The Book Search

 I might have mentioned before that I'm not typically a fan of graphic novels.  I like creating my own mental images of characters and settings and so I don't usually choose graphic novels. BUT, holy cow, these two new ones have such interesting story lines and the art work is SO compelling, you have to look for them! The first one is called Atana and the Firebird by Vivian Zhou .  This is her first book, but it better not be her last!  The cover is stunning and that's exactly what made me want to read it.   All the art work has this magical, glowing quality to it, which is perfect because it's about Atana, a mermaid, who is living alone on an island.   One day, a Firebird comes to earth.  Her name is Ren and she has been hearing stories all her life about how wonderful Earth is and so even though it's been hundreds of years since a Firebird has come to earth, Ren has come to experience Earth life.  But there are evil forces afoot and it's not saf...

 I've been waiting and waiting to get to this part of my TBR pile-I have this HUGE stack of books that are being published in the next few weeks and I'm so excited to get to read them!  These were DEFINITELY worth the wait! The first one is called Nimbus by Jan Eldredge.  The main character is Nimbus, Nim for short, an 11 month old black cat, who lives with a boy named Fletcher.  They live with Fletcher's aunt because Fletcher's dad is working so much.  Fletcher doesn't mind living with his aunt, but Aunt Connie is not a big fan of Nim but Fletcher rescued Nim when she was a really small kitten and had been hit by a car.  He took very good care of her and they are tightly bonded.  One night, Fletcher finds an old jar and tries to open it.  It turns out what's in the jar is REALLY bad-it's a nightmare demon and it's trying to suck out Fletcher's life essence.  Nim attacks the demon and thinks she's destroyed it, but she's also been badly injur...

 Summer time is awesome.  Somehow, last summer didn't feel quite as awesome, so I'm trying hard to make up for lost time.  So yesterday, I had a couple of appointments (one of the REALLY fun parts of summer-going to all those doctor's appointments you can't schedule during school because taking a whole day off to go see a doctor??!!!) and in between, I had time to read.  I TORE through this book because I couldn't stop reading it!  I was sorry when it was over too, so maybe I'll have to go back and re-read it.  It was that good!  It's called Hollow Chest and it's Brita Sandstrom's debut novel.   The main character is 12 year old Charlie.  Charlie lives with his mom and his grandfather.  His grandfather is a veteran of World War 1 and is missing his left arm.  His mom works hard and provides the income for the family.  Charlie's dad was killed in a bombing and his brother, Theo, has been serving in the war.  But Theo is on ...

It's so much fun to have time to read over the summer.  Here are some brand new ones you might want to look for! The first one is called The Book of Fatal Errors.  It's targeted at middle graders and it's a really fun, exciting read.  It's about Rufus, who is just starting summer vacation after a tough year in 6th grade. He's a little worried about summer vacation because his mom is going to be gone, but he's hoping that means he'll get to spend all summer with his grandfather at his house, which is Rufus's happy place.  Except that his grandfather has an accident on the first day of vacation and his dad thinks Feylawn (which is what Grandpa's place is called) is not safe for anyone.  He wants Rufus to spend his summer learning new things, like his cousin Abigail, who has attended a number of different camps each summer, knows several languages and seems to spend all her time making sure the adults like her.  But it turns out Grandpa's accident w...

Boy, does it feel good to read some fantasy fiction.  I like realistic fiction, but things have been very real around here for awhile, so it was good to dig into some books where problem solving is based on magic rather than the hard work that requires here in the real world! The first one is a graphic novel.  I'm going to confess right now that graphic novels are not my favorite.  I think I create pretty good mental images and the images of a graphic novel sometimes slow me down.  But this one was SO GOOD. It's called Doodleville by Chad Sells.  You might have read Chad's earlier book called Cardboard Kingdom, which was really fun.  In my opinion, Doodleville is even better.  It's about a group of kids who are in an art club.  They typically draw super heroes and each of them has their own character that is their most well developed.  Drew, the main character, has a friendly group of characters that can escape their pages and end up in some ...

We're on winter break now and winding down the CYBILS awards.  In fact, I was really surprised to come home from school on our last day and find two new books to read!  They were SO worth waiting for! The first one is "Homerooms and Hall Passes" by Tom O'Donnell.  It's about a group of adventurers who live in a magical, medieval kind of realm called Briandalor, where they spend their days searching for treasure and battling vile monsters.  To relax, they spend Thursday evenings playing a role playing game called Homerooms and Hall passes, which has each of the players assume the role of a student in a 21st century middle school.  The students have to try to navigate middle school without getting thrown out.  The leader of the group, a good wizard in training named Albiorix, is a big fan of the game (he has 26 reference books about the game that he carries with him).  The group also includes a second leader, Vela the Valiant, a paladin (or knight), as...

There's some brand new fantasy fiction waiting in the wings and boy, are they worth the wait! This first one comes out in September.  It's called "Nevers" by Sara Cassidy.  It's set in a town called Nevers in the Burgundy Region of France.  Odette and her mother, Anneline, arrive there by cheese cart. They are poor and looking for a place to land.  Anneline has been unlucky in love - she's very beautiful and falls in love easily but all of her husbands have died and mostly they've been her fault.  Odette is a resourceful and practical girl who figures out how to get food and shelter.  Through a series of sometimes hilarious events, they solve a mystery (which I don't want to tell you about because it's so much fun figuring it out!).  There are some interesting historical pieces that lend a little weight to this very fun story as well as some beautiful figurative and philosophical language.  I thought this one was great.  It would be good fo...

One of the things I've been thinking about a lot lately is the characters in the books I'm choosing for my school library.  I'm still surprised by how few books there are where the main character is a person of color.  This is certainly changing, but one place it seems like it's going slower than in other characters is in the fantasy realm.  There still are very few options for multicultural heroes in fantasy books, so I was really happy to read these two books, which both have non-white main characters. The first one is called "Jinxed" by Amy McCullough.  It's about Lacey Chu, who lives in a time where everyone has a baku instead of a phone.  A baku is a companion robot that looks and behaves like an animal but it also has communication and computer capabilities.  So instead of making a call or a text or an internet search, you ask your baku.  The baku have different levels, the entry level ones are inexpensive and has fewer features.  The high...