Summer Reading is over for 2020. Hope you enjoyed it. The Dudes and I have online school to get to, so I’ll see you next year, when, I hope, the adventures can be in-person again! Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the page to see my bingo!
To print your own bingo card, click below:
(Use each book only once, Dudes!)
(And only books you haven’t read before count!)
(Sorry, Connor!)
To get a printable version of this card click these words.
Tyler’s Recs:
This week I’m reviewing Baby Zeke: The diary of a chicken jockey (an unofficial Minecraft autobiography). I got into this book because of Mark Sanderlin (the guy who reads the Dudes audiobooks). He is also the voice actor for the Baby Zeke series of Minecraft stories, so I checked them out. Let me tell you, first, that it’s much cheaper to buy this series in two volumes The Complete Baby Zeke: The Diary of a Chicken Jockey: Books 1 to 9: An Unofficial Minecraft Book and The Complete Baby Zeke: The Diary of a Chicken Jockey: Books 10 to 12: An Unofficial Minecraft Book.
The first book by itself is really short–under a hundred pages in paperback, and you’ll feel like you want more. To me it didn’t feel like a whole story but only the beginning of the story. The collections give you a whole lot more story for way cheaper than buying the individual books. You can get them as ebook or audiobook sets or printed and merged into one fat paperback. Of course, I recommend you get the multi-volume set in audiobook because Mark Sanderlin is awesome!
The story is about a baby zombie who doesn’t know why he’s different from other zombies or even how he came to be. Luckily, he soon makes friends with other Minecraft characters, like an adult zombie and a chicken who help him discover his abilities and take part in adventures.
These books are really aimed at reluctant readers like Connor or younger readers, like my little brother, Jayden. But the adventures are exciting, and I was anxious to learn more after the first book. Despite Zeke being a baby, there is plenty of Minecraft violence especially from marauding players (who, remember, are kids like you and me). It’s a whole new perspective.
This week I read Sophie Washington: The Gamer by Tonya Duncan Ellis. This book is a little young for me, but it was a fast read, if you’re looking for something to quick finish up your summer reading.
Your parents will love it because it’s about giving up screen time for Lent. (That’s a thing some churches do. Ryan and Connor tried giving up fighting once, but it didn’t work out.)
Anyway, Sophie’s little brother, Cole, gives up video games, and Sophie gives up tattling. You can imagine about how well that works out. Like a lot of siblings, Sophie and Cole are at odds until a dog comes into the picture, and suddenly they have to work together. Sophie even tries to help Cole when he screws up.
There is also some girl stuff–relationships at school. Not my cup of tea, just saying. But Teresa would be all over it. I thought Sophie was gonna be one of those goody-good, kiss-up-to-the-parents kind of girls. But she actually had a lot going on. And I could totally relate to her problems with her little brother (and her new dog). Cole is even into art, like Jayden! It doesn’t pay to be the oldest.
This week I’m reviewing a true classic by Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island! I don’t want to give anything away, but just the name tells you there is a treasure hidden on an island. And Jim Hawkins is a kid who’s caught up in the middle of it.
Long John Silver befriends him and takes him on board a voyage to find the treasure. But can you really be friends with a pirate? Jim has both friends and enemies on the ship. And, when they get to the island, everybody starts double-crossing each other–well, not everybody. You’ll have to read for yourself to find out who the good guys are.
Basically, if you’ve ever seen a pirate movie, this is what it was based on. And, to me, this is still the best story. Also, they talk like in “ye olde dayes”, which adds to the atmosphere and didn’t really slow me down. Get ready for blood-curdling chills and swashbuckling action!
The Player King by Avi. I read this because Mom bought it at a book fair and said I would find it fascinating. I’m not in favor of parents forcing kids to read certain books. But it worked out okay this time.
What would you do if you were an orphan, a servant in a tavern, and some priest came and told you you were royalty. It’s 1486 in Oxford, England, and Lambert Simnel looks a little like the young Earl of Warwick. Two powerful men tell Lambert that he IS the missing Earl who should be king. They teach him manners and give him a crown. They even raise an army to fight King Henry VII.
What will a peasant boy do with so much power? Who are his real friends and enemies? And what life does he really want? No one ever tells Lambert the truth. But I love how he figures out each powerful grown-up’s secret fears and needs. They think he is nothing so they can just use him.
But, by making him king, they are giving him power. Who will he choose to raise up or destroy? No one asked if he wanted this power. If he had a choice, what would he do?
This book is a great ride and a quick read, and it left me thinking what I would do with grown-ups kneeling at my feet. Awesome story–plus, it’s true and part of history.
In The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett, Miles Murphy is all set to be the celebrated prankster of his new school. The only problem is the school already has a master prankster–and he’s better than Miles (or is he?)!
Get ready for an all out prank war.
I loved this book for two reasons:
1) We Dudes love a good prank, and these pranks are original and funny.
2) The villain. The principal is the butt of some of the pranks. He also has it in for Miles, which makes him a true enemy. He’s clueless and funny, but still dangerous, so none of the pranks seem like they are just mean.
Also, there are cows. The setting is this weird town that’s known for its cows. And there are tidbits of funny cow info throughout the book. To me this is a mark of good writing–not cows, I mean–but the fact that each scene is funny or important. You never feel like you’re waiting around for the good stuff to happen, ’cause it’s all good! So, kudos to Mac Barnett. Also, the pictures by Kevin Cornell really add to the story. I was glad to see this book begins a series. I’ll definitely be reading more.
This week I’m reviewing In the Shadow of the Mammoth by Patricia Nikolina Clark. This book is about the time and the people that lived here in North America 12,000 years ago! The author was inspired by real archaeological finds in Washington State near where I live. The story is fiction, but there are a bunch of scientists who say this is really, maybe how these prehistoric people could have lived. Anyway, the story is about a boy named Zol who is 11 and about to become a mammoth hunter for the tribe. Only he’s scared because his dad was killed that way.
In the book, Zol and his friend, Tungo, live in the shadow of the ice-age glaciers. And they do exciting stuff like practice spear-throwing and get attacked by a wolf and a saber-toothed cat. They hunt and fish and gather for every morsel of food. And they make their own stuff, like weapons and a birdcage for when Zol tames a crow. I had the most fun reading this book and imagining how things were! You’re gonna love it.
Last year, I recommended The Adventures of Odysseus. That’s a classic road trip, of course. Well, now I want to introduce you to a more wacky road trip book: The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization, by Daniel Pinkwater.
Neddie is a kid in the 1940’s whose family moves from Chicago to Hollywood, California by train (with a car full of canaries!)
Right away he collects a secret Native American talisman and meets a ghost of a bellboy (which is a job kids used to have). And there are these fat aliens at the donut shop…Okay, so this book is completely weird. But Neddie has to save the world and it all comes together.
The thing is, with all this stuff coming at him, Neddie can handle it because his whole childhood reading adventure novels has prepared him. Plus, he meets some awesome friends (who will continue to have strange adventures in later books). And he has a strong sense of responsibility for the world and his part in it–which makes him the kind of hero I like to read about!
If you have an adult who will read to you, get them to read this book out loud. It is hilarious to see your mom shocked and confused when she turns the page and something really unexpected happens!
On the Dudes Summer Book Bingo card, here’s how this book qualifies:
RANDOM HUMOR, WHOA!, BACK IN THE DAY, SOMEONE READ IT TO ME, and TOTAL CRACK (it will crack your brain).
My review today is about A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh. And I’ll tell you right off that they talk in a weird old-fashioned way, which I love. Here’s an example:
“It was not named abroad for many days. Though my father had called it Plague that struck down poor Edward Cooper…”
The story takes place in the real village of Eyam, England, in 1665. And everything that happened in the story is real: like how the Plague came in a package from London, where they also had Plague. And the people at Eyam (which was out in the country) decided to quarantine the whole village in order to protect the villages around them from the sickness. They miss their family and friends, and they set aside their plans, and they argue a lot about what is the right thing to do. And, if you’ve been listening to the grown-ups this summer, this’ll all sound pretty familiar. Which is weird, ’cause in the 1600’s they didn’t have high tech medicine or the internet. The people of Eyam get their advice from their preachers, and their only medicines are herbs a local woman grows in her garden.
As far as sickness goes, Plague is way gross-er than COVID. People get these giant boils and fevers make them crazy enough to run out in the street naked. Then, when they look like they’re getting better, they suddenly die! Yikes.
The Plague nearly wiped out the village, but they sacrificed a lot to keep it from reaching others, so I have to think they were heroes. If you want to learn about it, this is a fast read, despite the fancy language.
On the Dudes Summer Book Bingo card, here’s how this book qualifies:
PANDEMIC (obviously), HISTORICAL, BACK IN THE DAY, or TIME MACHINE, or BECAUSE YOU’RE LAZY (because it is short).
I totally got absorbed by Nyxia by Scott Reintgen. A diverse group of tweens are taken to space and put in competition against each other. The stakes: money and healthcare for their families back home in return for a spot on a dangerous mining operation on a foreign planet. Of course, they can’t trust the company that is using them. Of course, these poverty-stricken kids can’t resist trying to win anyway. But Emmett, the main character, is also trying to be a good person.
This book was on my middle school’s suggested summer reading list. The competition, the secrets, and the mysterious substance, nyxia, gripped me from the start and kept me turning pages. But I gotta tell the truth: there are some harsh parts–“accidents” in the competition, virtual tournaments that result in real injuries, and even character death. It’s not like a video game. People suffer real consequences when their bodies are damaged. If imagining that is not for you, back away.
Also, there is some romance. I mean, kids like each other and there is some kissing. At one point, a boy and girl are kissing and tugging at clothing and go into a room for some private time. Don’t know what happened in there and don’t want to know. Just saying, parents might have something to say about it.
But the point of the book isn’t about violence or sex. It’s about knowing who you are and how you want to treat people, even when you don’t love them–even when they are trying to hurt you. It’s about choosing how you’re going to react and who you are going to be.
Here’s another big warning: the story doesn’t end with this book. Most of the mystery is about the destination planet which they just reach by the end of this book. So, if you get drawn in, like I did, you’ll have to read the other two books in the triad (huh, never heard it called that before).
On the Dudes Summer Book Bingo card, here’s how this book qualifies:
VIDEO GAME (the kids are constantly being tested in a real-life computer game), I DREAMED ABOUT IT (Yep, I had dreams I was on the space station river trek.), and TOOK ME TO A NEW WORLD (obviously).
If you like spies, you’ll like Spy School Secret Service by Stuart Gibbs. This is the 5th book in the series, but I had no trouble starting there. You’re inside the head of the main character, a spy kid called Ben Ripley. His thoughts give you enough of an idea what happened in previous books that you might decide to check out the others. Even if you don’t, this book is fun. The action takes place inside and under famous tourist sites in Washington D.C. like the White House, the Washington Monument, the Pentagon, and the Smithsonian.
The spy kid characters are fun and I was pretty invested in some of the relationships. I also liked that the main character wasn’t actually good at fighting, so he had to emphasize other skills.
It takes all kinds to make a spy team, you know.
You learn some neat insider spy stuff like how to infiltrate a high security area and how to contact your team over a tapped phone line without getting them in trouble. And, like the best spy stories, the real question is “Who can you trust?” There’s plenty of backstabbing and double-agent-ing among both the kids and the adults. So, watch your six. On the Dudes Summer Book Bingo card, here’s how this book qualifies:
AWESOME GIRL (Ben’s partner, Erica), I LEARNED SOMETHING, or HOW WE ROCK (the Dudes and I combine skills like this all the time!).
This week I read a book by an eleven-year-old girl. Her name is Eva Sharma, and she wrote a fantasy adventure book as a project during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book is: Willow, by Eva Sharma. Not only that, but she’s donating proceeds from the book to a non-profit that promotes better race relations! How awesome is that? My mom bought me the book, so here’s my review:
This book pulled me right in. With an orphan and a factory/orphanage, it reminded me of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events. The main character, Willow, certainly has to handle things herself, because the world the adults have created is kind of screwed up. I liked how something exciting happened every chapter, and also how Willow is so attracted to nature. She’s almost like a different kind of human being. She’s solving a mystery too–about herself and her family. I highly recommend this book.
On the Dudes Summer Book Bingo card, here’s how this book qualifies:
AWESOME GIRL (Willow), TOOK ME TO A NEW WORLD, PANDEMIC (created because of the pandemic), or BECAUSE I’M LAZY (at 79 pages, it’s a quick read)
This week I’m reviewing the first book of The Dark is Rising Sequence (Yikes! What a great series title!) which is Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper.
It’s about three kids whose family rents a vacation house with their mysterious uncle on the coast in Cornwall, England. This area has a lot of connections to the King Arthur legends, and right away the kids get involved with a mystery involving an ancient map and a group of evil villains who are desperate to find its secret.
I liked this book because it starts out very real and everyday and then gets mystical and dangerous. I also loved that it’s a clash between good and evil, and I’m all about that.
Like the Dudes, the siblings in the story are all different, but they have to work together. And they do awesome stuff like climb cliffs and explore caves. And there’s a loyal dog too. I’ll totally be reading the other four books in the series to see how it all comes out.
On the Dudes Summer Book Bingo card, here’s how this book qualifies:
WHOA!, AWESOME GIRL (Jane), TOOK ME TO A NEW WORLD (Cornwall), SIBLINGS TEAM UP, or TIME MACHINE because it’s all about what happened in King Arthur’s time and what will happen in the future.
For this first week, I’ll review two books…sort of. I read The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau and The City of Ember: The Graphic Novel which was adapted by Dallas Middaugh and with art by Niklas Asker.
Just gotta say, the graphic novel edition is top shelf. Having the pictures to help you, well, picture the story and the characters is pretty awesome. The problem is that there just aren’t many words. You get the story, but without the details. Despite the moody scenes and the expressive faces on the main characters, I felt like the story just went by too fast. I didn’t feel like I lived it the way I did in the full length novel.
It’s funny too, because I read the novel after the graphic novel, so I already knew what happens in this fascinating fantasy/sci-fi story. Lina and Doon are kids who live in Ember. Ember is this weird city without sunlight. The whole place relies on electricity, and the generator is breaking down. So right away there’s a mystery. Where is this place? Why are there people here? And why don’t they know how to fix the electricity?
I’m not going to give you any spoilers. Just know that Lina and Doon face some real danger and some exciting adventures when they try to save their city!
It’s a totally great ride, and I highly recommend the longer version so you can savor it.
On the Dudes Summer Book Bingo card, here’s how these books qualify:
The City of Ember: WHOA!, AWESOME GIRL, TOOK ME TO A NEW WORLD, and even SIBLINGS TEAM UP if you count Lina’s little sister, Poppy, as a team member.
The City of Ember Graphic Novel could work for those squares or GRAPHIC NOVEL (obviously), or BECAUSE I’M LAZY since it’s faster to read.
Here are how the Dudes books could be used on your card:
Save the Dudes: TOOK ME TO A NEW WORLD (Sherwood Heights, man!), WHOA! (this is the sound you make when you read something that blows your mind)
Dudes Take Over: HOW WE ROCK (there’s an actual rock band scene in it, but it’s also how my friends rock in general–what about you?), SOMEONE READ IT TO ME (get your mom to read it or get the audiobook),
Summer of the Dudes: I LEARNED SOMETHING (about how to simulate an emergency, for instance), BECAUSE I’M LAZY (This is the shortest Dudes book)
Dudes in the Middle: EVIL TWIN (Ryan says it’s Connor, Connor says it’s Ryan), MEME-RELATED (pretty sure there are a lot of middle school memes that relate)
Dudes Dog Days: WHAT TO READ TO YOUR PET, IT’S NATURAL (camp out, Dude!)
Tyler’s Card:
Looking for more reviews? Find previous year’s recommendations by clicking below:
