Cryptid Hunters and Tentacles

Cryptid Hunters is the first book in this series. Until Roland Smith wrote Tentacles, no one knew that it was a series. And he has done it again. Like his other books, Tentacles is action-packed.

In Cryptid Hunters, brother and sister Grace and Marty travel to the Congo with their uncle in search of a dinosaur. There are bad guys galore and staying alive in the jungle is not easy. Marty and Grace find that things are not what they seem and people are not whom they appear to be.

In Tentacles, the setting is the ocean. Marty and Grace are in search of a giant squid. Inventors with amazing new technology, really bad guys (and I mean really, really bad), and clever heroes make this book just as exciting and full of adventure as the first. There is also the distinct possibility (probability) that there will be another book in this series. I hope it doesn't take as long to write as Tentacles did!

Found and Sent

Hurray! The next book in the Missing series is out. I read Found last year and was fortunate enough to have dinner with the author, Margaret Peterson Haddix (thank you District 112 librarians!). What a wonderful experience.

Sent starts out with a bang. Jonah, through whose eyes we are experiencing the story, and his sister and best friend have traveled back to 1400's England. It's a great way to learn about a period of time that is unfamiliar to many of us (me, included).

Like all her books, this is action-filled and you immediately care about the main characters. If you didn't read Found, you should still be able to enjoy this book.

I highly recommend it for good 4th grader readers and on up through middle school. Of course, older readers will still enjoy it. I love reading her books!

The Chosen One

This book is a middle school through high school book. Not for elementary students! The Chosen One is about Kyra, a girl who grows up in a polygamous community. Her father has three wives and she has over twenty siblings. They live in a secluded community where the leader's word is law.

Kyra loves her family but also grows to love a boy she wants to marry. When she finds out that she has been "chosen" to marry her uncle, she rebels.

Reading this book is like entering a foreign country. The lifestyle and morals of this community are not those to which we are accustomed. The hypocrisy is apparent: the leaders live in large homes with air conditioning while the others live in trailer homes with no air conditioning in the desert heat. The leaders have computers while the followers are told that computers are evil. The leaders have libraries while the followers are not allowed to read anything but the Bible.

I highly recommend this book.

The Secret Keeper

Just having read two adult books which take place in India, I was intrigued by the thought of a Young Adult book that takes place in India. This book is written from the point of view of a teenager, Asha, who was raised in an unusual manner. Her father treated her like a son in that she was allowed to participate in sports.

However, when she reaches puberty that all changes suddenly. She can no longer play cricket (a British, baseball-like sport) and wear shorts. Her entire life changes. And she does not like it.

When her father leaves them to try to find a job in America, they must move into her grandparents' house where the environment is even more restrictive. She meets a boy from next door while spending time alone on her roof. Their friendship is forbidden--innocent though it is.

Asha must make a desperate sacrifice to keep her promise to her father--to keep her family safe.

This is a wonderful book and the reader will laugh and cry over the events which transpire. Also, for the reader who enjoys learning about other cultures--this is a sure winner!

London Eye

I had difficulty getting a copy of London Eye to read. I made the mistake of recommending it to customers at Borders (based on others' recommendations) and sold both copies. Then, there were no more books available. Finally, my school library borrowed one from another school lucky enough to have a copy.

The book is about a sister and brother who take a visiting cousin for a ride on the London Eye--a huge ferris-wheel type ride in London. He is given a ticket by a stranger and goes up alone. They watch him get on, watch his car go around, but he doesn't get out. They wait but he's disappeared. Because the police do not seem to be working hard enough to find their cousin, they decide to solve the mystery.

I loved this book for many reasons. First, I loved hearing the English words and slang. The book is written from the point of view of a child who is on the spectrum--which means he either has Asperger's syndrome or is autistic. Although not a major part of the book (the mystery is), it is very enlightening to read about his life--the challenges he faces trying to interpret people's emotions through facial expressions and body language. He says that because a mouth is upturned, that means that the person must be happy.

It's a hard book to put down once you start it. I would like to read a sequel to this--have the main character solve another mystery. And I don't always like sequels--so that tells you how much I enjoyed the story and the characters.

Traitor by Andy McNab

This adventure book is definitely a young adult book for those in grade 6 and above. The main character, Danny Watts, is a 17-year-old who tries to enlist in the Army. He is rejected and told it is because of his grandfather. It is explained to him that his grandfather was a traitor and because of that Danny cannot be trusted.

Danny, furious, vows to find his grandfather and make him suffer for Danny's rejection. What follows is Danny trying to find his grandfather while being followed by those in the Army who counted on that and want to find his grandfather also.

Andy makes friends with Elena, a computer genius, who helps him with the technology he needs throughout the series of four books. The sequels, Payback, Avenger and Meltdown are all equally fascinating and hard to put down.

Andy McNab spent his career in British Special Ops and the book is full of authentic details about the military and interesting spy information. I found the books hard to put down and could hardly wait to get the sequels.

These books are a must read for those who enjoyed Alex Rider when they were younger.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I greatly enjoyed this book. The main character is just so likable, you want to know what happens to him.

In spite of being raised by ghosts, Bod is polite, honest, generous, and can greet someone in appropriate language for any century. Very handy when meeting spirits from different years in history, but confusing unless you have a good mastery of the English language.

Good versus evil, love and loss, and some scary parts make this a wonderful read. Because of the language (sophisticated, not bad), I would recommend this for 6th grade and up.

Note: I enjoyed this book much more than the raved-about Coraline. I think this book has much more depth and character development.

The Roar by Emma Clayton

The Roar, by Emma Clayton, is a book I couldn't put down. It takes place in the future in a world without animals. Everyone lives behind a concrete wall build to keep out the plague-crazed animals. The world outside the wall is dry and barren and dangerous because of the plague virus.

Because the whole world is living behind a wall in the northern hemisphere, there is not enough space for everyone. No one is allowed to have children for 30 years, and the poorer people must live in a dark, damp layer while the rich live above and get fresh air and sunlight.

The contrast between the haves and the have-nots is well developed and could lead to a classroom discussion about class structure in different cultures, including this futuristic one.

Into this world we meet Mika, whose twin sister disappeared a year ago. Mika refuses to believe she is dead--he would KNOW if she were--and decided to find her. He must first discover THE SECRET.

The story is told in alternating voices--both Mika and his sister's. There-- I told you that his sister IS still alive. But that's not giving anything away. Read it to find out if they ever get together and what secret she knows--to her peril.

This book grabs you from the first page. I just want to know when the sequel will be out. Also, strangely, it seems to have been published in paperback in UK before hardcover.

Blown Away by Joan Harlow

This book is by the popular author of two dog-related books, Thunder from the Sea and Star in the Storm. Blown Away chronicles the hurricane which devastated much of the Florida Keys in the last century.

The setting is the Depression and a boy named Jake tells the story. How he and his family survive the hurricane is just part of this story about Jake, his friend, a cantankerous former soldier, a dog and a mule.

Although part of the story is very sad, the life lessons are not and the reader leaves it feeling very satisfied. How Jake survives the hurricane and who does not survive make this a book that is difficult to put down.

This book made me want to visit Florida again to smell the smells and feel the heat that Jake did.

A Chet Gecko Mystery- From Russia With Lunch

From Russia With Lunch
By Bruce Hale

This book surprised me. I read it, my first Chet Gecko mystery, without having high expectations for it. A series about a gecko with a cutesy title aimed at third graders did not seem to hold much promise as a good read. I was greatly mistaken.
From Russia With Love is filled with wonderful language. As a teacher in a school where the majority of students are second language learners, I think this book is a fabulous way to introduce children to the wonders of the English language. To really explain this, I must include excerpts from the book.
First, the names of the characters are very clever: Natalie Attired, Tanya Lightov, and Pete Moss. While the students reading the book may not “get it,” the adults using it as a read aloud will certainly be entertained. Next, I have selected some parts of the book which highlight the author’s clever use of idiom and figurative language.
“The last dribbles of lunch period were leaking out, like the sauce from a Sloppy Junebug sandwich.”
“Mrs. Bagoong folder her thick arms. ‘I don’t like the crisp of her bacon.’ ‘You think she might be a few eggs short of an omelet?’ I asked.”
“The badger turned uglier than a plate of broccoli at breakfast.”
And my personal favorite: “Blue doesn’t even come close to describing my mood that afternoon. Kids sent to bed without supper are blue. I was gloom-founded, hurtin’ for certain, down in the Dumpster, majorly mope-ified.”
Taking the time to read this book with second language learners (and with native English speakers) opens up a world of idioms and common (and some not-so-common) expressions for such students. What a wonderful way to get students to want to learn the idioms—because it will help them understand the story.
And the story itself is fun. A good third grade reader will be able to understand the story, but the language will be best understood by a more mature reader. Don’t be fooled by its cover—this book will also be greatly enjoyed by fourth, fifth and even sixth graders as well.

animal books kids love

There are several wonderful animal books that children just love.

One of the top picks is The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John. This is available in paperback and tells the story of a young girl who moves to Africa to live with her grandmother after her parents are killed in a fire. The book is engaging and kids just can't put it down. The main character has a special connection with animals and ends up saving a rare white giraffe. The book also chronicles her struggles to make friends at school where she feels very much the outsider. This story continues with Dolphin Song which I think is even better than the first book. It has wonderful teaching themes such as things are not what they appear to be (a very unpleasant boy at school turns out to be a surprise). I ordered the third book, The Last Leopard, from England as it is not yet available here. I paid more for postage than the book, but it was worth it. There will be more books in the future.

Dog Lost by Ingrid Lee is the story of a young boy, Mackenzie, and his pit bull puppy. His neglectful father wins the dog in a card game and brings it home. The boy falls in love with the dog and, of course, the dog loves the boy. Deciding that it is too expensive to feed a dog, the father abandons the dog at the town dump. While Mackenzie searches for his dog and the town tries to pass anti-pit bull legislation, the dog becomes a hero by helping a variety of people. The different characters are woven into a satisfying finish. I highly recommend this book.

The Good Dog by Avi stars McKinley, the head dog in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He lives with Jack, the human "pup." While McKinley tries to maintain his status as head of the town pack and help a runaway abused dog, a wolf, Lupin, appears in town. This wolf is the last in the pack and wants the dogs in town to join her. She tries to convince them that being subservient to humans is degrading and beneath the dignity of wolves. McKinley must choose between his wild, wolf-like side and the human-loving side while at the same time protect Jack from his impulsive decision to follow the wolf. Because the book tells the story from McKinley's point of view, it can be used in the classroom as a great "point of view" teaching tool. A wonderful read.