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This article was published 05/09/2020 (2159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the inaugural Summer Reading Challenge for Kids comes to a close, we’ve collected another set of reviews from our young crew of book lovers, who eagerly offered up their opinions on the books from three reading lists, curated in conjunction with our parters at McNally Robinson Booksellers.  (Read the first set of reviews here.)

 

Bloom

By Kenneth Oppel

HarperCollins, 320 pages, $22

My name is Gabriel Leon and I am 10 years old. The book that I read was Bloom by Kenneth Oppel. I like the book because it was really action packed. It had lots of cool creatures. It was a long read. It was a lot of fun. It left off on a very good cliffhanger. The one problem about it was some parts were very confusing. If you missed a page you couldn’t understand what was happening. If you wanted to show someone the book at a later page, they wouldn’t understand because you have to read the whole book to understand it. I give it four stars because it is really good except for some confusing patches. Most sequences of the books are really good. I love it. It’s really good. I love the characters and the stories. You need to read it! P.S. I would pay a ton of money to watch this book as a movie.

 4 out of 5 stars

— Gabriel Leon, age 10

 

Heartwood Hotel Book One: A True Home

By Kallie George, illustrated by Stephanie Graegen

HarperCollins, 288 pages, $17

My name is Stella Leon and I am seven years old. I read a book called Heartwood Hotel: A True Home by Kallie George and illustrated by Stephanie Graegen. I like how Mona found the hotel and made a lot of friends. The thing I didn’t like was that the wolves were trying to attack Heartwood Hotel. It was really cool how this mouse named Mona increased her bravery. I give it four stars. This book is amazing!

4 out of 5 stars

— Stella Leon, age 7

The book was amazing because Mr. Heartwood understood Mona right away because a deal is a deal!

Heartwood Hotel is a heartful story just like its name! It is also a sad story because Tilly is rude to Mona who loses her parents like Tilly and she has to change to multiple homes. I only know one reason and that reason is her home gets flooded and that is how she finds Heartwood Hotel, the tree with a heart carved into it. Heartwood Hotel is where Mona meets Tilly, Gilles, Mrs. Higgins, Ms. Prickles, Mr. Heartwood and Ms. Juniper Jones.

4 out of 5 stars

— Bethany Baker, age 8

 

 

 

Surviving the City, Vol. 1

By Tasha Spillett, illustrated by Natasha Donovan

Portage & Main Press/Highwater Press, 56 pages, $19

This book is about two Indigenous girls, Miikwan and Dez. When Dez’s grandma falls ill, Dez is told that she can’t live with her grandma anymore. Dez is heartbroken, and runs away. At school Miikwan sees a post on Facebook from Dez’s grandma saying Dez did not come home last night.

Miikwan is scared for her best friend because Dez is not responding to her text messages and is not in school. Will Dez be found or will she not?

This book tells us about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and we learn how it feels to have a mom who’s gone missing. I thought that this was a really good book that everybody should read when they can.

4 stars out of 5

— Hana Henderson, age 12

 

Coop the Great

By Larry Verstraete

Yellow Dog/Great Plains Publications, 160 pages, $12

Coop is little wiener dog who has had many names and many owners. At first Coop doesn’t look at everything very brightly, his owners weren’t very kind to him, and he was hurt. Then Coop is adopted by Mike. This story is about Coop adjusting to his new home with Mike and his grandchildren, understanding his new family and even helping them on some occasions. Coop is also learning that he can be a hero too.

I like that this book was about Coop’s point of view and that Mike was so gentle and kind. There was more to this story than I expected. At first, I thought this would be just a story about Coop’s life, but I didn’t expect the ending.

I didn’t like that Coop was hurt in the story and had bad memories of his owners, it was kind of sad, since I thought he was sweet sounding dog. I would give this book four stars, since I really liked it!

4 stars out of 5 

— Amy, age 9

 

Tooga: The Story of a Polar Bear

By Shirley Woods, illustrated by Muriel Wood

Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 32 pages, $10

A polar bear named Ursa shares an ice floe with Kwa, an arctic fox. Ursa makes a den to give birth to her cubs, Tooga and Apoon. When he is two years old, Tooga falls asleep on an ice floe to wait out a storm. Weeks later he is able to swim to shore and smells grilled fish. On his way there, a girl on a bike nearly crashes into Tooga. He goes to a cabin and steals food from a cooler before humans scare him off. Canadian soldiers later corner him from all directions except north, so that he will head home. He finds a dead whale on the way and sees a white fox. My favourite character in the book was Kwa, the arctic fox. I recommend this book because you can learn a lot about polar bears and how they hunt.

4 stars out of 5

 — Dominik Andrzejczak, age 8

I really liked both Tooga and Dragons in a Bag. I wanted Nana to keep reading. I wish there were more illustrations and pictures. In Tooga, there were words that I did not understand and we had to discuss. My favourite character was obviously Tooga because he’s the main character.  Thank you for the free books.

4 stars out of 5

— Billy Kovacs, age 7 (giveaway winner)

 

A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying

By Kelley Armstrong

Puffin Canada, 288 pages, $12

Rowan is a twelve-year-old girl who will inherit the thrown of Clan Dacre, but wishes she could swap places with her twin brother and become the Royal Monster Hunter instead. In Rowan’s kingdom, the oldest royal child becomes the Royal Monster Hunter and the youngest becomes the ruler, even when you are two minutes apart.

But when her aunt dies and her brother’s leg is badly injured, Rowan breaks tradition and trains to becomes a royal monster hunter. Training to be a Monster Hunter isn’t easy. With only a few months to train, Rowan must defeat a griffon in order to save the thrown from Heward and his kids.

There is nothing that I actually dislike about this book. There are somethings that did surprise me. It came together smoothly at the end and I like that. I liked that there were monsters and how Rowan makes friends with them. The ending was unexpected and it made me want to read the second book, The Gryphon’s Lair… so I did!

I would give this book five stars since I really, really like it (it is tied with some of my all time favourites) and was disappointed that there are no other books after book two yet. I am looking forward to another book if the author writes one after “The Gryphon’s Lair”.

5 stars out of 5

 — Amy, age 9

 

Dragons in a Bag

By Zetta Elliott

Random House, 176 pages, $9.50

This book is amazing! Because you can’t judge a person by their looks! Dragons in a Bag is so good because when it was lunch time at my house my mom asked me to come up but I just had to finish the chapter!! Its so full of magic! I just loved it!!

4 stars out of 5

— Bethany Baker, age 8                                                                                             

The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane

By Julia Nobel

Sourcebooks, 320 pages, $11

The Mystery Of Black Hollow Lane is a very good book. It is about a girl named Emmy whose Dad has disappeared and a mom who is very busy with work. Emmy gets shipped off to Wellsworth, but, before she leaves she finds a strange box hidden in the attic of her house with some strange medallions in it. Once she gets to Wellsworth, she meets two friends and together they discover the secret of Black Hollow Lane. I liked this book a lot because of the twists and the story line is very fun and interesting. It keeps you on edge. I rate this book 5 stars.

5 stars out of 5

— Claire B., age 9