Tag Archives: 2012

Oct8

The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee

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The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee

Dwight’s advice giving Origami Yoda got him into some trouble in The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back. Now Dwight’s kicked out of McQuarrie Middle School and goes to the Tippett Academy.

Sometimes the kids see Dwight, but when Dwight is seen, he acts very strange. Strange for Dwight anyway…because Dwight is acting NORMAL. That can’t be right. What exactly is the Tippett Academy and what have they done to Dwight?

When Sara shows up at school with a paper fortune teller that looks like the wookiee Chewbaca, she starts handing out advice Origami Yoda style. If Dwight made the Fortune Wookiee does that mean Chewie gives good advice too even though Dwight isn’t there? How is it that the advice comes out of Sara’s mouth?

keepcalm

Tommy starts another case file to solve TWO mysteries this time…is the fortune wookiee real…and what in the world is wrong with Dwight?

Another funny week at McQuarrie Middle School. I have to say…love that Sara. No wonder Tommy likes her.

 

#1 The Strange Case of Origami Yoda http://www.imcpl.org/kids/blog/?p=6913

#2 Darth Paper Strikes Back http://www.imcpl.org/kids/blog/?p=11082

The Meaning of Life and Other Stuff Big Nate in a Class By Himself Operation Yes Every Soul a Star
Bobby Vs. the Girls Accidently Zoobreak Adam Canfield of the Slash Schooled
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Oct3

Staff Recommend – Last of the Gullivers

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Staff Recommend – Last of the Gullivers

Last of the Gullivers

After orphaned twelve-year-old Michael Pine, who seems headed for trouble, meets old Lem Gulliver, he finds new purpose as protector of the Lilliputians who live in Lem’s back garden, even if that means saving them from one another. Author: Carter Crocker

“Michael Pine is always in trouble – he’s headed right for the Young Offenders Institution if he messes up again. Then one night he hears strange singing and discovers the Lilliputians, tiny people (the size of your thumb!) with tiny animals, living in a garden surrounded by a tall stone wall.  At first, Michael can’t believe it, but pretty soon he is visiting them every day and helping out in their village.  When weasels and other humans attack the Lilliputians, Michael must turn his life around if he is going to save them.”

Recommended by: Melissa Wooten, Glendale Library

If you like Michael’s adventure with little people, try the original story, Gulliver’s Travels, which will tell you how Gulliver came across the Lilliputians in the first place. Also try The Borrowers, The Minimoys and The Littles – more little people with large adventures living in our regular-sized world:

Gulliver's Travels The Borrowers Arthur and the Minimoys The Littles
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Oct2

The Heroes of Olympus #3: The Mark of Athena Cover & Chapter One!

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The Heroes of Olympus #3: The Mark of Athena Cover & Chapter One!

The Mark of Athena

Read Chapter One

On his Blog: Myth & Mystery Rick Riordan says this, which is pretty exciting:

“What is the scene on the cover? Is that who you think it is, about to fight??  Can’t tell you, but yes, that is an actual scene from the book, and the meaning will be clear when you read it. Very soon, Disney will be launching a new site, GreeksvsRomans.com, which will let you choose your side — Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter. More on that soon!”

Well, it’s finally October 2nd – I hope my copy comes in today! If you like to talk about the Heroes of Olympus; the characters, the book covers, the prophecy and who might date who, you might like looking at the comments that have accumulated so far about the first two books. Over 1700 for each of them!

After you finish The Mark of Athena, come back and tell us what you thought.

The Heroes of Olympus Series

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Sep19

The Brotherband Chronicles #2: The Invaders

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The Brotherband Chronicles #2: The Invaders

The Invaders

Hal and his crew on the Heron team survived Brotherband training in Brotherband Chronicles #1 The Outcasts. They won the battle of the training exercise but not the war. Rival invaders snuck into Skandia during the training exercise and stole Skandia’s most prized artifact, the Andomal, right out from under their noses.

In #2 The Invaders the boys have sailed off in Hal’s boat The Heron in pursuit of the pirates who stole the Andomal. They are boys on a man’s mission. They know they have to recover the Andomal or face the disdain and disrespect of their fellow Skandians. Running away to recover the Andomal is their only choice.

Luckily, their Brotherband trainer Thorn is on The Heron with them, a man with only one arm but an impressive history as a warrior that only Hal knows.

The boys are in pursuit of Zavac the invader, the pirate who stole the Andomal. The boys’ Oberjarl Erak has sent a team of warriors in pursuit of THEM. Afraid that Erak wants the team to drag them home to face their disgrace. the boys decide to pursue Zavac and evade Erak’s team both at the same time. This two fronted battle comes to a head when Zavac invades a coastal town near where The Heron has taken sanctuary from a storm. Erak’s team also shows up. The Skandians have to unite against their common enemy to recover the Andomal, save a town…and save a girl. A pretty girl…who’s good with a bow and arrow. 

Hal continues to learn and grow as the team’s leader and the team members continue to find out what their roles are on their warrior ship. Stig, Ingvar, Jesper & the twins Ulf & Wulf all get a chance to shine when Hal’s plan calls on the talents and strengths of each of them to wage a battle that is as much about brains and will as it is about muscles and weapons.

Can’t wait for book #3 to see where the adventure takes them. I really liked getting to know each of the boys more. The story became as much about them as it was about Hal. I really liked getting to know more about Thorn too. And the girl? Well, Lydia changes everything!  Book #3 is going to be interesting…girl on board!  Author: John Flanagan

If you like Hal and Stig and their friends, don’t miss Book #1 The Outcasts or John Flanagan’s other series The Ranger’s Apprentice that begins with #1 The Ruins of Gorlan. The other books below are also about friends who are in warrior training and have to rely on their skills as well as their loyalty to each other and their cause. Lots of action in these as well as a lot of funny parts and even some romance.
The Outcasts The Ranger's Apprentice Heroes of the Valley Heart of a Samurai
A Conspiracy of Kings Young Samurai The Way of the Sword Icefall Alanna
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Sep10

The Cabinet of Earths

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The Cabinet of Earths

The Cabinet of Earths

This is a deliciously creepy tale about a magical cabinet full of jars of earth. Each jar belongs to a person who can live forever as long as their jar is not opened.

Some of the people who have jars are determined to make sure their jars are NEVER opened. Other people long to return to a more natural life, because as often happens in stories, eternal life isn’t as great as it sounds.

Each group wants control of the cabinet to either keep the jars sealed or open them all. To keep the jars safe there has always been a guard – the cabinet keeper. Now that the cabinet is at the center of a brewing war, that person is in terrible danger.

When the story opens, a little boy who inherited the job of cabinet keeper from his grandmother is an old man himself. He remembers VERY well the day his grandmother, who was oddly very, very young, decided she had had enough of life and opens her own jar and her earth crawls back to her body, crawls inside and returns her mortality.

 ”Long after, the pictures would come back to haunt him: his grandmother at the table with her bread – and everything covered with the eagth, shifting grains of earth she had poured out of the bottle of hers, the bread covered with earth, earth spilling out of the cup she drank from, earth creeping toward the corners of her lovely mouth, while he stood there and pulled on her arm and cried.” (pages 6-7)

The way the dirt acts when it comes out of the jars has a delicious creepiness to it. The dirt  is relentless as it searches for its owner…like a line of scurrying spiders. The images in my head when I read this immediately made me think of the Other Mother’s hand in Coraline. Remember that? The way it scuttles across the ground? Shiver. It also reminded me of The Mostly True Story of Jack and the creepiness of how the plants move – like the vines in the maze in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Relentless nature is very scary to me..flooding water, tornadoes, scurrying bugs - that’s what this creepy earth is like.

Enter 13 year-old Maya and her little brother James. Their mother is very ill. When the cabinet chooses Maya to replace the old man as cabinet keeper, she sees a way to help her mother. Should she trade herself to save her mother’s life? Should she take the job of cabinet keeper and all of the dangers that go with it? What would you give up to save someone you love? And what if you might be saving them from one thing, only to hand them over to something altogether worse?

If you like Maya and James’ battle against the earth, try these creepy tales:

Coraline The Mostly True Story of Jack
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