Have you ever read a book that you just couldn’t wait to recommend to a friend? We’d love to hear about it! Tell us in the comments about your favorite book or (if you can’t pick a favorite) the last great book that you read. Make sure you include the title and author, add the genre and age range, then tell us why you loved it!Read More →
Scapegoat: The Story of a Goat Named Oat and a Chewed-Up Coat by Dean Hale, illustrated by Michael Slack, is an adorable story about a mischievous young boy named Jimmy Choat and his family’s put-upon goat, Patsy Petunia Oat. Missing coat? Broken boat? Messy tote? Blame it all on the goat! As the week progresses, more and more missing and broken items plague the Choat’s, and Jimmy happily blames everything on Mrs. Oat the Goat. But what happens when someone hears and tells the goat’s side of the story? This absolutely adorable picture book is filled with fun and playful rhymes and alliteration, and is a blast to readRead More →
The Rabbit Problem, by Emily Gravett is not a traditional picture book (in a good way.) Set up like a calendar (complete with a hole for hanging), the story starts with one Lonely Rabbit in a field sending out invitations in January to find a friend. When Chalk Rabbit shows up in February, the two bundle together (in a poorly knit sweater) and in March, Alfalfa and Angora Rabbit show up…can you see where we are going with this? As each month passes, the Rabbit family grows and faces new challenges- dealing with the weather, finding food, findng things to do when they are boredRead More →
Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, the follow up to the successful Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes is here-Come along with Pete to school, moving and grooving through all kinds of new places like the library, lunchroom, and more! In a rare but always welcome turn of events, the second Pete the Cat book is just as fun as the first. Author Eric Litman and Illustrator James Dean have again created a book and song that is sure to have youngsters singing along. The bright colors, cute characters, and fun story draw young readers (and almost-readers) back for more, whileRead More →
Substitute Creacher– the latest book from Chris Gall– doesn’t disappoint. Substitute teacher days mean goofing off and wreaking havoc, right? Well the students in Mrs. Jenkins class are about to be schooled. Meet the Substitute Creacher! His lesson plan isn’t one the students are bound to forget soon. He tells tales of kids with unfortunate habits (glue-eating, desk-stuffing, and the like) who have met with sad (and funny) tales of woe. But is anyone prepared for the creacher’s story?? Beautifully illustrated in rich jewel tones, every page of this fun new picture book pops. The rhyming speech and lots of action make this book idealRead More →
When Greg Heffley from The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series gets to high school, his journal may look a lot like Larkin Pace’s hilarious blog in Rick Detorie’s (One Big Happy) The Accidental Genius of Weasel High. Larkin is 14 and a typical freshman tech geek: introverted and height-challenged; not comfortable with girls, jocks, or popular kids; wishing he was cooler than he is; has every classic Hollywood film memorized and can recite movie dialog on a dime; a small group of likewise oddball friends; and a family he’d rather escape from that claim relation to. But Larkin knows he will be the nextRead More →
Check out this review of Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld from briangriggs.com: “I realized today that there is no main antagonist in the Leviathan/Behemoth series. It’s straight character vs. self and character vs. society. I wonder if that’s why students don’t quite get into the action. The only complaint I’ve received is that there’s so much focus on the history and not on excitement. The “focus on history” comment is an interesting one, considering the book is about giant flying whales and steam-powered mechs. Behemoth is a great sequel to Leviathan. It continues documenting the travels of the airship crew as they delve into the Ottoman Empire.Read More →
18-year-old Alexandra Adornetto’s novel Halo follows three angels as they descend from heaven to a small coastal town to combat the Dark Forces that are rapidly spreading across Earth. There’s the archangel Gabriel, the healer Ivy, and Bethany, the youngest and most human. But when Bethany falls in love with a human boy…well, that is just the beginning of these angels’ escapades. This novel delivers everything you would expect a teenage supernatural romance story to have — there is the kind-hearted supernatural being who falls in love with the honorable human (even though she knows it is forbidden), the inevitable reveal of the supernatural being’s trueRead More →
From bestselling YA author Darren Shan (Demonata, Cirque du Freak) comes Procession of the Dead, his adult fiction debut. Previously released in the UK as Ayumarca, Procession is the first book in Shan’s The City series. I have two notes right up front: 1) this book deals with more mature themes including sex, murder, crime and “sweet, sinister sin,” and it contains strong language, and 2) (more of a disclaimer) I have never read anything else by Shan, so when I picked up this book I had no expectations – regarding style, content, etc. and cannot tell you if it is similar to or completelyRead More →