Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Grabenstein, Chris. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
25 June 2013, Random House Books for Young Readers
Copy provided by Raab Associates
 
Kyle isn't brainy or athletic like his brothers-- he just likes to play games. In school, this usually gets him into trouble, but when there is an essay contest to win a $500 gift card and an overnight stay in the new town library, his slacker ways and gaming ability work to his advantage. Luigi Lemoncello, game maker extraordinaire, feels that the town library in Alexandriaville, Ohio, and the librarian there, were instrumental in his his success, so he has donated a state-of-the-art library. Since the old library was torn down twelve years previously, he wants to introduce the young people of the town to the wonders of a public library by giving twelve of them the opportunity to use the library resources... to figure out a way out of the library! There are challenges, contests, and not everyone will last the entire time. Kyle and his friends band together against the evil, khaki and blazer wearing Charles Chiltington to solve the puzzles and win the reward.
Strengths: Holographic librarians from the 1960s, a Wonder Dome of HD screens displaying Dewey divisions, and staff picks that are the keys to the clues-- how could I not like this book? Fans of The Westing Game and other clue oriented mysteries will love this one, especially if they are avid readers and get the literary references. The interactions of the children on the teams is also fun, and the best part was all the details about the fantastical library. Grabenstein is a great writer; I particularly like his Haunted Mystery series.
Weaknesses: Kyle is portrayed as a goof at the beginning of the book but changes the minute his essay wins. I would have liked to see a more gradual change. Also, games of all kinds irritate me, so I didn't work through the clues, which would have made this more fun!

Belle Epoque

Ross, Elizabeth. Bell Epoque.
11 June 2013, Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Maude has moved to Paris from a small country town in the 1880s to escape marriage to an older man. She finds it harder to find work and survive than she imagined, so when she  answers an ad and is offered employment at an agency that rents out repoussoirs, plain or ugly young women who act as companions and foils to debutantes to make them appear more beautiful, she is forced to take it. She ends up pretending to be a friend of the family of Isabelle Dubern, and does such a good job that she is offered exclusive employment with the family. Isabelle comes to consider her a friend, and confides her dreams of studying science at the Sorbonne. This is a problem, because Maude's job (and future employment as well) hinges on getting Isabelle to marry a wealthy man. Maude manages to make friends of her own in Paris, including the composer Paul Villette, and many of the other girls at the agency. She also learns to take photographs, and Isabelle gives her a camera as a gift. In the end, Maude and Isabelle both refuse to bow to societal norms, and instead embark on the difficult mission of making their own way in the world.
Strengths: *Sigh* This was a wonderful book. So many good things going on-- the high society, the burgeoning new middle class and their ideas of freedom and equality, the arts. Pair this one with the (slightly later in time) Cinders and Sapphires. The best part of this? Nothing inappropriate for middle school. I may buy a copy because I adored it so much.
Weaknesses: Might be a hard sell, but perhaps the one thing that almost dissuaded me from reading it (the languid girl in the fancy dress on the cover) will make the girls pick this one up.

Morel, Alex. Survive.
2 August 2012, Razorbill

Picked this up at a Book Look and had such great hopes for it. Sounded like Hatchet meets Cut. Sadly, it started off with too many gratuitous f-bombs, so I will send this off to the high school, where it will probably circulate well.

From Goodreads.com:
"Jane is on a plane on her way home to Montclair, New Jersey, from a mental hospital. She is about to kill herself. Just before she can swallow a lethal dose of pills, the plane hits turbulence and everything goes black. Jane wakes up amidst piles of wreckage and charred bodies on a snowy mountaintop. There is only one other survivor: a boy named Paul, who inspires Jane to want to fight for her life for the first time.

Jane and Paul scale icy slopes and huddle together for warmth at night, forging an intense emotional bond. But the wilderness is a vast and lethal force, and only one of them will survive."

Riley Mack Stirs Up Trouble

Grabenstein, Chris. Riley Mack Stirs Up More Trouble
9 April 2013, HarperCollins

Riley and his friends get involved in an evil scheme by Sara Paxton to ruin Briana's chances for a scholarship at a talent show, but this leads them into an even deeper problem-- the fish in a pond near the country club and Sara's house are dying, and they need to find out why. The country club's golf course has recently been renovated, and they find bags of pancake mix that is tainted with nitrogen buried under the course. The mix is manufactured by Sara's father's company, which has been selling the mix to the US military. Could this be what is making the men in Riley's father's unit in Afghanistan sick? The group of "troublemakers" comes together to help Briana win the scholarship and also to solve the problem with the dying fish.
Strengths: This book does a good job of taking a realistic setting and involving the children in situations that are only slightly out of the ordinary. There's good use of stinking fish, some chases, and a nice "underdog-saving-the-day" feeling. Nice environmental tie in as well.
Weaknesses: In real life, Mr. Paxton would probably go to jail for a really long time-- this is serious stuff, and I would have liked the ending to have wrapped things up a bit more.

Yolen, Jane and Stemple, Adam. B.U.G. (Big Ugly Guy)
23 March 2013, Dutton Juvenile

Love Yolen, but absolutely could not do yet ANOTHER book where bullies put a kid's head in the toilet. Fifteen years of teaching and I have NEVER seen it. Might be of interest in an area where there is a larger Jewish population, and the book is not without its charm, but the bullying details were so unrealistic that I just could not go on.

From Goodreads: "Sammy Greenberg would rather talk back to The Boyz--a gang of bullies at his school--and get his head stuck in the toilet than constantly be afraid. But when his friend Skink gets beaten up so badly that he has to go to the hospital, Sammy thinks he may be in over his head. He decides to build a golem--a mythical protector from Jewish folklore, made of clay and animated by the ineffable name of God. But this monster doesn't just protect him and Skink from The Boyz, he is also a great drummer for their rock-jazz-klezmer fusion band! But golems come with warnings. They will protect you until they don't."

I'm sure this will get a lot of good reviews, but I just didn't see it working for my school.  

Time Slip Tuesday-- The Haunters

 Time Slip Tuesday is an occasional feature at Charlotte's Library.

Taylor, Thomas. The Haunters.

28 May 2013, Chicken House

E ARC from Netgalley.com

 

David has frequent dreams about a boy named Eddie, and they come more frequently in the wake of his father’s death. When an ambulance picks him up from school, supposedly for a doctor’s appointment, David finds out that he is in a lot of danger because he is a Dreamwalker. He finds himself at Unsleep House under the tutelage of Professor Feldrake, who tells him that Eddie is actually David’s own grandfather as a boy. In 1940, during the Blitz, Eddie was able to escape, but in David’s dreams, he does not. There is a rival organization, Haunters, who are trying to go back into history and change it for their own evil purposes, and Eddie is one of their targets, since he grew up to organize the Dreamwalkers. The head haunter is a vicious boy named Adam, who is bound and determined to kill Eddie off with the help of a man from the time, Charlie Grinn. There aer other Dreamwalkers, Petra and Dishita, and they help David with the difficult process of traveling through a matrix of time and space in order to undo the bad things that the Haunters are doing. David learns even more secrets about his family’s past, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a sequel to this book.

Strengths: This was very well written with TONS of action and adventure, right from the beginning. Like all good time travel books, this one hurt my brain, but had a good device (the ghost concept is one I haven’t really seen, except sort of in Tom’s Midnight Garden), likeable characters, and understandable mission.  Fans of Michael Lawrence’s A Crack in the Line would love this one.

Weaknesses: I got oddly distracted by the concept of the cake tin, and this is clearly a British book.

Byng, Georgia. Molly Moon and the Monster Music.
26 February 2013, HarperCollins

Right on the heels of Molly Moon and the Morphing Mystery, Molly finds herself not wanting to go back to school or to her newly found parents, so when the opportunity presents itself to tag along with the Japanese band Zagger, she and Gerry jump on it. Molly has a gold coin of the evil Mrs. Hunroe's with her, and like Golem's ring, it makes her evil. She no longer just wants to follow the band, she wants to be the hottest new musical sensation. With her abilities to hypnotize people, this isn't hard, but she does have to contend with the evil Mr. Proila, who is managing Zagger. Before long, those near and dear to Molly realize that all is not right with her, but will they be able to extricate her from the clutches of both the coin and Mr. Proila?
Strengths: I love the covers on these, and they are rather like popcorn. I have one student who would read one of these a day. Good British magical realism.
Weaknesses: This is the sixth book in the series, and since the other books are not circulating well, I think I will pass. I usually liked Molly, even when she is power hungry, but she seemed especially evil in this one, and I didn't care for that.

Middle Grade Monday--Zero Tolerance

Mills, Claudia. Zero Tolerance.
18 June 2013 Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Sierra Shepherd is a rule follower and an excellent student. When she realizes that she has inadvertently taken her mother's lunch to school, and that there is a paring knife in the bag, she immediately turns it in to the harried lunch lady. Her friends have told her she should have stayed quiet, but that wouldn't have been the right thing to do. Once Sierra gets to the office, she has to deal with the secretary, Ms. Lin, and the principal, Mr. Besser. Mr. Besser is spouting off to a visiting principal about the school's "zero tolerance" policies, so when he finds out that it is Sierra who has brought a knife, she is sentenced to in school suspension until her expulsion hearing at the end of the week. Sierra's lawyer father doesn't help matters by getting testy with Mr. Besser and alerting the news media, effectively tying the principal's hands. Sierra is mortified that she is missing classes, can't compete with the choir, and has to hang out in the office with Luke, a known trouble maker... who is actually kind of cute and nice. Sierra is angry with the school, but also angry with her father, and does some further things that put her actually in the wrong. Her mother doesn't help by looking at a private school. With all of the attention the episode is getting, how can things be resolved?
Strengths: This certainly made me think, and made me angry. Of course the school shouldn't have reacted so harshly, but when schools don't, people get just as upset! I read this after reading about an incident with a seven-year-old and a PopTart gun; in that case, I think the student should have been suspended. So this was realistic and thought provoking.
Weaknesses: Perhaps also a little didactic and laden with anti-school sentiment. A bit. In the end, I'm really not sure about this one. Has anyone else read it?

The Kicks: Saving the Team

Morgan, Alex. The Kicks: Saving the Team
7 May 2013, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

Devin moves from the East coast to California. She's an avid soccer player, and afraid that the California players will be much more talented than she is, but finds that her school team, the Kentville Kangaroos, has not been doing very well. She is glad to be on the team, and is made a cocaptain with the evil Mirabelle. She manages to make new friends in fellow players Emma, Jess, Frida, and Zoe, and works hard to help the team out. The players feel that Coach Flores doesn't work them hard enough or take the game seriously, and Mirabelle and Devin try to put together a more impressive line up. This doesn't work, and Mirabelle makes the team members angry. She then leaves and goes to the rival Pinewood school. The girls decide that more drills, and a lot more determination, are the way to turn the team around. Can they pull together and finally win a crucial game... against Pinewood?
Strengths: Lots of good soccer details, girl drama handled with finesse and a few fashion details thrown in-- this will be a great choice for my girls who are avid soccer players. I especially like the cover illustrations because the girls look strong and athletic, not ridiculously thin. (Similar cartoons on The Take Two series or the Candy Apple books make the girls look thinner than is realistic.)
Weaknesses: I suppose that some schools still relegate girls' teams to less than desirable practice locations, but I don't want to believe that this is the case 40 years after Title IX.


Morgan, Alex. The Kicks: Sabotage Season
3 September 2013, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

From Goodreads.com: "The Kicks’ championship hopes are being sabotaged in the second book in a series that celebrates confidence and teamwork, from star soccer player and Olympic gold medalist Alex Morgan. Things are going wrong left and right for the Kentville girls’ soccer team, and Devin’s sure the girls from their rival team, the Pinewood Panthers, are behind the many mishaps. Can Devin get to the bottom of the mystery and stop the sabotage before her team’s championship hopes disappear for good?"


Papademetriou, Lisa. Sugar and Spice (Confectionately Yours #3)
1 February 2013, Scholastic Paperbacks

For those of us who aren't big sports fans, this is a less exhausting book to read while kicking back and drinking lemonade on the porch. I admit to not processing the plot as well as I should because I was so blown away by the ease with which Papademetriou writes dialogue. Awesome. This series is worth waiting for in a prebind so it holds up a bit better in a library. 

From Goodreads.com: "
Hayley, her little sister, Chloe, and their mom have finally settled into their new home above their Gran's tea shop. But things at school aren't so peachy. Hayley's former best friend, Artie, is back in the picture and getting between Hayley and her new pal Meghan. Artie and Meghan are like oil and water -- they just don't mix! This looks like another recipe for disaster!" 

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Greenwald, Tommy. Charlie Joe Jackson's Summer Vacation. 
7 May 2013, Roaring Brook Press

Charlie has agreed to go to Camp Rituhbukkee (pronounced “read-a-bookie”) to make his parents happy. Camp is three weeks long and involves writing home, no electronics, and a ton of workshops on reading and writing. Luckily, one of his best friends from home, Katie, is at the camp, as is Naheem, who also goes to his school. The rest of the campers are relentlessly nerdy, and Charlie Joe immediately sets himself apart, annoying the camp director, Dr. Mal. Since he knows that getting kicked out of the camp would NOT make his parents happy, Charlie tries to fit in as much as he can, even using the skills he has at basketball to help the Rituhbukkee team when they play against Camp Wockajocka (aka Camp Jockstrap). He even reads books that Ms. Domerca, one of the teachers, recommends to him, and uses a book about Lech Walesa as a basis for a protest against losing swimming time to more workshop time. Charlie is upset to find that his sort of girlfriend, Zoe, may be moving back with her father, and he's less than excited to go on the camp overnight to the Little Yellow Schoolhouse. When he finds out that Lauren has been doing her boyfriend Jared's work for camp, but that she is tired of doing it, he finds a way to help her out in true, over-the-top Charlie Joe fashion.
Strengths: Ah, summer camp. The next best thing to going is reading about it. And camp romance? Even better. Even though Charlie doesn't have a girl of his own at camp, he is a regular Romeo among that geeks in his cabin, so he gets to give lots of advice. Don't know how I would have felt about being kissed by a boy chewing bubblegum when I was 12, but reading about it was hysterical. I adore J.P. Coovert's illustrations, and they really do draw reluctant readers into the books. As one student said to me "That was a trick! That was the longest book I've ever read!" With this third book, it's officially a series, and I couldn't be happier with it. Hooray!
Weaknesses: As much as I liked reading about his struggles with whether or not he might actually like being a geek, Charlie HAS to stay as he is! He getting soft in his old age, and I'd hate to see him completely change. The students adore him just the way he is in the first book!

 Kowitt, Holly. The Loser List: The Jinx of the Loser.
30 April 2013, Scholastic
E ARC from Netgalley.com

Danny ends up at the Woodchucks big baseball game because a girl he likes, Asia, offers him tickets. He manages to interfer with a catch Luke needs to make, and the Woodchucks lost the championship. Everyone in school is calling him a jinx, and things go from bad to worse. On a trip to an amusement park, the best roller coaster breaks down... while Danny is on it. Sprinklers go off in the gym on school picture day, and everyone looks horrible. Danny just can't catch a break.
Strengths: This was a quick read, with hand drawn font and lots of pictures. Students love this sort of thing, and the message was solid.
Weaknesses: So tired of the horrible Scholastic paper-over-boards binding. These books get a lot of wear, and they fall apart so quickly.

Paulsen, Gary. Vote.
14 May 2013, Wendy Lamb Books

I loved the first three in this series, and will certainly buy this one, since it was funny and short, but the whole school election thing always falls flat for me.

From the Publisher:
"The companion to Liar liar; Flat broke; and Crush"--Front cover. Fourteen-year-old Kevin impetuously announces that he will run for student body president, mainly to impress his girlfriend Tina, but soon gets excited about making a positive difference in his school and community."

The Barftastic Life of Louie Burger

Meyerhoff, Jenny. The Barftastic Life of Louie Burger
4 June 2013, Feiwel and Friends.
Copy recieved from Blue Slip Media

Louie has several problems. His father has stopped being a suit-wearing kind of guy who went to work everyday and is now at home trying to be an artist. His mother has gone back to work as a gym teacher. His older sister Ari is supercilious and annoying, his younger sister Ruby is obsessed with unicorns, and his best friend Nick has suddenly turned into a sporty jock with a girl who goes by the name of Thermos. This makes starting fifth grade hard, but it gets even worse. The obnoxious Ryan is in his class, and his father is thinking about taking out the stage in his closet. About that stage. Louie is a huge fan of comic Louis Lafferman, but he is stricken with stage fright that he only feels comfortable doing his stand up routine where no one can see him. At Thermos' and Nick's urging, he signs up for the school talent show. Will he be able to make it through the entire performance, and even if he does, will the rest of his life improve?
Strengths: This was rather similar to I, Funny. I didn't think students would like it, but they do. The combination of notebook novel style and plenty of barf jokes would make this a must-read for actual 5th graders. Louie's difficulties with friends and school are realistically portrayed, as is the family situation. This is well-paced and nicely written.
Weaknesses: Perhaps a bit young for middle school. Also, I've been to enough elementary school talent show to know that budding comics should NOT be encouraged. Nothing more painful, with the possible exception of budding 3rd grade rock stars who play Jimi Hendrix.

Stella, Leslie. Permanent Record.
5 March 2013, Amazon Children's Publishing

Maybe Louie Burger needs some therapy now, or he'll end up like Bud Hess. Am always amused by similarities in what I read, and Badi (aka Bud) had so many insecurities that it made me think of Louie. This book, however, was more young adult, not so much for the content but for the very slow pace. I had great hopes for it due to the publisher's description below, but it just didn't work for me.

"For sixteen-year-old Badi Hessamizadeh, life is a series of humiliations. After withdrawing from public school under mysterious circumstances, Badi enters Magnificat Academy. To make things “easier,” his dad has even given him a new name: Bud Hess. Grappling with his Iranian-American identity, clinical depression, bullying, and a barely bottled rage, Bud is an outcast who copes by resorting to small revenges and covert acts of defiance, but the pressures of his home life, plummeting grades, and the unrequited affection of his new friend, Nikki, prime him for a more dangerous revolution. Strange letters to the editor begin to appear in Magnificat’s newspaper, hinting that some tragedy will befall the school. Suspicion falls on Bud, and he and Nikki struggle to uncover the real culprit and clear Bud’s name."

The Laura Line

Allen, Crystal. The Laura Line. 
23 April 2013, Balzer and Bray

Laura's parents have to go off for two weeks for military training, and she is supposed to stay with an aunt. When that falls through, she ends up having to stay with her grandmother out in the country. Things are bad enough for Laura-- she's overweight and made fun of at school even though she is convinced she could be a model, and her best friend Sage is starting to hang out with the Pink Chips, a group of popular girls. She doesn't need to be with her grandmother, whose best friend is her history teacher! When the two women decide that Laura's class should visit the slave shack on the grandmother's property, Laura is beyond appalled. Why would her family glorify this? She doesn't even want to understand, even though Troy, a boy on whom she has an enormous crush, finds the history interesting. Laura is just starting to understand and appreciate the history of the shack when she is responsible for damage that occurs to it. Will she be able to fix it and come to terms with sharing her family history with her classmates?
Strengths: Interesting perspective on the continuing impact of slavery, and an intriguing look at generations of women (all named Laura) and how their lives change. Laura has very strong self esteem, and is greatly interested in baseball as well, which is a nice addition.
Weaknesses: I could have done without some of Laura's regional  language, like "Oh, heck to the triple no!" Also, while it's great that she has good self esteem, her size combined with her eating habits made me feel worried for her health. As someone who can't eat chocolate because of high blood pressure and triglycerides even though I run two miles a day, it alarmed me that she was so fat other students called her "Larda" and she still didn't think anything of eating Almond Joy bars in secret. She starts off as a very spoiled and selfish character, but does improve.

I enjoyed How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy much more.

Stout, Shawn K. Penelope Crumb Never Forgets
24 January 2013, Philomel

There are some lower middle grade titles that work for grades 6-8, but it's a fine line. This series looks great for elementary school, but I don't see it working for my readers. I do like to take a look at the lower middle grade books, because some of them work really well for my incoming 6th graders.

From Goodreads. com: "Penelope Crumb's best friend Patsy Cline Roberta Watson is becoming best friends with another girl in class, so Penelope decides she needs to win her back.  Compliments and presents fail—and Penelope is afraid she'll lose Patsy Cline forever, so she decides to swipe Patsy's necklace and start a secret museum to remember all the people she cares about, in case they leave her too.  But stealing turns out not to be the best plan, when Grandpa Felix calls the police about his missing camera, forcing Penelope to confess. Now she's lost both Patsy Cline AND her museum.  But in the end she makes a huge personal sacrifice to repair her friendship with Patsy and finds out that drawing pictures—what she likes to do best!—is a way to make a personal museum that doesn't involve any sort of stealing."

Hero on a Bicycle

Hughes, Shirley. Hero on a Bicycle
3 May 2013, Walker Books
Book from YA Books Central and reviewed there

Paolo lives outside of Florence, Italy with his sister Costanza and his British mother, Rosemary. His father has been gone for a long time, working with the Partisans who are fighting against the Nazis during World War II. Life is largely dull because school has been canceled and there are always curfews, so Paolo likes to sneak out on his bicycle. During one trip, he is approached by Partisans who want to contact his mother. The family ends up sheltering a British and a Canadian soldier who are trying to get back to their units. Paolo offers to try to escort them part of the way, but things end badly and the Canadian, Joe, ends up wounded and must spend more time in their cellar. The fighting is coming closer to where they are, so the Nazis are cracking down. When they search the family's house for a second time, Joe narrowly escapes. The family dog is not so lucky. Eventually, the Allied forces borrow the house for a base, and the Nazis are routed with the help of the Resistance and Paolo and his bicycle.
Strengths: I can't think of any other WWII books set in Italy except for Napoli's Stones in Water, so this is an excellent addition to books set in this time period. There is lots of good detail about what everyday life was like-- the food privations, living under the rule of invaders, and the dangers that ordinary citizens faced. There was a particularly good interchange between Costanza and a German guard posted in the area, Helmut. She rather liked him, and the two realized that if there were no war going on, they might have a chance; Helmut was a good person, but he was on the other side of a war. Paolo's contributions, as well as his bicycle, play a large part in the activities of his village. The only scary parts (because we do a unit on the Holocause and WWII, and there are always students who can't handle scary) are the Nazis rounding up villagers and threatening to execute some of there. I especially liked the chapter decorations and the cover of this-- very true to the time period.
Weaknesses: This was a bit slower than I would expect from a WWII book, but the research on every day life makes up for it.

Cornioley, Pearl Witherington  and Kathryn J. Atwood.
Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent 
1 August 2013, Chicago Review Press

Witherington Cornioley, who was born in 1914, had a fascinating life which included 7 months of working with the French Resistance, so this would be a great nonfiction Common Core connection with the book above. Based on interviews with Witherington Cornioley (who died in 2008), this is slavish in its devotion to the facts and the experiences of this brave woman who was one of the celebrated women Resistance fighters.

That said, the book itself was very dry and uninteresting. This could be a generational thing-- most people who lived through hard times and WWII will be very brusque about their experiences and wave them off as nothing. While this has his its merits in this era of reality television, it causes a lack of thrilling moments in a narrative. There are notes explaining that Witherington Cornioley was reluctant to be interviewed lest her experiences be sensationalized. Since this is listed at only $11.02 at Follett, I think I will buy a copy to use as a primary source document, but it somehow does not do justice to Witherington Cornioley's experiences.

Prizes for 48 HBC!

Whew. With the fabulous help of Abby the Librarian and her mad Google Spreadsheet Doc skills, here are the winners! I tried to match people up with the books they wanted as much as possible. 

I will be e mailing winners to get addresses. I have the Walden Pond books already, but the rest of the books will be sent directly from publishers or publicists, so be a little patient!

RIF Packages to Kelly and Charlotte as well as Misti (KidLit Geek—random winner)

Most Hours Read

1.       Kelly Mueller- 35 ; Random House package

2.       Xander Christou—30.75 ; Fourth Stallset

3.       Beth Mitcham—29 ; Platypus Police Squad

4.       Tallulah Scribbles—28.75 ;Archer Legacyset

5.       Brandy Painter— 28; Blue Slip Package

Most Pages Read

1.       Charlotte Taylor—3,086; Hero’s Guide Set

2.       Maureen—2498; Penguin package

3.       Melissa—2405; The Girl From Felony Bay

4.       Renata—2141—Klutz set

5.       Anne Margaret—Lovecraft set

Over 24 Hours

Aliysh Foley—Bot Wars

No others in this category who hadn’t already won prize

Over 12 Hours

Cindy Strondvald—In Search of Goliathus Hercule

Trisha M. --Mini Cookbooks set

Amy Mason—Underneath

The Wells Bequest

Time Slip Tuesday is an occasional feature at Charlotte's Library, and one that I love because it gives me an excuse to read more time travel books! Charlotte specializes in middle grade fantasies of all kinds; for an even more specific blog, visit Time Travel Times Two.

Shulman, Polly. The Wells Bequest.(The Grimm Legacy #2)

Leo feels that he is not as smart as his brother and sister, but he is mechanically inclined and creative. This leads his science teacher to suggest that he head to the New York Circulating Materials Repository to research TIME MACHINES! Since he had an odd dream/vision about meeting a small version of himself riding a time machine, he is not surprised when he sees the girl who was with him working there, Jaya Rao. He spends a lot of time at the Repository doing his research, and he’s thrilled to get to see H.G. Wells time machine, which sadly does not work. He and Jaya think there is another version of the machine that does work and head off to London to retrieve it in the wake of a nasty incident with another page at the repository, Simon, who has sabotaged another page’s attempts to work at the Burton repository in London so that Jaya gets the position instead. The two meet Simon in London, and he suspects what they are after, but they manage to locate what they need and head back to New York. Simon, whose ancestor worked for Nikola Tesla, claims that If he isn’t given access to a time machine he will destroy New York City, so Jaya and Leo head back to meet Tesla in 1895 and stop him. They manage to make it so that Simon doesn’t exist, but rectify this. Things work out AND Leo gets the girl.

Strengths: I WANT THIS JOB! Why don’t I work in the Repository. Drat! Oh. The book? It has time travel,  science fiction objects, a nice romance AND Mark Twain. It also has a nice evening walk in London to get fish and chips. Sigh. I am so glad that further books in this series are hinted at!

Weaknesses: This is not going to be a hugely popular book, but it will be well loved by a small portion of readers. And I adore it, so I am going to buy it!

Phillips, Gin. The Hidden Summer.
13 June 2013, Dial
ARC from Baker and Taylor

Nell and Lydia both have fairly dysfunctional mothers who fight over something silly and forbid the girls from hanging out together. In order to hang out together, they come up with an elaborate ruse-- they send letters to their homes stating that they have been accepted into summer camps, and then go off every day and spend their time at an abandoned miniature golf course (there's a great picture here), creating little living quarters inside the dinosaur. This goes fairly well, and they discover a homeless family living there as well. The girls arrange to spend a number of nights at the golf course as well, there is the requisite almost tragedy, and the girls come to conclusions about their own lives that lead them to try to improve their situations.
Strengths: Living at a miniature golf course is a brilliant setting, and it's done realistically. Their problems are real and important, but not overwhelming.
Weaknesses: Slow moving, which may be a function of this author's background in adult literature, and the sort of book that teachers like WAY more than students do. This is backed up by it's inclusion on the Junior Library Guild list and in this description from Goodreads.com: "Hidden Summer is a quietly beautiful coming of age story about self-discovery, family, and friendship. An elegantly written children’s book debut from an award-winning author in the vein of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and for fans of Moon Over Manifest."

Yeah, had a lot of twelve-year-olds ask for  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (which I absolutely adore) lately. A perfectly lovely book, but I think it will be a hard sell in middle school. 

Middle Grade Monday-- Battles

It's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday at Ramblings of a Wannabe Scribe and What Are You Reading? day at Teach Mentor Texts. Both sites have lots of links to reviews about books that are great for the 4th through 8th grader. It's also Nonfiction Monday at Practically Paradise.


Congratulations to Heidi Grange for winning the Matilda 25th anniversary giveway. The prizes for the 48HBC will be announced later in the week, after all the participants have reported in.

Krull, Kathleen. Louisa May's Battle: How the Civil War Led to Little Women.
5 March 2013, Walker Children's

In this picture book, Krull (who is a great biographer-- she knows just want interesting parts to include!) gives a brief overview of Alcott's decision to become a Civil War nurse, and the impact that recounting her experiences in Hospital Sketches had on her writing career. I learned some interesting things (women could sign up to be nurses if they were "at least thirty, "very plain", unmarried, strong, with two letters about her good character."), and may well purchase this, since we just had a history class doing a biography cereal box project on famous people who had an impact around the time of the Civil War. My only quibble with this was that the illustrations weren't that attractive.

Lopez, Diana. Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel
11 June 2013, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Chia is ready to start 8th grade, hang out with her friends, and maybe get a boyfriend, but when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer and has a mastectomy, this becomes more difficult. Her mother needs her rest, and Chia and her sister Carmen are expected to babysit their two year old brother and help out around the house. TO complicate matters, Chia makes a promesa that she will sign 500 people up to sponsor her in a 5K to benefit breast cancer research. Her friends help out a bit, but it's still difficult to get through her mother's illness, especially since her entire family is stressed about it.
Strengths: As in this author's Confetti Girl, the main character is clearly Hispanic, but that's not what the story is about. This is a very detailed account of a struggle with breast cancer, from the family traveling to a shrine, to Chia and her mother shopping for a prosthesis, students facing the same situation will find this comforting. There's no false hope, just straight forward facts and a good example of a child worrying about a parent's health and trying to do something to help.
Weaknesses: I didn't like Chia's friends! While I thought the whole book was very realistic, some of her friends seemed unhelpful and silly.

Finish Line

Forgot that the spreadsheet won't show everyone else links to finishing posts, so please fill in your finishing post URL on the Mr. Linky below!

Read from 7-11 last night and then gave up; got two more full books done and looked at a few more.
Total of 30 hours and 29 books. Not too bad!

Finished:
Shusterman, Neal. UnWholly. So good, but so confusing!
Patterson and Grabenstein. Treasure Hunters. Really long notebook novel about nautical kids hunting treasure. A bit weird.

Read portions of:
Cody, Matthew. Will in Scarlet. Can't get anyone to check out other Sherwood Forest books, so will pass.
DiCamillo, Kate. Flora and Ulysses. Elementary side of the Pilkey line for quirkiness. (Squirrel CPR?)
Nowra, Louis. Into That Forest. Dialect, and an obscure topic.
Cooper, Susan. Ghost Hawk. Can't get anyone to check out Native American tales, so will pass.

Hope everyone had fun!

The Finish Line! for MotherReader 48 Hour Book Challenge 2013

Middle of Day #2

Well, Ninja Skills are suffering due to 1.) Reading some awesome books, which makes me read more slowly on the 2.)Nook, which makes me what to swim in Visine and 3.)Junior Members of Staff needing mediation and remediation. Sigh.

From noonish to 6:30, I have probably only read five hours and gotten three books done.

Poblocki, Dan. Haunting of Gabriel Ashe
Shulman, Polly. The Wells Bequest
Standiford, Natalie. The Boy on the Bridge

The Boy on the Bridge was SOOOOOOO sad and reminded me of my year in Greece in 1985. Not that I had a great romance like Laura did (and her romomate was Karen, and the book was set in 1982), but I knew people who did have romances like this. So good! Made me really sad, though, that my college experience is now the subject of historical fiction.

Oddly, I don't have pictures of myself in Greece. I went through a phase of only taking slides that I would be able to show to my students. Lots of picturesque Greek ruins, but none of me. The reflection of me in the case of jewelry at the museum at Thessaloniki is the best I have. The picture below is me writing in the summer of 1986. Still have the kitchen set and 1958 Smith-Corona typewriter.

Now I don't want to read. I just want to go watch Before Sunrise and weep silently into some ouzo for things that never were. Drat you, Natalie Standiford!

So, yeay! 48HBC. Much better choice!

Day Two-- Slow Start!

Obviously, Ninja Skills operate at a higher rate if one is not tired and reading 8 point font off a Nook! I also had slightly longer books today; it was good to start with shorter ones yesterday.

Starting at 6:00 a.m., I read:
Ruby, Lois. Rebel Spirits. Swoony, historical ghost romance.
Massey, David. Torn. Awesome story of a medic in Afghanistan.
Cervantes, Angela. Gaby, Lost and Found. Good middle grade realistic fiction combining pets and a mother who is deported back to Honduras.
Korman, Gordon. The Hypnotists: Book One. Is there ANYTHING this man can't write. Great stuff.

Spent a fair amount of time reading, but did not finish, the following:
Fisher, Sam. Scare Scape. Took forever to load thirty odd pages of descriptions of monsters, and once I got to the actual story I realized it was a bit young for my students.

Smith, Alexander Gordon. The Fury. Love the Lockdown series, and this started off well, but there were way too many characters and almost 700 pages. The readers who like Lockdown may not committ to 700 pages. I will check this out in print and see if I make better headway.

Voigt, Cynthia. Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things. Voigt's prose is beautiful, but after getting 100+ pages in, I realized that I couldn't think of a single student to recommend this to (oddly historical mystery), and that Voigt's books have all been gathering dust on the shelf, even Bad Girls.

That makes 21 hours and 24 books so far. Glad to see we had more people join last night!

Last post of Day 1

Read roughly from 5-10. Junior Members did manage to assemble black bean fajitas for dinner, but aside from moderately a few fights, I've read from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. pretty solidly, so we'll go with 15 hours for today.Reading E ARCS from Netgalley slowed me down a bit, since I was reading some of them in 8 point font in order to get the pictures!

Joffo,Joseph and  Vincent Bailly. Bag of Marbles (Graphic Novel)

McClafferty, Carla Killough . Fourth Down and Inches:Concussions and Football's Make-Or-Break Moment

Fry, Michael. Zero Tolerance

Abdul-Jabar, Kareem. Sasquatch in the Paint

Strasser, Todd. Fallout

I read some but not all of:

Yansky, Brian. Homicidal Aliens and Other Disappointments (second book in series)

Quick, Matthew. Leonard Peacock.(Too YA)

I really rather liked the Kareem Abdul Jabbar title. It's available on Netgalley.com if people are running short of books!

Twenty books for today, some on the shortish side, and I do have the whole Ninja Reading Skills thing going on, and no other demands on my time, although I think I missed a call from my mother!

Off to visit blogs, then to bed. Not waking up much before 6:00.

Ten Hours In

There's normal reading, where a 200 page book take me two hours, and Super Fast 'N Concentrated NINJA Reading, where I can read a 200 page book in 45 minutes. THIS is why the 48HBC is a good thing-- I get through so many books because I actually concentrate and don't do silly, time wasting things like ingest food, talk to other human beings, or stretch my legs until I get kind of woozy, when I then walk the dog around the block while reading a book. So, between 11 a.m. and now, I've read:

Kloepfer, John. Zombie Chasers: Empire State of Slime

O’Hara, Mo. My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish

Preller, James. Scary Tales: Home Sweet Horror

Rosen, Michael J. Strange Foods (Rosen)

Karbo, Karen. Minerva Clark Goes to the Dogs

Dionne, Erin. Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking

Taylor, Thomas. The Haunters

Have to admit to being vastly distracted when I started reading The Haunters... by the concept of cake tins. So, any readers from the U.K., humor me. The only kind of cake I ever make is birthday cake, which has fairly gooey frosting all over it, and I can't see putting it in a tin. What kind of cake do they have in the UK that can be stowed in a tin? Is it cut up? This also showed up on Call the Midwife, and my mental state must have been calmer then because I didn't obsess about it. 

Or maybe I just really want cake. Junior Members of Staff are supposed to supply dinner, but it's looking grim at the moment.

And yes, that's Sylvie the Yorkie Poo who has been my constant companion all day long!

Off to comment on some blogs.