The Shrunken Head
This book honestly just wins. The Shrunken Head is honestly one of the best middle grade novels I’ve read and the pity is that I barely even knew what it was about before diving in. I just saw the pretty cover and that it was by an author whose name I was familiar with so I decided to give it a shot. This book was 1000% worth it.
The Shrunken head is EVERYTHING. This book combines the supernatural, with a historical setting, throws in a little bit of mystery AND also goes on to explore the awkwardness of being a preteen who is starting to go through puberty. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
This book is a very quick read (even at 360 pages) and you will be flipping pages, BELIEVE ME. You will want to see these kids get down to the bottom of the mystery.
You will be cheering them on and you will want to punch all the assholes who refer to them as freaks.
Phillipa, Sam, Thomas and Max are children with special abilities. Phillipa can read minds (kind of), Sam is super strong (and tends to break a lot of things as a result), Thomas can bend his body into various shapes and fit anywhere and Max possesses epic skills with knives. When the only home they all have ever known is in danger, they decide to take it upon them to get down to the bottom of this mystery and find out who is causing the deaths.
The mystery aspects of this book were fantastically done but one of my favorite things was how the 1930s setting was weaved into the book. Oliver doesn’t focus too much on the time period but there are little details that make it evident that the book is set in a time around the great depression. The time period is not forgotten but introduced into the story in little ways that make it all the more interesting.
ALSO the illustrations in this book are GORGEOUS.
I’d definitely recommend this book to readers who love a little bit of magic and mystery. This is a fun read that won’t fail to charm your socks off.
The Shrunken head is EVERYTHING. This book combines the supernatural, with a historical setting, throws in a little bit of mystery AND also goes on to explore the awkwardness of being a preteen who is starting to go through puberty. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
This book is a very quick read (even at 360 pages) and you will be flipping pages, BELIEVE ME. You will want to see these kids get down to the bottom of the mystery.
You will be cheering them on and you will want to punch all the assholes who refer to them as freaks.
Phillipa, Sam, Thomas and Max are children with special abilities. Phillipa can read minds (kind of), Sam is super strong (and tends to break a lot of things as a result), Thomas can bend his body into various shapes and fit anywhere and Max possesses epic skills with knives. When the only home they all have ever known is in danger, they decide to take it upon them to get down to the bottom of this mystery and find out who is causing the deaths.
The mystery aspects of this book were fantastically done but one of my favorite things was how the 1930s setting was weaved into the book. Oliver doesn’t focus too much on the time period but there are little details that make it evident that the book is set in a time around the great depression. The time period is not forgotten but introduced into the story in little ways that make it all the more interesting.
ALSO the illustrations in this book are GORGEOUS.
I’d definitely recommend this book to readers who love a little bit of magic and mystery. This is a fun read that won’t fail to charm your socks off.