Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Fairy books

Do you love books about the "little people?" I do! I thought I'd share with you a list of a few of the more recent books and their authors who touch on fairy themes. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. If you'd like me to cover a different theme, please, make a suggestion or two!

The Waters and the Wild by Francesca Lia Block - Bee has always known she's not quite normal, but after she sees "herself" in her own bedroom, she begins to realize she might be a fairy changeling. A short novel that will linger in your mind

Wings by Aprilynne Pike - Laurel doesn't know why she's so different from all the kids she has just started going to school with (except she's a strict vegan) until a lump on her back bursts into a flower! She must discover who and what she is... and what life holds in store for her.

Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange and Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr. These three interconnected novels follow the lives of Aislinn, Leslie and Seth, who are unwillingly drawn into the world of the Dark Fey. Will they survive their brushes with the wickedly immortal?

Faeries Landing by You Hyon - this graphic novel series is about a young man who, by accident, stumbles into the world of the fey and ends up with his own personal faery; and a curse to have 108 doomed relationships before he finds his true love.

Last of the High Kings by Kate Thompson - based on Irish mythology (and what better for fairy tales?), this story involves a changeling, a ghost and a mysterious magical object that may spell the end of the world.

Good Neighbors: Kin, book 1 by Holly Black - after her mother's disappearance, Rue Silver finds out that her mother was a fairy, her father is suspected of murder, and her whole world may be nothing like she believed it was. First in a graphic novel series.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Recent Returns

Well, it's been a week since I posted! Bad me! Blame it on a terrible cold and a wonderful weekend trip...

But today I'm going to share some recently returned titles with you.

Who isn't familiar with PC Cast's House of Night series? Betrayed is the second book, after Marked. In it, young vampire Zoey is settling in, getting used to her powers, but then a wave of human teen murder victims implicate the House of Night, and Zoey must prove that neither she nor her fellow students are responsible. Our 11 copies of this have checked out 112 times, total!!!!

And another hot, hot, series title: Kitty Kitty by Michelle Jaffe, is the sequel to Bad Kitty. Follow Jasmine and her Evil Henchcousin Alyson to Venice, Italy. Once again, she is soon deeply involved in a mystery involving a dangerous kitty, a runaway heiress, a smoldering gondolier, and more trouble than she can bury with footnotes. Purrfectly hilarious! 1 copy, 13 circs...

Jock and Jill, by Robert Lipsyte, is a great book about a baseball-playing young athlete, with a future career in the minor leagues just waiting for him, if only he doesn't mess it up by meeting the wrong girl and giving in to an impulse... 17 circs for this one.

Patricia McCormick's book My Brother's Keeper, is a story of a young teen boy, Toby, trying to keep his older brother Jake's secret from their mother, and to protect their little brother, Eli, from missing their father too much. But how long can he keep going on, himself? Just 6 circs for this sweet, slightly sad story about growing up with your family.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Readergirlz supports Teen Read Week

Read all about their wonderful live chats and other planned web activities!

If you haven't already checked them out, don't miss this opportunity to discover what Readergirlz has to offer. They're a great community of authors, readers, and community activists. They offer great chats, discussions of the books you love, and a whole lot more...

compare and contrast review

Two books, Nation by Terry Pratchett, and The Lost Island of Tamarind by Nadia Aguilar, deal with young people left alone after terrible storms.

In the case of Nation, Mau is the only islander left alive after a tsunami. Gradually, he finds other survivors, including a mysterious outsider girl, Daphne. Together, they struggle to survive, and as they do so discover mysteries about Mau's island that even he had no idea existed.

In Tamarind, Maya, who lives on a boat with her parents and siblings, survives a terrible storm at sea, only to watch her parents be swept overboard. She and her brother, with their baby sister, struggle to survive, and end up on Tamarind, a mysterious island.

Both stories involve tropical islands, survival, mysterious adventures, and stirring characters who struggle with grief, loss, loneliness, fear, and love. Mau and Daphne make decisions that affect both their peoples's future. Maya and Simon, too, find that their very presence changes Tamarind, and they are forced to take sides in a war they don't understand. In one case duty and responsibility win out over personal happiness, while in the other, the adventure has not yet concluded, and the eventual fate of the island is unclear...

Two great adventure stories, each wonderful on its own, make for even better reading together.

Friday, September 18, 2009

New Books

A great list of newly arrived titles;

Sliding on the Edge by C. Lee McKenzie - Shawna Stone, 16, can handle anything from a Las Vegas hustle to skipping out on the rent. Scarred inside and out, she's survived with a tough, hardened attitude. Yet she's thrown when her mother abandons her in Vegas with only a bus ticket and the name and number of a stranger to call.
Night World no. 2 by L. J. Smith - contains "Dark Angel", "Soul Mate" and "The Chosen".
Night World no. 3 by L. J. Smith - contains "Huntress", "Black Dawn" and "Witchlight".
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George - A tale of twelve princesses doomed to dance until dawn... Galen is a young soldier returning from war; Rose is one of twelve princesses condemned to dance each night for the King Under Stone. Together Galen and Rose will search for a way to break the curse that forces the princesses to dance at the midnight balls. All they need is one invisibility cloak, a black wool chain knit with enchanted silver needles, and that most critical ingredient of all--true love--to conquer their foes in the dark halls below. But even if they succeed below ground, will evil fate doom them above?
Frenemies by Alexa Young - The first novel of a hilarious and delicious new series marks the debut of an exciting new voice in teen fiction, who tells the story of two seventh-grade BFFs who learn to keep their friends close and their frenemies closer.
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead - "Four mysterious letters change Miranda's world forever." By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it's safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know whom to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner. But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda's mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper. The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows all about her, including things that have not even happened yet. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think she's too late.

Project Sweet Life by Brent Hartinger - When Dave's dad announces that this summer, Dave needs to get a job, the 15 year old is stunned - this was to be his last free summer - but then he and his friends get an idea...

Sacred Scars by Kathleen Duey - The second installment in the Resurrection of Magic series richly fulfills the promise of the first book, the National Book Award finalist "Skin Hunger." Hahp and Gerrard's tenuous pact, forged for survival, falters as they plot to destroy the academy . . . and to set the magic free.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater - For Grace, one yellow-eyed wolf is a chilling presence in the woods behind her house. During winter, Sam lives in the frozen woods and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, he lives a few precious months as a human. Soon, Grace and Sam find themselves risking everything to remain together.

Poison Ivy by Amy Koss - a mock trial in a high school civics class is described through the voices of eight participants; Ivy, the girl who has been bullied, Amy and her "evil" sidekicks, shy Daria, even-handed Marco and others.

Willow by Julia Hoban - Seven months ago, on a rainy March night, sixteen year- old Willow's parents died in a horrible car accident. Willow was driving. Now her older brother barely speaks to her, her new classmates know her as the killer orphan girl, and Willow is blocking the pain by secretly cutting herself. But when one boy aone sensitive, soulful boy discovers Willow's secret, it sparks an intense relationship that turns the safe world Willow has created for herself upside down.

Cathy's Ring
by Jean Stewart -- the last Cathy book - Cathy cannot manage to find more than a few days to relax in her hectic (and mortal) life--she barely has time to put the mystery surrounding her father to rest before she finds herself targeted by a group of Ancestor Lu's professional killers.

The Roar by Emma Clayton - Mika and Ellie live in a future behind a wall: Solid concrete topped with high-voltage razor wire and guarded by a battalion of Ghengis Borgs, it was built to keep out the animals, because animals carry the plague. At least that's what Ellie, who was kidnapped as a child, has always been taught. But when she comes to suspect the truth behind her captivity, she's ready to risk exposure to the elements and answer the call of the wild. Listen. Can you hear it? She's strapping on her headset, jumpstarting her Pod Fighter, and--with her capuchin monkey at her back--she's breaking out!

Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow by James Rollins - When a mysterious envelope arrives for Jake Ransom, he and his older sister, Kady, are plunged into a gripping chain of events. An artifact found by their parents--on the expedition from which they never returned--leads Jake and Kady to a strange world inhabited by a peculiar mix of long-lost civilizations, a world that may hold the key to their parents' disappearance.

Chess Rumble by Greg Neri - A story in free verse about a troubled boy who learns to use his mind insteadof his fists through the guidance of an unconventional mentor and the game of chess. Illustrated.

Deal with It by Monica McKayhan - Indigo and her best friend Jade are at the top of their game as the most popular girls in school and the best dancers on the squad. But when Jade is chosen as squad captain, Indigo becomes jealous. And they're not the only ones on the squad dealing with major drama.

Dust of 100 Dogs by A. S. King - Famed pirate Emer Morrisey was cursed at her death to be reborn 100 times - as a dog! She must live, remembering who she was, until she is finally reborn as a human - and sets out to recover the buried treasure she left behind.

Blood Promise by Mead -- Vampire Academy 4 - The recent Strigoi attack at St. Vladimir's has claimed the lives of Moroi students, teachers, and guardians alike. Now Rose must abandon her best friend Lissa and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago.

Return to Groosham Grange: The Unholy Grail by Anthony Horowitz - David Eliot is on track to win the Unholy Grail, a cup of magical power rewarded to the star pupil at the Grange. But it seems that someone--or something--is trying to stop him.

Dreamquest by Brent Hartinger - Twelve-year-old Julie Fray is living a nightmare. Her parents are fighting so much she can't even escape when she goes to sleep. One night she wakes up "inside" her dream, and the actress who plays Julie in the dreams escapes to the waking world--and plans to stay there.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Recent Returns

Last Fantasy by Creative Hon - a fun, adventuresome and sometimes comic Manga about two unlikely young heroes, Drei and Tien. We own all five volumes of this series. Volume 1 has checked out 38 times.

The Door of No Return by Sarah Mussi - Zac never believed his grandfather's stories of their descent from the kidnapped heir to an African King. But when his grandfather is murdered, and he barely escapes the killers, Zac heads to Ghana to discover a lost treasure before anyone else can. 3 circs for this wonderful NEW adventure

The Quillan Games (Pendragon book seven) by D. J. MacHale - Bobby still has more questions than answers about his family, his future, and about Saint Dane. But will he find the answers if he plays the Quillan Games? Can he save a whole territory from the clutches of evil game-masters Veego and LaBerge? 27 circs for this very popular book!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A great read

I just took "Fly Girl" by Sherri Smith home with me and devoured it. It was a beautiful read; in certain ways it reminded me of Anne of Avonlea, in others of Dragonsinger.

This is the story of a girl, Ida Mae, who loves flying. She learned it at her father's knee; she adored him, and now that he's gone, flying is her only connection to him. But Ida Mae is a black girl in 1940's Louisiana. Getting her pilot's license proves an impossible dream, especially when WWII breaks out. But after her younger brother shows her an article about the WASP (Women's Air Service Pilots) program, she dares to dream again.

After faking herself a pilot's license (which she doesn't have because a white man refused to issue one to her), she interviews to join the WASP - as a white woman. Ida Mae's subsequent adventures are vivid, realistic, and historically accurate. Her life as a black woman passing as white is not easy, and she has realistic fears, troubles and hopes. She succeeds in doing things that even men were afraid to try, and she learns that she can handle most everything life offers her.

The book ends on a hopeful but inconclusive note; her life as a WASP is ending, but the future holds further dreams. Read Ida Mae's story and don't be afraid to reach out for all that life can offer!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Recent Returns

Wow, it's been wayyyy too long since I posted.

Here's a quick update of a few recent returns, with a bit of a scifi theme. If I get the chance, I'll do a list of new books later today or Monday.

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith: IdaMae is a girl with a dream; she wants to be a pilot. But in 1940's Louisiana, a black girl has no chance at such a thing - so when she gets the opportunity to hide her race and join the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) at thebeginning of WWII, she jumps at the chance. And of course, she discovers that life isn't always as easy as it seems... 4 circs for this new title.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott: When Alice was 10, Ray took her away from her family, and made her his toy. Now she's 15, and her life has become even more difficult, as she's growing too old to please her captor. And then he decides it is time for her to find him a new little girl. Alice views herself as "living dead". Will she allow another child to undergo her experience? Even if it offers her a chance to escape? 9 circs for this intense thriller.

House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer: Matteo Alacran is a clone, raised as the pet and eventual body-replacement for El Patron, a wealthy, corrupt drug-lord in a world where clones are despised as animals. Can he escape his eventual fate, and find his own life? 32 circs.

The Awakening by Michael Carroll: Ten years ago all the Superheroes disappeared. After a final battle with one ultimate villain, they all vanished. Were they killed? Were they kidnapped? And now, ten years later, a new generation of superheroes is emerging, and discovering that old mysteries still linger...7 circs for this first in the Quantum Prophecy series.