The Book Bin

OK, now these are the biggest movers in my library for grades 1-3. The kids just love this crazy cat! Hmm, must be another Cheezeburger cat!

SkippyJon is a Siamese cat whose imagination is too big, whose head is too big and whose ears are too big and  likes to pretend to be a chihuahua, much to Mama Junebug Jone’s distress. He is often sent to his room to think about being Siamese. While doing his “thinking” (jumping on his bed) he goes on epic adventures as El Skippitio (his version of Zorro) and joins up with his band of chihuahuas. The kids love these books, asking for them to be read repeatedly. Keeping them on the shelf is a challenge. Along with that challenge are the Spanish words that require some explanation for these Canadian kids from the North! Took them a while to figure out what a “bumblebeeto” was; a huge bumblebee that was really a…. Naw, not telling.  You need to read the books to your kids.

Rating: 5 stars.

Two boys, two faiths, one unholy war

This book was by far my most favorite read of the summer.  I have a deep-rooted love of historical fiction and this book is superb! Here is the product description from Amazon.com

When Adam’s mother dies unconfessed, he pledges to save her soul with dust from the Holy Land. Employed as a dog-boy for the local knight, Adam grabs the chance to join the Crusade to reclaim Jerusalem. He burns with determination to strike down the infidel enemy …Salim, a merchant’s son, is leading an uneventful life in the port of Acre – until news arrives that a Crusader attack is imminent. To keep Salim safe, his father buys him an apprenticeship with an esteemed, travelling doctor. But Salim’s employment leads him to the heart of Sultan Saladin’s camp – and into battle against the barbaric and unholy invaders.

Don’t you just hate it when a good book is over? It is like loosing a best-friend. This was one of those books for me.I simply didn’t want it to end. It will be one of those books I will want to read over again. Can’t wait to book talk this one.

Elizabeth Laird’s offical website: http://www.elizabethlaird.co.uk/

Chloe Saunders used to have a relatively normal life…

A Canadian author! I’m on a roll! Oh man I liked this book! Will I put it in my elementary school library? Undecided – probably not – but really want to. Need to talk to colleague in “rockin’ things up” in the library club.

So here’s the story:  Chloe, 15, can see the dead. She can hear them, see them and talk to them. Sound familiar? Well what would people do if you told them you saw, heard and talked to apparently dead people? Yep, throw you in the nuthouse. Chloe has a melt-down and ends up in a group home (Lyle House) diagnosed with schizophrenia. (Never tell people you hear voices in your head!)

Two of her more mysterious roommates suggest, then convince her she is not mentally ill and can really communicate with the dead. Chloe discovers that her roommates all seem to have supernatural powers. Derek has superhuman strength, Simon has magical powers, Liz can cause things to fly around the room when she’s angry and is sent to a hospital and never heard from again.

Chloe finds out that there are dead bodies in the basement who were residents of Lyle House and also had supernatural powers. These people had been experimented on and killed (no details given so not gory).  The kids then attempt an escape from Lyle House and …. Nope, not telling.  But what I will say is that you will so want a sequel and it is called The Awakening and The Reckoning. Both are next on my reading list.

This is Kelly Armstrong’s Amazon Page: http://www.amazon.com/Kelley-Armstrong/e/B001AOW7NI/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

This is Kelly’s website: http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/index.html – look on the left-hand side bar and click on the Darkest Powers for info on the above series.

They can save themselves, but can they save the planet? Book 1 – The Protectors series

I started this book, but did not finish it. It was not that I did not like the book or that it was not good, it was. It was another fast-paced, action packed story that grabbed on to the reader and really took them for a ride with the “flock”. I really enjoyed the character Max. BUT, I found the humour annoying (as an adult, kids will love it) and it was too much like X-men for me and I’m soooo not an X-men fan, Hugh Jackman not withstanding! I also found that it would have been better to have read the first 3 books, which are part of The Fugitives series first.  Will I book talk this one? Oh yes, I certainly will. I think the kids will love it. But I think I need to purchase the entire series in order to make it a good reading experience and to give justice to the story and author.

Website:  www.maximumride.com – while you’re here check out James Patterson’s other books. The Witch and Wizard looks really good!

“The best contender for the Potter-Snicket throne may be Seán Cullen’s Hamish X books” The Province

That quote from the Province about sums up this book! I’m expecting a movie.

This book has everything: evil Grey Agents of the ODA (Orphan Disposal Agency), a genius or two, robot raccoons, a crazy, tough, street-wise girl, a King of Switzerland (yes, we know, Switzerland is a Republic), and some Q-like Bond technology, including a flying ship, some insane boots and a crazy Narrator! It is full of high-flying, fast paced action from the beginning to the end. Seán Cullen (no relation to the Cullen vampires) is a well known Canadian comedian and his zany humour is woven all through this story.

This is the second book in a trilogy.  In the first book Hamish X is captured by the ODA, and the Windcity Orphanage is destroyed. But due to a series of events orchestrated by Mimi and Parveen (street-wise girl and zany genuis) Hamish X is saved along with the Windcity orphans and they escape to Switzerland! Then deep in the Alps they find sanctuary with the King Liam in Hollow Mountain and the adventures with the ODA begin.The ODA are very creepy people, FBI gone weird!

What I really enjoyed about this book was the action-packed, fast pace. It keeps the reader engaged and reading. The humour is perfect for kids. The Bond-like technology such as the flying ship, the robotic racoons and the other gizmos in Hollow Mountain will enthrall young readers.  Hamish X’s pain and confusion over who he is will connect with older readers and Mimi is just a love.

It is a Red Cedar nominee and I dearly hope Seán wins this year. I thought he was going to win last year – my Red Cedar group voted his Hamish X and the Cheese Pirates as their fav Red Cedar book.  Can’t wait to book talk this one! I think these books would make a dynamite movie!

Good luck Seán with the Red Cedar Book Award.

Where the end is just the beginning…..

I was busy this summer reading as many books, both adult and children, as I could manage. This was the first. Geared for ages 9-12 it is definitely a good boy’s book and I’m always looking for good boy’s books.

Did you know there were secret civilizations below the streets of London? Who knew! The main characters, Will & his buddy Chester go digging looking for Will’s father who’s mysteriously disappeared. The boys discover a tunnel while digging and encounter an unknown civilization below the streets of London.  Now all this digging certainly starts the story off on a slow note. Slow enough to nearly have stopped me from reading, but being nosy, I had to find out why all the digging! Things quickly got really, really good!  There were chases, captures, escapes, surprises and a religious cult-like group called the Styx who administer both physical and mental torture on their captives. It was a squalid, dirty, very Gaiman-like creepy story.  I loved it.  I now want to read the second book:  Deeper.

YORKSHIRE EVENING POST ‘Vlad: The Last Confession is a superb page-turner from start to finish that offers a captivating look at the true picture of Vlad. Highly, highly recommended. No vampires though…

My youngest daughter, who works at our wonderful local bookstore, practically broke my arm to read this. The ulterior motive was, of course, that I lend it to her when I was finished.

Five years after Vlad’s death his name becomes infamous with depravity, cruelty and torture. Now don’t be turned off yet. Three people are summoned to give testamony about his life and actions to see if he could be forgiven of his sins. The three individuals are: Ion Tremblac his friend, right-hand man and ultimate betrayer, Ilona, his ex-mistress turned abbess and a hermit, Vasile. Through their eyes we are taken back to Vlad’s days as a young boy who is held hostage in Sultan Murad’s court in Turkey, through his days in Tokat prison, and through his wars against the Ottman Empire led by Sultan Murad and then his son, Mehmet.

This is a historical novel that is beautifully written, fast-paced and gripping. It is not as gory as you may believe it would be as the focus is more on the man, Vlad, not so much his deeds. Those deeds are there, for sure, but they are not dwelled upon like the blood and guts in a horror movie. This is a phenomenal read that grabs the reader from the first page to the last – and the final chapters have quite the surprise. I did not see that coming and was caught, which I dearly love!

I fell into this novel, hook, line and sinker and couldn’t wait to come home from school to read it.

Recommendation: 5 stars – a must read for 2009.

C.C. Humphreys blog here

Official website here

Iqbal is a story about bonded child labor in the carpet factories of Pakistan. It is narrated by a young child named Fatima who has been sold into slavery to pay off a family debt to the moneylenders.

Fatima talks about the long hours of sitting in front of a carpet loom, of the “numskulls” who are children who are not so quick at weaving and make mistakes in their patterns and who are chained to their looms. She talks about the lack of food and the heat. She tells the true story of Iqbal Masih.

Iqbal is 13. He comes into the carpet factory with an amazing act of bravery and ends up freeing the children of this and many other carpet and brick factories.  He wins an international scholarship and travels to Sweden and to the U.S.  Iqbal was murdered in 1995. His murders have never been caught.

The author, Francesco D’Adamo, uses “hauntingly poetic images” (Publisher’s Weekly) that snare the reader in the web of the lives of these children. D’Adamo does an incredible job of opening our eyes to the plight of child labor and pays a touching and moving tribute to Iqbal Mashi. It is a deeply touching novel dealing with social justice.

Rating: 5 stars.

The next time you see that wonderful Persian carpet for sale. Stop and remember.

I have had the great pleasure of hearing Marc Kielburger of Free the Children speak. If you ever have the chance to hear the Kielburger brothers speak, go. They will change your life.

http://www.freethechildren.com/

Well, I managed to devour this book in a Saturday and part of a Sunday!  The reviews I read are not great for this book, but as my older daughter said, “Who cares about reviews?!” HA!

So here’s the story. After witnessing a murder, Clary Fray, is drawn into a world of Shadowhunters (teens who kill demons and other monster-type creatures). Clary discovers her connection to the Shadowhunters through her mother, Jocelyn’s disappearance.

In order to save Jocelyn and the rest of the “mundane” humanity, Clary and the Shadowhunters must find the Mortal Cup which takes us into a plot full of vampires, werewolves (yup, they hate each other), demons, witches, warlocks and Greater Demons.  Throw in a few vampire pimped-out motorcycles, glamour spells, and dumb teenage one-liners and your reading your head off. Hell if I know why! Maybe because this is much more fun than actually being (or remembering being) a teenager!

As for the School Library Journal’s “get[ting] sidetracked by cutesty touches like the toasted bat sandwiches on the menu of a otherworldly restaurant”, who remembers a menu in a restaurant in a book! Nah, keep reading! Oh, and yes, we the reader, are more clued in than Clary on her paternity, but hey, she isn’t “clued in” about much in this particular book – kinda like Bella’s clumsiness in Twilight.

The girls and I, well we loved it for what it was, a piece of teenage escapest literature that could be read in a day and a half. I liked it as much as, and maybe more than, Twilight.

What a wonderful book!

The setting is in the beginning of the 20th Century. Katy Thatcher is a doctor’s daughter with an incredible case of “curiosity”. When Katy and her father go to pick up their hired girl from the farm she lives on, Katy meets Jacob. Jacob is “touched”.  Katy grows to understand the meanings in Jacob’s quiet sounds and movements.  In a horrific and tragic turn of events, Katy is the one to figure out what happened and why it happened.

I have had to pleasure to have worked with several children who are autistic. I have been forever “touched” by these incredible children and their families. This book reminds me of how much I learned from them and how very deeply they “touched” me as an educator and person.