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Time Thief (Gideon Trilogy #2) (fiction)

Jun29

For world Wednesday, let’s travel to England and to two different centuries!
Traveling into the future might be quite fascinating – if one were prepared. As 21st century folks, we have some guesses about the technological marvels that future times may have. But what of a vicious rogue transported from the 1760s right into the heart of modern London? From public hangings to cellphones and police helicopters?

And where’s Peter? Kate moves heaven, earth, and stubborn grownups as she tries to rescue her friend. Gravitational time dilation, time warps…whatever you call the aftershocks of people transported out of their own time, things are getting really messy in our space-time continuum!

Noted scientist Stephen Hawking thinks that time travel to the future is indeed possible, so “never say never!” This is the 2nd volume of The Gideon Trilogy, which began with The Time Travelers (yesterday’s feature book) and ends with The Time Quake (tomorrow’s feature).
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Book info: The Time Thief / Linda Buckley-Archer. Simon & Schuster, 2008.
[author’s website] [author interview] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation:Two people cling to the time machine, roaring into the 20th century. But one is a notorious 18th century villain who pushed Peter away from his chance to return home! Kate is furious and refuses to let her friend be left in 1763, despite their families’ efforts to keep her safe.

Now the Tar Man is loose in modern London, trying to wrap his horse-and-buggy experience around the concepts of automobiles and traffic lights. Of course, policemen are always the same in any century, despite changes in uniform and chase techniques (flying machines? how can that be possible?), and the Tar Man finds ways to elude them as he worms his way into the criminal underworld.

The time machine inventors are trying to create another one while other authorities hunt for the original to destroy it. Kate and her scientist father rush to rescue Peter before it’s too late, but the wrong setting sends them to the wrong year!

Can Kate find Peter in 1792? Will their 18th century friend Gideon be able to help? Is there any way to get the Tar Man out of their time and Peter back into it?

Second volume of the brilliant trilogy, The Time Thief races down the interconnected paths of an 18th century villain and 2 teens from modern England. If the snarl of time loops is cut, what will happen to them all? Stay tuned for volume 3, The Time Quake! (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Time Travelers, by Linda Buckley- Archer (book review) – zapped into 1763, but home is today!

Jun28

Time travel…what if it were possible? Of course, there are rules which every time travel tale must follow, or the world as we know it would go poof!

This is the first book in a trilogy known in the UK as Gideon the Cutpurse (as you’ll see in the UK booktrailer), so named for the friendly, ahem, liberator of excess worldly possessions who helps out Kate and Peter when they are whisked into the 1700s by a rogue antigravity machine.

Quite the adventure for our two present-day teens, thrown back into a world where electricity is an experimental novelty, and death by disease, misadventure, or sheer bad luck is just an everyday occurrence.

Will they get back to our time? Let’s check on The Time Thief (Gideon Trilogy #2) tomorrow, shall we?
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Book info: The Time Travelers / Linda Buckley-Archer. Simon & Schuster, 2007. [author’s website] [author interview] [publisher site] [UK book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: Peter would not have been transported back in time if his father hadn’t chosen business over their trip together — again! Who knew that his visit to the English countryside in the 21st century would wind up in the 18th century?

Kate and her family are nice, their farm with the sheep and horses is very country, but it’s not the same as a day spent with his dad as Peter’s mom continues her work far away in the U.S.A. Even the research lab where Kate’s dad works is a bit interesting, like the antigravity machine they use to search for “dark matter”.

When Kate’s dog gets spooked, Peter and Kate chase her through the lab…and into nothingness! They awake in 1763 to see a ferocious man trying to carry off their machine on his cart — then he comes after them! They escape from the Tar Man through the woods and meet Gideon Seymour, who may be able to help them retrieve the machine and make their way through 18th century England without letting anyone else know that they came from the future.

In the meantime, the police and their parents are searching for the pair in 20th centure Derbyshire, with few clues and dwindling hope. A phantom image of Kate in old-fashioned clothes appears at her school — she has partially returned as she slept! Now the race is on to recreate the antigravity machine’s effects in the 20th century.

Bandits and horses, corsets and three-cornered hats, hanging and royalty — Peter and Kate must cope with everyday life in the 18th century as they try to get the Tar Man to give back their only way home while keeping thir friend Gideon out of his evil clutches.

First in a brilliant trilogy, The Time Travelers takes you with them into 18th century England — can everyone get home again? Followed by Time Thief and Time Quake. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots, by Abby McDonald (book review) – city girl in Canadian mountain town

Jun24

book cover of Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots by Abby McDonaldFor Fun Friday, we’re heading north of the border. I can see why Jenna would rather spend her summer with the godmother she hasn’t seen in years, instead of sweltering in a Florida retirement community with her grandma – it’s been ridiculously hot in C.Florida this summer already and there’s only so much bingo that a teen wants to deal with…

But how could she be prepared for a small community in the Canadian forest, where hunting and fishing are essential parts of life, a one-horse town where everyone has known everyone forever?

Oh, I did laugh out loud when Jenna, the kayak, and the beaver lodge had a sudden meeting, but Jenna’s summer looks like an uphill climb, doesn’t it? And what about the bear, and the moose, and the mountain biking? Well, you’ll just have to read this funny book to find out, eh?
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Book info: Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots / Abby McDonald. Candlewick, 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: Jenna is a Green Teen for environmental awareness at her high school, so when she can choose between spending the summer in the Canadian woods with her godmother Susie or snoozing through card games at her grandmother’s Florida retirement village, she jumps at the chance to head north.

But the teens of tiny Stillwater, British Columbia, have known each other forever and don’t exactly welcome Jenna. Ethan, Grady, and Reeve play practical jokes on her from the moment they meet. Fiona hates everything, especially her stepmother, Susie, who works frantically with her new husband to transform a huge old house into a bed-and-breakfast resort before the first guests arrive in a few weeks. And Jenna’s best friend doesn’t get much cellphone signal at her summer camp job back home… what else could go wrong?

How about crashing through a beaver dam with her kayak or accidentally catching a trout? “I left the cork on the hook! I didn’t think anything would actually bite!” screams vegetarian Jenna.

The five teens start to get along as they create a website (complete with videos of Jenna’s rookie attempts at rock climbing and dirt bikes) so the inn can compete with the new luxury spa hotel across the valley, but secrets and misunderstood kisses may end the whole summer with a crash!

Does everything have to be eco-friendly or else? What makes a true friend? Why do guys have to be so complicated? (and watch out for the bear, Jenna, and the moose, too!)(One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Atomic Weight of Secrets, by Eden Unger Bowditch (book review) – inventions, intrigue, adventure

Jun21

book cover of Atomic Weight of Secrets by Eden Unger Bowditch published by Bancroft Press | recommended on BooksYALove.com“Strange round bird with three flat wings, Never ever stops when it shivers and sings” – what an odd song to learn as a child! And not to know any other nursery rhymes or children’s stories…

Welcome to the slightly steampunk world of The Young Inventors’ Guild in 1903! Meet five brilliant children with incredibly talented, intelligent parents – parents who are swept away from them as the children are brought from around the world to a small farm outside Dayton, Ohio, USA.

And those mysterious men in black who take them to and fro in black carriages and other conveyances – every time the children see them, they’re wearing different all-black outfits, including tam o’shanters and top hats, Zouave pants and riding breeches, fur coats and inflatable vests.

Their parents hardly even write letters to them (this is 1903, after all), yet dear Miss Brett (their teacher in the farmhouse) assures the children that they are quite alright. The children’s various discoveries lead them to decide that they must invent something to ensure their safety and escape from the men in black.
Perhaps there are some grown-ups they can trust to provide some necessary assistance in this covert operation?

Feel free to share this adventure with younger readers as we wait for the next volume of The Young Inventors’ Guild Trilogy to be published.
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Book info: The Atomic Weight of Secrets, or The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black / Eden Unger Bowditch. Bancroft Press, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My book talk: Five brilliant children whose parents are talented scientists – why have they been brought to a farm in Ohio in 1903 from their homes all over the world by mysterious men in black costumes of all sorts? And what about their new weekend homes in the city nearby, with wonderful nannies and bedrooms for their parents who never arrive?

Having school with Miss Brett at the farm is much nicer than being bullied at their school in London, think Jasper and Lucy, but where are their parents? Faye misses working in her parents’ laboratory in India, where she was treated like a princess. Noah can’t play his violin right now, worrying that his mother doesn’t know where he is (she left to star in another opera just before…). And Wallace, well, his late mother said he’d make a discovery before his 10th birthday that would save the world – and he has just a few days to finish the project.

The youngsters teach Miss Brett about their advanced experiments, and she introduces them to the wonderful world of stories and rhymes and children’s games that their tutors and scientific encyclopedias never covered. During the week, they discover farm animals’ habits and hopscotch and how to bake biscuits, then are taken “home” to their nannies by roundabout routes in black carriages or autocars by men in odd black outfits every weekend. Whether at the farm or in town, patrols of men in black circle around their residences like clockwork, week after week.

The children investigate a pageless journal Lucy found in her mother’s room and discover that it once contained pages written by the Young Inventors’ Guild. They decide to use it to chronicle their experiments as they pool their knowledge of scientific principles so they can escape the mysterious men in black and rescue their parents!

Are their parents safe? Why don’t they write or even use that newfangled telephone device in the farmhouse closet?
Can the birdwatcher seen near the farm help them?
What about Faye’s cousin or those clever brothers they met in town?

Mystery, science, and the song of The Strange Round Bird (which they all learned as tiny children) meld in this exciting first volume of The Young Inventors’ Guild series. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity, by Dave Roman (book review) – middle school in outer space!

Jun10

book cover of Astronaut Academy Zero Gravity by Dave Roman published by First Second BooksIt’s Fun Friday – Time for school in space! Yes, Dave Roman’s new graphic novel takes us straight to Astronaut Academy, with a curriculum you just won’t believe. Oh, some things in middle school are the same even in outer space (the principal, snarky former best friends), but Astronaut Academy’s variations on ball games and emergency drills are amazing.

Of course, Hakata Soy’s crime-fighting superhero past may catch up with him…

The former comics editor of Nickelodeon Magazine took advantage of its closing to concentrate on his own cartooning, so watch for more of his self-published minicomics to grow into full-fledged books.

Dave is married to Raina Telgemeier who wrote and drew Smile (5/13/11 featured book) – yes, he proposed to her via webcomic! Just imagine two cartoonists in the same apartment… I heard them at a Texas Library Association presentation in April, then met Dave again in May at International Reading Association. Just waiting for their next books!
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Book info: Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity / written and illustrated by Dave Roman. First Second, 2011 [author interview] [publisher site] [book trailer] [selected pages]

My Book Talk: Everyone else is already at Astronaut Academy, but Hakata is late for school! A few weeks late, since he and his mecha-friends were busy saving the world of Hoppiton from the terrible Gotcha Birds.

Senor Panda teaches Spanish (and spying), Doug just wants to wear his spacesuit and stay out on spacewalk all day, and Marcos wonders why at least one of Hakata’s hearts is broken. If the Gotcha Birds decide to attack Astronaut Academy to get the bunny students from Hoppiton, it could disrupt the Fireball Tournament!!

Students, teachers, and non-students take turns telling/showing their stories in this wacky graphic novel – does your Astronaut Academy have classes in Advanced Heart Studies, Fire Throwing, Run-on Sentences, and Wearing Cute Hats? (you can’t win Dinosaur Driving Races if you don’t wear a Cute Hat… just ask Maribelle Mellonbelly)

Action! Adventure! Oxygen gum and flashbacks! The first semester at Astronaut Academy has it all…with an extra helping of funny! (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)