How Your Body Battles a…
March 26, 2009
I just read through two new jnf titles, How Your Body Battles a Stomachache and How Your Body Battles a Cold, both by Vicki Cobb, and I learned something! These are great explanations of sickness with fun illustrations AND photographs of the inside of the body and cells. Both titles also mention the importance of keeping your hands clean. Other titles in the series and on order are: broken bone, cavity, skinned knee, and earache. I look forward to reading through these as they come in, too!
Where the Wild Things Are
March 26, 2009
Trailer here and linked on the Books to Movies page. Thoughts?
Movie News
March 23, 2009
On the Books to Movies page, I updated the release date (9/8/09,) and added the trailer for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. It will be in 3-D!
Harry Potter movie news
March 17, 2009
Interesting article here about negative fan reaction to the forthcoming HP and the 1/2 Blood Prince film. (Thanks to SLJ’s Fuse #8 Blog)
“One enthusiast, who saw a trial screening at a cinema in the United States, said anyone who had read the book would be “severely disappointed” with the film, which is released in Britain on July 17.”
Clean Reads for Teens Booklist
March 5, 2009
So I’ve been asked to compile a clean reads for teens booklist for the district. I’m working on it and scouring the internet for other’s lists and now I’m taking suggestions from you! If you have any “clean” YA books to suggest, please pass them my way! I’m looking for YA books without swearing, drinking, drugs, and sex. It’s actually an incredibly hard list to create without reading (or re-reading) every title, and I don’t have time for that. I’m not concerning myself with topics that some might disapprove of…witches, sci fi, homosexuality, etc, just trying to avoid the stuff mentioned above. Even swearing is difficult to define, is damn a bad word? It’s all so subjective!
Oh, and do you have a suggestion for a snappy title??
The Composer is Dead
March 3, 2009
Don’t waste your time reading this book….because the CD that comes with it of Lemony Snicket reading it accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony is BRILLIANT!! When I looked at this picture book in the warehouse the other day, it didn’t grab me like I was hoping a new Lemony Snicket book would. But when it came across my desk today and I noticed that there was an audio version narrated by Mr Snicket himself, well I had to take a listen.
The composer is dead and the Lemony Snicket-esque Inspector interviews the instruments of the orchestra to get to the bottom of the murder. It’s a who’s who of the instruments of the orchestra with musical accompaniment. This is a great intro to these instruments and the parts they play in the the orchestra. The murder mystery is quite cleverly solved at the end.
Illustrations by Carson Ellis and music composed by Nathaniel Stookey
2010 YRCA Nominees
March 3, 2009
Here are the 2010 YRCA Nominees, courtesy of the LIBIDAHO listserv. We own copies of all of these. I will probably be waiting until April to order additional copies.
JUNIOR
The Candy Shop War
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley’s Journal
Elijah of Buxton
Igraine theBrave
Invention of Hugo Cabret
Marley: a Dog Like No Other
Mysterious Benedict Society
No Talking
INTERMEDIATE
Alchemyst: Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
Book of a Thousand Days
Zen and the Art of Faking It
Peak
Plain Janes
Schooled
The True Meaning of Smekday
Skulduggery Pleasant
SENIOR
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
City of Bones
Deadline
Does My Head Look Big in this?
Ender Three Witches
Mistik Lake
Twisted
Wicked Lovely
Neil Gaiman Interview
March 3, 2009
Read the March 2009 School Library Journal interview with Newbery Award-winning author Neil Gaiman here.
If you liked Slumdog Millionaire…
March 3, 2009
I just finished the 2009 Batchelder Honor book, Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis. The Batchelder Award is given by ALA’s Association of Library Service to Children to the publisher of an outstanding children’s book originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country and translated into English.
Tiger Moon is set in India and is a story inside a story. A boy with a tiger, a princess awaiting her hero, gods, demons, and the magical, mystical feeling that India inspires. I thought this was a great story and would be appreciated by adults as well as teens. While the plot isn’t similar to Slumdog and it is sent during the British occupation of India, I think that readers who loved the movie and are looking for their next India-fix will enjoy it. The story was also a bit reminiscent of the adult novel, The Life of Pi.
**I should note that Tiger Moon was originally published in German.**
