Siblings Books

This fun and suspenseful whodunit is sure to delight readers!

When American twins Xena and Xander move to London, they learn they're direct descendants of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. After they're given his casebook of unresolved cases - complete with clues - the twins enter a surprising journey of mystery and intrigue that take them all over London and its suburbs.

Sherlock Holmes fans will appreciate how author Tracy Barrett masterfully weaves bits and pieces from the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle into her book.

I couldn't put this page-turner down! Complete with a quaint English village, Henry the Eighth's mansion, boarding schools, and numerous art galleries, this book will please thrill-seeking readers.

There's a new mystery series on the block.

Now, the only thing better than a Henry Holt book is a story by children's author Tracy Barrett. Put them together and you'd expect a fun book, which is exactly what this pair supplies.

This first book in a new series introduces us to American siblings who travel to London. There, they learn that they're related to the great detective, Sherlock Holmes. Of course, Xena and Xander are wanna-be detectives and Barrett doesn't waste any time throwing them into their first real mystery.

Just a few pages into the story, the kids receive Sherlock Holmes' unsolved casebook. Can two American kids do what Sherlock Holmes couldn't? Barrett's story moves quickly, but not too quickly. Each new clue leads to new questions. Solving one mystery simply exposes another!

Barrett masterfully paints the characters of Xena and Xander while launching the story's plot, and I like that. I so much want to turn that first page in every book I read and this one certainly didn't disappoint me. Barrett's beginning is a charming device that sets up the plot without boring the reader. Everything fits.

I loved the way Barrett uses a fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, to lend credibility to her characters. In addition, she gives Xander a photographic memory so the kids have quick access to information in a fun way. It's a marvelous way to solve a literary problem while making Xander a "real boy." Kids will easily identify with both Xena and Xander because Barrett allows them to be kids, not just miniatures detectives. Xena and Xander matter just as much as solving the mystery.

I was so pleased to find this book! As a teacher, I found it compliments our study of Jamestown and the infancy of what would, in almost two hundred more years, become the United States perfectly. Although a fictional account of one of the boys who did, in fact, come over with the first three ships, it includes actual events faced by actual historical figures...Smith, Archer, Newport, Radcliffe, Pocahontas, and more. The book is well-researched and engaging, with lively dialogue that hints of old-style conversation, excellent detail, action, and adventure. My seventh grade students found the story fascinating as we read it over a period of two weeks. They were as interested in this as much they would be any well-told tale. They learned about the hardships, the struggles and occasional friendships the English forged with the Native Americans, the reasons for the English settlement and the fear of the Spanish, the terrible death of Archer and the wounding of Smith, the sickness and starvation in the "Starving Time", the desperation of the settlers -- all true events -- while feeling an empathy for teenaged Nat and his efforts to become a man in a foreign, difficult world. Some of my students even asked if there was a sequel to this book, so I directed them to history books that picked up after 1609, and they dove right in! What a way to get kids hooked on history! I highly recommend this for teachers of early American history or students who are looking for an teen adventure set in American history!

...We are both teachers and have enjoyed the Young Founders series, which suit middle school and high school readers covering American history. A House Divided is appealing in its fast pacing, sympathetic characters, drama, and detailed glimpse at one moment during the Civil War. Gettysburg, like hundreds of other busy but ordinary little towns in the mid-1800's, was a colletion of homes, businesses, and churches, linked to the outside world by trade and train, until the war marched right through it. Much can be learned through well-written and well-researched historical fiction; it can bring events to life and engage readers, who may then develop an interest in history that might not have been there. I recommend this novel for classrooms as well as libraries.

A story that captures the hearts and imagination of people of all ages. The combination of beautiful artwork and creative characters help bring this story alive! Don't miss this one!

This book has depth, both in story line and in artistic expression. This artist explores avenues not traveled by the ordinary children's author. The detail makes this book come alive for young and old. Truly a treat for all!

this is one of the finest stories read by me of f.w.dixon. i was really inquistive to know it's contents as i am from mumbai. the story is centered around the movie sets of bollywood. it is an very intresting book that can captivate the hearts of all it's readers!

One of the best I've read.The Hardy Boys come to Bombay to investigate sabotage in a movie set.Explosive action and a mind-bending plot will keep the reader hooked.

I agree with the previous review that this book was similar to the Magic Treehouse series, but I think this book was even better than those. My six year old daughter and I loved this book. We planned on splitting it up over two nights of reading, but got so involved in the story that we read the whole book in one sitting! Super imformative and the story was woven well into the Ancient Egypt facts!! We read this as part of a homeschool lesson, but any kid who is interested in Ancient Egypt would be thrilled with this story!

I got this book along with several others for my first grader. We homeschool and are studying Ancient Egypt. We loved this book! This was by far my son's favorite. It is easy to find "photos and facts" types of book on Egypt, but this one adds a bit of fiction and adventure to the mix. It is kind of like the Magic Tree House books, but in a picture book format. The book is an adventure story with factual information listed at the bottom of each page (I guess sort of like Magic School Bus type books too). I will definitely be checking out the others in this series.

Alice's Birthday Pig is a chapter book for young readers ages 7-10 about a girl who longs for a pet of her very own, and who gets frustrated over her inability to properly pronounce the world "animal". Her brother teases her by comparing the way she talks to that of their baby sister Rosie, which is completely unfair since Rosie is only three! Alice's dream of having a pet pig eventually comes to pass in a surprising way - when she becomes the proud owner and responsible caretaker of a guinea pig! A handful of charming black-and-white illustrations enhance this upbeat, easy-to-read story.

What a sweet little beginning reader! I'd put this at a challenging 2nd grade, easy 3rd grade level. Alice's family is so wonderful, so warm and charming. She's teased by older brother Oliver for mispronouncing "aminal" After a class field trip to a small farm, Alice wishes more than anything for a real pet pig on her birthday. Her family has a delightful tradition of making an elaborate shaped cake every year to commemorate an important event of that year. A penguin, an airplane, a chutes and ladders cake, a train, a stegasorus, Big Bird, even a plain "cake, cake" for the year her brother complains about his cake not being grand enough. This year her parents make her a pig cake... and then surprise her with a pet guinea pig. Her little sister Rosie gets into Alice's gifts including a paint set and inadvertently covers Oliver with glitter but none of that matters. Alice names her new guinea pig "Aminal", much to Oliver's dismay. This story is a real winner.

This is currently my 22 month-old's favorite book. Her name is Annie, too, so maybe that has something to do with it! It's a lot of fun to read aloud, with great illustrations. Highly recommended - I would imagine any child from 2-5 would enjoy it.

This is such a sweet book. My three daughters (ages 5, 3 and 3) love it. The story lends itself to some fun sound effects (provided by mom or dad) making it even more fun. Annie's futile attempts to rid her favorite chair of the dog makes them all laugh...and when the dog finally responds to Annie's frustration and they cuddle together in the chair...my girls are all smiling ear to ear. It's a fun book.

This is the kind of book that makes me want to do something extremely daring and meaningful. Like jumping off something or swimming in my pool with my clothes on (which is what I did...)This book is extremely well written and a poignant,beautiful look at relationships. Danny and Elijah are well developed characters and watching their relationship unfold and grow is lovely. The writer, David Levithan, does a beautiful job using the setting, Italy, to ground the story and provide real-life context. The personal adventures both brothers go on provide a well-written and heartfelt look at insecurities and problems they have. The most basic area of the plot is perdictable, but the plot is not what makes this story special. It's the characters and the development of thier relationship. A wonderful and quick read!

Elijah and Danny are brothers. Elijah is the dreamy brother, who loves to hang out with his friends at boarding school and has endless conversations with strangers. Danny is the elder brother --- hardworking, serious, and completely devoted to his first job in advertising. Elijah thinks of Danny as being a sellout, a phony, and a liar. Danny thinks of Elijah as being a penniless, pothead fallback, with no sense of reality. Both brothers have forgotten the affection they once had for each other.

In an attempt to get the two siblings to communicate again, their parents send them on a tour of Italy. An impressionistic blend of novel, travelogue and poetry, ARE WE THERE YET? is about the brothers' travels through Venice, Florence and Rome. Travel, particularly in a foreign country, has a disorienting quality that makes things seem simultaneously immediate and very faraway. David Levithan captures this paradox, as well as the strange coincidences and people the two brothers encounter along the way. He covers the major sites of each city, along with minor sites important to each character.

Notably, Levithan writes about the remnants of once-thriving Jewish communities in each city. When the brothers visit the infamous Jewish ghetto in Venice, immortalized by Shakespeare's Shylock, they read that 8,000 Italian Jews were sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust. Only eight returned. Later, a guide notes that the Venetian Jewish community now numbers about 600 in a city of approximately 63,000. Doubly an outsider, as an American-Jew in an Italian city filled with some of the most famous Christian artwork in the world, Danny starts to question his place in the world, and a system of values that has left him largely alone.

When he and Elijah fight about a woman Elijah meets at the scene of an accident, the brothers separate, leaving them both truly alone in a foreign country. Slowly each comes to realize that despite the pleasures and autonomy of being alone, "it's good to share a life." Elijah realizes that he isolates himself through casual relationships and does not express his feelings for the people he truly loves. Danny sees that his work has come between him and the people who love him most. The brothers reunite in Rome. They share a serendipitous sunrise at the Parthenon, followed by a tour of all the sites in the movie Roman Holiday, which they are surprised to discover they both love.

In a conversation between Danny and one of his childhood friends, Levithan touches on the difficulty of being brothers, when the process of growing up interferes with the bond they once shared:

"Brothers are not like sisters. They don't call each other every week. Will you be there for him if he needs you? Of course. Should you love him without question? Absolutely. But those are the easy things. Do you make him a large part of your life, an equal to a wife or a best friend? At the beginning, when you're kids, the answer is often yes. But when you get to high school, or older? Do you tell him everything? Do you let him know who you really are? The answer is usually no."

ARE WE THERE YET? not only explores the dynamic of accumulating distance between brothers, but also looks at the way Danny and Elijah begin to close the gap as they gain maturity. The optimism that is part of Levithan's other novels saturates this book, offering the following advice for relationships: "Don't go for normal. Go for happy. Go for what you want it to be instead of settling for what is."

--- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood

My daughter is 17 months old and I just bought this book for her a couple weeks ago. She absolutely loves it. I've been teaching her Baby Sign and she's picked up the sign for "bear" because of this book. (there are also other animals in the book that she likes to point at).

The story line is adorable. I think it is a good way to introduce the concept of a new baby to the family to a young child, without going into a ton of detail about how it happens. We are expecting a baby when our daughter will be 21 months, and right now she cannot grasp that I have a baby in the tummy, but I think with more reading of this book that she will be able to learn about getting a new brother or sister.

I haven't read any of the other books by the same author, I have only read this one. And as a stand alone book, I think it's wonderful.

Our family adored the first book about Alfie (When Will It Be Spring?) with Catherine Walters' gorgeous and clever illustrations of the bears' wild mountain world. The same beautiful art is featured in this book, with a similar charming plot focusing on Alfie's young naivete - this time wondering where his new baby brother or sister (still expected) might be. I find this one perhaps one notch less perfect than the first, but it still instantly ranked among our favorites. Little text, but rich enough with content and visual complexity to appeal to a wide range of ages.

My older son (now 9) had it when he was a baby and now I am buying it for my 8 month old again.

My daughter can't do without this book. I am amazed to see how many different words she learned. I strongly recommend it to the parents.