a series of unfortunate events

the bad beginning
the reptile room
a series of unfortunate events series 1 & 2
lemony snicket
ya/adventure
harpercollins
published 2009

Dear Reader, I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune. In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast. It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing. With all due respect, Lemony Snicket

I know that these books are much beloved and considered at this point children's classics, but I just couldn't love them.  And it's not that they're written for younger kids.  I have no problem with Harry Potter & I love Gregor the Overlander, but maybe I'm just too much in need of happy endings in kids books.  And Mr. Snicket constantly reminds us that these books are not happy ending books.  At least he's honest about that.  I both love & hate the way so many words are defined in the book.  Hate because it gets tiresome when I already know the definitions.  It breaks up the pace of the book for me.  I love them because thinking as a parent this is a great way to introduce words that kids might not know and define words in a fun and easy to incorporate way.

I do also love the 'back story' of Lemony Snicket.  I love how Daniel Handler created this character and made this entire story to explain why Lemony Snicket is writing about the Baudelaire children.  

I'm not saying these are bad books, I just could love them and don't have much desire to finish out the series.  Maybe Emma will love them!

prince of the elves

prince of the elves
amulet series #5
kazu kibuishi
graphic novel/fantasy/adventure/ya
scholastic
published 2012

Emily survived the chaos of the Guardian Academy, but Max Griffin has stolen the Mother Stone. With it, the Elf King forges new Amulets that will give him the power to invade and destroy the nation of Windsor. Emily and her friends lead the soldiers of the Cielis Guard in a fight to stop him, but Max stands in their way. Emily seeks information from the Voice of her Amulet, but instead she discovers the Voice is much more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

Here we are full of history, Trellis's history mostly, but bits of Max's as well although there is still much mystery surrounding him as well.

The war is beginning and the Guardian Council is quite outnumbered.  Emily is getting stronger though and she is done waiting for answers.  She's a great character.  And the ending, although not the end, was great.  I only wish I had started reading this when the series was complete so I didn't have to wait to find out what happens next!

the last coucil

the last council
amulet series #4
kazu kibuishi
graphic novel/fantasy/adventure/ya
scholastic
published 2011

Emily and her friends think they'll find the help they need in Cielis, but something isn't right. Streets that were once busy are deserted, and the townspeople who are left live in crippling fear. Emily is escorted to the Academy where she's expected to compete for a spot on the Guardian Council, the most powerful Stonekeepers. But as the number of competitors gets smaller and smaller, a terrible secret is slowly uncovered--a secret that, if left buried, means certain destruction of everything Emily fights for. 

Nothing is as it seems & nothing is as it should be.

In the last book I was thinking to myself that Emily & Trellis needed to learn to trust each other in order to get what they both want.  This time I was thinking Emily needs to trust others less and herself more.

That's really all I can say about that without giving too much away.

The art is amazing, as usual and the story moves along quickly.  Maybe too quickly in some spots.

Evil, evil, evil everywhere....

the cloud searchers

the cloud searchers
amulet series #3
kazu kibuishi
graphic novel/fantasy/adventure/ya
scholastic
published 2010

In the third installment of the thrilling Amulet series, Emily, Navin, and their crew of resistance fighters charter an airship and set off in search of the lost city of Cielis, which is believed to be located on an island high above the clouds. The mysterious Leon Redbeard is their guide, and there's a surprising new addition to the crew: the Elf King's son, Trellis. But is he ally or enemy? And will Emily ever be able to trust the voice of the Amulet?

A little slower than its predecessors, The Cloud Searchers takes us to the skies on the hunt for a city that is thought to have been decimated.  Myths say that the Council took the city to the clouds to protect and rebuild.

Even though there was a lot going on, I felt like nothing happened.  How does that make sense?  I don't know.  But surprisingly, Luger is becoming one of my favorite characters.  He kind of reminds me of Uncle Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

the stonekeeper's curse

the stonekeeper's curse
amulet series #2
kazu kibuishi
graphic novel/fantasy/adventure/ya
scholastic
published 2009

Emily and Navin's mother is still in a coma from the arachnopod's poison, and there's only one place to find help: Kanalis, the bustling, beautiful city of waterfalls. But when Em, her brother, and Miskit and the rest of the robotic crew aboard the walking house reach the city, they quickly realize that seeking help is looking for trouble, dangerous trouble. 

I've got to say, there's something about a walking, fighting giant house that makes me happy.  Especially when it's drawn so magnificently.

We're introduced to a whole new cast of characters, starting with Leon Redbeard, a fox who is destined to help Emily on her path and serve as a sort of bodyguard/sensei to her.  We find the people of Kanalis are slowly turning into different sorts of animals and are oppressed by the rule of the elves.

Emily fights to keep control of her own self as the amulet's promises sound more and more tempting.  Navin is left to care for their mother and command an army of misfit animals who would rather die than give into the elves. 

Beautifully drawn, great pacing and with much emotion and anticipation.  Kazu Kibuishi tells a sweeping story that has only really just begun.

the legend of zelda manga series

 

oracle of ages
four swords, part 1
four swords, part 2
minish cap
a link to the past
phantom hourglass
akira himekawa
graphic novel/manga/adventure/ya
viz media
published 2009-2010

The Legend of Zelda manga series is a collection of 10 books that are written in collaboration by two women, A. Honda & S. Nagano.  When they started they played all the games so they could get an idea of the story and then they sat an elaborated to create the books.

I'd say they've done a great job.  The Four Swords story might have been my favorite just because of the 4 Links trying to get along and work as a team.  They were pretty funny kids.  Although, Phantom Hourglass was truly in the style of The Windwaker (my favorite Zelda game thus far) and even had Tetra in it!

There's a great attention to detail from Link to his companions to the enemies he fights.  It's so much more interesting to read the conversations and see the familiar places from the games from a different perspective.

the stonekeeper

the stonekeeper
amulet series #1
kazu kibuishi
graphic novel/fantasy/adventure/ya
scholastic 
published 2008

After a family tragedy, Emily, Navin and their mother move to an ancestral home to start a new life.  On the family's very first night in the mysterious house, Em and Navin's mom is kidnapped by a tentacled creature.  Now it's up to Em and Navin to figure out how to set things right and save their mother's life!

Why does every graphic novel I read require the death of one or both parents!!  It's so sad.  Like a Disney movie!

It's bad enough, the loss of a father, but actually witnessing his death is sure to make a kid grow up fast.  And Emily has.  She's serious and strong and she doesn't have a problem making tough choices.  Still, she's a young kid and pushes back a little to show she's not entirely happy with the changes that are taking place.  She finds a beautiful necklace in her great-grandfather's old study and from that moment on things will never be the same.

The art is without a doubt fantastic.  I was recommended this series by a friend who had mentioned that Kazu Kibuishi is doing the reprint covers for the Harry Potter series.  I've only seen the first one so far and I love it so it was pretty much guaranteed I would love these.

Miskit is my favorite.  How can you resist a pink bunny that talks?!!?  The story does move fast, I figure mostly because this is geared towards kids.  But it's interesting and page turning and full of mystery.

lego crazy

Last weekend we took a quick trip down South to Carlsbad, just a bit north of San Diego to go to LEGOLand.  We figured we would take one last trip before the baby gets here.  We had come across an episode of Sand Masters where they did a giant Star Wars LEGO sand sculpture for the grand opening of the Star Wars mini land and it really made up want to see it in person.

So we picked Emma up from school on Friday and told her we were going on a special trip, but didn't tell her where.  When we finally did she was very excited, but still managed to pass out thanks to the long car ride and late hour!

We got there a little too early the next morning and had our picture taken in front of the park.  Emma was dying to get inside and ride some rides.

When we picked up the picture on the way out the guy at the counter commented on how we lucked out with our timing and got a picture with no one behind us.  Uh, yeah, lucked out as in got to the park and hour before it opened.  So yeah, that worked out nicely.

We headed out to the mini worlds first because that's really what I came to see.  It was cool because they had buttons everywhere that the kids could push that did something interactive with the scene.  It kept Emma from getting bored since she couldn't play with anything over there.

Washington, D.C.  They even had the Vietnam Memorial.

Las Vegas!

30 Rock!

This is harder to see because it's so small, but it was crypts in New Orleans.  The zombies are attacking!

Hollywood, CA

Pier 39 in San Francisco with the sea lions and all!

I loved it, but my favorite was this little scene:

SO AWESOME!  Even Emma, who has never watched an episode said 'Mama, I think that's Buffy!'  I'm not sure if this scene is here all the time or if it's just an addition for Halloween, but I'm glad we caught it!

Then there was the Star Wars Mini World, LEGOLand's newest edition.  I took at least a hundred pictures there, but I'll just post a few...

It really is amazing when you think about how much work went into these scenes.  It takes me awhile to do one building.  To do all this is mind blowing!  This would probably be my dream job!!

Halloween was getting started so we got to see some of the decorations that would be more prevalent in October.

Not a Halloween decoration, but we thought the bathroom signs were funny.

This dragon was huge!

We ended up getting an ECV for me because I was having some pretty bad cramping after the walking around the mini worlds. Instead of pressing our luck we got this instead and it helped immensely.  I was terrified of running over people.

I wish I had a video of Emma walking off this water ride.  It was hilarious!  They were soaked, but she loved it!  She just didn't love wet jeans afterwards.

The next day we spent the morning at the Sea Life Aquarium that is semi-attached to the park.  Took about an hour.  Nothing too special, but it was nice and fun to see all the LEGO aspects.  I didn't take too many pictures in there because I suck at fish pictures.

All in all it was a great trip.  I definitely would recommend LEGOLand if you've got kids between the ages of 4 and 12 though 12 might be pushing it.  Emma loved it and there was tons of stuff for her to do there.  There's lots of healthy options for the kids for food too which was nice.  They even had baby food in case you forgot!  We didn't go into the water park while we were there because it was chilly and we didn't want to get Emma's hopes up, but from what we did see it looked lots of fun!