Read on: February 2011

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Trackers, Book 2 - Shantorian

Shantorian (Trackers, #2) by Patrick Carman

In the 21st century landscape of bits and bytes, everyone leaves a digital footprint ... even the most advanced cyber-criminals. And that's where the trackers come in. Four tech savy kids armed with high-tech video cameras and esoteric coding skills, the trackers can find almost anyone. told through a collage of videos, text and websites, Trackers follows the worlds of Alex, Finn, Lewis and Emily as they become entangled in a high-tech, high-stakes game of cat and mouse with Shantorian the world's most dangerous hacker. At least that's who they think they're tracking...
As the four dig deeper into the shadowy world of online crime, they soon that things aren't always as they seem.
And the book trailer.

The total tradegy of a girl named Hamlet

The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet by Erin Dionne

Do your parents ever embarrass you? How about when your not at home, but with your friends somewhere? Do you hate the name they gave you? Do you have a younger brother or sister that is a brainiac or could show you up in just about anything? - Well welcome to Hamlet's world.

Hamlet Kennedy just wants to be your average, happy, vanilla eighth grader. But given her family - a genius seven-year-old siter who is attending middle school with her, and Shakespearean scholar parents who show up like a walking, talking REnaissance Faire - that's not terribly easy.
School gets worse when her sister is named the new pre-algebra tutor, and even worse when the class project is announced: It's on Shakespeare. Add it all up , and Hamlet's life (like her name) seem like a total tragedy.
But, as Shakespeare said, "it is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves," and Hamlet finds that ultimately, being from a Freak Family can give a girl license to find her own brand of extraordinary. And there's nothing tragic about that. In fact, the curtain on Hamlet's eighth-grade year might just close to overwhelming applause.

And the book trailer.

School of Fear

School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari

Everyone's afraid of something...
Madeleine Masterson is deathly afraid of bugs, epecially spiders.
Theodore Bartholomew is petrified of dying.
Lulu Punchalower is scared of confined spaces.
Garrison Feldman is terrified of deep water.

Which is why this may be the scariest summer of their lives. Worse than detention or summer school. Even worse than the orthodontist. The foursome must face their phobias at the exclusive and elusive School of Fear. The school is unusual, to say the least. But "terrifying" would be a more accurate description.
The curriculum is simple: Conquer your fears in six weeks or find out just how frightening failing can be.

Well, would you be willing to face your fears?
Here's the book trailer.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Airman

Airman by Eoin Colfer

This book just isn't flying off the shelves like I want it to, and sometimes a book just needs a little friendly help in promoting itself -- so I thought if I wrote up it's summary, introduced you to the author -via an interview and showed you a book trailer, it might spark your interest and make it really take flight, you know give it wings.

Summary: In the late nineteenth century, when Conor Broekhart discovers a conspiracy to over throw the king, he is branded a traitor, imprisoned and forced to mine for diamonds under brutal conditions while he plans a daring escape from Little Saltee prison by way of a flying machine that he must design, build and hardest of all. trust to carry him to safety.

The book trailer

the interview with the author, Eoin Colfer.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Hawksmaid

Hawksmaid by Kathryn Lasky

The untold story of Robin Hood and Maid Marian.

Before she was Maid Marian, she was Matty....

Matty has been raised to dance well, embroider exquistely, and marry nobly. But when Matty's mother is murdered before her very eyes and her father, a nobleman, is reduced to poverty, Matty's life changes.

As the daughter of Nottingham's most famous falconer, she finds a new destiny in the hawks her father keeps. She begins to understand their thoughts and even speak their language. The beauiful merlin Marigold becomes Matty's closest winged compainion and her fiercest ally.

It is a treacherous time in England. The sheriff of Nottingham is rising to power, and a true king has been kidnapped. Determined to fight, Matty's friend Fynn becomes Robin Hood. As Maid Marian, Matty joins Fynn and his Merry Men, famously robbing from the rich to give to the poor.

If you're a fan of traditional historical fiction beware, this is a mixed of historical fiction and fantasy. Kathryn Lasky is known for her animal fantasy novels - (guardians of ga'hoole) as well as for her historical fiction novels and here is Hawksmaid she combines a bit of both.

Zebrafish

Zebrafish by Peter H. Reynolds

From the cover -- Vita Escolar is ready to rock. She's got a band name, a used guitar, and three chords under her studded belt. All she needs are a few bandmates to complete the picture. Instead, an activist, two gamers, and an artist show up to her audition. None play a lick of music. But when she can't shake em' off, she resigns herself to join them. After all, a virtual band is better than no band... er, right? With a little help from Walt, Tanya, Plinko and Jay, Vita learns that you can't alway get what you want - but you might get what your friends need. And that's way better. On yeah!

I am a fan of Peter Reynolds, his books Ish and The Dot, give encouragement to all of us to not feel afraid or intimidated - to let your creativity flow. And Zebrafish does this in the graphic novel format, whether it's starting a band, drawing a cartoon, playing video games, or starting a movement - the power is there in us. Believe in it, have fun with it, and show it off.

Check out the website www.zebrafish.com, for the book trailer and a cool battle of the bands contest.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

New Non-Fiction

Sometimes we get books in that immediately remind me of a person. Here's some new non-fiction titles, can you guess who they make me think of?

Read On!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Distant Waves

Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn

Chased by their pasts and drawn toward a more hopeful future, four sisters embark on the journey of their lives... aboard the Titanic. One is going to have her wedding during the voyage. Another has become involved in a feat of scientific intrigue that has the potential to alter the course of history. All of them feel out of place, and at least one of them will soon find herself out of time.

Book trailer.

The Monstrumologist

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

I'm a big fan of Rick Yancey, but unfortunately I haven't had much time to read this one yet, maybe it will come home with me later in the year, but in the meantime. I think some of you will be interested.
Summary from back cover:

Monsters are real.

Will Henry is the orphan apprentice of a doctor with an unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. When a midnight visitor brings them the body of a young girl entwined with the corpse of an Anthropophagus, it is the start of the most mysterious case of Will Henry's life.

Anthropophagi are headless monsters whose razor-sharp teeth are in their stomachs - and they are supposed to be extinct in this part of the world. Now Will and the monstrumologist are in a race against time to put a stop to the plague of monsters before they kill again.

Here's the book trailer.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Ghostopolis

Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel

Wow! what a great surprise to open at the end of the day. I had loaned this out to a grade seven boy a couple of days ago and he recommended that I take it home and read it - well, I took it and 3 others home with me (for weekend reading) but this one was begging me to read it tonight. Again, wow! really great drawing, fun word play and humor, I liked the characters and the inhabitants of Ghostopolis and found myself caught up in the story.

Summary: Imagine Garth Hale's surprise when he is zapped to the spirit world by Frank Gallows, a washed-out ghost wrangler. Suddenly Garth finds that he has powers that the ghosts don't have, and he's stuck in a world run by an evil ruler of Ghostopolis, who would use Garth's newfound abilities to rule the ghostly kingdom. When Garth meets Cecil , his grandfather's ghost, the two search for a way to get Garth back home, and nearly lose hope until Frank Gallows shows up to fix his mistake.

Loved pages 1, 54 and 108.

Read On

Once

Once by Morris Gleitzman

Once I escaped from an orphanage to find Mum and Dad. Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house. Once I made a Nazi with a toothache laugh.

My name if Felix.

This is my story.

For three years and eight months Felix has lived in a convent orphanage high in the mountains in Poland. But Felix is different than the other orphans. He is convinced his parents are still alive and will come back to get him. When a group of Nazi soldiers come and burn the nuns' books, Felix is terrified that his Jewish bookseller parents will also be in danger. After escaping from the orphanage, Felix embarks on a long and dangerous journey through Nazi occupied Poland, befriending a little orphan girl Zelda and a kindly dentist, Barney, who hides and cares for Jewish children. But, when the Nazi's discover them, Barney makes the ultimate sacrifice for the children.

For those of you who liked, Number the Stars, The Boy in The Striped Pajamas or Milkweed.

Girls acting Catty

Girls acting catty by Leslie Margolis

Dogs can be trained. Cats are a whole different story...

For Annabelle, starting middle school hasn't been so bad. She's made an awesome group of friends, and it turns out that taming those wild boys is a lot like training a puppy! But now Annabelle is about to encounter a whole new kind of headache: Taylor and the Three Terrors.

There is no tyraining manual for this clique of girls; they are too cool for school, and they definitely don't like Annabelle and her friends. But sometimes Taylor acts super nice, and Annabelle feels torn. Is Taylor just being fake? Or has Annabelle accidentally fallen in with the wrong group of friends?

Here's the book trailer.

Read On.

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