New series books

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. This World We Live In.
Started this last weekend on MP3, and it was just so slow that I was very happy to get my hands on the book. I will also say that listening to the book made me like it less-- the reader was very good, but listening to the diary entries made it seem somehow more whiny than reading them.

Miranda's family is still struggling to survive after an asteriod has knocked the moon out of alignment. The world is cold and gray, there is no electricity, nothing grows, and even the mice are dying out. When her father arrives with his family in tow, she is thrilled, even if it means he also brings Julia and Alex, who appear in the second book. Miranda's brothers travel to a nearby river for fish, and one of them brings back a wife, which also complicates matters. The thing that students will like is the depiction of the struggle to survive-- looting other houses for toothpaste and soap, washing clothes during the brief times when electricity in on, and stealing vehicles in order to travel. The romance was a little too desperate and one sided for my taste, but teens might feel differently. There were also a lot of unanswered questions, such as what was going on with the rest of the world? Where did the food come from? It was hinted that there were safe towns and government involvement, and I would have liked more information on the whole picture.

Delaney, Joseph. Rise of the Huntress.
Thanks to Dylan for loaning me this! Normally I tire of series after about five books, but I am still loving this and can't wait until Rage of the Fallen comes out on April 19th!

The Spook's house has burned down, and with it all of his books representing generations of research. Not only that, but Bony Lizzie has been freed and seems to have amassed tremendous power. Tom, Alice and the Spook flee to the island of Mona, but the local inhabitants have no tolerance for witches, and they are soon captured and thrown to a succession of monsters, including an abhuman who is Alice's half brother, and the buggane, who inhabits the island. Lizzie is their worst enemy... and perhaps their best hope at escaping. The Spook's powers are no longer strong, so the challenges to be faced all come down to Tom, who can't be parted from Alice because of his pact with the fiend. This book seemed to have a lot more violence than the last books, and many more desperate attempts at survival, but I still enjoyed it. It is starting to be harder to see how this will ever resolve, but eventually Tom has to defeat the fiend and regain his soul. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Worked with the other Kindle that teachers at my school obtained with a grant. I have downloaded a number of sample chapters on one, and disabled the credit card so that they can't accidentally buy things. Students only use it in the classroom; in the library I may have to sit students behind the check out desk so I can keep an eye on them. For now, we are using the Kindle as a "hook" to get the students reading the books on their own.

Oh, and in the line of more shameless self-promotion: head over to Story Snoops for their Banned Books Week series of interviews. They did a nice job at balancing authors whose work has been challenged with librarians who have to deal with these challenges, and everyone interviewed was understanding and reasonable. Since I often feel that I am overly cautious, this made me feel slightly less bad! Also, I will never again be mentioned on the same web page as Judy Blume and Meg Cabot! And the Story Snoops actually sent me the coolest mug and Story Snoops M&Ms to thank me for this honor! Wow.