King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: Dael and the Painted People (Book 3 in the Zan-Gah Series)

author: Allan Richard Shickman

genre: young adult fiction

published: 2011

pages: 155

first line: To dream of a head dripping with blood and look into its glazed and lifeless eyes might, even in sleep, leave the dreamer changed and chastened.


source: ARC copy sent by publisher for review


rated: 3 out of 5 stars

A prehistoric adventure, this is the third of the Zan-Gah young adult books. When Dael, guilty and tormented, came to live with the tribe of the painted people, he longed for peace and restoration; but without knowing it, he made a powerful enemy. Luckily, Dael had friends-including a troop of crows-and his own mystical powers. The disturbed and violent hero learns from the Children of the Earth, and from his submissive wife, a new way of life that is peaceful and generous. Dael and the Painted People is a story of conflict, healing, hate, and love by the winner of the Eric Hoffer Award, a finalist for the ForeWord magazine Book of the Year Award, and the Mom's Choice Gold Seal for Excellence in a family-friendly book series.

About:

Dael and the Painted People is the third installment in author Allan Richard Shickman's Zan-Gah books.


I read the first two books in the series, Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure and Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country, with my daughter last year and we enjoyed them.




The series, set in prehistoric times, revolves around the lives of two young brothers, Zan-Gah and Dael.

In this third installment, a now young adult Dael sets off in search of the Painted People, a rival tribe Dael feels he must join.
Alongside Dael is the shy, mute girl Sparrow. When Dael and Sparrow find the Painted People, the tribe welcomes them as their own.



The Painted People are a peaceful tribe, governed by the females in the group.
Dael being traumatized when he was younger and held captive for years, has a tendency towards aggressive behavior. Although Dael misses his brother Zan and his clan, living with the Painted People and Sparrow has calmed his spirit. He is well liked in the group. However, Dael has made one enemy, the elder shaman named Shnur.
Shnur sees Dael as his rival, a newcomer who wants to take his spot as the tribe's healer and shaman.

Shnur's hatred of Dael stems from jealousy.




My thoughts:



Dael and the Painted People picks up where Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country left off.

I was curious to see what would happen to these characters. This third book centers mostly around Dael and Sparrow.

I enjoyed reading about the Painted People and their customs. I found it a nice twist that although Sparrow is mute, she can speak the Painted People's language easily, since it consists of clicking noises.
We get to meet a few new characters in this third installment as well.




Author Allan Richard Shickman creates a prehistoric world and weaves a coming of age story within it. The characters and story lines are well written and entertaining. There's action and adventure in these books, and the prehistoric setting makes the perfect backdrop. The Zan-Gah books are fun reads for all ages. My daughter and I are enjoying this series.

There is a healing power in kindness, and Dael began to mend.
p.35

About the author:

Artist, teacher, author, and historian Allan Richard Shickman was an art history professor at the University of Northern Iowa for three decades. His first novel, Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure, won an Eric Hoffer Notable Book Award, and was a finalist for the ForeWord magazine Book of the Year Award. The series, including Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country, received the Mom's Choice Gold Seal for Excellence in family-friendly literature. Dael and the Painted People is the third of the Zan-Gah book series. He has also published articles in English Literary Renaissance, Studies in English Literature, Notes and Queries, Colby Quarterly, Art Bulletin, and Art History.

title: The Ugly Duckling

author: Hans Christian Andersen

published: 1844

genre: short story/fantasy/classic/fairy tale


source: http://www.americanliterature.com/

first line: It was lovely summer weather in the country, and the golden corn, the green oats, and the haystacks piled up in the meadows looked beautiful.




In this classic children's fairy tale, a mother duck waits for her eggs to hatch.

All but one large egg have hatched and she begins to wonder if it's not a turkey egg. When the egg finally hatches, an 'ugly duckling' emerges.
She thinks he is not so ugly, and takes him into society to introduce him to the other animals on the farm.


The other animals begin to pick on the ugly duckling saying he does not belong with them because he looks different.
The bullying is so bad, he runs away.

"He is too big," they all said, and the turkey cock, who had been born into the world with spurs, and fancied himself really an emperor, puffed himself out like a vessel in full sail, and flew at the duckling, and became quite red in the head with passion, so that the poor little thing did not know where to go, and was quite miserable because he was so ugly and laughed at by the whole farmyard. So it went on from day to day till it got worse and worse. The poor duckling was driven about by every one; even his brothers and sisters were unkind to him, and would say, "Ah, you ugly creature, I wish the cat would get you," and his mother said she wished he had never been born.

He stumbles upon an old woman living in a cottage. She is half blind and doesn't see how different the duck looks, so she takes him in. Three weeks pass and he decides he wants to set off and explore the world. He comes upon beautiful swans and can't believe his eyes. He wants to be just like them.

One evening, just as the sun set amid radiant clouds, there came a large flock of beautiful birds out of the bushes. The duckling had never seen any like them before. They were swans, and they curved their graceful necks, while their soft plumage shown with dazzling whiteness. They uttered a singular cry, as they spread their glorious wings and flew away from those cold regions to warmer countries across the sea.

The ugly duckling endures a harsh and lonely winter, almost freezing to death in the water and nearly starving.

When Spring finally arrives, he stretches his wings and comes upon beautiful swans again. He swims to them and bows his head, asking them to kill him.
But when he bows his head, she sees his reflection in the water. He himself has become a beautiful swan and is welcomed by the others.

He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him; for the great swans swam round the new-comer, and stroked his neck with their beaks, as a welcome.

The ugly duckling appreciates everything he has now, because of all he has suffered.

..he was so happy, and yet not at all proud. He had been persecuted and despised for his ugliness, and now he heard them say he was the most beautiful of all the birds.

I think the story of The Ugly Duckling is timeless. Many of us can relate to going through that awkward phase in life and coming out stronger because of it, myself included.
This is one of my favorite fairy tales.



This is a statue in Central Park, NYC, of Hans Christian Andersen.







About the author:

During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, and was feted by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films.

title: Through the Looking Glass


author: Lewis Carroll

genre: classic/fantasy/childrens

published: 1871

source: http://www.americanliterature.com/

first line: One thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do with it:--it was the black kitten's fault entirely.

rated: 4 out of 5 stars










I recently read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and it became an instant favorite. After being a bit biased against Carrol, he won me over with his fun and bizarre classic, so I decided to read Through the Looking Glass, which is the sequel to Alice's Adventures.




This story opens with Alice speaking to her cat Dinah and her kittens. She holds up one of the kittens to the mirror, so it can see the looking glass world where everything is the opposite, even the letters in books are backwards.

Oh, Kitty! how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking- glass House! I'm sure it's got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It'll be easy enough to get through--' She was up on the chimney-piece while she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. And certainly the glass WAS beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist.

Alice herself passes through the looking glass, into this other world. She is in her house, yet things are not the same. She decides to investigate this mirror world and have an adventure before going back through the looking glass and going back home.
Through the looking glass everything is backwards, time itself runs backwards and if Alice wants to get someplace, she has to move in the opposite direction to reach it.
When she leaves her house, she comes upon a sunny garden.

The countryside is set up in squares like a giant chessboard and as Alice explores it, she comes across some curious characters. Talking chess pieces, talking flowers, The Red Queen and Tweedledum and Tweedledee, a knitting sheep and Humpty Dumpty are a few of the characters she meets.








Where Alice in Wonderland is based on a deck of cards, Through the Looking Glass is modeled after a game of chess. Lewis Carroll's fantastic imagination is evident throughout, and I wish I had read these as a child. I'll be sharing both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass with my daughter.

'And you do Addition?' the White Queen asked. 'What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?'


'I don't know,' said Alice. 'I lost count.'


'She can't do Addition,' the Red Queen interrupted. 'Can you do Subtraction? Take nine from eight.'


'Nine from eight I can't, you know,' Alice replied very readily: 'but--'


'She can't do Subtraction,' said the White Queen. 'Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife--what's the answer to that?'

This has been a part of Once Upon a Time

title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland


author: Lewis Carroll


genre: classic/fantasy/childrens


published: 1865


source: DailyLit



first line: Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'



rated: 4 out of 5 stars












I don't know what took me so long to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I think it's because I'm not a big fan of Disney's animated Alice, and that kind of put me off from reading the actual story.
I also have to admit the unsavory rumors about Lewis Carroll also steered me away from reading this one.




I put that aside and decided to finally read this classic. I found Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a delight. As soon as Alice falls down the rabbit hole, I found myself swept into Carroll's lyrical and strange storytelling and didn't stop reading until the end.


Alice herself is the one who captivates the reader.

For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

After falling down the rabbit hole, Alice encounters some strange characters, the Chesire Cat, the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter among them. The encounters Alice has with these characters are funny and strange and I enjoyed the silliness of the story. Interestingly enough, this genre is referred to as literary nonsense.

Lewis Carroll was a mathematician and that is evident as you read this story.

Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is - oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!

My favorite chapter was 5, Advice from a Caterpillar.


I found it amusing that Alice comes upon a caterpillar sitting on a mushroom, smoking a hookah no less.

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.

I read this one online, but I'll definitely be grabbing a copy to add to my book collection. I know this one is best read with the illustrations included.

I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what CAN have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought!

Read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland online free from DailyLit or at americanliterature.com.







This has been a part of Once Upon a Time

title: The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses

author: Ty Drago

genre: fantasy/science fiction/independent reader

source: sent for review by Sourcebooks

published: April, 2011

pages: 465

first line: On a sunny Wednesday morning in October, a day that would mark the end of one life and the beginning of another, I found out my grouchy next door neighbor was the walking dead.

rated: 4 out of 5 stars









About:




When twelve year old Will Ritter is wakes up one morning just like any other day, and starts to get ready for school, he notices that his neighbor is one of the undead. Unable to believe his eyes, Will takes the school bus and once he arrives in his Math class, he realizes his teacher is also a walking, talking corpse.
Will thinks he's just going crazy when he starts seeing several more undead adults at school, all of whom look like they want to attack him.


A fellow classmate named Helene, Will's crush, starts squirting the corpses with a water gun and runs out of the school with Will, promising to explain everything to him later. She takes him to a special, secret hideout where there are several other kids. These kids call themselves the 'Undertakers'.


Will soon finds out he is a 'Seer', a person who can see these walking corpses for what they really are. These are not zombies, they are corpses who are smarter and quicker than zombies. These corpses have been possessed by aliens and live among us wearing 'masks' that only Seers can detect. For the most part, only kids can 'See' them. Their sight usually takes place around puberty, which is why Will started to see them now.



Since Will is a Seer, his life is in danger. He can no longer go back home, since the corpses will harm his family to get to him.

Will learns some things about his father, a cop who passed away a few years ago, and who was connected with this band of kids. As the story flows, Will meets the rest of the Undertakers, gets lessons in combat and makes strong friendships.


With the threat of the Corpses ever present, Will and the Undertakers need to
decide if they are going to take a stand against the undead or if they should continue hiding out, while their own army continues to grow.




My thoughts:


When I first saw the cover on The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses, I thought this book was about zombies. It's not. It's about corpses that have been possessed by aliens, and are living and walking among us. They seem like your average, every day citizens, and only kids with a special sight can see them for what they really are.




This book was FUN from page one. It was a great read, with likeable characters that you root for. At 465 pages, it's a fast paced book and I finished it just a few sittings. Will's a great hero, you like him from page one. Throughout the story he misses his mom and often thinks about her. The supporting characters within the book seemed believable, and the author captures the children's voices very well. The kids are all resourceful and smart, working together as a team. There were a few funny parts here and there and some very cool fight scenes.

The story takes twists and turns that keep the reader interested, I didn't find any dry spells. There's a surprise in the ending that I didn't see coming. Author Ty Drago keeps the ending open for the next book in the series, which I want to read.



I can see this one being made into an animated film. It's geared towards independent readers ages 10 and up. This is a fun read for independent readers as well as adults.

about the author:

Ty Drago is an author, husband, father, and a born Quaker who has lived in New Jersey almost his entire life. He is the editor/publisher of Allegory, an online magazine of science fiction, fantasy and horror. He has also had short fiction published in Space and Time Magazine and Fortress Publishing's YESTERDAY I WILL anthology. Many years ago, Ty attended a book signing by Isaac Asimov. When Dr. Asimov learned that Drago was a struggling young SF writer, he penned the following: “To Ty: Please keep trying. Isaac Asimov.” And he did.

The Undertakers have their own website.




Special thanks to Beena over @ Sourcebooks.

title: Let's Have A Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes


author: Robert Forbes (Author), Ronald Searle (Illustrator)

genre: children's/ nursery ryhmes

pages: 79

published: ARC/ release date September 16, 2010


rated: 3 1/2 out of 5









With rhymes like Hugh the Emu, The Rhino's Wine, The Inchworm Sprint and Flick the Fly, coupled with great illustrations to match, Let's Have A Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes makes for a fun book to read to the kiddies in your life.








There are 33 rhymes in this book, all about different animals, koalas, bears, pandas and monkeys and some of these animals aren't always being nice. I really liked this funky collection, and my daughter(10) and I read them together. This one would make a great gift as well, especially if you're looking for something a little different than your everyday children's nursery rhymes.

My friend Lala,

A cuddly-snuggly koala,

Lives at the zoo.

Kids think she is cute

But it's not true!

Lala is a nasty brute.

When she spies her keeper she spits,

And throws tantrums and fits

If her dinner is not what she wants,

Or the weather's too stormy for jaunts.


Lala is not a nice girl at all!


-quoted from Ooh, Lala! p.27

About the Author

Robert Forbes serves as the Vice President of the Forbes family business as well as the President of the life style magazine Forbes Life.

Author Allan R. Shickman sent me two of his books, Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure and Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country for review. My daughter (10) and I have read both books together and enjoyed them. Read on for the reviews.







title: Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure.

author: Allan R. Shickman

genre: YA/children's/fiction

pages: 148

published: 2007

first line: From a long distance a traveler, or some wild thing, might see within the deep and absolute blackness of night an intense orange light which looked from afar like glowing coal.



In this first book, Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure, Zan, who is in his early teens, lives in prehistoric times. He lives with his parents in a tightknit clan. There has been a hunt called, for a lioness who has killed a child. The males of each clan are coming together for the hunt. By a stroke of luck, Zan kills the lioness. Zan was given the name Zan-Gah, meaning Zan of the Rock, because he was immovable in the face of great danger.

The youth's name was Zan, which in his tongue meant Hunter. He and his people had a language, but we no longer know it. It was spoken in an era so remote in time that there were as yet no nations upon the earth, no cities, nor written words.

Zan-Gah decides to set off in search of his twin brother, Dael, who went missing a year ago an is presumed dead. Dael set off to find the source of the river that is nearby their village when he went missing. Zan insists his twin is alive somewhere and wants to bring him home. So against his parents wishes, Zan sets off on the search, promising to return within a few weeks with his brother.

While on the search Zan grows into a man, taking care of himself and even invents the slingshot in order to hunt food. He meets other clans along the way and eventually discovers where his brother was taken. Over a year passes by the time Zan finds Dael, who is now emotionally scarred and not the same brother Zan remembers.

When Zan finally brings Dael home, tears of joy are shed and Zan is well respected, becoming a leader in his tribe. His invention of the slingshot helps his people. Zan unites the clans in order to fight against the tribe that tortured and held his brother captive for so long.




There are some interesting characters in Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure, and the story flows smoothly from start to finish. It's a fun story, and we both enjoyed it.

I like how author Allan R. Shickman describes the setting throughout.

What had been completely hidden from view until he had reached the top of the ridge was a lake, crystal, pure and beautiful as any dream. It was surrounded by lush trees, many of which, as in a garden, bloomed rose, snow white, and lilac, so that the air was fragrant with their nectar. Green with sap, a weeping willow bent its luminous branches toward the water to be reflected in its stillness; and a deer drank peacefully in the distance, unaware or unconcerned with Zan's presence. Halfway across, populated by a cluster of young white birches, was a small island at the shore of which stood a slender and statuesque white egret.

title: Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country

author: Allan R. Shickman

genre: YA/children's/fiction

pages: 151

published: 2009

first line: When Lissa-Na died, Dael wept real tears.





Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country takes up where Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure left off. Dael and Zan are both married and Dael is trying to get his life back together after being held captive and tortured. In this book you get more insight as to what Dael endured.

One morning Dael suddenly wakes Zan up and tells him he wants to find the source of the river that flows near their village again. Zan is worried about his brother and sets off with Dael, a few others follow them. They wind up in The Beautiful Country, which is where both Dael had been held captive for a while by the wasp people who lived there. Zan knows this country well since he too was held there for a year while searching for his brother. The country is still beautiful, with plenty of resources, but somehow the wasp people who lived there are all dead.

Zan and his clan decide to move their people to the Beautiful Country since it is now uninhabited. Though Zan-Gah and Dael are identical twins, they couldn't be anymore different. Soon enough, the clan begins to side with one brother or the other.

Many of Zan's number where frightened by Dael's violence and recklessness; but other men were drawn to exactly these qualities. Those who loved one brother began to hate or jeer at the other, and in time as they walked to their western destination, the Ba-Caro tended to divide into two groups-one circling around Zan-Gah and the other around Dael. It happend so gradually and so naturally that for a while the division went unnoticed.

Dael continues to exhibit angry behavior, and becomes almost obssessed with a volcano that is about to erupt nearby the Beautiful Country. Dael and his followers begin to worship this volcano and watch it daily. Meanwhile Zan is trying to keep peace between his people and another clan who threatens war.




I'd say the Zan-Gah books are coming of age stories for kids between ages 11 and up. The books are set in prehistoric times, which I found interesting. Again, author Allan R. Shickman does a great job describing the setting, we were especially interested when the clan runs into a mammoth during their trek in the second book.

The laborious, half-blind advance had not gone far when Chul, who was in the lead, motioned the train to stop. Just ahead, enveloped in fog and only faintly visible against the heavy, misty air, was the ponderous form of a mammoth. Its great domed skull, dark fur, and dangerous tusks would be seen close up, but at first it seemed almost as white as the surrounding vapor-a massive, monstrous blur.

Zan's adventures were fun to read about and my daughter and I enjoyed them. There were certain details that stood out and that she'd talk to me about later. For example, she thought it was both funny and gross that Zan's mom would chew goat skin until it was soft enough for Zan to use as a blanket. With a great plot and setting, and plenty of action, these books make for great discussions. Zan-Gah is instantly likeable, and as are a few of the other characters.

I will mention though, since these are books geared toward kids ages 11 and up, that in the second book, Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country, there are some bloody scenes. Not so much fight scenes, but passages describing hunts and killing animals. Dael's behavior is also disturbing since he is now bent on revenge against his captors and is violent. Nothing about these scenes however was offensive, and the author doesn't go into much detail during these parts, so I found it suitable to read to my daughter.










These are interesting reads and I do recommend them for tweens. Special thanks to author Allan R. Shickman for sending me these books. He does leave the second books' ending with room for a third book, and I wonder if he will continue the Zan-Gah books.

title: The Ink Drinker

author: Eric Sanvoisin

genre: childrens book ages 8-12

published: 1996

pages: 35

rated: 4 out of 5

My father owns a bookstore. He loves books. He devours them like an ogre. All day and long into the night, he reads. It's an obsession. There's no cure, but our family doctor doesn't seem to worry.

My daughter brought The Ink Drinker home from school and we read it together. We read books together often, and I wanted to review this one because I thought the story was an interesting one.


The story is narrated by a young boy, who remains nameless and whose father is a booklover. The little boy dislikes books and hates to read, and to top it all off his dad owns a bookstore. During summer vacation he is helping his father out by watching for shoplifters in the store, when he spots a strange looking man stick a straw into a book and begin to drink. When the man leaves, the little boy looks at the book only to find the letters are missing and the book is light as a feather. Curious, he follows the man and ends up at the cemetary and going down into an underground crypt.

With my very own eyes I saw the unknown reader drinking a book! I'm not kidding. And I swear I wasn't hallucinating. For five minutes I saw him walking silently between the shelves, with his eyes closed and his arms stretched out in front of him. It was as though he were listening to the sound of the books.

I'll leave it at that so I don't spoil the story, but as we were reading this weird little tale, we were hooked on it and enjoyed it very much. My daughter has read it several times over. This is a fun story, with a creepy twist. I recommend it.



The Ink Drinker is actually just one in a series of Inky books like A Straw for Two and Little Red Ink Drinker.