Hail to the Chief - Tanyo Ravicz

                Hail to the Chief is a ninety-one page poem about the rise and somewhat fall of Bill Clinton and his marriage to Hilary. It’s very tongue-in-cheek but also fairly accurate. As the author states at the end of the book, he has a done a fair amount of research into the lives of one of the most memorable presidents of our time, even if he is remembered for the wrong reasons. His roving eye and affair with Monica Lewinsky is explored thoroughly by the author. Mr. Ravicz has great fun picking the story of the intern and the president apart and turning it into an entertaining and quite explicit poem. Some people may be offended by this book because it is sexually explicit by places and does make a fair amount of fun of Bill Clinton’s problem keeping his pants zipped. However I thought it was highly amusing and fun to read. I’m not a follower of politics nor do I live in the States so I wasn’t offended in any way. In fact, I probably learned things about American history from this poem. I bought the digital version of this and it worked well on my ereader and I loved the cover. In fact, the whole book would make a great graphic comic.

Among Wolves - R.A. Hakok

                Every once in a while I pick up a book and know within the first few paragraphs that I’m going to love it. Among Wolves: A Children of the Mountain Novel is one of those kind of books and I’m happy to say the first book in one of many in the series, I hope. It opens with an event thirteen days in the future and then moves back in time to tell the story of how Earth has become the cold waste land it now is, seemingly only inhabited by a small group of teenagers and a few adults. The story is told through the viewpoint of one of the teenagers, Gabriel, who stumbles upon something that drastically changes his outlook of his current situation. I loved this book and read it in a couple of days. There is lots of action, a bit of romance, and an entertaining mystery, so there is a little something for everyone. It is a book for young adults but, as with many YA books today, appropriate for any age. The characters are well written, both interesting and believable in their actions. Gabriel is likeable and had me cheering him on in the end. I can’t wait to read the next installment in this series. The only thing I was not impressed with was the cover which I didn’t find particularly eye-catching. I read this as a digital download and it formatted well to my ereader.

Addition for Kids - Sun Eastley

                Addition For Kids is a short workbook that is meant to prepare children for the basics of math. The author covers everything from counting money to adding decimals to Roman numerals. Each “chapter” just touches on each topic and I would probably only use this in addition to other materials as a touch up to what the child already knows. However, having worked in the school system with children of this age, I found that this book would be confusing and boring for them. I tried the book both on my ereader and laptop to see if I was missing something in the layout but both times it came out the same way. There are no illustrations to keep the child’s interest, the vocabulary is far too high for children of this age (especially in the section about shapes), and rarely are Roman numerals taught to this extent anymore. I did like the hint given about how to tell which months have thirty-one days. I also liked the idea of having one small workbook that touches on everything so that a child could practice at home but this is not written for a child at a beginner math level. As I previously stated I didn’t like how this translated to my ereader or laptop. The cover is very basic and not eye catching for a child at all.