Free Audio Books

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
Eight-year-old Kahu, a member of the Maori tribe of New Zealand, fights to prove her love, her leadership, and her destiny when hundreds of whales beach themselves and threaten the future of the tribe.

It's one of my favourites.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Written in 1903, this classic brought Jack London to the world’s attention. It is the story of Buck, part St. Bernard and part Scotch shepherd dog, who shows the strengths of both breeds when he is stolen and sold off as a sled dog in the Yukon during the gold rush. A heartfelt story that appeals to both children and adults.


To download this weeks titles click on the link.

These are the last of the free summer audiobooks. I hope you tried out a couple.

Back to School

Today I start back to work. I know that I left the place in a bit of a mess, so in a crazy way, I'm excited to go back and get things all prepped and ready for my readers. Another great thing that I'll be doing is working on buying some new titles to be added to the collection. Yeah! shopping!! Love this Adele remake. You can have it all! Find it in a the pages in a book.

Fabulous project, worthy cause

SketchTravel from Curio on Vimeo.

This animated short film was created as part of a sketchtravel project which is an international charity art project where one red sketch book was passed around between 71 artists around the globe for 4 1/2 years.
The original sketch book was sold for $ 96,200 US and its entire proceeds will go towards building libraries in third world countries in partnership with a child literacy non-profit Room to Read.

Just wanted to share something that makes me feel good. If your interested in Room to Read please check them out here.

Summer Reading

The Houdini Box by Brian Selznick

I'm smitten with Brian Selznick's work, both as an author and an illustrator. Since my first introduction to his illustrative style in Ann M. Martin's, The Doll People right through to his most current work Wonderstruck, I have been enchanted with how he visually tells a story, as well as, when he writes  a story. Blending these two talents together in more than just a picture book fashion (32 pages) has been such a hit with readers at Lakie. Why I think it is a hit? I believe that some of us readers are better at interpreting visual clues and then making the inference with the verbal clues in the story. In other words the pictures help us understand the story. And Selznick is a master - it's a joy to uncover the clues in his pictures.
I guess it's no wonder that I searched out more of his titles this summer.
In The Houdini Box we are introduced to Victor a young boy who idolizes Harry Houdini. He tries to learn countless magic tricks to no avail - often with humourous bruising results. Then a chance meeting with the magician leads Victor on an unexpected journey.
I loved learning more about the magician Harry Houdini, I love the thought of a magic box that could transform Victor into the magician he dreamed of being. The black & white cross-hatched illustrations supported the story beautifully. And I appreciated the non-fiction content including a biography and magic trick at the end of the book.

I was delightfully surprized to find out that this book has been the inspiration of a children's play. Here's a preview of it.

Summer Reading

The Case of the Deadly Desperados by Caroline Lawrence

Sometimes when I'm choosing a book, I read the first sentence and if it grabs my attention, I'll check it out. Here's the first sentence -- "My name is P.K. Pinkerton and before this day is over I will be dead."  So that in combination with cover was enough to peak my interest. (And I seem to be on a western kick these days.) This book might be a bit of a gamble for some, but with short chapters, loads of action, fascinating characters - including our main character P.K. (who if you can imagine Sheldon from Big Bang Therory were twelve years old and living in the old west, a hilarious combination.) and guns being drawn just about every other chapter -- well then this should be your next book. It was loads of fun.

Here's the summary from the book jacket:
The year is 1862 and twelve-year-old P.K. Pinkerton is on the run from Whittlin Walt and his gang of ruthless desperados. P.K. is determined to hold on to his ma's last priceless possession: the deed to a large amount of land and silver mines in the Nevada Mountains. But this is the Wild West, and there's hardly a safe place to hide in Virginia City, an untamed mining town full of gamblers, hurdy girls and gunmen - all of them on the make! Relying on disguises will only keep P.K. hidden for so long as he works to outwit the outlaws who are quickly closing in...
At once thrilling, funny, and moving, this mystery adventure will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very last page.

Summer Reading

The Recruit by Robert Muchamore (#1 in the CHERUB series)

This has been highly recommended to me so many times that I brought it home with me for the summer and moved it to a much higher position on the To Be Read stack, and then brought it with me to the lake for more of my summer reading. I'm very glad I did all those things, because it didn't disappoint.
"What is CHERUB? -- During World War II, French civilians set up a reistance movement to fight against the German forces occupying their country. Many of their most useful operatives were children and teenagers. Some worked as scouts and messangers. Others befriended homesick German soldiers, gathering information that enabled the resistance to sabotage German military operations.
A British spy named Charles Henderson worked among these French children for nearly three years. After returning to Britain, he used what he'd learned in France to train twenty British boys to work on undercover operations. The codename for his unit was CHERUB.
Henderson died in 1946, but the organization he created has thrived. CHERUB now has more than two hundred and fifty agents, all aged seventeen or under. Although there have been many technical advances in intelligence operations since CHERUB was founded, the reason for its existence remains the same: adults never suspect that children are spying on them."

Our main character is twelve-year-old James Choke, who finds himself recently orphaned and forced to live in a Childrens Home. It is there that he is recruited to become part of CHERUB. First he'll have to undergo some pretty intense training before he ever ventures out on his first mission. Action-packed, thrilling, gritty, with a very real sense of teenagers (you know -- the kind that don't clean their rooms, play endless videogames, make crude jokes and occasionally go overboard when asked to vandalize something.)

Thanks to the students that recommended this one. It was very entertaining. I'm not sure I'll make it through the remaining 10 in the series, but I may try the pre-series The Henderson Boys.
If you loved The Recruit there are some great bonus stories at the CHERUB website-
http://www.cherubcampus.com/the%20recruit.htm

Read On!

Free Audiobooks

This week's free audiobooks are: Skulduggery Pleasant and Dead Men Kill. You can download them here.

This is a very popular book in our library, so if you haven't had a chance to borrow it, why not try downloading it and listening to it.
Here's the summary;
When a not-so-innocent twelve-year-old girl named Stephanie inherits her eccentric uncle’s estate, she must join forces with Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton mage, to save the world from an ancient evil.

Skulduggery Pleasant is paired with Dead Men Kill by L. Ron Hubbard.

Description:When several of the city’s most respected citizens are inexplicably killed by what appear to be zombies, all Detective Terry Lane has to go on is a blue-grey glove, a Haitian pharmacy bill for some very unusual drugs and a death threat from a mysterious stranger. Matters are soon complicated when a beautiful nightclub singer shows up who claims to have information that could solve the case, but whose motives are plainly suspect. Against his better judgement, Terry investigates her lead only to find himself sealed in a coffin en route to the next zombie murder his own.

Summer Reading

An Awesome Book by Dallas Clayton

There are some books in this life that are just perfect. They fit a hundred different monmentous occasions. This one will be joining my list of books that make a perfect present. Based on the simple theme of dreaming big, not giving up on those dreams and keeping an active imagination throughout your life.
This is also a wonderful story about Dad writing and illustrating a colourful, wildly imaginative book for his child, searching endlessly for a publisher, deciding who needs a publisher - I believe in this book, and sharing it with the world. And now I'm gonna share it with you.
Read the book / share the story for free--
 right here.
Here's Dallas Clayton's story.


Congratulations Mr. Clayton, you've inspired us all.

Summer Reading

Ingo by Helen Dunmore

Here's a book that I've been meaning to read for years. Each year that I've been a school librarian I've had students say "I must read this book!" So I'm happy to say it made it's way to the top of the summer reading stack, and I was enchanted by the underwater world of Ingo. In fact the descriptions of Ingo and its inhabitants were by far my favourite parts of the story. I enjoyed how the story felt filled with an old mythology, one that I wasn't familiar with (maybe, this is because I didn't grow up next to an ocean), and yet had a present day believability.  Thank you to all of  those students who insisted that I read this one. I got totally caught up in the tantalizingly beautiful and dangerous world of adventure under the sea, where the Mer people live.

Summary:
I wish I was away in Ingo
Far across the biny sea,
Sailing over deepest waters
Where love nor care never trouble me...

By the Cornwall caost where Sapphire lives with her family, it's easy to hear the call of the sea. Too easy.
When the sea called to Sapphy's father, he vanished from her life. When the sea called to her brother, he started disappearing for hours on end. And now the sea is calling to Sapphy, and she feels its pull more strongly than she's ever felt anything in her life.
In a novel full of longing, mystery, and magic, Helen Dunmore takes us to a new world that has the power both to captivate and to destroy. At the waterline, the two worlds of Air and Ingo meet. Sapphy and her brother, Connor, find themselves at the boundary between these worlds, in a place of danger and amazing discoveries.

Summer Reading - Graphic novels

Lost Trail : Nine Days Alone in the Wilderness by Donn Fendler ; illustrated by Ben Bishop

Based on the true story Lost Trail is a boldly illustrated graphic novel that tells the story of Donn Fendler, a twelve-year-old Boy Scout from New York, who climbs Maine's mile-high Mount Katahdin and in a sudden storm is separated from his friends and family.
What follows is a nine-day adventure in which Donn, lost and alone in the Maine wilderness, struggles for survival.
What I liked: I liked how Donn relied and remembered his training from Boy Scouts about what to do when your lost (sometimes he ignored this and therefore made things more difficult for searchers.) Stay with the group. Don't panic. Follow a stream. and others. I thought the black & white illustrations were very atmospheric and gave a good sense of how Donn was feeling emotionally. I also really liked that the story was made into chapters with breaks that were made from Newspaper articles.
What I didn't like: Although Donn had a strong faith in God, I don't know if that it should have overshadowed his survival the way that it did.

Fans of the Hatchet series might want to check this one out, or you might want to read the original book recounting the story : Lost on a Mountain in Maine by Donn Fendler. There is even talk of making it into a movie. Here's a promo for it.

Summer Reading - Graphic novels

Wolverine : Worst Day Ever by Barry Lyga

I have to admit that this was a totally random pick. What can I say? sometimes fate gives you what you need -- something fun, adventurous, hilarious and with great artwork. I found it in the graphic novel section, but I don't know that it qualifies as a graphic novel (it's not  a story told in sequental artwork / drawings). It's more of a story, told in blog format, with illustrations. That's really unimportant to anyone who's not a librarian.
So, to get on with the review... Eric is a recent recruit to Xavier's School for Gifted Students. He has a very peculiar mutant gift, in his words
 " Basically, people don't notice me. I don't mean like I'm shy or anything like that. I mean that people just don't notice me. I could walk into a room totally naked, playing an accordian while juggling chainsaws, and people might get the idea that something's a little off in the room."
So what's a kid with a strange undeveloped mutant power supposed to do when surrounded with peers who have awesome mutant powers, well..., sneak around, lurk in the shadows, tag along with the X-men on secret missions and spy on favourite X-man of all Wolverine. This is where the fun, the action and the hilarity gets rolling.
I'm buying this one for our library for sure! I loved it.
Read On.

Awesome SUPERPOWERS

Have you heard, reading gives you superpowers?, How awesome is that!! I knew it, I knew that sometimes I can make myself invisible.
For years I've been a fan of Dav Pilkey, author of Captain Underpants - his creativity, energetic style and he's funny. So is it any wonder that he let's us in on a secret (that reading gives you superpowers.)

Free Audiobooks

Pinned by Alfred C. Martino
In this gripping story, wrestling dominates the lives of two young men. Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane come from very different backgrounds–yet they both have the drive, determination, and commitment of a champion. And both are determined to have successful wrestling seasons despite having to grapple with their own demons. But their personal problems won’t matter when these two teens meet on the mat to compete for the title of New Jersey State Wrestling Champion. Both Ivan and Bobby have put in grueling hours of practice, endured intense hunger to cut weight, and sacrificed themselves for the sport they love–but only one of them is destined to win.

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
When Lonnie Collins Motion was seven years old, his life changed forever. Now Lonnie is eleven and his life is about to change again. His teacher, Ms. Marcus, is showing him ways to put his jumbled feelings on paper. And suddenly, Lonnie has a whole new way to tell the world about his life, his friends, his little sister, Lili, and even his foster mom, Miss Edna, who started out crabby but isn’t so bad after all. Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson’s lyrical voice captures Lonnie’s thoughtful perspectives of the world and his determination to one day put a family together again.

To download this past weeks audiobook selection visit this link:
audiobooks