“Mars” by Ben Bova

There is a great science fiction book that I just finished reading. It is called “Mars,” and the author is Ben Bova, one of my favorite authors. So let me take a few minutes to tell you all about this wonderful book about the first human expedition to Mars.

Twenty-five astronauts on the International Mars Mission travel to Mars in two ships: Mars 1 and Mars 2. The landers touch down and the base dome is inflated, and the work begins. About 30 sols into the 50 sol mission, the crew finds a mysterious rock formation at Tithonium Chasma, and one of the astronauts, Jamie Waterman, thinks it is an ancient Martian cliff dwelling where intelligent Martians once lived.

So about five astronauts take off in a rover to explore Tithonium Chasma, and to see if the cliff dwelling is artificial, and not a natural formation, which most of the crew believes it to be. On the way there, they get unbearable sick, and discover while they are down in the canyon that they have caught scurvy, because their Vitamin C pills were exposed to pure oxygen during a meteor strike, and another three people back at the dome head out in a spare rover head out to find the others and bring them back to the dome.

But they have to come back—before the astronauts leave Mars without them, leaving them to die. Oh, and I forgot to work in that astronauts Joanna Brumado and Ilona Malater find a Martian bug in the valley, an actual living Martian organism.

So please buy this book or take a trip to your local library to find this book and read it. You won’t reget it, I promise. Just to wrap it up, the book in a nutshell is about the first human expedition to Mars that gets in trouble on a traverse out to Tithonium Chasma when they all get scurvy.

Thanks

 

New Magic Tree House Books Out Soon!

Hello there again!

I have some very exciting news for you. On Tuesday, March 10, 2009, the 41st magic tree house book, Moonlight on the Magic Flute, released. Now, for those of you reading that follow the series or have an interest in a few of the books, I have the next two books in the series!

On July 28, 2009, the 42nd magic Tree House book, A Good Night for Ghosts and its nonfiction companion, Ghosts, will come out. The first one will feature jazz musician Louis Armstrong in 1915, and the latter will tell about ghost stories.

Next year, in 2010, the 43rd Magic Tree House book will come out. In an interview, author Mary Pope Osborne said she was collecting information to write a book tentatively titled “Leap Year With Leprechauns.” In this book, Jack and Annie will visit the west coast of Ireland in the 1860s and make friends with a girl named Augusta, who later became the Irish author Lady Gregory.

As you can imagine, I, being a huge Magic Tree House fan, am very excited, and cannot wait for these three books to release. In that time, I will try to write my own version of the books coming out, and talk endlessly to myself about what it will be about!

 

Moonlight on the Magic Flute

On March 10, 2009, the 41st Magic Tree House book by Mary Pope Osborne released, titled Moonlight on the Magic Flute. In this book, Jack and Annie visit Mozart in a summer palace in Austria!

Please buy this book, as it is funny, entertaining, and just good when you have nothing to do!

 

New Patterson Book

There is a new James Patterson book out that you should check out. Run For Your Life is the second book in the Michael Bennett detective series, which focuses around Detective Michael Bennett, a father of ten. He tracks a killer called the Teacher in New York City. With all the trouble at home, and the crazy police cases, it’s a miracle the guy even makes it through the day.

So check it out.

Run For Your Life by James Patterson AND Michael Ledwig

Thanks.

 

A Tribute to Barack Obama

It is almost time for Barack Obama to become our 44th President. Please show up at Capitol Hill if you can, that is, if you have tickets, and witness history.

Thank you for taking the time to vote for the first African-American President of the United States.

 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, dear reader!

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, dear readers! I hope you have had a good holiday season, but don’t forget today is New Year’s Eve, so the holidays are not over.

Have a good time tonight and I might talk to you tomorrow.

 

Election Over!

The results are in from the 2008 national Presidential election. John McCain and Sarah Palin had 24 % of the votes, with 138 electoral votes. Barack Obama and Joe Biden returned 69 % of the votes, with 338 electoral votes. BARACK OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN ARE THE NEW PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT ELECTS!

They will each be sworn into office at noon on January 20, 2009. I can’t wait to see the innauguration! Joe Biden will make a good vice-president, even though the vice-presidents are good for doing nothing. It’s the president and Congress who make all the decisions about our treasured country. So the vice-president just travels around the world promoting peace and sleeps in his grand bed in the Vice-President’s mansion.

I hope you are satisfied with the turnout of young voters, because many experts say that the young voters decided this election. Have a great night, and see you in a few weeks.

 

Columbus Day, Books, and the Election

Today is the observance of Columbus Day! We look at this holiday in a special way because it marks the day in 1492 that the explorer Christopher Columbus landed in North America, and mistook the Native Americans for Indians, because he believed he landed in India.

There are some great books out this month. Have you ever heard of the Mostly Ghostly series by R. L. Stine? I have all of the book in that series. In fact, the first one, Who Let the Ghosts Out?, was made into a movie. It was just shown on Disney Channel a few nights ago for Wiz-tober. You show find that movie and watch it. I think it’s pretty good. If you want to find out information about your favorite books and authors, check out www.fantasticfiction.co.ukand Type in your favorite author(s) name(s) or book(s) name(s).

I hope life is good and well. Oh, and be sure to think about your choice for President of the United States carefully, if you’re old enough to vote. Be sure to vote on November 4, 2008.  So I’ll see you hopefully on November 5, 2008, to tell you all about the Presidential election. Thanks, and see you soon.

 

Mary Pope Osborne and Magic Tree House series

It’s September, and two Magic Tree House books release. The first of the two is #40, Eve of the Emperor Penguins, in which Jack and Annie fall into a mythical land while exploring a frozen continent. The second is the Research Guide #18, Penguins and Antarctica. This is Jack and Annie’s guide to the Antarctic and the life forms there.

These books release on September 23, 2008, which is Tuesday.

Another great story. Mary Pope Osborne was driving about three weeks back, when she spotted a little white dog alongside the road. She stopped, picked up the dog and tried to find its’ owner. After a while of searching, she found the dog’s owners, and they said they rescued the dog and were now looking for a home for it. So Mary and Will Osborne took the dog in, and named it Little Bear. Now Mary has three dogs: Joey, Mr. Bezo, and Little Bear, and they get along great with each other. You can check out this story at www.marypopeosborne.com

I hope you have a great few weeks and I’ll post a blog again when I get a chance. See you later, and hope you visit the Pope Osborne’s blog, and pre-order the two books on www.amazon.com. Bye!

 

Back from Vacation!

Hello there blogging friends! I’m back from vacation in the beautiful town of Hull, Massachusetts, which enabled me to get to Boston for a week. I’m sorry I can’t post pictures, but let me tell you what I did. On the first day, we didin’t do a whole lot of anything besides drive 6:30 and find the house we stayed in. Second day: we relaxed. Third day: went to Boston, New England Equarium, and Legal Sea Foods! (Go there if you have the chance! The food is excelltent!)

Day 4: Go to Boston, shop, go to beach- Day 5: Not much of anything- Day 6 : Beach and Boston shops, trolley tour of city- Day 7: Come home

So , you have read my short version of my summer vacation in Boston. While in Boston, I happily shopped for books in Barnes & Noble and found two new books- The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson (july 2008)- Blue Screen by Robert B parker (2006)

have fun!

chriska

 

Vacation- Absence from Blog

It’s August, one of the hottest months of summer, which means that many people go on vacation to out-of-the-way places.  I will be leaving for vacation tomorrow, August 2, 2008. I will not be back from vacation until August 9, 2008. I hope you have fun waiting for me to return. When I return I shall write a report on the week I spent on vacation, and maybe even include some pictures. So see you hopefully in one week!

The Book Reader,

chriska

 

Magic Tree House #41 Title Revealed

For all of you Magic Tree House fans, including myself, get ready to hear the next title in the series, following the fall publication of Eve of the Emperor Penguin on September 23, 2008. The title for Magic Tree House #41, releasing on March 24, 2009, will be Moonlight on the Magic Flute, where Jack and Annie travel to 18th century Austria to help Mozart.

That is so exciting! I found that out just a few minutes ago. To see the truth for yourself, visit these websites:

www.magictreehouse.com

www.randomhouse.com (type in Moonlight on a Magic Flute)

www.amazon.com

Get ready for an exciting Magic Tree House adventure! See you later in a world of imagination!

 

Dear Readers Summer 2008

Dear Readers,

I can’t believe that summer is already here! It just seems like the time has gone so fast. I can remember something that happened in 2006 like it was yesterday! And I can remember something that happened yesterday like it happened a few seconds ago! Well, I have a good report on SAIL, by James Patterson. It released on June 9, 2008. The book was about the Dunne family going on vacation, but it soon turns into a vacation trip from hell. Eighteen-year-old Carrie Dunne tries to drown herself and the other kids in the family are calling the boat trip punishment. But then, a storm takes the boat off course, but the boat manages to stay afloat and not sink. Then, the boat explodes. Finally, the family makes it to a deserted island, where Katherine Dunne, the mother and the person telling most of the story, alomost gets killed by their first dinner on the island: a huge snake! But then Katherine’s second husband, Peter Dunne, plans to kill his family and act worried about them after he returns from what he calls “a search for his lost family.”

Then at the end of the story Katherine and Peter are in court, and Peter wins the case, and inherits $16,000,000. Then the book ends with Katherine saying, “What do you want to do next summer? Anyone up for a sail?”

So that book was really good and I enjoyed it. I just finished reading all 386 pages of it this morning. Then I read a 236 page, medium-sized print, book called “King Arthur and the Knights of the Round tably” by Howard Pyle. I finished reading that in 1 hour. Those books I put down on a list. I’m trying to keep a county of how many pages I can read over the summer. So far, and I started reading and counting yesterday, the count is 624 pages. My goal is to read 4,000 pages over the summer. Last summer I read just a little over 3,000 pages.

Well, I need to end my report for Summer 2008 now and check out some new news about Mars on www.yahoo.com. See you sometime soon!

The Book Reader

 

June Books

I know it’s been quite a while since I last posted a blog, but I have some new and exciting news which I collected during that time. There are a few wonderful books coming out which I will share with you now.

SAIL by James Patterson- This book is about a family that goes on vacation. But then the vacation goes terribly wrong when the family meets a murderer. Releases June 9, 2008.

Maybe later I’ll look  up the other book I have for you, but I can’t remember if right now. So let me tell you about the books that I am reading.

TALES FROM THE ODYSSEY series by Mary Pope Osborne- The six books in this series for young readers retell the adventures and tragedys of the Greek hero Odysseus.

MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, FRIGHTFUL’S MOUNTAIN by Jean Craighead George- Those three books tell about Sam Gribley, a boy who ran away from New York to live in the Catskill Mountains. The books also tell about his trained falcon, Frightful, who lives with Sam in a burned out tree on one side of a mountain.

So now you know the books that I’m reading. I think that as soon as I get finished writing this, I’ll most likely clean up my floor, and then settle down either on my bed or on my chair here and read another Odyssey book, maybe #3: Sirens and Sea Monsters. I’ll try to think of the second exciting adventure that comes out in June. But if I don’t, here are some great websites which you can go to to find information on your favorite author(s) and books.

www.fantasticfiction.co.uk

www.amazon.com

www.google.com

On Google you can search for your favorite author’s website or your favorite book in the BOOKS section. Have a great time and I hope you read a lot of exciting books!