Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: review by Allana, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 3 of 3
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: review by Allana in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
Review by Allana
Now, I'm a very big reader, and when I don't have much to do, I can read as many as three to four novels a week. So when I sat down to read the
Isle of Swords by
Wayne Thomas Batson, I was just expecting another book. Mediocre, and just a good read. But nothing that was really going to keep me turning the pages. By the end of this wonderful novels, my opinion had completely changed. It is truly one of the best I've ever had my big reading nose stuffed in. It's really fantastic. I completely engulfed it.
It is about a young girl named Anne. Her lifelong dream is to become a pirate. Her father will not let her formally join the crew, and Anne despises it. Sure, it has its occupational hazards, but she's just a strong as any of the men that work on her father's own pirate ship. But when Anne and her father's crew take a short stop on a small island, they find a wounded young man on the beach. Turns out that his name is Cat. He has amnesia. But what he doesn't know could come back to bite him.
At the same time, Bartholomew Throne is out to get Anne and her father's crew and ship. He is the self proclaimed "Most ruthless pirate sailing the seas" and he carries around a stick that he beats his crew members with. It always drips sap making it look like the stick itself is bleeding. Whether or not Anne escapes Bartholomew's wrath is for you to find out. I loved this book's element of surprise and would recommend it to any one of any age. It's great.
Recommended Age Group: Teen
Review by Allana
I know that there was a movie and all, but a Series of Unfortunate Events is my favorite series ever. When I was in fourth grade, I engulfed the books in three weeks. Since then I've had a passion for the books and now own all 13 in hardcover edition. The first book in the series,
The Bad Beginning is just the start of wealthy children Violet, Klaus, and Sunny's misfortune. When a horrible fire destroys their home, it also leaves both their parents dead. Mr. Poe, the children's banker, informs them that they cannot collect the massive fortune that their parents left them until Violet is 16. Their parents wishes leave the children with their somehow related Count Olaf. He makes them do horrible work, and treats them like dogs. But not only is he evil, but he is scheming. He has a plan, but what it entails is for you, the reader to find out.
Recommended Age Group: Young Adult
I have always been a painter. That way when Painter the program came along I was hooked. The use of the brushes and various stroke controls was and is amazing. BUT... when I upgraded to Painter X, I had a huge disappointment. Those fantastic REAL BRISTLE brushes were just so deadly S L O W. I tried all the tricks in my little bag of tricks to no avail. I upgraded my Wacom, downloaded the newest drivers, boosted the scratch disk, set all the extra space on my external hard drive. Still those marvelous brush strokes eluded my faster pace. UNTIL... after emailing Corel with no response I called in for another issue, and just on the spur of the moment they offered me tech support for any other issues. I found an answer to my problem, and maybe if you have been slowed down either by Painter X or by my problem ( a slower brain) this could help.
If you open PREFERENCES> GENERAL and uncheck BRUSH GHOSTING and ENHANCED BRUSH GHOSTING, the brushes in that category of REAL BRISTLE will behave! Yippee. This is extremely important when creating a painting on a larger canvas such as a two page spread for a large picture book. Some of those page spreads can be as wide as 24 inches and even under the best of circumstances can take days to paint.
If anyone else has had this problem, I hope this helps.
by 
Hi, Allana! So glad you enjoyed Isle of Swords. Kind of you to post a review on your site. Thank you.
As you might have guessed, there will be a sequel to Isle of Swords. It'll be called Isle of Fire and will release this August.
And, as my characters in my Door Within Trilogy say...
Never alone.
-Wayne Thomas Batson
Thank you so much for commenting on my review. I love any feedback you can give me. I am looking forward to your sequel to the Isle of Swords. Have a great day!
God Bless,
Allana