Tag Archive | belonging

My Misadventures as a Teenage Rock Star, by Joyce Raskin (fiction) – rock music greatness, high school freshman blues

Aug5

Fun Friday, especially for anyone who’s dreamed of being in a rock band.

Alexis has a bad case of teen dissatisfaction, cured by learning to play bass guitar and being in her brother’s rock band. And skateboarding, don’t forget her skateboarding.

A rock star at 14?! It’s up to Alexis to navigate around other people’s choices (bad and good) while staying true to herself.

Joyce Raskin knows what she’s writing about since she’s a bassist with the band Scarce (back together after time off for other projects) and even has a series of beginning guitar lessons for girls on YouTube! Rock on!

A fast, fun read that demands your favorite rock music in the background.
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Book info: My Misadventures as a Teenage Rock Star / Joyce Raskin, illustrated by Carol Chu. Graphia, 2011 [author’s Facebook page] [publisher website] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Uncoolness and zits, that’s life for Alexis, until her brother teaches her to play bass guitar for his band. Eventually, she masters the bass (blisters!). Eventually, her body catches up with other teen girls (at last!). Eventually, she has a boyfriend (yay!), then a heartbreak (cry!), then some fame (wow!), and some major disappointments (parents!).

Fast-moving chapters chronicle this eventful year in Alex’s life – her skateboarding and punk rock adventures, making a record with the band at age 14, her former-hippy parents supporting her big-time before going super-strict!

Written by a former teen-rocker (who still plays in a band!), Misadventures includes getting-started information about guitars, learning chords, writing songs, and sticking to your dreams – major girl power in a small package! (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

When I Was Joe, by Keren David (fiction) – gang threats, witness protection, murder

Aug3
book cover of When I Was Joe by Keren David published by Frances Lincoln Childrens Books

Imagine leaving behind everything.

Just vanishing from your school and neighborhood without a word to anyone.

The only witness to a murder, a gang-related knife crime, one that could shut down one of the biggest crime rings in London.

So Ty and his mother must disappear into the Witness protection programme… far away from their multicultural London neighborhood.

Starting anew. Reinventing yourself. What teenage guy wouldn’t want that chance? But how can Ty balance the required secrecy and security with his need to help a new friend, a girl-type new friend?

For our World Wednesday, a brilliant first novel followed by the equally gripping Almost True.
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Book info: When I Was Joe / Keren David. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2010. [author’s blog] [publisher site]

Recommendation: It was just a test, but the boy died – Arron’s gang initiation, but A’s knife went too deep. Ty is the only witness, his life in danger, his mum’s life in danger. Escaping from London by back roads, Ty and Nicki are transformed by Witness Protection agents – dyed hair, contact lenses, different clothes – and taken to a new city, a new school, a new life.

Suddenly, shy Ty is no longer Arron’s shadow, but “Joe”, the cute new guy with cool hair and a mysterious past. His new school specializes in sports (never an option at St. Saviour’s), and Joe finds a talent for running track, thanks to an observant student-teacher who’s a gifted para-athlete.

Not everyone is happy that Joe is a track star, and the bullying at school escalates. Joe’s nightmares about Arron and the knife get worse, Nicki/Mum is stuck at the new house with no job, and misunderstandings with new school friends get out of hand.

How long can Ty and Nicki keep up this charade? Will they have to uproot and move again and again, changing names and identities over and over? Can the detectives really keep the rest of their London family safe until Joe testifies at the murder trial?

A gritty and absorbing read that reflects all too well how fast young lives can change – or stop – with just the flick of a knife blade. Be sure to grab the sequel, Almost True, for the rest of the story! (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Dry Souls, by Denise Getson (book review) – drought forever, water-bringer, escape

Aug1
book cover of Dry Souls by Denise Getson published by CBAY Books

The power to bring water to dry land – any desert-dweller would want to have that gift, to create an oasis of water for drinking and crops, right?

But access to water is a powerful need, as any farmer or city manager will tell you, even today.

Imagine water-access as a political tool, as a crowd-management strategy, and you’ll see why Kira’s gift of water in the drought-stricken, devastated environment of our possible future is something that powerful people want so very badly to control.

A stunning debut novel with memorable characters and pacing worthy of a motion picture (and I mean that in a good way). Have your local independent bookstore order Dry Souls for you, and be sure to tell your library about it so they can get a copy, too.
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Book info: Dry Souls / Denise Getson. CBAY Books, 2011. [author’s Facebook page] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: A flower? Kira wonders how a non-food plant survived the pollution and planetary drought that are killing humanity. In her desperation to keep the flower alive, Kira discovers that she can bring water to the ground with her fingertip!

When Matron finds the flower and decides to send her away from the orphanage, Kira knows that it’s time to run away, to head for the Dead Lakes Region where her mother had lived. Crossing toxic streams, encountering mutant wildlife, how long can Kira make it through this desolation created by worldwide chemical and biological warfare on her own?

Meeting up with JD who’s escaping from a boys’ orphanage was a stroke of luck for both teens, as they pool their skills and resources to survive. When they have to steal algae-bars from remote outposts, Kira creates water in repayment. They hide by day, traveling at night, heading for a Biosphere where they can get more nutritionals and sunblock to counteract the pollutants in the food and air.

But officials searching for Kira have reached the Biosphere first, and the friends must find a way to escape again before she’s captured for her water-creating abilities. A blind woman reading Kira’s palm recites an old proverb about water – and that’s supposed to help them find their way to Slag?

Can JD and Kira really survive a journey through the wasteland that the Devastation left behind?
What might they discover at the far-distant Dead Lakes to make it worth the journey?
If the officials are tracking them, will they even make it to tomorrow?

This debut novel is a brilliant dystopian future-view that begs to be made into a movie, that warns us of what our future could be, that urges us to have the vision to preserve our world. (194 pages) (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

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Reformed Vampire Support Group, by Catherine Jinks (fiction) – ethical vampires hunt a killer

Jul30

Sneak-in Saturday and another fun book that sneaked onto the bestseller lists before I could blog it for you.

Ahh, being a vampire must be exciting, right? Nah, can’t do much outdoors if bright light makes your eyes bleed. How to explain to the neighbors that you’re never getting any older? And if you just don’t believe that it’s ethically right to fang another human and turn them into a vampire without their consent?

Welcome to the small, but annoying world of the vampires in Australia, all of whom were changed by one vicious vampire. So for years, they’ve held regular Tuesday night support group meetings so they can stay “reformed” and keep their blood cravings under control. When one member is thoroughly and brutally snuffed out, it’s up to the Reformed Vampire Support Group to find the killer, even if they go into coma-like sleep the moment that the sun peeks over the horizon…

Lock up your guinea pigs when you read this funny take on the vampire mythos.
Followed by The Abused Werewolf Rescue Society.
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Book info: The Reformed Vampire Support Group / Catherine Jinks. Harcourt Children’s Books, 2009 (hardcover) [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Recommendation: When a vampire is murdered, the other vampires have to find the killer, right? Especially reformed vampires who fang guinea pigs instead of humans. A stake through the heart and a silver bullet and exposing the vampire to sunlight – that’s overkill, even for the undead. A real vampire-hater has accessed doubly-dead Casimir’s online address book and is coming after the other vampires of Sydney!

After complaining for years in their weekly support group meetings that nothing happens when you’re asleep all day and lock yourself up every full moon, suddenly the group has too much to do. Relying on Father Ramon, the human priest who helps them stay reformed, forever-15 Nina (who writes vampire fiction to pay her mom’s rent) and friends travel in a dark, sealed van to the Outback, following clues from silver bullet sales records and online bulletin boards.

Trapping a vampire-killer, finding a werewolf, getting back to safety before their supply of guinea pigs runs out – who knew that being a vampire would suddenly be so complicated?

This story of the good-hearted undead battling a pack of heartless humans is a wild romp with unexpected twists. Dark glasses? Check. Guinea pig? Check. Barf bag? Ooof. Followed by The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Ghostopolis, by Doug TenNapel (book review) – accidental afterlife, time to escape

Jul29

book cover of Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel published by GraphixGarth is dying, and he knows it. His mom isn’t ready for him to go, but she’s a lot less ready for him to get pulled into the realm of ghosts while he’s still alive!

Yep, a bumbling special agent gets sloppy in a supernatural capture-and-return so Garth is accidentally pulled into the afterlife.

Garth finds that the afterlife has its own politics and alliances, feuds and friendships. (I just love his new pal Skinny!)

A rescue team heads after him, even if some beings in the Afterlife don’t want to let him go!
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Book info: Ghostopolis / Doug TenNapel. Graphix (Scholastic), 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Book Talk:No ghosts among the living – that’s the rules. The living in the ghost world? Well, Garth is finding out how that works, as he gets dragged into the afterlife during a ghost capture gone wrong.

Garth would be getting to Ghostopolis sooner rather than later, since he has an incurable disease, but his mom really wants him back among the living now. It’s up to the Supernatural Immigration Task Force to correct their ghost-wrangling goof and retrieve Garth. This may take a while, even with an Earth-assigned ghost helping the SITF agents…

Meeting his grandpa’s ghost, riding a night-mare, getting mixed up in Ghostopolis politics – soon Garth finds that he has special powers that unscrupulous ghosts want to use for their own bleak purposes. The young hero’s only hope of returning home is locating the Tuskegee Airman, that great-hearted man who built up Ghostopolis, who helps dead souls out of it and into their true homes Beyond. It won’t be easy, though.

Life and afterlife, ghosts and the living, good guys and bad guys, and a chronologically illogical sense of time – hope the ghost-wranglers can get Garth out of Ghostopolis before it’s too late! This Eisner-nominated graphic novel is 288 pages of wow-factor art and snappy dialogue. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Devil’s Paintbox, by Victoria McKernan (fiction) – teens struggle on Western frontier

Jul28

book cover of Devil's Paintbox by Victoria McKernan Life on the western frontier was far more difficult than the Little House on the Prairie books showed us.

Aiden and Maddy are the last surviving members of their family whose homesteading dreams turned into a row of graves on the bleak Kansas prairie.

Their unlikely savior is gruff Jackson, recruiting for the even-tougher demands of the Pacific Northwest’s logging camps, who only agrees to take along Maddy if Aiden signs on for an extra year of logging work to pay their way West.

Friendly Nez Perce, not-always-friendly U.S. Army soldiers, and the dreaded smallpox shadow the wagon train, as they traverse open range, strain up mountain grades, and struggle across rivers.

Aiden toughens up as they travel, but will he be able to hold his own against the roughs and rowdies of the lumber camps? Adventure, peril, and possibilities fill this gripping tale of the West.
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Book info: The Devil’s Paintbox / Victoria McKernan. Random House, 2009. [author bio] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: The shoe leather soup is gone, so Maddie and Aiden will starve to death soon, just as their family did on the Kansas prairie in 1865. But over the hill rides Jefferson J. Jackson, recruiting workers for the lumber camps in Washington.

He allows the teens to join the wagon train going west, warning them that “any way you can think up to die is out there waiting” on the trail. Aiden agrees that his first two years’ wages will go to Jackson in payment for their travel, and they head west, away from the graves on the hillside, away from the dried-up homestead.

Jackson is all too correct, and dangers face the travelers day and night – rampaging rivers to cross, wolves stalking them, Indians who might attack, and diseases with no cures.

Aiden works with his bow and arrow, bringing in deer and rabbits for his sister Maddie to cook. He meets friendly Indians who cross their trail from time to time, teaching him bareback horse riding and improving his hunting skills.

But soon smallpox, “the Devil’s Paint”, appears at a nearby fort, and the deadly disease threatens them all. The wagon train’s doctor soon runs out of medicines, the Indians blame government-issued blankets for the epidemic, and survival is now a gamble for everyone.

Will Aiden make it to the lumber camp? How will a scrawny, malnourished 15-year-old keep up with strong men and dangerous work? Smallpox is just the first challenge that he must face as he tries to live long enough to grow up. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Esty’s Gold, by Mary Arrigan (fiction) – from Irish famine to Australia’s goldfields

Jul27

Famine! How could your family survive?

That’s the life-changing question that 12-year-old Esther faces, as we go back to the Irish Potato Famine of 1845 on this World Wednesday.

As the blight makes potatoes rot when they’re dug up, poor Irish rental farmers and their families starve to death with their main food source gone. While having just one variety of potato planted all over Ireland contributed to the problem, the Famine was largely caused by the laws forbidding Irish Catholics from owning land.

When Esty’s father is killed trying to help starving farmers, she and her mother and granddad no longer have a home, and Esty must hire out as a servant. Emigration out of Ireland is offered – many travel to the United States, but Esty has carefully read the newspapers discarded by her employer and finds a way for her family to get to the goldfields of Australia.

The Mahers will face bandits, harsh weather, backbreaking toil, and outright prejudice as they dig for gold in Ballarat in this exciting story based on history.

If your local independent bookstore doesn’t have Etsy’s Gold, they’ll be glad to order it for you. Check your local library, too!
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Book info: Esty’s Gold / Mary Arrigan. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site]

Recommendation: Surely the potato blight won’t hurt Esty’s family, her papa being agent for the landowner, right? But the famine in 1840s Ireland cuts deep, and 12-year-old Esty finds herself hired out as a servant, with Mama and Grandpa sent from their big house to a tiny cottage.

As the large landowners continue evicting the tenants who can’t pay rent or feed their families because of the blight, more rebellion springs up. Esty reads the newspapers discarded by her employers and dreams of taking her family away from the famine, off to the goldfields of Australia.

Such a long journey, from Ireland to the other side of the world! And what perils along the way to the goldfields at Ballarat – thieves, wild weather and worse!

Can Esty really find a way to get her family all the way to Australia? Will they be tough enough to survive the pioneer conditions at the edge of the Outback? Can they find gold or will Ballarat be one more heartbreak for the Mahers?(One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Accidental Hero -Jack Blank #1 (fiction)

Jul25

On this Mysterious Monday, meet Jack, who has a rotten life at the dismal orphanage, escaping through comic books, dreaming of superheroes …

In his not-so-super life, how could he imagine that those evil robots and superheroes are real or that HE has a superpower?

You’ll find this exciting showdown between robo-zombies, ninjas, and superheroes as Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation in hardcover and as The Accidental Hero in paperback.

The Secret War, book two of the series, will be published on August 9, 2011, so watch for Jack’s continuing adventures – and be on the lookout for robo-zombies!
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Book info: The Accidental Hero (originally titled: Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation) / Matt Myksluch. Simon & Schuster, 2010 (hardcover), 2011 (paperback). [author’s website] [publisher site: hardcover & paperback] [author video]

Recommendation: Jack’s hidden stash of old comic books is his only refuge from endless chores and bullying at the orphanage where he was abandoned as a baby 12 years ago. Captain Courage! Laser Girl! Evil circle-eyed Robo-Zombies who turn their victims into Robo-Zombies!

While bailing water from the orphanage’s basement, Jack hears strange noises from its sunken stairway. Suddenly a Robo-Zombie appears, aiming its rocket-cannon arm at him! Jack flees into the surrounding swamp, but can’t escape from the Robo-Zombie. Backed up against the generator shed, Jack wishes once again that he had superpowers and is shocked when he can make the generator blast his attacker.

Of course, no one at the orphanage believes Jack was attacked, instead blaming him for blowing up the generator. But the special agent who comes to question Jack about the Robo-Zombie is convinced and takes him away so he can report directly… to the Imagine Nation, where those with superpowers really do live!

Jack meets his comic book heroes there, as well as other legendary beings. Even though the agent tells Jack that this is his birthplace, the Imagine Nation’s borders are closed to outsiders because of Robo-Zombie attacks years before. When RZ nanites are detected in Jack’s blood, he’s suddenly on the run in this strange world. But why haven’t the RZ circles appeared around Jack’s eyes yet? Why is he still flesh and blood instead of cables and circuits?

Can Jack discover his superpower and learn to control it? Will he be the salvation of the Imagine Nation or its destruction? His new friends stand ready to help him prove his innocence, but superscientist Jonas Smart is ready to dissect Jack, just to make sure… (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Beyond the Mask

Jul24

Crossing the sea in a time before maps, searching for home using distant childhood memories…

Away from Grassland at last, Coriko’s group hopes to find Pippa’s family,
to find a good place to live, to perhaps find safety.

But the raiders of the Outside Lands have other ideas, and our young friends must help village folk and their priest survive the attacks. Can help from Grassland reach them in time?

You’ll want to meet Coriko and friends in book 1, Escape the Mask, and watch them grapple with new truths and new dangers in book 2, Beneath the Mask.

Then enjoy this thrilling conclusion of The Grassland Trilogy, filled with adventure and danger, from the days before written history when story taught about the past and perhaps about the future.

Book info: Beyond the Mask / David Ward. (Grassland Trilogy #3) Amulet, 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site]

Recommendation: Far north of Grassland, Pippa and her friends search for her home village, a place safe from the kidnapping and fighting life of the iron-masked Spears. The boys have been trained as warriors, but hope their skills are not needed on the journey.

At last, they find Pippa’s home and her father, but not a safe place, as raiders from the Outside Lands attack the village, again and again. How can a few young warriors help the villagers defend themselves? Could they get help from Maramuk and the Spears, across the sea in Grassland? Can the village priest’s wisdom and Tia’s leadership vision truly find a way to keep the Outsiders away from the north villages and Grassland for good?

This final book in The Grassland Trilogy is full of promise and peril, as Coriko, Pippa, Feelah, Thief, and Tia must struggle to find their places in a world much larger than they ever dreamed. (227 pages) (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Clockwork Three, by Matthew Kirby (book review) – automated man, secret music, hidden clues

Jul19

book cover of The Clockwork Three by Matthew J Kirby, published by ScholasticMysterious doings, nefarious plots, and a green violin! Three young people from widely different backgrounds become friends as they seek the links between strange items, even stranger events, and villainous strangers in a seaside city with a wild parkland at its heart.

A woodcarver‘s long-stilled hands left behind clues in the hotel doors and banisters. Secret knowledge hidden by the Guild of Clockmakers could be key. A mechanical man has more heart than the city’s businessmen, and the treasure hidden in the park holds the city together.

Debut author Kirby said that a old newspaper article about a young boy kidnapped and forced to fiddle on the streets for his masters was his inspiration for the opening events of this wondrous tale. Share the city and its mysteries with Guiseppe, Hannah, and Frederick.
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Book info: The Clockwork Three / Matthew J. Kirby. Scholastic, 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Book Talk: A shipwrecked violin whose music is magical… 62 holly leaves carved into the hotel woodwork (or is it 63?)… a mechanical man with no head and a clockwork head with no heart…

In a seaport city, the paths of an orphaned street musician, a young hotel maid, and an apprentice clockmaker cross and recross as they struggle with missing pieces of memory and money and mystery. Who is the lovely lady that selects Hannah as her personal attendant from the hotel staff? Will Guiseppe be able to hide enough coins from the gangboss for a ship ticket back to his homeland? And what of the sinister crates which Frederick sees unloaded at the museum, but are quickly hidden from the Guild of Clockmakers?

When the green park at the heart of the city is threatened by greedy developers, the three young people rush to solve the mystery before the treasure hidden there is lost forever!

Is there really a clockwork man running out of control in the city? Is the park an escape or a trap? And what do the holly leaves mean? Realistic details of an exotic place bring readers deep into this exciting tale’s many twists and turns with Guiseppe, Hannah, and Frederick. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.