Middle-Grade Review: Boom!

On our way back from a camping weekend in the Catskills recently, we got stuck in traffic that turned our 4-hour drive into a 9-hour drive.  Fortunately, I had brought along a new audio book, Boom! by Mark Haddon, that kept all four of us captivated and laughing the whole way home.  Mark Haddon is the author of the award-winning adult novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Jim, aka Jimbo, lives in London with his parents and sister.  When his older sister tells him he’s about to be expelled from school and sent away to military school, Jimbo knows she might be just teasing him…but he’s not sure.  He confers with his best friend, Charlie, who is always looking for some excitement in his life.  Charlie comes up with a brilliant plan to bug the teacher’s lounge at school, so they can hear for themselves what the teachers are (or are not) saying about Jimbo’s future.

They follow through with their plan and hear a bunch of boring teacher talk, until everyone else has left except for Mr. Kidd and Ms. Pearce.  They don’t know what to think of what they hear next:  their two teachers speaking in a strange language to each other.  When they speak one of the strange words to Mr. Kidd later and his eyes glow with a radiant blue light, they know that something very strange is going on at their school.  The two friends begin to investigate their teachers’ bizarre behavior, but soon they are in the midst of an adventure they never could have imagined.

Our whole family – including 12-year old Craig and 16-year old Jamie – loved this audio book.  It’s full of suspense and adventure, but it is also hilarious.  We were all laughing out loud at the odd cast of characters, frantic antics of Jimbo and Charlie, and the out-of-this-world plot.  If you enjoy the British style of humor, this book is for you!  Some (perhaps younger kids) may find the British accent of the reader and the British slang hard to understand, but we loved every minute of it and felt that its British-ness was a definite plus.  Great fun for middle-grade readers or for a family road trip!

Listening Library

Download an audio clip to listen to a sample of Boom!

BOOK:      AUDIO: 

It's Monday 8/30! What Are You Reading?

Back to school time!  Craig just got on his bus, and Jamie starts tomorrow - one down and one to go! 

School days memories...this photo was taken on Craig's first day of kindergarten and Jamie's first day of 4th grade.  Now they're starting 7th grade and 11th grade (and they're both taller than I am!).  Where did the years go?

Enough reminiscing...I'm sure you'd rather hear about reading!  We enjoyed some good books last week...

• I finished The Little Book by Selden Edwards, a birthday gift from Ken.  I really enjoyed this book - it was one of those that I liked more and more the more I read.  It's a time travel story of a man who travels from 1988 San Francisco to 1897 Vienna, with all of the thought-provoking moral dilemmas that I love in a time travel story, as he inadvertently runs into famous historical figures like Mark Twain and Sigmund Freud as well as some of his own family members.
• I just started Ruined, a new teen ghost story by Paula Morris.  I'm loving this book so far since it's set in my favorite place, New Orleans (we used to live there).
• Jamie, 16, finished and loved Congo by Michael Crichton, which we gave him for his birthday.  I think it's Crichton's best novel, about an ape who can communicate with sign language.
• Craig, 12, finished his summer reading assignment, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, the day before school started!  I tried to encourage him to start a new book just for fun last night, but no go.  The good news is that his English teacher is thinking of not using the Accelerated Reader (AR) program this year so that her students can read any book they want (AR is a computerized system - you have to choose a book on your school's AR list, then take a quiz when you finish).  That would be very good since the new books we get for review are never on the AR list yet!
• My husband, Ken, finished The Girl Who Played with Fire and immediately picked up The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - he's hooked on this exciting series!

Last week, I posted reviews of The Reminder, a teen novel by Rune Michaels, and Hide and Seek, a suspenseful middle-grade novel by Katy Grant that our whole family loved.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey).

Middle-Grade Review: Hide & Seek

During our annual 3-week summer roadtrip, we revived a beloved family tradition and read aloud before bed each night.  I chose a brand-new middle-grade novel, Hide & Seek by Katy Grant, and everyone in our family loved this exciting and suspenseful story.  Twelve-year old Craig frequently pleaded for “one more chapter”!

One reason I chose this book is because geocaching, an outdoor activity my family loves, is an essential part of the plot.  For those of you not familiar with geocaching, it’s a combination of hiking and treasure hunting, with a cool technological twist.  You look up nearby geocaches at www.geocaching.com, enter the coordinates into a handheld GPS, and then use the GPS to lead you to the cache.  The cache, hidden by another geocacher, usually contains a logbook to log your find and some small trinkets to exchange.  Our family loves camping and hiking, and, as on this recent trip, we often incorporate geocaching into our outdoor fun.

Chase, the fourteen-year old protagonist of Hide & Seek, also enjoys geocaching.  His dad recently bought him his own GPS, and Chase is eager to try finding some caches on his own.  He spent his summer helping out at his family’s rental cabins and store and can’t wait for some freedom:

So I pretty much keep my mouth shut and get all my chores done as fast as I can.  But it’s enough to drive a guy crazy.  When summer finally ends and the tourists go home, school starts, and then I’m stuck in a classroom all day.  Sometimes you just need to get out and breathe.

This was going to be the first geocache I’d ever done completely on my own, so I’d planned everything carefully.  Shea was right – my backpack was heavy.  It was full of stuff I might need: a stainless steel water bottle, a plastic bowl for Dexter, some trail mix, beef jerky, binoculars, some extra AA batteries, and a Swiss army knife.  And then the items to trade for the geocache, and my GPS so I could find the treasure.

Chase finds the geocache he’s looking for, but there’s an unexpected surprise there – a mysterious note from someone who sounds like he needs help.  That starts off an adventure and mystery that Chase could never have imagined.  The more involved he gets, the more Chase wonders whether the situation might be more than he bargained for.

I don’t want to tell you any more about the plot because the best part about this book is the constant surprises, plot twists, and fabulous suspense  (that’s what led my son to beg for more every night).  The plot is unique, the characters are likeable and real, and the writing is tight and engaging.  All four of us thoroughly enjoyed this new novel that’s perfect for middle-grade readers or as a read-aloud!

For more information on Hide & Seek and Katy Grant’s other books, check out the author’s website.

227 pages, Peachtree Publishers

 

Teen/YA Review: The Reminder

I enjoyed Rune Michaels’ intriguing novel, The Reminder, about a teen girl struggling to come to terms with her mother’s recent death.  The novel is a unique blend of drama and suspense, with a bit of science fiction mixed in.

Daisy, known as Daze to her family and friends, feels lost without her mother.  Her father’s not coping much better, and it bothers Daze that her little brother doesn’t remember their mother very well.  She struggles with nightmares and getting on with her normal life in the face of such tragedy.  Then, strange things start happening:

The first time I heard my dead mother’s voice, there was a logical explanation.

It was the middle of the night, naturally – that’s when ghosts tend to visit.  I woke up from a familiar nightmare, gulping down air, my face damp with sweat, my heart hammering, visions of blue and green slipping away as I grabbed darkness gratefully instead.

Then I heard it again, like I must have heard through my sleep.

Mom’s voice.  Mom’s laughter, rippling under my bedroom door along with the sliver of light from the living room.

I don’t want to say too much more abut the plot because there are a few surprises in store for both Daze and the reader.  The novel is well written and does a great job of exploring the nature of grief and loss, while keeping things interesting with some unique plot twists.  This was the first book I’ve read by Rune Michaels, and I look forward to more, including her latest release, Nobel Genes.

You can visit the author’s website or her blog to learn more about her and her books.

182 pages, Atheneum (Simon & Schuster)

  

It's Monday 8/23! What Are You Reading?

Just returned from a weekend spent camping in the Catskills with my extended family.  It was good to see everyone, and the kids had a blast running around with their cousins all weekend (not much reading this weekend!).  Kind of a rough ending, though - packed up in the pouring rain on Sunday, then spent 9 hours driving home!!!  It should have taken about 5 hours - crazy traffic, road construction, plus the rain slowed things down to a crawl.  So, home now, with piles of sopping wet, muddy laundry and a filthy camper.  The A/C is out for the 6th time this summer - thank goodness it cooled down over the weekend - supposed to be in the 80's this week instead of the 90's.

With Jamie's birthday last week, plus camping preparation, we didn't do a lot of reading but squeezed in a bit:

• I finished Elvis and Olive by Stephanie Watson and posted a review.  I really enjoyed this sweet, funny middle-grade novel about two very different girls who become good friends and spend a summer spying.
• I started a novel my husband gave me for my birthday last month, The Little Book by Selden Edwards.  It's set in 1890's Vienna, with a main character who has somehow been transported there from 1988 San Francisco.  It's good so far with a very intriguing plot - I always enjoy time-travel novels.
• Sixteen-year old Jamie is reading a book we gave him for his birthday last week, Congo by Michael Crichton.  He enjoyed Crichton's Sphere this spring, and Congo is my all-time favorite Crichton book, about an ape who can communicate with sign language.  He's enjoying it very much so far.  It's fun sharing favorites with my kids!
• Twelve-year old Craig - who feels it's a complete waste of time to read during the summer - is still working on The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin for his assigned summer reading.  He does like it and says it's getting better and better - he'd just rather be outside running around!  He needs to finish it this week because school starts next Monday.
• My husband, Ken, finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and started right in on The Girl Who Played with Fire.  He's loving this series!  My mom's husband, who we saw this weekend, is also reading the series on his Kindle, and I gave my sister The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for her birthday this weekend.  A runaway family hit!
• Our never-ending trip home yesterday was made much more enjoyable by a new audio book, Boom! by Mark Haddon, the first kids' book by the author of the award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (which Jamie, Ken, and I have all read).  It's a very funny middle-grade adventure book that kept us all laughing even in the midst of traffic.  We have just a little bit left to finish tonight (after 9 hours in the car, there was no way we were going to sit in the driveway and finish it last night no matter how good it was!)

And, last week, I gratefully accepted the Versatile Blogger Award and passed it along to five deserving bloggers, so please check them out!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey)

Middle-Grade Review: Elvis & Olive

I chose to read a middle-grade novel targeted toward a slightly younger audience (probably best for grades 3 to 6) this week so that I can pass it along to my little cousins when I see them this weekend.   I expected to do a quick read-through and review of Elvis & Olive by Stephanie Watson, but I was pleasantly surprised by this sweet and funny novel of young friendship.

Natalie, a straight-A student and a bit of a perfectionist, has just finished 4^th grade and is already bored by summer.  As she rides her bike around the block over and over trying to beat her best time, she encounters someone new in the neighborhood:

He was still holding his hand out, willing Natalie to stay where she was.  The other hand was behind his back.

“I’m gonna tell you a secret,” he said.

“Why would you tell me a secret?” Natalie asked.  “I don’t even know you.”

“So?”

“Usually you know someone before you tell them a secret,” she said, offering her hand to shake his.  “I’m Natalie.  You’re the new boy from across the street, right?”

His eyes became slits.

“Boy?!  I’m not a boy.  I’m a GIRL!”  The shout echoed off the houses.  Natalie slowly lowered her hand back to the handlebar.

With this difficult introduction, Natalie meets Annie.  The two girls couldn’t be more different.  Natalie dresses neatly and is cautious and shy, while Annie is often covered with dirt but is brave and outgoing.  They quickly get past their rough start, become friends, and decide to devote their summer to being spies and uncovering secrets.  Their code names are Elvis and Olive, and suddenly, Natalie’s summer is anything but boring.

I just loved these two girls and their friendship – it reminded me very much of summers spent with my best friend roaming around our neighborhood, sharing secrets.  It’s not all fun and games, though.  Both girls have some secrets of their own, and secrets have a way of leaking out when you least expect it.  It’s a fun and heartwarming story that carries you along to a satisfying conclusion.  I can’t wait to pass this wonderful book along to my cousins this weekend!

NOTE:  The sequel, Elvis & Olive: Super Detectives, came out in hardcover on July 1.

230 pages, Scholastic

Versatile Blogger Award!

Lovely Anne, a high school librarian and writer of the blog, My Head Is Full of Books, awarded me The Versatile Blogger Award last week!  Thank you, Anne - I very much appreciate the award!  Please stop by and visit her wonderful blog with lots of great book reviews for teens, YA, and grown-ups, too (hence her own versatility!).

Here are the rules for this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (In no particular order...)
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

(Note: As many of you know, I have a chronic illness and have limited energy/time for blogging, so I'm only going to pass this along to 5 other bloggers.  If I don't limit myself a bit, I wouldn't be able to accept awards at all, so I hope you understand.)

Now, 7 things about myself.  Since this is a kids/teens book blog, I'll try to focus on those areas of my life:

1. My Mom taught me to read before I started kindergarten (thanks, Mom!) - Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman was the first book I read on my own, and it is still a favorite of mine and my own kids.  There is an awesome photo of me reading The Cat In the Hat while sitting on my potty seat (obviously, even earlier) - I wish I could share that with you, but I think my Mom has it.  Suffice it to say, I have always loved books!
2. I was a huge fan of both Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden when I was a kid.  A friend and I used to pretend to be Trixie and Honey, but we could never find any good mysteries in our neighborhood.
3. My all-time favorite series as a kid was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and its sequels.  I even got to play Meg in our 3rd grade play!
4. I went on a Ray Bradbury binge in high school and read every single Bradbury book in our public library.  Oddly, I haven't read any Bradbury since then.  I really want to revisit his books.
5. Besides Bradbury, as a teen I began to read more and more books from the adult section of the library, though I still liked some teen books.  There really wasn't as much YA variety back then as there is now.  My Mom, Dad, and I read every single Stephen King book that came out - we just passed them between the three of us.
6. I joined a book group about 7 years ago with a group of friends and was stunned by the wonderful variety of books we read!  I rediscovered reading at that point in many ways.  That group disbanded, but I now belong to two other book groups - one in my neighborhood and another at a local Unitarian church (but it's not a religious book group - just regular books) and I sometimes attend a third at my local library if I can squeeze it in.  Book groups have introduced me to so many genres of books that I never would have tried otherwise!
7. I'm a freelance writer, and in addition to my book blog, I write reviews of books and other media for Family Fun magazine.  Lots of fun and my kids love being testers!

Now, I'd like to pass this award onto the following well-deserved and versatile blogs (no one said they had to be book blogs, so I've included a variety here):

• Stephanie at Curling Up By the Fire (books)
• Jan at Eating YA Books (books)
• Dalia at Generation X Mom (Dalia posts wonderfully thought-provoking issues and questions about parenting)
• Julie at My Book Retreat (books)
• Peryl at Parenting Ad Absurdum (Peryl writes hilarious and heartwarming posts about being a parent)

So, please stop by and visit these very worthy blogs.
(And awardees:  no pressure if you can't meet all the requirements listed above!  Feel free to just bask in the glory of accepting an award.)

It's Monday 8/16! What Are You Reading?

Yes, it's Monday, but - more importantly - it's my oldest son's 16th birthday!  Yikes!  How did 16 years go by so fast??  Now he'll be driving, starting his Junior year of high school, and beginning to look at colleges.  But he's still a great kid and in no hurry to grow up too fast.  Every year he says he loves the age he is and wishes he could stay at that age!

Besides being warm, caring, and lots of fun, Jamie absolutely LOVES to read, so this week's What Are You Reading Monday is dedicated to him!

• This week, the birthday boy read Tentacles by Roland Smith, the sequel to Cryptid Hunters which he read last week.  He loves this middle-grade series about a man obsessed with tracking down mythological creatures.
• Jamie is currently reading Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson, the third book in the Maximum Ride series for teens.  He said this morning that he stayed up too late reading last night because Patterson writes such gripping novels!
• I finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson with a marathon reading session yesterday (it worked out perfectly because I wasn't feeling well anyway).  A satisfying ending to an excellent series!
• I just started a novel for elementary school kids (maybe 3rd through 6th grades), Elvis & Olive by Stephanie Watson.  It's very good so far, about two very different girls who become friends.
• Craig, 12, is still reading The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin for school.
• My husband, Ken, is well into The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and is already eyeing books 2 and 3 on the bookshelf!

I posted a new review of the audio book First Light by Rebecca Stead.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey).

Middle-Grade Review: First Light

Award-winning author Rebecca Stead’s (When You Reach Me) first novel, First Light, is a unique mystery adventure set in an ice-covered world.  The audio book kept all four of us captivated during several recent car trips.

Twelve-year old Peter joins his parents on an expedition to Greenland so his father, a glaciologist, can study global warming.  Although life in the frozen world is vastly different from his usual routine in New York City, Peter enjoys exploring the icecap with his parents and their research assistant.  Back home, Peter began to have headaches accompanied by mysterious visions he couldn’t understand and these worsen in Greenland.

Meanwhile, fourteen-year old Thea lives with her people deep underground in a secret icy world called Gracehope where they settled to escape persecution.  Most in her society are content with the status quo, but Thea dreams of finding a route to the surface and the sun.  Thea and Peter’s stories are told in alternating chapters and begin to come together in this exciting adventure that combines science and magic.

Thea’s underground world reminded us all a bit of the city in Jeanne DuPrau’s Book of Ember series, though the rest of the plot is quite unique.  The audio book is read by two different actors, one reading Thea’s chapters and the other reading Peter’s, which made it even more interesting to listen to.  First Light is a unique story that the whole family can enjoy together.

Listening Library


Download an excerpt of First Light.

 

It's Monday 8/9! What Are You Reading?

Whew, what a week.  I was unable to do any blogging (writing or reading).  I won't bore you with the whole long story, but here's a brief recap:  dishwasher broke, air conditioner broke (for the 5th time in 3 weeks), my husband needed emergency laser eye surgery for a retinal tear (second time), and my beloved old iBook burned up (literally).  I was waiting at the eye hospital for my husband when my son, Craig, called on my cell to tell me, "Uh, Mom...your laptop had this awful burning smell and then the screen went black."  Not a good sign, right?  A rush trip to the Apple store that evening confirmed what we suspected - the CPU burned out and the computer was now just a paperweight.

You may recall that I just got a gorgeous new MacBook laptop for my birthday 2 weeks ago, but I hadn't yet transferred data from the old one.  I was waiting for a special cable I needed that arrived...you guessed, the same day the iBook burned out.  I've managed to get the new laptop set up - that's what I'm working on now - but I still need to try to retrieve my old data.  My husband removed the old hard drive, and we're hopeful the files are still intact (the guy at the Apple Genius Bar thought they probably would be OK).

Thank goodness I had a good book to escape into during all that trauma last week and the long hours in the hospital waiting room!

• I read Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.  Wow, what an amazing book!  I can't believe I waited so long to read it.  It just took me away to another time and place (which I was grateful for last week).  I can't wait to discuss it at my library book group this week - so much to talk about!
•  I just started The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson, book 3 of the wildly popular series that begins with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I was thrilled that the third book picks up right where the second ended, and I'm already totally hooked.  It's a great series!
• Jamie, 15, read Cryptid Hunters by Roland Smith, a middle-grade novel he's been dying to read about a guy who has dedicated his life to finding cryptids, mysterious creatures whose existence has never been proven (think Loch Ness Monster, for example).  We had received the second book in the series, Tentacles, a while back for review, so we picked up book 1 in the bookstore a couple of weeks ago.  He loved it!
• Craig, 12, is working on his summer reading for school, reading The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.  He's enjoying it very much, though he said it's a bit scary to read at bedtime.
• My husband, Ken, finally got his hands on a copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, thanks to a friend at work.  He's enjoying it so far and should have plenty of reading time this week on his business trip.

What are  you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey.)

It's Monday 8/2! What Are You Reading?

My husband and I had a nice, quiet week alone while the kids spent a week on their grandparents' sailboat - fun for everyone! 

Good reading last week, too:

• I finally had a chance to finish a wonderful new book, How To Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers written by a friend of mine, Toni Bernhard.  The book is an inspirational guide for anyone dealing with challenges in life (and who isn't?).  I posted a review on my other blog, Book By Book.
• I started Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden for my library's book discussion next week.  I'm probably the last person on earth to read this best-seller.  It's one of those books that I never would have read if not for a book group - it just didn't sound appealing to me, despite all the good reviews.  Boy, was I wrong!  It's so compelling and well-written, I was hooked from the first chapter.
• Jamie, 15, did manage some reading on his trip - he read City of Ashes, book 2 in Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series.  He's loving this series recommended by a friend of ours.
• Craig, 12, started The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin - part of his summer reading assignment for school.  
• My husband, Ken, finally got his hands on a copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first book in Stieg Larsson's hot thriller trilogy.  He was still only #137 on the waiting list at the library, so a friend lent it to him.
• On our car trips back and forth to drop off and pick up the kids, we finished listening to First Light by Rebecca Stead on audio.  We all loved it - review to come!

Last week, I posted a review of And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman, an enjoyable teen novel with elements of mystery and romance.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Teen/YA Review: And Then Everything Unraveled

I chose to read Jennifer Sturman’s YA novel, And Then Everything Unraveled, because it sounded like a great mix of realistic teen life, with a unique plot and a mystery to make things interesting.  I was right!  This compelling novel kept me turning the pages late into the night.

Sixteen-year old Delia is quite happy, living in computer-crazy Silicon Valley with her mother, T.K., hanging out with her two best friends, and sneaking in some surfing whenever she can.  Her quiet life falls apart one day, though, when the news is delivered that her mother disappeared while on a trip to Antarctica.  Delia’s reaction to the news is surprising:

They were probably expecting a more over-the-top response.  And I have to admit, for a split second I did feel like somebody had vacuumed out my insides.

But almost instantly, that feeling gave way to an almost bizarre sort of calm.  When I reached for the emotion that was usually right there, waiting to be tapped, I came up empty.

Because I just couldn’t believe my mother was dead.

I still can’t.  I mean, everyone else is using the past tense when they talk about her, but it’s all a huge mistake.  It has to be.  I don’t know what happened exactly, but T.K. will explain everything when she returns.

And I’m sure she will return.  This is a woman whose favorite appliance is a label maker – she’s way too organized to die by just disappearing like that, and she’s much too determined to let a little thing like being stranded in the Antarctic to do her in.

Especially when she’s the only parent I have left.

Despite Delia’s determination, her mother is presumed dead, and Delia is shipped off to live in New York City with two very different aunts who she’s never met before – one is a free-living bohemian who lives in a loft, and the other is an uptown snob.  So, while Delia’s trying to adjust to a radically different lifestyle, a snooty new private school, and relatives she didn’t know existed, she’s also continuing to search for her mother.  Oh, and just to make things more interesting, there’s a really cute guy at her new school who she’s not sure she can trust.

I really enjoyed this book and got caught up in its mystery.  The characters have depth, and the writing style is engaging, moving the story along quickly.  My only problem with the book, in fact, is that it’s one of those books that only tells half a story, and I want to hear the rest right now!  It ends with, “To Be Continued…” To be fair, there is some resolution to part of the story at the end of the novel.  I guess I’ll just have to get the sequel, And Then I Found Out the Truth, to find out the rest!

244 pages, Point (an imprint of Scholastic)

It's Monday 7/26! What Are You Reading?

Wow, what a week we've had!  House guests, broken air conditioner (with temperatures near 100), a major scare when Jamie got stung by a bee (he's allergic - no anaphylactic reaction this time but he did need prednisone), some ups and downs with my own health, and a trip to Connecticut.  Whew.  This weekend, we drove the kids to my mom's house and dropped them off for their annual week sailing with their grandparents. It's the highlight of the year for them!  And, now my husband and I have the quiet house all to ourselves for a week.  It's been a busy summer, so I'm looking forward to having some quiet time during the week to catch up on lots of things.

What we've been reading:

• I devoted my reading week to a bunch of kids' and teens' books.  I finished the middle-grade novel William S. and the Great Escape by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and posted a review of it.
• Next, I read And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman.  I really enjoyed this teen novel but it ended with a "To Be Continued..." so now I need to get my hands on its sequel, And Then I Found Out the Truth.
• I read another teen novel, The Reminder by Rune Michaels, an intriguing story of grief and loss, with some elements of science fiction woven in.  Review to come.
• Thanks for all the input on helping Craig, 12, to pick a book from his summer reading list!  I appreciated your opinions.  He decided to go with the majority vote (plus he's partial to mysteries), so we went to the bookstore and bought him a copy of The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.  He brought it on the boat with him.
• Jamie, 15, couldn't bear to be in a bookstore without buying something, so while we were there, he splurged on two books for himself: City of Ashes by Casandra Clare, book 2 of the Mortal Instruments series that he started last week, and the latest book in James Patterson's Maximum Ride series, another favorite of his.  He took both of them on the boat this week, along with an old sci fi novel my husband lent him, The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven.  We watched the movie Star Trek last week, and it put him in the mood for classic science fiction.  The funny thing is that he probably won't have much time for reading this week, but he doesn't go anywhere without a good supply of books!
• My husband, Ken, picked up a library book, Chasing Darkness, by one of his favorite suspense authors, Robert Crais.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey).

Middle-Grade Review: William S. and the Great Escape

I’ve been hearing about middle-grade author Zilpha Keatley Snyder – winner of several Newberry Honor awards – for many years but had never had the chance to read any of her books.  My 15-year old son, Jamie, read her novel William S. and the Great Escape on our recent vacation and recommended it, so I gave it a try this week.  It’s a very well written and enjoyable novel.

The title character is 12-year old William who lives with his nine brothers and sisters in a ramshackle house in California during the Depression.  William is a good student who loves acting and Shakespeare, but he’s stuck in the Baggett family (his mother died years ago).  The older Baggetts, including his father, are all loud, lazy, and violent, and William has spent years planning to run away as soon as he is old enough:

Actually, he’d started thinking about running away almost seven years ago.  That was when he’d started going to school and began to learn, among other things, that not everybody behaved like Baggetts.  And not very long after that he began putting every penny he could get his hands on into what he thought of as his Getaway Fund.  Well, not quite every penny.  He did spend a dime, now and then, on a Saturday matinee at the Roxie Theater.  Watching how your favorite movie actors could make you believe they were all those different people was one thing he’d never been able to do without.

When William’s younger sister’s guinea pig, Sweetie Pie, gets flushed down the toilet by some of the older (and meaner) Baggetts, she insists they need to leave right away and bring the two littlest Baggetts with them.  That’s when their adventures begin.

It’s a sweet story, punctuated with mild suspense and humor, that will appeal to a wide range of middle-grade readers.  William and his two little sisters and brother will steal your heart.  You’ll be rooting for them to make their escape and find a better life!

214 pages, Atheneum Books (Simon & Schuster)

 

Help Craig Choose a Book!

Craig, my 12-year old son, has a reading assignment for school this summer, in preparation for 7th grade.  He has to read two books:  Sounder, which he just finished, plus one other of his own choosing from a list.  The problem is that of the 13 book on the list, I've only heard of one of them before.

So, we're asking for your help!  Craig generally enjoys fast-paced books with action, adventure, and/or humor.  Some of his favorites are The Hardy Boys, the Charlie Bone series, A Wrinkle in Time, and Bruce Coville's Unicorn Chronicles and Aliens series.  So, please let us know if you'd recommend any of the books on this list - thanks!

1. Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman (1955 Newberry Honor award - about a boy climbing the Matterhorn)
2. Brian's Song screenplay by William Blinn
3. Gifted Hands: the Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson (autobiography of inner city kid who becomes a top neurosurgeon)
4. Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor (in 1935, a black man is tried for murder by an all-white jury)
5. The Lottery Rose by Irene Hunt (an abused boy slowly begins to heal at a home for boys)
6. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (1998 Newberry medal winner set in Depression-era Oklahoma dust bowl)
7. Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers (1988 Newberry winner about a boy who's pressured to join a gang)
8. Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers (convict father takes teen son on the run with him)
9. Thank You, Jackie Robinson by Barbara Cohen (interracial friendship between a boy and a man joined by a love of baseball)
10. Time of the Cay by Theodore Taylor (follow-up to The Cay, about a white boy stranded on a desert island and the black man who saves him)
11. Titanic Crossing by Barbara Williams (story of 13-year old boy on the Titanic - mixed reviews)
12. The View From Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (1996 Newberry winner about a 6th grade academic bowl team)
13. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (a Newberry winner  - mystery about 16 people in a strange game having to do with a strange will)

Wow - lots of Newberry winners there!  Also, lots of historical novels and African-American characters - I'm guessing they'll be studying American history this year!  I also noticed lots of sad stories  - I saw the phrase "gut-wrenching" more than once as I looked these up.  Craig doesn't love sad books; he said the ending of Sounder was really tough!  At first glance, it looks like he might like The Westing Game.

So what do you think?  Which book would you choose?

It's Monday 7/19! What Are You Reading?

Summertime and the reading is easy...and a lot of fun!  We're settled back into a routine at home and mostly caught up after our long trip.

What we've been reading this week:

• Jamie, 15, finished his first Stephen King book, Firestarter.  He was impressed with King's writing and the intense suspense of the book, though a bit disappointed in the ending (I read it so long ago, I don't remember how it ends!)
• A good friend of ours, a 16-year old girl, has been telling us for years that her favorite series of all time is The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, so last week, Jamie picked up a copy of the first book, City of Bones, with a Target gift card.  He finished it yesterday and said it was excellent - he's looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
• Craig, 12, finished Sounder by William H. Armstrong last night.  He liked it but said the ending was really sad.  He has one more book to read for school this summer, one of his choosing from a list of about ten choices.
• I finished The Sunday Philosopher's Club by Alexander McCall Smith but then didn't feel well enough to go to the book discussion at the library on Wednesday!
• As soon as I finished that book, I dove back into The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson.  Wow!  I finished it yesterday.  It was just as good as the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - fast-paced, well-written, and so compelling I could hardly set it down!  As a bonus, I also got to see the Swedish movie of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with a friend this weekend.  Another wow!  The movie was very well-done.  I can't wait to borrow the third book from my mom this weekend.
• I just started a middle-grade novel, William S. and the Great Escape by Ziplha Keatley Snyder. Jamie read it on vacation and said it was excellent.

I posted two new reviews last week:  What I Saw and How I Lied, an excellent YA novel that combines history, romance, and mystery into an engaging coming-of age story; it won the National Book Award for YA in 2008.  I also reviewed  Oracles of Delphi Keep, a suspenseful and exciting middle-grade audio book.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey).

Middle-Grade Review: Oracles of Delphi Keep

The audio book of Oracles of Delphi Keep by Victoria Laurie kept all four of us riveted during our recent 4,000-mile road trip.  This exciting and well-written fantasy adventure kept us in suspense and wanting to hear more.

Thirteen year-old Ian Wigby has lived at the orphanage at Delphi Keep his entire life.  Theodosia was found and dropped off there on a stormy night when she was only two years old.  Ian and Theo are as close as brother and sister and are very happy living in the castle-like Keep on the edge of the Cliffs of Dover.

Out exploring the caves in the cliffs one day, Ian and Theo discover a large cave with strange writing on the walls.  Deep in the cave, they find a mysterious silver box and barely manage to grab it before being chased out of there by some sort of snarling beast.  This is the start of an exciting and sometimes terrifying adventure that shakes up their quiet world.

Along with their schoolteachers, Ian and Theo set off to uncover the magical mysteries of the writing and the silver box.  Along the way, evil forces conspire to defeat them.  It’s a classic fantasy adventure with a unique story line that will continue with future books.

In addition to excellent writing and a great story, the audio version benefits from a talented reader, Susan Duerden.  She voiced one of the characters in the movie Flushed Away and played Claire’s mother on Lost (impressive credentials for our family!), and she does a great job with both male and female characters in this book.

We can’t wait for book 2, The Curse of Deadman’s Forest, which will be released on August 24, 2010!

Listening Library

Listen to a sample.

    

Teen/YA Review: What I Saw and How I Lied

I read What I Saw and How I Lied, a recent paperback release by Judy Blundell, while stuck for hours on a delayed flight.  It provided a welcome and worthy distraction!  This wonderful teen/YA novel won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2008.  It’s an intriguing mix of historical fiction, a touching coming-of-age story, mystery, and even a bit of romance.

In 1947 New York, Evie is fifteen and feeling in that peculiar limbo between childhood and adulthood.  Here, she and her friend Margie practice smoking with chocolate cigarettes:

Margie held her candy cigarette high in the air, even though ladies don’t smoke on the street.  We couldn’t imagine being wicked enough to smoke on the street, but it was something to shoot for, something that smacked of high heels and saying “damn” if you broke a nail.  In the meantime, we were careful not to step on any cracks in the sidewalk.  Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.  We’d been saying it since we were nine years old, and it was just like Holy Communion.  We believed in it absolutely, no matter how screwball it sounded.

The author does a great job of capturing the sense of innocence and excitement of both the age and the time period.  The war has ended, and husbands, fathers, and brothers are returning home.  Evie’s stepfather has come home to her and her mother, but he seems different in some hard-to-describe way.   Peter, a young, handsome man from his company, shows up, and Evie begins to fall in love.  When tragedy strikes, Evie’s world begins to unravel and she no longer knows what – or who – to believe…and neither does the reader.

This suspenseful mystery kept me turning the pages, as I came to care about Evie and lament the loss of her little-girl innocence.  It’s a wonderful novel for both teens and grown-ups.

281 pages, Scholastic

It's Monday 7/12! What Are You Reading?

Running a little late this morning!  There's just no routine during the summer (which is kind of nice).  I've been staying up too late and getting out of bed too late.  Plus, this morning, I got an emergency post-sleepover phone call from 12-year old Craig.  I picked him up at 8:30, he came home, ate breakfast, and went right to bed!

Reading has slowed down since vacation ended:

• Jamie, 15, is still reading Firestarter by Stephen King.  Since we got home, video and computer games have sucked him in and reduced his reading time!
• Craig, 12, who doesn't like to read much in the summer anyway, was getting nervous about his required summer reading for school, so he set aside his Hardy Boys book and has started reading Sounder by William H. Armstrong.  I never read this classic myself, so maybe I'll read it when he's done.
• I also set aside one book for another this week, something I don't generally like to do.  With my two main book groups on summer hiatus, I've been in book discussion withdrawal!  So, I decided to read my library's selection for their July discussion (this Wednesday) - The Sunday Philosopher's Club by Alexander McCall Smith.  It's not my usual type of book, but I'm enjoying it.  It's a mystery set in Scotland, with lots of philosophical musings. 
• My husband, Ken, finished his father's day gift, 61 Hours by Lee Child, one of his favorite thriller authors.  He just started Everywhere That Mary Went by Lisa Scottoline, which I read during vacation - lots of book trading goes on in our house!

I had fully intended to resume my normal routine of writing book reviews last week but was just snowed under with all the post-vacation catch-up - laundry, mail, bills, phone calls, doctor's appointments, etc.  I will post some new reviews this week - I promise!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey).

It's Monday 7/5! What Are You Reading?

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July yesterday!  We just returned from our 3-week, 4,000-mile road trip to Oklahoma and New Mexico Saturday night (that's why I've been mostly missing from the blogging world).  It was a wonderful vacation - we all really loved New Mexico.  You can check out photos at our trip blog - just scroll down to June 13, 2010, to read them in order.

We read a LOT of good books along the way!  I posted a Monday update a couple of weeks ago while I was at my father-in-law's and could borrow the neighbor's wifi, but here's the rest of the books we enjoyed on the trip:

• I gave each of the boys a surprise book partway through the trip.  Craig, 12, is reading one of his favorite Hardy Boys' mysteries, What Happened at Midnight.  Summer is time for reading old favorites!
• I gave Jamie, 15, the fourth and final book of the Book of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau, The Diamond of Darkhold.  He read it immediately, then passed it along to me!  We both loved this middle-grade adventure series, and the last book was excellent.
• Jamie continued his vacation read-a-thon with a string of new releases.  He finished The Thirteenth Child (Frontier Magic, Book 1) by Patricia Wrede and said it was excellent - an engaging combination of history and fantasy.
• He read the brand-new undersea science fiction book, Dark Life by Kat Falls, and he absolutely loved it!  The plot and setting were right up his alley - a futuristic earth where the sea levels have risen, with people split between high-level "stack cities" and an undersea community on the ocean floor.
• He also loved William S. and the Great Escape by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, a middle-grade book that's been sitting in our to-read pile for a long time.  He thinks Craig will really like this one.
• Jamie is now reading his first-ever Stephen King book, Firestarter.  He is, of course, bowled over by King's amazing writing and gripping suspense.
• I finished Everywhere That Mary Went by Lisa Scottoline and enjoyed it more than I expected to!  I would definitely read more in that series of legal thrillers set in Philadelphia.  I also finished The Diamond of Darkhold, as I mentioned above.  I'm sorry the series is over, but it was a good ending! 
• I've just started The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson, which my mom lent me.  I enjoyed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for my book group this winter, and the second book is just as good so far.
• We're almost done with our read-aloud book, a middle-grade/teen adventure story about geocaching, Hide & Seek by Katy Grant.  It's due for release next month, and we have all loved it!  Craig was begging for "one more chapter" every night!
• In the car, we listened to Oracles of Delphi Keep by Victoria Laurie, a middle-grade fantasy/adventure novel.  This excellent audio, read by Susan Duerden who played Claire's mother on Lost, kept us all happily occupied for many hours in the car - it's a great book and very well-read.  We'll look for the next book in the series for our next road trip!
• We started but haven't yet finished another audio, First Light by Rebecca Stead, author of When You Reach Me.  It's another middle-grade novel, about a 13-year old boy spending some time in Greenland with his father, who is studying global warming, and a girl who lives in a secret world under the ice.  It's excellent so far.

Whew, I think that covers it!  Now I'm surrounded by piles of laundry and stacks of mail...back to real life.

What are you and your family reading?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey)