Skip to main content

Smasher - Scott Bly

http://provo.ent.sirsi.net/client/pl/search/results?qu=9780545141185&te=&rt=false|||ISBN|||ISBN
Smasher
by Scott Bly
The Blue Sky Press, 2014. 252 pages.

Charlie, a magician's apprentice from the Renaissance era, and Geneva, a time-traveling bionic girl from the future, team up to stop corporate giant Gramercy Foxx from taking over the world. They have to combine their skills in magic and technology to figure out how to stop Foxx's upcoming product, The Future, before it is released to the public.

Bly tells the story through the perspective of many different characters. Getting to know the characters in this way gives the story meaningful depth. The protagonists, antagonists, and neutral characters are all captivating and well written. 

Smasher is action packed and fast paced. There is no neat and tidy exposition as Charlie is entangled in conflict from the first page. However, once you get into it, it is hard to put down. Boys and girls ages 8-12 who like action packed stories will love this one. It is also a great introduction to science fiction.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...