It’s a Mall World After All by Janette Rallison, 2006
Charlotte works at the mall spraying perfume she thinks is too ridiculously expensive to think anyone should buy some. After seeing her best friend’s boyfriend flirting with another girl, she thinks her friend has a right to know and tells her about it. Expecting her to be sad and needing comfort, she is surprised the next day at school to find Brianna and Bryant still together. Bryant’s best friend Colton backs his story and continues to, even though Charlotte continues to have her suspicions. After contriving an invitation to a prep school party to spy on Bryant, she confronts interference from Colton who convinces her to leave Bryant alone in exchange for $1,000 from his dad’s company to fund a sub-for-santa service project for a school of a couple of kids she’s met at the mall, one of whom needs new shoes for his mom. Is that deal morally reprehensible? Has she sold her soul? When Colton asks Bryant to say he’s sorry for teasing Charlotte incessantly during junior high and he does without hesitation, can Charlotte start giving him the benefit of a doubt about this other girl?
I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It read like a long short story and captured the self-doubt and awkwardness of high school. It was a funny story about letting go of past resentments and forming relationships of trust.
Some additional memory-jogging tags: Bloomingdale’s. Santa and his elf. Sub for Santa. Service projects. School dance. NHS (National Honor Society). Economic disparity. Country club set. Private prep school. Wrestling. Shopping habits. California.
King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner, 2006
Though Eugenides gets homesick sometimes and wants to return to his homeland of Eddis, he wants to be married to the Queen of Attolia. But just because he is married to the queen doesn’t mean he wants to be king, and his attendants don’t want him, either. They play constant pranks on him, ranging from the annoying, such as serving food he can’t manage with just one hand, to the dangerous, such as releasing the dogs as he is passing. But he is still the Thief of Eddis with incredible skills at getting to the bottom of intrigue with a matching patience to wait until the truly guilty can be exposed and dealt with. With the unwitting help of the young and naïve guard Costis, Eugenides dismantles a threatening baron and his family, and succeeds in winning the respect and loyalty of the queen’s, and now also king’s, guard.
I was enthralled with this world and thoroughly enjoyed these stories with its political maneuvering and battle of the wits.
Some additional memory-jogging tags: Nobility. Court. Amputee. Kings and queens. Greek-like gods. Loyalty. Assassins and assassinations. Poison. Political intrigue. Sword fights. Homesickness. Playing the buffoon.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Who Was First?
Who Was First? Discovering the Americas by Russell Freedman, 970.01 FRE 2007
Columbus was the last one to discover the Americas, not the first. Freedman presents various artifacts and theories about who found the Americas before Columbus, such as the Vikings, Chinese, and the ancestors of the Native Americans. Well illustrated with colored and black-and-white drawings, paintings, maps, and photographs. Interesting stories about ancient explorers, as well as Columbus’ story.
Some memory-jogging tags: Christopher Columbus; Zheng He; Treasure Fleet of Ming Dynasty; Leif Eriksson; Erik the Red; Mayans; Tikal; Aztecs; Montezuma; Tenochtitlan; Michu Picchu; Olmec
MS Rating: Great
Columbus was the last one to discover the Americas, not the first. Freedman presents various artifacts and theories about who found the Americas before Columbus, such as the Vikings, Chinese, and the ancestors of the Native Americans. Well illustrated with colored and black-and-white drawings, paintings, maps, and photographs. Interesting stories about ancient explorers, as well as Columbus’ story.
Some memory-jogging tags: Christopher Columbus; Zheng He; Treasure Fleet of Ming Dynasty; Leif Eriksson; Erik the Red; Mayans; Tikal; Aztecs; Montezuma; Tenochtitlan; Michu Picchu; Olmec
MS Rating: Great
Queen of Attolia; Storm Thief; and Case of the Missing Marquess
Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner, 2000
When Euginides, the queen’s thief, is captured spying inside the neighboring kingdom of Attolia, the queen orders his hand cut off and him returned almost dead and supposedly rendered harmless to his home country of Eddis. But Euginides, with the friendship of his family and queen, eventually finds ways to aid his country in the on-going war with Attolia and their third neighbor, Sounis. The book is full of wit and insight into human nature, love for the most unlikely companions and for one’s gods, political intrigue, and interpersonal bantering and positioning. Very engaging. The fantasy is minimal, supernatural manifestations happening within the context of faith in one’s gods. The book reads much more like an historical novel.
Some memory-jogging tags: Medes; Magus from Sounis; kidnapping; mountainous regions; political positioning; amputation; fantasy
MS Rating: Great
Storm Thief by Chris Wooding, 2006
Rail wants to find a better life for himself and Moa in Oroko; Moa wants to escape Oroko altogether and find a better life beyond the horizon; and Vago wants to find out who created him. When Rail and Moa steal a powerful Faded artifact and end up running for their lives from the obese thief boss and her gang, they hook up with Vago who protects them from the Revenants but attracts the attentions of the Protectorate’s Secret Police. This is an imaginatively conceived science fiction about an island state and its people who are at the mercy of overcrowded ghettos and ruthless secret police and indiscriminant probability storms and deadly energy ghosts and incomprehensible technology. It reminded me of a more sinister City of Embers.
Some memory-jogging tags: golem; mozgas; oppression.
MS Rating: Great
Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, 2006
Enola Holmes, Sherlock’s much younger sister, wants to find her mother who went missing on her 14th birthday, and to avoid boarding school and the much hated corset that her brother Mycroft is insisting upon. She follows clues that her mom left through a book of coded messages, finds the money her mom left her hidden in her rooms, and, on the day she is to go to boarding school, runs away. Before reaching London, she stumbles upon a case of a missing 12-year-old boy and risks her own safety and freedom to restore his. The clues of the book are fun to follow and the historical details add interest.
Some memory-jogging tags: tree house and frilly collars; cut throats; poverty and despair; docks; seedy neighborhoods; disguises; corsets and whalebone collars; dossers or crawlers; ciphers
MS Rating: Great
When Euginides, the queen’s thief, is captured spying inside the neighboring kingdom of Attolia, the queen orders his hand cut off and him returned almost dead and supposedly rendered harmless to his home country of Eddis. But Euginides, with the friendship of his family and queen, eventually finds ways to aid his country in the on-going war with Attolia and their third neighbor, Sounis. The book is full of wit and insight into human nature, love for the most unlikely companions and for one’s gods, political intrigue, and interpersonal bantering and positioning. Very engaging. The fantasy is minimal, supernatural manifestations happening within the context of faith in one’s gods. The book reads much more like an historical novel.
Some memory-jogging tags: Medes; Magus from Sounis; kidnapping; mountainous regions; political positioning; amputation; fantasy
MS Rating: Great
Storm Thief by Chris Wooding, 2006
Rail wants to find a better life for himself and Moa in Oroko; Moa wants to escape Oroko altogether and find a better life beyond the horizon; and Vago wants to find out who created him. When Rail and Moa steal a powerful Faded artifact and end up running for their lives from the obese thief boss and her gang, they hook up with Vago who protects them from the Revenants but attracts the attentions of the Protectorate’s Secret Police. This is an imaginatively conceived science fiction about an island state and its people who are at the mercy of overcrowded ghettos and ruthless secret police and indiscriminant probability storms and deadly energy ghosts and incomprehensible technology. It reminded me of a more sinister City of Embers.
Some memory-jogging tags: golem; mozgas; oppression.
MS Rating: Great
Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, 2006
Enola Holmes, Sherlock’s much younger sister, wants to find her mother who went missing on her 14th birthday, and to avoid boarding school and the much hated corset that her brother Mycroft is insisting upon. She follows clues that her mom left through a book of coded messages, finds the money her mom left her hidden in her rooms, and, on the day she is to go to boarding school, runs away. Before reaching London, she stumbles upon a case of a missing 12-year-old boy and risks her own safety and freedom to restore his. The clues of the book are fun to follow and the historical details add interest.
Some memory-jogging tags: tree house and frilly collars; cut throats; poverty and despair; docks; seedy neighborhoods; disguises; corsets and whalebone collars; dossers or crawlers; ciphers
MS Rating: Great
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Down the Colorado
Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell, the One-Armed Explorer by Deborah Kogan Ray, 2007 (917.91 RAY)
Each spread describes an episode or period of Powell’s life (1834 – 1902), accompanied with full-page illustration. The watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil illustrations are better showing the canyons than the people. Includes map, author’s note, chronology, and bibliography. You could read this book within a class period. One or more spread could be used as a lesson opener.
Each spread describes an episode or period of Powell’s life (1834 – 1902), accompanied with full-page illustration. The watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil illustrations are better showing the canyons than the people. Includes map, author’s note, chronology, and bibliography. You could read this book within a class period. One or more spread could be used as a lesson opener.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Oh, Rats!; If the World Were a Village; Skyscraper; Girl's Like Spaghetti; Chasing Vermeer
Oh, Rats! The Story of Rats and People by Albert Marrin, ill. by C. B. Mordan, 2006 (599.35 MAR)
A 2-3 class period read, this book is a history and trivia book about rats. The illustrations are red and black line drawings. It contains information about the myths of rats, encounters with humans through the ages, and modern partnerships between rats and humans. This is a high-interest read.
If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World’s People by David J. Smith, ill. by Shelagh Armstrong, 2002 (304.6 SMI)
This book is a very engaging and informative analysis of the world, reduced down to a comprehensible size – a village of 100 people. It presents facts about nationalities, languages, ages, religions, food, air and water, schooling and literacy, money and possessions, electricity, the past, and the future. There are two pages full of activities to do with children to help them develop a sense of their world. You can read the entire book in one class period, or use one of the analyses as a lesson starter. It could be used in geography, social studies, or math classes.
Skyscraper by Lynn Curlee, 2007 (720 CUR)
One side text, one side illustration, this book goes through the history of skyscrapers and describes the tallest ones. There are many facts that could be compared and contrasted. Most of the history is in the U.S, but by the end, the tallest buildings are being built elsewhere. It could be mostly, if not all, read within a class period.
Girl’s Like Spaghetti: Why You Can’t Manage Without Apostrophes! by Lynne Truss, ill. by Bonnie Timmons, 2007 (428.2 TRU)
Fun and fast illustration of the effects of using or not using an apostrophe. It could be used as a lesson opener, or for a pattern for students to make their own pages for a class book.
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, 2004. Read by Ellen Reilly in a Listening Library production.
Caulder and Petra want to discover who stole a priceless Vermeer painting, but they are not sure what are clues and what are coincidences. Set in Chicago at the end of their 12th year, Caulder gains insights from his set of pentaminoes and Petra discovers clues from dreams and impressions to help solve an international art scandal. The playaway devise was very convenient, and the reader OK. I liked the story at first, but by the end it seemed too contrived, though I think MS students will enjoy the seemingly random connections.
Some memory-jogging tags: A Lady Writing. twelves. coincidences. University School. Families. Mystery
MS Rating: OK. It’s a little young (characters are 11).
A 2-3 class period read, this book is a history and trivia book about rats. The illustrations are red and black line drawings. It contains information about the myths of rats, encounters with humans through the ages, and modern partnerships between rats and humans. This is a high-interest read.
If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World’s People by David J. Smith, ill. by Shelagh Armstrong, 2002 (304.6 SMI)
This book is a very engaging and informative analysis of the world, reduced down to a comprehensible size – a village of 100 people. It presents facts about nationalities, languages, ages, religions, food, air and water, schooling and literacy, money and possessions, electricity, the past, and the future. There are two pages full of activities to do with children to help them develop a sense of their world. You can read the entire book in one class period, or use one of the analyses as a lesson starter. It could be used in geography, social studies, or math classes.
Skyscraper by Lynn Curlee, 2007 (720 CUR)
One side text, one side illustration, this book goes through the history of skyscrapers and describes the tallest ones. There are many facts that could be compared and contrasted. Most of the history is in the U.S, but by the end, the tallest buildings are being built elsewhere. It could be mostly, if not all, read within a class period.
Girl’s Like Spaghetti: Why You Can’t Manage Without Apostrophes! by Lynne Truss, ill. by Bonnie Timmons, 2007 (428.2 TRU)
Fun and fast illustration of the effects of using or not using an apostrophe. It could be used as a lesson opener, or for a pattern for students to make their own pages for a class book.
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, 2004. Read by Ellen Reilly in a Listening Library production.
Caulder and Petra want to discover who stole a priceless Vermeer painting, but they are not sure what are clues and what are coincidences. Set in Chicago at the end of their 12th year, Caulder gains insights from his set of pentaminoes and Petra discovers clues from dreams and impressions to help solve an international art scandal. The playaway devise was very convenient, and the reader OK. I liked the story at first, but by the end it seemed too contrived, though I think MS students will enjoy the seemingly random connections.
Some memory-jogging tags: A Lady Writing. twelves. coincidences. University School. Families. Mystery
MS Rating: OK. It’s a little young (characters are 11).
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Wildwood Dancing; and Merchant of Death
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier, 2007
Jenica, 15-year-old girl living in the middle ages, wants to keep the family business going and her four sisters safe while their father is away trying to regain his health in a milder climate, but her older sister has fallen for Sorrow, who looks like one of those dangerous Night People, and her cousin Cezar is becoming more and more controlling and abusive. She finds comfort in the friendship she enjoys with her pet frog and seeks advice from the sorceress Draguta as well as the elf queen Ileana. Nothing comes without a price, and she almost loses her great opportunity for true love. From the book: Five sisters who live with their merchant father in Transylvania use a hidden portal in their home to cross over into a magical world, the Wildwood.
I found it a little hard to get into, but once into the story, thoroughly liked it. Jenica’s character is trying hard to hold things together, but is frustrated at every step by her chauvinistic cousin and her own insecurities.
Some memory-jogging tags: Dwarfs. Night people (vampires). True love. Dancing. Oppression. Magical kingdoms. Prejudices. Sisters.
MS Rating: Great.
Merchant of Death (Pendragon, bk 1) by D. J MacHale, 2002
Bobby Pendragon, a 14-yr-old basketball player who just has had his first kiss, only wants to return home but his uncle is sentenced to die and the Milagos are being brutally treated and indiscriminately killed. So, summoning bravery and wits he didn’t know he had, he proves Loor, a warrior teen, wrong by staying. The danger goes beyond the conflict between these two tribes, threatening the entire fabric of the universe if Saint Dane, the evil traveler with pet quigs, has his way. From the book: Bobby Pendragon is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. Before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution. If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly.
Fun read, written as a journal from Bobby on the other end of the flume to his friends back on Second Earth. This is the first of several in the series where Bobby, his Uncle Press, and Loor go traveling throughout the universe, encountering civilizations in crisis and trying to prevent Saint Dane from sending the universe crashing into total chaos.
Some memory-jogging tags: Trust. Courage. Explosives (tak). Exploitation of one society by another. Mining. Medieval society. Travel through time and space. Relying on others.
MS Ratings: Great.
Jenica, 15-year-old girl living in the middle ages, wants to keep the family business going and her four sisters safe while their father is away trying to regain his health in a milder climate, but her older sister has fallen for Sorrow, who looks like one of those dangerous Night People, and her cousin Cezar is becoming more and more controlling and abusive. She finds comfort in the friendship she enjoys with her pet frog and seeks advice from the sorceress Draguta as well as the elf queen Ileana. Nothing comes without a price, and she almost loses her great opportunity for true love. From the book: Five sisters who live with their merchant father in Transylvania use a hidden portal in their home to cross over into a magical world, the Wildwood.
I found it a little hard to get into, but once into the story, thoroughly liked it. Jenica’s character is trying hard to hold things together, but is frustrated at every step by her chauvinistic cousin and her own insecurities.
Some memory-jogging tags: Dwarfs. Night people (vampires). True love. Dancing. Oppression. Magical kingdoms. Prejudices. Sisters.
MS Rating: Great.
Merchant of Death (Pendragon, bk 1) by D. J MacHale, 2002
Bobby Pendragon, a 14-yr-old basketball player who just has had his first kiss, only wants to return home but his uncle is sentenced to die and the Milagos are being brutally treated and indiscriminately killed. So, summoning bravery and wits he didn’t know he had, he proves Loor, a warrior teen, wrong by staying. The danger goes beyond the conflict between these two tribes, threatening the entire fabric of the universe if Saint Dane, the evil traveler with pet quigs, has his way. From the book: Bobby Pendragon is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. Before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution. If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly.
Fun read, written as a journal from Bobby on the other end of the flume to his friends back on Second Earth. This is the first of several in the series where Bobby, his Uncle Press, and Loor go traveling throughout the universe, encountering civilizations in crisis and trying to prevent Saint Dane from sending the universe crashing into total chaos.
Some memory-jogging tags: Trust. Courage. Explosives (tak). Exploitation of one society by another. Mining. Medieval society. Travel through time and space. Relying on others.
MS Ratings: Great.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)