Note the sidebar...

For all of you who don't look at things like the bar at the side of the blog, and why would you?...

You may now note that, for my own amusement, I have set up a Twitter account and am now tweeting at work, much to my joy and the shock of others. Texting at work! I can imagine them saying. But I am so not texting at work.

No! I am going forth into the world of information overload! I am tweeting about the books that I am reading, the ideas that I have, the places I plan to go! And all because I don't write a new entry for the blog every single day!

So take a peek...follow me...you know, whatever. I'm okay with it.

Can I strongly recommend something?

I know I tell you all the time about the new books we have and the ones I think you might all like. And you might disagree with me, usually I don't care. We all like different things.

But this time I will not permit your negative comments, I have found a book that has made me Very Happy and if it doesn't do the same thing for you, please don't tell me, I couldn't bear the pain of hearing bad things about this book.

Marcello in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork:



I'm not telling you anything about it. Not a word. I want you all to draw your own conclusions. But I loved it. Loved. Loved, loved, loved.

Book Review--but the title is too long so see below...

I just finished a fantastic book: I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter.



Strangely, this series (because it is a series and number two is on it's way) is about a private school for girls devoted to teaching students the art and science of espionage.

Yes, the Gallagher Academy is a spy school, training hundreds of teenage girls to eat their tests (edible paper that tastes awful but allows for sensitive documents to be destroyed at a moment's notice), blow up car tires, disappear in a crowd, and oh--drive.

But remarkably, these books are engaging and believable. The girls experience real emotion that we all can relate to: not knowing what a boy means if he says, "see you around," hating the snobby new girl who calls you names, or missing a lost loved one. The spy stuff is treated as commonplace, so the whole novel revolves around the characters and their problems--like a novel should--instead of sounding like a how-to manual for future secret agents.

Which could be interesting, but could get all of us on a federal watch list. Which would be bad.

Especially if you all want jobs at some point in your lifetimes.

Cammie's mother is the headmistress, as well as a former spy. She gave up the undercover life when her husband, Cammie's father, went on a mission and never came home. Cammie doesn't know the details.

And, as with most things in spy life, she doesn't ask. She knows no one could tell her, even if she really wanted to know how it happened.

But her new Covert Ops professor, Joe Solomon, knows all about it. And mentions it in class.

And it gets worse, because he's shown definite interest in her mother. Much more than Cammie wants him too.

And she has a new roommate--a horrible spoiled rich girl who's jumping head-first into the world of espionage--and she doesn't even speak Farsi!

And did she mention that special assignment? The one that had her tailing a professor--a Real spy--through a street carnival? And the ending--her meet-up with the townie, Josh, oh-so-cute but totally unaware of Gallagher's real curriculum?

What results is a comical clash of Cammie's world and the Normal World, a world of town dances, meeting the parents, and first dates that has her feeling as off her guard as anyone who's version of Rock, Paper, Scissors involves using the aforementioned articles to kill her two opponents (or at least disarm them).

You'll love it. I did.

Oh, and I just finished...

...The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson!



Thank you, thank you (this in response to all the applause my announcement just received, deemed inaudible by the cruelty of distance and the Blogger Powers-That-Be).

If any of you like the whole CSI or NCIS thing, this is the book for you. While some of the occurrences struck me as a bit too convenient, it didn't make the story any less fun.

The reason for this was the science. Alane Ferguson didn't play around. She went to autopsies and interviewed forensic experts. So all the science rings true, and, somehow, she managed to keep her novel from sounding like a biology lecture! Those of you who read a lot of mysteries know, that's hard to pull off. Many authors don't get it right, and it usually leads to me spacing out as I read, skimming information that will later tell me who the killer is and having to go back to find out where I missed out.

So, if forensics is your thing, this is the book for you.

If you're just interested in mysteries that keep you guessing until the very last page...this is not the book you want to pick up. Get What I Saw and How I Lied instead.

Or come ask me and I'll help you find something you like.

New, New, New!

These new books are tiring me out.

Well, not really. I bet it was the late showing of the new Harry Potter movie that did that. But here are some more!

Walter Dean Myers' novel Sunrise Over Fallujah gives us an inside view of war in the Middle East.


Robin "Birdy" Perry leaves Harlem as a new army recruit and soon is deployed to Iraq as a member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion. The battalion was designed to secure and stabilize the country as the soldiers interact with the Iraqi people.

But Birdy finds himself not so much relating to civilians as immersed in all-out war.

This will definitely appeal to male readers trying to escape the Twilight/romance craze. I try so hard to find things like this!

Another novel for guys struggling to find a book that isn't Gossip Girl is The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge.


Again, I tell you that Patterson's novels always read like action movies, so reluctant readers will LOVE this book. As will anyone who is a fan of his Maximum Ride books. This novel follows in that tradition, as Daniel, blessed and cursed with the ability to create goes on a manhunt for the people responsible for the brutal murders of his parents.

He has a list of names, and as he tracks down each person on the list, he struggles to keep ahead of the murderer--a killer who knows exactly what Daniel can do.

All while he keeps the world from ending.

Gentlemen, you will also find that the new books in the Tales of the Otori series are not girly in the slightest and very suitable for you, as are Deadline, Something Rotten, the new Dekker books (see below), and Chasing the Bear. And those are just from the last month.

Also, remember: if you're having trouble finding a good book, drop me a line or come downstairs to the Children's Room and ask me for some help. There's no use struggling when I can find you tons of good books! You can also request books we don't have in our collection.

Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples!


Najmah, an Afghan girl whose family has been lost in the fighting, is fleeing her war-torn homeland. She looks to the stars, her namesake, because her father always promised her the stars would take care of her.

Meanwhile, Elaine, an American Muslim, is in Pakistan, teaching refugee children as her husband runs a clinic in Afghanistan. He promised her the stars would tell her where he was and that he was safe. Elaine's school awaits Najma's arrival as both seek their way home.

I so did not do that justice. This will not be a fluff book. But I think it will also be very uplifting. And, it will give us all a glimpse of what the war in Afghanistan has done to the people who live there.

And, just so that we can end this post on a light note (in case you didn't notice, this sentence is dripping with sarcasm), here is Before I Die by Jenny Downham.


Needless to say, 16-year-old Tessa has only months to live.

And she has a list, of all the things she wants to do before the end. But as the great philosopher Jagger once told us, "You can't always get what you want." And Tessa finds that out on her quest, discovering that getting what she wants doesn't mean getting what she needs, and sometimes the most unexpected things become important to us as we face losing it all.

Now I tell you all, this book is not the downer that it claims to be. It might be about death, but it is also about life.

But don't blame me if you have a good cry somewhere in the middle.

Still More New Books!

Just when I thought my life couldn't get any better, we got another cart of shiny new books.

Right after the other one!

So to spread out the joy, I'm going to give these to you a little at a time.

First up: Undercover by Beth Kephart. Elisa has spent her days ghostwriting love notes for boys at her school.


Time out. I've had to explain this enough times for me to know that not everyone knows what "ghostwriting" is. They think it's something psychics do for fun. Not quite.

Ghostwriting is what I used to do for a "living" when I first graduated from college. Basically, it is when someone who is rich, famous, or just a bad writer asks (and pays) someone who likes to write and is good at it to take their fractured, poorly written jumble of a novel, article, or in this case letter, and re-write it into something that is readable and quite good.

James Patterson, who is famous for his Maximum Ride series, often employs a ghostwiter to take over story ideas of his. If you see his name with another, it means that he used one on that novel. Or sometimes, in his case, they co-wrote it.

Ghostwriters imitate the style and language of the person they're working with, but often don't get much (if any) credit for what they do. They live in the shadows and, depending on who they're working for, keep their work quiet.

Elisa is doing that for boys at her school who can't write well enough to woo the girls they like. She does that very thing for her friend Theo, who she falls in love with. Lila, Theo's flame, is beautiful, popular, and everything Elisa is not.

Lila also has no problem reminding Elisa of this.

With her father, the only person Elisa thinks really understands her, away on business, Elisa feels she has no one to turn to. She writes to him, trying to convince him to return, even as she seeks refuge in ice skating, which allows her to express herself with confidence she lacks in her daily life.

When Lila decides Elisa's friendship with Theo has to end and takes her revenge, the horrible results threaten everything Elisa holds dear.

I don't know what happens, don't even ask.

And here is another by the prolific Meg Cabot: Jinx.


Accident-prone Jean (not Jeanne, not Jeanette, not even Jean Marie) leaves Iowa after causing a horrible mess...oops...for New York to live with her aunt, uncle, and cousin Tory who doesn't want her around.

In fact, Tory has a secret she doesn't want Jean to get involved in, and Jean (nicknamed Jinx) is sure to ruin everything. Especially with her newly-discovered magical talents. In fact, the bad luck she's been running from her whole life might not even be enough to save her life.

Next, we have Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. This is a companion novel to his first bestseller, Stargirl.


Stargirl has moved and left her boyfriend behind. Well, her ex-boyfriend. And maybe her future boyfriend--because she'd really rather they hadn't broken up.

As the novel opens, on January 1, Stargirl begins writing letters to Leo describing the world she lives in and the people she meets, in a (somewhat desperate) attempt to win him back.

Of course, the romance is not why you should pick up these books, it is the quirky heroine and each unique character she meets that brings appeal to the series. Alvina and her one glittery nail, agoraphobic Betty Lou who hasn't left her house in nine years, Dootsie the five-year-old "Human Bean," and Perry Delloplane, the blue-eyed thief that has his own place in Stargirl's heart, all make this novel more than just your average teen novel.

In Lucky, by Rachel Vail, Phoebe Avery has it all.


She's rich (of course), popular (duh), smart (naturally), and to top it all off, beautiful. She's even got the perfect dress for the party she's planning with her four best friends and a new crush to go with it.

But then she finds out her parents are broke.

Oops.

Phoebe embarks on a quest to keep her new circumstances a secret and out of town gossip while keeping her friends and her party intact. Meanwhile, she learns that money isn't everything (because why wouldn't she?) in this altered view added to the spoiled little rich girl genre. But unlike Gossip Girl's S or B, we actually like Phoebe.

Suite Scarlett, by Maureen Johnson (of 13 Little Blue Envelopes) follows Scarlett, a girl who's grown up in the Hopewell, a small Art Deco hotel her family runs in New York City.

When each of Scarlett's family members turn 15, they are placed in charge of a suite. Scarlett's is the Empire Suite, home to a permanent guest named Mrs. Amberson, a washed-out star and world traveler. As she tends to Mrs. Amberson, she meets gorgeous Eric, a young actor who has just arrived in the city, and her summer takes an unexpected turn.

And from one of my favorite young adult authors--Joan Bauer--here is Peeled!


Yes, I'm reading this right now.

Hildy waits every day for her big chance to break out of the dull high school newspaper reporting she's used to and into real journalism. Sadly, her town's biggest story stars a ghost. Not really what she was looking for.

But the local paper swallows each creepy story hook, line, and sinker, so Hildy picks up her pen and reporter's notebook to find out what's really going on before everyone ends up scared out of their wits.

Joan Bauer's writing is hilarious. She fills each book with rich characters, beautiful narration, and descriptions that make you believe you're standing right there in the room moment by moment.

I dare you to read Hope Was Here and not go make yourself a snack twenty pages in. And I promise you'll never look at shoes the same way after Rules of the Road. Peeled promises to join their ranks, and I can't wait to read it.

New Books Are Here!

I love it when our nondescript little beige book carts come rumbling across the tile floor above my head (on the second floor) and I hear the elevator grumble to life and move from one floor to the other (and depending where it is, back down again). Then I watch from my Spying Window (I don't really spy. I promise. I just peek sometimes to see who's out there) as the cart and its person come around the corner to visit me.

Sometimes, much to my despair, I get a nice present of books from the book drop to shelve. Ugh.

Other days (and this is more likely), I get a cart of shiny new books to play with.

Today the cart came down and I got a cart of all shiny new YA books just for you (and, well...me).

So I put in the Accelerated Reader stickers inside the front cover, upper right hand corner, to tell you all what the reading level is and how many points you get if you pass the test (and you can take your tests this summer if you go to Wabash City Schools). And I mark it off the lists of all the books we have ordered, so we know what has come.

And I check them in.

After that, I get to read them--some of them; I could never read them all. There are just too many. You think there aren't, but you have to consider that some are part of many-book series(es?) and I would have to read all those too...and realistically, that doesn't happen. I say it will, but it doesn't.

I get caught up making folded paper star lanterns and just lose track of time. I hope those will be done someday...

Well. Back to the point--today, one of our Upstairs People came down and gave me the cart, and now I'm telling you all about it.

Sarah Dessen fans, we now have Lock and Key.


Sarah Dessen's novels are one of my cousin Cassie's favorites (she lives in Colorado, so they have to be cool because Colorado is such a cool state--right?)

Cassie also loves Meg Cabot, and I bring you Airhead, the first book in a series.


And I just got a series that's one of my faves, The Tales of the Otori by Lian Hearn. I got books 1-3 and if you like them, I'll get the two others.


These books are set in feudal Japan, and follow Takeo as he flees from his village, now destroyed, into the protection of Lord Otori Shigeru who trains him to embrace innate skills that set him apart from the world he grew up in, and place him alongside other members of the cryptic Tribe his father belonged to.


As he learns to cross the nightingale floor without making a sound, he discovers more about his past and the father he never knew.


There are also guys who look good but are evil, guys who look evil and are evil-er, and creepy ladies who use poison like Lord Otori uses his sword. Think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon without all the flying. Which was cool, though not realistic...

On another note entirely, we have the first of the series Maggie Quinn: Girl vs. Evil, Prom Dates from Hell. Following the trend of vampires, werewolves, and Things In-Between, it's a rather comic view of soul-crushing evil similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.


I don't know how the puns are yet, I'll let you know. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, watch some Buffy and come back. Not the movie. The Joss Whedon stuff. That's the TV series. I'm not that old, you guys should know this stuff. Come on, work with me. Alanis! X-Files! Dawson's Creek! It's the 90's, folks!

Sorry.

We also have Beige, by Cecil Castellucci, the chronicles of Katy as she endures two weeks exiled in LA with her punk rock star dad, the Rat, and his band, Suck.


Red Glass by Laura Resau, the story of Sophie's family and six-year-old Pablo found lost and dehydrated after a trip over the Mexican/Arizona border, carrying only Sophie's stepfather's business card and all alone.


Oh, and there's Something Rotten in the state of Denmark. Or, well, Denmark, Tennessee. In this retelling of Hamlet, part of the new Horatio Wilkes mystery series, Horatio has to do his best to solve the murder of his friend's father, Rex Prince. His friend? Hamilton Prince, of course. Alan Gratz's film-noir inspired remake of Shakespeare's classic is sure to erase your bad memories of high school English class.


Don't worry, I think Horatio makes it. Can't promise anything with the other characters, though.

Also, we have the sequel to The Ropemaker, a past Printz Award-winner, Angel Isle by Peter Dickinson. I'm reading The Ropemaker right now...I'll let you know.


And we have Lisa McMann's Wake, with Janie and her peculiar talent--curse? Every night, Janie is sucked into other people's dreams. And it's getting old, very old. But then she ends up in a horrible nightmare, one she can't get out of, one that Janie's not just witnessing; she's a participant. And it could be the last dream she ever sees...


In Sweethearts by Sara Zarr, childhood friends Jennifer and Cameron were outcasts and each other's only friends. Cameron disappears without any warning, and Jennifer feels forgotten, alone. In high school, Jennifer is now Jenna, popular, dating, and completely transformed. Cameron suddenly reappears, and both are confronted by the people they used to be and the friendship they once shared.


And bringing up the position of last, but not least, in our long list of books is Deadline by Chris Crutcher.

Ben Wolf has a year to live, and he knows it. So he's decided to go out in a blaze of glory, never telling anyone he's ill, giving his teachers nervous breakdowns, trying out for sports, and going for the girl of his dreams. If his senior year has to be his last' he's going to make it a good one.

Jewelry Making!

Last night was our Jewelry Making class with the delightful Candie Cooper! I was so looking forward to this, and it was as wonderful as I wanted it to be.

Have some pictures...

In which Candie tells us What To Do...


In which we select beads...


And put them together...





Necklace, some assembly required.


Charmed, I'm sure (I know, I know, bad joke).


Behold our finished products!

If you want to see more pictures...go look here!

New Book Review: Strange Angels

Lili St. Crow's new novel, Strange Angels, follows the recent trend of dark fantasy eating up the teen fiction scene. Like many, it features vampires. However, these are not the glittering, beautiful, eye-candy vampires of Twilight. These are the ohdearthisthingisabouttokillmepleasewontsomeonehelp-- kind of vampires.

And they show up the way I like them most...after tons and tons of suspense. I like waiting until the novel is about to end to get freaked out. Fun stuff.



Dru is just an ordinary teenage girl. Except for the fact she and her dad move every three months or so. And he works as a freelance evil thing hunter. And she helps him out. And she sees things from the "Real World" even her dad can't see. Oh, and there's the part about being trained in all kinds of weapon usage, martial arts, and stealth.

Yeah.

Her dad does draw the line somewhere, though, and he keeps her out of certain things he thinks are too dangerous for her. Until he can't anymore, and he comes home with "a bad case of reanimation." Meaning, he's a zombie.

And Dru kills him.

Along with the understandable emotional baggage that ensues, Dru suddenly finds herself totally alone in the world and being hunted by something decidedly bad, something not even she has seen before, in the normal world or the Real World. And she needs all the help she can get to survive.

Dru's rough language and tough attitude make her seem almost military, but her childish sensitivity and feelings of loss make her character believable. Her friend, Graves, is also well-developed, though his personal history remains mostly a mystery. Guys will definitely like this book too.

But don't take my word for it. Watch the trailer...



The first in an upcoming series, this book has all the workings of a good action movie...and I really liked it. Too bad we have to wait until November for the next one...

New Books: Cathy's Book and Cathy's Key

In a world where vampire novels are the norm, it's hard to find young adult fiction that's written with a different subject matter in mind. Especially if you are like me, and you love fantasy--but you want something else...

Something fresh, new.

Something with a little mystery.

Something with freaky, otherworldly happenings.

All I need is a little change...just something small...

And Cathy's Book is exactly what I was looking for.


We still have the freaky, ageless, otherworldly boyfriend with seemingly mystical powers (and who knows what he is, really), and Cathy is a teenage girl who feels separate from the people around her, something only magnified by the recent death of her father.

But Cathy is also an artist. Her book is decorated cover to cover with her sketches. She's done drawings of each character in the book, as well as throwing in little sketches of her surroundings, geometric designs, and other neat little tidbits.

It makes me want to take my altered journal off the wall of the Children's Room and start sketching inside.

As the book opens, we discover that Cathy's got problems with her mom, stemming from their loss, and boyfriend trouble too. It seems, out of the blue, that Victor (hot, rich, and older) dumped her without much of a reason.

Unfortunately for Victor--well, for Cathy--she doesn't take that sort of thing like other girls. Cathy wants to know why Victor's walking away. So she starts an investigation.

Days later, when Cathy realizes that the mark on her arm is no bug bite and she'd be lucky if the only thing Victor slipped into her cocoa during their last meeting was a sedative, she knows she's in over her head. But between breaking into an airplane hanger, Victor's office, and, well, getting kidnapped, she doesn't have much other option than to keep looking until all her (our) questions get answered.

This is a fantastic novel, something even reluctant readers will have a hard time putting down. To it's credit, Cathy's Book is also incredibly well written and entertaining to the last page.

And despite all the chaos Cathy finds herself in, every bit of it is believable.

Oh, and make sure to check out all the links and phone numbers in the book while you're at it...

Starting with this one.

And when you've finished, you can do what I'm doing and read the sequel, Cathy's Key, also a new book. You just have to wait for me to finish it.



A Note From Laura: I have just finished Cathy's Key and it is now on the new book cart in the young adult section. Oh. My. Goodness. Someone has to read these and come and talk to me. Because seriously. Is the third one out yet?