The Secret of the Junkyard Shadow is a very creative mystery story.It is about three cousins who happen to see a man taking stuff from a junkyard. Then some people say some of their stuff has disappeared! It turns out that the junkyard shadow was only trying to do good deeds! I recommend this book for ages 8 to 10. This book is not violent at all, but it is a very intriging story.

Written by Hadley (age 9)

My nine year-old daughter has written a review of the new Buddy Talk, a new conversation starter toy from www.aroundthetablegames.com. She likes books like
Coke Vs. Pepsi , a book that asks people to make choices between two things to get them to talk about what kind of person they are. What seems like silly, surface level questions to an adult, are intriguing to kids. Whether you drink Pepsi or Coke has obviously no real value to understanding who we really are. We adults are smarter, focusing instead on what vodka we drink, car we drive, or shoes we wear.

Buddy Talk, though, looks at loftier things, like kids’ hopes, fears and dreams.

Around the Table Games has other variations on this theme for families and kids needing new topics to talk from.   

Her (very short) review:

Buddy Talk is fun to play by yourself or with your friends. If you take buddy talk to a restaurant it’s great to entertain you or your friends. It’s also great to start a conversation. It has a cool clip so it can hang from your backpack.

11 Birthdays is one of my favorite books of 2008.It is the story of a girl named Amanda who always has her birthday with a boy named Leo. For their eleventh birthday they don’t have their birthday together. Then, something odd happens: their birthday starts repeating over and over again. Why is this happening? Read this book to find out! This is a great book and a mind-bending mystery.I think this book is for ages nine and up. I think that Wendy Mass is a great writer and I think she should write other books too!

Hadley ( age 8 )

Well, sorta… Excite Books (ExciteBooks.com) is a subscription book service that sends books monthly to your child, along with a few extra toys and goodies to keep him or her interested. Packages start at $4.95 per month and books are selected based on grade level and sex of child.

ExciteBooks is the brainchild of Austin George, a commercial pilot, who has always had a commitment to education. Before founding Excite Books, George volunteered as a motivational speaker in schools, where he was often surprised at the lack of books in the school library. George created Excite Books to “add excitement and energy into a child’s reading activities by allowing the child to be an active participant in all phases of learning and development through responsibility, motivation, and giving back to the community.”

A key element of the Excite Books program is a large plastic return prepaid envelope so you can send used or unwanted books back at the end of twelve months. Unfortunately, you can not use the bag to send all of your extra books to the chosen school since postage weight has already been determined.

Plans are available at a $4.99, $9.99 and $14.95 (one, two and three books per month) levels and comes with an “excitement guarantee.” If the books aren’t interesting to the child, he’ll refund the purchase price. Each package is engineered to excite a child, starting with the red metallic envelope. Three-book subscribers also get added educational activities.

Our sample package had books that immediately interested both my four and eight year olds, though they might not have been books they would have personally picked. This looks like a fun gift from faraway grandparents that want to foster the joy of reading in a small child, but can’t be there to help buy books on a regular basis. The price is right, the message is good, and as parents suffering always from too much clutter, we like the option of easily sending the books to schools that need them.