Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley

Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Like so many others, I was drawn to this book because of the packaging. I thought it was cute and the concept sounded like fun. Also, like so many others, I was a bit disappointed in the end. The concept had a lot of promise but the author didn't quite deliver. I feel the author didn't follow the mythology very well. I'm a little confused about the ending. It happened so fast and so abruptly that it didn't really work for me. In fact, the action was very uneven throughout and some of the descriptions were quite boring. All that said, however, it wasn't the worst book I've ever read and I will consider reading another one before giving it up completely.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Overall, I liked it. I think comparisons to Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket are ambitious, but I enjoyed the story for the most part. Personally, I'm not sure it needs to become a series. I will read the next one just to see how it goes, but I'm not foreseeing an addiction. The children were cute and I liked their interactions with Mr. Benedict. Once they were away from him, however, I was no longer in love. I loved the selection process in the beginning and following along to see how the children solved the problems in their own ways. But, the second half of the book didn't really do much for me. As I said, however, I will give book 2 a chance even though I'm not sure it will be worth it. If you have an appropriately aged child in your life, however, by all means give this story a shot. It has enough adventure to keep a child interested and enough new vocabulary to make a parent or teacher feel good about them reading it.