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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
This book came together for me so much more than the first book did (which I loved in fits and starts, but felt that some of the asides to grownups--assumptions on the part of kids readers--didn't quite work), I just couldn't put it down. So wild and witty with a fantastic voice and imagination!
I loved Flora Segunda a lot more than the sequel, but this was still a really enjoyable read. The ending was sweet, though, and I'll probably grab the third one soon.
I found myself much more entertained by this one than the first. I am enjoying watching Flora learn and grow as she plows through the intrigue and politics of her world. I especially enjoyed the family issues. Looking forward to volume 3.
This was a great read. Lots of fun adventure, multiple story lines that all come together in the end and cool revelations for our little Flora Segunda. Enjoy.
I finished!! After 3 years of it staring at me from the nightstand, and re-reading the first 2 chapters again and again, I finished! And I'm so glad I did! I don't know what caused my reluctance, but it's no fault of the story, which was engaging and constantly surprising. The mix of half-spanish/half-made-up pigeon talk annoyed me, as in the first book, but once the story takes hold, it merely becomes background noise, another tool to build and establish this very different world.
Fantastic! This series is so wonderful, full of magic, mystery, houses with rooms unknown, and an amazing strong-female protagonist who gets better with every book. I can't believe I'd never heard of this series before, and now I can't wait for another one to come out. The author has a great sense of humor that pulses through the dialogue and the prose and the characters themselves.
I love that 'magick' can only be mastered by becoming proficient in a language called "Gramatica", which is terribly difficult to master. Spoken incorrectly, with the wrong inflection, tone, conjugation, feeling/emotion, and swiftness, the intended 'magick' can go horribly wrong. When attempting a Translocation (using 'magick' to go from one place to another) it is always tricky because you could end up inside a wall if you do it slightly incorrectly. I love that Flora is so strong-willed, yet fearful of punishment and being caught at the same time. A truly precocious leading gal, which makes a story so great!
The first book was called: "Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog"
This second book's entire title is: "Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room)"
The titles themselves give you a taste of the humor, the wit, and the precocity of Flora, which you'll find throughout the books.
Nini Mo is Flora's idol -- a real ranger (one who uses magick for good, etc.; Flora's family, the Fyrdraaca's, have always gone into the military, and Flora is expected to as well, and they think of magick as nonsense). Flora constantly quotes Nini Mo from her various adventure books and looks to her words for what to do when she gets into various troublesome situations. This little precursor leads me to a paragraph I found quite entertaining:
"I am going to be a ranger. And rangers do not waste their time sitting in a classroom. The greatest ranger of them all -- Nyana Keegan, better known as Nini Mo -- chronicled her adventures in a series of yellowback novels called Nini Mo: Coyote Queen. (Coyote being the slangy term for ranger, of course.) There is no yellowback called 'Nini Mo sits in Math Class,' or 'Nini Mo and the Curse of the Overdue Library Book,' or 'Nini Mo vs. the Term Paper on the Orthogonal Uses of Liminal Spaces in the Novels of Lucretia McWordypants.'"
---> Favorite new words from this paragraph: "slangy" and "McWordypants"
I also love that Flora is fine with what she looks like, and would rather not be all looks-obsessed. In one moment she shouts back at Valefor, her house's cast-off butler who had been taunting her for her weight: "Shut up. I'd rather be round than look like a stick." That's pretty awesome.
Another excerpt: "Climbing across the roof is the trickiest part because it's small, slanty, and tiled, and those tiles can be pretty slickery."
---> Favorite new words: "slanty" and "slickery"
The most scandalous "curse words" Flora uses are: "fike" and phrases like this: "Pigface Psychopomp on a Pogostick!"
What more do you need to know? Read these books!
I love that 'magick' can only be mastered by becoming proficient in a language called "Gramatica", which is terribly difficult to master. Spoken incorrectly, with the wrong inflection, tone, conjugation, feeling/emotion, and swiftness, the intended 'magick' can go horribly wrong. When attempting a Translocation (using 'magick' to go from one place to another) it is always tricky because you could end up inside a wall if you do it slightly incorrectly. I love that Flora is so strong-willed, yet fearful of punishment and being caught at the same time. A truly precocious leading gal, which makes a story so great!
The first book was called: "Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog"
This second book's entire title is: "Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room)"
The titles themselves give you a taste of the humor, the wit, and the precocity of Flora, which you'll find throughout the books.
Nini Mo is Flora's idol -- a real ranger (one who uses magick for good, etc.; Flora's family, the Fyrdraaca's, have always gone into the military, and Flora is expected to as well, and they think of magick as nonsense). Flora constantly quotes Nini Mo from her various adventure books and looks to her words for what to do when she gets into various troublesome situations. This little precursor leads me to a paragraph I found quite entertaining:
"I am going to be a ranger. And rangers do not waste their time sitting in a classroom. The greatest ranger of them all -- Nyana Keegan, better known as Nini Mo -- chronicled her adventures in a series of yellowback novels called Nini Mo: Coyote Queen. (Coyote being the slangy term for ranger, of course.) There is no yellowback called 'Nini Mo sits in Math Class,' or 'Nini Mo and the Curse of the Overdue Library Book,' or 'Nini Mo vs. the Term Paper on the Orthogonal Uses of Liminal Spaces in the Novels of Lucretia McWordypants.'"
---> Favorite new words from this paragraph: "slangy" and "McWordypants"
I also love that Flora is fine with what she looks like, and would rather not be all looks-obsessed. In one moment she shouts back at Valefor, her house's cast-off butler who had been taunting her for her weight: "Shut up. I'd rather be round than look like a stick." That's pretty awesome.
Another excerpt: "Climbing across the roof is the trickiest part because it's small, slanty, and tiled, and those tiles can be pretty slickery."
---> Favorite new words: "slanty" and "slickery"
The most scandalous "curse words" Flora uses are: "fike" and phrases like this: "Pigface Psychopomp on a Pogostick!"
What more do you need to know? Read these books!
For a young adult series, the Flora trilogy has begun to grab me by my laurels and seriously suck me in. In a way the progression of the series feels like the Harry Potter series if it had been condensed into 3 novels, and in a very good way.
The stakes are higher, the enemies are enemier, the love line is forming and these characters are slowly becoming dear to my heart. Also the nickname Tiny Doom is totally aces.
The stakes are higher, the enemies are enemier, the love line is forming and these characters are slowly becoming dear to my heart. Also the nickname Tiny Doom is totally aces.