Month: December 2019

The Case of the Toxic River by Cindy Cipriano

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The blurb: Grace Brooks is a total and unashamed nerd.

She loves her life, her friends, and her little dog Neutrino. That is until one day she’s uprooted to Miller’s Island, North Carolina, to start over as the new kid in school.

There she meets Jack, and they quickly bond over their love of science and all things nerdy. Together they embark on an epic adventure, travelling through time to solve the mystery of The Toxic River.

My review: My last review for 2019.

This book reminds me of a cozy mystery, but for younger readers. But this one has a twist. Time travel. I saw that mentioned in the blurb and instantly grabbed a copy. The two main characters, Grace and Jack, are right for each other. Nerds through and through. And there’s nothing wrong with being a nerd. I’m a bit of one myself, so I guess that’s why I related to them, regardless of the age difference.

I’m not much good at science, and to be frank, I have no idea if the science side of the mystery is based on anything remotely close to possible. But, I believed what I was told in the story. Not that I believe in time travel, but I don’t disbelieve it either. 😀

What I’m trying to say is that the author wrote the science part of the story in a way that sounded legit. Be honest, if you were a teenager in the 1970s and they (whoever “they” are) told you that you would be sending a letter through thin air rather than by post, would you have believed them? No way. Your looney alert would be going off, big time. But here we are in 2019, and that is precisely what we do. I don’t know anyone who posts a letter these days, we all send a text message or an email. So in another 40 years, maybe we will travel back and forward in time. Who knows!

I enjoyed The Case of the Toxic River. I enjoyed the blossoming relationship between the two main characters. And I think that if you read this book with an open mind, you will too. Recommended.

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The blurb: A loving threesome, they ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. Old Dan had the brawn. Little Ann had the brains, and Billy had the will to make them into the finest hunting team in the valley. Glory and victory were coming to them, but sadness waited too. Where the Red Fern Grows is an exciting tale of love and adventure you’ll never forget.

My review: Wow, I grabbed this from the library and really didn’t know what to expect. Honestly, all I knew was that the story was about a boy and his two dogs. Turns out the book was published in the early 1960s, but who would have guessed. It felt modern and timeless, even if the book was obviously set in years gone by.

The boy wanted a pair of hunting hounds and saved all the money he earned over a two year period in order to buy them. Old Dan and Little Ann became his precious dogs and the story unfolded showing how the boy trained those dogs to be the best raccoon-hunting team in the Ozark Mountains.

To be honest, I’m not a fan of hunting (hence the four stars instead of five). Some of the hunting scenes were too much for me (as in they were too long and descriptive, and I really didn’t want to know about it). However, that aside, the book is a good story. Young readers will learn that if they want something badly enough, they have to work to get it. That’s a lesson well learned in our “instant” world.

Be warned, this is a book about dogs and naturally, there will be moments that pull at the heartstrings. I found those scenes extremely difficult to listen to (I had the audiobook version); especially when I was driving. At one time, I had to turn the book off and continue later because it’s difficult to drive and cry at the same time. And dangerous.

Where the Red Fern Grows is a good story. Young boys will like it, and even young girls will enjoy the bond that develops between the boy and his hounds. Recommended.