Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger by Louis Sachar has another 30 stories from the really tall school. If you don't remember, the school was built with all it's rooms piled one atop the other, instead of being horizontal along the ground. There's no elevator and it's 30 stories tall. I bet it's the tallest school in the world. And by world I mean a story in a book. Still, I'm glad I didn't go to that school, all the interesting things going on aside, that marching up and down the stairs several times a day does not sound like fun to me. This is the third book and it originally came out in 1995. It's still pretty funny. When we last left the school it was full of cows. The school year doesn't start for the Wayside School on time while Louis, the school's yard teacher, cleans out the cow poop. It takes over 240 days. There are some old characters and some new characters. Mrs. Jewls, who teaches on the 30th floor, has to take a break from teaching to have a baby. There are some issues with the substitute teachers. They get resolved and there's a pretty happy ending. Mrs. Zarves makes an appearance, teaching her class on the 19th floor. This is odd because there is no 19th floor and no Mrs. Zarves. She gets a new job and leaves the school. This is easier than it should have been, since she doesn't exist. The school finally gets an elevator but it only works the one time. Mrs. Jewls returns and Louis gets some action. All is well.
The Merlin Effect by T. A. Barron is the second book about Kate Gordon that I have read. I think it's the third one. I have the other but it's not surfaced yet. Kate and her dad are working off the coast of Baja California. He's looking for the wreck of a Spanish ship that sunk in 1547. It might have the legendary Horn Of Merlin aboard. They find it and some weird stuff happens. Barron ties in the legend of Merlin to the ship and the still living inhabitant. Can you say fountain of youth. There are some villians and lots of running about. It's a pretty good read but I won't keep it. There are so many more that will re-read much better.
Dragonsdale by Salamanda Drake is a great example of a manufactured novel. It just feels like it was produced to match the foldout cover. It's an ok story and the writing is average but there's something missing. Mostly a writer that understands fantasy stories. The story is about a dragon ranch. It could be a horse ranch, it means so little. The young girl of the series, the second one just came out, can't ride dragons because her mother was killed riding dragon's and her dad doesn't want to lose his daughter too. She has to overcome that and win the big dragon riding contest on the young dragon that the bitchy spoiled daughter of the rich guy had been riding so poorly. Underdog much. I don't mind formula books if I like the characters. There's no one much to care about here. Toss the book into the pile to go back to the store.
Temple Of The Dragonslayer by Tim Waggoner was much better than the previous book. It too is a series book. I picked it up with some credit at 6th Chamber Books. They had volume 1 and 3 and all I bought was the 1st. I won't bother with the rest. It was ok but nothing great. A young girl wakes up in the midst of trolls and cannot remember who she is or how she got there. Some people befriend her and that jump starts the quest for her memory. There are some magical bad guys with an agenda but I'll never know how that comes out. This is another one that I will toss into the return pile. Get me some credit and buy some more books and LEGO. Reducing space and weight. That's the nice thing about LEGO, much lighter per square inch. I know I'll appreciate that as I get older.
The Story Of The Amulet by E. Nesbit turned out to be better than anything so far this month. Some kids get a magical amulet that takes them through space and time. They have some adventures with the assistance of a sand-fairy or a Psammead. They travel through time looking for the other half of the amulet. There's some humor and a lot of eating. J K Rowling and Diana Wynne Jones both have commented on how much they like Nesbit's writing. It reads pretty good for a hundred year old book. I am slowing picking up her books in paperback. You can download most of them over at Project Gutenberg.
Fantomas by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre is a 1911 novel from France. That's the original cover there. You can read a synopsis of the book at the Fantomas website. It's a very detailed story about a supercriminal. The writing is better than I expect from the turn of the century. There were 32 novels written between 1911 and 1913. Fantomas is a pretty nasty piece of work. He kills and steals from people, mostly the rich. There is a cop who chases him but to no avail. There are a series of regular characters, some of whom are introduced in the first novel. Sperhauk had lent me his copy and I buried it under the stuff on the table for months. Finally it surfaced and I read it. I rarely borrow books. I might not be in the mood for something and there it is staring me in the face. Or I bury it and forget it's there. That's more common. It was a good read, I was always interested in what was coming next. The character Fantomas wasn't a guy I would like to know. I prefer my criminals to be like The Saint. He's cool and he only kills bad guys who really need killin'. Mostly he just robs 'em. And no one enjoys the rich being robbed more than me. If the other 31 novels turned up magically I probably would read them. I'd just hate to borrow them. It might take a while to get through them.
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