Children's Books

I found the Star Darlings books at my library (only the first 2 are out so far) and I was really impressed with the worldbuilding and character designs. I can easily see this becoming a hit!

I also saw the Emily Windsnap series, which also interested me The latest book seems darker than the other ones, though I haven't looked into it too much.

edited 2nd Nov '15 9:30:56 AM by lalalei2001

I just clicked on Star Darlings just to see what it was about, and honestly, the concept of people whose job it is to grant wishes sounds like something I'd be interested in. I hope they're well-written. If they're too cheesy or the stories uninteresting, I wouldn't like them.

It's Disney-published, so does that mean a TV show/cartoon I hope? It says an "animated web series" is planned, so I'm hoping it doesn't skimp on the plot.

edited 2nd Nov '15 10:45:12 AM by BonsaiForest

I find the worldbuilding pretty interesting, and the plot seems solid. The first book has Sage not do as well on her mission as she could have, which affects events of the second book, and the second book ends with a cliffhanger as well as an unresolved Hate Plague, so there's an overarching plot as well as episodic stuff.

edited 2nd Nov '15 10:52:03 AM by lalalei2001

How long would you say the books are, or what's their reading level?

Also, I'm really thinking of liveblogging Samantha Stone and the Mermaid's Quest. But I don't want to do it if no-one will read it. The book is quite wild, but pretty fun, and with a misleading title (it's darker than the title suggests, and the mermaid in question does almost nothing). It's weird as hell, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Anyone here interested in reading a liveblog of it if I do one?

Sounds interesting! I'd be up for reading it.

As for the reading level, I'd guess 3rd-6th grade? Hard to say. They're about 150 pages.

edited 2nd Nov '15 11:22:36 AM by lalalei2001

Awesome. I'll try to find the time to revisit Samantha Stone. Now I have to dig it up, since I'm not sure where in my room it is.

I may check out that other book series sometime too. It sounds cute and interesting.

Added some Star Darlings tropes gained by reading future book summaries. The only one that doesn't have a summary is #12, the final (so far) book.

I should have time this weekend to read Samantha Stone and the Mermaid's Quest.

I got it on Kindle form as well as physical, though I found the physical copy as well. Every book should have a digital form! I'm very annoyed that Pyrates doesn't. I'd be happy to give the physical books to my nephew to read when he's older, but they're out of print and I'm not up for buying them again, unless I can guarantee I'll always have them.

I admit, I'm a lover of technology, and a big believer of the idea that computers can let us keep things around forever, and keep infinite copies of them. I hate the fact that not all books are available in downloadable form.

I added the first part of my Samantha Stone liveblog. If you find it interesting so far, you can leave any comments down below. Anyone's open to check it out.

It covers the first two chapters.

I'm now at 9% through the book according to my Kindle app. (It begins around 2%, so I didn't read quite as much as I might be making it sound)

edited 6th Nov '15 1:32:31 PM by BonsaiForest

I added the second part to my liveblog of the strange kids' fantasy adventure novel Samantha Stone and the Mermaid's Quest. Any thoughts you have I'd be interested in seeing.

The story is progressing at a nice clip, and I'm liking how quickly it moves through its setup.

Made a trope page for the Messenger of Fear series. Anyone else read these? I kinda got into them because they remind me of early Yu-Gi-Oh chapters, with the harsh games and punishments. I'm still not entirely sure if I like the series or not, but it's interesting enough,

edited 10th Nov '15 10:59:23 PM by lalalei2001

Harsh games and punishments? What do you mean?

Did you check out my liveblog btw?

Early Yu-Gi-oh chapters, as well as the Toei anime, had Yami Yugi play dangerous Shadow Games with villains of the week that had wronged Yugi or his friends. They lost the games and were faced with a Penalty Game, which was a punishment generally designed for that specific person.

edited 11th Nov '15 10:40:04 AM by lalalei2001

I saw an episode of if not Yu-Gi-Oh, then something similar. It was weird how the characters used cards and talked specifically about their strategies, how they were going to summon this or that, and then watch the battles play out directly using game rules. And yet the actual real-world stakes were high.

It's like, why bother to play by the rules then? Why not just pull out a gun and shoot the bad guys or something? It struck me as silly, trying to make the rules of an abstract card game play out seriously in the story as if the story itself were the card game.

Star Darlings' web series is out now.

http://stardarlings.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Charmed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCXQ06yaNDs

edited 16th Nov '15 10:43:20 AM by lalalei2001

Part 3 of my Samantha Stone liveblog is up. The story begins to get more interesting and stranger.

Too bad here at work I can't click those You Tube links, and I tend not to use this site at home. Hmm. I'd really better find some way to get the time to check out Star Darlings.

edited 17th Nov '15 11:10:04 AM by BonsaiForest

That narrator. Is a thing. XD

Made pages for The Dungeoneers and The Fairy Chronicles, two books I found at the library again.

edited 17th Nov '15 12:00:18 PM by lalalei2001

The Fairy Chronicles?! What a coincidence. I encountered that book years back, when it was originally vanity published! I was somehow intrigued, and looked up info on it, as well as bought the first one. It had your typical vanity published GIS Syndrome cover, but the actual story was decent.

The author was interviewed, and said she didn't have any advice to give other authors ("I don't feel qualified to give writing advice at this time."). She also said that while she was grateful at what her publisher did for her so far, it wasn't helping her book series.

I must congratulate her on getting out of vanity publishing and into "real" publishing, and getting 60 books published. Wow. Now I'm wondering how she managed to make such a huge jump.

And that narrator, you'd be surprised, he tones down his act considerably about halfway through the book and stops being so joking. It's such a weird book. Weird presentation, weird elements.

edited 17th Nov '15 12:46:16 PM by BonsaiForest

Apparently only 12 or so books were published as standalones and the other 52 were released in volumes.

This I found from their Amazon page XD

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=fairy+chronicles

A standalone book: http://www.amazon.com/Primrose-Magic-Snowglobe-Fairy-Chronicles/dp/1402211635

edited 17th Nov '15 12:47:43 PM by lalalei2001

So the stories were grouped together in volumes later on? I wonder why that is.

I'm guessing they ran out of publishing money, since the volumes seem self-published.

https://www.overdrive.com/series/fairy-chronicles These only go up to book 13.

That explains the volumes' prices. And also why they're grouped together like that: to justify the price! Well, she did what she could. Now I'm all the more curious about the backstory behind this. I'm interested in how creative things get made, and the stories behind them.

Oh man, I just rediscovered The Seventh Tower series! I always wanted to read that! I saw it at school AGES ago in a Scholastic catalog. It was around the same time Animorphs and Goosebumps came out. I think our school did get the first book in eventually but by then I'd forgotten about it.

Animorphs and Goosebumps were strange, in that they were both Scholastic's big series, but they could hardly be more different.

• Goosebumps kept changing up its protagonists. Animorphs had a specific set of 5.
• Goosebumps told self-contained stories, though some had sequels. Animorphs was a continuing epic story with more and more complications added.
• Goosebumps tried to scare readers, but had no death (usually). Animorphs killed off characters both major and minor.
• Goosebumps was light reading with no major themes. Animorphs was loaded with themes.

They're like night and day. Goosebumps didn't prepare kids for what they were about to experience with Animorphs.

Anyway, I added the next chapter of my liveblog. And this is where the story starts to get very strange.

I haven't read The Seventh Tower series, but I would if just because it's by Garth Nix. The author was amazing at world-building in the Old Kingdom series.