This makes my day

Back in January I was introduced to this video, it continues to 'make my day' everytime I see it.

North of Beautiful

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

This was my weekend read, which I couldn't put down - the lawn will just have to wait.

Born with a port wine-stain birthmark covering her entire right cheek Terra Rose Cooper is ready to leave her stifling, small Washington town where everyone knows her for her face. With her critical, reproachful father and an obese mother who turns to food to deflect her father's verbal attacks, home life for Terra isn't so great either. Fueled by her artistic desires, she plans to escape to an East Coast College, thinking this is her true path. When her father intercepts her acceptance letter, Terra is pushed off-course, and she is forced to confront her deepest insecurities. After an ironically, fortuitous car accident, Terra meeets Jacob, a handsome but odd goth Chinese boy who was adopted from China as a toddler. Jacob immediately understands Terra's battle with feeling different. When Terra's older brother invites her and her mother to visit him in Shanghi, Jacob and his mother also join them on their journey, where they all not only confront the truth about themselves, but also realize their own true beauty.

This is a gorgeously written, compelling book featuring universal themes of true beauty, family bonds and personal strength and love.

Hunger Games

Think you'd make a good tribute in The Hunger Games? play a round in the tribute challenge and see if you can beat me or Mr. Newman, the first time I played I score 92% and the last time Mr. Newman played he scored 99%. I guess that means we'd both be dead. Give it your all, but play smart.

Here's the link.

http://scholastic.com/thehungergames/games/index.htm

And remember book 3 Mockingjay comes out September 24, 2010.

Fever Crumb

Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve

Fever Crumb has been adopted and raised by Dr. Crumb, a member of the Order of Engineers, where she erves as an apprentice. At a time when women are not seen as reasonable creatures, Fever is an anomaly, the only girl to serve in the Order. Soon, though, she must say good-bye to Dr. Crumb to assist archaeologist Kit Solent with a top secret project. The assignment involves a mysterious room that once belonged to Auric Godshawk, the last of the Scriven overlords, and Fever must help unlock it. The Scriven, not human, ruled the city some years ago but were hunted down and killed in a vitorious uprising by the people.
As Fever's work begins, she is plagued by memories that are not her own, and Kit seems to have a particular interest in finding out what they are. All Fever knows is what she's been told: She is an orphan. But whose memories does she hold? And why are there people chasing her, intent on eliminating her? Is Fever the key to unlocking the terrible secret of the past?

The book trailer looks interesting.

Books and Technology

Books and Technology
Here's more on the future of books and the mix with technology.



It's reading with all the bells and whistles. This e-book version of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is very interactive, requiring the reader to turn the e-reader this way and that, to make the story and it's illustrations come alive. It won't be for everyone but maybe it will grab a few of you in the future.
Read On

42 Miles

42 Miles by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

Loved it!!! Absolutely loved it!
Just 42 miles. That's how far it is from the downtown apartment where JoEllen lives with her mom to the old family farm where she spends weekends with her dad. But to her, these two homes are worlds apart. In the city, she's Ellen, who hangs out with her girlfriends, plays the sax, and loves old movies. In the country, she's Joey, who rides horses with her cousin, Hayden, goes fishing, and listens to bluegrass. Now - with her thirteenth birthday approaching - she needs to decide: Where do her loyalties lie? Who is the real JoEllen?
Linked free-verse poems combine with scrapbook-style illustrations to create the vivid portrait of a girl who it trying to find herself amid the pieces of her life.

This one is a short one at only 72 pages, and novels in verse always read fast, but there are thoughts to ponder long and hard here, about the combinations of flavors and ingredients inherited from family that in part make us who we are. Once again - loved it!

Read On.
Here's one of the poems from the book -done up for a book trailer.

Vook

On Friday I was at a workshop on library stuff - a one of the sessions was on ebooks / ereaders and all sorts of other fancy high-tech stuff.
This session was impressive because it reminded me that reading is changing - I know you think how is reading changing? Well here is a for instance: Vooks - here's a trailer about vooks


(part video part book or story) think of titles like Skeleton Creek and Ghost in the Machine, but there are others - try this link if your curious.
http://bit.ly/c5urYe

It's an interactive short story mystery. Requires reading and a computer.

Skulduggery Pleasant

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

On an ordinary day, in an ordinary town, an ordinary girl is about to make an extraordinary acquaintance----. She turned. When his hat had come off, his hair had come off too. In the confusion, all she had see was a chalk white scalp, so she turned expecting to see a bald albino - maybe? But, no. With his sunglasses gone and his scarf hanging down, there was no denying the fact that he had no flesh, he had no skin, he had no eyes, and he had no face. All he had was a skull for a head.

When Stephanie inherits her eccentric uncle's estate, little does she know that she's inheriting something along with it ; a life-or-death battle between good and evil. Fortunately for Stephanie, she also inherits a friend and ally that might help her make it out of this alive - Skulduggery Pleasant. With his dashing fashion sense, snappy wit, and fire-throwing abilities, Skulduggery is just the fellow to have along in a fight. So who cares if underneath the designer clothes he's just a skeleton?

This is book one is the series, it is followed by Playing with Fire and then by The Faceles Ones and coming soon Dark Days.

100 Cupboards

100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson Book 1

Twelve-year old Henry York wakes up one night to find bits of plaster in his hair. Two nobs have broken through the wall above his bed and one of them is slowly turning ... Henry scrapes the plaster off the wall and discovers cupboards of all different sizes and shapes. Through one he can hear the sound of falling rain. Through another he sees a glowing room - with a man pacing back and forth. Henry soon understands that these are not just cupboards, but portals to other worlds.

100 cupboards is the first book in the trilogy, it is followed by Dandelion Fire (Book 2) and The Chesnut King (Book 3).

Here's the book trailer.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole

For fans of the Guardians of Ga' Hoole series you'll be happy to hear that they've taken this great series and have now made it into a movie (you know it's popular when....) Coming to theatres September 24 2010.

Don't forget the book is always better ;-)
So here is a look at the trailer.