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The Enchanted Attic #4
Wrestling with Tom Sawyer
Twins Linus and Ophelia Easterday and their best friend Walter meet their match when Tom Sawyer joins the trio in the Enchanted Attic, and soon they are undertaking adventures and dodging trouble.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 6, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 16, 2016
REVIEW:
Three kids find an abandoned attic that used to a secret magical lab. There they bring characters out of the classic books and read them into reality. No surprise, they get caught and get in trouble. I haven't read the first three books in this ENCHANTED ATTIC series. WRESTLING WITH TOM SAWYER is book 4. I have to get the first three and read them. I know they are for the middle grade students but they are just as interesting for the young at heart. I liked the book,for one thing, there is a combination of education and humor. The story is told by a janitor of Kingscross University who sometimes feels he is a little more intelligent that he really is. He adds information that are probably unknown to middle school students. There is a list at the end which has discussion questions to use as a group or by yourself. I really enjoyed this book. WRESTLING WITH TOM SAWYER ended up having a good moral to its story. I feel young readers need more books like this where a lesson is taught along with the fun and excitement of the read.It's also a short read which will hold their attention where a longer book might not. Sometimes their attention span is not very long. I'm one of those young at heart, but I still liked it and can't wait to read the first three. I would recommend this book to the young and the young at heart. Read and enjoy. Thanks Ms. Samson for the wonderful books.
I would give this book 4 STARS.
DISCLOSURE: A complimentary copy was provided by ZonderKiz on behalf of the author in exchange for my honest review. No compensation was received for this review.
Three kids find an abandoned attic that used to a secret magical lab. There they bring characters out of the classic books and read them into reality. No surprise, they get caught and get in trouble. I haven't read the first three books in this ENCHANTED ATTIC series. WRESTLING WITH TOM SAWYER is book 4. I have to get the first three and read them. I know they are for the middle grade students but they are just as interesting for the young at heart. I liked the book,for one thing, there is a combination of education and humor. The story is told by a janitor of Kingscross University who sometimes feels he is a little more intelligent that he really is. He adds information that are probably unknown to middle school students. There is a list at the end which has discussion questions to use as a group or by yourself. I really enjoyed this book. WRESTLING WITH TOM SAWYER ended up having a good moral to its story. I feel young readers need more books like this where a lesson is taught along with the fun and excitement of the read.It's also a short read which will hold their attention where a longer book might not. Sometimes their attention span is not very long. I'm one of those young at heart, but I still liked it and can't wait to read the first three. I would recommend this book to the young and the young at heart. Read and enjoy. Thanks Ms. Samson for the wonderful books.
I would give this book 4 STARS.
DISCLOSURE: A complimentary copy was provided by ZonderKiz on behalf of the author in exchange for my honest review. No compensation was received for this review.
August 22, 2013
My son is only nine and he enjoyed reading this book so much that he wants to read the other three in the series. I thought the book would be difficult for him to read since it is meant for middle school grades. He would just ask for help on the difficult words to understand their meaning and pronunciation.
August 13, 2013
Review: This is Book Four of The Enchanted Attic series and now that I know about them through this one about the Mark Twain classic, I must read the first three! The books are for the middle grades, they mix humor with education and would make a great read-aloud selection because of the short chapters, usually ending with a hook! Let's look inside the "enchanted attic"!
The three main characters that are responsible for bringing Tom Sawyer into the present world are a set of extremely intelligent twins, Ophelia and Linus and their boarding school friend from England. The twins have been somewhat abandoned by their parents who have gone off on a butterfly study for five years, leaving them with an eccentric aunt and uncle. They attend a boarding school in Kingscross, America, whose headmistress, Madrigal Pierce, has given strict orders that no one is to be poking around the tunnel discovered in the corner of the institution. The twins are well aware of the tunnel, as well as an attic laboratory that has yielded several classic fictional characters already! (The Hunchback of Notre Dame appeared in the middle of a mysterious chalk circle when Ophelia, an avid reader, dozed off and dropped her open book inside the circle. Similarly, Captain Ahab from Moby Dick and the Three Musketeers have appeared in the circle in previous volumes.)
Ophelia and Linus's Uncle Augustus throws a soiree the eleventh day of every month. The theme this month is Along the Mississippi - a Night with Mark Twain. The family lives above Aunt Portia's bookstore and volumes have been disappearing inexplicably. Others in the community have reported missing furniture, jewelry, and antiques. In a secret search through the tunnels which are accessible from the enchanted attic, Tom Sawyer proves to have detective skills, no doubt stemming from having found secret treasure, being lost in a cave and witnessing a murder. However, Tom has only sixty hours in this world before he must return to the circle to rejoin the characters in Mark Twain's classic. When Injun Joe shows up, it's anyone's guess whether Tom will get out of this world alive or whether Joe will finally have his revenge on Tom.
The story is narrated by a janitor of nearby Kingscross University who thinks at times that he is more intelligent than the professors who teach there. He adds pertinent (and non-pertinent information) to each chapter enlarging the readers' understanding of classical literature, good writing techniques and definitions of words little known to most middle school students. The book ends with a list of discussion questions to ponder. If reading the book aloud, I would recommend reading the questions first and asking them as the story progresses. All in all, this was a very enjoyable book and I look forward to reading the others. (rev. C.Karns, ACS)
About the author: L. L. Samson is the author of several books, including the Christy award-winning novel, Songbird. In 2012, she debuted the Enchanted Attic series with Facing the Hunchback of Notre Dame, followed by the second book, Saving Moby Dick and this year’s Dueling with the Three Musketeers. She lives with her husband in Lexington, Kentucky.
DISCLOSURE: A complimentary copy was provided by ZonderKiz in exchange for our honest review. Opinions expressed are solely those of the reviewer. No compensation was received for this review.
The three main characters that are responsible for bringing Tom Sawyer into the present world are a set of extremely intelligent twins, Ophelia and Linus and their boarding school friend from England. The twins have been somewhat abandoned by their parents who have gone off on a butterfly study for five years, leaving them with an eccentric aunt and uncle. They attend a boarding school in Kingscross, America, whose headmistress, Madrigal Pierce, has given strict orders that no one is to be poking around the tunnel discovered in the corner of the institution. The twins are well aware of the tunnel, as well as an attic laboratory that has yielded several classic fictional characters already! (The Hunchback of Notre Dame appeared in the middle of a mysterious chalk circle when Ophelia, an avid reader, dozed off and dropped her open book inside the circle. Similarly, Captain Ahab from Moby Dick and the Three Musketeers have appeared in the circle in previous volumes.)
Ophelia and Linus's Uncle Augustus throws a soiree the eleventh day of every month. The theme this month is Along the Mississippi - a Night with Mark Twain. The family lives above Aunt Portia's bookstore and volumes have been disappearing inexplicably. Others in the community have reported missing furniture, jewelry, and antiques. In a secret search through the tunnels which are accessible from the enchanted attic, Tom Sawyer proves to have detective skills, no doubt stemming from having found secret treasure, being lost in a cave and witnessing a murder. However, Tom has only sixty hours in this world before he must return to the circle to rejoin the characters in Mark Twain's classic. When Injun Joe shows up, it's anyone's guess whether Tom will get out of this world alive or whether Joe will finally have his revenge on Tom.
The story is narrated by a janitor of nearby Kingscross University who thinks at times that he is more intelligent than the professors who teach there. He adds pertinent (and non-pertinent information) to each chapter enlarging the readers' understanding of classical literature, good writing techniques and definitions of words little known to most middle school students. The book ends with a list of discussion questions to ponder. If reading the book aloud, I would recommend reading the questions first and asking them as the story progresses. All in all, this was a very enjoyable book and I look forward to reading the others. (rev. C.Karns, ACS)
About the author: L. L. Samson is the author of several books, including the Christy award-winning novel, Songbird. In 2012, she debuted the Enchanted Attic series with Facing the Hunchback of Notre Dame, followed by the second book, Saving Moby Dick and this year’s Dueling with the Three Musketeers. She lives with her husband in Lexington, Kentucky.
DISCLOSURE: A complimentary copy was provided by ZonderKiz in exchange for our honest review. Opinions expressed are solely those of the reviewer. No compensation was received for this review.
November 18, 2013
Ophelia and Linus the twins, and their good friend Walter decided that they need another adventure right at the beginning of the semester, and they decided they should bring out Tom Sawyer out of his book. But the twins have an annoying cousin named Cato who plans to do whatever it takes to mess with them. When Cato brings out Injun (pronounced like "engine" ) Joe, a ruthless man who wants revenge so bad he'd kill for it, and has him kidnap Ophelia and Tom, its up to Tom's cleverness and Linus and Walter's quick wits to help Ophelia and Tom escape a (possible) murderer.
This book is great! Ophelia was a bit annoying in this book, what with correcting every grammar mistake that Tom makes. I understand the problem with people who have horrible grammar, but I would have quickly realized that there was no point in even trying. I kinda dragged my way through the majority of the book, as it was a bit boring with some interesting bits thrown in. Thankfully, the book became more interesting when Ophelia and Tom were kidnapped.
Nothing except the beginning of the book bothered me. The flow was great, and the writing was nice. I like how the author explains how each character is feeling, but not in a very confusing way. The book is the fourth in a series, and by the way it ended, I'm guessing there will be a 5th, which I'm excited for. I would recommend this series to tweens ages 11-16.
This book is great! Ophelia was a bit annoying in this book, what with correcting every grammar mistake that Tom makes. I understand the problem with people who have horrible grammar, but I would have quickly realized that there was no point in even trying. I kinda dragged my way through the majority of the book, as it was a bit boring with some interesting bits thrown in. Thankfully, the book became more interesting when Ophelia and Tom were kidnapped.
Nothing except the beginning of the book bothered me. The flow was great, and the writing was nice. I like how the author explains how each character is feeling, but not in a very confusing way. The book is the fourth in a series, and by the way it ended, I'm guessing there will be a 5th, which I'm excited for. I would recommend this series to tweens ages 11-16.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews