Reviews written by Jason Gallaher

This is the way to get kids hooked on a series, folks! In fact, it’s the book series that got me hooked on reading as a young kid in the ‘90s, and I’m so glad Scholastic is starting a reissue of the series. If any of you knows an 8-10...

Upon seeing the title of Kristen Chandler’s "Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me," I was convinced I was about to delve into yet another werewolf story. Not that I’m against werewolves or anything (except when played by Taylor Lautner), I just wasn’t sure how another werewolf book...

Banned Books Week was recently upon us, and in honor of this outrageous and shocking week (note the sarcasm) I wanted to take a look at some of these hideously offensive titles that saintly Americans everywhere have been trying to take off the shelves. According to bannedbooksweek.org...

“Specials” is such a great conclusion to a magnificent trilogy! What I love most about this third and final installment to the Uglies trilogy is that Scott Westerfeld is able to include new details to his world even though he is finishing up on Tally’s story....

It’s hard to imagine that any sort of young reader book could be terrifying. R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps for example, does give you a couple of its namesake bumps, but overall the bit of fantasy involved makes Stine’s books mostly entertaining rather than frightening. Joseph Bruchac’s "Skeleton Man," however, is just...

There’s always that fine line of being able to write about religion or any sort of religious issue and not seem too preachy. In reading C.S. Lewis’s "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" it has finally been proven it can be done. He covers issues of religion while not...

So many children’s series get a bad rep for being money-making machines rather than enriching children’s minds with important themes. Instead critics argue that series like The Babysitter’s Club, Goosebumps, and Animorphs are just mindless forms of entertainment, or the literary equivalent of SpongeBob (who I love by the way)....

It takes a lot of skill to make a book about an inanimate object interesting. Let me tell you, Linda Sue Park has done just that with "A Single Shard" and taken things a step further. She’s made this tale about a pot heartwarming and tear jerking. ...

The thing that I love most about Scott Westerfeld’s "Pretties," the second book in his Uglies trilogy, is that it really makes you second guess which “state of being” is the best: Ugly, Pretty or Special. I’ve had seemingly endless conversations about this with fellow Westerfeld junkies, and the verdict...

This has by far got to be my favorite dystopian world concept: getting a surgery to make yourself biologically undeniable at the age of 16. Who needs a driver’s license, anyway? Scott Westerfeld has such great writing skills in that he’s able to make a very believable...

I just finished Rick Riordan’s "The Mark of Athena" and there was one resounding thought I was left with: Poor Reyna! The poor girl just seems to get problem after problem thrown her way, and she’s not even a major character in this book. The main problem...

Oooooh child! I’m always impressed when an author can take a child’s book and deliver some pretty adult/complicated themes in a way that kids (and most older readers, too, until they stop and take a minute to think about it) don’t even notice it. Philip Pullman’s "I...

Ever since "The Scarlet Letter" we’ve known for a fact that the other woman is just a good for nothing harlot! Well guess again thanks to Lauren Strasnick’s "Nothing Like You." In this book Strasnick gives us Holly, who’s losing her virginity in the opening pages...

Holy Han Solo, I can’t believe I missed Star Wars Reads Day! In belated honor of the day, I checked out Tom Angleberger’s "The Strange Case of Origami Yoda." Now I know "Origami Yoda" isn’t quite Star Wars per se, but it serves as the perfect example...

It’s been reported recently that this year’s graduating high school students had the lowest SAT scores in the history of test taking. Personally, I feel that’s due in large part to the reading deficit we have in this country, particularly with teenage boys. There needs to be a plethora of...