, a ship carrying a precious and mysterious trunk inits cargo hold, and the journey quickly becomes fraught with excitement and danger. 

Reviewed by Olivia


Rating: High Five
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Erin Hunter, Percy Jackson, and Cornelia Funke
Synopsis:
One will have the power of wings of fire . . .

Sunny has always taken the Dragonet Prophecy very seriously. If Pyrrhia's dragons need her, Clay, Tsunami, Glory, and Starflight to end the war, she's ready to try. She even has some good ideas how to do it, if anyone would listen to her.

But shattering news from Morrowseer has shaken Sunny's faith in their destiny. Is it possible for anyone to end this terrible war and choose a new SandWing queen? What if everything they've been through was for nothing?

Buried secrets, deadly surprises, and an unexpected side to scavengers are all waiting for her in the shifting sands of the desert, where Sunny must decide once and for all: Is her destiny already written?

Or can five dragonets change their fate and save the world . . . the way they choose?