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

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.

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).

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.