The Brotherband Chronicles: The Outcasts by John Flanagan

Hal is an outcast, unlike his fellow Skandians he isn't large or strong. He's a thinker and an inventor that has the blood lines that make him smaller and skinnier than the massive Viking-like characters in his life. So when Brotherband training starts, when the young teenage boys get training to join wolf ships to go on raids and pillage and compete for the honor of being the year's winning group, he is one of the eight boys that remain unchosen for a Brotherband. This group of misfits end up as the smallest team out of the other teams and are almost forgotten as competition by the other teams. With the team made up of the slightly built inventor Hal, Hal's short tempered friend Stig, a near-sighted giant Ingvar who can't tell friend from enemy, a sneaky theif Jasper, the silent Edvin, two twins that no one can tell apart who constantly agrue named Ulf and Wulf, and Stefan who is a master gimic. With Hal elected as their leader, he has to pull together these odd-balls into a unified team stronger than anyone expects.

-Pages: 432
-Age: 12 and up (no inappropriate content, fighting, older characters)
-Reader Type: fantasy, action, Viking-like
-Our Rating: This amazing novel is an extension of the Ranger's Apprentice series taking place in the same places in that series but with totally new characters and a different country. This book was definitely a page turner and any Ranger's Apprentice fan will love it. It leaves you waiting anxiously for the next book with the cliff-hanger ending.

Deep Down Popular by Phoebe Stone

6th grader Jessie Lou Ferguson has hit the bottom. She is the most unpopular, uncool, unatractive girl in the school...or as she thought. With a super model-like sister, she felt like she was always being compared to. So she thought that her crush Conrad Parker could never like her or even be friends with her. When Conrad hurts his leg Jessie Lou was told to help him after school, her life takes a turn. Conrad soon sees that he's losing his popular friends and now only really has Jessie Lou and their tag-along Quentin. Despite hanging out all the time, she doesn't think that someone as popular as Conrad could ever like, let alone be friends, with someone like her. Soon they both see there is more to life than being deep down popular.

-Pages: 280
-Age: 10 and up (no inappropriate content, but kids would most likely relate more to characters their age)
-Reader Type: Realistic, Romance
-Our Rating: Zig lent this book to Zag when she was younger and it turned out to be one of the books that got her hooked on reading (fun fact). We loved the classic story of how the popular boy falls for the unpopular girl! It's also a very heart warming story that's great for younger kids that talks about how life isn't all popularity. But if you like action-packed books this story may not be very interesting to you.

Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach

When your the new kid in town, already being laughed at for having a name like Hero, and have a popular, beautiful sister, one of the last things you may want to hear is that your house has a million-dollar nacklace hidden in it with a big mystery hidden behind it. Although for Hero that was the case. On the first day of 6th grade Hero could already tell she was going to have a hard time making friends, but that was only true at school, once she got home she met a older woman next door who shows her the mystery of her house. Oddly the old lady seems to know a lot about it, and when the most popular boy in school wants to help with the mystery of the necklace, life gets interesting. 


-Pages: 243
-Age: 10 and up (no inappropriate content, time line and plot can be hard to follow)
-Reader Type: Realistic, Mystery
-Our Rating: This book was great, we usually don't read mystery but this was an exception. We enjoy the fact that it took you though history and taught you about William Shakespeare, Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth the 1st, and Edward de Vere. Although a great book, the plot, character and time line, like we said can be a little confusing sometimes. It might be a little hard to understand for younger readers, but altogether a really good mystery.

The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler

The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler

Emily was just a normal girl pumped about the fact she had finally convinced her mother to let her take swimming classes at school. Really what's the worst thing that could happen? That's what Emily thought untill she got in the water. Something happened to her, but she had no idea what. Thankfully being able to get out in time Emily went home to see what really happened...she was a mermaid! But trying to tell her mother to take her out of swimming lessons would be a challenge, as Emily unrolls the mystery of her being a mermaid, she finds family secrets that she never expected about her missing father.

-Pages: 209
-Age: 8 and up (no inappropriate content)
-Reader Type: Realistic, fantasy
-Our Rating: Not only are we sister-bookworms but also we love to swim. This book was perfect for us!  It's a perfect little Disney-like mermaid tale that pulls you in from the start (but we will warn you after and while reading this you'll want to got for a swim). Great for kids that aren't into intense, action packed books.

Princess For Hire by Lindsey Leavitt

Desi Bascomb, a teen living in Idaho, just can't wait for the fucture, and is praying that when it comes that it's better than her life now. Desi has never been the popular one, and life is even harder when no one seems to understand you. Although, while looking for a job, the last thing she expected was a fairy-like agent to pop up in her house and asked her if she'd like to be a substitute princess. And looking for more excitemennt in her life how could she say no? Desi goes into a magical world that she never knew ever exsisted, but she soon sees the different perspective of a royal life... and it's sometimes isn't all princes, parties, and jewels.

-Pages: 239
-Age: 9 and up (no inappropriate conent, great for younger readers)
-Reader Type: Romance and fantasy
-Our Rating: After reading so many action books like The Hunger Games, the Ink series, and others it's always nice to get into a good princess book. For all the little princesses or grown up princesses, put on your tiara and get ready. We loved this book because it refreshing to have a story with some mild romance and fantasy. Also Meredith (the fairy-like agent) is so funny, there's no way you can't love this full of attitude character!

Faithful by Janet Fox

Set in the time of 1904, Maggie Bennet's life seems perfect. She lives in a wealthy family, has just turned 16, a young boy she hopes to marry, and gets to ride her beloved horse all the time. Then her mother disappears and her life turns upside down. When her father goes broke, he takes her away from the life of luxury to the Yellowstone where he's gotten a job. Though reluctant and angry, she falls in love with a young Tom Rowland despite her father's wishes for her to be with the older Graybull. Maggie must learn to live in the wild Yellowstone, fight the negative views on women at the time, and the expectation of her marrying who her father wants her to and finds who she really is.

-Pages: 319
-Age: 13 and up (some slight mature content, older characters that may be harder for younger people to enjoy)
-Reader Type: romance, historical fiction
-Our Rating: Yet another wonderful book! It is even more enjoyable when you've been to Yellowstone and know that you were standing in the same place as the characters of the book were! Girls will love to see how Maggie fights against prejudice and for photographers, you get to see how photography was in the 1900's.

Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn

Jack is a 14 year old orphan on the run for a crime he didn't commit. When he's hiding out on a supposedly uninhabited planet he witnesses a space battle that sends one ship crashing down near where he is. When he goes to look at it, he is shocked to find inside a dragon looking creature named Draycos. Draycos is a K'da poet warrior trying to find a safe planet for his people to inhabit since their planet has been taken over by the Valaghua. But Jack is more than shocked to learn that this mysterious warrior has to be on his skin like a tatoo for so many hours of the day and he can go from 3-D form to 2-D. These two opposites pair up on the conditions that if Draycos helps clear Jack's name then Jack will help him save his people. The adventures they go on to be a 6 book series leading you across galaxies with space ships, aliens, and lots of action.

-Pages: 256
-Age: 12 and up (some slightly gory battle scenes, evil characters, complex plot through series)
-Reader Type: Sci-Fi, action, mystery, fantasy
-Our Rating: Calling all Sci-Fi lovers! This book is for you! Being by the same author that wrote the book version of Star Wars, it has the same general concepts to it (minus the Jedi instead with the K'da dragon warriors). We loved this book, it kept you hooked until the last chapter of the last book.

Book Requests

Hey, this is Zig and Zag.

We're just reminding the readers of our blog that they can leave a comment or send a message to us if there's a book that we don't have a review on that you want to know the details about before you read it. Together we've read more books than we can count and we just might not have gotten a review on it yet. If we haven't, we'll try to fit it into our book list.

Keep on Reading,

Zig and Zag

39 Clues: Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

Orphans Dan and Amy Cahill have lived with their grandmother Grace since their parents died. But Grace is now dead and her inheritance goes to a small group of family members. It is a choice, a million dollars or a clue. They aren't told what the clue leads to yet Dan and Amy feel as though their beloved grandmother would've wanted them to choose the clue so they do just that. With Amy's large knowledge of history and Dan's photographic memory, they set off following the path the clues lay. This series leads you around the world as Amy and Dan battle with their own family who are all trying to get all 39 clues first. One clue, leads to a long adventure of a lifetime.

-Pages: 220
-Age: 11 and up (no inappropriate content, some intense action, some violent scenes)
-Gender: Both
-Reader Type: adventure, mystery, action
-Our Rating: We loved this series and have been reading all the books as they come out (there are 10 books in the 39 Clues series and a second series has been started called Cahills Vs. Vespers which currently has 3 books in it). We've learned a lot about history and loved how the books brought it all to life. We both loved the mystery to it that makes you start thinking of where you think the next clue is and where they lead.