The YA Book Log

February 3, 2010

Orson Scott Card: Stonefather

Raise your hand if :

Your midterms stressed you out?

You're looking for a way to escape and unwind?

You want a quick read before your homework piles up?

Well, we've searched the stacks and found a great short Fantasy book that's not a thousand pages long, or a trilogy wide.*
Perfect for the semesters end and beginning, this book is a quick and engaging otherworldly read.

Look no further my friend and try Stonefather by Orson Scott Card.

We start off with the main character Runnel, the simple and poor mountain boy born into an abusive family that considers him the unwanted child. On a walk one day, he leaves his home and takes a random path out of the mountains and into the city of Mitherhome, where he discovers so much more to the world than his simple mountain life.
He meets a young servant girl who helps him get a job with her master, the Stonemage Lord Brickel. As he progresses in this new land, far away from his family, he comes to the realization that the people of Mitherhome are not what they seem and that his true heritage may be very ancient and very magical.

" A great story to read when you're pressed for time, or low on energy; it picks up quickly and is extremely charming. It's a book that cannot be forgotten." -Mrs. Hirsch, YA Librarian

Recommended for grades 11 and up.

*Note: reviewer is not responsible if Orson Scott Card later decides to make Stonefather the first book of a possible new series called Mithermages. I can only hope he does.

Posted by fjacksonem at 6:09 PM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2010

VANISHING ACT: MYSTERY AT THE U.S. OPEN by John Feinstein

Vanishing Act: Mystery at the U.S. Open by John Feinstein is thrilling mystery book.
This mystery takes place at the U.S. open, when everyone is competeing to
win the U.S. open for millions of dollars and tons of fame. Nobody expects that the best teenage prodigy tennis player from Russia will get kidnapped.

Two eighth grade reporters aren't convinced that the Russian superstar, Nadia Symanova, could have possibly have been kidnapped from the small walk to the lockeroom in the Louis Armstrong Staduim. Or Could She?

Find out how the two eight-gade reporters, Stevie Thomas, and, Susan Carol Anderson solve this mystery, when they find out Nadia Symanova getting kidnapped was all a
scandal to get more fame.

I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR YOUNG READERS WHO ENJOY MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE BOOKS.

Riya Shah
W. Tresper Clarke Middle School
Grade 6

Posted by fjacksonem at 4:17 PM | Comments (0)

December 31, 2009

THE OUTSIDERS by S. E. Hinton

THE OUTSIDERS by S. E. Hinton is a great adventure book. Ponyboy Curtis is only fourteen years old and he is stuck in a gang called the Greasers. Ponyboy's parents have died recently, so he lives with his older brothers Darry and Sodapop Curtis. Darry is the oldest member in the gang and also the strongest. The greasers are poor and get their name from the hair grease in their hair. But the Greasers aren't the only gang in town. There are also the Soc's, who live on the other side of town. The Soc's are spoiled brats who wear madras shirts and drive expensive Mustangs. They had no business with the Greasers until they decided to jump Johnny and nearly jumped Ponyboy. Johnny is the gangs pet and best friends with Ponyboy and hoodlum Dally Winston, who is too " tuff " for anyone. The story takes a big twist from just small fights between the gang when Johnny accidentally kills a Soc for trying to drown Ponyboy. Now with both gangs getting ready for a big " rumble " and Johnny and Ponyboy on the run from the police what will happen to the Soc's and Greasers?

I RECOMMEND THIS BOK FOR READERS WHO LOVE MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE BOOKS.

Yash Shah
W. Tresper Clarke Middle School
Grade 8

Posted by fjacksonem at 11:20 AM | Comments (1)

December 26, 2009

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK (S) FOR 2009?

It is the end of the year and time for everyone to look back on the favorite and worst things of 2009. Once again the Staff of Young Adult Services would love to know what were your favorite reads of 2009. Here are some of ours:

Mrs. Jackson
WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson
Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.
THE MAZE RUNNER by James Dashner
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.
CHARLES AND EMMA: THE DARWINS' LEAP OF FAITH by Deborah Heiligman
Charles Darwin and his wife, Emma, were deeply in love and very supportive of each other, but their opinions often clashed. Emma was extremely religious, and Charles questioned God's very existence.

Ms. Cea

FIRE by Kristin Cashore
In a kingdom called the Dells, Fire is the last human-shaped monster, with unimaginable beauty and the ability to control the minds of those around her, but even with these gifts she cannot escape the strife that overcomes her world.
JESSICA'S GUIDE TO DATING ON THE DARK SIDE by Beth Fantaskey
Seventeen-year-old Jessica, adopted and raised in Pennsylvania, learns that she is descended from a royal line of Romanian vampires and that she is betrothed to a vampire prince, who poses as a foreign exchange student while courting her.
KNUCKLEHEAD by Jon Scieszka
How did Jon Scieszka get so funny? He grew up as one of six brothers with Catholic school, lots of comic books, lazy summers at the lake with time to kill, babysitting misadventures, TV shows, and jokes told at family dinner.

Mrs. Hirsch

STONEFATHER by Orson Scott Card
Runnel, a friendless peasant from a village so humble that money is a new concept, stumbles into a centuries-old feud when he travels to Mitherhome, the city of the wetwizards, seeking his fortune. He accepts a servant's position in the household of the sole stonemage permitted within the city walls, where his untapped magical talents and his fascination with his master's abilities are a predictably dangerous combination.
SAYING IT OUT LOUD by Joan Abelove
With the help of her best friend, sixteen-year-old Mindy sorts through her relationships with her solicitous mother and her detached father as she tries to come to terms with the fact that her mother is dying from a brain tumor.
TRIGGER by Susan Vaught
Teenager Jersey Hatch must work through his extensive brain damage to figure out why he decided to shoot himself.

Mrs. Sayan

THIRTEEN REASONS WHY by Jay Asher
When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.
THE BOY WHO DARED by Susan Bartoletti
In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hübener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.
TWISTED by Laurie Halse Anderson
After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.

Ms. Walsh

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK by Neil Gaiman
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE by Alan Bradley
Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, must exonerate her father of murder. Armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together and examine new suspects, she begins a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself. (For older teens)

Ms. French

THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival 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.
RIOT by Walter Dean Myers
In 1863, fifteen-year-old Claire, the daughter of an Irish mother and a black father, faces ugly truths and great danger when Irish immigrants, enraged by the Civil War and a federal draft, lash out against blacks and wealthy "swells" of New York City.
THE GOLDEN COMPASS by Philip Pullman
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

JUST POST YOUR FAVORITES UNDER COMMENTS.

THANK YOU AND HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

YOUNG ADULT SERVICES

Posted by fjacksonem at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)