Tag Archive | summer

Lessons in blogging from classic movies (reflective)

May7

Today’s Blogathon2012 theme is “5 movies that have inspired my blogging,” so here are 5 classic movies that remind me of what to do and what NOT to do on BooksYALove – the movie title links go to Internet Movie Database.

Coincidentally, these movie-based lessons also reminded me of Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science, the pithy truths that underpin everything I do as a “librarian-at-large” on BooksYALove, as a contributor to www.abookandahug.com, and when I recommend books to family and friends.

image of old movie film reel
Clipart courtesy of webweaver.nu

1) Blue Hawaii – yes, the Elvis movie. During a family visit in spring 1969, all the kids got packed off to see this movie so the grownups could have some time without us. It didn’t matter if we liked Elvis or not, we had to go. Decades later, I still regret those 102 minutes spent at the Saturday bargain matinee when I could have been reading! So I want to make sure that I never say that “everyone will just love this book” on BooksYALove – because it just isn’t possible! Ranganathan’s Second Law states “Every reader his/her book.”

2) Planet of the Apes – wow! Seeing this movie as a young teen in the late 1960s was powerful and disturbing- because I had absolutely no idea of what it was about until we were in the theater watching it (another well-meaning extended family outing with all the kids, regardless of their ages). Ranganathan’s Fourth Law is “Save the time of the reader,” so BooksYALove aims to give enough taste of each book that readers can decide whether or not it’s one they’ll want to try.

3) Star Wars – the first one, the real one, the one that I saw 7 times (twice in French!), and I still have the 1970s t-shirt. The power of story was evident in this movie (known as A New Hope to youngsters)- classic struggle between good and evil, between doing the expedient thing and the right thing, choosing friendship and loyalty over the easy way out. Hmmm… sounds like the best themes in young adult books today. Ranganathan’s Fourth Law = “Every book, its reader.”

4) The Empire Strikes Back – We took my youngest brother to see this movie for his birthday during its first theatrical release (long ago…). As the opening  filled the screen, he leaned over and whispered “You know that Darth Vader is Luke’s daddy.” No, I did not! Why would I want to know the ending? Ruined the whole movie for me (at the time, it was the last in the Star Wars saga). So I will never give away special plot twists or the ending in any book recommendation on BooksYALove – a no-spoiler site by design and choice! “Books are for use” says Ranganathan’s First Law, not to stay on a shelf or be locked away – and I never want to make a book stay unopened because I spoiled that delicious journey of discovery for even one reader.

5) The Sound of Music – My Girl Scout troop went to see it on the big screen in the mid-1960s (and broke into song during meetings regularly thereafter – “the HILLS are aLIVE with the sound of muuuuuuusic”) – we thought we were just going to see a nice musical. But we also got a glimpse into war’s perils, not graphically or violently, but at age ten began seeing that there were many unfair things that happened to good people, that there was a big world outside our Air Force base housing, and that ordinary people can make a difference. “The library is a growing organism” is Ranganathan’s Fifth Law, and I hope to help readers grow their personal libraries through BooksYALove, as we discover other worlds and other lives through books together.
**kmm

Dinosaurs & time travel! Chronal Engine, by Greg Leitich Smith (fiction)

May3
book cover of Chronal Engine by Greg Leitich Smith published by Clarion Books

Rare fossilized dinosaur footprints.

Heart attack, kidnapping, possible murder?

What a way to start a summer!

No one has seen the Loblolly dinosaur tracks on their grandpa’s ranch in years. Max can’t wait – he got the family “dinosaur-hunter” genes, Mom says. Kyle and Emma would rather stay home in Austin the summer before their sophomore year , but with Mom leaving to excavate feathered dinosaurs in Mongolia, they’ve all got to stay somewhere. At least Grandpa’s housekeeper has a daughter their age; Petra seems glad to have some other teenagers on the ranch for a while.

Grandpa’s security-locked basement looks like a 1920s library, if the library had a humming time-travel device in the center. Predicting his own heart attack to the minute, leaving messages in places no one can reach – has Grandpa really used the Chronal Engine to travel through time?

Greg Leitich Smith’s fascination with dinosaurs is firmly woven into this exciting action tale, as our adventurers meet teeny Tyrannosaurs (meat-eaters have horrible bad breath), massive Apatosaurus (even dinosaur expert Max still loves the old name of Brontosaurus), and some human villains back in the Cretaceous Era. You’ll enjoy Blake Henry’s manga-influenced black and white illustrations, too.

I didn’t see any boot prints in the fossilized dino tracks when I visited Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, but that’s well north of Chronal Engine‘s setting in the Texas Hill Country, so who knows? Grab this summer thrill-ride read at your local library or independent bookstore soon!

**kmm

Book info: Chronal Engine / Greg Leitich Smith; illustrations by Blake Henry. Clarion Books, 2012.  [author’s website] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Recommendation: All summer out at their grandpa’s ranch? Max, Kyle, and Emma know that rare dinosaur tracks are located there, but they’ll miss their friends and Austin’s city comforts so much. His wild time-travel theories turn out to be truer than they could ever imagine!

Sure, Mom is headed for the most important dinosaur dig in Asia, but the teens have met her father just once; the only time in 15 years that he left the ranch was to attend their own dad’s funeral five years ago. For decades, Grandpa has refused to let researchers on his land to study the dinosaur tracks, even though that “hard science” might erase the taint of craziness left by great-great-grandfather Mad Jack Pierson’s insistence that he’d invented a time-traveling engine.

At the ranch house, it’s nice to meet Petra, who is their age and enjoys the outdoors as much as Max does. She knows the way to the dinosaur tracks and what perils to avoid in the Hill Country.

When Grandpa refuses pecan pie during their first dinner together because he knows an ambulance will arrive in 15 minutes because of his upcoming heart attack, they wonder about it. After he gets Max to promise that all four teens will go to the fossil tracks in the morning and gives him a heavy envelope to open later, Grandpa shows them the Chronal Engine and its last recall device to return to the present time – then has a heart attack, just as the medflight helicopter touches down! If he knew the timing of his own heart attack, does that mean Grandpa has used the Chronal Engine?

Visiting the dinosaur tracks the next morning, they find human bootprints in the fossilized mud! And Emma’s boot fits the print exactly… but how? A sudden flash of light and a man appears next to their sister, grabs her, and disappears into another flash of light. So Emma has been kidnapped…to the Cretaceous Era? Suddenly Max, Kyle, and Petra decide to travel back in time using the Chronal Engine to rescue her.

Will it work? Will their compass work? Can they survive among huge herbivorous dinosaurs and speedy meat-eaters? Can they outsmart other time-traveling humans who have guns and are ready to use them? Will any of them get back to the present – alive?

This mile-a-minute adventure story includes dromaeosaur babies and bow-hunting, toothed prehistoric birds and T. Rexes and 40-foot-long crocodilians among the adventures encountered by four young teens on a time-traveling mission. The author notes currently known facts and recent theories about prehistoric life at the end of the book, which includes funny/accurate illustrations by Blake Henry. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Y for Letters from Yellowstone, by Diane Smith (fiction)

Apr28

Hidden in alpine valleys are tiny treasures.
Alex intends to find them, to sketch them, to preserve them.
Who knows what wonders are waiting in Yellowstone?

It’s a man’s world in science in the 1890s, but Alexandria Bartram doesn’t care. Her family is sure that she will go into medicine, but her heart is all for botany. Studying Lewisia flowers brought back from the wilderness of Yellowstone makes her eager to see them in their native habitat, so she requests a place on the summer field study team there. If Dr. Merriam thinks that A.E. Bartram is a man, then he’s the one that’s short-sighted.

Like the tough and tender Lewisia itself, Alex finds a way to survive and thrive under harsh conditions, an able researcher and methodical scientist, with an eye for all the beauties of this great national park.

Historical fiction which helps readers see the past more clearly can also help us preserve what’s important for our future. When we visited Yellowstone this summer, I could see areas which Alex would immediately recognize and others which tourism had irrevocably changed.

Yes, the copyright date of 2000 is correct; this charming book is still in print, so check for it at your local library or independent bookstore.
**kmm

Book info: Letters From Yellowstone / Diane Smith. Penguin, 2000. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: Alexandria wants to study mountain plants in their natural setting, so she signs on with a Yellowstone research team. But it’s 1898, and the lead scientist thinks that Dr. A.E. Bartram is a man.

Dr. Merriam is quite startled to find that his new colleague arriving from Cornell is female – how will a young woman endure the hardships of rough camp life, he worries. Railroads have just reached the borders of America’s largest national park, so most travel is by wagon and on horseback. Alex has no concerns and is ready for adventure; when a respectable widow arrives on a bicycle tour and remains with the group as an amateur photographer, her chaperonage satisfies everyone.

Each member of the expedition has a different view of its purpose: Alex wants to catalog every variation of the Lewisia plant, Dr. Merriam needs to secure specimens of many plants and animals for the new Smithsonian Institution in the nation’s capital, Dr. Rutherford thinks he can teach a raven to talk as he studies Yellowstone’s avian life, and their wagon driver wants to stay far, far away from Alex and other females.

The story of the summer’s successes and failures is told through letters and telegrams.
Dr. Rutherford is trying to convince the president of his Montana college to expand the botany department, Dr. Merriam reminds the Smithsonian Institution of their promises to fund the expedition and quietly complains to his mother about the problems that beset them at every turn, Alex relates her discoveries to fellow researchers back East, glorying in Yellowstone’s amazing landscapes of geysers and alpine meadows.

Will Dr. Merriam get the full-time position at the Smithsonian? Will Native American conflicts prevent the team from completing their mission? Can Alex continue her field research when summer is over, or will she be stranded in a college classroom forever?

With summer snows and campsites ranging from woeful to wonderful, this novel takes readers back to an age of discoveries, when the idea of wilderness preservation was still new. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

W for Widdershins and witches – Body of Water, by Sarah Dooley (book review)

Apr26

book cover of Body of Water by Sarah Dooley published by Fiewel and FriendsWednesday – her home is gone in minutes.
Wondering why her best friend has gone into hiding.
Widdershins, her wonderful dog – gone forever?

Why can’t people just be nice when they don’t understand someone? As nature-centered Wiccans, Ember’s family stands out too much in this small Southern town, no matter how quiet they are. Her mom reads tarot cards for townspeople who call her a witch behind her back and won’t even say hello to her at the store. Ember uses her spells only for peace, for clarity, to ward off Ivy’s nightmares.

Her continuing search for loyal dog Widdershins – “who was a good dog and came when I called her – six times out of ten” – and for objects that the fire left behind brings her close enough to former best friend Anson’s place every week that he might speak to her, tell her why he set the fire… but his silence is very, very loud.

Float out on the lake with Ember, find balance and clarity on her favorite Body of Water, feel how being homeless doesn’t mean being hopeless.
**kmm

Book info: Body of Water / Sarah Dooley. Fiewel and Friends, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: Three hours after the fire, Ember wonders if Anson did it, if her best friend torched her family’s trailer house everything they owned, if that would keep his father from doing worse things to them for their beliefs.

Just because folks in the little Southern town call them witches doesn’t make them bad people. Dad calls their beliefs Wicca, Mom says not-quite-Wicca and teaches young teen Ember spells for clarity and balance with nature and peace. She also says that revenge is a bad seed to plant in your mind as it just might take root in your heart.

So now they’re homeless, Mom and Dad and Ember and little sister Ivy. She can’t find her dog Widdershins, and big brother Isaac is away at college. No room in Grandma’s tiny apartment, as if that devout lady would welcome her pagan son and family anyway, so eventually they find themselves at Goose Landing Campground, beside the lake where Grandpa drowned, the event that stopped Mom and Dad’s wanderings.

Ember ventures back to her burned-out home every week, searching for things that the fire might have spared – half a pair of Mom’s sewing scissors, a soup ladle – and for Widdershins. She mourns the loss of her spell journal, of Ivy’s random collections, of her former best friend. The only place she finds peace is floating far out in the center of the lake, where the water and the sky hold her.

And now it’s time for school to start. How can Ember and Ivy attend when their address is a pup tent, when they have no notebooks or decent clothes? Can they ever find a place to live when Dad can’t find a job? Did Widdershins perish in the fire or run away to find a safe home? Will Ember even be able to speak to Anson when she sees him again?

A story that circles back again and again to home and family and hope, Body of Water brings readers along on Ember’s search for clarity and balance and peace. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Q for quiet journey of love – The Big Crunch, by Pete Hautman (book review)

Apr19

Quietly, June moves to yet another town, yet another school.
Quietly, Wes escapes his smothering relationship with his girlfriend.

We’ve all heard about the Big Bang theory of the universe’s creation, but maybe you haven’t heard about “the big crunch” as one way that the universe might end, with everything condensing down to one tiny point of matter.

Pete Hautman reminds us that falling in love, whether gradual or sudden, is a lot like that big crunch – a moment when you realize that the only point in the entire universe is the person you love.

June, Wes, and their friends are very real people; their enthusiasms and worries are real, too. Is the love that Wes and Junie share real enough to survive her family moving away?

Find this clever, funny love story today at your local library or independent bookstore today.
Yes, I keep pointing you to your neighborhood businesses and institutions because they are worth supporting now so that they can keep supporting you and your community in the future.

And if the description of how June makes real hot chocolate for Wes after they walk together in the snow doesn’t make you immediately long for a cup, I’ll drink it for you.
**kmm

Book info: The Big Crunch / Pete Hautman. Scholastic Press, 2011. [author’s website] [author interview] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: Another new high school – June hates how her dad’s job moves them so often. Does she want to fit in or stand out this time? Semi-cool dude Wes notices her in the halls, someone new to wonder about while he tries to figure out exactly why he broke up with his girlfriend. His pal Jerry seeks her out immediately as part of his campaign for class president, even though the election is months away.

So the three sort-of friends wander in and out of each other’s days as Jerry pushes his campaign forward, Wes needs someone to talk to since he doesn’t talk to Izzy anymore, and Junie is forced to get involved here in Minnesota when her mom erases all her Chicago friends’ numbers from her phone – “There is no reverse gear in this time machine,” says her dad.

As the days grow cooler, June finds herself somehow dating Jerry steadily. Wes keeps mentally replaying his conversations with her, trying to figure out what made her choose the persistent campaigner over him. His little sister teases him about leaving his brain out in his garage workshop, and his buddies Alan and Alan take advantage of his distractedness to make steady in-roads on his savings during 24-hour poker marathons.

When Wes and Junie run into each other with a thump during a snowstorm, it’s rather eye-opening… and heart-stopping. Time to let Jerry down easy as they become a couple and learn to negotiate the differences in their lives – only child June who’s moved so many times, big brother Wes who’s never gone anywhere.

And then Junie’s dad announces another move on New Year’s Day. How far is it to Omaha? Too far to keep up any sort of relationship, according to her parents. Are they right? Will the Wes-shaped hole in June’s heart ever heal? Will she finally decide for herself whether it’s time to move on or stay connected? Can Wes get past his family ties into Junie’s larger world?

Hautman shows readers four seasons in the lives of June, Wes, and their friends – a year that changes everything and doesn’t change the important things, when a little push turns into The Big Crunch of decisions that cannot be undone. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Croak, by Gina Damico (book review) – M for Uncle Mort, the Grim Reaper

Apr14

book cover of Croak by Gina DamicoEvery family has a relative that’s sort of distant,
never shows up for family reunions…
Bet yours isn’t a Grim Reaper, though!

Spider-silk soul vessels, death-sensing jellyfish, John Wilkes Booth arm-wrestling Elvis Presley in the atrium of the Afterlife – Lex has lots to get used to as she learns how to travel through the Ether and release souls from the bodies of the just-dead.

And then, against the Terms of Execution which allow Gamma Removal and Immigration Managers to swiftly transport souls to the Afterlife, a rogue Grim begins actually causing deaths.

Contrary to popular belief, Grims aren’t immortal, so the good folks of Croak begin rightly to fear for their lives. The “Welcome to Croak” sign’s population number clicks up and down as residents enter and leave the town. Will it keep clicking down and down?

Pick up this funny and serious book in paperback now at your local library or independent bookstore. And be sure to see the Croak Skull Illusion Scarf that the author designed (free knitting pattern)!

So, are you comforted or creeped out by the idea of a Grim Reaper as a high school kid with a sympathetic heart and a yen for junk food?
**kmm

Book info: Croak / Gina Damico. Graphia HMH, 2012. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Recommendation: Sent to Uncle Mort’s remote farm to work off her wild violence, Lex learns that it’s part of her lineage – as a Grim Reaper. Now she’s learning the family business of helping souls to their afterlife – some high school summer job!

First time ever away from her twin sister, first time this far out into the countryside, first time ever to breach the space-time continuum of the Ether. The whole town of Croak exists to assist souls out of this earthly plane as they die, released from their dead bodies by a Killer, then escorted to the Afterlife by a Culler.

Mort’s technical know-how has enabled Grim teams to stay in touch with Croak’s death-detection apparatus as they zoom through the Ether releasing souls. Jellyfish arrays that sense deaths in yoctoseconds of time, deadly spiders spinning vessels to transport souls, the dead presidents and poets who welcome the confused newly-dead souls to the Afterlife and beyond…Lex’s head is spinning during her first week in Croak!

Several other Juniors are training this summer, including Driggs who lives down the hall at Uncle Mort’s. But none of them experience the excruciating pain that jolts Lex every time she Kills to release a soul. Lex and Driggs encounter many different causes of death as they work their regular shifts, but one has them baffled – a man who died of no cause at all, whose eyes turned totally white, a mystery for Mort and crew to puzzle over.

When the no-cause deaths increase, the Juniors murmur of a long-ago Grim who found a loophole in the Terms of Execution that bind their powers, one who decided to cause deaths instead of just releasing souls, a Grim who killed Grims.

Is there another Grotton loose in the world? Why can’t Croak’s computers determine the cause of death for those white-eyed corpses? Why is Lex the only Junior with two parents, with any parents? How long can she keep the secrets of Croak from her twin sister back home?

This Grim Reaper wears a black hoodie and carries an obsidian-bladed scythe – travel through the Ether with Lex as she tries to solve the mystery and stop the killer who’s targeting the Grims of Croak. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

J for Julia and journeys – A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend, by Emily Horner (fiction)

Apr11

Cass is waiting to hear about Julia’s secret project,
Funny, smart, drama chick Julia,
Best friend ever.
Dead in a car crash – bam. Just like that.

Now Cass won’t see how Julia would have finished her amazing play and will never know if there could be more than just friendship between them. But she and Julia had long planned that they would bike all the way to the Pacific Ocean after graduation – no reason to wait a whole year, so Cass preps for a solo bike trek in the summer before her senior year, taking along Julia’s ashes from Chicago to the sea.

Let the drama kids take Julia’s work-in-progress and turn it into a play over the summer – Cass is taking action. She doesn’t sit around moping and mourning – she pedals and aches and discovers things about herself and about friendship that she never imagined. That’s probably the most ‘ninja’ way to live of all – Julia would have cheered for that.

Look for this debut novel at your local library or independent bookstore and journey along with Cass and Julia, maybe finding a little more love along the way.
**kmm

Book info: A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend / Emily Horner. Dial Books, 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Recommendation: After Julia’s death in a car crash, Cass can’t stay in town as the Drama Kids get ready to perform Julia’s “top secret” play as a tribute to begin their senior year of high school. Cass decides to bicycle from Ohio to California, just as she and Julia had planned. But instead of Julia as her traveling buddy, she’ll have her best friend’s ashes along for the ride to the Pacific Ocean, Julia’s dream destination.

Why would she want to spend all summer painting sets for Julia’s incredible “Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad” musical, especially when Heather (who loudly questioned Cass’s sexual orientation throughout junior high) gets the lead and Julia’s boyfriend keeps changing the staging? Why?

So, armed with cellphone, maps, spare bike parts, her parents’ blessings, and Julia’s ashes, Cass heads off across the country. She meets good people, not-so-good people, her first love, and herself along the way.

Can Cass make it all the way to California on her bike? Will the Drama Kids be able to put on Julia’s musical with no adult interference? Did Cass love Julia or was she in love with Julia or does it even matter since Julia is dead?

Alternating chapters of Then (the summer trip) and Now (last-minute preparations for the musical) reveal Cass’s worries and wonderment about life, love, and dividing by zero (“so ninja!” according to Julia). (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Don’t Stop Now, by Julie Halpern (book review) – road trip, kidnapping, more than best friends?

Mar2

book cover of Don't Stop Now by Julie Halpern published by The morning after graduation!
A whole summer of freedom before college…
Until Lillian gets Penny’s whispered message – “I did it.”

Why does Lillian feel so certain that Penny has set up her own kidnapping? Anyone normal would just run away from that jerk sometime-boyfriend Gavin or her crazy family (Penny’s mom buys everything from TV home shopping shows, even their food).

Lillian and Josh have the perfect friendship, so he knows that she must try to find Penny, even if it means going all the way from Chicago to the Pacific. Only clue they have – some guy Penny met on her only vacation lives in Portland. Josh’s old Chevy doesn’t have air-conditioning, but he does have his dad’s credit card for a few more weeks, so off they go.

From the Cheese Castle in Wisconsin to the Corn Palace in South Dakota and beyond… Josh and Lil see every weird roadside attraction they can find. But will Josh ever see how much Lillian loves him, really loves him, before she leaves for college and he wanders the world to create the perfect rock band?
**kmm

Book info: Don’t Stop Now / Julie Halpern. Feiwel & Friends, 2011. [author’s website] [author’s blog] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Book Talk: That odd voicemail from Penny – has she been kidnapped? And she called Lillian instead of her overbearing boyfriend… maybe it’s up to Lillian and her best pal Josh to make a cross-country road trip to find the quiet teen.

Lillian wasn’t Penny’s best friend during senior year, she was her only friend. Her boyfriend Gavin says they shouldn’t be all lovey-dovey during school, so Penny respects that (more than he respects her after school hours). Lillian and Josh know that she met a nice guy from Portland when her family went on vacation – maybe Penny sneaked off to see him or maybe not.

Laid-back summer plans out the window, Josh and Lillian jump into his old van and head toward Portland. Determined to visit unusual places during their last trip together before college, the friends amass t-shirts and strange photos along the way. Lots of time to think, out in the wide-open spaces of the plains – Lillian wonders why Josh has never figured out that she loves him as more than a friend.

Emerging from the Badlands, Lillian’s phone is filled with missed calls from the FBI about Penny’s disappearance! What has that pathetic girl gotten herself into? Did she fake her kidnapping or was it real? How will Lillian and Josh find her in Portland? How will Lillian let Josh know her true feelings before they go their separate ways to start college?

A quirky road trip, a beautiful friendship, and a quest combine to give more answers than Lillian and Josh knew they were seeking. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Withering Tights, by Louise Rennison (fiction) – theater camp, boys, and more drama

Dec2

Performing arts school!
Taught by real actresses and dancers!
Far in northern England, on the Yorkshire dales…

It’s Fun Friday, as Tallulah searches for her time in the spotlight, on stage, away from her silly little brother. She’s off to Dother Hall and a chance to audition at the end of summer for a permanent spot at the school.

Such *dramatic* drama instructors… and weird improv exercises… and strange interpretive dance classes. How is it that she suddenly can’t dance or sing or act?

Throw in a brooding mother owl, the nearby boys’ school, various odd villagers, worries about casting for Dother’s all-girl version of Wuthering Heights, and Tallulah’s concern that her legs will keep growing (and the interesting parts never will), and you can see why Georgia’s cousin (as in the hilarious “Confessions of Georgia Nicolson” series) is a just trifle worried about passing her audition.

So what will Tallulah be doing on stage next? Watch for book 2, A Midsummer Tights Dream, due out in February 2012.
**kmm

Book info: Withering Tights (Misadventures of Tallulah Casey #1) / Louise Rennison. HarperTeen, 2011 [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Tallulah knows that summer drama school will be better than bug sandwiches with her crazy little brother. With her parents overseas pursuing their own interests, it’s certainly time for her to dance and act in Yorkshire. Her just-older cousin Georgia promises to write with advice about boys – surely, there are boys nearby…

Rooming in the village with the wacky Dobbins family (they’re keen on squirrels), she and Vaisey (staying with the pubowner’s family) walk past millions of sheep on their way to Dother Hall, where improvisation and dance and art and the rest of the students live.

The full-time girls perform strange plays with confusing dialogue, the handyman plays heavy metal music in the workshop, and the instructors tell the girls to act without any scripts. Their modern version of Wuthering Heights is, um, uh, different.

Things start looking up when the boys from Woolfe Hall invite Tallulah and friends to the cinema. The school director says it will help them look through the inner darkness; the girls just want to be with the boys.

A local band is performing at Dother so they can get a live recording – and village badboy Cain is the lead singer. How many hearts will he break over the summer? If he’d just stop harassing the owl nest and killing foxes…

Will Tallulah pass her auditions to become a permanent student at Dother Hall if she can’t tap dance or sing? Can a knobby-knees girl who’s waiting for the rest of her body to grow up to match her 14-year-old heart find happiness on stage? Is a first kiss too much to ask of this summer?

More laugh-out-loud fun from the author of the Confessions of Georgia Nicholson series, who brings readers along on Tallulah’s bumpy ride through a summer that’s much more dramatic than she dreamed it could be. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Morpheus Road: The Light (fiction)

Oct31

Happy Hallowe’en on this Mysterious Monday…

A monstrous creation becomes real.
The created stalks its creator with malign intent.
[cue eerie, spooky music and more than a few nightmares]

The graphic novel character that Marshall invented visits him in his dreams, then in the dark corners of night, and then…his best friend Cooper disappears and is presumed dead. Marsh knows that Coop’s not dead – ghosts just don’t lie about such things.

This is the first book in D.J. MacHale’s frightening Morpheus Road trilogy. Marshall’s adventures (and nightmares) continue in The Black (book 2) and The Blood (book 3) – find all three at your neighborhood library or independent bookstore. And be sure to have a flashlight near your bed at night – who knows when Gravedigger might visit your dreams?
**kmm

Book info: Morpheus Road: The Light / D.J. MacHale. Aladdin, 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Graphic novel fan Marsh creates “Gravedigger”– long black coat, pickaxe over his shoulder, grinning white skull. Drawing helps him forget just a little how his photographer mother died 2 years ago, trapped in the ancient temple she’d just captured on film. Her assistant brought back her photos and this golden glass ball covered in weird designs, but couldn’t bring her back.

Sketches packed away as school ends, Marsh looks forward to summer with his wild friend Cooper. But Coop has done one crazy thing too many, and his parents take him up to their old lakehouse – no cell phone, no computer, lots of time to get his act together.

When Marsh’s dad is out of town, eerie things start happening – a breeze that traces patterns in the powder on the counter when no windows are open, a gravelly voice on the phone that says “You must journey along the Morpheus Road,” Gravedigger luring him to the deserted gym with blood-covered walls…

Gravedigger is just a character from his own imagination, right? But that bony hand on Marsh’s shoulder felt too real, and Gravedigger keeps showing up, talking about the Morpheus Road.

Coop disappears from the lakehouse, so Marsh and Coop’s sister head up there to help search. When Sydney starts seeing Gravedigger too, then maybe Marsh isn’t just imagining this, and they all might wind up dead! 352 pages for those who love to be frightened… (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.