Julius Ceasar: Young Statesman

This is a captivating book by Beatrice Gormley. It is about the child- and young adult- hood of the very famous Roman, Julius Ceasar. Something very interesting about it is that you are always hearing things about Ceasar, but how much do you know about him?

Ceasar was born into a high family, but one without much money. His whole name was Gaius Julius Ceasar; Gaius being reserved for close friends and family, Julius the name of his clan, and Ceasar meaning he belonged to the Ceasar family. He wanted a life of military adventure and honor, but he wasn't sure how he was going to make his way up to that. Meanwhile, he was offered the privilege of becoming the high priest of Jupiter, after the former one had died. Unfortunately, the high priest of Jupiter was not allowed to even watch a military parade after a victory, or at any time, much less become a mighty army hero! Still, Ceasar would not let that stand in his way. He made it to the top and became one of the most famous men of all time.

Theras and His Town

This book is about a boy named Theras. Living in ancient Greece, Theras loves his beautiful town Athens. He has a very good life, many servants, a loving family. But after a while, a war is declared and his father Pheidon, has to leave to fight. Theras works hard to try to take his fathers place until he comes home, but is not prepared for the sudden change that is soon to come into his life. One day, a cousin of Theras' father comes to their house with sad news: Pheidon has been killed in the war. Later that day, another relative who does not get along with Theras' family comes to say that he is taking Theras to Sparta, where he lives. Theras will live there until he is old enough to take care of his family. So Theras has to leave and go to Sparta, where life is much harder than life in Athens. One day, he meets a shepherd boy who's name is Abas. When something terrible happens to Abas' brother, the two boys decide to run away from Sparta forever.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. 5 stars.

Night Journeys

This is a very good book, but it is pretty exciting (I was all tense while reading some parts). It is by Avi, and it is about an orphan named Peter York. He gets adopted by a Quaker family named the Shinns when everyone in his family dies of fever. One night some men knock on the door and tell Mr. Shinn that there are some runaway indentured servants (big men as far as Peter has heard) on the loose. He went to look for them, and Peter persuaded Mr. Shinn to let him go too. After that, he has lots of adventures, including nearly drowning in the swollen river and meeting up with a mysterious girl who ends up being...well, I can't give everything away! Read it to find out!

Winona's Pony Cart

This book is by Maud Hart Lovelace, and it is about one of Betsy, Tacy, and Tib's friends: Winona Root.
Winona's 8th birthday is coming up and she is going to have a party. Her father,who is the editor of the newspaper, prints out 15 invatations. Her mother addresses them all to her friend's children, and other children that Winona is friends with(or she thinks Winona is friends with). But Winona wanted to invite other children, so she just tells them at school. But her main concern is what she wants for her birthday. Winona wants a pony really bad, so she told everybody that she is getting one. But as the day draws near, she is not so sure. What if she didn't get a pony for her birthday? She has lots of fun at her party, and then came her heart's desire. A man came out of the stables leading a pony harnessed to a cart! All the children have fun riding in the cart, and when they left, Winona went out to see her pony. But he is not there! She ran out of the stables, only to see the man leading away the pony! He told her that his bussiness was to go and give children rides on the pony, and now he was going to another town. Winona was heartbroken, but soon recovered. Her parents have a discussion and decide to buy the pony. Winona learned how to take care of him, and also learned a lesson on growing up.

St. Francis Xavier

This was a very good book. It tells of the remarkable life of St. Francis Xavier, who traveled all the way to China and many other places under horrible conditions to tell the people about God. He was always kind and gentle, and remarkably holy. I liked it very much.

God King

This is a very interesting book. It's about Taharka, the child of the Egyptian king. He's glad he doesn't have to be the king. He wants to be a Doctor, or a soldier. At least it would get him out of the Palace. That's one of the reasons why Taharka is excited for tomorrow. He is going on a crocodile hunt with his Uncle, Embutah. His first hunt! But the crocodile is a surprise, and Net the boatman is knocked out of the boat! When Taharka saves Net's life, he breaks a very important rule for a king's son: he touches a slave! Just then he gets called to his father. The king is dying! When he gets chosen to be the next king, he receives his punishment. Now he will have to sit in the palace all day long.
After four years he gets to go to Thebes, where he is to be married to his cousin, Shepnuset. But when he is in Thebes he realizes the danger to the king's life. He has a taster now to make sure his food is not poisoned. Then one day, the taster died after tasting Taharka's food. This is disturbing enough, but then someone comes to the palace in Thebes to report that his Uncle, Embutah, was found with a dagger in his back!
Now things seem to begin to happen. Everybody is talking about the Assyrians. Then an ambassador named Amos comes from Judah with news that Sidon has fallen to the Assyrians. He is also asking him to help them, because when the Assyrians have attacked Sidon the will come right to Judah. One night Taharka clled Shepnuset to come with Amos to his room. That day there was a fake gaurd outside the kings door. There are gaurds everywhere! Taharka must escape, so with Amos and Shepnuset's help he is able to get down a window and with Amos to guide him, they start there journey to Judah, which Amos says is there destination. They find a caravan of Mucri people, and the Mucri accept them. They travel across the desert, to Judah, then Taharka and Amos find the Egyption Army, where Taharka is brought back up to the position of king again.

Cecile: Gates of Gold

This book is about a French peasent, Cecile, who gets the unexpected chance to serve at the court of King Louis the XIV. But life at court is not what Cecile thought it would be. True, the Palace at Versailles is more than she ever imagined and the outfits of all at court are exquesite. But every day comes more and more rules, called "etequite", that that Cecile is expected to obey even though they have never been taught to her. She works for the Kings mother- in - law ( always called "Madame") taking care of her six little lap dogs. She also becomes aquainted with the royal family because the Kings Great-Grandson likes to play with one of Madame's dogs named Stabdille and Cecile brings him over often. She also meets a young page named Phillipe and becomes friends with him. When a severe case of measles strikes Versailles, Cecile risks her position to save one of the Kings Great-Grandsons, Anjou. This provides an unexpected future for her, one that goes beyond what she ever expected at court.

Rocky Ridge Farm

This book is about Rose (Wilder) Lane, the daughter of the pioneer girl, Laura (Ingalls) Wilder.
If you have read the Little House Books then I highly suggest reading this because it is written alot like them. I don't remember who the author is, and I just returned the book back to the library so I can't check, but I think it was Roger Lee Macbride, or somthing like that.
The book starts in De Smet, not to long before the Wilders go to Missouri. Then it goes on to tell how they leave in a covered wagon with their friends, the Cooleys, and all their adventures, like crossing the big muddy, and (this was just a fun encounter) finding some wild grapes. ***** Five Stars.

Robin Hood

This book was pretty exciting, though I geuss that a book like that would have to be exciting! It was about Robin Hood (pretty obviously), and outlawed young man who went to live in Sherwood forest. Throughout his year of living there he got a band of men all very devoted to him, including the 7-foot tall Little John (his right hand man), and Friar Tuck, a friar who got to the group by a fight with Robin Hood, and a pretty funny river crossing. I liked it all!

Addy saves the day

This book was written by Connie Porter. It is in the American Girl collection and is about Addy, a runaway slave trying to find her older brother Sam and her little sister Esther.
One Sunday, The Reverand makes an anouncment. He says that there is going to be a fair to help reunite families who were seperated before slavery ended. There is going to be a meeting on Thursday for everyone who wants to help to plan for what they're going to do. There are three groups and the childrens group decides to make spool puppets. Harriet and Addy get along horribly until the day of the fair, when something terrible happens to Harriet. The two girls become fast friends, and end up being the heros of the day!

Johnny Tremain

This book was written by Esther Forbes. It is about a teenage boy named Johnny Tremain who has no parents anymore and is an aprentice silversmith to old Mr. Lapham. He is very good at the trade until one day he gets a teribble injury. How can he go on with his work?
Johnny gets swept up in politics, the Boston Tea Party, The Battle of Lexington, and Paul Revere's famous night ride. One of my favorites.

Betsy's busy Summer

This book was written by Carolyn Haywood. It is about Betsy, the same Betsy as in B is for Betsy and all of those books except this is her summer stories, whereas those were her school stories as I categorize them. In this book, Betsy's next door neighbors the Jacksons are putting up a swimming pool. This in itself was enough to make all Betsy's friends very excited, especially when Mr Jackson said they could all swim in it when there was water in it. But to ad to that, Billy decided that the sidewalk was hot enough to fry an egg on, and he and Betsy made a lemonade stand with their very own "Razburyaide", only five cents a glass.
I recommend this book to anybody who likes selling lemonade(the "make your own" type), eating watermelon, swimming, or going shopping by yourself.

Charlie and the Choclate Factory

This book is by Roald Dahl. It is about a poor boy named Charlie who wins a golden ticket to Mr. Willy Wonka's wonderful candy factory. The Factory has been closed for years, No one coming in or out of it's gates. Then Mr. Wonka hides five golden tickets in Wonka candy bars. The lucky children who get those candy bars get to come for a tour of the factory and are supplied with enough candy to last them the rest of there lives. If they ever run out they will be supplied with more, but many unusaul things happen before the end of the story.
Warning: Some parts are most peculiar!

Pegeen

This book is by Hilda Van Stockum. It is about a girl named Pegeen. Her Grandmother (Always known as 'Grannie') has just died in the beginning of the book, which causes Pegeen to remember Francie O'Sullivan, a boy who helped her chase Grannie and Pegeen's pig. Francie, who lives in Glegariff, County Cork, told her that when he was old enough he would come and take her to far-off country's in a big ship with white sails. Now she writes to him with the help of her friend, Father Kelly, and asks him to come for her in the big Ship. Father Kelly tells Mrs. O'Sullivan about the situation, and, after a few more letters have been exchanged, Pegeen comes to the O'Sullivan's house, bringing mischief, trouble, and very good intentions. She wins a place in all their hearts, and they win a place in hers.

Another test from Dad

Ok, now I'm logged in as me, trying to post to Emily's blog.

Emily, thanks for letting me experiment with this!

Test post from Daddy

Hey there. This is Emily's dad, seeing if he can post to the blog as well.

Hi, Readersaurus! I love you!

-Daddy.

Test Post

This is ANOTHER Test post.

Test

This is a test post.