By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure, Action & Adventure (YA), Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction (YA), Middle Grade Reviews, Sci Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 2 Comments

Rooted firmed in the steampunk genre,  Scott Westerfeld’s new series opens with gusto in Leviathan, released last week from Simon Pulse. In this alternate reality where the Central Powers (Clankers) have invented amazing mechanikal war machines, 15 year old Prince Aleksander Ferdinand’s parents, the heir to the throne of the Austria-Hungarian Empire Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie Chotek, have been assassinated and he is whisked away in the dead of night by just a few loyal men in a giant walking war machine, a Stormwalker.  Naive to the intricacies of politics and international intrigue, Alek slowly realizes this assassination has been the spark to set off the greatest warRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure, Middle Grade Reviews, Sci Fi & Fantasy
With: 1 Comment

The Doom Machine is award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Mark Teague’s foray into children’s novels.  Set in 1950’s at the height of the Cold War and the beginning of the Space Race, The Doom Machine is full of action, adventure, and amazing creatures and places.  It all starts with an alien invasion:  Jack Creedle can’t keep himself out of trouble and he doesn’t mind breaking a rule or two.  One pre-dawn morning while delivering his newspapers, Jack sees a flying saucer land in the forest outside his small town of Vern Hollow.  Isadora Shumway is a smart, logical girl who loves science and followingRead More →

By:
On:
In: Elementary Book Reviews, Picture Book Reviews, Puppets
With: 0 Comments

This week, we Three P’s and B.B.W are in complete agreement about our pick of book & puppet combo: Skippyjon Jones Lost in Spice!  Action, adventure, the Chimichango Gang and bossy Martian-itos… in other words, more fun with Skippyjon Jones!  Our favorite Siamese kitty boy who knows he’s a Chihuahua has an amazing out of this world adventure on the Planet Mars and with a Skippyjon Jones puppet, everyone can have fun going along for the ride! And you can have lots of fun with Skippito Friskito on his website! Posted by B.B.W. & the Three P’sRead More →

By:
On:
In: Ideas You Can Use, This is interesting
With: 0 Comments

Back in August the Library of Congress and the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance announced that they had teamed up to create The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, a multi-episode online story.  It was launched this past weekend at the well-attended National Book Festival in Washington DC.  The first chapter is now available on the Library of Congress website. Here’s what the Library of Congress’ site says about the story: Ever heard of an Exquisite Corpse? It’s not what you might think. An Exquisite Corpse is an old game in which people write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold it over to conceal partRead More →

By:
On:
In: General Book Reviews, Middle Grade Reviews, What We're Reading, Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Cecilia Galante’s Patron Saint of Butterflies  follows the story of two young girls, Agnes and Honey, as they realize that the religious commune that they’ve spent their entire lives on is not like the rest of the world–and when all is not as it seems on the commune with its charismatic leader, the changes are for the better. Told in alternating narratives between the two girls, Galante weaves the two (very different) perspectives into an inspirational tale about friendship, faith, healing, and family.  The book, while it contains some heavier themes, handles delicate situations and broaches some serious topics with grace. The two-perspective approach allowsRead More →

By:
On:
In: Middle Grade Reviews, Mystery & Suspense, Mystery & Suspense (YA), Supernatural & Horror, Supernatural & Horror (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

The wait was long; the wait was painful; but today the mystery was solved!  In Ghost in the Machine, Patrick Carman concludes his highly suspenseful, fast-paced, and tech-savvy thriller duo that started in last year’s Skeleton Creek.  When we left high school best friends Ryan and Sarah at the nail-biting end of Skeleton Creek, they were trapped in the defunct,  surface-mining gold dredge outside their tiny, isolated home town.  Forbidden to have contact with each other, yet bent on solving the sinister mysteries surrounding the dredge’s death-laden past, Ryan and Sarah snuck into the dredge late at night to find a secret room when they wereRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure, Elementary Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Middle Grade Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Who: Liza Ketchum, Author.  12-year-old Amelia Forrester, spunky, smart and adventurous protagonist – a true newshound.  Amelia’s mother, Sophie, and her best friend, Estelle – enterprising women seeking new opportunities and freedoms.  A variety of authentic, interesting charaters all working to find their fortunes. Where & When: A richly detailed San Francisco (also known as Phoenix City), Spring & Summer 1851 What:  Newsgirl, a vivid, entertaining and enjoyable novel for middle grade readers that captures both the essence and the excitement of the California gold rush.  When they arrive in San Francisco after the months-long sea crossing through Panama from Boston, Amelia, her mother and Estelle areRead More →

By:
On:
In: Ideas You Can Use, On the Edge, This is interesting, Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

From Publisher’s Weekly:  Five backlist novels and two new titles are featured in Point of View, a fall marketing initiative from Penguin Young Readers Group. The campaign, which focuses on literary books with strong, somewhat challenging themes, entails consumer and trade components and aims to connect readers who embraced such novels as Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson to new books with a similar appeal. Joy Peskin, executive editor at Viking, who edited Wintergirls and After, views the campaign as “a great opportunity to give attention to important books by our newer authors, by tying them into more establishedRead More →