Top Ten Tuesday

This week's TTT theme at Broke and Bookish is "places books made us want to visit."

The very first book to pop into my head was:

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. The fictional island of Thisby is a character in this memorable book. I've read it both with my eyes and ears and look forward to reading it again. The audiobook has music composed and performed by the multitalented author.

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. For some reason, I have to work so hard to read Marchetta's books but they always, always pay off in the end with memorable characters and strong settings. 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Another vivid worldbuilder, Taylor's descriptions of Prague made me feel I was there. Ditto the otherworldly, Elsewhere.

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. I've always wanted to visit Venice anyway but I really loved the setting here.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. I just adored the worldbuilding in the debut. I just found out that there's a sequel coming in March of 2015! Holy moly, I just went back to my post on the book and found that I mis-named the author. Head-desk.

The Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen. Beginning with The False Prince right through the concluding, Shadow Throne, the kingdom of Carthya was real in my mind's eye.

The Raven Boys Tby Maggie Stiefvater. Raven Boys series #1. I so want to visit Blue's house, have tea with her aunts, and hang out in Henrietta, Virginia and Aglionby Academy.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia. Even though I found the story to be a bit overwrought in the end, I was captivated by Gatlin County and its environs. Very atmospheric.

Into the Grey by Celine Kiernan. Speaking of atmospheric, that was the word I used to describe this ghost story set in Ireland in the 1970s in my post about it. 

For my tenth place, I give a two way tie to worlds of The Lord of the Ring and Harry Potter, with LOTR having a slight edge.

Non-fiction Monday: Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle by Cheryl Bardoe

Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle by Cheryl Bardoe. Illustrated by Alan Marks. unpgd. Charlesbridge, March, 2014. 9781580895545. (Finished copy courtesy of publisher for review.)

I'm sure that you're thinking, "Ew! Why should I behold the dung beetle and why is it portrayed in an insect version of Rocky's triumphant pose on the top of the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art?" Apparently, the ancient Egyptians were impressed and immortalized them in jewelry and art. It reminded them of the rising sun and was a symbol of renewal. Scarabs are dung beetles. Who knew?

Readers learn that and so much more about the life cycle of the three types of dung beetle, dwellers, rollers, and tunnelers, in two levels of text. Easier text in larger font appears on the left and more detailed text with harder language and smaller font appears on the right hand pages (mostly). All this info floats on glorious single and double-page spreads featuring nature's industrious janitors doing what they do best with freshly dropped pats of poop. 

Dwellers chow down immediately. Rollers shapes a hunk of poo into balls much larger than themselves, grab themselves a mate and roll off into the sunset. Eventually, they will bury the dung and the female will insert eggs inside. Tunnelers burrow and store the dung inside for their eggs. Dwellers lay their eggs in whatever dung is left.

The watercolor paintings vividly portray the three types of beetles at various stages, including cross-sections of the larval stages and underground scenes. The backgrounds are lovely and a bit impressionistic but the beetles themselves are marvelously detailed. I hope they were portrayed larger than life. There was nothing in the way to show scale except for one bit of text which states, "The largest rollers, which are about the size of tennis balls can roll dung balls up to fifty times heavier than themselves." Yikes.

A page at the end contains helpful advice for finding one's own dung beetles (including a reminder to wash hands) and four fascinating facts. A final page contains a glossary and three books for further reading. Both author and illustrator have web sites.

                    

What's New? Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Hop on over there to ogle what other bloggers got this week.

For review:

Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers.452 p. His Fair Assassin series #3. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, November 2, 2014. 9780547628400.

Publisher synopsis: In the powerful conclusion to Robin LaFever's New York Times bestselling His Fair Assassins trilogy, Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own. 
  
She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind, doesn’t mean she has.

Oh how I adored books 1 & 2 of this trilogy. I cannot wait to get into this.

Tomboy: a graphic memoir by Liz Prince. 256 p. Zest. September, 2014. 9781936976553.

Publisher synopsis: Growing up, Liz Prince wasn't a girly girl, dressing in pink tutus or playing Pretty Pretty princess like the other girls in her neighborhood. But she wasn't exactly one of the guys either, as she quickly learned when her Little League baseball coach exiled her to the outfield instead of letting her take the pitcher's mound. Liz was somewhere in the middle, and Tomboy is the story of her struggle to find the place where she belonged.

Tomboy is a graphic novel about refusing gender boundaries, yet unwittingly embracing gender stereotypes at the same time, and realizing later in life that you can be just as much of a girl in jeans and a T-shirt as you can in a pink tutu. A memoir told anecdotally, Tomboy follows author and zine artist Liz Prince through her early childhood into adulthood and explores her ever-evolving struggles and wishes regarding what it means to "be a girl."

From staunchly refuting anything she perceived as being "girly" to the point of misogyny, to discovering through the punk community that your identity is whatever you make of it, regardless of your gender, Tomboy is as much humorous and honest as it is at points uncomfortable and heartbreaking.

I'm participating in blog tour for this one. Look for my review in early November. 


I went to the Little Brown preview on October 1 and, sadly, have not gotten around to writing about the exciting list that is due this spring. Great middle grade stuff in the pipes and some superb picture books due as well. They very nicely provide a checklist and mail the arcs instead of having to lug them home. These arrived this week:

Wonder at the Edge of the World: a novel by Nicole Helget. 369 p. Little, Brown and Company, April 14, 2015. 9780316245104. 

Publisher synopsis: In this captivating quest that spans the globe, a young girl must challenge her assumptions about family, slavery, and friendship as she fights to save her father's legacy...and to begin creating her own.

Hallelujah Wonder wants to become one of the first female scientists of the nineteenth century. Her father was a scientist and explorer, but his life was cruelly cut short by an evil Navy captain who coveted his cache of artifacts. Hallelujah feels a great responsibility to protect the objects--particularly a mesmerizing (and dangerous) one called the Medicine Head--before the captain can succeed. Now she and her best friend, a slave boy about to be sold, must set out on a sweeping adventure by land and by sea to the only place where no one will ever be able to find the cursed talisman: the forbidding land of Antarctica.

Outstanding in the Rain by Frank Viva. 32 p. Little, Brown and Company, April 14, 2015. 9780316366274.

Publisher synopsis: Step right up! Step right up to the amusing amusement park!
It's a whole story, and the pages have holes!
Watch the holes transform pictures!
Turn an umbrella into a cake and balloons into ice cream!
See the holes transform words!
Turn an ice man into a nice man and see fork handles turn into four candles!
Outstanding in the Rain will turn any gray day into one that is Grade A!

From the creator of New York Times Best-Illustrated book Along a Long Road and A Long Way Away, picture book master Frank Viva does it again, this time with astounding die-cuts that transform both words and pictures in delightful ways, while telling the story of a young boy spending his birthday at Coney Island, in search of his heart's desire.

Woundabout by Lev Rosen. Illustrated by Ellis Rosen. 269 p. Little, Brown and Company, June 23, 2015. 9780316370783.

Publisher synopsis: Welcome to Woundabout, where routine rules and change is feared. But transformation is in the wind....

In the wake of tragedy, siblings Connor and Cordelia and their pet capybara are sent to the precariously perched town of Woundabout to live with their eccentric aunt. Woundabout is a place where the mayor has declared that routine rules above all, and no one is allowed to as questions--because they should already know the answers.

But Connor and Cordelia can't help their curiosity when they discover a mysterious crank that fits into certain parts of the town, and by winding the crank, places are transformed into something beautiful. When the townspeople see this transformation, they don't see beauty--they only see change. And change, the mayor says, is something to fear. With the mayor hot on their trail, can Connor and Cordelia find a way to wind Woundabout back to life?

No Cover Art

The Book That Proves Time Travel Happens by Henry Clark. 400 p. Little, Brown and Company, April 14, 2015. 9780316406178.

Publisher synopsis: This never-before-seen twist on time travel adventure explores the theme of accepting those who are different--and having the courage to join them. The moment Ambrose Brody steps into a fortune-teller's tent, he is whisked into a quest that spans millennia with his best friend, an enigmatic carnival girl, and an unusual family heirloom that drops them into the middle of the nineteenth century! 

The year 1852 is a dangerous time for three non-white children, and they must work together to dodge slave-catchers and save ancestors from certain death--all while figuring out how to get back to the future. Fortunately, they have a guide in the helpful hints embedded in an ancient Chinese text called the I-Ching, which they interpret using Morse Code. But how can a three-thousand-year-old book be sending messages into the future through a code developed in the 1830s? Find out in this mind-bending, time-bending adventure!

Purchased: I bought these books on my own to add to my school library collection so that a couple of my students would not have to wait. I probably spend way too much of my own money to subsidize my library collection but it tickles me when students get so psyched about books or a series.

The Uprising by Lisa Stasse. The Forsaken book #2. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, July, 2014. 

Publisher synopsis: In this dystopian sequel to The Forsaken, Alenna has survived the brutality of life on the wheel—and now she’s going back for more.

Alenna escaped. It was expected that she would die on the wheel, the island where would-be criminals are sent as directed by the UNA—the totalitarian supercountry that was once the United States, Mexico, and Canada. But Alenna and her boyfriend, Liam, made it to safety. Except safety, they will soon learn, is relative.

In order to bring down the UNA, they must first gain control of the wheel. If the mission succeeds, the wheel will become a base of revolution. But between betrayals, a new Monk leading a more organized army of Drones, and the discovery of a previously unknown contingent, Alenna, Liam, and their allies might be in over their heads. One thing Alenna knows for sure: There will be a reckoning. And not everyone she loves will make it out alive.

The Defiant by Lisa Stasse. The Forsaken book #3. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, July, 2014. 9781442432710.

Publisher synopsis: In this gripping conclusion to The Forsaken Trilogy, Alenna’s loyalties are put the ultimate test—and it’s one of life and death.

Alenna Shawcross and the others who escaped the wheel are working toward an all-out assault on the United Northern Alliance. The plan is to dismantle it from the inside—and Alenna is one of the few people who can access the organization’s inner sanctum. But when she returns to the home she has nearly forgotten, she encounters old friends and is swept into a secret plan that puts everything she loves in danger.

Knowing what is at stake for her and her friends, Alenna ventures into the heart of the treacherous UNA. She’s determined to bring them down, because freedom is the only choice. Or is it?

Heroes of Olympus: Book one: The Lost Hero Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan, Robert Venditti and illustrated by Nathan Powell. Disney-Hyperion, October 7, 2014. 9781423163251.

Publisher synopsis: Jason has a problem. He doesn't remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she's his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids." What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he's in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn't recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What's troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.  

The Red Pyramid Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan, Robert Venditti. Disney-Hyperion, October, 2012. 9781423150695.

I actually had this already in the collection but it was stolen borrowed without being checked out.

That's what's new with me. What's new with you? Put a link to your stack in the comments.

Wild About Bears by Jeannie Brett

Wild About Bears by Jeannie Brett. unpgd. Charlesbridge, March, 2014. 9781580894180. (Finished copy courtesy of publisher for review.)

Few elementary aged students will be able to resist that cover! Once lured inside, they will learn that there are just eight bears species in the world. First, they will learn what all the species have in common, then each type of bear gets a double-page spread where readers learn the scientific and common names of the bear and the approximate size. Three paragraphs describe habits and habitats and two or three floating text "boxes" provide additional facts. The book ends with a color-coded map of the world showing where the eight species live and an illustrated habitat glossary. Three books and seven websites are listed for students interested in finding out more.

This is a nice introduction to bears for young report writers. the information is interesting and well organized. The illustrations are pleasing though not terribly realistic looking. Students used to informational books illustrated with full-color photos may be disappointed. My quibble is that the faces are fairly anthropomorphic. Still, a fine addition to most elementary school libraries.

Fabulous Author Visit - George Hagen - Gabriel Finley and the Raven's Riddle

Back in late June, I was shopping for my school library in Books, Bytes and Beyond. Mary Brown flashed an arc and said, "I think you'd like this and there might be an author visit opportunity." Well. Mary has almost never steered me wrong when it comes to book recommendations. Each author she has brought to my school has impressed my students and colleagues. You can be sure that I snatched that little sucker up, quick as a wink. 

Once I finally got to Gabriel Finley and the Raven's Riddle by George Hagen, I fell into a world I did not wish to leave and wrote a bit about it here. Other bloggers wrote about it here and here. Kirkus liked it and Booklist, PW and SLJ all gave it stars. I nominated it in the middle grade speculative fiction category when the Cybils nominations opened last week.

Tuesday was THE day! Given the fact that I failed to ask if Mr. Hagen needed any technology until about an hour before his arrival, and sent an email to the staff mis-stating the time, the event went off without a hitch. 

Using a humorously illustrated PowerPoint presentation, George Hagen spoke about his journey to becoming a writer and shared some of the art he drew whenever he got stuck writing Gabriel's story. He's pretty good! I wish I was quick enough with my camera to capture the sketch he made of Aviopolis. 

Mr. Hagen also spoke briefly about the various ideas that were discussed for the cover art. 

Here's a shot of my principal and Mr. Hagen just before the assembly began. My principal does not ordinarily wear a neon vest during the school day. This is Red Ribbon Week at my school and it was wear neon day. 

Visiting speakers often comment on how well behaved our students are. This is not an accident. Frequent discussions are held about "audience mode," what it is and how it looks. It's part of the culture of our school that is modeled and reinforced by my colleagues and administration. They don't sit down and grade papers during presentations. 

The magic of our "audience mode" was shattered when we got to the riddles part of the presentation. Mr. Hagen promised the students that they would get their brains squished a bit at the end. I don't think he banked on how enthusiastically the group would embrace solving his "stinky pinkies." I have a feeling the language arts teachers are going to have some fun extending that activity.

Before Trish squired Mr. Hagen back to the store to sign books, he signed a print of the map of Aviopolis as a gift to the school and posed for a picture with me. I will have it framed pronto and hang it in the library.

Thank you George Hagen, Random House and Books, Bytes and Beyond for this wonderful visit.

Stone Giant by Jane Sutcliffe

Stone Giant: Michelangelo's David and how he came to be by Jane Sutcliffe. Illustrated by John Shelley. unpgd. Charlesbridge Publishing Inc., April, 2014. 9781580892957. (Finished copy courtesy of publisher for review.)

How many of the picture book crowd you might hang around with can even pronounce Michelangelo's name, let alone tell you that he was a renowned Renaissance painter and sculptor or identify his sculpture of David? They will after reading this delightful tale of how he came to sculpt David. Personally, I was fairly well acquainted with the artist's work at a fairly young age thanks to my parents' subscription to that Time-Life series on the greatest artists of all time. Unfortunately, I couldn't read much more than the captions as the text was written for adults and I was eight. But I vividly recall poring over those books as they arrived, then, "rereading" them again and again. Luckily, Sutlcliffe's tale is quite readable and Shelley's illustrations beg the reader to pause and pore over the delightful details in illustrations that evoke Tomie dePaola and Trina SchartHyman. 

I liked how the author conveyed the idea that Michelangelo saw David within the stone and how the illustrator conveyed the scale of the work. Michelangelo's discipline and perseverance are conveyed nicely as well Florence's history and spirit. An Author's Note and suggestions for further reading are included. Sadly, there is no note from the illustrator. It seems that many of his paintings were imitated the style of Renaissance art.

This is a picture book for all ages. It is an art book however and David is a nude so keep your audience in mind. Let your art teacher know about this one and include it in the pile of books you send down to the social studies teacher when asked for books on the Renaissance.

Waiting on Wednesday - The Lost Hero Graphic Novel

WoW is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, in which we share the titles of upcoming books whose release we are eagerly anticipating.

We don't have to wait too long for this one, but I only found out about it last Wednesday when I queried Disney about Percy Jackson #4. This'll do while my students await #4. 

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. Adapted by Robert Venditti. Art by Nate Powell and Orpheus Collar. Heroes of Olympus book 1. 192 p. Disney-Hyperion, October 7, 2014. 9781423163251.

Publisher synopsis: Jason has a problem. He doesn't remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she's his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids." What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he's in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn't recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What's troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.