Tag Archive | family

Stolen Magic, by Stephanie Burgis (book review) – rogue magic-wielder, powerful secrets

Jul22

book cover of Stolen Magic by Stephanie Burgis published by Atheneum Books for Young ReadersAn unlicensed magic-wielder on the loose,
A future mother-in-law trying to stop her son’s wedding,
The threat of war with France always looming…
Surely the teeniest bit of magic from Kat would make things better, right?

Of course not! And with her big brother finally deciding to watch over her, the youngest Stephenson sister can hardly practice her magic – if the Guardians will ever schedule her test, that is.

Do read chapter one of Stolen Magic  here (no major spoilers), and be sure to grab Kat, Incorrigible (book 1) and Renegade Magic (book 2) before you dive into finale of this early 19th century mystery-magic-political intrigue-adventure series!

If you had a bit of magic, what would you do?

**kmm

Book info: Stolen Magic (The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson, book 3) / Stephanie Burgis.  Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]   Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Kat senses magic following as her family travels to Angeline’s long-delayed wedding, but soon discovers that England itself is in peril unless can stop the rogue magic-wielder!

At least she’ll get to see older sister Elissa again at the wedding, Kat sighs, as the borrowed coach bumps over country roads toward the Carlyle estate. Their brother Charles and Stepmama have kept Kat from practicing her magic, even as her initiation into the Order of the Guardians approaches.

Being a witch or a magic-wielder is frowned upon by Regency society, and Stepmama so longs to be accepted by those of ‘good breeding’ like Lady Fotherington. During introductions, the beautiful Marquise who knew Kat’s late mother has such an interesting reaction – were she and Lady Fotherington previously acquainted?

Even with the mansion filled by both families and many guests, Kat senses the rogue magic nearby, but can’t run off exploring while Lady Fotherington is watching her, trying to find some reason to disqualify her from the Order. Hoping to stop the wedding plans for good, Mrs. Carlyle has invited Frederick’s lovely childhood sweetheart to stay, and Angeline fears her beauty will steal her fiance’s heart.

Will there be a wedding for Angeline at last?
Can Kat find the rogue magic-wielder before it’s too late?
Is her initiation into the Order ever going to happen?

Secret passageways, caverns in the cliffs overlooking the sea, magic attacks by the rogue, and a threat on Kat’s life!

This final volume of The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson wraps up the mysterious magic of an alternate Great Britain during its Regency years as shared in Kat, Incorrigible  (book 1) and Renegade Magic  (book 2). (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Secret Ingredient, by Stewart Lewis (book review) – psychic to young chef: change is coming

Jul12

book cover of The Secret Ingredient by Stewart Lewis published by DelacorteTwo food-obsessed dads,
One music-mad brother,
The world’s best best friend,
and a long-ignored question bubbling up, demanding an answer.

Maybe the psychic’s unsought observation is true, and every decision that Olivia makes this summer will be connected. Maybe she’ll find cute Theo again, too.

A movie version is already in the works for this June 2013 book, but it’s set in Birmingham instead of LA.  The Secret Ingredient‘s  SoCal setting is plot-essential, as Ollie gets a summer job with a Hollywood casting agency, counts the palm trees as she passes each one on her bus ride, and harbors a lingering fear of the ocean’s depths. I’ve always said that the book is better than the movie –  just try to imagine two gay men adopting children 17 years ago in Alabama…

In the book, Ollie shares several recipes with her own secret ingredient added – any recipes with your special touch?
**kmm

Book info: The Secret Ingredient / Stewart Lewis. Delacorte Press, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: This summer should be relaxed for Olivia, but the unexpected jumps in. With a psychic’s warning and a vintage cookbook in hand, Ollie decides to help her dads save their restaurant and finally search for her birth mother.

Bell and Enrique have put everything they have into FOOD, and mortgage payments are coming due too soon. Ollie cooks the special on Saturday nights, always adding a secret ingredient for her own signature touch. Her big brother is totally obsessed with his guitar playing, but his huge talent isn’t exactly paying his bills yet.

They’ve had never been particularly bothered about being adopted by their gay dads (LA is pretty laid-back that way), but Ollie begins to wonder about her own mother when she hears that her best friend Lola’s mother has cancer.

Riding up the elevator to her summer job at a casting agency, a psychic suddenly tells the sixteen year old that her choices will be pivotal and connected, including a young man, guidance from the past, and food, too.

Maybe Theo from last summer will come back?
Perhaps her birth mother is the past part?
And food is always with Ollie – but will FOOD survive, too?

As she supports Jeremy breaking into the music business, creates a backstory for the handwritten notes found in an old cookbook, and stands by Lola during her mother’s treatments, Ollie has to figure out whether the secret ingredient for her own life might be finding her birth mother…or not.

Enjoy the recipes this brilliant young chef shares as she finds her own way in the world during an intense high school summer. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Nix Minus One, by Jill MacLean (book review) – save his sister, a dog, himself?

Jul10

book cover of Nix Minus One by Jill MacLean published by Pajama PressA dog, beaten and ignored.
A girl, risking and reckless.
A boy who must step out of his safe-place to save them…

I lived in Newfoundland in early grade school (on a now-closed Air Force base), so I have a strong mental picture of the isolated small coastal town that Roxy longs to escape, where Nix’s solitary ways are known to everyone, where a story can never be untold.

Request this novel-in-verse from your local library or independent bookstore; they might have to order it (Pajama Press is a small Canadian firm, not one of the “Big 5”), but it’s so worth waiting for!

Have you ever felt like the only person who could fix a situation?
**kmm

Book info: Nix Minus One / Jill MacLean. Pajama Press, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Nix helps hide Roxy’s wild nightlife from their parents, like he wants to help the mistreated dog he meets, but the consequences may be too much for the quiet teen to handle.

Now that cod fishing is done for good, coastal Newfoundland towns are shrinking fast, but there are still enough bullies at the regional high school to taunt Nix about his weight and red hair. All the ninth grader wants to do is be left alone to play video games and work in Dad’s furniture workshop, pretending that beautiful Loren will pay attention to him some day.

Just by chance, he sees a beaten and half-starved dog at a neighbor’s house and wishes yet again that Mom would have let them have one instead of worrying about clean floors. Maybe the old grump will let Nix walk the dog, just to get her out of that poop-strewn yard full of junk.

Big sister Roxy decides to party with a senior and expects Nix to cover for her when she misses curfew. Their conservative parents warily respect his smooth manners and rich family, but have no idea that he’s the area go-to-guy for drugs. Everyone at school knows Bryan will dump her after a few weeks… everyone but Roxy.

Nix finally coaxes the dog into walking up into the hills with him, occasionally meeting classmate Blue when she’s birdwatching, both laughing about how they’ll never be popular at school with these hobbies.

And then that rainy night, when Roxy doesn’t come home, when silence becomes the fourth person at their dinner table…

Why couldn’t Nix keep his sister safe?
Why can’t he get Twig away from the master who mistreats her?
Why can’t he make Mom and Dad happy?

This powerful novel-in-verse echoes with the rhythms of family life, school tensions, unexpressed dreams and desires, and a long-hidden story that suddenly re-orients everything that Nix ever knew. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Splintered, by A. G. Howard (book review) – Alyssa in Wonderland, forever?

Jul8

book cover of Splintered by AG Howard published by Amulet Books“Off with her head!”
Red Queen and White Queen,
Wonderland was never as benign as the animated Disney movie version led us to believe!

Even the newer movie of Alice’s return to Wonderland isn’t as life-and-death gritty as what Alyssa finds when she goes down the rabbit hole, trying to break the Liddell family curse of madness.

Texas author A.G. Howard compiled a playlist of songs to keep her in the Splintered  mood – alternative rock, dark, experimental. Wonder what she’s listening to now as she writes book 2, Unhinged…

Got a favorite Wonderland character to share?
**kmm

Book info: Splintered / A.G. Howard. Amulet Books, 2013.   [author blog]   [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: If hearing plants means you’re crazy, then soon Alyssa will be as insane as her mother, unless she can make the treacherous journey to a forbidden place that could save them both or doom her forever.

It was her great-great-great-grandmother whose dreams inspired Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland,  and the Liddell women have been cursed with madness ever since. Dad had to put Alison in a psychiatric home when he found her snipping at little Alyssa’s hands with garden shears. Of course, he couldn’t hear the flowers whispering or know that Alyssa was just trying to protect them. A car wreck is the convenient explanation for her scars, for Mom’s crazy talk at Soul’s Asylum.

Alyssa can ignore the everyday whispers of flowers and bugs, but not the enormous moth in her dreams who promises release from their madness. Too bad her best friend Jeb won’t keep his promise to go with her to England, preferring the company of beautiful, rich Taelor.

Her long-ago memories include dreams of a little boy in a strange land, who has grown up to become that moth in her dreams! Morpheus says that Alyssa can break the curse and save her mother, if she’ll just bring back what Alice Lidell took from Wonderland, things that Alison hid in their house.

If Alyssa can get to England and find the rabbit hole into Wonderland…
If she can let Jeb help her when she’s afraid he’ll be trapped, too…
If they can fix what went wrong when Alice escaped carrying Wonderland objects…
even when nothing is as it appears and not everyone wants the wrongs made right!

A journey into madness to break insanity’s curse, the solid friendship of a good human guy against the enchanting promises of Morpheus, secrets and sacrifices – this is no cutesy fairy tale, but a gritty, dark-angel quest that will take everything Alyssa’s got and perhaps more! Followed by Unhinged.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Raising the dead with free SYNC audiobooks!

Jun29

This week’s free audiobooks from SYNC are deadly delights, as we hear tales of a grave-robber and a mad scientist…

Remember that although each download is only available from Thursday through Wednesday, you have free use of the audiobooks for as long as you keep them on your computer or electronic device

We have several more weeks of full-length audiobooks to look forward to this summer. Have you bookmarked the SYNC site yet?  http://www.audiobooksync.com/
 
CD audiobook cover of Rotters by Daniel Kraus read by Kirby Heyborne published by Listening LibraryRotters
By Daniel Kraus
Read by Kirby Heyborne
Published by Listening Library

 

 

FrankensteinCD cover of audiobook Frankenstein by Mary Shelley read by Jim Weiss published by Listening Library
By Mary Shelley
Read by Jim Weiss
Published by Listening Library

Do you dare listen to these creepy tales before bedtime?
**kmm

Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays (book review) – YA authors write essays worth reading!

Jun28

book cover of Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays edited by Rebecca Stern and Brad Wolfe published by Roaring Brook“Which five historical figures would you invite to dinner?”
“Describe a time when you lied for a good reason.”

Ah, the dreaded essay-writing assignment in school or for a contest or for college admissions…

Thank goodness essays really don’t have to be five perfect paragraphs or written in third person or even written in words!

In this collection, 37 contemporary YA authors, from The Candymakers‘  Wendy Mass to The Apothecary‘s  Maile Meloy, have tackled classic essay prompts and brought us a great assortment of personal, persuasive, and literary essays that will make you ponder, nod in appreciation, and shake your head in disbelief.

Read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children  author Ransom Riggs’ essay “Camp Dread or How to Survive a Shockingly Awful Summer”  here as he answers the prompt “Describe a time you had to do something you really didn’t want to do.”

All the authors have waived their usual royalty payments for their work on this book, instead having the money sent to international education charity Free the Children.

Any other truly creative essays out there that we should be reading?
**kmm

Book info: Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays / Rebecca Stern and Brad Wolfe, editors. Roaring Brook Press, 2013.  [publisher site]  [book FB page]

My book talk: Got the boring essay blues? Well, current authors of young adult and middle grade books take aim at humdrum school essays as the writers set essays free from traditional 5-paragraph format in response to a variety of common prompts in this new collection.

Read “Princess Leia is an Awesome Role Model” by Cecil Castellucci and see if she truly does “compare and contrast two characters from the same story” as per her assignment, then follow along as Ned Vizzini argues intelligently about “Why We Need Tails” as the best trait we could steal from animals.

Dip into an author’s personal history as Elizabeth Winthrop recounts “My Life Before Television” in a before and after essay and Laurel Snyder writes about “a time a friend helped” her with “A Good Lie.”

Chris Higgins argues with himself quite convincingly, writing both the title essay “Breakfast on Mars: Why We Should Colonize the Red Planet” as well as its rebuttal “Robots Only: Why We Shouldn’t Colonize Mars.”

For the essay prompt of “Take a belief that is widely accepted, and then debunk it” Scott Westerfeld gives us fair “Warning: This Essay Does Not Contain Pictures” in discussing why modern novels have no pictures as they did in Dickens’ day.

Nick Abadsiz remakes the classic “if you could change one moment in history” essay by drawing his responses as “Laika Endings” about the Russian cosmonaut dog.

Improve your own non-fiction writing range, get glimpses into the real lives and opinions of fiction authors, and learn some neat stuff along the way as you consider Breakfast on Mars. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Gorgeous, by Paul Rudnick (book review) – beauty more than skin deep?

Jun27

book cover of Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick published by Scholastic
Red dress, white dress,
duckling becomes swan!
One day will she awaken
to find the magic gone?

Stepping cautiously out of her trailer park and into Tom Kelly’s heady world of high fashion and celebrity, shy Becky puts on the first dress he creates for her and instantly becomes Rebecca, the most beautiful woman in the world. Of course, such a magical transformation comes at a price…

Paul Rudnick has written essays, plays, movies (Addams Family Values and others), but this is his first young adult book – and he nails it! Read the first two chapters here for free, and you’ll be hooked! Find Gorgeous at your local public library or independent bookstore to see if Rebecca/Becky succeeds.

If you had one year to do something extraordinary, what would you choose to do?
**kmm

Book info: Gorgeous / Paul Rudnick. Scholastic Press, 2013 [author NPR  interview]  [publisher site] [book Facebook page]

My book talk: After her mom dies suddenly, Becky calls the mysterious phone number she left, and designer Tom Kelly swears he can transform the shy teen into the most beautiful woman in the world – how could she say no? If she’d only foreseen the consequences…

What made her sweet, funny mom hide in their trailer house and overeat herself to death, Becky never knew. As she gathers up Mom’s clothes for charity, the 18-year-old finds a ring box containing just a phone number. When she dials it, the lady answering sends her a plane ticket to New York – the world’s most famous designer must see her, right now!

Her first plane trip, first limo ride, first time out of Missouri – suddenly Becky is swept into a sophisticated glass mansion overlooking the New York skyline. Tom Kelly knew her mother (why didn’t Mom ever tell her?) and promises that if Becky will wear the 3 dresses he designs for her then she’ll be the most beautiful woman in the world. There is a catch – she must fall in love and get married within one year.

Agreeing to his idea, she finds herself being measured, fitted, and fabulously attired in the most amazing red dress as Rebecca. When she accompanies Tom into the city, the reporters and bloggers go wild – who is she? The reclusive designer escorts Rebecca to her Vogue cover photo shoot, to the opera where her unearthly beauty upstages the diva. When anyone else is around, Rebecca is stunningly beautiful, but when she’s alone, the mirror shows shy, dumpy Becky is still there.

Whisked away on a motorcycle by her teen idol Jate, Rebecca effortlessly becomes a movie star in his latest action adventure. Her best friend Rocher from home joins her as she tours the world as the face of Tom Kelly Designs. When Rebecca meets and charms Prince Gregory as they open a London children’s hospital, she decides that he’s the one for her.

Will Gregory fall in love with her, too?
Could the British public accept an American as wife of the royal heir?
Can Rebecca slow down time so her year lasts long enough?

More than a Cinderella fashion story, Gorgeous  takes aim at our insatiable appetite for who’s who, beauty,and the latest style in everything, as Becky/Rebecca tries to discover her true self during twelve too-short months. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Anthem for Jackson Dawes, by Celia Grant (book review) – cancer, friendship, music, and love

Jun26

book cover of Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Grant published by Bloomsbury Books for Young ReadersCancer?
Stuck in a pediatric ward?
What 13-year-old wants any of that?

When her friends don’t make the trip into London to visit her in the hospital, when the first clumps of her hair start falling out during chemo, only Jackson’s brilliant smile can start to cheer up Megan.

Grab some tissues when you get this memorable book from your local library or independent bookstore for the happy-sad story.

Is our time together here on Earth ever really long enough?
**kmm

Book info: Anthem for Jackson Dawes / Celia Grant.  Bloomsbury Books for Children, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]

My book talk: Stuck in the children’s ward of a London hospital, teens Megan and Jackson battle cancer, boredom, and their unknown futures as they forge a friendship that could be more.

Megan knew these horrible headaches weren’t normal for 13-year-olds, but she’d never have dreamed that a cancerous brain tumor was causing them. Her doctors are quick to order chemo, quick to hustle her into the first available hospital spot, not so quick to realize that being in a noisy ward with little kids isn’t very healing for teenagers… thank goodness she’ll be there a few weeks, then home for a while before the next round. And her friends will come in from the suburbs to visit her, right?

The brightest spot in the whole whirlwind of noise, nausea and IVs is Jackson, another teen like her, stuck in the kiddie ward as he fights off a rare cancer with more and more experimental treatments. But Jackson isn’t like anyone else. Tall, thin, blackest skin, brightest smile, he roams the hospital at all hours, especially where he shouldn’t be going. When Meg is at her lowest, he’ll tell her stories in his late Jamaican grandfather’s accent, sing the songs the two Jacksons shared, for music is his greatest passion.

When she’s home between treatments, Megan is so tired from the chemo that she can’t even go back to school half-days – and forget about playing soccer on the school team as she used to do. Her friends come over, but no one knows what to talk about – cancer will do that, Jackson says. If only Dad wasn’t working so far away, if Granddad could travel to the hospital to cheer everyone up…

Every time Jackson or Megan goes home from the hospital, they miss one another terribly and worry that they won’t be in for treatment at the same time next round. As Megan’s tumor shrinks and her surgery approaches, the pair escapes the ward nightly to wander through the hospital… in search of what?

How many of the kids in their ward will beat their cancer?
Why can’t Megan’s friends understand that it’s still her under the wig?
Are their days and nights in hospital all the time that Megan and Jackson will ever have together?

Full of heart and feeling, but never sentimental, Anthem for Jackson Dawes  pays tribute to all the youngsters who fight full-force against cancer, their caregivers and parents, and their schoolmates and siblings who watch bewildered from the sidelines.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Nobody’s Secret, by Michaela MacColl (book review) – Emily Dickinson, death, and a mystery

Jun25

book cover of Nobodys Secret by Michaela MacColl published by Chroncicle BooksSmall-town secrets, small-town minds,
Can’t be bothered  too much about a dead stranger,
But young Emily can’t forget meeting him… Mr. Nobody.

Yes, teenaged Emily Dickinson can’t ignore the obvious clues left at Mr. Nobody’s purported death scene, even when warned away by her fastidious mother and local law officials.

A mystery threaded through with first drafts of her poems, from those earlier days when she would venture out of her house alone – and perhaps a mystery that solves the mystery of why her older self kept so much to herself.

Do you like novels which “star” real people?
**kmm

Book info: Nobody’s Secret / Michaela MacColl. Chronicle Books, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My book talk: When Emily meets a young man who charmingly declines to tell her his name, she’s intrigued. When he’s found dead in her family’s pond, she’s aghast. When she decides to discover who he is and why he died, she’s in danger from more than just society’s disapproval.

Of course, she knows that Mama wants her to stay indoors with sister Vinnie, doing their chores while not in school. But the meadows and clouds call to Emily’s poetic soul, which is why the young man from elsewhere finds her out among the flowers. As they don’t properly exchange names, they call one another “Nobody” with laughter. A chance meeting in town shows Mr. Nobody less than cheerful about family business which brought him to the law office of Emily’s father in Amherst.

Imagine the shock of finding him drowned in the Dickinson family pond later! But he’s clad in rough workman’s wear instead of the city clothes Emily remembered, and no one in town knows his name, so his body is being kept in the church basement until he can be identified.

Emily takes it upon herself to unravel the mystery surrounding him so that the young man may at least be buried under his own name. But Amherst is a small town, and everyone knows what everyone else is doing, so it may be more difficult than she first thought.

Why did Mr. Nobody say he’d leave as soon as he cleared up this family business?
If he has family nearby, why haven’t they claimed his body?
Why don’t the stories that Emily uncovers add up to the truth?

As the fifteen-year-old tries to understand what happened to the young man she wanted to know better, she jots down impressions which become the unique poetry seen later by the larger world, as Mr. Nobody predicted, in this original and clever mystery featuring Emily Dickinson.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley.

SYNC audiobooks – yes, listening IS reading!

Jun23

It’s  time for my weekly reminder about this week’s free audiobooks from SYNC so you can read with your ears!

You only have until Wednesday June 26 to download this pair of complete audiobooks. However, you have free use of them as long as you keep them on your computer or electronic device

And in case you’re worried that listening to audiobooks isn’t considered “real reading,” check out this recent Forbes  article on the question. (sorry for the “Forbes quote” screen you must click through to get to the article)

CD audiobook cover of Once by Morris Gleitzman read by the author published by Bolinda AudioOnce
By Morris Gleitzman
Read by the author
Published by Bolinda Audio

 

 

Letter From Birmingham JailCD audiobook cover of Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr read by Dion Graham published by Christianaudio
By Martin Luther King Jr.
Read by Dion Graham
Published by ChristianAudio

 

 

What do you think of this audiobook pairing – a Jewish boy escaping across Nazi-occupied Poland and Dr. King’s famous letter about injustice ?
**kmm