What Should I Read? Book Talks and More

Tentacle s, by Roland Smith, is the sequel to Cryptid Hunters. It IS an exciting installment! Grace and Marty are living with their uncle/father and they are helping to track and capture a giant squid. Grace and Marty are trying to come to terms with all the changes their parents' disappearance has brought about. This trip is dangerous on many levels. Grace's grandfather is her father's enemy--but it is complicated! This book delivers excitement and supense!

Beast by Donna Jo Napoli Elaborates on the tale of "Beauty and the Beast," told from the point of view of the beast and set in Persia. I like this book because of the folk tale connection. It brings the flat characters from the story to life! Instead of taking place in France, this one is set in the middle east. Of course the rose connection is in the story, but the Beast is actually explained more clearly.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. Hunger Games Series book 3 Katniss Everdeen, having survived the Hunger Games twice, learns she and her family and friends are in danger because the Capitol holds her responsible for the unrest and races against time to protect those she cares about and the people of District 12.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins By winning the annual Hunger Games, District 12 tributes Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have secured a life of safety and plenty for themselves and their families, but because they won by defying the rules, they unwittingly become the faces of an impending rebellion.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televisedsurvival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place. This is the dystopic genre, one of my favorites! Things in the world have gone wrong and everything has started over, not for the better! Kids in our library check this out all the time! The teachers like it too.

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix Series:  The Missing Thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted, learn they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of nowhere, full of babies with no adults on board.  They realize that they have uncovered a mystery.  They come to believe the mystery involves time travel, and maybe they'll have to do something to fix things! I have a friend who has avidly read all the books in the series and really liked them.  I, on the other hand, had no desire to pick up the second book.  Lots of kids at Hadley like them!  You have to decide for yourself on this one. Others in the series: 1 Found 2 Sent 3 Sabotaged 4 torn 5 Caught 6 Risked 7 Revealed 8 Redeemed

The T ale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin. This is a book for everyone who loves a good book about princesses and knights, and true love.

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan Jason, Piper, and Leo, three students from a school for "bad kids," find themselves at Camp Half-Blood, where they learn that they are demigods and begin a quest to free Hera, who has been imprisoned by Mother Earth herself.

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. Brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane accidentally unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes the doctor to oblivion and forces his two children to embark on a dangerous journey, bringing them closer to the truth about their family and its links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs. This is the first book in the Kane Chronicles.

The Roar by Emma Clayton. Students at Hadley Middle School have been reading the Hunger Games series. This book has many similarities to Hunger Games and to the popular Ender's Game series. All three books are dystopic--end of the world, everything starts again--but not so great! In an overpopulated world where all signs of nature have been obliterated and a wall has been erected to keep out plague-ridden animals, twelve-year-old Mika refuses to believe that his twin sister was killed after being abducted, and continues to search for her in spite of the dangers he faces in doing so. Kids are recruited from extreme poverty in order to play a game, which has a purpose other than entertainment. Sequel:   The Whisper

Can You Get and F in Lunch? by Nancy Krulik. Jenny McAfee feels totally prepared to start sixth grade until her best friend Addie Wilson decides to hang out with The Pops--the coolest seventh graders in the school.

Adam Canfield Watch Your Back by Michael Winerip SCHOOL AND LIBRARY JOURNAL: For middle-grader Adam Canfield, waking up to a snow day is a dream come true -- a chance to sleep late, put off planning the next issue of THE SLA SH, and make some quick cash with his shovel. But the dream turns into a nightmare when some high-school kids mug Adam for his shoveling money. Then not only does the media blast the embarrassing story, but Adam's own co-editors plan a contest outing bullies at their school.  Adam Canfield Watch Your Back  is number two in a very enjoyable realistic fiction trilogy. Book One   Book Three

Rise of the Huntress by Joseph Delaney When Tom and the Spook get home from Greece, they find the Spook's house has burned down including all of the Spook's reference library.  But the must continue their fight against the dark. Not only is the house gone, but the county is over-run with enemy soldiers, the boggart that protected the property is gone, and the horrible witches have escaped their prisons. Due to the war, Tom, the Spook, and Alice must leave for a safer place.  But, they meet up with an old, powerful foe on the island of Mona. Did I tell you this is the best series ever????

Eleventh Grade Burns by Heather Brewer Vladimir Tod, a teenage half-vampire, approaches Dorian, a powerful vampire, in search of help, and when Joss returns to Bathory with orders from the Slayer Society to eliminate his former friend, Vlad is forced to use all of his skills to survive his junior year of high school.

Adam Canfield The Last Reporter by Michael Winerip When the school board shuts down the student newspaper, the Ameche Brothers, two budding entrepreneurs with a knack for refurbishing junk but a shaky command of journalistic ethics, step in to help.

Clash of the Demons by Joseph Delaney Tom is reunited with his mother and must return to Greece to face a new and terrible threat from the dark forces, and a momentous decision must be made, causing a serious rift between Tom and the Spook that threatens to separate them forever. Genre:  Supernatural

Guinea Dog by Patrick Jennings When his mother brings home a guinea pig instead of the dog he has always wanted, fifth-grader Rufus is not happy--until the rodent starts acting exactly like a dog. This is a very funny book!

Beastly by Alex Finn is a modernized story of The Beauty and the Beast. I couldn't imagine how the author could make the isolated world in modern day that is required for this story to work, but Finn created an amazing world where this works! The teen-aged boy in the story is turned into a beast because he is unkind and vain. Finn expertly winds the critical elements of the rose, the one year curse which can only be broken by true love, and the isolation of the masion into this amazing and very good book. One of my students recomended Beastly to me--she also tells me that it is being made into a movie soon!