D. J. MacHale

I was really surprised by how much this final volume made me think about morality and responsibility. Sure, there was some very hand-wave-y science (cleverly winked at in the text itself) and some implausible survival stories, but there was also depth and intelligence to the underlying ideas. I started the series because it was fun and thrilling and s**t blew up (I love it when s**t blows up), but, by the end, I was thinking about the issues and questions it raised. Bravo, Mr. MacHale, for show more being a sneaky bugger and making me question my own assumptions while I happily "watched" destruction rain down and the end of the world be narrowly averted. show less

D. J. MacHale is EVIL! He has written a page-turning thriller narrated by a sympathetic main character and raised more questions than he has answered.

Tucker Pierce is a high school freshman on the island of Pemberwick, Maine. He and his family moved there after his father lost his job as a civil engineer in Greenwich, Connecticut. His dad has a gardening business and his mom is a free-lance accountant. Tucker loves the island with its tourists and beaches. His best friend Quinn can hardly show more wait to leave and do big things. But Tucker is content and happy to let things be just the way they are. He isn't an ambitious boy. He prefers to stay under the radar. He has a fear of failing at anything that keeps him from stretching himself.

Tucker's idyllic life is about to come crashing down on him. A death at a football game, a strange new performance enhancing drug called Ruby, and an invasion by a US Navy division called SYLO change Tucker's, Quinn's and his new crush-turned-friend Tori's lives forever. The people are told that SYLO has come to the island because of a new disease on the island. The island has been cut off from the rest of the country.

Lots of things don't add up for the kids. Why have they never heard of SYLO? How did SYLO manage to get so organized that they could bring in troops, weapons, equipment at such short notice? What are those mysterious black ships that make musical sounds when they travel? What does Mr. Feit, who is pushing Ruby, really want? Why is he running from SYLO? The kids decide that they have to escape from Pemberwick and let the rest of the country know what is happening there? However, the sea is being patrolled by Navy ships and helicopters and that won't be easy.

This is an exciting story that doesn't shirk from hard things. Characters, even important ones, die. People lie and betray. And Tucker needs to step up and take a stand. He can't just let things happen. He needs to act.

It isn't clear to Tucker, or to the reader, who the bad guys are. No character is all good or all evil. Like, Tucker, we are left with questions about what is happening. But D. J. MacHale's most evil action lies in the last three words of this story: TO BE CONTINUED... show less

This is the first time I have lost sleep worrying about what will happen in a book. I should have just read the whole thing and stayed up the whole night! Yeesh!

But this book is just amazing. This whole series is amazing. Each book goes to a new territory that has a problem and each problem is something we can all relate to. This book actually got me terrified--because its situation reminds me of what might happen if a huge company like Wal-mart takes over everything.

And the characters in show more this series are hugely complex and developed, and really seem like real people. There is no "one-faced" characters. And because of that it's even easier to relate to them and to be gripped by the story.

There are so many things in this book that throw you off-balance. D.J. MacHale includes so many mind-blowing twists and turns you feel positively overwhelmed! I think it's this, the feeling like you are going through the same troubling feelings as Bobby does, that makes this series so popular. It's incredibly addicting, and it does not let you go.

This book is one of the best in the series.

And this series is the best. xD show less

A cute little rugabee - a creature that lives in caves deep underground, subsisting on krinkle nuts - longs to be a princess in this rhyming picture-book. Not content with her dark cave home, she sneaks up to the human castle high on the hill, and into the princesses' room, where she is caught trying on their pretty dresses. When discovered, the princesses pretend to help the little rugabee in her attempt to become one of them, but in reality, it is all part of a cruel joke. Fleeing home, show more the poor little creature is understandably distraught. Will she aid the unkind princesses, when they are threatened by a truly monstrous wiffle...?

I enjoyed this original fairy-tale, with its message of self-worth, and being true to your own inner vision of wright and wrong, immensely. The rhyming text by D.J. MacHale, better known for his Pendragon series of middle-grade fantasy novels, reads very well, and would make an excellent story-time selection, I believe, especially for slightly older picture-book audiences ready for somewhat longer stories. The watercolor artwork by Alexandra Boiger, illustrator of the wonderful Tallulah picture-books by Marilyn Singer, about a young would-be ballerina, are absolutely adorable, capturing the cute but somehow also monstrous charm of the eponymous heroine. Recommended to anyone looking for original fairy-tales, for picture-books in rhyme, or for children's stories about learning to accept yourself for who you are. show less