Daemon by Daniel Suarez

Top-notch techno-thriller, with equal emphasis on the "techno" and the "thriller"

Published in 2009 by Signet

Daemon is part 1 of a series. I do not know if there will be more than one sequel but the next book, Freedom, is coming in 2010. (Note: Click on this link to see the review I wrote about Freedom)

A computer program created by a mad genius has infiltrated the world's computers and is creating a 'new world order'. A revolution is in the mix and it will be led by the world's disaffected and misfits - the tattooed computer geeks, the pierced gamers, crazed psychopaths that treat all life like it is a NPC in a computer game, etc.

There have been plenty of books, movies and TV shows about the computer that has taken over a building or a spaceship, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey . but this is the first one I've heard of in which the entire world economic system has been hijacked. I'm no computer expert, but and I am competent at most things concerning computers and the thing is, Daniel Suarez makes it seem so possible...

Daniel Suarez

Lots of techno stuff, tons of action, lots of death and destruction. The book is a rolling rampage and I'm going to be looking for the sequel!

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: DAEMON

Reviewed on June 9, 2009.

You Wouldn't Want to Be in Alexander the Great's Army!: Miles You'd Rather Not March by Jacqueline Morley and David Antram

Published in 2005.

I ran across this series at the local library. I'd never heard of it before but I certainly enjoyed You Wouldn't Want to Be in Alexander the Great's Army: Miles You'd Rather Not March. It is aimed at 4th - 8th grade, depending on the reading level.

The cartoonish characters are fun, the history is accurate, although limited. That's okay, it is intended to be an introduction to the topic, not a graduate thesis. The nice thing about it is that it shows that history is not "boring." It is full of fascinating stories.

My only complaint about the book is the map. There is one, in the front. I think there should be one for every topic to show where Alexander is moving his men to now!

I would gladly include this book in any 4th-8th grade classroom library.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Find this book on Amazon.com here: You Wouldn't Want to Be in Alexander the Great's Army!: Miles You'd Rather Not March.

Reviewed on June 2, 2009.

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Civil War Soldier: A War You'd Rather Not Fight by Thomas Ratliff and David Salariya

An entertaining, historically solid introduction to the Civil War for 4th graders and over

I just discovered this series and I've been reading a few of them for fun this summer.

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Civil War Soldier is entertaining and it contains solid, accurate history presented in a visually interesting format.

While I've been looking a few of these over for my own personal entertainment, my almost 4th grade daughter has been sneaking them out of the stack and reading them without any encouragement from me. Imagine! Kids surreptitiously reading history!

The only complaint I have about the back is the total lack of African American faces in the drawings. The book notes that 179,000 African American soldiers served in the war, which is good but fails to include a single African American in the drawings. While it mostly makes sense due to the strict segregation of the army (the book follows one soldier from Connecticut who joins before the First Battle of Bull Run and stays until Appomattox), if I had been the editor I would have insisted on including African Americans on pages 26 & 27, the pages that talk about the siege of Petersburg and the Battle of the Crater. African Americans made up the bulk of the Union troops in the first wave of the Battle of the Crater and it would have been a great place to include some different faces in the art.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on June 11, 2009.

This book can be found on amazon.com here: You Wouldn't Want to Be a Civil War Soldier 

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece by Fiona MacDonald and David Antram

A fun way to get your essential bits of history 

As a history teacher, I think just about all of history is fascinating - the cultural tidbits, the technology, the religious beliefs, the wars, the governments. It's all fascinating! But...convincing my students is another matter entirely.

This series does an excellent job of looking at history from an interesting point of view and showing why it was tough. The art is accessible and just cartoonish enough to not be one of those boring illustrations that fill history books and plenty realistic enough that to clearly see and understand what is going on (for example, the women who are weaving on pages 16 & 17 are cartoonish but their loom looks pretty realistic).

In You Wouldn't Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece, you learn a lot about slavery in general that can be applied to any time - the drudgery and humiliation, the loss of freedom and the uncertainty. There is also a lot of Ancient Greece-specific information such as their attitudes towards foreigners and women.

I'd recommend this book for students in grade 4 or higher. I'd even recommend it for adults that want a little pain-free learning!

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on June 9, 2009.

You Wouldn't Want to Live in a Medieval Castle by Jacqueline Morley

Historically solid and entertaining.

Published in 2008.

I just discovered this series and I've been reading a few of them for fun this summer.

You Wouldn't Want to Live In A Medieval Castle is entertaining and it contains solid, accurate history presented in a visually interesting format.

While I've been looking a few of these over for my own personal entertainment, my almost 4th grade daughter has been sneaking them out of the stack and reading them without any encouragement from me. 

The book mostly is about a little girl who is brought into a castle to work as a damsel (lady-in-waiting or a body servant). The book is also about a real historical event - the siege of Rochester Castle in Kent, England in 1215 by King John who is having trouble dealing with the barons after he signed the Magna Carta.

There is also quite a bit about a young page who is trying to become a squire so that he might become a knight someday.

Everyday life in the castle is discussed (carrying water for baths, common dining areas, sleeping arrangements, daily Mass, etc.) and so are the details of laying siege to and the defense of a castle.

The only problem I had with the book is a simple matter of labeling. On pages 8 & 9 they have a map of the Bailey (the interior of the fortifications). On the key they label things like the chandlery and the barracks without telling what they are. They are defined in the glossary in the back but a word or two on the map page would have been nice.

Still, I highly recommend this book for kids who are in 4th grade or higher. Also, for any adults who want a painless refresher on castles and medieval life!

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: You Wouldn't Want to Live in a Medieval Castle. 

Reviewed on June 11, 2009.

You Wouldn't Want to Live In Pompeii by John Malam and David Salariya

This is a great series

Published in 2008.

I recently stumbled onto the You Wouldn't Want to... series and have found them to be a delightful and painless way to introduce young people to different historical concepts.

You Wouldn't Want to Live In Pompeii is a standout in a standout series of books. It teaches about the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 that destroyed Pompeii, but it also teaches about Roman culture. The readers will learn that the Romans used enslaved Greek men as teachers for their sons, that the Romans made sacrifices to their gods, foods they ate, types of art, the gladiatorial games and the rediscovery of Pompeii in the 1700s and, more importantly, the archaeological work of Giuseppe Fiorelli in the late 1800s.

This would be great for 3rd grade or higher. Even adults can have a good basic understanding of what happened at Pompeii with this little book.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: You Wouldn't Want to Live in Pompeii: A Volcanic Eruption You'd Rather Avoid.

Reviewed on June 12, 2009.

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator!: Gory Things You'd Rather Not Know by John Malam and David Salariya.

An entertaining, historically solid book - for 4th graders and over

Originally published in 2001 by Franklin Watts.

Illustrated by David Antram.

You Wouldn,t Want to Be a Roman Gladiator! is entertaining and it contains solid, accurate history presented in a visually interesting format.

While I've been looking a few of the books from this series for my own personal entertainment, my almost 4th grade daughter has been sneaking them out of the stack and reading them without any encouragement from me. Imagine! Kids surreptitiously reading history!

The book details the life of a gladiator that is captured as a slave in battle in Gaul. We follow him to his sale in the market and what kind of jobs he might have been sent to (in the mines, as a galley slave, on the farm, etc.) The slave is sent to gladiator school and we learn about their training, what they ate, the different types of gladiators and how they were punished. We learn about different types of gladiator fights and how gladiator fights were generally organized.

Well done. It should be a welcome part of any Rome unit from 4th grade and up.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator!: Gory Things You'd Rather Not Know.

Reviewed June 14, 2009.