Shannon's Review - Between Worlds by Skip Brittenham

Title: Between Worlds
Series: ???
Author: Skip Brittenham
Genre: Fiction, Juvenile, Fantasy, Magic
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons for Young Readers
Received: Purchased
Release Date: August 2016
Pages: 256
Rating:


Author Skip Brittenham’s Official Websites:



Website:
http://experienceanomaly.com/

Blog:
None

Facebook:
None

Twitter:
None

Instagram: 
None


Shannon’s Thoughts:

Two teens, a boy, Marshall, and a girl, Mayberry, decide to take a hike in their local woods to find a legendary tree. Even though the forest is known to be like the Bermuda Triangle for hikers the two find the tree that town folks call The Wishing Tree. They soon find out the tree’s power is much more than a myth. They without thinking wish to travel to another land and learn magic. There wish comes true and they get more than they bargained for. A story filled with adventure, magic and a tie-in to an augmented reality app that enables you to see various characters in 3D.

I picked this book up at a used book section. What attracted me was the augmented reality aspect. I had never experienced it within a book. It was interesting. The story got darker than I expected for a kids book. It did keep me wanted to know what was going to happen to Marshall and Mayberry. They ended up spending much more time in the world than most characters would in a story such as this.

While the augmented reality was a neat hook sometimes the app did not work for me. It was fun to see the creatures in 3D but the journal entries were long and definitely took you out of the story. In fact, the journals seemed to belong in another book.

Between Worlds was an okay story with a fun gimmick. I might read another like it or I may not. It was an experience.

Shannon's Review - Wade And The Scorpion's Claw by Tony Abbott

Title: Wade And The Scorpion’s Claw

Series: The Copernicus Archives #1

Author: Tony Abbott

Genre: Fiction, Juvenile, Adventure

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Received: Borrowed

Release Date: September 2014

Pages: 224

Rating:

Author Tony Abbott’s Official Websites:

Website:

http://www.tonyabbottbooks.com/

Blog:

N/A

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/TonyAbbottBooks

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TonyAbbottBooks

Shannon’s Thoughts:

An action and adventure series like The National Treasure movies but with children.  The Kaplan family have fallen into a dangerous escapade searching for relics to keep them out of evil groups searching for them as well. The villainous groups have captured Wade’s mother and are not afraid to kill to get what they want.  

This book is a continuation of the Copernicus Legacy but called the Copernicus Archives.  If I understand correctly it takes place in between the 1st book in the Copernicus Legacy and the second 2nd book.  So it is 1.5 in the series. I did not know this because the book says it is number 1 in the series of the Copernicus Archives. So even though I was able to follow and enjoyed some of the adventures I was curious about things I have missed in the story like how Wade’s mother was captured and just how did this adventure start.

I had three problems with this book.  One, these kids are smart, a little too smart.  I mean, as far as I can tell they are American teen/pre-teen (?) that seems to know quite a few different languages like Latin and Portuguese. That is a little hard to believe. Two, the ending was so disappointing.  They didn’t the get what they needed and no info on where to go or how to save the mother. Three, why write a series that goes in between the original series. I picked this up in the library and it said it is number 1 in the series but technically it is not. Way too confusing.

I do not know if I will read any more of this series or it’s “spin-off”.  I believe the only copy the library has is the second book in the Archive series and none of the Legacy Series. I think it is just too confusing.