This volume covers, I'm pretty sure, Katarina's entire first year at the Academy of Magic, which is also the entirety of the otome game that Katarina played when she was a 17-year-old girl living in our world. She finally meets Maria Campbell, the commoner who can use Light magic, who happens to be the otome game's protagonist, and is convinced that Jeord, Alan, Keith, and/or Nicol will fall in love with her. After all, Maria's so sweet, beautiful, and kind, who wouldn't fall in love with her? Katarina is so focused on avoiding Maria-related Catastrophic Bad Ends that she doesn't notice some disturbing and possibly deadly developments at the school.

I had figured that Yamaguchi would milk the humor surrounding the mismatch between Katarina and the other characters' POVs for all it was worth, so it was surprising when this volume took a more serious and poignant turn. I was also surprised that the Catastrophic Bad Ends storyline was wrapped up so quickly - two volumes and that's it. I assume that the next few volumes either start a new story arc of some kind (focused on what?) or read like unnecessary filler. I'll hope for the former but expect it will be the latter.

At any rate, after finishing the first book, I was wary that this one would follow the same pattern of having a scene from Katarina's POV and then showing everything a second time from someone else's POV. Although Volume 2 still switched between Katarina's POV and others', the repetitiveness was drastically reduced - Yamaguchi made slightly more effective use of the new POVs and instead focused more on flashbacks to important times in those characters' lives.

The first POV switch was a shock, revealing something that caused me to question the series' setup and everything that was going on. Yamaguchi then did absolutely nothing with that massive revelation until close to the end of the book. It felt a bit like cheating on the author's part, even though it tied in with Katarina's past life in our world, the Fortune Lover game, and the book's friendship theme.

I liked the friendship that developed between Maria and Katarina and the effect it had on Maria's relationship with her mother. And the "hidden character" storyline was interesting and unexpected. Still, I missed seeing Katarina interact with the characters from the first volume. They were definitely there, but they didn't feature as prominently as I had hoped. That said, I loved Katarina's conclusions about her "Friendship Ending" - otome games in general could use more emotionally satisfying Friendship Endings that aren't treated like another sort of Bad Ending.

The writing/translation, while less repetitive and less riddled with typos, was still pretty bad. I was glad to only see one instance of the word "abode," but its status as most popular word in the translation was taken by the word "snack." Surely a more specific word, like "cookie" or "cake" or "tart," could have been used occasionally. By the end of the book, I could feel myself suffering from bad writing fatigue, so rather than starting the third book right away, I'm opting to take a break from the series for a bit.

This second volume wasn't quite what I expected (or, honestly, what I wanted), but it did wrap up the Catastrophic Bad Ends storyline pretty nicely, and I'm very much looking forward to reading the manga adaptation of this part of the story, considering how much of an improvement the first volume of the manga was over the source material. I expect I'll be reading Volume 3 in the near future, once I've had a little time to recover, but I'll be approaching it with some trepidation. How will the series continue when the main storyline has already been concluded?

Extras:

• Side Story: She Who is Dearest to Me - A Jeord POV story focused on a particularly harrowing portion of the story, although with some lighter bits at the beginning and end. It felt a bit fan service-y, complete with one of those cliched "character using their own mouth to give an unconscious character a drink" scenes. Still, it had some of the character interactions I missed and had wanted to see more of.
• An afterword written by the author. Apparently, this book was published only two months after the first, which could explain the issues with the writing.
• Bonus Editor's Column - Aimee Zink writes about "katakana nightmares," the problems involved with translating katakana (Japanese syllabary that is used for non-Japanese words) into English. My favorite example was Sirius Dieke, whose name could easily have been Serious Dick (I admit, this possibility occurred to me even before I made it to this bonus section).
• Several black-and-white illustrations.
• A cute color illustration.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

For over twenty years, the Magic School Bus series has been a fantastic instrument used inelementary science classes. This is just one of seventeen total books in the series. This particular story is about a boy named Arnold who swallows the magic school bus (while its shrunk of course)! The class gets to experience the human body up close as they take a trip through its digestive tracks and through Arnold's stomach! 

How I would use this book in my classroom:

I would love to use this book in my classroom while doing a science lesson on the human body! I would read this story to my students and let them label the parts of the digestive track that the school bus visited. If time allows, I would even let them watch the short movie that corresponds with the book!

Lexile: AD 730L

This science-based fiction novel tells the story of Arnold swallowing the Magic School Bus. Now, instead of seeing an exhibit of the human body at a museum, the class is taking a look at Arnold's stomach, his intestines, his bloodstream, and more from the inside on this heart-stopping field trip. This book would be great to accompany a science lesson in which students are learning about the human body. Students then can create models of human organs from household objects for a fun and hands-on activity. 

Lexile: AD 730L

If you grew up in the 90s, more likely than not, you grew up with a certain eccentric red-haired school teacher gracing your television set. Everyday after school, I would rush home to catch The Frizz on afternoon TV, teaching me a wide variety of subjects the world has to offer. I loved how educational and entertaining The Magic School Bus was for my young mind. And this book is no different!

This book focuses on the solar system and the planets. This story is one of my favorites for a couple of reasons. One being that it was one of my favorite episodes from the television series, the other being that I used to play the computer game of the same name almost every single weekend! I loved exploring the different planets and learning the ins and outs of each nine (now eight) planets! It was so much fun for me so, naturally, when I saw this book at the used bookstore, I had to buy it!

Of course, this being a book published during the 90s, some of the facts and science are a bit out-dated now. However, there is still merit in reading this book. You can teach your kids what scientists used to think to be true. You can use it more as a history lesson than a science one. Then you could continue by following up with a book about the solar system that is accurate to today. There's still plenty to learn from this charming book series. 

And if you end up loving this book, then I highly recommend the cartoon show. It's just as educational and entertaining. For you. For kids you know. For anybody. 

Reading this book was such a nostalgia trip for me. If I stumble upon any other book in this series, I will definitely be reading them!

This latest entry in wonderful MG magic-school series Magisterium balances some seriously dark themes and action with laugh-out-loud lines.

The first book or two's Harry Potter overtones with all the joy of discovering a new magic world were more fun, to be honest, but as the penultimate book, I can see how things are ramping up. I

'd say this is borderline YA - as the kids move on through the school years/grades, they're heading into teen territory, adding kissing and mild romance angst to death, identity crises, and necromancy. I'd recommend for older kids, maybe 10 or even 12+. But the relatively simple language and style of expression are solidly middle grade. Looking forward to the big wrap up in book 5!