Book Talk: Reviews by Young Readers

Today in BookTalk: Reviews by Young Readers, I’m thrilled to have Benji Davis with us to talk about Michael Scott’s Middle Grade novel The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. Welcome, Benji!  

My name is Benji Davis and I’m ten years old. I do martial arts, and I’m almost to black belt.  I really liked The Hunger Games and the Septimus Heap books, too. I also like tubing on the lake, wake surfing, running, animals, legos and playing video games. Some of my favorite lego creations are vehicles for my ugly dolls.  

                                            Benji's Lego Creation

Review - The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2007)

This is a magical story with good guys and bad guys. The bad guys are the Dark Elders, who are humans or mythical creatures. The good guys are Josh and his twin sister Sophie, and Nicholas Flamel. Nicholas has been alive for a long, long time. He’s kept alive by a magical potion written in the Book of Abraham, but the bad guys have stolen the book. The good guys want to save Nicholas’s wife who’s been stolen by the Dark Elders, and get the Book of Abraham so Nicholas can live.

I think this was a really good book because it has a lot of action going on. You get into the book quickly, it doesn’t have a slow start. The characters were good and the book had a big cliffhanger so I can’t wait to read the next one.

Thanks, Benji!! And now a few Q&A. Here we go!

Q&A

What do you look for in a book? What grabs your attention?

BD: If it starts the story quick with action. I like cliffhangers at the ends of chapters, those keep me reading more.

Do you like reading about characters that are older than you? If so, why?

BD: It doesn't really matter.

At what point when you start reading a book, do you decide you're going to finish it or shelve it?

BD: I've never stopped reading a book.

Do you have a favorite reading place? Or time?

BD: I like to read on my green couch, but it doesn't matter what time.

Do you have a favorite library? Do you think libraries are important for kids and adults today? Why or why not?

BD: We don't go to the library very much, my mom has lots of books and I like going to bookstores. Libraries are important because if you don't have much money, you can still get a book. You just have to pay for the library card and you can get as many as you want! (we have to pay for ours because we aren't in the city.) When I was younger my mom took me to the library all the time to check out picture books and I do check out books from my school library, too.