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Super Mario Sunshine for Nintendo Gamecube.
by Chris, Age 10

For all you Mario and Gamecube fans this is for you. Super Mario Sunshine is a hard game, but is fun after you figure it out. Mario has been falsely accused of spreading pollution on Delfino Isle. The real culprit is a watery Mario. He is making the graffiti with his staff. I will call him "Dark Mario". You are helped by Fludd, a robot from Gadd Science Inc. F.L.U.D.D.is a flash-liquidizer-ultra-dousing-device. He (or she, it doesn't tell you.) has many nozzles. The nozzles are spray which you can spray you're opponent, hover which you can hover for a short time, rocket which you can go shooting 50-100ft. (can't tell estimation), and the boost which you can go faster when sliding. Mostly to attack you squirt water and pound them (Exception: Blooper Gooper, you pull his nose. Sorry it's in Japanese.) The main enemy varies between levels. First it's multi-colored blobs, then mini Blooper Goopers, then "acka quacks". This is a fun game but there must be a time when you say "This is too hard, I quit."

The Legend of Luke: A Tale from Redwall by Brian Jacques
By Chris, Age 10

This story is about two mice named Martin (who is a warrior) and Gonff;a hedge hog named Trimp;and a mole named Dinny.They set out to Martin's old home,the caves of his tribe, NW from Redwall abbey, their home.Redwall was founded by Abbess Germaine.They found the four survivors of the crash that went with Luke to defeat the stoat Vilu Daskar.Vilu Daskar killed most of Luke's tribe.He maned a ship called the Goreleech and sailed around taking slaves on his three-decker ship.Luke battled, took over a ship, and renamed it Sayna, after his wife, who was killed in the first attack.Martin learns as much as he could about his father then went back to Redwall taking the survivors, a hare named Beau and three mice named Vurg, Dulam, and Denno.I highly recommend this to anyone who likes the following, action, adventure, comedy,and tragedy. In all it's a adomedy :)

P.S. For more Redwall books go to the Redwall Wiki.

I have some exciting news. My son, Chris, who is 10, will be writing short reviews of some of his summer reading. Right now he is reading through the Redwall series by Brian Jacques and the Dragon Keepers Chronicles by Donita K. Paul, although I am letting him choose his writing topics. I also plan to format the posts only but not edit his writing, as much as it irks me to publish something with grammatical errors :).

Birth Wisdom: A Collection of Editorials from Midwifery Today Magazine by Jan Tritten (Volumes I and II) is available free from Smashwords.

A section of Dr. Sears’ L.E.A.N. Start guide is available here. We've used the traffic light eating concept in our own family, and it really seems to make sense to the boys.


Cindy, homeschooling mom of nine, has a list of literature (fiction, biographies, and poetry) on her blog which tends to instill honor in boys without moralizing:
Our goal is not to produce self-righteous prigs like our old friend Eustace Scrubbs before he met the dragon (See: The Voyage of Dawn Treader)  but rather to motivate our sons by the examples of true heart change  whether that heart change is in the real man Stonewall Jackson or the  fictional mouse Reepicheep.

My boys have read a few of these already. How about yours?

 Quirk Classics' new book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith debuts today. I'm only half-way through the book, but so far I do love it. Now, let me just say that I am not generally a fan of zombie movies or fiction. I very much like Jane Austen, though, and I find mash-ups really fun and, well, quirky.

The book is the sequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which I reviewed here) and the third in the series which includes the prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls. The story unfolds as the newlywed Darcy is bitten by an unmentionable which begins the process of zombification. Elizabeth is sent by Lady Catherine de Bourgh to London to obtain a highly-guarded cure for the zombie plague. However, as any Austen reader knows, Elizabeth and Lady Catherine are not on the best of terms, and the quest is hampered by lies, schemes, and ninjas, not to mention zombies.

Quirk Classics is having a give-away - just "like" the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After Facebook page to enter.  And watch for my upcoming post on Austenesque - that is, novels written as sequels to, in the style of, or using the characters of, Jane Austen.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

No, not me.  Elysee over at Everything Barrett is reading a book a week in 2011 and blogging about it.

How about you? Have you made any reading-related New Year's resolutions? How's it going so far?

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