Teen Read Awards

Indigo (Chapters) has just announced it first annual Teens Read Awards. The awards were launched to encourage Canadians between the ages of 12-18 to selected their favourite titles across a number of categories; including best book to flick, best lip lock, best new writer, best hero, best villian, best hottie. Participants are eligible to win , gift cards, movie tickets or even a Kobo ereader.

Sound fun.
Here's the link
http://www2.teenreadawards.ca/

Read On.

The Old Country

The Old Country by Mordicai Gerstein

This is storytelling at it's finest, with vivid detail that leaves you feeling like you've just gotten lost in an enchanted wood and witnessed some very peculiar things, talking animals, fairies elves and the like, a goose who can lay golden eggs and a young girl on a mission to set things right.

I loved it!

Here's the summary:

The Old Country is a novel of singular insight and imagination set in a land where "every winter was a hundred years and every spring a miracle... where the water was like music and the music was like water... where all the fairy tales come from, where there was magic - and there was war." There, Gisella stares a moment too long into the eyes of a fox, and she and the fox exchange shape. Gisella's quest to get her girl-body back takes her on a journey across a war-ravaged country that has lost its shape. She encounters sprites, talking animals, a chicken that lays a golden egg, a court with a spider for a judge -- and bloodshed, destruction and questions of power and justice. Finally, looking into the eyes of a fox once more, she faces a strange and startling choice about her own nature.

The Old Country is at once timeless and contemporary - a tale that draws on a wealth of storytelling tradition and dramatizes the question of what it is to be human. Part adventure story, part fable; exciting, beautifully told, rich in humor and wisdom, it is the work of an artist and storyteller at the height of his powers.

Stealing Heaven

Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott

From the book -

I can pry the molding off a window without making a sound. I can drive a car, climb into a house, deal with growling dogs. I know exactly how much your average 19th century tea service weighs and how many pieces it has.

For silver i learned to read, write, work numbers. For silver I learned the names of every plantation from Virginia to Florida. I can tell you which ones we've visited, which ones we want to, which ones we never will. I can tell you how to find someone's house no matter where it is. I can tell you what to do if there is silver inside.

The story of my life can be told in silver; in chocolate mills, serving spoons, and services for twelve. The story of my life has nothing to do with me. The story of my life is things. Thins that aren't mine, that won't ever be mine. It's all I've ever known.

I wish it wasn't.

This was one of my first picks for summer reading, I took it with me to the lake, and it was perfect, captivating charcters that you feel for. You can't help wanting something good/different to happen for Dani, you know she's good - it's just the way she's been brought up. Butwe all know, it's hard to change.

If you're a Sarah Dessen fan and are looking for something similar in the realistic fiction genre try some of Elizabeth Scott's books I think you'll like them.

Bog Child

Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd

This book totally got me caught up in it. I got caught up by the many differnent strands of it, the bog child (herself), then tensions in Ireland, with its hunger strikers, the friendship of Fergus and a young police officer from Wales, the budding romance between Fergus and Cora (the archeaologist's daughter), a family that is being torn apart by its involvement with the IRA.

Here's the summary from the cover:
In 1981, the height of Irelands "Troubles", eighteen year old Fergus is distracted from his upcoming A-level exams by his imprisoned brothers hunger strike, the stress of being a courier for Sinn Fein, and of a murdered girl whose body he discovered in a bog.

This is a sophisicated mystery, that once it grabs you won't let go.
Read On

Liar

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Micah freely admits that she is a complusive liar. And that maybe the one honest thing she will ever tell you. Over the year's she has duped her classmates, her teachers, and even her parents. But when her boyfriend, Zach, dies under suspicious circumstances, the shock might be enough to set her straight. Or maybe not. Especially when lying comes as naturally to her as breathing. Was Micah dating Zach? Or was Sarah his real girlfriend? And are the stories Micah tells about inheriting a "family gene" real or are they something that exists only in Micah's mind?

There has been a ton of buzz about this one in the publishing world, so I can't wait for it to come home with me.

Here's the book trailer and an interview with the author.

Foiled

Foiled by Jane Yolen

Yesterday I had the terrific surprize of receiving what will probably be my last shipment of books for the year, waiting for me on my desk. I dove into those boxes like a kid at Christmas.

Boy, do i have some summer reading ahead of me. I started last night with this graphic novel.

Aliera Carstairs just doesn't fit in. She's always front and centre at the fencing gym, but at school she's invisible. And she's fine with that... until Avery Castle walks into her first period biology class. Avery may seem perfect now, but will he end up becoming her Prince Charming or just a toad?

I enjoyed this flight of modern urban fantasy, from the chapter headings which are fencing moves, to the gray-scale artwork (which you learn has a significance later in the book), the artwork is manga-esque and I thought the illustrator Mike Cavallaro did an excellent job of showing Aliera's emotions, with just a slight dip of the brow or flick to the smile, to the sharp teeth she shows when angry. Jane Yolen has written hundreds of books and for her first venture into graphic novels, I think this one (and it is set up to have a sequel) will become a hit with readers.

Read On

Storm warning

Storm warning by Linda Sue Park --- Book #9 - 39 Clues

Yeah!! the next book is here, we're soooo close to knowing who's gonna win it all, and what the ultimate prize will be.

Here's a teaser:
The shadow of a man in black has followed fourteen-year-old Amy Cahill and her younger brother, Dan, on their worldwide search for 39 Clues that lead to a great power. Amy and Dan know the man in black has tried to kill them. They know he is a Madrigal, a member of the most secretive and terrifying group hunting for the Clues. And they know something else, a secret they would rather forget - their parents were Madrigals, too. Amy and Dan have run hard and fast, but they can't escape the man following them. And now, in the wake of a terrible tragedy, he's ready to step out of the darkness for their final confrontation.

Fruits basket

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya

I was on a little shopping trip yesterday and found the start of this series, Fruits basket for a great price so I've added them to our collection. Here's an intro to the series.

Tohru Honda was an orphan living with her grandfather, when one day fate kicked her out of the house and she was forced to take up residence in a tent in the forest. Little did she know that the land she was staying on belonged to the Sohma family, a clan of beautiful and mysterious people. After stumbling upon the teenage squatter, the Sohma's invite Tohru to stay in their house in exchange for cooking and cleaning. Everything is going well, until she discovers the Sohma family's greatest secret: when hugged by members of the opposite sex, they each turn into their Chinese zodiac animals.

I know when I showed these to a couple kids yesterday, they practically begged me to let them take them home (even though the library is now closed.)

Thirteen Plus One

Thirteen Plus One by Lauren Myracle

Summary from cover: Winnie Perry is fourteen now, and the countdown to high school is shaping up to be as eventful as an entire year of middle school. Not only are things shakey with her boyfriend, Lars, but BFF's Dinah and Cinnamon have been acting weird, big sister Sandra is college bound, little brother Ty has smuggled a stolen penguin home in his backpack, and new baby sister Maggie has everything turned upside down.

It's alot for anyone to handle, and loyal Winnie is so busy worrying about everyone else that she hardly notices that she just might be struggling a little bit herself.

With humor and honesty Lauren Myracle brings us another pitch-perfect novel featuring the characters that her legions of fans have grownup loving.

I know we have part of that legion of fans, so I'm happy to say this treasure will be waiting for you in September.

Read On

More new technology

Pranav Mistry : The trilling potential of sixth sense technology.
I watched this on Mr. Hall's blog and thought I'd share it with my crowd of viewers. It's truly fascinating to think of what the future will behold.