tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70130791187571938812024-02-07T18:27:08.238-08:00Last Night a Novel Saved my LifeYA Lit Pics from a "former teenager"Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-31663765150510137612011-12-01T11:43:00.000-08:002011-12-01T18:47:48.558-08:00Floors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBtQP7iNkDAqztOywnSbAxnmv9VmRmaOWTt7seg5Vg7B1CzuBeHAwNEGs78vgBU2miisvktZmH-DDp5k_yB81IuLRDLd_Dmx_A5rXiwe6fqBdwJ64Ty3fbRsjoL3nfviMI6hMrYCSnCPZJ/s1600/floors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBtQP7iNkDAqztOywnSbAxnmv9VmRmaOWTt7seg5Vg7B1CzuBeHAwNEGs78vgBU2miisvktZmH-DDp5k_yB81IuLRDLd_Dmx_A5rXiwe6fqBdwJ64Ty3fbRsjoL3nfviMI6hMrYCSnCPZJ/s320/floors.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><b style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Annotation:</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> When the inventor of a fantastical hotel goes missing and an evil businessmen plots the hotel’s demise, it’s up to the janitor’s son Leo, his pal Remi and the inventor’s beloved pet ducks to follow clues and brave the hotel’s magical and treacherous secrets to foil the businessmen’s plot and save the hotel.</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Book Talk</b>:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“<i>You will prosper in the field of wacky inventions”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">When his father uttered those final words on his deathbed, 15-year-old Merganzer Whippet took them to heart. He’d been away at boarding school for ten years, and couldn’t possibly have known his father had been speaking such gobbledygook for weeks. But it didn’t matter because Merganzer believed the words and so he made them come true; he grew up and built the most outrageous, absurd and fantastical hotel New York City had ever seen! And then he <i>disappeared.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Meanwhile, across town, sinister businessman Bernard Frescobaldi plots against the Whippet Hotel. He has accessed Merganzer’s private files and is about to set in motion a plan to take down the inventor’s greatest creation!<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Leo Fillmore lives in the basement of Whippet Hotel and assists his father, the hotel’s janitor. He has always known the Whippet is a special hotel, but it’s only after Merganzer has been missing for one hundred days that he learns its true <i>magic.</i> When a mysterious box with Merganzer’s image and Leo’s name appears in the special elevator for the inventor’s beloved ducks who live on the hotel’s roof, he doesn’t have a choice, but to follow the 4 peculiar instructions on the enclosed note from Merganzer’s attorney. Especially after he reads the note’s final warning:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“Don’t fail, young Mr. Fillmore, for if you do, the Whippet Hotel and all it stands for will come to an end. Only you can save the Whippet now. He’s counting on you to set things right.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">But it won’t be easy! Even with help from the new door boy Remi and Merganzer’s ducks, danger lurks along every secret tunnel, trap door and hidden floor of the hotel. Clues magically appear and then vanish on walls, and one misstep in the wrong direction and Leo could explode into fairy dust! Merganzer’s whimsically themed rooms can turn deadly too, like when Leo is forced to play his way to safety in the life-sized pinball machine room!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Will Leo be able to crack the codes, follow the clues and race his way through the maze of Merganzer’s most secret and magical creations in time to halt Bernard Fescobaldi’s evil plot? Time is ticking and it’s up to Leo to save the Whippet Hotel and set things right once and for all!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Learn more about the strange and mysterious Whippet Hotel, straight from author Patrick Carman!</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ACId2VzTT9s?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">"Floors by Patrick Carman" </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Online Posting</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">. YouTube, 12 September 2011. Web. 1 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">December 2011.</span></span><br />
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</span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Carman, Patrick. <i>Floors.</i> New York: Scholastic, 2011. Print.</span><br />
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</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://www.tower.com/</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-20317230448599374292011-11-29T16:45:00.000-08:002011-12-01T18:48:09.429-08:00Wildwood<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiar62qoPnssgZe8lcMoknOByYaD0VYpMcKpeWkXJ-dWLlTys-jwH3tXz9VKaVjdCMC2jClrhXRb1byvjDkYuemZO7O2h8hOBVdXepcSvP37L1N6caJM658aNegRLwPayCLBUg1TzDpRVjs/s1600/wildwood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiar62qoPnssgZe8lcMoknOByYaD0VYpMcKpeWkXJ-dWLlTys-jwH3tXz9VKaVjdCMC2jClrhXRb1byvjDkYuemZO7O2h8hOBVdXepcSvP37L1N6caJM658aNegRLwPayCLBUg1TzDpRVjs/s1600/wildwood.jpg" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation: </b>This first installment launches The Wildwood Chronicles as Prue and her pal Curtis embark on a rescue mission to the forbidden "Impassable Wilderness of Portland, Oregon after her baby brother Mac is carried off by crows. Along the way the pair find themselves caught in the middle of an epic conflict among the divided human, talking animal and magical creatures who inhabit the wood.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Prue had been warned about the Impassable Wilderness since as far back as she could remember. No matter how cool or laid back the artsy hipster parents of Portland were, they all forbid their children from ever setting foot near the I.P. Prue had never given the woods a second thought, and besides, you’d have to cross the Industrial Wastes to get there, and who would want to do that? She was content to cruise around Portland with her baby brother Mac’s wagon hitched to the back of her bicycle. Until the day the <i>murder </i>of crows stole him, that is! Right from the back of the wagon, in the middle of the safe old park! They just swooped right down, lifted him up in his blanket and flew him away into the <i>Impassable Wilderness!</i><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Determined to rescue Mac, Prue ignores the echoes of the warnings from her quirky, yet sensible parents and sets off on an adventure with very little clues to guide her journey. And to make matters worse, Curtis, a kid from the neighborhood, has followed her out of Portland and he’s not exactly coming in handy as an adventure buddy; more like an adventure liability! <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Just crossing into the woods is risky enough, but what awaits Prue and Curtis is far more treacherous. The magical woodland creatures are at war! Prue and Curtis find themselves smack in the middle of an epic political struggle for control of the wood. From the coyote soldiers and the Dowager Governess to the mystics, the bandits and their king and the privileged bourgeoisie human and animal town folk, it isn’t easy to discern just who or what Prue and Curtis should trust and align with. It will take all the courage, smarts and luck they have to rescue Mac and battle their way out of the <i>Wildwood</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Get started reading Wildwood right away! Click <a href="http://www.wildwoodchronicles.com/books#" target="_blank">here</a> to download a free preview except of the book!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Check out a book trailer with illustrations from the book!</span></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/iLacpZuYNo8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">"Wildwood by Colin Meloy, Illustrated by Carson Ellis" </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Online Posting</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">. YouTube, 28 July 2011. Web. 29 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">November 2011.</span></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.4; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: normal;">Enjoy a video clip of the author and illustrator talking more about creating Wildwood!</span></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/9fA6fCIXWL0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">"Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis Discuss Wildwood" </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Online Posting</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">. YouTube, 15 June 2011. Web. 29 November 2011.</span></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.4; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Meloy, Colin. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Wildwood</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">. Illus. Carson Ellis. New York: Balzer-Harper, 2011. </span></span></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; line-height: 18px;"> Print.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://www.wildwoodchronicles.com/</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-35992872103121662002011-11-29T12:22:00.000-08:002011-11-29T12:22:23.699-08:00Real teens speak! Olivia & Sofia, 11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Friends Olivia and Sofia, both 11, are major fantasy fans and visit the library constantly to check out the latest fantasy titles! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Olivia thinks "fantasy books are very exciting and they just seem more interesting than real life because real life can get really boring!"</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Sofia likes to read fantasy books "because they're always adventurous and very different from what you do in real life, and so this is different, and it's cool that people write books about things we might not experience because we get to open ourselves up to new worlds!"</span>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-18067299053511683452011-11-27T13:10:00.001-08:002011-12-01T18:48:30.167-08:00The Frenzy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJHv-wdRRP82W5Y7dW-7ox1l7texNdzH19Ixms3JBZocoueYnDvayZkPh-BA600TgDi64TMZID0h3MZSkdQjlsc6YWjhLTAAjM8WazO0U8Kuzs-4s5SSZrBIhG9lDIO-uHaZE-OJgfjqM/s1600/The-Frenzy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJHv-wdRRP82W5Y7dW-7ox1l7texNdzH19Ixms3JBZocoueYnDvayZkPh-BA600TgDi64TMZID0h3MZSkdQjlsc6YWjhLTAAjM8WazO0U8Kuzs-4s5SSZrBIhG9lDIO-uHaZE-OJgfjqM/s320/The-Frenzy.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><b style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Annotation: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Teenage Liv struggles to understand changes within her body and a connection to a pack of werewolves living in the nearby woods. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Awards: </b>None yet</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Block, Francesca Lia. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The Frenzy.</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> New York: Harper, 2010. Print.</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://www.juliakriley.com/</span></div></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-51173392002293750822011-11-19T07:55:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:13:59.823-08:00Real teens speak! Serena, 13<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I talked to thirteen year old Serena, to learn more about the kinds of fantasy books she likes the most. She told me "I like when fantasy and reality are entwined because I don't like just a fantasy world. I like when it's kind of my world too! I like a blend of stuff because if it's one certain type it gets boring. And I don't like reading things about unicorns and fairies!"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Serena just started reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs because she saw the book trailer on the author's Youtube Channel. See if it piques your curiosity! </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/XWrNyVhSJUU?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Director's Cut!" </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Online Posting</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">. YouTube, 7 June 2011. Web. 29 November 2011.</span></span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-80054068353786327562011-11-19T07:06:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:15:03.722-08:00The Magician's Nephew and Real Teens Speak! Olivia, 13<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-zWXJHpru35Kbh4HzmPjxLh1rch9mrdtS7pEvrKLLNC5M-G5-_mlT9j7sXyvzlMnXXaDF4qEFKweY5pp8BEbhyphenhyphen15HLjqSXrjdZQsiOvul1ICdOclloO3jrf7DClaQehqSAhScDbmpfU0R/s1600/the-magicians-nephew-by-cslewis1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-zWXJHpru35Kbh4HzmPjxLh1rch9mrdtS7pEvrKLLNC5M-G5-_mlT9j7sXyvzlMnXXaDF4qEFKweY5pp8BEbhyphenhyphen15HLjqSXrjdZQsiOvul1ICdOclloO3jrf7DClaQehqSAhScDbmpfU0R/s320/the-magicians-nephew-by-cslewis1.jpg" width="197" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation: </b>A prequel installment of The Chronicles of Narnia series explores the origins of the fantasy world Narnia, when a set of magical rings launches two young children from London on an adventure exploring fantastical worlds, waking an evil witch and fighting to protect the new world and return home.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Book Talk:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">You might have thought the Chronicles of Narnia began when Lucy Pevensie stumbled through the wardrobe during the game of hide and seek in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But the truth is that the story began much earlier, when Professor Kirke, owner of the wardrobe, was just a boy. While playing in his London neighborhood, young Digory and his new pal Polly accidentally stumble upon Uncle Andrew dabbling secretly in magic! Uncle Andrew produces a yellow ring and when Polly touches it she disappears! Digory follows after her by touching a second yellow ring, but not before receiving two additional green rings from Uncle Andrew, with the promise they can be used to return from <i>other worlds</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">In the first new world, Digory and Polly learn they can explore even more worlds still, travelling among connected pools of water. But such travel is not without risks! Unable to resist the temptation to ring a bell bearing a curious riddle, Digory awakens Jadis, an evil witch! Frightened by the witch and her ruined world, the children try to escape using the power of the rings, but Jadis latches on to them and the trio set off on an adventure through worlds that sets in motion the creation of Narnia by Aslan and the transformation of Jadis into a witch even more treacherous who will threaten Narnia for years to come. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">But when challenged with one final temptation, can Digory find the strength to resist it? And will he and Polly get the chance to find out if the green rings will really transport them home to London? Plus, learn how the old lamppost came to stand in Narnia and where the legendary magical wardrobe really came from!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: orange;">Olivia is 13 and she read The Chronicles of Narnia a few years ago. She also acted in a play inspired by The Chronicles at summer camp. Olivia “liked reading all the Chronicles of Narnia because they're adventurous; they're just fun! And I liked the interesting characters because their names are cool. I like how imagined it all is!”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Notable Children’s Book<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Lewis, C.S. <i>The Magician’s Nephew.</i> New York: Scholastic, 1955. Print.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://www.cenacle.com.au/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-53162883479360557802011-11-18T07:32:00.000-08:002011-11-18T07:34:35.441-08:00Real teens speak! Caroline, 13<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Thirteen year 8th grader Caroline's favorite literary genres are Sci-Fi and Fantasy. With Sci-Fi she likes that "you always have to understand what you're reading and it's scholarly and you can also learn things, but it's also fun because it has mutated creatures with superpowers and stuff!" When she's reading Fantasy, Caroline likes "the escape from the real world because I'm always busy, I'm always studying, but then when you read Fantasy books it's so out of this world, so completely different; it's a total escape!"</span>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-2143559993794619032011-11-17T17:42:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:18:12.509-08:00The Hunger Games and Real teens speak! Brittany, 13<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeKOnupmjA4y1b6lLUU15QOy1dsdzVIegd3kd5WE8AXDZGl1cftyCGSv1_DEFqRsjdxxXAH7bJIx489waDzeJsI34xfe1GggMq8wGMlgZ1sIuS5zNom4rewoyGh4fRWcOG8kkBfL-sWWEe/s1600/hunger.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeKOnupmjA4y1b6lLUU15QOy1dsdzVIegd3kd5WE8AXDZGl1cftyCGSv1_DEFqRsjdxxXAH7bJIx489waDzeJsI34xfe1GggMq8wGMlgZ1sIuS5zNom4rewoyGh4fRWcOG8kkBfL-sWWEe/s320/hunger.jpeg" width="219" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation: </b>A teenage girl in a dystopian fantasy world struggles with the inhumanity of being forced to fight other teens to the death in an annual battle to commemorate the dominance of the Capitol city over the districts she and the other competitors represent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The reaping has begun. Every year you’ve gathered here alongside everyone else from District 12, waiting to hear the names of the two children selected. You don’t bother hoping for an outcome because there can be no acceptable outcome. If your name isn’t called, then it will be the names of two of your friends, or worse, your brother or sister. And then the unlucky pair will be off to the Capitol, thrust into the arena to battle your way through a rigged fight to the death against the tributes from all the other districts. It doesn’t matter that this has happened every year of your life, as a reminder from the Capitol that the communities in the Districts like yours must always suffer and never again rebel; it will never feel anything less than sickening. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">For Katniss Everdeen, the worst possible name is reaped. And in a shocking twist, she boldly volunteers herself as tribute, to protect those she loves most. But now she has to leave her friends, family and home behind and be transported immediately to The Capitol where a team awaits to transform and train her for the battle ahead. Katniss’s experience hunting illegally in the woods around District 12 has prepared her well and her archery skills make her a fierce opponent. But in the arena things are much more complicated that she expected and some tributes are harder to view as enemies and targets than others.</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to…to show the Capitol they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Can Katniss stay safe from the tributes who would kill her without a second thought? Can she find the nerve to turn off her conscience and ignore her humanity to kill other weaker tributes who stand in her way? Or will she choose the most risky course of all and undertake an unprecedented strategy for survival that could challenge the very core of <i>The Hunger Games</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Brittany, age 13 <i>loves</i> Fantasy. She likes all genres of literature, but fantasy is her absolute favorite, so it’s no surprise that she’s a huge fan of The Hunger Games Trilogy! Brittany loves this trilogy because “It just never stops! And there’s a little bit of everything for everyone, from action to romance!” Brittany also likes the setting of the Hunger Games and “the whole idea of another world, or the future.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Britney is eagerly awaiting the forthcoming Hunger Games movie and after you read the book, you probably will be too! Check out the new trailer!</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/p-5ANq4sAL0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">"The Hunger Games HD Theatrical Trailer</span><i style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">" Online Posting. </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Youtube, 14 November 2011. Web. 29 November 2011.</span></div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Amelia Bloomer Project List 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Notable Children’s Book</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Amazon Best Books Top 100 Editors’ Pick 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Amazon Best Books Top 10 Books: Teens 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Barnes and Noble Best Books for Teens and Kids 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Borders Best Books for Teens 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Booklist Editors’ Choice 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">California Young Reader Medal 2011</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">CCBC Choices 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Children’s Indie Next List #1 Pick 2008/2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Cybil Winner for fantasy and science-fiction 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Golden Duck Award for Young Adult Fiction 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Horn Book Fanfare</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Indies Choice Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book Honor</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Kirkus Best Book of 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">LA Times Favorite Children’s Books 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">New York Times Notable Children’s Book of the Year 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">School Library Journal’s Best Books 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">YALSA Teen’s Top Ten 2009</span></li>
</ul></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Collins, Suzanne. <i>The Hunger Games.</i> New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://bookobsessiongpl.blogspot.com/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-46269463935430886472011-11-17T07:34:00.000-08:002011-11-18T07:33:28.091-08:00Real teens speak! Zach, 13<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Thirteen year old Zack can't get enough fantasy books! When asked why fantasy is his favorite genre, Zack replied "I like how it's on the outside different than our world, but the characters are essentially the same."</span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: orange; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Zack is so right! Even though fantasy books can take us to other worlds, the characters face challenges that lots of teens face everyday too!</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-92171170492067270792011-11-16T11:29:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:19:44.424-08:00The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcB1Rfdo39zCCDCjkXi0m7O6NjDzLpy5gHJckCnt_j19V1qCvBeYuqAFSjW__D3F0xB-8jshgRCCBng4vdMpH63PVxkZJqmx3d_JXpF_7V5gFhUWjCjeo0I5nAh11jfNDDGsm21P0w2oXN/s1600/love+curse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcB1Rfdo39zCCDCjkXi0m7O6NjDzLpy5gHJckCnt_j19V1qCvBeYuqAFSjW__D3F0xB-8jshgRCCBng4vdMpH63PVxkZJqmx3d_JXpF_7V5gFhUWjCjeo0I5nAh11jfNDDGsm21P0w2oXN/s320/love+curse.jpg" width="213" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation: </b>A young girl uncovers a dark and troubling secret and struggles to escape a disturbing genetic curse.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Can your future actions be genetically programmed? Your deepest desires, predetermined? And if you learned about your destiny, what chance might you have to change it?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Ivy had known Ab and Dolph Rumbaugh her entire life. Their family had lived in her small Pennsylvania town for generations. Of course they were a bit odd, but harmless, really…or so she had always thought. Her beloved single mother had worked in their neighborhood pharmacy and so Ivy often found herself under the care of the elderly identical twins. Their taxidermy hobby was a bit eccentric, but just as harmless as the twins themselves…or was it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Everything changes for Ivy when she stumbles upon a shocking secret, hidden in the Rumbaugh’s basement. And her troubles only grow, the more she uncovers about the history of the horrible secret and its implications for <i>her</i> future. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">"This is the moment when I stop being afraid of the unknown in my childhood and start to be afraid of the unknown in my adult life."<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Facing deeply disturbing discoveries that lead to questions about her very own nature, can Ivy fight for her future or will she succumb to <i>The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs</i>?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Enjoy a Book Trailer for The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs, if you dare! </span></span></div></div><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZKwW3HraPFI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs.wmv</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;"> </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">Online Posting</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">. YouTube, 19 May 2010. Web. 29 November 2011.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></span></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Best Books for Young Adults 2007</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices 2007</span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Gantos, Jack. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs.</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> New York: Square Fish-Macmillan, 2006. Print.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://us.macmillan.com/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-9124809984215553542011-11-15T15:20:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:21:02.340-08:00The Graveyard Book<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7NOvG9xgjpdQ-TLYd17cyc8vw3_3-HFfk3UgNgSswqi7jbwbBzMvsD6tUyPMLwApUQMPGG9xihw7dRH6OKpsdtJQAc2D7NKo6MvFyv5PEqN4Tn14Iv4r3_iGUMSMgrR7VFxsK2j_iBvxb/s1600/grave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7NOvG9xgjpdQ-TLYd17cyc8vw3_3-HFfk3UgNgSswqi7jbwbBzMvsD6tUyPMLwApUQMPGG9xihw7dRH6OKpsdtJQAc2D7NKo6MvFyv5PEqN4Tn14Iv4r3_iGUMSMgrR7VFxsK2j_iBvxb/s320/grave.jpg" width="206" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation: </b>The story of an orphaned toddler raised by ghosts in a graveyard and his adventures dodging threats from both the world of the living and of the dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Bod, a boy very much alive, was raised by ghosts in a graveyard. And that is the <i>least</i> scary thing in this book. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">People want to forget the impossible. It makes their world safer.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">As a toddler, Bod narrowly escaped when the man Jack murdered the rest of his family. When he toddled helplessly into their midst, the ghost community decided to grant Bod “The Freedom of the Graveyard.” Between his ghost foster parents, a teacher, a tutor and the sinister, yet reliable, graveyard caretaker, Bod’s basic human needs are surprisingly well taken care of and he even begins to learn skills usually reserved exclusively for the dead. But that doesn’t mean his safety is assured; there is no shortage of danger to beware in the graveyard, like portals, ghouls and a restless old witch! And the world of the living isn’t much safer for Bod, filled as it is with potential enemies, like schoolyard bullies and greedy old men who have no objections at all to harming children!<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Living among ghosts in the graveyard also makes it difficult to find friends, but when Bod meets Scarlett, they get on very well. Unfortunately, her mother disapproves of their friendship and, convincing Scarlett that Bod is in fact an imaginary friend, she whisks her away to Scotland, though not before she and Bod learn of <i>the mysterious Sleer.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Meanwhile, Bod’s old enemy, the man Jack, has never stopped hunting for him. Will an opportunity to explore his past bring Bod closer to safety or to danger? Can the community of the graveyard from the world of the dead protect Bod forever from forces in the world of the living that threaten his mortal life? And just <i>who </i>or <i>what </i>exactly occupies the oldest grave of all? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Listen to author Neil Gaiman narrate this Graveyard Book Trailer!</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/P_UUVwTaemk/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/P_UUVwTaemk&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/P_UUVwTaemk&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">The Graveyard Book Trailer Narrated by Neil Gaiman</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Online Posting</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">. YouTube, 10 October 2008. Web. 29 November 2011.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Best Books for Young Adults 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Notable Children’s Book 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Audie Winner, Children’s Titles for Ages up to 8 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Booktrust Teenage Prize 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Carnegie Medal 2010</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Cybils Award 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Horn Book Fanfare Best Book 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Hugo Award 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Indies Choice Book Award- Young Adult Fiction 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Newberry Award 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">SF Site Editor’s Choice 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">SF Site Reader’s Choice 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Time Magazine Best Books of the Year 2008</span></li>
</ul><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Gaiman, Neil. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The Graveyard Book.</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> New York: Harper, 2008. Print.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://www.goodreads.com/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-85656886959899087922011-11-14T12:59:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:22:30.997-08:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjyN80kHF6c6puzLbTuS-VELNjm8rpeWHFpVACH2GcwFb1ogV8XtXmsSWbodrnKQOrCzIEDqMuXxrKgRXtO-E064CwXJ3U1HCgTJs4FHt_tBayYpwjypbCyvKAptEstludaR6NCgjnqmlm/s1600/wrinkle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjyN80kHF6c6puzLbTuS-VELNjm8rpeWHFpVACH2GcwFb1ogV8XtXmsSWbodrnKQOrCzIEDqMuXxrKgRXtO-E064CwXJ3U1HCgTJs4FHt_tBayYpwjypbCyvKAptEstludaR6NCgjnqmlm/s320/wrinkle.jpg" width="215" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation: </b>A young girl travels through space and time to rescue her father, a scientist who mysteriously disappeared while working on a top-secret government project, from an evil force that threatens to destroy her family and planet.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">What if, in the course of conducting scientific research for the government, your Dad stumbled upon an unbelievable discovery? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">What if time travel wasn’t just theoretically mathematically possible, but in fact <i>actually possible?</i> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">But what if something went horribly wrong and through a scientific accident your Dad mysteriously disappeared? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Would you trust three strange women with questionable names who don’t seem quite human to transport you throughout the universe on a rescue mission?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">What if you faced unimaginable creatures and forces on unfamiliar planets to find your Dad, but in the process lost your little brother?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">How far would you go and how much would you risk to save your family and your planet and return everyone home safely? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Lewis Carroll Shelf Award 1965</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Horn Book Fanfare Best Book 1963</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Locus Poll All-Time Best Fantasy Novel 1987</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Locus Poll All-Time Best Fantasy Novel Before 1990</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Newbery Medal Recipient 1963</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Sequoyah Book Award 1963</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Thisrecording.com 100 Greatest Science Fiction or Fantasy Novels of All Time</span></li>
</ul><div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">L’Engle, Madeleine. <i>A Wrinkle in Time.</i> New York: Farrar, 1962. Print.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-70895731647446100642011-11-13T17:24:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:28:57.529-08:00The Book of Lost Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJJMy10xSzIbxawwtbqIIrXi_tWmj_a7di_G4h6YHMYUjkJnzgeiLbvS_ucMWgmBhOl_XiQdHvhEphJloOGMSfIpq7hybXvNJ-E3SiFUKa8qWvK96y0TpVl_9Is0R_yZdZyoXgWLcfnfW/s1600/book+of+lost.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJJMy10xSzIbxawwtbqIIrXi_tWmj_a7di_G4h6YHMYUjkJnzgeiLbvS_ucMWgmBhOl_XiQdHvhEphJloOGMSfIpq7hybXvNJ-E3SiFUKa8qWvK96y0TpVl_9Is0R_yZdZyoXgWLcfnfW/s320/book+of+lost.jpg" width="199" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation: </b><span class="Apple-style-span">During WWII in England, young David loses his mother and finds solace in the fairytales she left behind, until strange things begin to happen and David finds himself trapped in a dangerous fairytale world, fighting for his life and the chance to return home.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">David has always loved stories, especially the fairy tale books his mother had shared with him before she died. But after her death, strange things begin to happen to David. His mother’s old books start <i>speaking</i> and David begins to have “episodes,” blacking out and coming to with faint memories of another world that seems to beckon to him. It doesn’t help that David’s father takes up with a new woman who soon bears another son, and David finds himself living in her strange old country home. His father insists it’s the safest option while Germany is regularly bombing London. At first David doesn’t necessarily mind his new room and enjoys all the old books left behind on the shelves, even if they do insist on <i>speaking</i> and even if the versions of fairytales they contain are fractured and odd, to say the least. But soon he learns about the mystery of the last boy who occupied the room. And he begins to notice the persistent way the ivy all seems to grow directly to his window and poke through the walls into his room. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“The world of the old tales existed parallel to ours, as David’s mother had once told him, but sometimes the wall separating the two became so thin and brittle that the two worlds started to blend into each other.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">That was when the trouble started.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">That was when the bad things came.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">That was when the Crooked Man began to appear to David.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">And it’s not just the Crooked Man, though his appearance seems sinister enough. David begins to hear his mother’s voice calling for his help from a world beyond his own and one night he just can’t bear it any more. It takes all his courage to cross over, but once in the other world, David finds himself in mortal danger, facing horrible creatures and encountering twisted versions of familiar characters and plots from beloved fairy tales. And his mother is nowhere to be found. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Can David survive in the other world to learn what his purpose is for travelling to it? And if he does survive, will he ever be able cross back over and return home to his own world?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Check out this book trailer teaser of David's epic adventure!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/ZVpKpSSm_nw/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZVpKpSSm_nw&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZVpKpSSm_nw&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">The Book of Lost Things Trailer</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;"> </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">Online Posting</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 16px;">. YouTube, 11 January 2011. Web. 29 November 2011.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="line-height: 21px;"><b style="line-height: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="line-height: 21px;"><b style="line-height: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:</span></b></div></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">2007 Alex Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Nominee 2007 Irish Book Award</span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span><ul></ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Connolly, John. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: small;">The Book of Lost Things</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">. New York: Atria-Simon, 2006. Print.</span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://www.boomtron.com/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-76005046515880416092011-11-12T10:12:00.000-08:002011-12-01T18:49:37.602-08:00Persepolis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsg2Za-l5_r58UpfSUDrEgodGFisNVwXUfyEdvbaX20RgbK9Cgeb6AGznoGtE7dsX5bwVx0-QkhdTAJkF9J0GgaGYqlN2E3YM5LWVhGiKuQ0QwHvnFU74mX376f6VBq7kHgjaBm12nFl3a/s1600/pers.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsg2Za-l5_r58UpfSUDrEgodGFisNVwXUfyEdvbaX20RgbK9Cgeb6AGznoGtE7dsX5bwVx0-QkhdTAJkF9J0GgaGYqlN2E3YM5LWVhGiKuQ0QwHvnFU74mX376f6VBq7kHgjaBm12nFl3a/s320/pers.jpeg" width="215" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation: </b>Marji’s autobiography about growing up in as a privileged and precocious Iranian girl during the Islamic Revolution and subsequent war with Iraq is told through a haunting and irreverent graphic novel.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Little Marji remembers her life before and after veils came to Iran.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3kxVF48Hn8k46IrZ1bnzIQRfNi25QItLIgQBrwZgGs7VXtc-Tkor9UJOZ2Eikh3uJU9dj_qpWKEYrTDgE6Nyur1XeqT_qnEQXYibMsK2b2M8dHRwAVHenaYcWdVZ_bLhYKVcXou85kRNk/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+11.57+%25232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3kxVF48Hn8k46IrZ1bnzIQRfNi25QItLIgQBrwZgGs7VXtc-Tkor9UJOZ2Eikh3uJU9dj_qpWKEYrTDgE6Nyur1XeqT_qnEQXYibMsK2b2M8dHRwAVHenaYcWdVZ_bLhYKVcXou85kRNk/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+11.57+%25232.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">It’s hard at first for her to figure out what she thinks of all the political changes swirling around her.<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“I really didn’t know what to think about the veil. Deep down I was very religious but as a family we were very modern and avant-garde.”</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUXeHQXU9nKgKVi2_YETrtWgI6bOQaycMXcdMtqMPtEhdCla-Mak1XmZifIcPhaLKcYILUesevPeFohUFgQNOi1UnVRh7XeOEBVpLCrLShl2206IfWcUbR7WdYlYEXJdI5iMdV4x-Y9vR1/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+11.58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUXeHQXU9nKgKVi2_YETrtWgI6bOQaycMXcdMtqMPtEhdCla-Mak1XmZifIcPhaLKcYILUesevPeFohUFgQNOi1UnVRh7XeOEBVpLCrLShl2206IfWcUbR7WdYlYEXJdI5iMdV4x-Y9vR1/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+11.58.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Marji had believed she could be a prophet and imagined how she might solve all of her family’s problems!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpc1NOczS4hcDKulPPdRurDxTuaFcwoaCWpIviADXtKvAJZyrw-USQPqjxoP8t06aaGjxVhVGjiNvJNhCzksgMD0uvLsgHtBcmG67IBLj4mUs3Ls_mGLkSyEFZxrE31L_szvXGt0q0VQHc/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+12.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpc1NOczS4hcDKulPPdRurDxTuaFcwoaCWpIviADXtKvAJZyrw-USQPqjxoP8t06aaGjxVhVGjiNvJNhCzksgMD0uvLsgHtBcmG67IBLj4mUs3Ls_mGLkSyEFZxrE31L_szvXGt0q0VQHc/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+12.01.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">But as she grew, she learned more about the history of her homeland and her father taught her about the “2,500 years of tyranny and submission” of her people.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1wMO9U4o2lCxuSOc1IlfITtZGuvbt10YLz5GpWig3kdy4-BJ_jLB8xGCZ-4LgNERauTXJPWBW-CINS7Gy8i8Ib7HPlmnbjFApMg-0Ztu3EdhzAiXE-vq6uKGQwOxnnWhJXyRFPeYKpOR-/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+11.59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1wMO9U4o2lCxuSOc1IlfITtZGuvbt10YLz5GpWig3kdy4-BJ_jLB8xGCZ-4LgNERauTXJPWBW-CINS7Gy8i8Ib7HPlmnbjFApMg-0Ztu3EdhzAiXE-vq6uKGQwOxnnWhJXyRFPeYKpOR-/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+11.59.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Marji’s parents begin to share their political ideas with her and she is fascinated by a comic book about Marxism. This is just in time because a revolution in Iran begins to gain steam. Marji’s parents demonstrate every day and she’s desperate to join them, but the revolution grows increasingly violent.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRv8-4mTRyL87pgbeCjUhH_nALy6QXsN3hg0DzJmh4e3coLYslAKnvp3quf7KNQy8Oyrv7Zu35X9XFHjGgRI0L6e-YzTL0Pq-m0SrPQiviKtoH-RQUIHR7M8P2WaDsRNnAWEj43kuCbxIT/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+12.02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRv8-4mTRyL87pgbeCjUhH_nALy6QXsN3hg0DzJmh4e3coLYslAKnvp3quf7KNQy8Oyrv7Zu35X9XFHjGgRI0L6e-YzTL0Pq-m0SrPQiviKtoH-RQUIHR7M8P2WaDsRNnAWEj43kuCbxIT/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+12.02.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Marji’s parents decide to share a family secret with her, the kind of secret that changes everything she though about her family and their role in Iranian society.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNpPoifc8ZM0bSzBRvbk47A5PgmxojR9B73EA9xkFrrlMZVX0GFw2kVgbQ_gk1wjGedLNPFgNRO6ZUaEsk5Kf0DlIeuO8X70Whx5zQ66rXGP4h9Uuzk18joZnDgrOEiCwlXeO7QvJBWoYc/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+12.04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNpPoifc8ZM0bSzBRvbk47A5PgmxojR9B73EA9xkFrrlMZVX0GFw2kVgbQ_gk1wjGedLNPFgNRO6ZUaEsk5Kf0DlIeuO8X70Whx5zQ66rXGP4h9Uuzk18joZnDgrOEiCwlXeO7QvJBWoYc/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+12.04.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">This secret opens up Marji’s eyes to harsher realities than she ever could have imagined about what life has been like in Iran for people who have openly challenged the Monarchy. And when the revolution finally succeeds, Marji meets family and friends who suffered unthinkable torture in prison for speaking and acting out about their beliefs.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPIrCr6aO2QD3ZYEEjl-BnsqR_YorSQdGs3DEiv698CmosKM1rEFC-RH_FrlyQ8d4U6jMhhn4onI5ZR_RaWD0TpNz3Lx9rbHEkNUmrD3ONGcbB4gMzqsm4j1CEd-8IMmxWlKYGOzGDcBqh/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+12.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPIrCr6aO2QD3ZYEEjl-BnsqR_YorSQdGs3DEiv698CmosKM1rEFC-RH_FrlyQ8d4U6jMhhn4onI5ZR_RaWD0TpNz3Lx9rbHEkNUmrD3ONGcbB4gMzqsm4j1CEd-8IMmxWlKYGOzGDcBqh/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+12.06.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">But the happy reunions and celebrations are premature; the revolution has lead to religious extremists seizing power and life for Marji, her family, and friends grows more dangerous than ever. She has always relied on her special relationship with god, but with terror and fear all around her, which she can no longer ignore, Marji’s faith crumbles.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBhPyQT1m8q5A7aTmrTNHt62D8aoRmUCFzWRMsAVbs3RW-ibAxGe9eRhOvTOpevgVkC37-mV5kacfvohptczLlzwjiWHRHB6AEARt8IM9MJbISwVsYvLsOW2WTUu9f6EBhHAlpzHQRi364/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+12.08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBhPyQT1m8q5A7aTmrTNHt62D8aoRmUCFzWRMsAVbs3RW-ibAxGe9eRhOvTOpevgVkC37-mV5kacfvohptczLlzwjiWHRHB6AEARt8IM9MJbISwVsYvLsOW2WTUu9f6EBhHAlpzHQRi364/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-12+at+12.08.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span">And that is just the beginning of Marji’s story! Read the graphic novel of her autobiography to learn about the ways her life changes even more once war breaks out, how her family struggles to cling to hope and persist with their normal lives, despite the world falling apart all around them, and </span><i>especially</i><span class="Apple-style-span"> how Marji finds creative ways to resist oppression, as only teenagers can, through humor, attitude and pop, punk and rock music!</span></span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Once you've read Persepolis, I guarantee you'll want to get your hands on Persepolis 2, which picks Marji's story right back up and chronicles her teenage experiences abroad!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FbYYOiOav8LpqJUUNOVabgDzOsvw5VxxIU3d8IpTO3tjV_yWf_XSbUWvQPVOXnyyjux9bIgTCMEObtvRmwn3XBG_bzsZEbp6TY-K2SmCvEI4d91iAzeR8TDm5ykMF-m-VfpwYQa68qp6/s1600/persepolis2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FbYYOiOav8LpqJUUNOVabgDzOsvw5VxxIU3d8IpTO3tjV_yWf_XSbUWvQPVOXnyyjux9bIgTCMEObtvRmwn3XBG_bzsZEbp6TY-K2SmCvEI4d91iAzeR8TDm5ykMF-m-VfpwYQa68qp6/s320/persepolis2.jpg" width="216" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://sumthinblue.com/</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Can't get enough Persepolis?! Check out the trailer for the award-winning feature film based on both books!</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/3PXHeKuBzPY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">"Persepolis Trailer" </span><i style="font-size: small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Online Posting</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">. YouTube, 20 November 2007. Web. 29 November 2011.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> </span></span><br />
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</span></span></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b style="background-color: white;">Awards:</b></span></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">2001: Angoulême <i>Coup de Coeur</i> Award for <i>Persepolis</i></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">2004 ALA Alex Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">YALSA Best Books for Young Adults</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Booklist Editor's Choice for Young Adults</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">School Library Journal Adult Books for Young Adults</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Satrapi, Marjane. <i>Persepolis:The Story of a Childhood</i>. Trans. Mattias Ripa and </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Blake Ferris. New York: Pantheon-Random, 2003. Print.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Image courtest of http://www.randomhouse.com/</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></div></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-21963839205847790492011-11-07T19:39:00.000-08:002011-12-01T18:50:08.570-08:00The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5W8jFF2DcEk88x4win_6zo5tKXRqRvd5qU1iQp7dCkqio9Q-p0IcpyQc7HlgUglgwP67pLT-ap80Nbn1tBc-RifCbxfIVH3Td-10q-eLxiP9C4vzzdjj8CLmt7qcHbfOGkD21wD0OYDza/s1600/sherman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5W8jFF2DcEk88x4win_6zo5tKXRqRvd5qU1iQp7dCkqio9Q-p0IcpyQc7HlgUglgwP67pLT-ap80Nbn1tBc-RifCbxfIVH3Td-10q-eLxiP9C4vzzdjj8CLmt7qcHbfOGkD21wD0OYDza/s320/sherman.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><b style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Annotation: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">A bright, artistic Indian teenager chooses to attend a school off his reservation to escape the dead-end cycle of poverty and violence and clings to hope, despite challenges resulting from his identity as an Indian in an all-white school and as a traitor within his own community on the reservation.</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Meet Junior:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh04SgNRF_-ABI7xRGmVJvx9QQDS_vzKJD6NnRew4SlvJWdgGQYQ37fWQPpuiFKl2kdjFkwVoPrm8FZBBSLyRK0DAfatiUUm-ieUzMFS1-4BuYp2Le6advp7rWeSI02zdcDZSWI4pGBtfcw/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+18.20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh04SgNRF_-ABI7xRGmVJvx9QQDS_vzKJD6NnRew4SlvJWdgGQYQ37fWQPpuiFKl2kdjFkwVoPrm8FZBBSLyRK0DAfatiUUm-ieUzMFS1-4BuYp2Le6advp7rWeSI02zdcDZSWI4pGBtfcw/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+18.20.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">This is a self-portrait he drew of how he thinks he looks at fourteen. Sometimes kids think they look a lot worse than they do and imagine their flaws as being super exaggerated. In Junior’s case though, he does stand out physically; he was born with “water on the brain” and his head is unusually large. He miraculously survived brain surgery when he was just six months old, but he still suffers from seizures, a debilitating stutter </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">and </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">lisp. He gets headaches because one of his eyes is near-sighted and the other is far-sighted and since he lives on an Indian reservation, or “res,” his only option for glasses is a pair that’s big, thick and black. But trapped inside Junior’s body is a hopeful, artistic soul who is </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">smart</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> and can </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">draw.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Meet Junior’s parents:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFe_QixdUvQIRApgOnaxAgJeyJ4lEvAWWRAbY3QgRmpJF9PqjorpbE1KK9ZfDPunSlsTo9V0-lN-nHgD_9B4-IcNMkb7P15RYTAVCtz6GJbw0cT5-NdZtXBKCvHrIkWI8mCjN9v9gmPQLm/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+18.11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFe_QixdUvQIRApgOnaxAgJeyJ4lEvAWWRAbY3QgRmpJF9PqjorpbE1KK9ZfDPunSlsTo9V0-lN-nHgD_9B4-IcNMkb7P15RYTAVCtz6GJbw0cT5-NdZtXBKCvHrIkWI8mCjN9v9gmPQLm/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+18.11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">This is how Junior imagines they might have been. They used to have dreams and aspirations for the future, but the oppression and poverty of the “res” left them with few choices and so, even though his mother still reads all the time, she never became a teacher and, though his father </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">could have been</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> a musician, he only plays now when he drinks his pain away, and is poor, like everyone else on the res is and has been for generations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Meet Mr. P, Junior’s teacher on the res:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG5ygg5BaP-VQ_NJt9s42S9_miDR6m8es_2hjE_FgCa70pgsGwgoPOF1p8iYNZiGKmVJ1B-3wwagSjkkXgQsHi0WTH5iQw6j8XMyJRd5L-MFAa1rHPevwd6Awkm4XgIraNJlRkExLleMkR/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+18.14+%25232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG5ygg5BaP-VQ_NJt9s42S9_miDR6m8es_2hjE_FgCa70pgsGwgoPOF1p8iYNZiGKmVJ1B-3wwagSjkkXgQsHi0WTH5iQw6j8XMyJRd5L-MFAa1rHPevwd6Awkm4XgIraNJlRkExLleMkR/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+18.14+%25232.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Mr. P might mean well, but he </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">forgets to come to school<b>.</b></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> Teachers like Mr. P live in a compound, apart from the community. They are all white. Indians on the res don’t get to become teachers and educate their own people. The books Mr. P uses to teach are the </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">same</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> ones Junior’s mom used. Not just the same edition; the same exact </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">copies</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">. There isn’t money for new, updated books for the res school.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Meet Rowdy:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg856xNCMKJ01cGImre7000cAiin8CSQHShRIG5bw4hGiykreY7lnIp7xl9TZNCrtOAWVQyNz_cgWs5A4qS-Gt6aQ_-bjolNRmu1PYGNx7KHLrw3UJaZatCaJ_O5jU-AZWk9BokZkNtBkd/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+19.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg856xNCMKJ01cGImre7000cAiin8CSQHShRIG5bw4hGiykreY7lnIp7xl9TZNCrtOAWVQyNz_cgWs5A4qS-Gt6aQ_-bjolNRmu1PYGNx7KHLrw3UJaZatCaJ_O5jU-AZWk9BokZkNtBkd/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+19.15.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Junior’s best friend hates when Junior draws him. He’s angry, and if you lived in a home with as much violence as he does, you’d probably be angry too. Rowdy is tough and good at sports, but he also loves comic books, just like Junior, so they’ve been friends since they were little kids. He can be cruel to Junior, but he’s also loyal and defends his friend against all the bullies on the res.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Junior should, by all accounts, be dead, or at least as hopeless and broken down as the other Indians on the res who fight and drink, drink and fight. And yet, his love of learning and his artistic talent lead him to make the bravest decision of all: to attend a school off the res, where he might actually have a shot at a decent future. This might not seem like a big deal, but to the res community, and his only friend Rowdy, he is a traitor. And he doesn’t exactly fit in with the white, middle and upper class students at his new school either:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwKhW6qIPMH1cVY1kck0Hc6U2VoD65eKoLRTKPQwsKnrDt3GetsmR3E2BzwRf-UTu8XW8uXUuGzcEenXelSYED7PIr41W8KTVeKATsLafWLIx-xBjOMVr_ccVQ21Y2qhox0e9SWzgXAP5f/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+18.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwKhW6qIPMH1cVY1kck0Hc6U2VoD65eKoLRTKPQwsKnrDt3GetsmR3E2BzwRf-UTu8XW8uXUuGzcEenXelSYED7PIr41W8KTVeKATsLafWLIx-xBjOMVr_ccVQ21Y2qhox0e9SWzgXAP5f/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+18.15.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Can Junior survive being ostracized by his own people; his closest friend? Can he brave the social scene at his suburban school as a poor res kid, knowing he will never have the right clothes, cash to cover a snack or even be able to count on ride home? Can he rise above the poverty, violence and tragedy of the res to be the first Indian in his family able to choose hope and, just maybe, a future worth the risk?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt4s_v7YGzIyV2Zd4dX4kI-unqv-4wSQNvdGytfyoOmtab-XJyxtQVUQZWSGUjDoyq6wNmUOZ5cpSClR7f_yo27XzTCvqjoNmayGdVKoKaNydClC5Smthv4MW0Hf25H9qGWMSF-s7_MW36/s1600/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+18.14+%25233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt4s_v7YGzIyV2Zd4dX4kI-unqv-4wSQNvdGytfyoOmtab-XJyxtQVUQZWSGUjDoyq6wNmUOZ5cpSClR7f_yo27XzTCvqjoNmayGdVKoKaNydClC5Smthv4MW0Hf25H9qGWMSF-s7_MW36/s320/Photo+on+2011-11-07+at+18.14+%25233.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">#1 Book Sense Bestseller</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Amazon.com Best Book of the Year</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Boston-Globe Horn Book Award 2008</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">California Young Reader Medal 2010</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">International Book on Books for Young People Sweden- Peter Pan Prize 2009</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Kirkus Reviews Best YA Book of 2007</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Nappa Gold Book</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">National Book Award for Young People’s Literature 2007</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">New York Times Notable Book of 2007</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">School Library Journal Best Book of the Year 2007</span></li>
</ul></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Alexie, Sherman. <i>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian</i>. Illus. Ellen </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://www.fallsapart.com/ </span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-63972216408961798472011-11-06T20:10:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:40:55.770-08:00The Coldest Winter Ever<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVjyQSMg7cArDATJE_iRMI_jQx99bhO4v5yqgiuREEQz3VpjcAFxYXZkVoBcUdI9lg71d3sy00HSc5kwpqrvUtbHEf3ITYTB_f4RBkfsKgXa4ieI5Et0zJbaCT0T_jF3xQsAS6smWxZeZ1/s1600/cwe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVjyQSMg7cArDATJE_iRMI_jQx99bhO4v5yqgiuREEQz3VpjcAFxYXZkVoBcUdI9lg71d3sy00HSc5kwpqrvUtbHEf3ITYTB_f4RBkfsKgXa4ieI5Et0zJbaCT0T_jF3xQsAS6smWxZeZ1/s320/cwe.jpg" width="196" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Annotation</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">: The privileged and precocious daughter of a successful Brooklyn drug boss is challenged to survive on her own when her family is torn apart and the financial security she has always known disappears</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Booktalk:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Winter grew up in the projects of Brooklyn, but don’t assume that meant she grew up poor. Behind the extra security locks of the entrance to her family’s apartment, was a world of privilege and luxury; fancy electronics, the latest designer fashions and diamonds galore! Winter’s parents married young, but her father Santiaga <i>more</i> than got ahead; his illegal drug empire employed men throughout the community and provided Winter, her sisters and their mother all the comforts and cash they desired. Winter attended school occasionally, but spent most of her time shopping, hanging with girlfriends and hooking up with men worthy of her attention and brave enough to risk facing Santiaga’s wrath. Winter was spoiled, but she wasn’t scared of the streets and she knew how to prepare for a fight with Vaseline on, jewelry off and a razor stashed in her mouth.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“I knew these streets like I knew the curves of my own body. I was like the princess of these alleyways, back staircases, and whatnot.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">But all it takes is one night for Winter’s entire family and life to begin to quickly unravel. Santiaga warns her:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“Winter, you gotta be tough. It’s time. Remember everything I taught you. Keep your ears open. Follow the directions I gave you to the letter, and just play your hand close to your chest.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">She’s always been scrappy and crafty, a confident and self-assured fighter. But can she really survive on her own without her father’s money and power? Will Winter succumb to the streets or will she follow Santiaga’s instructions and stop the downward spiral?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.sistersouljah.com/images/Souljah_about_Winter_CWE_2.mp3" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;" target="_blank">Click here to listen to Sister Souljah speak about The Coldest Winter Ever!</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, Hard Knock Life Category 2010</span></li>
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Souljah, Sister. <i>The Coldest Winter Ever</i>. New York: Washington Square, 1999. </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Print.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image Courtesy of http://www.sistersouljah.com/</span><br />
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</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-29512648829626461312011-11-01T17:10:00.001-07:002011-12-01T12:45:04.379-08:00The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd0obE7mLDIHuJ9gmiLj7-gM4rEN2mSbQu8_MkbHKY0OVGSu-cPAf2Y6IRUw_6vM-FwTQglABx5BNG61W59XYogfYjlkM0UP9t4VXsdZmp3iMn5VSVp3slmkJIoEYCgzim3k33Uf8WzSPh/s1600/sisterhood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd0obE7mLDIHuJ9gmiLj7-gM4rEN2mSbQu8_MkbHKY0OVGSu-cPAf2Y6IRUw_6vM-FwTQglABx5BNG61W59XYogfYjlkM0UP9t4VXsdZmp3iMn5VSVp3slmkJIoEYCgzim3k33Uf8WzSPh/s320/sisterhood.jpg" width="194" /></a></div><b style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Annotation: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">A group of lifelong girlfriends discover a pair of jeans that, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">amazingly</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">, fit all of them! Before dispersing around the world for the summer, they plan to mail the pants back and forth so that each friend will have a turn to experience their magic!</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Just how much magic can one pair of jeans contain? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">When four lifelong girlfriends find a single pair of jeans that fit all of them <i>perfectly</i>, even though they have <i>totally</i> different body types, they are astounded, to say the least! But the magic doesn’t end there. This will be the first of fifteen summers that the girls will spend apart, and to ease the separation, they decide to share the pants by mailing them around the world so that each girl has a turn to experience the magic on her summer adventure! <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">While in Greece, the pants lead Lena to a local guy she instantly falls for, but it turns out their families have been rivals for generations! Meanwhile, Carmen had grown used to her parents’ divorce, but she was in no way prepared to deal with her father’s new family in South Carolina, who she doesn’t relate to at <i>all, </i>let alone the news bomb they drop on her! Bridget, who has grown to be more of a risk taker in the four years since her mother’s suicide, is spending the summer at soccer camp in Mexico, where the pants embolden her to pursue a forbidden crush on a coach, making some reckless choices she may not be quite ready to handle on her own. And Tibby, who stayed behind at home to work as a sales clerk and complete a documentary film project, finds that the least likely friend of can change her film and life forever. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The jeans are the common thread holding the girls together during this challenging summer apart, but one can’t help but wonder, whether the magic really resides within the pants that fit all the girls…or all the <i>girls</i> who <i>wear </i>the pants so well.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Liked the book? Want more traveling pants?! Check out the major motion picture of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants!</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/wVoYSu5gNEo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #20124d; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-Trailer" </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #20124d; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Online Posting</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">. YouTube</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">, 1 February 2008. Web. 29 November 2011.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #20124d; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></span></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Best Books for Young Adults</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Arizona Young Readers Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Sense Book of the Year</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Indiana Young Hoosier Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Iowa Teen Book Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Missouri Gateway Readers Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">New Jersey Garden State Teen Book Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Rhode Island Children's Book Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Texas TAYSHAS High School Reading List</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Washington Evergreen Young Adult Book Award</span></li>
</ul></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Brashares, Ann. <i>The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants</i>. New York: Dell </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Laurel-Leaf-Random House, 2001. Print. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://www.paperbackswap.com/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-80379258809166706152011-10-29T16:18:00.000-07:002011-12-01T12:46:14.871-08:00Why I Quit Zombie School<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHMxOpb4XrfoQfuXciOsKEn_FGyRBVAO7Dv7_5A-zsl3AdRX0SNVT4E-R0I79rVDYI5dkOVieQw5RbcRc_GxcP5X_IrsaeEVzlgYcnKjQl21F-JjesVljTKgC5mPjyHyxTLaivtdzER9C/s1600/zombie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHMxOpb4XrfoQfuXciOsKEn_FGyRBVAO7Dv7_5A-zsl3AdRX0SNVT4E-R0I79rVDYI5dkOVieQw5RbcRc_GxcP5X_IrsaeEVzlgYcnKjQl21F-JjesVljTKgC5mPjyHyxTLaivtdzER9C/s320/zombie.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Annotation: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">When a young horror fan enrolls in a new boarding school, he learns that his classmates are zombies. His only hope for survival is convincing his parents of the unbelievable truth, but in the meantime he must keep his own secret, that he is </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">alive, </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">before it’s too late!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Matt Krinsky has always loved horror; movies, gore makeup, collectibles, you name it! But when he arrives at his new boarding school, no amount of horror fandom could have prepared him for the real life terror that awaits! His classmates move awfully slowly, practically stumbling, and they dine on rotten meat and fruit! For fun, they dive off a high balcony, thudding and splatting sickeningly, as they collide with the marble floor below…and then rise to walk away unscathed! The last straw is when a soccer teammate’s leg detaches during a routine play and he carries it away, <i>bloodlessly,</i> to something called “the reviver room.” These kids aren’t kids; they’re <i>zombies!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“I stood there shaking. I realized I had sweat pouring down my face. <i>This is what REAL horror is like, </i>I told myself. I swore to myself if I survived this school, I’d never go to another horror movie. I just had to make it till Saturday. Saturday morning, my parents would arrive. Could I convince them to take me away from here? Could I convince them to save my life?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Awards: </b>None yet<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Stine, R.L. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Why I Quit Zombie School.</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> New York: Scholastic, 2011. Print.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://www.paperbackswap.com/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-81261478360992893952011-10-29T16:13:00.000-07:002011-12-01T12:47:08.193-08:00The Giver<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjohf5g0jfO5HXPCotB_yqTk-xKIojRsXjc46z4WD47ZAfoNJbT8UxIVUahwE6aAbxfUHNq2ZgHuxt_Fq2eEIoLyerxOwXqN6q94iYO6sJVbxhZs9Am2UtnDHmcOeTI1jP71nvuhzHnc8jD/s1600/books_giver%255B1%255D_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjohf5g0jfO5HXPCotB_yqTk-xKIojRsXjc46z4WD47ZAfoNJbT8UxIVUahwE6aAbxfUHNq2ZgHuxt_Fq2eEIoLyerxOwXqN6q94iYO6sJVbxhZs9Am2UtnDHmcOeTI1jP71nvuhzHnc8jD/s320/books_giver%255B1%255D_m.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Annotation: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">In a futuristic fantasy world, where many of the contemporary world’s problems have been done away with, one boy is selected to take on an unbearable burden and learns the cost of his community’s supposed “utopia.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Book Talk:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Jonas grew up in a community where everything was easy and nothing ever hurt. He and his family unit follow all the rules, and all of their needs are taken care of. Like the other kids in his age group, Jonas has put in volunteer hours at different jobs and anticipates the ceremony where they will all be assigned permanent positions within the community. Though his parents assure him that the community’s leaders will choose a role that he is best suited for, he can’t help but be nervous. When the day of the ceremony arrives, Jonas watches as each of his friends is assigned a role that </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">really does</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> suit them. Until it all goes horribly awry. Jonas never could have predicted, or even imagined, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">this</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">. Now, nothing will be easy for Jonas ever again and everything he always trusted and believed about his community is about to change.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“Jonas did not want to go back. He didn’t want the memories, didn’t want the honor, didn’t want the wisdom, didn’t want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games. He sat in his dwelling alone, watching through the window, seeing children at play, citizens bicycling home from uneventful days at work, ordinary lives free of anguish because he had been selected, as others before him had, to bear their burden.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: -24px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000”</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: -24px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA “Best Book for Young Adults”</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA “Notable Children’s Book”</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Booklist “Editor’s Choice”</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Boston Globe-Horn Honor Book 1993</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Buckeye Children’s Book Award 1997</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Heartland Award for Excellence 1997</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Newbery Medal 1994</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">School Library Journal “Best Book of the Year”</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: -24px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">William Allen White Award 1996</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Lowry, Lois. <i>The Giver.</i> New York: Delacorte, 1993. Print.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://www.loislowry.com/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-23904624682509256852011-10-29T16:08:00.000-07:002011-12-01T12:48:14.528-08:00Boyfriends with Girlfriends<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAPYq9cOCyJ0r4LrqkYId0eCYXidp-FJrHG7Fd_lvAS5I1WiKOYGxe9YOz4uk5qvcB1-gDVF0grEYM1UavNmYQRfSZDbVxYhx0hPwtls59KeF4ECS3TK5ip-S9uYuIaq8YrMBXjtDW1VJM/s1600/bfgf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAPYq9cOCyJ0r4LrqkYId0eCYXidp-FJrHG7Fd_lvAS5I1WiKOYGxe9YOz4uk5qvcB1-gDVF0grEYM1UavNmYQRfSZDbVxYhx0hPwtls59KeF4ECS3TK5ip-S9uYuIaq8YrMBXjtDW1VJM/s320/bfgf.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation: </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">A group of suburban teens all reconsider their sexuality when new friends become potential boyfriends and girlfriends and challenge each other’s established sexual identities.</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Book Talk: </b><o:p></o:p></span>By seventeen, you can assume you have your own sexuality all figured out…right?</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">“Did you ever hear of this famous doctor-dude named Kinsey? He did research on like hundreds of people back in the fifties. And he found that some people are super-straight, some are über-homo, and most people are actually somewhere in between.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">So what if you’re a girl with a steady boyfriend and you meet another girl who reminds you of a dream you once had, in which you maybe, kind of, felt a little attraction toward girls? And what if this new girl, who is definitely a lesbian, writes amazing poetry, shares your passion for manga and gives you a feeling that your boyfriend just isn’t able to anymore? Do you step out of your comfort zone and explore the possibilities with this new girl?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">And what if you’ve been a proud gay boy for as far back as you can remember and, though you can be great friends with girls, thinking about them sexually is just not something you have any interest in whatsoever. Your first relationship didn’t go so well because your pseudo boyfriend wasn’t even out, let alone proud of his sexuality like you are, and to make matters worse, now he’s dating a <i>girl!</i> When you meet a new guy online and his profile info claims that he is “bi,” you assume he must just not be out yet. But what if he really is attracted to both boys and girls? Can you really trust him and accept that his sexual preferences aren’t identical to your own?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Maybe sexuality is way more complicated than simply gay <i>or</i> straight and a new person can challenge you to totally rethink everything you thought you already knew about your sexual identity. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">None yet</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Sanchez, Alex. <i>Boyfriends with Girlfriends</i>. New York: BFYR-Simon, 2011. N. pag. Print.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://books.simonandschuster.com/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-2919976411923446722011-10-17T18:09:00.000-07:002011-12-01T12:49:15.860-08:00Monster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQWbc-X54pwYTHL73irqx-gYZwGZL5p_BqHx36gGw9m2vh-EO2_n6OEBGSkqjK23i7tECb1ztqSa2YznvJZlcaZ1YIoQzfEFPsS4Hg3uoQGcQD1FJXt0nIdvaiJGh78lzUiE7LyAXaFODq/s1600/MONSTER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQWbc-X54pwYTHL73irqx-gYZwGZL5p_BqHx36gGw9m2vh-EO2_n6OEBGSkqjK23i7tECb1ztqSa2YznvJZlcaZ1YIoQzfEFPsS4Hg3uoQGcQD1FJXt0nIdvaiJGh78lzUiE7LyAXaFODq/s320/MONSTER.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><b style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Annotation: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Who is Steve Harmon? Is he the wrongly accused teen son of loving parents? The aspiring filmmaker his teacher believes in? Or is he the </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">monster</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> the prosecution is steadily building a case against? All that matters now is who the jury decides he is.</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Book Talk: </b>All I know for certain about Steve Harmon is that he’s a young black man from Harlem, on trial for <i>murder</i>. The reality of his life as an accused criminal, with his future now in the hands of lawyers, a judge and a jury, and surrounded by violent and desperate inmates, is unbearable. So Steve turns to his passion, filmmaking, to process the unthinkable experience. The trial becomes a movie in his mind, with a script of dialogue from the characters swirling around him, and camera directions of the action as it unfolds. The suspense builds as the verdict looms ever closer; Steve reflects on his past and the choices that led him to this moment. After listening to all the witnesses and lawyers discuss him, even <i>Steve</i> isn’t sure anymore whether or not he’s the <i>Monster</i> the prosecution is working so hard to convince the jury he is. His only hope now is that the jury will disagree!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards:</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 1.5pt; margin-left: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 11.25pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;"></div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Best Book for Young Adults</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Arizona Young Reader’s Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Honor Book</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Bulletin Blue Ribbon (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Coretta Scott King Honor (Author)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Horn Book Fanfare</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Kentucky Bluegrass Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Michael L. Printz Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;"><span style="background-color: white; font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">National Book Award Finalist</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Publishers Weekly Best Book</span></span></li>
</ul><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Meyers, Walter Dean. <i>Monster.</i> New York: Harper, 1999. Print.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://glendaleteens.blogspot.com/</span></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable"><tbody> </tbody></table>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-65787532504655874512011-10-04T17:07:00.000-07:002011-12-01T12:51:34.479-08:00Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl<span class="Apple-style-span" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659794214308676338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi25Mgd9MSndRjcuk8qfNJlpcMq54coFmLWTaXY7_msntzWrXEy3-U_TueasdFf7lqVksghAtL0To5JtZz-Ohqg72J_XOGpxqOg98Bq2OG2J_WybH92HbfZSgSPaSquieBKTykhFn9G7I79/s400/anne.jpg" style="float: left; height: 320px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 0px; width: 198px;" width="247" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation: </b>The journal entries of 13-year-old Anne, a Jewish girl living in hiding during World War Two, have captured the imagination of the world for over fifty years. Anne’s thoughts and feelings about family conflict, first love and cultivating a personal identity are utterly timeless and relatable, despite her most extraordinary situation.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Review:</b> Anne Frank had only just turned thirteen when her family went into hiding abruptly in 1942, after witnessing many other Jewish families in Amsterdam torn apart, sent off to work camps and worse fates, nearly impossible to believe. Over two years, Anne documented her most personal thoughts and feelings in her closest friend and confidant, her journal Kitty. She wrote about everything from the day to day activities in the secret annex the Frank family shared with an another family, their son Peter and a dentist; to more emotional topics like her increasingly critical perspective of her parents and her sudden and then fleeting romance with Peter. Amazingly, Anne managed to experience so much of what most girls her age do, despite the extreme limitations of her situation. The suspense of living in hiding and the very real danger, lurking just around the corner, never fully abates, yet readers may find they are, at times, just as distracted from it as Anne was as they get lost in her thoughtful, descriptive and honest writing style and her faith and hope in the life that she believes lies in front of her.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763;"><b style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Awards: </b><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">None yet</span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-size: x-small;">Frank, Anne. <i>Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl. </i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Trans. B.M. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Moovaart-Doubleday. 1952. New York: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Bantam, 1993. Print.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><i style="background-color: white;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://bookgalaxo.com/<i> </i></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-14236073010619918552011-09-28T15:40:00.000-07:002011-12-01T12:53:39.635-08:00Milkweed<a href="http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n25/n126905.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n25/n126905.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 488px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 316px;" /></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Annotation:</b> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Milkweed is a fictional story of a young orphan boy surviving on the streets of Warsaw, Poland at the start of World War Two. The boy develops a unique identity against the backdrop of the Holocaust and the story is both devastating and endearing because the reader sees atrocious historical events play out through the naïve and innocent perspective of a child who, through the course of the story, comes of age and learns about the possibilities of who he can become.</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><o:p style="background-color: white;"> </o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><b>Review:</b> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Jerry Spinelli is best known for writing <i>Maniac Magee</i>, and in <i>Milkweed</i> he once again tells a captivating story through the eyes and mind of a young boy on the run. In the case of <i>Milkweed</i>, we learn from the start that the protagonist has very little in terms of a personal identity. As he subsists on the streets of Warsaw, Poland in 1939, the boy, in fact, does not even have a name; he knows only the names like "stopthief" that he is called by the people from whom he steals food to survive. Throughout the story the boy cultivates a variety of different identities based on his experiences and the people who influence him. Early on, he decides he is a gypsy and eventually, when he takes up with a Jewish family who are evicted from their home and forced to move to an oppressive ghetto, he chooses to identify as a Jew. Through the boy’s changing identity, readers can begin to really understand how trivial it is to judge others based on things like religion and ethnicity, and it makes the horrors of the Holocaust that the characters in <i>Milkweed</i>, and their real life counterparts at that time in history, endured feel that much more outrageously horrific.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Fans of history will not be disappointed with <i>Milkweed</i>, as the plot unfolds amidst historically accurate events, places and people. What makes <i>Milkweed</i> so exceptional though, and sets it apart from other historical fiction about World War Two and the Holocaust, is the perspective of all that history through the eyes of a young boy who often doesn’t understand, or have context for what is happening around him. As a reader, it can be unsettling and rather upsetting when, for example, initially the boy admires the Nazi officers for their handsome uniforms. It may be difficult to believe, but there are actually even moments in <i>Milkweed</i> that are truly <i>funny </i>because of just how disconnected some of the boy’s responses are to what is going on around him<i>.</i> Tension builds throughout <i>Milkweed</i> because most readers will already be familiar with what ultimately happened to the Jews of Poland in the 1940s, but the boy does not. This feeling of discomfort, however, can help readers understand how the Jews of Poland felt at the time; disbelief or incapable of imagining what would unfold over the course of the war. At times, it may feel difficult to read on through <i>Milkweed</i>, but understanding what the experience of the Holocaust was like for those who actually lived it is valuable for anyone interested in this period of history and especially what it might have been like for a young child.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Awards:</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">2004 ALA Best Books for Young Adults</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">2004 Golden Kite Award for Fiction</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">2004 Texas TAYSHAS High School Reading List</span></li>
</ul></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; white-space: nowrap;">Spinelli, Jerry. <i style="font-style: italic;">Milkweed</i>. New York: Knopf, 2003. Print.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; white-space: nowrap;">Image courtesy of http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/</span></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7013079118757193881.post-91765554366255100402011-09-28T14:38:00.000-07:002011-12-01T13:10:36.425-08:00Weetzie Bat<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsRmgsr6U1-WKIXOY0EvNA-7tWCNY9un0XCs3yxO7RXXTYSK7ZLbFVanlJFU824lDOdzG1vSKAwLV-FHUWJBb8-w2kxviJ79y4XSKb_vwZqIxvDcZWm1XNvYW1gvUButLlfDUIJwQ-dGkZ/s1600/weetz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsRmgsr6U1-WKIXOY0EvNA-7tWCNY9un0XCs3yxO7RXXTYSK7ZLbFVanlJFU824lDOdzG1vSKAwLV-FHUWJBb8-w2kxviJ79y4XSKb_vwZqIxvDcZWm1XNvYW1gvUButLlfDUIJwQ-dGkZ/s320/weetz.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b style="text-align: left;">Annotation: </b>Imagine you're a quirky, eccentric teenage girl from the magical city of Losa Angeles and you're granted three wishes by a genie from a magic lamp that all come true; only not the way you expected! So begins the tale of Weetzie Bat who, along with her unconventional family, struggles to find and hold on to love, in the face of all the darkness and pain in the world.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b>Review</b>: </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Weetzie Bat </span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: -webkit-auto;">is a book for anyone who has ever felt different; whether it’s because of how you look, where you come from or even who you love. Weetzie leads a magical life, cruising around L.A. with her best friend Dirk, hitting all the coolest punk shows and iconic LA hot spots. Any girl would be crazy not to crush on Dirk, and and yet, he has a secret that explains why he doesn’t feel quite the same way about Weetzie. This is one of the first of many challenges that life throws Weetzie’s way and throughout the story, she faces them all head on, though often in less than conventional ways! When Weetzie is granted three wishes from a genie in a magic lamp, they all come true, only not at all in the ways that she imagined!</span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Just when Weetzie thinks she’s solved all her problems and has created a happy home with her best friends Dirk and Duck and boyfriend “My Secret Agent Lover Man,” life throws another wrench in Weetzie’s plans and she takes a risk that tests the strength of the groups’ loyalty to each other. Tragedies like AIDS, homophobia and the destruction of the environment are just as relevant now as they were when the book was first published in 1989, and they weigh heavily on Weetzie’s family. Even Weetzie, with her seemingly limitless positive energy, struggles with the unraveling of her parents’ marriage. But </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Weetzie Bat </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">is a story about fighting demons, taking charge and giving in to the magic that is all around. The magic is love and it’s worth fighting for, especially when you can do it with best friends, a sultry boyfriend and your own rules that you figure out along the way!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">*Fans of <i>Weetzie Bat</i> will likely enjoy Block’s subsequent stories about the same characters, which have been published as a collection titled <i>Dangerous Angels,</i>as well as in two separate collections, <i>Goat Girls </i>and <i>Beautiful Boys. </i>Also available is <i>Necklace of Kisses</i>, which revisits Weetzie and company twenty years into the future, and the forthcoming prequel to <i>Weetzie Bat, Pink Smog</i>, slated for January 2012 publication.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Watch a live reading of a Weetzie Bat screenplay the author adapted from the novel! </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/HZtT4BcvDYo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">"Francesca Lia Block Weetzie Bat Reading Part 1" </span><i style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Online Posting</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">. YouTube, 14 September 2010. Web. 1 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">December 2011.</span></span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-weight: bold;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">Awards</span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">:</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Best Book for Young Adults</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">1989 Parents’ Choice Gold Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">2005 Margaret A. Edwards Award</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">2009 Phoenix Award</span></li>
</ul></div></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small; white-space: nowrap;">Block, Francesca Lia. <i style="font-style: italic;">Weetzie Bat</i>. Anniversary ed.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: nowrap;"> New York: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: nowrap;">Harper, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: nowrap;">2004. Print.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small;">Image courtesy of http://printmag.com/</span></span></span></div><div></div>Former Teenagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05597600139337516507noreply@blogger.com0