Definitely buying this one. Great cover ( shimmery copper skull with corpses for eyeballs!) and a great tag line:" Is a contest worth dying for.
This is basically short stories, but strung together in a Monster House sort of way. Five students are invited by author Ian Tremblin to stay the night in a haunted house and tell stories to freak each other out. Some fun ghost stories in a variety of formats. The cover alone would encourage check out, so it's nice that it also has some literary merit. Rare that there is horror that I like. Note: blood and gore somewhat limited.
Garfinkle's Stuck in the 70's also had a fun cover, and having been a teen in the 70's I had to read it, but all middle school librarians need to know is this: Brief but very graphic sex. Okay. So, no. Also, very vague and disturbing ending and message. Were the 70's supposedly better than now? And if so, why? Just because mothers made homemade meals and people wore more clothing?
Rabin's Black Powder has a promising premise-- boy whose best friend is killed in a gang related shooting travels back in time to stop Roger Bacon from discovering gun powder. Might have worked if there weren't so many subplots. The students who might be drawn into the historical/sci fi aspect because of the gang violence would probably give up on this one. Think I'll pass.
Hautman's All-in had its moments, but I need to get up to speed on the previous adventures of Denn Doyle in No Limit. Intriguing story about gambling and Las Vegas, but I have concerns about his relationship with Cattie. Hautman's Sweet Blood and Mr. Was are very good, but I haven't been as thrilled about Rash, Invisible or Godless. He writes mainly for high schoolers, I think.
Friday, June 29, 2007
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Hey again!
ReplyDeleteJust got back from my trip and I've read a ton of pretty good books. Top Ten Uses, etc. was a cute and flirty book, I'm glad everything turned out ok between Nic and McCreary! Girl of the Moment was also another awesome read, perfect for middle schoolers by the way! Not too personal, just a nice n' light fluffy. Girl at Sea wasn't too shabby either. I preferred the other two books to this one, but it's good enough that I still recommend it to the Blendon Library! I'm also halfway into To Kill a Mockingbird, and you know what? It's actually pretty intriguing, at least it's caught my attention so far! I'm also in the middle of the sci-fi/fantasy sort of book called the City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It's going to be part of a trilogy, and it's looking pretty good right now! I've also got two other books I still need to get into: Masquerade, the second of the Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz, and Wicked Lovely, a fantasy book about faeries that looks pretty eye-catching. I also started Sayonara Bar and Cover Girl Confidential, but those were boring, so i ditched 'em and returned them today! :) You can go ahead and give them a shot if you'd like, but they're kind of low on my top books at the moment. Sayonara Bar had an interesting plot, but it didn't quite click; it was just a little TOO interesting, if you know what I mean! Cover Girl Confidential was just too much like Paris Hilton's recent jail time, so I dropped it. Hope you enjoy all my critics! :)
If you have anything you think will interest me just type back and hopefully we can keep in touch!
Tee