(c) Dover Publications
In case you missed my Tweet a while back, here’s the link to my interview on Beth Fehlbaum’s blog as part of her Saturday Shout-Out series.
Thanks, Beth, for letting me share more about why I do what I do on BooksYALove!
**kmm
Spring Break in Mexico,
with the cutest guy ever…
now pursued by bad guys, even at home!
Annie’s history teacher asks the expert scuba diving teen to scope out a underwater clue about Cortes’ lost treasures during their service project trip.
Despite what her Hollywood elite classmates think, money may not be able to buy personal safety when other treasure hunters decide to play dirty!
Grab this July 2013 title today to see if Annie and Josh can outthink, outsmart, and outrun the gunmen who followed them back from Mexico!
How far would you be willing to go in the name of research?
**kmm
Book info: In Too Deep / Coert Voorhees. Hyperion, 2013 [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: Annie has researched the mythic Golden Jaguar statue found by Cortes, but doesn’t expect her Spring Break service project to become a treasure hunt, as she and her classmates race against time and killers who want the statue, too!
Blame Dad for giving her the treasure-hunting bug as they roamed Pacific beaches with a metal detector when she was a kid. But now, at ritzy private Pinedale Academy, prep school for Hollywood’s best and brightest, freshman Annie’s enthusiasm for historic shipwrecks is not an asset. At least she isn’t taking any of Dad’s AP history classes yet.
Her report on the life-size Golden Jaguar didn’t spark any interest in its mystery, just in its worth. Mr. Alvarez is sponsoring a Spring Break “Good Deeds and Gold Doubloons” to Mexico – Annie’s in it for the history, the other three are working off massive school demerits. Maybe time with dreamy Josh will make him really see her and forget about his disastrous diving lesson at Mom’s dive shop.
The teens finish their service project in record time, find a mention of the Golden Jaguar at the local museum, and get pressured into doing a night dive with borrowed equipment. Problems during the dive leave Annie anxious, but she does find something down there that must point to the treasure
Back home, she and Josh research a tantalizing clue that points to someplace where Cortes’ lost ship may have hidden the treasure. But their time is running out as they receive threats from Mexico, and the bad guys hunting the Golden Jaguar show up in town!
How can they get to the remote location to search for the Jaguar?
Can Josh keep up with Annie’s diving skill?
Will he finally realize how much she cares for him?
High school cliques, a heartfelt crush, Hollywood stars, evil henchman, and a bejeweled solid gold statue – Annie may truly be In Too Deep. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Parties, cute clothes!
More friend-time, less classwork.
Perfect world – or total illusion?
Freesia’s parents think she’s getting the best education available (and have the big tuition bills to prove it), the teen and her friendlies on Agalinas think school is a big party, and all of them are completely wrong!
This just-published novel starts off as frothy as Freesia’s favorite fruity beverage, but the secrets of Bubble World are dark and deep. Ask for it at your favorite local library or independent bookstore and see if anyone escapes this school misadventure unscathed!
Is it wrong to want to run away from real life when it bores you to death?
**kmm
Book info: Bubble World / Carol Snow. Henry Holt, 2013. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: Immersion classes and mega-parties on a tropical island – high school in paradise, with shopping, ziplines, and the cutest itty-cars! Freesia and her friendlies love being here, but these recent power outages are so wackacchino, like something is going wrong on Agalinas. Um, like what went wrong on the mainland?
Freesia’s parents and adoring little sister know the beautiful high schooler needs lots of time to be with her friendlies (and keep tabs on her enemies via bubble) and lots of shells to spend on clothes. Her bubble helps with Attire Assistance for her extensive wardrobe, holds her Outfit Registry (wear an outfit more than once every 4 months? Never!), and keeps her Chase Bennett music playing.
Her teachers match the snacks to the class, like bimbimbop and kimchee for Korean immersion and culture, but they don’t make the students wear themselves out speaking the language or doing homework. More time for parties and waterslides and shopping!
With exquisite houses and perfect beaches for these gorgeous teens, no one wonders why there’s no airport or passenger boat service to the mainland… but Freesia and best friend Ricky start to wonder about the more-frequent outages and discover startling things about Agalinas Island and Bubble World.
When one outage doesn’t reboot like normal, Freesia finds herself on the mainland, in her real non-beautiful body as Francine, in her family’s real house in the desert! What her parents thought about her virtual school is nowhere close to its reality; what Freesia thought was reality is closed off from her now.
How can Francine/Freesia cope with Phoenix instead of paradise?
Do her Agalinas friendlies miss her as much as she misses them?
How can she get back to the island??
Identity, reality, and friendship get spun and twisted around in this near-future tale of trying to use the digital world to avoid coping with the real world. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
“The game is afoot” with this week’s free audiobooks from SYNC as Sherlock Holmes is featured as a young man and as the world’s foremost consulting detective.
If you recall, I recommended Death Cloud on BooksYALove in April (the Holmes estate approved Lane’s story of Sherlock at age 14 – my review here). And of course, the original Sherlock Holmes’ cases are a mystery-lover’s delight.
Download these by Wednesday, August 7th, so you can listen to them for as long as you keep them on your computer or electronic device.
Death Cloud
By Andrew Lane
Read by Dan Weyman
Published by Macmillan Audio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Read by Ralph Cosham
Published by Blackstone Audio
Which Holmes would you like to meet – young or mature?
**kmm
Let’s get this all straight: Will is a teen girl (full name Wilhemina), Whit is Hurricane Whitney striking inland Virginia, and this great graphic novel has heart written all over its black and white pages.
A shrink would make much of Will’s creation of lamps from found objects in relation to her fear of dark, but I think her creative heart would lead her to do it anyway. She and her friends won’t let a little thing like a hurricane and no electricity stop them from putting on quite an arts carnival to end their summer.
Take a peek into Will’s life with the book trailer (you know, like a movie trailer -except for a book) – gotta love Laura Lee’s art!
Have you ever faced your fears like Will wants to do?
**kmm
Book info: Will & Whit / story and art by Laura Lee Gulledge. Amulet Books, 2013. [author site] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: As a hurricane approaches, Will confronts her new fear of the dark as she finds ways to move forward with her life through friends old and new.
Just a few more weeks of summer before their junior year of high school, so Wilhemina and her pals float along the river on air mattresses, check out the kids across town planning an arts carnival, and hope that Hurricane Whitney won’t really get this far inland. Will makes lamps from interesting found materials, Autumn loves creating puppets, Noel is the best cook ever.
The late-season storm does hit their Virginia hometown, knocking out the power for days. She and her aunt are fine in the family antique store, but now Will has even more dark places to avoid as she tries to not-think about what happened to her a year ago.
Ava and Blake have worked on their arts carnival all summer – now the continuing blackout may prevent them from actually having the show.
Can Will, Autumn, and Noel help the show go on?
Is there some special chemistry brewing between the two groups of friends?
When will she face what happened last summer?
Laura Lee Gulledge’s black-and-white art is filled with heart and hope and light, despite the personal darkness that Will must face in this graphic novel of friendship and growth. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Backpack with bandana and inhaler? Check.
Iron key from Mr. Gallaway? Yes.
Enough courage to fight for their lives? Hope so!
Oh, she wanted an adventure this summer visiting England, but Holly never intended to strand her asthmatic little brother and their new friend in a medieval world where magic is punishable by death!
You can get this first volume of a planned five-part series now at your local library or independent bookstore; book two, The Wand and the Sea, is due out in summer 2014.
Would you be brave enough to open a door to an unknown place?
**kmm
Book info: The Key and the Flame / Claire M. Caterer. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2013. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: Holly longs to have an adventure during her family’s trip to England. The gift of an iron key opens the way into a dangerous world where magic is forbidden, and she discovers her hidden powers!
If her brother Ben hadn’t been playing his video games, then the eleven-year-old wouldn’t have walked into the forest all by herself, hearing that humming, finding a tree with a keyhole in it, a keyhole that just fits the key given to her by the cottage caretaker… and she wouldn’t have seen ghosts in the ruined castle, ghosts of Ben and neighbor Everett being threatened by swordsmen!
A key to a magic place? Ben and Everett go along with Holly to the keyhole-oak, and the trio falls into the Middle Ages! (good thing Ben has his inhaler) Except none of the history books they’d read ever mentioned talking cats or centaurs…
This particular past has many types of magical creatures, all sentenced to death by the non-magical King and his wicked adviser. By using the key to travel here, Holly has proved that she is a most-magical Adept, perhaps the one prophesied to restore magic to balance the world!
Why don’t the griffins and shapeshifters believe that she’s just a girl?
How can she prove to the King that she’s not a magical threat?
Can she harness her magic in time to rescue Ben and Everett from certain death?
“Only the strong of heart take the circular path, for to return from whence you came brings the ending back to the beginning.” First in a five-volume series, The Key and the Flame takes readers from a boring US suburb to a magical English forest where friendship and courage are tested to the limits. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
How thoughtful of His young Highness to be born on the very week when SYNC had already scheduled not one, but two Prince audiobooks for your free download and continued listening pleasure!
We’ve already met The False Prince on BooksYALove (my no-spoiler review here) and the tale of The Prince and the Pauper is well worth another listen, especially when Steve West is reading it to you.
Just a few more weeks of great, full-length audiobooks to download free at SYNC on its Thursday to Wednesday schedule: http://www.audiobooksync.com/
The False Prince
By Jennifer Nielsen
Read by Charlie McWade
Published by Scholastic Audiobooks
The Prince and the Pauper
By Mark Twain
Read by Steve West
Published by Blackstone Audio
Would you rather be a prince or yourself?
**kmm
Move our whole village?
School for all the children!!
Leaving behind our memories and starting from scratch?
In 1967, Tanzania was still “becoming” a single country after the merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar following their recent independence from European powers. President Nyerere asked all his people and tribes to work together as one. Sometimes this meant moving from small poor villages into larger villages to have schools and medical care.
Ask for this April 2013 paperback at your local library or favorite independent bookstore, and travel in its pages to discover how Shida and her family cope with big changes in those early years of Tanzania.
When has moving to a new place helped you grow?
**kmm
Book info: A Girl Called Problem / Katie Quirk. Eerdmans, 2013. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: A new start sounds good to Shida, as Tanzania becomes a unified country in 1967, but can the 13 year old and the other villagers truly find a better life in their new town?
So many problems in her life – mama depressed and thought to be a witch, a curse tied to their family, even Shida’s name means ‘problem’ in Swahili, her only gift from her late father’s family. She learns about healing herbs from the village grandmothers and helps families with small illnesses – why can’t the village elders see that she should become a true healer, instead of just planning to be married?
To become a strong new African nation, the people need schools and health care, so the president asks those in small villages to move and form towns. Move from Litongo? Each family will have a new hut with tin roof and a plot for growing food. All the children will go to school, even the girls!
The president’s promises are true – new huts, plots of land, a school, and a clinic! But some already living in Njia Panda don’t want more people in their town, and many traditional men think that girls shouldn’t be in school, including their teacher! Odd things begin to happen in the Litongo part of town – cattle wander from the thornbush corral, clothing goes missing (Mama Shida is sure it’s another curse).
Can Shida and her cousins convince their teacher that girls belong at school?
Can Shida care for her mama and have time to work with the clinic nurse, too?
Can she solve the mysterious things happening to her neighbors?
A full and vibrant slice of life in the early days of Tanzania, A Girl Called Problem tries to outrun her own name and find a way for the Litongo villagers to truly become part of the town and their country’s future. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
This week’s free audiobooks from SYNC are deadly good! Download these by Wednesday, July 24 – a new pair will be ready on Thursday.
You remember how much I like Robin LaFever’s Grave Mercy about Lord Death’s handmaidens in Brittany (my no-spoiler recommendation here), and what better companion piece than death-weary Hamlet, performed by the talented full cast of L.A. Theatre Works…
Remember, download a pair of great audiobooks FREE each week of the summer here: http://www.audiobooksync.com and enjoy them any time you like!
Grave Mercy (this download only available for US & Canada)
By Robin LaFevers
Read by Erin Moon
Published by Recorded Books
Hamlet
By William Shakespeare
Performed by a full cast
Published by L.A. Theatre Works
Cold death on a hot summer’s day….
**kmm
An 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)