Dinosaur Boy Saves Mars by Cory Putman Oakes

Dinosaur Boy Saves Mars is a preview copy from NetGalley.

This book is about three kids.  Sylvie is a Martian, Elliot is a human, and Sawyer is a human-dinosaur hybrid!  The kids go on a mission to save Sylvie's dad who has been captured by scientists.  They go to Mars to see if they can save him.  When they finally get to him, they figure out that he is partnering up with the Plutonians who want to "gene" every martian.  How will Sawyer and his friends save Mars?

I really liked this book because it was a cool adventure where the kids get to go all around the galaxy.  I like how the humans know that there are martians and they are friends with them.  I also think it's funny how Sawyer is part dinosaur and has to wear tennis balls on his spikes because they are sharp.  One of my favorite parts is that when a person gets "gened", they still look like themselves but have some parts from another animal.

Museum Mysteries - The Case of the Portrait Vandal by Steve Brezenoff

I received several books for review for my blog from Capstone Publishing, including Museum Mysteries.

This book is about four kids--Raining, Amal, Wilson, and Clementine.  Their parents work at four different museum.  Every day, in the summer, they go to a different museum to look at the exhibits.  They find out that there is a graffiti artist who is writing on all the important things in the museum.  One of the guards catches them looking at the grafitti and thinks they are the ones doing it.  They get away before getting in trouble, but they have to find out who the real grafitti artist is.

I really like this book because it was a mystery and the kids had to find out who really did it without getting themselves into trouble.  I liked how the setting was almost like a real place in America today.  I also liked how the pictures helped explain what was really happening in the story.  I think that this would be a good series for kids who are starting to read chapter books.

Lawnboy by Gary Paulsen

Lawnboy is about a boy who, for his 12th birthday, gets his grandpa's old riding lawnmower from his grandma.  At first, he thinks it is just a piece of junk, but once he gets the hang of it, he loves it.  Soon he finds out that everybody wants their lawns mowed and will pay good money for it. Apparently, the last lawn crew everyone had, the one worker ran away with someone else's wife!  They stopped using that crew because they were worried.  Soon, he meets a guy named Arnold who is a stockbroker.  He makes a deal with Arnold that if he mows Arnold's lawn, Arnold will get him something in return.  Arnold gives him some business tips and his business grows really fast!  What will happen to his business?

I really liked how the boy starts his business in only a few days and he gets a business partner and stock.  I think it's really cool that the boy makes a lot of money mowing lawns, but I want to have a riding lawn mower first.

Choose Your Own Adventure Series

I have five of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books.

In these books, you are a kid and you go on an adventure.  On the first pages, it tells you a little about who you are and what is happening.  Then the book give you your first choice.  That first choice can decide your entire adventure or just a little part of it.  Throughout the book, as you're reading, you'll get a bunch of little questions that will decide what is happening and where your ending will be.  Most of the time, there will be two choices, but sometimes, there are three!  Your story can end really fast and short or it can take a long time.  Each book has many different endings and you can read it a bunch of times to find the ending you hope for.

In Skateboard Champion, you are trying to get the ending where you become a skateboard champion.  In Space Vampire, you go on a mission to try and destroy a space vampire.  In The Mystery of Chimney Rock, you and your friends have to escape from an old house.  In Master of Tae Kwon Do, you are trying to save your friend who you met in China.  In By Balloon to the Sahara, you are flying in a hot air balloon and drift another land.

In each book, you have to decide how you want your story to go.  There is also a series of Choose Your Own Adventure for younger readers.