Dread Nation

I got this one the day it came out, and I was soooo pumped!  It was great and I can't wait to get it into the classroom library.

The premise is cool - during the Civil War, the dead get up and walk.  The zombies, called "shamblers" will eat you and a bite will turn you.  So this changes the entire course of U.S. history as we know it.  Cities have started building their own defenses, and people have their own opinions about how to stop the shamblers.  One of the things that has been put in to place are training schools, part of the "Negro and Native Reeducation Act" in the book.  As part of this act kids of a certain age go to "school" to learn how to fight the walking dead.

The main character, Jane McKeene, attends one of these schools, the reputable Miss Preston's, and Jane is on the of the best at the school.  Jane was separated from her mother and entire family, and she yearns to get back to them.  But once she graduates from Miss Preston's will she be able to go home and see if her mother is even there??  Or will she be hired as an "attendant" who will protect her white mistress from shambler attacks?  Jane hasn't heard from her mother in so long, she fears the worst.

The girls of Miss Preston's go to a lecture in Baltimore that changes the entire course of her story.  What happens at the lecture plus the mysterious disappearance of a neighboring family get Jane wrapped up in something that is much more serious and sinister than she thought.

I loved Jane's voice and the entire organization of the book.  Each chapter has excerpts from Jane's letters, and I enjoyed reading the real story and piecing together the rest from the letter snippets.  Jane is a tough young woman of color who kicks major zombie butt.  The secondary characters in the novel are all wonderful and important to Jane's story, too.  I loved the setting and the history wrapped up with this new vision.  Jane is spunky and doesn't let others bully or scare her.  I loved this main character and the world Ireland has created.  This is going to be an awesome series and I can't wait for more installments.  The books is action packed, but also eye opening when you consider the darker side of American history and how this book speaks to us today.

There's more evil in the world than just the shamblers.  Good thing Jane McKeene is ready to take on all of it.

Let It Snow (and my first post of 2011 and since having a baby!!!)

So, like the title of this post says - I finally finished a book!  I'm impressed that I got it done.  I had my little girl at the end of December, and needless to say, it's been a little different and busy at my house!  I won't be reading quite at the pace I was, I'm sure, but I will still be reading every chance I  get!

So I started Let It Snow (by YA powerhouses John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle) before Christmas, and then life changed!  I picked up the book after all the baby stuff, and have slowly but surely made it through.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that is awesome!  These three separate-yet-connected romances were a hoot - for  guys and girls.  Each one was fun and full of snow.  What made this book even cooler for me (and will make it cool for my students) is that it is set where I live!  The setting of the book, Gracetown, is near Asheville, NC.  Even better was that while I read - the ground here was pretty much covered in snow as we've had two big snow storms so far this winter!


Jubilee Express is about a girl whose parents get arrested on Christmas Eve for getting in a "riot" as they tried to buy the newest piece of there Christmas Village at the store.  Sent to her grandparents' on a train, Jubliee isn't too happy, but it gets worse when the train she's on gets stuck and isn't going anywhere!  This snag in the trip leads her to Waffle House which is ok until a bunch of also stranded cheerleaders show up, which then leads Jubilee away with a kid named Stuart (because who could stay in a Waffle House with a bunch of hyper-active, loud cheerleaders on Christmas Eve...).

The second story (which was my favorite....I'm a bit of a John Green fan!....ok a HUGE fan!) is more for the guys.  It follows Tobin, JP, and the Duke (a girl named Angie) on their epic journey to actually get to the Waffle House full of cheerleaders.  Really funny.

The last story was great as well and really brought all three stories  together.

This was just an all around fun read for the holidays.  I had been meaning to read this since it came out but never got around to it.  I highly recommend this read while it's still cold outside.

Cherub Mission 1: The Recruit by Robert Muchamore

The Cherub series was published in England and is now being released with new covers in the U.S.  We have some of these books (the paperbacks released before these new ones) in our school library.

I picked up the new hardcover of Mission 1:  The Recruit the other day because I had heard lots of kids (especially boys) had really liked the series.

James Choke is living in London with his Mom, half-sister, and step dad.  His step dad is a complete idiot, and while he loves his mom, she's not up to the most good herself.  Enormously fat, she stays in their apartment organizing her "people" who work for her stealing electronic goods and such.  She changes her cell phone every few days so as not to get caught.  She resells the stuff to others.  She drinks too much, and James and Lauren often have to take care of themselves.

One day, though, she doesn't wake up from drinking too much, and James' life changes forever.  He's separated from Lauren and thrown into a group home.  He hangs out with the bad kids and doesn't want to be there forever.   Then mysteriously he wakes up in a clean room one morning and has no idea how he got there.

He finds out he is at the Cherub campus.  Cherub agents for all practical purposes don't even really exist.  They are kids that work with British MI5 agents to help bring down terrorists and criminals.  The kids are used in cases where the adult agents would be obvious.  No one suspects kids of being spies, so that's when the Cherub agents take over and help out.  Before you can become a Cherub agent, however, you must go through a insanely-hard-makes-you-want-to-die-and-cry-for-you-mommy kind of basic training.  So, can James make it through training?  How hard will  these hundred days be?  Will he ever see his sister Lauren again?  Will he get his first Cherub mission?  Read on to find out what the training is like and to follow James on his first Cherub adventure.

I think lots of kids will like this book.  I have never read any of the Alex Rider books, but I assume it's a similar feel.  Although in these, the agents don't rely on crazy gadgets like in Alex Rider...but it's still adventurous all the same.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

I was really pumped to read this book, and while I enjoyed much of the story, I was a little bit underwhelmed.  However, this was a good fantasy read and I do recommend it if you like fantasy.

So there are two stories in this book:  the story of Finn and the story of Claudia.  And both stories involve the prison - Incarceron.

Finn woke up in the prison and had no idea about how he got there or even who he was.  He saw the name on his clothes; he ran into some people; and he began a strange, violent life in the prison.  There's fighting, lying, and violence in the prison.  Finn always had the weird feeling, though, that he was from Outside and that he hadn't always been in Incarceron.  He has a tattoo on his arm, and when he finds a woman who knows something about it, he works to find out who he is and how he can get out of the prison.

Finn's path eventually crosses with the path of Claudia's.  Claudia is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron.  She's grown up privileged, yet she's unhappy now because a marriage is being arranged for her that she does not want a part of.  She's from the Outside, supposedly, but ends up wondering much when she encounters Finn somehow.

In this book you are reading about each character and wondering how Finn can ever get out or if that's even possible.  It was a good read and did have some surprises, but it didn't leave me feeling like I felt after reading The Hunger Games  or The Knife of Never Letting Go.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

I read this book once when I was a kid but couldn't remember it, really.  So I picked it up again and sat down to enjoy.

The book begins on a dark and stormy night, and things only get stranger and creepier from there.  Meg Murray is a normal kid.  She's smart but gets in trouble at school.  She's seen as "belligerent" and unruly by her teachers.  She knows how to do math problems fast using her "shortcuts" her dad taught her, and of course, these behaviors make the teachers annoyed.  She's one of many in her family including her twin brothers Sandy and Dennys, and her "strange" little brother Charles Wallace.  On top of all this, Meg's father, who worked for the government, has gone missing.  He just wasn't there any more.  While Meg, her brothers, and her mother all believe he's out there somewhere and will come home, most other people think that Meg's dad is never coming back (or worse has run off with another woman or something).

At this point, Meg and Charles Wallace go down with their friend Calvin to the hold creepy house down the street and encounter some strange women:  Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which.  In a flash they are no longer in their safe neighborhood but in an entirely different universe.  Once they jump to a new time and place that night, they have a crazy adventure ahead of them if they want to make it back.  They get a chance to find Meg's father, but can three kids battle what waits out there in the universe?  Read this classic and take a journey to far away places.  I loved the book this read-through, and I think I might read the rest of the books in the Quintet now.  I'd like to see what happens to Charles Wallace, Meg, and Calvin.

My Big Fat Greek Reading Week

So!  I read two great Greek gods books this week, and I would highly recommend both.

I have wanted to read the Percy Jackson series for a while now.  The movie previews made me get a copy and get started.


Shop Indie BookstoresPercy Jackson has trouble when he goes on class field trips.  He also has  trouble staying in a the same school for more than a year.  He always seems to get in trouble or kicked out.  He finds out, though, that there may be a reason for this...monsters from mythology are following him because he's the son of Poseidon and mixed up in a very sticky struggle between the gods of Olympus.  When he finally gets to the beach to relax with his mother away from his horrible step-father, their peace is ruined by a minotaur and Percy's introduction to Camp Half-Blood.  From this moment on, Percy realizes that he's not your average kid, and that his life will never be the same.  Someone has stolen Zeus' sacred, most powerful thunderbolt, and Percy must help discover what has happened to it and return it by the summer solstice or else lots of people (and gods, and monsters) will be hurt.

I loved Percy Jackson - The Lightning Thief, and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.  It was really fun like Harry Potter, and totally cool to see the gods and monsters and powerful beings of mythology at work in the real world...they're all out there, we just don't quite see them!


Shop Indie BookstoresMy second Greek read was Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs.  While Percy's gods are right there in the America with him and all the rest of us.  The gods and their descendants in Childs' book are located on an oh so beautiful island called Serfopoula.  Poebe is about to start her senior year when her mother suddenly announces that she's fallen in love and they will be moving to Greece.  Not exactly the way you want your senior year to begin.  Poebe has not choice, though, and she's tough and can probably survive anything for nine months.  Then she can just go back to the states, go to college with her pals Cesa and Nola at USC and move on with life.  Greece isn't the only problem she faces though, her new school, the Academy, is full of a different kind of student.  She be leaving her friends to go to school with kids who are all descended from the Greek gods.  As if high school weren't hard enough, now she's the nothos, the newbie, and will have to keep up with these super-power godlike others as best she can.  If regular high school girls can be a pain though...girls with goddess powers are even worse.  Can Poebe survive a year here?  Sure, the island is beautiful, but will that be enough?  Read this book to take a journey overseas and watch Poebe as she navigates a very unusual school.

This book was super fun!  I loved Poebe.  She was honest and funny.  She felt lots of emotions during the move, which is what any of us would feel like if we had to move  to a new situation.  This is a great read with a fun magical twist.  I will probably be picking up the sequel soon! 

You Suck - by Christopher Moore

I loved Lamb by Christopher Moore and was excited to see what You Suck would be like.  I've of course read the Twilight books and Cirque Du Freak, but I was hoping for a funny vampire story when I started this book, and that is exactly what I got.  

You suck is about Tommy Flood who is turned into a vampire by his girlfriend, Jody.  The problem is that he didn't ask to be turned into a blood-sucking monster, and that both Tommy and Jody have captured the old vampire who turned Jody, and that old vampire wants out, AND Tommy's old friends are  trying to capture him...and the list goes on!  

Jody has been forced to leave town (San Francisco) once the cops find out that she is a vampire.  In order for Jody and Tommy to get out of town, they have to find a minion to do their bidding during the day...enter Abby Normal, a sweet freak girl who helps them out.  

Abby was what made this book for me.  Every so often the book is told from the point of view of her journal and I loved her voice.  She is really funny, but honest too.  The characters in this book were all hilarious from the Animals (Tommy's group of friends who stock groceries and go frozen turkey bowling at night) to William and his large cat (he's a homeless dude with a really big cat).  This book was a funny vampire story and not scary at all.  The only heads-up that I need to say is that there is a lot of foul language.  It's funny, but foul.  There are also a few sexual situations in the book.  So if you don't mind that and want to run around San Francisco with a bunch of vampires and vampire killers, then have at it.  I would recommend this book to older teens and upper classmen who can handle the language and suggestiveness more.  Too much for middle school. 

Grade:  B

The Knife of Never Letting Go - by Patrick Ness

Todd Hewitt is a young boy about to turn thirteen, but his life is a little different from ours.  He lives on a different planet, settled years when men ventured out for new lands in search of peaceful harmony on a new Eden.  He lives in a town with no women.  He can hear the thoughts of all the men in his town.  He can hear the thoughts of animals, too...but they don't usually have too much to say.  This makes for a very Noisy life for Tood, the last boy in Prentisstown.  Strange as his life may be, Todd works on his farm with his guardians Ben and Cillian and lives his life the best he knows how.  Until one day, all that he has known is called into question.  Used to constant Noise, Todd hears something different one day when he is own in the swamp - silence.  Once he and his dog, Manchee, give this thought away, he learns that the town he has lived in his entire life isn't what he thought it was.  Ben and Cillian immediately get Todd out of town, sending him off into the swamp without an explanation, carrying only his rucksack and a book with a map, a journal written by Todd's mother years ago.  What was the silence Todd heard?  Where is he supposed to go now?  What is wrong with all the men in Prentisstown, and why doesn't he know the true history of his hometown?

The Knife of Never Letting Go follows Todd on his journey out of Prentisstown into a world that he didn't even know existed.  REad and follow him on this amazing adventure.  He has Manchee at his side, but will soon find a very unexpected friend in the swamp to be by his side as he battles the evil he finds in the New World.

I was disappointed when I finished this book.  Not because it was bad, but because I couldn't immediately begin reading book 2 of the Chaos Walking series...and believe me, you will want to begin book 2 right away.  I got wrapped up in this book from the very beginning, thanks to chapters that urge you on and exciting, quick-paced writing that takes you into the midst of the action.  Luckily, the book is divided into six sections, so when I had to make myself put it down, I read to the end of a section and waited until the next day to pick back up.  

Todd is a brave young man who is good at heart, unlike many of the "bad" guys you meet in this book.  He just wants to figure out what is going on in his world and make sense of all the Noise around him.  He hears so much and needs to find out what is true.  

This book is great for people who like action/adventure.  It also is good for people who like science fiction...it does have some aliens (spackles) but the sci-fi details don't drive the story, the characters and struggles do.  So even if you aren't to keen on science fiction, I still think you could get drawn into the plot of this book.  

I was also reminded of Pullman's Dark Materials series when I read this.  The main characters here in Chaos Walking are similar to Lyra and Will in Pullman's story.  

Grade:  A