Keeper

Keeper by Kathi Appelt

To ten-year-old Keeper the moon is her chance to fix all that has gone wrong ... and so much has gone wrong.
But she know who can make things right again: Maggie Marie her mermaid mother, who swam away when Keeper was just three. A blue moon calls the mermaids to gather at a sandbar, and that's exactly where Keeper is headed- in a small boat. In the middle of the night, with only her dog BD, (best dog) , and a seagull named Captain. When the riptide pulls at the boat, tugging her away from the shore and deep into the rough waters of the Gulf of Mexico , panic sets in and the fairy tales that lured her out there go tumbling into the waves. Maybe the blue moon won't sparkle with mermaids and maybe -- oh no... "Maybe" is just to difficult to bear.

I love the book trailer, it just layers question mark after question mark, and leaves you curious for more.

Missing

Missing by Catherine MacPhail

Maxine's parents have had to do perhaps the worst thing possible: confirm the identity of her brother Derek's body by the clothes he was whereing went he disappeared. So the who was missing is now officially dead. But then the worst possible thing really happens: Maxine receives a telephone call from somebody saying he is her brother. She can hardly believe her ears. Has Derek come back from the dead? In this pacy triller, the author manages to confront many issues - how differenet people deal with grief, the very under-rated effect of severe bullying at school and sibling rivalry - all in a fast paced compelling narrative voice.

I thought comparable titles would be: My sister's keeper and Buried.

I Am Number Four

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

A while ago, I promoted the book to our grade eight readers, I don't think it's sat on the shelves since that day, in fact it's had enough of a holds list that I've bought another copy.

Well here it is -- the movie trailer. P.S. the only reason I mention this is to generate even more need to read the book. So that you can give a good comparison.

Here it is.

Empty

Empty by Suzanne Weyn

Everyone knows that we will eventually run out of oil. Weyn takes readers ten years into the future to the small New York town of Sage Valley to show just how that might feel. Gwen, Tom, Carlos, Nikki, Brock, Hector and Luke have the same problems as many teens. Outsiders Gwen and Luke have never known their father and now their mother has gone missing. Rich cheerleader Nikki is trying to choose between two guys, In their world, though, gas is $40.00 and rising. America has invaded Venezula, the last country thought to have any oil reserves. Food and medicine are scarce, the economy is in a shambles, electricity can't be counted on, and now hurricanes Oscar and Pearl have combined to form a superhurricane that is headed up the East Coast. Weyn's future has a grimly plausible feeling to it that will draw in readers. She does not resort to ex machina to save the day, and the characters and situations aren't fully fleshed out. Still this should be of interest to those who appreciated Saci Lloyd's Carbon Diaries 2015, and any teens who wonder just what the world they will inherit might look like.

School Library Journal - Eric Norton.

Readers who enjoyed Life As We Knew It of The Girl Who Owned a City might also want to pick this one up.

Read On

Closer by Roderick Gordon

At the center of the Earth, in a world that no-one knows exists, Will is in trouble. His enemy, the Styx, are close behind. They'll pursue him till the ends of the world - any world. Meanwhile Drake, with help from the most unlikeliest of allies is preparing to fight Styx from above. But will his daring plan bring him closer to victory... or a certain death?

Havoc

Havoc by Chris Wooding

There's no going back. Everyone know the rumors - if you gather the right things and say the right words, you'll be taken to Malice, a world that exists within a terrifying comic book.

Seth managed to escape from Malice, but it meant leaving his best friend Kady, trapped there. And he's not sure whether he should try to take down the Malice comic from his own world or go back with an artifact he thinks can help from within. He is sure that he's desperate to save Kady.

Meanwhile, Kady has her own battles to fight. She's trying to find Havoc, a rebel group of kids who want to fight Tall Jake, Malice's cruel overlord. But she can't help feeling that someone's watching her and that Tall Jake knows what her plans are before she puts them into action.\

Malice is spreading. Tall Jakce is gaining influence on the world outside the comic. Seth and Kady think the if they gather the right objects and find the right people, they'll be able to defeat Tall Jake once and for all. The only question is ... how?

Here's the book trailer:

And here's a short interview with the author.

Guys Read: Funny Business

Guys Read: Funny Business edited by Jon Scieszka

Funny Business is based around the theme of - what else?- humor, and if you're familiar with Jon and Guys Read, you already know what your in for: ten hilarious stories from some of the funniest writers around. Before you're through you'll meet a teenage mummy; a kid desperate to take a dip in the world's largest pool of chocolate milk; a homicidal turkey; parents that hand their son's room over to a biker; the only kid in middle school who hasn't turned into a vampire, wizard or superhero; and more. Ten stories guaranteed to delight, amuse and possibly make you spit your milk in your friend's face, from the following esteemd writers: Mac Barnett, Eoin Colfer, Christopher Paul Curtis, Kate DiCamillo, Jon Scieszka, Paul Feig, Jack Gantos, Jeff Kinney, David Lubar, Adam Rex and David Yoo.

This will definately appeal to those fans of David Lubar's short story collections - The Curse of the Campfire Weenies - etc.

I especially liked Eoin Colfer and Jack Gantos's stories. But really they all gave me a bit of a chuckle.

Here's the ten authors telling the intro joke.

Avalon High

Avalon High by Meg Cabot

From the cover:

Avalon High, I was starting to think, might not be so bad afterall.

Maybe it's not where Ellie wants to be, but if you have to start at a new school, Avalon High is typical enough: There's Lance, the jock. Jennifer, the cheerleader. And Will, senior class president, quaterback and all around good guy.

But not everyone at Avalon High is who they appear to be... not even, Ellie is about to discover - herself. As a bizarre drama begins to unfold, Ellie has to wonder what part she has to play in all of this? Do the coincidences she's piecing together really mean - as in King Arthur's court - that tragedy is fast approaching her new friends?

Ellie doesn't know if she can do anything to stop the coming trouble. But somehow, she know's she has to try.

Here's the movie trailer.

I'll be curious if any of you have seen or heard about this one.
Read On.

The Ring of Solomon

The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud --

A Bartimaeus Novel

Bartimaeus, everyones favourite (wise-cracking) djinni, is back in book four of this best selling series. As alluded to in the footnotes throughout the series, Bartimaeus has served hundreds of magicians during his 5010 year career. Now, for the first time, fans will go back in time with the djinni, to Jerusalem and the court of King Solomon in 950's BC. Only in this adventure, it seems the great Bartimaeus has finally met his match. He'll have to contend with an unpleasant master and his sinister servant, and runs into just a "spot" of trouble with King Solomon's magic ring...

Love this series can't wait to have more.

Here's the book trailer.

Fly Boy

Fly Boy by Eric Walters

This is the perfect weekend to be tucked away reading a few good books. This morning I finished Fly Boy, and I know this one is going to be a big hit. (in fact I'll probably need more copies than just one.)

It's 1943, and World War Two is raging across Europe and around the globe. Seventeen-year-old Robbie McWilliams can't wait to follow in his father's footsteps and enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force - he wants to become a spitfire pilot and fight for his country. The only problem is that he's still too young to join. So with a little help from his best friend, Chip, Robbie devises a plan that will allow him to enlist early and keep it a secret from his mother, from his schoolmaster, and most important, from the authorities at the RCAF.

Loads of action, and well researched giving an accurate description of training, flying a Lancaster Bomber, and the personal struggles of War.

The Game of Sunken Places

The Game of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson

Have you ever read a story about a boy and a girl who visit an eccentric releatives mansion for vacation? oh, Of course you have. Well, M.T. Anderson's Game of Sunken Places is one such book. Thirteen-year-old Gregory Buchanan's uncle Max is very strange, as Gregory is quick to tell his friend Brian Thatz whom he enlists to join him in Vermont.
Brian and Gregory's adventure begins when they find an old board game called The Game of Sunken Places. As it turns out the game is a reality, and the boys must participate and win in order to settle the score in an age-old battle of enchanted spirit -nations.

If you're a fan of Jumanji, The Lord of the Rings, Fablehaven or even Harry Potter this might be something you might enjoy next.

The second book in the series is The Suburb Beyond the Stars.
Check out the trailer - it doesn't look like much at first, but wait for it!
Read On.

The Suburb Beyond the Stars from Sang Lee on Vimeo.

Word Nerd

Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen

This is one of the books I read over the break, and not being a scramble player I wasn't sure if I would really like this story (I had some good reviews from kids at school) and I was happily surprised with how much I liked the book.

Here's the summary:

Twelve-year-old Ambrose is a glass-half-full kind of guy. A self-described "friendless nerd" he moves from place to place with his overprotective mother -Irene. When some bullies at his new school almost kill him by slipping a peanut into his sandwich - even though they know he has a deathly allergy. Ambrose is philosophical, Irene, however, is not and decides that Ambrose will be home-schooled. While she's away at work during the evenings Ambrose becomes friends with 25 year old Cosmo the ex-con son of their upstairs landlords.

Fun, funny and a scrambled story of friendship, family and acceptance.