Thursday, May 4, 2017

Zacktastic, not fantastic.

Zacktastic Zacktastic by Courtney Sheinmel
My rating: 2 of 5 bites

All books by the same author aren't created equally....unfortunately.

Oh this book had potential. Zacktastic is written by the same author as the Stella Batts series, so I figured this is going to be good! Zack is a genie. He's also got major OCD, which was quite frankly annoying and giving me a little anxiety myself. But that's my problem! So Zack gets called on his first 'mission', 'request', whatever they call it and had a few boring parts I skipped/skimmed and then by the time it was getting good, the book was just getting to the ending phase. The action parts just weren't that exciting or engaging, perhaps because there was bullying involved and I hate bullying. I felt like the part about his father's death (that we learn about early on) was a foreshadow that this book is meant to be one of a series, just because the author didn't tell us enough yet about the dad.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I was hoping to. I feel like this was geared more towards the boy crowd, and while I love reading those too (hello Artemis and Gregor) if it's well done, Zacktastic just wasn't written well enough for me to give it more than 2 bites. Fortunately it was a freebie from kindleunlimited. If you feel so inclined to give this book a chance, check it out. It still got 5 stars from many on amazon.  Let me know if you read it and your thoughts!

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Stella Batts Needs a New Name...TEN book series!!!!

Stella Batts Needs a New Name Stella Batts Needs a New Name by Courtney Sheinmel
My rating: 4 of 5 bites

The best thing about a fun book is when it doesn't end...or in this case lasts through at least 10 books! Ten fabulous and fun books. I assume, I've only read 8. The 9th came out a year ago and the 10th one just last month! Each of these books is "written" by Stella herself. Or Courtney Sheinmel...but that's easy to forget. Stella writes in her journal and we get to enjoy each of her journals in each of her books!


Stella isn't annoying!

She acts age appropriate!

She goes through real life situations that many could relate to-having a friend move away, embarrassing accidents, annoying classmate, foolishly not listening to parents, getting cast in a tv show...okay maybe not that one.


These are clean reads, no swearing, nothing inappropriate that I would be embarrassed reading it to my own elementary school kid! And you've got to love a series that makes it obvious which number book it is! Right on the cover! Thank you thank you thank you.....Am I right or am I right?!


As an adult I give this 4 bites! Delicious! Not a life changing books, but super fun! Many of these titles are FREE on kindleunlimited. I hope your 6-8 year old loves them!