The Warlord Series

Title: The Warlord’s Fish, The Warlord’s Puppeteers, The Warlord’s Kites, The Warlord’s Messengers, The Warlord’s Alarm
Author: Virginia Walton Pilegard
Illustrator: Nicolas Debon
Series: The Warlord Series
ISBN: 9781565549647, 9781589800779, 9781589801806, 9781589802711, 9781589803787

Timothy’s Review (at age 10)

This is a great series if you’re looking for something that is fun to read and yet informative.  The series is about an artist, his apprentice, a puppeteer and his daughter and their adventures.  In the book “The Warlord’s Fish”, the artist and his apprentice are kidnapped by traders who believe that they have been tricked.  They are taken out into the desert and lose their way, but the apprentice had brought his master’s wooden fish that always pointed south.  With the help of the fish they find their way to the last oasis and are set free.  All of the books are like this, with a crisis happening and the apprentice and/or the puppeteer’s daughter saving the day.  At the end of each book, there is an activity such as how to make a windsock, or how to make your own compass, like in “The Warlord’s Fish”.  This is my favorite math and science series. I really enjoyed it, and I think you will too.

Mummy Angie’s Notes

These books are set in Ancient China.  The Warlord’s Alarm is about the Chinese Water Clock, The Warlord’s Kites about kite making, The Warlord’s Fish about the compass, The Warlord’s Puppeteers about ratios and puppet-making, and The Warlord’s Messengers about wind-driven landcrafts and the windsock.  The series actually starts with two other titles, The Warlord’s Puzzle and The Warlord’s Beads, but for some unknown reason we don’t own them.

Fantastic Flight

Title: Fantastic Flight: Make and Fly 24 Original Paper Airplanes Using No Glue or Cutting
Author: John M. Collins
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
ISBN: 9781580085779

Timothy’s Review (at age 10)

If you are looking for a REAL paper airplane book that is instructive and at the same time challenging, then this is THE BOOK for YOU!  🙂

John M. Collins has a degree in Physics and he uses it to design and create completely new and original paper planes.  Through the book, a character called “General Tweaks” (pun intended), tells you how to adjust planes so they fly well.  The instructions are clear enough for children from eight to follow on their own, but there are no coloured pictures.  😦  The plane called the Super Canard (though French for “duck”, but in paper airplane language means “stabilisers on the front of the plane”) is the toughest plane in this book to fold.  So do not attempt until you have folded all the other planes in this book.  I have folded almost all the models and they all fly well.  But I think the Super Canard is the best.

I have four or five books on folding paper planes but this is by far the best.

Alethea’s Review (at age 12)

Ahem, ahem. Children from eight? Are you trying to undermine my intelligence, Tim? Well, to be honest, I haven’t folded anything from this yet, but if it’s like his Jeremy Shafer books, I can tell you—watch out.