Freddy And The Dragon by Walter R Brooks is the last book in the series. Brooks had been pretty sick while he was writing this book and he passed away a couple of months before the book came out in 1958. There's a crime wave in the area and people and animals have see a headless horseman. Freddy gets busy on the case. Mrs Wiggins father Percy, who's a bit of a jerk and a thief, is captured. He was part of the headless horseman's gang. Freddy and a mole teach him some manners and refined ways so he can give up his criminal life and rejoin society. Sadly the dragon is fake, but it's a nice dragon, bleches black smoke, from burning bits of tire, and shoots flames, from a built in flame thrower. Freddy lives an exciting life, if not a dangerous one. It's probably not as good a book as the best of the series but it still was enjoyable. I'll always recommend the series, they are good entertainment, there are good values and lessons to learn from the stories and the characters actions. On top of that they are often funny.
A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer was something that I picked up because I liked her other books so much. It had been sitting on the shelf waiting to get read for ages. It finally surfaced and it was pretty entertaining. It's not a fantasy but it has some spiritual elements. An 11 year old girl in Mozambique is betrothed to an older icky guy so she steals a boat, some food, and follows the river to Zimbabwe. Her father is there but she hasn't seen in him several years. Her ill equipt journey doesn't go so well and she has to try to survive the best she can with the skills she has. She eats bugs! And likes it? There are encounters with baboons and hippos. I don't even like to see a stray dog in the neighborhood so this book just reinforces the notion that I wouldn't want to live in Africa with the skills and issues I have. That bug eating just creeps me out. Our heroine nearly dies on the journey but finally finds her way. She's befriended by some scientists and finally introduced to her father's family. That's not going much better than the jungle. Mostly it turns out rather well for our gal and she gets to go to school. Did I mention that she actually likes eating bugs! Farmer spent a lot of time in Africa and some of her fiction is set there. She's a darn good writer, and perhaps a bug eater, but her books are well worth reading. So far everything I have read was worth the read. She occasionally wins the Newberry Medal. I'm sure to re-read some of her books in the future.
Stravaganza - City Of Masks by Mary Hoffman is the first of a series of books about some kids who travel to another place that's like 17th century Italy but with some bit of magic. I'm not diggin' them and they are taking a while to get through. I bought them when I had all that nudie magazne credit. I'm not going to keep them.
Bloodtide by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson is the third book in the Never Land series. The mermaids get crazy when their water is poisoned by red particles in the water. The kids have to figure out what's going on and fix it. Hook and the Pirates find some gun powder and plan to blow up part of the island. They have to be stopped and things set back to normal. Boom! All better. Fun book, slight but still
Another month with only four novels. It was that City of Masks, just slowed me right down. It doesn't get much better for the next couple of months either. I got to find some thinner books.
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