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Cindy M
An accountant and CPA by profession, I found myself a book reviewer for Squeaky Clean Reads by happenstance. When the opportunity came to transform that website into Compass Book Ratings, I was excited to seize it and meld my business background with my love of books. As the mother of three teenage sons, I have read a large number of children and young adult books and I believe that there is great value in a content review service. As much as we would love to read everything our children read, there just isn’t enough time. I also appreciate being able to select books for myself that are really worth my precious and limited reading time. I believe there is a book out there for everyone–they just have to find it!
Seamless and natural prose makes The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer Holm an effortless read.  Besides being a snap to read, young readers on the brink of middle school will be able to …
SYLO by D.J. MacHale is an adrenaline-filled-conspiracy-action-thriller young adult novel.  So be prepared when you open the book to be consumed.  It reads as a movie made into a book. …
"If everything in life was easy and happy, how would you grow up?" Written in journal format, protagonist Sarah Zorn chronicles the summer between her 8th and 9th grade year in school.  Sarah …
Recommended Middle Grade Books About School It is August and the kids are heading back to school. Wait, do you notice anything wrong with that statement?! The part with August and school in the same …
This book is truly brilliant!  Think of a collage of all the minutiae of daily life assembled to tell the story of someone's life.  Photographs of receipts, referrals, doctor bills, school p…
Ninja Detective is just that--classic Nancy Drew sleuthing by a young lady with a black belt and bone fide martial arts skills.  The martial arts action is really a bonus because it is the d…
Some might argue that there is an over-abundance of fairy tale re-mixes and re-writes these days; that perhaps the genre is overused and overtired.  It was with this thought that I reluctantly pi…
Ruins, book two in the Pathfinder Series, picks up practically mid-sentence where Pathfinder ended.  There is no pause in the narrative and no backstory reminders; it is essential …
Oh, if only we all had a Master Yoda to guide us through our problems!  Luckily, protagonist Roan has access to the Jedi Master's wisdom, or perhaps he wouldn't be able to navigate through a seco…
Long before Eragon, there was another story written about a dragon rider... Cornelia Funke penned Dragon Rider in 1997 in German and it was later translated into English after Americ…
Philip Reeve has written fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian/steampunk novels for ages ranging from middle grade to adult; however, Oliver and the Sea Wigs is his first foray into chapter books.  This novel…
Wake Up Missing by Kate Messner is a middle grade science thriller filled with suspense and action, perhaps a bit like a Michael Crichton novel for middle graders.  Male and female character…