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Book reviews for "Coville,_Bruce" sorted by average review score:

The Monsters of Morley Manor
Published in Audio Cassette by Full Cast Audio (01 June, 2002)
Author: Bruce Coville
Amazon base price: $24.00
Average review score:

This was the first book my daughter read and loved!
My third grade daughter, although a good reader, had a tendency to jump from book to book when reading by herself. Her school librarian gave her Morley manor and this all changed. She read it faithfully, often recounting parts of the story to me and when she finished it she promptly decided to read it again.


The Saber-Toothed Poodnoobie (Space Brat, 5)
Published in Hardcover by Pocket Star (1997)
Authors: Bruce Coville, Katherine Coville, and Margaret L. Ranald
Amazon base price: $14.00
Average review score:

Cute
This is a cool space book for all u little kiddies who r interested in stuff like diz...i read diz here book in 2 hours. It's a cool sequel to the first 4 books and i can't wait til dey come up with another book...


William Shakespeare's the Tempest
Published in Paperback by Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Juv (1996)
Authors: Bruce Coville, Ruth Sanderson, and William Shakespeare
Amazon base price: $6.99
Average review score:

A Beautiful Adaptation
I bought this book to use with my fifth grade class, and I'm very pleased with it. One of the main objections to this play is that Shakespeare was long on words and short on action. Mr. Coville retells the story without the political intrigue, without sacrificing the charm of the story. I also loved Ruth Sanderson's illustrations.


William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
Published in Hardcover by Dial Books for Young Readers (2003)
Authors: Bruce Coville, Tim Raglin, and William Twelfth Night Shakespeare
Amazon base price: $11.89
List price: $16.99 (that's 30% off!)
Average review score:

Very good
I really liked this book, how could i not? It's Shakespeare. I liked Twelfth Night also because it doesn't end with happiness and laughter like most comedies, it ends with the fool's sad song. very good.


A Glory of Unicorns
Published in School & Library Binding by Scholastic (1998)
Authors: Bruce Coville and Alix Berenzy
Amazon base price: $16.95
Average review score:

UNICORNS ROCK!
Before I read this book, I liked unicorns. Now, I LOVE them. This book is so awesome! I decided I'm going to memorize that poem and present it somewhere. I can't decide what story is my favorite. I loved all of them (except for Story Hour, that was weird.) I would highly reccomend this. Some of the stories are sad, especially "Beyond the Fringe". But very very good!

unicorn adventures ! ! !
this was the first Bruce Coville book i've read, and so far the only one! I really loved this book, some stories made me cry so much i almost couldn't stop!! i couldn't even put down the book it was that good.there is this one long story called the song of Croaker Noradge, it was such a good story. then there was this other story, i think it was the last one and it was called the New Girl. at the end it was so sad i couldn't stop cring either! I thought i was having emotional problems, but my mom read it and cried throughout it too! Well besides the sad parts, it was such an awesome book! the detail was unbelievable! it made it sound so real! IF YOU LIKED THIS BOOK I RECOMEND... THE SADDLE CLUB BOOKS!!! there also awesome and all about horses! i also recomend THE ROAD TO BALINORE, which is in the series of...UNICORNS OF BALINOR, by Bruce Willis, THERE REALLY GOOD!!!

A beautiful book to treasure!
Combine Bruce Coville, master of myth and fantasy, exquisite art, eleven magnificent stories, and a glorious poem, and what do you get? --An exceptional book, a treasure for those who love unicorns and fantasy. These unicorns are not the goody-goody, pink-bowed unicorns of some publications. These unicorns show depth of spirit, some are ugly, some fiery, some brave and gutsy. One of my favorites is the story by Kathryn Lay. This unicorn brings healing to a girl in a wheelchair, but not in the way you'd expect. I won't give away the ending. You'll have to the read the story for yourself. I highly recommend this amazing, wonderful book to all. You'll be uplifted and inspired.


Aliens Ate My Homework
Published in Library Binding by Bt Bound (1999)
Author: Bruce Coville
Amazon base price: $10.16
List price: $12.70 (that's 20% off!)
Average review score:

This was a terrific book!
"Aliens Ate My Homework" was a wonderfully well written book about aliens and their adventures. Bruce Coville created a wide variety of characters who lead you through a brilliant plot. Rod Allbright- a sixth grader who cannot tell a lie, Grakker- the hot tempered captain of the good ship Ferkel, Madame Pong- a highly respected diplomatic officer on the Ferkel, Flinge Iblik (Snout)- the Ferkel's Mental Officer, Tar Gibbons- a warrior who could kill you with his little finger if so desired, and Phillogenus esk Piemondum (otherwise known as Phil)- The ship's Scientific Officer (pretty much the ship's handy man). These are the assorted charcters that Bruce Coville decided should come alive in the masterfully written "Aliens Ate My Homework." Other books you might like (if you enjoy this one) are "I Left My Sneakers in Dimension X," The Search For Snout," and "Aliens Stole My Body" all of which were written by Bruce Coville and are included in the Rod Allbright series.

Alien Review
I give this book a 5 star rating. This book is about aliens landing on earth but they lose their module that enlarges them so they are stuck being small. Then a kid named Rod found them and took them home totry help them. Then the aliens helped him with his bully problem, but someone named BKR tries to hurt Rod so Rod got beamed up. Rod was threatened by him and took two of his family members as hostage so BKR could get Grakker, the alien and his crew Madame Pong, Tar Gibbons, Snout, Phil, and Rod. If you enjoy aliens shrinking, action,weird things happening, then this is the book for you but I wouldn't read this book to a 7 year old or younger because it's a little too complicated. I liked this book because it was very action packed .Bruce Coville's other books are "I Left My Shoes In Dimenson X","The Search for Snout" and more , lots more.

Number 2 in my top ten favorite books of all time
For me, this rates among the ranks of the Harry Potter books. Even though I'm about 5 grades above the reading level for this book, I laugh every ten pages, on average. I read this book like four years ago, and it's even better the second time.

Rod Allbright is the most honest person you'll ever meet. He can't tell a lie if his life depended on it. This causes him some trouble, as you might imagine, but not as much as the aliens on the good ship FERKEL who come crash-landing through his window. These are Captain Grakker, Madame Pong, Tar Gibbons (a gibbon is actually a real-life tropical Asian ape with a slender body and long arms), Snout, and Phil. Soon Ron is drafted to the position of Deputy to help them arrest the interstellar criminal BKR.

The book starts off pretty quick--not even twenty pages pass before the aliens land. However, the action is not immediate. This gives us a good chance to meet the characters, instead of just watching them run from explosions and stuff. And they are all pretty well-developed, with the possible exception of Phil, since he only has twenty or thirty lines altogether.

Bruce Coville's is some of the best writing I've ever seen. There's so many little details and subtle messages that really help the book move and add depth to the characters. At the same time, he remembers that a kid is thinking this, and fills it with realistic boyish wonder and actions. Well, except not being able to ever tell a lie. But hey, that's what makes Rod Rod.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has even a slight interest in bizarre. It's the fine writing from Bruce Coville seen here that makes me wonder why that haven't adapted any of his works into a movie.


Bruce Coville's Alien Adventures: The Search for Snout
Published in Hardcover by Minstrel Books (1995)
Authors: Bruce Coville and Katherine Coville
Amazon base price: $14.00
Average review score:

OK, but not by any means the best.
This book was good, but it was not even close to the best. Bruce Coville developed his characters very well, but, unfortunatly, he was very unrealistic and unbelievble in other things. A genetically engineered tree, which he wouldn't explain how it worked, and as an excuse the characters said it was top secret. How lame! And a ship that is SHRUNK to fly through the galaxy? Please. If anything, you would probably make a ship bigger. And I'm so sure that taking short cuts into other DIMENSIONS will get you across the galaxy faster. At least give some EXPLANATION. The original plot, though, was very good.

My favorite book in the world!
The search for snout is the best book in the universe. I liked the way bruce coville left you with like 11 mysteries in this book. Another thing I liked is that this book is so good there are 212 pages and I read it in a week!! But if you fully want to understand this book I would suggest reading "Aliens Ate my Homework" and then reading "I Left my Sneakers in Dimension X."

This is one of Bruce Covills best books.
I loved this book and read the two before it wich were equaly good, these are Aliens ate my homework, and I left my shoes in denension X


My Teacher Is an Alien
Published in Library Binding by Bt Bound (1999)
Authors: Bruce Coville and Mike Wimmer
Amazon base price: $10.16
List price: $12.70 (that's 20% off!)
Average review score:

I Recommend This Book To Everyone
I recommend this book to everyone-- especially mystery & fantasy lovers because once you open this book you won't want to put it down. It's called My Teacher is an Alien, by Bruce Coville. So tell me, what would you do if you found out your teacher was an alien? Would you tell anyone or keep it a secret? Would you act the way Peter and Susan did-- getting more and more clues leading them to the real teacher? Like I said, you have to read My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville.

This is the greatest Sci-Fi book I have ever read!
This book is about a girl who's teacher diappears when they come back from spring break. This new teacher is really strange. She follows him home from school one day. When she goes there she hears a screaming noise from inside. She goes in to see what it is. She finds out it is him playing this weird music. He grabs his ears and rips of his face. She is horrified to see that his real face is green. She scoots out of his house before he sees her. She tells her friend ,Peter, about it and he helps her reveal that he is really an alien. This is a great book for young children that like to read Sci-Fi books. It is great for anyone who doesn't really care for it because it has nothing grose in it, just lots of suspence.

A Most Excellent Series
A truly great series. I first read it was I was probably 11 or 12 (which is the target-audience). I loved them. I have read them probably 5 or 6 times. Coville is an excellent writer; this is one of his crowning achievements in children's literature. Now I am twenty. I pulled out my old dusty copies of these works, and as soon as I finish Hunt for the Autumn Clowns I'm going to take a quick trip down memory lane with this serious (before I tackle the Potter books and R. Jordan). This is a very well-constructed series. The first book is an absolute classic. Although the others are excellent, just like Lion, Witch, Wardrobe this will be the one everyone thinks of when they think of the series. It has classic elements of an alien trying to kidnap people to do experiments and testing on. Save in this (if I remember correctly) you don't know WHY he wants the people, or kids. Then we go to the second, My Teacher Fried My Brains. A very lovable sequel, it is here we get into the mind of Duncan Dougal, the bully in the first book. We find "poots", a Medusa-like alien, and machine that makes you perceive music/TV in yr head and makes you a zillion times smarter (the zillion being a rough estimate, of course ;)). And it seems, perhaps, there is something more to the aliens then at first they thought. Won't give any spoilers away, so don't worry. But there is a nice little surprise at the end. Then we get to the third volume, My Teacher Glows in the Dark. My personal favorite, it's set on the spaceship New Jersey. It introduced all sorts of nice imagery, and concepts I have used in my own writings (The URAT. Surgically installed device, so you can understand the other creatures on board. Though not by device, I have used similar methods to cross over the language barrier when I want to have different species get together in my own stories for any suspended period of time). We get to meet the lovable Hoo-Lan, who is quite the doll. It is set entirely on the ship (with the exception of an instance where they go onto another planet), as state up above, so we get to see fascinating alien environments. Then we get to the fourth, My Teacher Flunked the Planet. It is here the series as a whole climaxes. It is the darkest story of the lot, primarily because of its subject matter is a lot denser and much more real in the sense of tragedy than the other three stories. The others build up to this moment. From a writer's standpoint, this is a most excellent case or instance of carefully crafted and wrought stories for children. It is here Coville ties up the loose ends (and there are quite a few). The ending is a very interesting concept or perception of humanity. Although I am a Christian, and I do not agree with the whole evolution idea, for the sake of the story it worked. It is much more of a sentimental favorite for me, because I grew up reading (and reading and reading and reading) these four volumes.

As I said, my personal favorite is the third story. The only problem with this one is it is heavily dependent on the others three books to carry the story. My Teacher is an Alien, which was never intended for a series, is the most stand alone of all the books. It has the most distinct feel of a modern children's classic.* But, unlike The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (for me), this is as good as the rest of them. Then the publishers wanted more because it turned out to be an unexpected hit. So he wrote the second. It is stand alone - to a point. You can tell there is more coming, and the issue is not resolved. Then the third one just exaggerates that feeling. Its like Act I builds and sets the rules. It doesn't need another thing to be complete. It is complete in sense it is self-contained. Act II further complicates Act I, and hints at what is to be in Act III. But to be complete, it needs Act III. Act III comes along. Originally, according to the preface in the Collector's edition, it was supposed to be a trilogy, but the story was too long, so he divided up into two parts. Act III in this instances just builds and intensifies the need for completion. It depends on the two acts before it to build up to it, and then it depends on Act IV to complete it. Act IV is the completion. (Much of what I say here echoes what George Lucas said of Star Wars in the interview released with them when they rereleased the Star Wars original edition. ESB is the best in that series, but, just like Book 2 and 3 in this series, need RoJ to be completed, and is not a stand alone film).

* (When I say a classic feel, its just like The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. All the Narnia books are classics and are most excellent [scary, now I'm sounding like Bill and Ted - yike!], but LWW has the most classic feel of them all, and, btw, is my least favorite of the series. It has some classic scenes, especially Tumnus the Faun standing in the wood with parcels and an umbrella. But overall, the Christianity is way too explicit. I like, if you are using fantasy as a vehicle to express Christianity, not to be beat over the head with it, which is what I feel Lewis did with Aslan and the Stone Table. I love Narnia, and LWW is good, but the others are so MUCH better!)

Narnia is better than this, and most children's fiction for that matter.


Armageddon Summer
Published in Library Binding by Bt Bound (2001)
Authors: Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville
Amazon base price: $11.08
List price: $13.85 (that's 20% off!)
Average review score:

Review for Armageddon Summer
I like to compare this reading experience to riding a bicylce for the first time. At first, I found it difficult to enjoy, but as I continued reading the intriguing characters and plot became more entertaining. The more you get into it, the harder it is to put down. Armageddon Summer was interesting to read, and the depth of the characters were exciting to discover.
This book holds the strange exciting story of two young teenagers who are forced against their will to follow a religious cult to the top of a mountain. When Jed's dad and Marina's mother become Believers of Beelson's flock, the children have to leave their home and friends to join the rest of the believers on the top of Mount Weeupcut. Jed is a nonbeliever and feels like he's surrounded by crazy people. Marina wants to believe but doesn't know if it's really in her heart. The teens are strangers at first, but soon meet and eventually fall in love. Other supporting characters bring life to the story as well. For instance, the insanely believable Reverand Beelson. You want to hate him, but can't because he makes you believe that he really cares about all of his followers. You almost think that maybe the world really is coming to an end and it's scary because there really are cult leaders out there like that. It's too real. Jed's father and Marina's mother seem so naive to be caught up in all of this. But it's interesting to analyze their personalities and see how they change throughout the story.
Armageddon Summer takes place mostly outdoors on the top of Mount Weeupcut. The surroundings are mountainous timber country. Many animals are around, but none of which live in the camp. The believers are fenced in a perimeter so they do not get to explore the rest of the mountain. Each day, chores are assigned that keep the follower's busy. The only time they are indoors really is to eat during a designated time or sleeping in tents at night. They are far from the hustle and bustle of large cities. It seems so peaceful and beautiful. Especially at night when Jed takes the oppurtunity to star gaze.
The chapters were fun to follow, going back and forth between characters so that you know what's going through both of their heads'. The newsletters and radio interview added a unique style to the writing that I found to be quite effective. The actual content of this story didn't really grab me until half way through. I found it interesting but couldn't really get into it until Marina and Jed actually met. I think I'm a hopeless romantic which would explain that. And any oddball like myslef could appreciate a strange story of a religious cult and the end of the world. I'm not even a religious person myself, and I found the story to be quite entertaining as well as educational. I found it fun to try and read deeper into the context for more clues of what would happen next and where the story would take me. Although, it was a serious book containing real issues of torn families and personal trials and tribulations, a light sense of humor made it not so depressing to read.
I did get off to a slow start with reading this one. I felt that the authors, Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville, could have grabbed me a little more in the beginning instead of starting off slow to build it's way up. However, I did stick with it and found that the story was rich with adventure, and passion, and love. The end of one chapter left you with suspense and anticipation to go on and read the next. Once I concentrated more on what was going on and tried to get in deeper, I started to really enjoy it. Despite a weak ending, and slow start, Armageddon Summer was an interesting find if nothing else. However the beginning and end are supposed to be something to be remembered. You should go out with a bang and start with an attention getting chapter or two. The book itself was fun and easy to read. All in all, my feelings toward Armageddon Summer are good. I've read better books, but this is definitely one that you will remember for being unique.

An Easy and Fun Read
On July 27, 2000, the world as we know it will end, or at least that's what two young teenagers have been told. Brought along with their parents on the road to the end of the world, Jed and Marina are sharing the same unique experience: preparing for Armageddon.

According to Reverend Beelson, the person that started the Armageddon scare, the 144 "Believers", or the people that will live through the end of the world, must live on a mountaintop where they will be saved from God's wrath. This means that they will live in tents and eat canned food until the world beneath them is destroyed.

Jed and Marina must both decide weather or not they believe this. While they are making up their mind, they have to share the workload of creating a camp for these people and try to put up with their parents' hopefully temporary insanity.

This was a fun and easy book to read. The authors to a great job of giving the reader two different perspectives of the same strange ordeal. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story, no matter what age. It's quick and easy to get through and won't take up too much of your time, and it's very entertaining.

Armageddon Summer
This time the world will end in fire on July 27, 2000. That is what Reverend Raymond Beelson has told his 2 congregations of the Church of Believers. Reverend Beelson makes plans for 144, a number from scripture, Believers to escape the fire and brimstone destruction of the world. The Believers are led atop Mount Weeupcut in Massachusetts where they live by camping, pray and wait for the day of Armageddon. The days leading up to July 27 are shared with us through the alternating view point of Jed and Marina, who have never met before and came to the fortified mountain because of their families. However, the two teenagers find something compelling about each other as they struggle to find out what is going on in their lives. Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville have skillfully developed the characters of Jed and Marina in this novel. Read this book that explores the nature of faith, the dangers of cults, and relationships that are formed by friendship and love to see how Jed and Marina survive Armageddon Summer.


MacBeth
Published in Hardcover by Simon & Schuster Young Books (1997)
Authors: Bruce Coville and Gary Kelley
Amazon base price: $
Average review score:

Powerful, beyond words, lives forever in your mind
This play is great! I've always liked Shakespearean comedy and tragic romance, and I didn't want to read this play at first, but when I did--it got me.

For those who want to read a play full of word play, appearance and reality in the world and for you, irony and Christian innuendoes, Macbeth is for you. The word play, especially the surprising comparison of murder with "Tarquin's ravishing", and the really effective ones like ambition with drunkeness, will make you read it again and again. There is a haunting soliloquy in Act 5 that Macbeth gives about life--it's famous and most would have heard of it, but nothing beats reading it together with the play.

Behind every successful man there is a woman, and behind every tragic hero there should be a tragic heroine. Lady Macbeth will repulse you and gain your pity. Don't despise her, folks, she just squashed her femininity thinking it was the best thing to do. She wouldn't have to ask evil forces to take away her human compassion if she didn't have any to begin with.

A must-read, and must-savour.

A gripping exploration of "black and deep desires"
"Macbeth," the play by William Shakespeare, is definitely one literary classic that still holds its own as a vital and engaging piece of art. Despite being a stage play, it also works superbly as a reader's text apart from a theatrical setting.

The plot begins thus: Scottish warrior Macbeth is told by three witches that he is destined to ascend the throne. This fateful prophecy sets in motion a plot full of murder, deceit, warfare, and psychological drama.

Despite being a lean play, "Macbeth" is densely layered and offers the careful reader rewards on many levels. Woven into the violent and suspenseful story are a host of compelling issues: gender identity, the paranormal, leadership, guilt, etc. In one sense, the play is all about reading and misreading (i.e. with regard to Macbeth's "reading" of the witches' prophecies), so at this level the play has a rich metatextual aspect.

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most unforgettable tragic characters. His story is told using some of English literature's richest and most stunning language.

Lay on, Macduff!
While I was basically familiar with Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth, I have only recently actually read the bard's brilliant play. The drama is quite dark and moody, but this atmosphere serves Shakespeare's purposes well. In Macbeth, we delve deeply into the heart of a true fiend, a man who would betray the king, who showers honors upon him, in a vainglorious snatch at power. Yet Macbeth is not 100% evil, nor is he a truly brave soul. He waxes and wanes over the execution of his nefarious plans, and he thereafter finds himself haunted by the blood on his own hands and by the ethereal spirits of the innocent men he has had murdered. On his own, Macbeth is much too cowardly to act so traitorously to his kind and his country. The source of true evil in these pages is the cold and calculating Lady Macbeth; it is she who plots the ultimate betrayal, forcefully pushes her husband to perform the dreadful acts, and cleans up after him when he loses his nerve. This extraordinary woman is the lynchpin of man's eternal fascination with this drama. I find her behavior a little hard to account for in the closing act, but she looms over every single male character we meet here, be he king, loyalist, nobleman, courtier, or soldier. Lady Macbeth is one of the most complicated, fascinating, unforgettable female characters in all of literature.

The plot does not seem to move along as well as Shakespeare's other most popular dramas, but I believe this is a result of the writer's intense focus on the human heart rather than the secondary activity that surrounds the related royal events. It is fascinating if sometimes rather disjointed reading. One problem I had with this play in particular was one of keeping up with each of the many characters that appear in the tale; the English of Shakespeare's time makes it difficult for me to form lasting impressions of the secondary characters, of whom there are many. Overall, though, Macbeth has just about everything a great drama needs: evil deeds, betrayal, murder, fighting, ghosts, omens, cowardice, heroism, love, and, as a delightful bonus, mysterious witches. Very many of Shakespeare's more famous quotes are also to be found in these pages, making it an important cultural resource for literary types. The play doesn't grab your attention and absorb you into its world the way Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet does, but this voyage deep into the heart of evil, jealousy, selfishness, and pride forces you to consider the state of your own deep-seated wishes and dreams, and for that reason there are as many interpretations of the essence of the tragedy as there are readers of this Shakespearean masterpiece. No man's fall can rival that of Macbeth's, and there is a great object lesson to be found in this drama. You cannot analyze Macbeth without analyzing yourself to some degree, and that goes a long way toward accounting for the Tragedy of Macbeth's literary importance and longevity.


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