Reviews written by Jason Gallaher

You know when there are times you just can’t help but have a slight tinge of empathy for the villain (I’m looking at you Angelica Houston circa Ever After)? Or times when you are just a bit tempted to let your evil side out and do things that are just...

This one gives us a whole new take on Flipper! In Animorphs #4 "The Message," readers are taken into the thoughts of Cassie, the most talented morpher of the bunch. This is due in large part to her connection with animals, and it is this connection and awareness of other...

Here’s another Animorphs book that proves Applegate has created anything but another mindless mass-market paperback series. In "The Encounter" Applegate discusses the issue of identity and the search for it. Readers get this through Tobias, one of the five Animorphs who breached the morph time limit and...

Upon reading Philip Pullman’s "The Golden Compass" my first thought was that I have to find me an armored bear. My second thought was how this book is jam packed with such high concept ideas for a young adult book. First there’s the whole issue with religion...

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. ...

You know the Disney parent curse: If you are the mom or dad of the main hero/heroine you’re in trouble. One or more of you is going to die or is already dead. I’m looking at "The Lion King," "The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," "Finding Nemo," "The Emperor’s New Groove," "Tarzan,"...

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...