A Tale Dark and Grimm

Do you know the children, Hansel and Gretel? Do you know their whole story? If you think you aren't old enough for these Fractured Grimm fairy tales then stay away—they may be too gruesome for you. The narrator starts out with Once Upon a Time and we meet many characters in a variety of interesting stories. Hansel and Gretel take you through all the stories and despite the blood and poor parenting skills, you will occasionally crack up. This tale, very dark and very grim held my interest page after page. After reading this book you'll want to look up the Brothers Grimm and compare stories.

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword

This graphic novel by Barry Deutsch is probably the best graphic novel I have read. The colors, the expressions, the flow of the words, dialogue and illustrations are wonderful. It all works well together.
Eleven year-old Mirka is an Orthodox Jewish girl who is one spunky, clever, independent and courageous girl! She yearns to fight a dragon and is constantly going through her Big Book of MONSTERS. She encounters many conflicts including one with a Pig!
(Jews don't have pigs.) You will learn about being Jewish in this book, though not in a preachy way, just incidentally as the story moves along. 
This graphic novel has some fantasy and mythological elements to it and readers ages nine and up will enjoy following Mirka on her quest.

A Million Shades of Gray

What if you had your own elephant? Your special friend, someone who would comfort you when you feel lonely or needed time to think.  Y'Tin has Lady, his own elephant. Y'Tin lives in Vietnam and this story takes place during the 1970s. The American Special Forces have just left his country and Y'Tin's Rhade village is under attack from the North Vietnamese. This historical novel by the author of Kira-Kira gives you a little taste for what it must have been like in Vietnam and the few scenes of violence in the book are written with care but the main story is the relationships Y'Tin has with his elephant, the other elephant handlers and his family and members of his village. "The jungle changes a man."

Emily's Fortune

I  enjoyed listening to this rootin' tootin' short fun novel written by Newbery Award winner Phyllis Reynolds Naylor*. Set in the olden days of the wild west, orphaned Emily wants to go live with her aunt but an evil uncle is after her inheritance. Yikes! What will Emily do? What will her helpful neighbors, Mrs. Ready, Mrs. Aim and Mrs. Fire advise? The Catchum Child Catching Services and a fellow traveler, a very clever orphan add to the suspense of this comical adventure.  

*Shiloh books

The Shadows

Suppose you were looking at a painting and something inside the picture moved! What would you do? Olive and her parents just moved into this old Victorian mansion where all the rooms still have the contents of the previous owners. As Olive goes exploring she notices that the paintings are stuck to the wall and they don't budge. Weird glasses enable her to enter into the paintings. And the talking cats aren't much help either or are they? For a mysteriously scary (not too), sometimes creepy adventure, start The Books of Elsewhere series by Jacqueline West. If you look at the photo above, you will see this book in Katie's hands. Ask her what she thought about The Shadows.

Word After Word After Word

The award winning author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan writes this short and clever "How To" book that reads as a novel. Though maybe I shouldn't have said that. Don't let that scare you away. I was intrigued with the lives of the five classmates who spend their time after school under the lilac tree. These neighbors are all in the same class and for six weeks at various times, they have a guest author, a very famous author visiting their class and she teaches them how to write poetry. Ms. Mirabel is magical, affirming and a riddle and she lures the children into the writing world, word after word after word.  Perhaps you have a poem you'd like to write down now.

Happy Earth Day!

I picked up Recycle This Book to share with my classes. I was drawn to this book because the one hundred authors for each essay on different ideas were authors of many of the books that are checked out from the library. Each writer chose a way that they were attempting to "go green." A variety of green activities were shared, but with one hundred submissions, many of the essays were redundant. Some ideas were general, such as the typical recycling your paper, glass, cans and plastic, but some talked about composting and vermiculture, solar panels, biking and eating less meat. We can unplug our many electrical gadgets when not in use, use cloth napkins and line dry our clothes. Have fun picking out some new ideas and share them with this book blog.

Countdown by Deborah Wiles

Most of the historical fiction books that I read usually take place long ago. But this book takes place in October of 1962. The whole story takes place within several days of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Franny is afraid and worried. Her school is doing "duck and cover" drills and her grandfather keeps flashing back to his days in the war. I personally don't remember having duck and cover drills when I was in school but I can certainly relate to the relationship complexities with the girls in Franny's class. This book has a lot to offer in addition to an interesting story, there is music, news clippings and advertisements interspersed throughout to give the historical background of the time. This book isn't in our school library but a parishioner donated it to the sixth grade classroom and several students have already read it. I hope you let us know what you thought of Countdown.

The Loser List by H. N. Kowitt

Flipping through this book it will remind you of a Diary of Wimpy Kid book. The pages are sprinkled with the drawings of the twelve-year old narrator and the lined notebook paper gives the impression of a composition book. I read the first Wimpy kid book and I must say I enjoyed this book much more. The story started out with a problem (Danny had a crush on a certain girl), it got more complicated (he was put on a loser list), he gets in trouble (of course, the conflict) and before he finds a neat and tidy way out, his problem becomes more complicated. The story moved at a fast pace and with all the pictures, it was a very quick book.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Hi!
If you are looking for a good book, choose Hatchet, if you don't agree, let me tell you what it is about. Hatchet is about a kid who visits his dad on a plane with a pilot. When they fly over the Canadian forest, the pilot has a heart attack. The kid is stuck in the forest with no food or water but only his hatchet. To find out what happens—read Hatchet!
Blog entry by Michael Vasquez

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

What happened on March 2, 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person? Answer: Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to move out of her seat for a white person. Author Phillip Hoose interviewed Claudette Colvin and researched immensely to weave Colvin's words and other facts that tell the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and trial that actually resulted in a victory for the Negro community of Alabama. Claudette Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit who put the City of Montgomery on trial and she was just a teenager! Read this story and learn about this courageous and often overlooked heroic young woman who fought Jim Crow and stood up for her Constitutional Rights. This well written nonfiction book is filled with photographs, primary sources and sidebars of background information to give you a great history of the civil rights movement in Alabama in the 1950s.

A Season of Gifts

How would you like to meet your new neighbor while tied up hanging in her outhouse with nothing on?!? I listened to the audio book version, and the story was so engaging. It takes place in the 1950s as you can see from the old car on the cover of the book. The narrator is the fourteen year old son of a preacher whose family has just moved to a small town.  And their new neighbor happens to be Grandma Dowdel. You may know her from Peck's other novels. She is a hilarious, gritty, salt of the earth, independent older character who befriends the narrator's younger sister. I kept reading this book to see what she was going to do next! The book had a great message about gifts but I was so wrapped up in this story I didn't even notice until the end of the book.

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling

This creative, outrageous and old time book written by Maryrose Wood may remind you of a Lemony Snicket book or maybe Anne of Green Gables. Miss Penelope Lumley, the governess of the Incorrigibles is not an ordinary woman. Discovered in the forest of Ashton Place, the Incorrigibles are no ordinary children: Alexander keeps his siblings in line with gentle nips; Cassiopeia has a bark that is worse than her bite; and Beowulf is alarmingly adept at chasing squirrels. Each child is unique and a very fast learner for the fifteen year-old Penelope. This is the first book to The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, and we are introduced to the characters and the mysterious children raised by wolves, captured by a wealthy unloving couple and being civilized by the adorable Miss Lumley. I look forward to the next book in the series because the story isn't finished. 

Bloodwater Mysteries

The Bloodwater Mystery book series is a good book series if you are into intense mysteries. The books are about a girl named Roni and another person named Brian that live in a town called Bloodwater in Minnesota. The kids get into trouble trying to find a lost girl, discovering a pile of bones in a cave and finding a boy that looks just like Brian that was lost (or kidnapped) 10 years ago. They're great books.   Review by Susan gr 6

The first two books written by Pete Hautman are in our library. Snatched is the first one and then Skullduggery. Doppelganger completes the series. I would say these books are for grade six and up.

One-Handed Catch by MJ Auch

What would it be like to be in sixth grade and have only one hand? Norm tells his own story in this book and we learn a lot about his frustrations and perseverance. Norm also shows us what life is like growing up in 1946. World War ll has ended and no longer is meat or sugar rationed but they still collect the fat to render. Rendering fat? Yikes! There are stories of Scouts Jamborees and trick-or-treating and choosing teams for baseball. Throughout the book we experience Norm's deep desire to play baseball despite his handicap and his best friend's negativism. Even though this story is set in the 1940s, I think there is a lot you can relate to in Norm's life because taking out the garbage and getting all your homework done is still garbage and homework no matter what time in history.  You might even get some hints for a Halloween costume!