Raven: The Museum's Secret

A novel by Henry Chancellor

Publication Date: 2008

Publisher: OXFORD University Press

Pages: 455

Targeted audience: 9 and above

Summary: When Tom Scatterhorn's eccentric father disappears to the Far East in search of rare beetles, closely followed by his mother, Tom is left to spend Christmas with his uncle and aunt, keepers of the weird and wonderful Scatterhorn Museum. But don’t get too excited – because it's a dusty, dingy place, full of tatty stuffed animals and rickety cases of junk. Nobody really wants to visit it anymore, and it looks as if its days are numbered.

But when Tom comes to live there, he finds more to the museum than meets the eye. The animals may be ragged and moth-eaten but they have an incredible secret – a secret that originated when the stuffed animals were first made, a hundred years earlier. And then Tom discovers he can go right back to the time of their making. . . .

In an exciting adventure that threads in and out of time, from an Edwardian ice fair to the wastes of Mongolia to the jungles of India, Tom discovers that there is far more at stake than the fate of the museum...

WOHOHO! I don't even know where to begin.

The Museum's secret is the first book in the trilogy of The Remarkable Adventures of Tom Scatterhorn. The second is The Hidden World and the third being The Forgotten Echo. 

The book captivates you from the first chapter with a beetle-hunting expedition and soon you are introduced to Tom's eccentric Aunt and Uncle.

The Scatterhorn family have owned the Scatterhorn Museum for as long as any one can remember. The taxidermy animals who used to be the attraction site are now moth-eaten and lying behind the glass impressing the dust collecting on the floor. But nobody knows the secret of this museum... the animals come to life at night!

I know that almost everyone would be like so what? The idea is pretty old, there have been movies on it already but the thing is that there is no watchman discovering it, it's Tom. An 11-year old boy. Now don't deny it but every person has at least once fantasized about a museum coming to life and when I was enlightened about the secret of the museum I couldn't resist reading on.

Henry Chancellor has taken that one thing that every kid has dreamed about and turned it into a bone-thrilling fantasy with an evil man named Don Gervase Askary and his daughter Lotus who will do anything to get their hands on the museum. 

Since this is a review, I can't say all the exciting stuff that happens but just be ready to go on a world-wide adventure where the beauty of all the places have been explained with such details that you are forced to dream on going on a tour to all the places described. And also Tom discovers that he can go back in time! How cool is that? It's another one of my childhood (and present) fantasy.

A beautiful book that you have to read. I rate it a 4.5 and thank Henry Chancellor for making my childhood fantasy into such a great book!

Lots of love and pasta,

Raven

Raven: Harry potter and the Deathly Hallows

A last installment of the perfect series by J.K.Rowling

Publication Date: August 1st, 2007
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 557
Targeted Audience: General

Summary: Harry Potter is preparing to leave the Dursleys and Privet Drive for the last time. But the future that awaits him is full of danger, not only for him, but for anyone close to him — and Harry has already lost so much. Only by destroying Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes can Harry free himself and overcome the Dark Lord's forces of evil.

In this dramatic conclusion to the Harry Potter series, Harry must leave his most loyal friends behind, and in a final perilous journey find the strength and the will to face his terrifying destiny: a deadly confrontation that is his alone to fight.

Ah! The last book of the series... It's the best. I was wondering (before reading it) about how she was going to put it up. I mean they are not going to school so which scenes would she put them in? And I was also wondering about when we will know more about Snape (Because almost everyone kept telling me that I will fall in love with him in the last book) and how is Voldy gonna die?

But they were all stupid questions of course cause this book had the most action and it was soooo awesome!

After reading it, I fell on my bed and just stared at the ceiling for hours. I could not believe that it was finally over. All the characters mean so much to me now, that I am done with the books and the movies.

I must say that I have fallen for Snape. He was just such a beautifully portrayed character. 

I am so obsessed with it that I have filled almost ten pages of my scrap book with pictures related to harry potter. 

I was also emotionally high (which barely happens to me) and I could not sleep at night. And at one of these times I discovered that Diagon Alley is actually from Diagonally! Maybe some people out there already know this but when it struck me I was like, Wat?! *Another Salute to J.K.Rowling* 

I am telling you guys out there, this is the best book ever. J.K.Rowling wrote it all in seven books because she wanted us to be so connected with the characters that we cry for them at the end (which did happen).

I rate it 5 on 5 again because it's just the best book ever.

Lots of love and pasta,

Raven

Beez: Anna and the french kiss 

Stephanie Perkins

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming,beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend. 

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

Paris. The city of love. Add an american boy with an english accent, perfect hair and oh-so-sexy name. Equals to a mini version of heaven for any girl on this planet. But not for Anna who feels abandoned by her parents in SOAP(“Soap?"
"School of America in Paris" he explains. "SOAP".
Nice. My father sent me here to be cleansed.” ). 
I bet your laughing out loud now. And yes, if you're wondering there are many more hysterical moments in this book. 

Back to the story, so Anna feels all lonely and miserable and home sick since she left her best friend, almost boyfriend and her life back in America. Till she crashes(collides, bumps, whatever) in to Etienne(pronounced Eh-ti-enn) who is every girls dream and makes every girl sawooon(The truth about forever by Sarah Dessen inside joke). Anna like every other girl in the school develops a crush on him. But to her he is completely off limits and only one reason is his girlfriend. But  nobody stopped them from being friends. So St. Clair(that's what his friends call him, but to me he'll always be Etienne) takes Anna around Paris(i want to go there again!), to watch films and also to get drunk(with the others). Slowly they become best friends who like each other but don't tell each other(not strictly true).

This book is a total lovey dovey, teenagers bliss and cute story. Etienne always had me minutes away from melting in a puddle at his feet. Anna(banana) is alone(no parents) in the city of Paris(i would kill to be in her place) and now has new friends and her own boy toy. But that's not it. What comes next come to several realizations and strengthens her bond with Etienne(St. Clair) and makes them feel things thy shouldn't be feeling. Its a struggle, Anna is hopelessly in love with Etienne(St. Clair) who has a girlfriend but who also is hopelessly is in love with her. This is a perfect story of how 2 people who like each other at first site come to know each other better and fall in love without being together but in the end beat the obstacles between them and come to terms with so themselves. This is a 100% guarantee of "Happily ever after" flying-among-the-clouds feeling(ears-or eyes-wide open Raven). When you read this book you will be forever smiling, smiling at the cute moments, smiling at the embarrassing moments, smiling at the self-doubting moments, smiling at the silly moments, smiling at hopelessly romantic moments but laughing(those laughs which start in deep in your tummy and make you laugh so hard with your mouth open which makes everybody look open eyed at you-they won't ever get it-). 

This book will leave you off your feet and make you will in the fantasy world above your head. This book will give you those moments which make you smile even after months(even years) of reading it. This book makes you want to fall in love with your Etienne and forget real life. 
If that did'nt make you want to read this book, i don't know what will. Maybe my yelling at you will. 
READ IT!!!
Trust me on this one and read it.

Lots of love and butter croissants(from France, of course)
Beez.