Story Thieves by James Riley is a story about a girl named Bethany who can jump into novels. She has this ability because her father was a fictional character and her mom was a real person. One day Owen, a student in class with Bethany finds out she can jump into books and wants to visit his own favorite book. She decides to let him visit his favorite book if he promises not to talk to any of the characters, but he breaks this rule and the main characters of his favorite book, Kiel Knomenfoot and the End of Everything, get free from the book and begin to wreak havoc on the real world. They release all the other fictional characters from other books and Bethany must put all the characters back while Own pretends to be Kiel so that the story does not change. Story Thieves includes a quality story line, however the dialogue is lacking and the settings lack description.
Story Thieves, though the story line is entertaining, the dialogue does not meet the standard of quality. Riley often uses choppy or unnecessary dialogue that does not move the story forward. On page 143 in Chapter 18, Charm and Owen have just destroyed the Magister’s tower and she tells Owen, “If I hadn’t teleported us back to the ship right after you cast that spell, we’d both be buried underneath an entire tower full of rubble, if not disintegrated.” This dialogue does little to move the story along and only states what the reader already knows: that the Magister’s tower has been destroyed and show more Charm and Owen would have been destroyed with it. Dialogue is supposed to enhance a readers understanding of a character and help to further the plot. This dialogue does neither of those things.
The settings in the story are also lacking. The reader does not have a clear description of the Magister’s tower, Jonathan Porterhouse’s home, or Magisteria. The reader gets a clear look at Quinterium, but not inside the palace of Dr. Verity, whose palace is described “water flowed against gravity in energy fields that transported it to higher floors. Lights exploded at atomic levels, miniature nuclear bombs that continually formed new atoms, then split those, creating perpetual light without using any energy”(324). Though this description seems to hold a lot of details, the reader does not get a clear picture of what the inside of the building actually looks like. This describes only two cool gadgets in the palace but does not tell what the palace interior looks like. With no explanations of the shape, architecture, furniture, or size of the room, how is the reader expected to create an accurate picture in their mind of the palace and Owen’s surroundings.
Though Story Thieves by James Riley has an interesting and complex plot, the story lacks quality dialogue and setting description. The dialogue does not move the story along and often times repeats what has already been said in exposition. The settings of often not clear or are described in very few details with the exception of one or two minute portions of the place that are describe in extreme detail. show less

This is a good story about family and seeing the people you don't see very often. It talks about sharing which is good for young children and learning about sharing their home and their food and their toys, especially with their family. This can also help highlight for children how important family is and how much fun it can be to have them visit even if they are annoying while they are visiting you, and if you miss them when they are not at your house.

Tooth Fairy magic is about a boy who gets woken by the tooth fairy and learns that she is new to her job and needs help to deliver all the money. He goes with her because he knows where the houses are and helps her. The story is full of pictures that have a blue color scheme and include glitter in each of the pages to show the tooth fairy's magic. This story shows that boys can believe in and go on adventures with fairies too, and is good for children who want to believe childhood stories and continue to go on adventures through books.

This story is good for young children who like an adventure. In the town of Chew and Swallow people get their food because it falls from the sky. One day the food gets too large and it is destroying the town, so they make sandwich rafts and move to a new town. This book, though it is a good story might scare children who are very young, however older children will find it appealing and probably humorous. The pictures in this book are incredibly detailed and help to embellish the story and move it along to keep the reader engaged. This is important when working with young children.

This book would be good for young children. The words are simple and there are not many on the page. Because the story is one children are familiar with, it is a good book to help children begin furthering their ability to read by providing them with a familiar story that has illustrations they can enjoy. Any one can enjoy the pictures in this book because they are full or color and are incredibly artistic. The pictures tell most of the story while the words are just there to help supplement them and help children both young and older enjoy the story.

This book is a riveting story about what Abe Lincoln's life was like when he was a lawyer. Though the story depicts him as a great guy with very few faults, they do show how he enjoyed a good joke and show that he liked to help people. The book says Lincoln was against slavery though it does not tell that he once held slaves himself while he was president. This is still a quality story to help young children know that Lincoln was more than just the president of the United States.

This book has great illustrations that will capture children's imaginations and make them want to keep reading. It is suitable for younger children and includes a story about realizing that sometimes the best place to be is the place you are from. Though the gingerbread man gets eaten in the end of the story, children can see that everyone has a purpose in life and this can help the to enjoy the story as well as have sympathy for others while enjoying a goofy story about a cookie running away.

Peter Pan is a riveting story about a boy who can fly and lives in Neverland. Children who go to Neverland do not age and get to have great adventures their whole lives. Peter takes Wendy and her brothers on an epic adventure to defeat Captain Hook. This book is good for older children who want to read about adventures. Though Disney had romanticized the tail of Peter Pan, the illustrations in the book are worth taking a look at and the story is still exiting.

This book is good for students who are new to learning English or Spanish and can bring together students who do not speak the same language to read a book together.

This story is light hearted and funny and a good book to spice up a collection with since it is not serious and will add variety.