Family Fright Night

Last night we held our annual Family Fright Night at the library, and we thought we would share some pictures of the very cool costumes we saw:



Miss Ami always wanted to be a flapper, and is very covetous of this dress!

Great minds think alike!

Putting together one of the craft choices (spooky refrigerator magnets)

A Paper Bag Princess with the attitude to match!

Collecting our treat bags on the way out.

Pippi Longstocking, another literary figure, yay! Ghostbusters has made a huge  comebeck - we had THREE Ghostbusters...

...including this HOMEMADE costume, complete with little brother Slimer! Too cute! (And very authentically slimey)

We don't know about you, but the one on the left scares us the most.

Our favorite kind of art project, the Picasso.

For those interested, we read:
There Was an Old Monster, by the Emberleys
Monster Baby by Dian Curtis Regan
My Mama Says There Aren't Any Zombies, Ghosts... by Judith Viorst
Pog by Lyn Lee and
When a Monster is Born by Sean Taylor

Hope everyone has a fantastic Halloween!!!

    

Turtles Being Productive, or, a Cybils Picture Puzzle

There are those souls who, when faced with a number of importanttasks, quickly prioritize them and get to work. And then there are those who immediately think up a semi-related, unimportant but interesting extra task, and get to work on that, instead. Guess which group turtles belong to?

As you know, we are judges for this year's Young Adult Fiction category of the Cybils Awards. In looking over the ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY YA books nominated, some similarities have begun to appear. For example, eleven covers show a couple kissing. Many more show people from the back (is that so we can imagine our own face, thus putting ourselves in the character's shoes? Or are unattractive models cheaper?) Speaking of shoes, lots of legs here, many without shoes. Rather dangerous with all the broken glass on the other covers.

So, to make a backdrop for our display of nominees (see! It really is work related!) we have put together an "I Spy" oops - copyrighted name...a "picture puzzle" of all 180 covers. Yep, there is a piece of every single cover in this collage. Can you find them all? Here are the pictures:

And some close-ups:

Note to publishers: holding hands is a bit overplayed.

(Note: Our computer is being stubborn and won't add the second picture - possibly the reult of typing with wet flippers - we will try again later)

Click here for alist of the nominees (and a small version of the cover). Of course, if you're local, you can just come on in with your handy microscope and search away!

The Agency series by Y.S. Lee

The Agency: The Body at the Tower
Y. S. Lee
Candlewick Press
978-0-7636-4968-5
Borrowed from the Library.

Mary Quinn is back, and we have realized, appalled, that we never reviewed her first appearance, in The Agency: A Spy in the House. Let us bring you up to speed:

In the first title, we meet Mary Quinn, small-time pickpocket and thief, as she is arrested, tried, and sentenced for a crime she did indeed commit. Her life since her father's death many years ago has been nothing but struggle, and the idea of death is not entirely unwelcome. Fate - or, the ladies of The Agency - have other plans for her, however.

Spirited away from jail, Mary is given a home and an education it wouldn't have occurred to her to dream of before. Years later, she is grateful for the opportunity she has had to do something with her life, but what should that be? There are not many respectable options for a young woman in the 1800's, and she does not seem to be suited for any of them.

Now we learn the 'real' purpose of the Academy. Those special girls - women - who show an aptitude and a longing to be more than wives or serving girls can train to be...spies. In a culture where women are continually overlooked in every way, who is better placed to overhear careless comments, or to move about unobserved?

In A Spy in the House, Mary embraces her new role, fervently hoping to prove herself to her mentors. She quickly discovers that things don't always go according to plan, and complications continually come up: such as the attractive but annoyingly proper James Easton. When situations arise that her training did not prepare her for, Mary has to rely on her wits, a lot of luck - and, yes, an occasional assist from that infuriating Mr. Easton.

The reparte between Mary and James is one of the high points of both books (and fans of the first will be happy to know he reappears early on in the second). There are continual exchanges such as:

"How else are you going to manage that?"
"I'll just have to try harder."
"Ooh, yes - sheer stubborn stupidity should certainly carry the day."
(pg. 161. Body at the Tower)

James is by turns (and often simultaneously) intrigued and appalled by Mary, and true to the male culture of his time, never seems to understand why he has made her mad. Mary is struggling to keep her secrets - and the fact that she is a spy is just one of them. She absolutely cannot afford to develop feelings for James.

Never fear, this is not a romance, and if boys can get past the girl-oriented cover we think they will enjoy the action and mystery of both books. Ah, and the covers!

At the risk of including a SPOILER, can we just say, in these days of white-washing publishers, how much we love these covers? The girl pictured on both looks exactly the way Mary should look, and that's all we are going to say about that. Brava, Candlewick! We give the series so far a

5 out of 5.

Nonfiction Monday: Lerner's Food is CATegorical series by Brian P. Cleary

  Fun read-alouds about the food groups, who'd a'thunk it? Each of the books in this series is written in a snappy rhyme, imparting information about food group members, serving sizes and nutrients simply and memorably. Creative teachers (or their students) might even try memorizing the text as a rap, or setting it to music. (Note: teachers may, however, not want to encourage pantomiming, with lines such as : Milk strengthens your teeth, making two healthy rows. At times, when you laugh, it comes out of your nose!)

The illustrations, by Martin Goneau, are very cute and add to the energy of the text. We have to admit, until we looked at the series title, we didn't realize they were all cats, but that doesn't detract from the fun at all. Many of them just looked more like little gremliny creatures to us, biting an annoyed-looking cow on the butt, or sporting a hair net while preparing cheese.

These cute little cat/gremlins offer other salient facts efore and after the main text, including more concrete examples of what an actual serving of that food group is. A great series for any elementary school classroom or library! We give them a

5 out of 5.

For more great nonfiction reads, hop over to MotherReader.

The Summer I Got a Life by Mark Fink

The Summer I Got a Life
Mark Fink
WestSide Books
978-1-934813-12-6
Copy borrowed from the Library

Andy Crenshaw, 15, is about to have a summer he didn't expect. He lives in the shadow of his good-looking, athletic older brother, Brad, and they don't get along. Lately they only agree on their excitement over their upcoming trip to Hawaii. But the family's plans change at the last minute, packing the boys off to rural Wisconsin. They'll be stuck with their wacky, free-spirited aunt and uncle - on a farm with no cable TV and internet.

Things start looking up when Andy scores a date with Laura, a cute teenage local celebrity pianist, and even Brad's impressed. Laura's amazing: besides her late night jam sessions at a local jazz club, she's the funniest, little-bit-crazy girl Andy's ever met. He's shocked at first to see her in a wheelchair, but nothing stops Laura - her killer bowling skills leave Andy in the dust.

Meanwhile, Andy and Brad share a series of misadventures and narrow escapes that move their brotherhood to a whole different level. It all adds up to a summer no one will soon forget.

If you want a believable story, skip it. If, on the other hand, you want to have FUN, then by all means pick this up! Even while we were thinking "Yeah, right," we were snorting with laughter. In fact, Freaky snorted so hard he got water up his nose, and contrary to popular belief, water turtles are not built that way. It kind of reminded us of this scene:

Darryl was laughing so hard he started to cough. But then he started to choke, and he seemed to have trouble breathing.

"S**t. Maybe we should do CPR," I said.


"I'm not putting my lips on Snot."


"Fine, I'll do it. Is it four breaths and two compressions, or two breaths and four compressions?"


"You're asking me? You know I suck at math."


"Is he looking a little blue to you?" I asked.


"He always looks a little blue to me."

See? A little juvenile. Sometimes a little over the top. But very very funny. Or, maybe we are just juvenile and over the top. At any rate, we think it's a book both boys and girls will enjoy, and after some of the stinkers we have read (and declined to review) lately, it was a welcome change.

Two minor quibbles: One, the cover doesn't fit. It makes it look like a much more serious book than it is, and while the title is catchy, there is nothing about the picture that would grab a teenage boy's attention and say, "Hey, there's funny stuff involving chicken poop in here!"

Two, and this is a very MINOR quibble that most people wouldn't notice but a copy editor should have caught and we probably only did because Miss Ami was a copy editor at one point: page 104, it was 'specially' built for her, not 'especially' built for her. See, that is SO minor, we are embarrassed to even mention it, but it was bugging Miss Ami so much we have agreed to humor her.

Other than some very mild swearing, this is a refreshingly 'clean' book you can give to just about everyone. We give it a

4 out of 5.

You are the Best Medicine by Julie Aigner Clark

You Are the Best Medicine
Julie Aigner Clark
HarperCollins Childrens
978-0-06-195644-7
Review copy sent by publisher

This. book. is. beautiful.

There are a few picture books out there to help kids with sick parents (Hair for Mama, for example, is one of our favorites), but nothing we have seen comes close to this one. Mommy explains to her daughter that she has cancer, and what that will mean in the future - she may be tired, she may be scared or sad, her hair may fall out, etc.. These are things children need to know about ahead of time, because things can be much less scary when we know what to expect and why they are happening.

Clark is absolutely brilliant in pairing each of these things with a happy memory Mommy has of her child:

For a while I will have to take medicine that makes me feel bad, and this medicine will make all my hair fall out. I will look different.

But I will laugh when I remember your own sweet little baby head, how round and bald it was, and how warm it was on my lips when I kissed it every day.

The entire tone of this book is one of love and hope. Jana Christy's warm and cheery illustrations, any one of which could be a print on a nursery wall, are the perfect complement. The overall result is a book adults can use to share some potentially sad and scary information with their children in a way that ends with laughter and hugs rather than tears. If you are a librarian, you MUST have this on your shelves! Oh, and ALL of the author's portion of the proceeds go to Breast Cancer Research. We give it a definite

5 out of 5.

Heist Society by Ally Carter

Heist Society
Ally Carter
Hyperion Books
978-1423116394
Borrowed from Library.

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her to the Louvre...to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria...to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own--scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she'd expected.


Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster's art collection has been stolen, and he wants it returned. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.



For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s (very crooked) history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

Despite coming from the other side of the law, this new series by the author of the Gallagher Girls books has more in common with it than not. As such, it will appeal to most fans of the Gallagher Girls - those who enjoy quick reads with lots of action, humor, and a bit of romance, but who aren't overly burdened with the need for plausibility.

Kat is a very likeable character, but even with her background taken into consideration, she is a bit too poised and worldly to be a believable 15-year-old. Despite hearing her age early on, she was fixed firmly in our minds as at least 17. The story started slowly for us, and it wasn't until Kat walked into the bad guy's lair that we started becoming intrigued. There is some definite cleverness in the main heist at the end, and a history lesson concerning the Nazi theft of famous artwork added a bit of depth to the story.

It is unfortunate that there wasn't as much depth in the characters. We found them less three-dimensional than those in the Gallagher Girls books, and in fact saw a lot of crossover. Zach has a different name and background, for example, but he's still an obvious Zach.

There were other intriguing elements in the story that it appears will be built on in future titles, so that we look forward to. We hope we will also see the characters become a bit more real to the reader, and this series become more distinguishable from the other. A fun read with potential, we give it a

3 out of 5.