Monday, December 05, 2005

Author of "Stormbreaker" starts a new series


Matt is a good kid who keeps getting in trouble. He lives with an aunt who doesn't pay him any attention so he hangs out with another neglected kid and spends a lot of time shoplifting and stealing. One night, while raiding a video game warehouse, a guard is badly hurt by Matt's partner and he faces the real possibility of going to detention center at age 14. His other option is to agree to be part of a new program (LEAF) which sends kids to the country for hard work and fresh air under the careful supervision of a sponsor. Matt agrees, only to discover that his sponsor is a witch and he is in desperate danger. Will Matt be able to harness his own special powers to combat the growing evil in the village? Anthony Hurwitz begins his new series with Raven's Gate.

Westminster Abby


Abby's parents keep a close and watchful eye on her: no going out on school nights, Friday night is "family night," and only sleepovers with her best friend Dori. But that's all going to change. Abby is on her way to England for a 10 week exchange program. Will she be able to handle all that freedom? And will she ever be able to decipher such british terms as boot, lorry, jumper and trainer? Part of a new series, which includes trips to France, Italy, and Spain.

Friday, October 28, 2005

Imagine...


Imagine that, in the middle of the night, word comes that the enemy army is a few miles down the road and you must flee in the night, after burning your crops and slaughtering your animals so the army will not benefit from destroying your home. Imagine that you are an army doctor who spends most of your time amputating the shattered limbs of the young soldiers. Imagine that you are a soldier without a real allegiance to either side of the war but with a huge drive to stay alive. Imagine that you are a freed slave with the snow white skin of your father. Imagine that, because of this civil war, you are now homeless and the only place you seem to belong is tagging along behind the marauding union army under the leadership of General Sherman. Imagine one of the darkest chapters of the American Civil War as seen through the eyes of characters trying to survive "the March" by E.L. Doctorow.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

And you thought your high school was strange!


Cody Elliot managed to fail every course at his new high school...even study hall! His father is furious and decides to transfer Cory to one of two schools. His choices are (1) Our Lady of Perpetual Homework or (2) the ultra fancy looking Vlad Dracul High School. Now, granted, Vlad Dracul's mascot is a live wolf and all the students are pale and wear black. But if you were making the choice, you'd pick it too...who wants perpetual homework? See what happens when an ordinary boy enrolls at "Vampire High" (by Douglas Rees).

Have you ever made a big mistake?


Samantha Sweeting, type A personality and a lawyer on a fast track to being a partner, makes a gigantic, career-wrecking mistake. She is so horrified that she wanders around London for hours and then randomly hops on a bus "out of town." She ends up way out in the country and stops at a rather grand estate to ask for a phone. The next thing she knows, Samantha has a new job...as a housekeeper. Will this overstressed lawyer find happiness in the country? Will she ever learn how to cook or clean or make a bed? Because, you see, Samantha is truly "The Undomestic Goddess" (by Sophie Kinsella, author of "Shopaholic" series).

Monday, September 26, 2005

Spy series


Alex Rider's only living relative, his Uncle Ian, died in a car crash. The police said it was an accident but what kind of accident leaves a windshield riddled with bullet holes?

Alex uses his skills at sneaking around to try to uncover the real story of his uncle's death. But when he discovers that his uncle was a spy for the British M16 (similar to our CIA), his quest for the truth gets him into big trouble. The spymaster running the agency gives Alex a life or death choice—finish his uncle’s last mission—or else. Check out "Stormbreaker" by Anthony Horowitz

Monday, September 12, 2005

Egg-citing New Mystery


CSI meets Mother Goose in this new series by the Jasper Fforde, author of the Tuesday Next books. As the autopsy diagram indicates, Humpty Dumpty has met an unfortunate end. It was staged as an accident but the albumen spatter clearly indicates murder. Can lead detective Jack Spratt solve the murder before more nursery rhyme citizens lose their lives? Read "The Big Over Easy" to find out!

The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks


Every time you make a call on your cell phone or use your ATM card or register for something on a computer, you are leaving an electronic footprint. People knowledgable of computer programming can gather information on you and there is the potential to use that information against you. John Twelve Hawks calls this process of leaving an electronic record "living on the grid"

In the very near future, society is monitored and controlled by a secret society called the Tabula. The only people the Tabula cannot control are Travelers, who have the ability to move into other realms and see clearly the manipulation of free will by the Tabula. Travelers are very carefull not to live on the grid. Tabula's mission is to locate and destroy all the Travelers, ensuring their ability to continue controlling society. Between them and success stand the Harlequins, trained from birth to protect the travelers. And Maya, who never wanted to be a Harlequin, finds herself in a life and death struggle to save one of the last Travelers from extinction.

1776 by David McCullough


Did you know we came very close to losing the American Revolution? Several times, the army, under George Washington, had to flee from a battlefield under cover of darkness. Supplies were few and the "rebels" were fighting a powerful and well provisioned army. Thanks to some good luck and inspiring leadership by a relatively inexperienced general named Washington, 1776 became a year of beginnings rather than endings.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer


Oskar Schell is a 9 year old genius who enjoys solving complex problems and writing letters to famous scientists. When his father dies in the World Trade Center tragedy, Oscar sets out on a quest to understand why this happened to him. His only clue? a key with the word "Black" written on it in his father's handwriting.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

State of Fear by Michael Crichton


From the glaciers of Iceland to the volcanoes of Antarctica, federal agent John Kenner faces dangerous eco-terrorists intent on creating ecological disasters to buttress their theories on global warming.

Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child


Jeremy Grove, a notorious and hated art critic, has been found dead. Murdered. Burned from the inside out, with a hoof print charred into the floor and a melted crucifix in the victim's hand. The work of the devil? Or a very clever murderer?

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff


Fifteen year old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit an aunt and cousins she has never met. Two days later, bombs go off in London and the city is attacked and occupied by an unnamed army. Can Daisy and her cousins survive without an adult at home?

Hoot by Carl Hiassen


Building a new pancake house will destroy the nesting ground of miniature owls in Florida. Can 3 teen misfits defeat a corporate giant? Will snakes in the porta-potty slow down the construction?

Friday, September 09, 2005

After by Francine Prose


In the aftermath of a nearby school shooting, a counselor takes over Central High School and enacts increasingly harsh measures to control students and their parents. Everyone agrees that this is a good thing because it will protect students and keep them safe. But students begin to notice that those who do not obey the new rules... disappear.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

one of those hideous books where the mother dies


"My name is Ruby.
This book is about me.

It tells the deeply hideous story
of what happens when my mother dies
and I'm dragged three thousand miles away
from my gorgeous boyfriend, Ray,
to live in LA with my father,
who I've never even met
because he's such a scumbag that he
divorced my mom before I was born.

The only way I've ever even seen him
is in the movies,
since he's this mega-famous actor
who's been way too busy
trying to win Oscars
to even visit me once in fifteen years"

Will Ruby ever forgive her famous father? And will she survive losing her mother?
one of the hideous books where the mother dies is told totally in verse by Sonya Somes.

The Exploding Toilet


We've all heard modern urban legends. Take, for example, the oft-repeated story of knowing a friend whose cousin's mother-in-law ordered Kentucky Fried Chicken and found a deep fried rat in her bucket of chicken. It didn't happen but the story spreads anyway. The Exploding Toilet is a collection of similar urban legends: "Two animal rights protesters were protesting the cruelty of sending pigs to the slaughterhouse in Bonn {Germany}. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two protestors to death." As for the exploding toilet? You'll have to read that for yourself!

Urban legends circulate even faster these days because of the Internet. A wonderful website debunks or verifies all the stories circulating through e-mail and Internet postings. So the next time you hear a story too good or weird to be true, check out http://www.snopes.com

Monday, July 18, 2005

DaVinci Code meets Dracula


Was Dracula (aka Vlad the Impaler) truly a vampire? Did he die back in the 1300's or does he still walk the earth? Did he possess nobility or was he a monster? These are some of the questions confronted in The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I'll let our narator introduce you to the book:

This is the story of how as a girl of sixteen I went in search of my father and his past, and of how he went in search of his beloved mentor and his mentor's own history, and of how we all found ourselves on one of the darkest pathways into history. It is the story of who survived that search and who did not, and why.

This long and complicated story moves between the medieval Ottoman Empire, pre-World War II Europe, and the Cold War as three generations of historians use their gifts to seek the truth about Dracula. Along the way, they encounter homicidal librarians (hmm), the undead, professors, gypsies, monks, and other keepers of the secrets.