Review! Nightmares!

Authors: Jason Segel and Kristen Miller

400 Pages--Ages 8-12 (and up)

Published by: Yearling on July 28, 2015

Summary (from randomhouse.com/kids/nightmares):

Charlie Laird has several problems.

1. His dad married a woman he is sure moonlights as a witch.


2. He had to move into her purple mansion, which is NOT a place you want to find yourself after dark.


3. He can't remember the last time sleeping wasn't a nightmarish prospect. Like even a nap.

What Charlie doesn't know is that his problems are about to get a whole lot more real. Nightmares can ruin a good night's sleep, but when they start slipping out of your dreams and into the waking world—that's a line that should never be crossed.

And when your worst nightmares start to come true . . . well, that's something only Charlie can face. And he's going to need all the help he can get, or it might just be lights-out for Charlie Laird. For good.

Review! Gravity Falls Series Finale (Part 2--Post-Thoughts)

Post-Thoughts:

When I first finished Weirdmeggedon Part 3, I wasn’t sure what to think. I didn't feel satisfied because I felt that there were a bunch of questions unanswered. For example, what was Dipper's real name? What happened to Time Baby? What
happened to Blendin (and really the rest of the space time guys)? Is there significance that some characters have 4 fingers, some have 5, and Ford has 6 (other than Ford is an anomoly)? I know that Time Baby and Blendin were disinigrated by Bill, but I thought that was kind of a quick anti-climactic ending for them. I figured that they would show up in the last episode and help Dipper and Mabel beat Bill once and for all, but that didn't happen. I was never one of those extremely perceptive viewers who were able to crack all the different codes in the show, and after digging around the internet a bit I saw that some of the questions I thought were unanswered were actually answered in the codes. For example, one of the codes at the end of the episode said (from gravityfalls.wikia.com),

IT WILL TAKE 1,000 YEARS FOR TIME BABY'S MOLECULES TO RECONSTITUTE, AND WHEN HE'S BACK, HE'S GOING TO BE VERY CRANKY.

As for Dipper's real name, people say that it was hidden on the tree with all the writing on it at the end. Regardless, after watching the episode these questions (and more) were burning in my head, but after searching around the internet I realized that most of these questions were actually answered in a secret way. I guess in this day and age where the internet makes sharing information so easy it's not a big deal, but I can only imagine if there was no internet (or I decided not to look for it) then I would never find that information.

Review! Gravity Falls Series Finale (Part 1--Pre-Thoughts)

It's finally come. The ending of Gravity Falls. Tune in the evening of February 15, 2016 on Disney Channel to watch Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls!

Review! The School for the Insanely Gifted

Author: Dan Elish

304 Pages--Ages 8-12

Published by: HarperCollins on Hun 21, 2011

 

Summary (from amazon.com):

Daphna Whispers is insanely gifted.

At age two and a half, she composed her first sonata.

At age eight, she completed an opera.

And now, at eleven and three-quarters, she is orchestrating a piano rhapsody.

With a résumé like that, it's no wonder she is a student at the prestigious Blatt School for the Insanely Gifted. But as sixth grade draws to a close, Daphna's mind is far from the upcoming "Insanity Cup" competition. She's preoccupied by her mother's disappearance two months ago.

When a mysterious man breaks into Daphna's small New York apartment, Daphna discovers that her mother's disappearance wasn't a random accident. Her mother knew something—and now somebody is after Daphna. What starts out as a simple fact-finding trip to the basement with her friends spirals into an international expedition. And while Daphna hopes to uncover the secret of her mother's disappearance on her global trek, the last thing she expects to uncover is an outrageous secret about the Blatt School.

And one insanely shocking secret about herself.