I think I liked King of the Screwups better than Fat Kid Rules the World – not because of the gay thing (which I definitely liked) but because of the ending. I didn’t like Fat Kid’s ending. I really liked KotS’s ending.
Nice story at what happens when you’re “Popular” and don’t really want to be.
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This is book two in the Magic Thief series, another one that I plucked from my Amazon holding list and I think Lost might have been better than the first one. (A rare occurrence for a second book.)
There are hidden “rune” messages throughout the book and I always spend the time figuring out what they say. TW doesn’t bother with them. The messages in the last book were better than the ones in this book.
I wonder what will happen to poor Conn in book three… and I wonder what will happen to the magic.
I almost forgot to read Castle Waiting! Liz took it up to her room and never brought it back again… until I asked her where it was because it was due back to the library in three days…
Unfortunately, it’s taken more more than three days to read it due to the crazy that is my life. So, I owe a 10 cent fine on an excellent graphic novel. I can live with that.
Did I mention this is an excellent graphic novel.
Liz really liked it. She read it in the car. She read it in the living room, while the TV was on, she read it and read it.
I understand why. I did want to keep reading it and reading it. But I also enjoyed putting it down because of the nice ribbon bookmark built into the book. I really liked that. Nice touch for that book.
Fairy tales with a lot of odd twists.
Look! Another Cybil! Airman is the book I was least interested in reading from that category. It turned out to be a pretty darn good book. No way it could beat out most of the books in its category but I can see this one being a favorite among the kids it was written for.
Good, solid hero. Bad guys who were just bad enough to hate. A princess who wasn’t stupid. And just enough adventure to keep a kid reading and reading and reading.
Lamplighter is a Cybil. We first got it on audio but after a few minutes gave up on it – we realized that without reading book one, we were completely clueless about what was happening. There are a lot of made up words that make absolutely no sense on audio.
So, I grabbed the first book (Monster Blood Tattoo) and read it awhile back. It was good. Prince J liked it too. TW didn’t read it then, but I grabbed it again and she read it earlier this week.
I knew what was “different” about Rossamund in book one. But TW and Prince J seem unaware.
Book two, Lamplighter… it all comes out. Well not all of it, but there are clues and clues all the way through, leading up to Rossamund (and others) figuring it out. (I’m trying to avoid spoilers here folks – sorry!)
Anyway, the only problem with book two is that book three appears to have not been published yet. And I really want to know what the heck is going to happen NOW.
Of the four Cybils I read yesterday, there was only one that was a yawn. Fabulous Fishes, a nonfiction picture book, was just a wee bit boring – especially when you look at the other books in the category. It’s not a bad book, nice photos, nice rhymes but that’s just not enough in this category. I’m not a Nic Bishop fan but even his Frogs book was better. His photos just rock. I wouldn’t have chosen it to win the category but I do understand why others would have selected it.
Moving into middle grade fiction, I loved Shooting the Moon. Maybe it’s the military brat in me. Or the mom of military brats. But I just loved the book. If pushed, I’d say this was my favorite in that category.
Last, Sweethearts, from the YA fiction category. Another good book. A problem book that is just a little different from other problem books. A teen girl who recreates herself, never feels quite right in her new skin and then has to face the past. Really nicely written without a clear, clean, happy ending.
When I saw The London Eye Mystery on the Cybils list, I knew it would be good but I didn’t expect it to be quite this good. Even after reading the reviews and seeing it win. I just didn’t expect this.
Actually, I didn’t know what to expect.
I had no idea “Ted” had been diagnosed with a “syndrome” or that it would be a book about a kid who it appears has Asperger’s. It was a brilliant book, with brilliant characters… even if I knew almost immediately where Salim was.
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I thought I’d finished with the picture books category but apparently not – I’ve still got some non-fiction books to go through and that’s good because the two I read yesterday are fantastic.
First, Wangari’s Trees of Peace – excellent drawings, simple story of a complex problem without overly frightening young children when speaking about the violence against Wangari.
Next, a book I will have to buy – several times over. My children are huge Wanda Gag fans. OK scratch that, they are huge Millions of Cats fans. The three older ones can probably tell the story word for word with just a wee bit of prompting. The three younger ones, probably can’t but have definitely heard “Hundreds of cats. Thousands of Cats. Millions and billions and trillions of cats.” over and over again.
Loved Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Lived to Draw. Loved the story, loved the art.
I’ve heard an awful lot about The Hunger Games. I’ve seen blogs recommend it. I’ve had people I know recommend it. Sassymonkey has been bugging me to read it for ages and she hasn’t even read it yet (though she’d better have started it by now.)
Finally – got it from the library. TW read it and found it “oddly compelling” and could not put it down. She even stopped reading the second book she was reading so she could focus just on it.
I picked it up right after she finished it and oddly compelling doesn’t even come close to describing it.
Kids. Horrible controlling government. Survivor but for reals. Crazyness.
Sequel in September and I cannot WAIT.
TW will be happy to hear that I’ve gone through the whole Cybil short list of fiction picture books. For some reason it really troubles her that I read these. Shrug.
My favorites of this last batch were Wabi Sabi and Katie Loves the Kittens. Wabi Sabi’s collages, haiku, and Japanese made it interesting. I’m not sure a picture book age child would love it, but I sure did. Katie Loves the Kittens was just amusing, poor kittens – poor dog.
Didn’t like A Visitor for Bear at all, boring (and I feel like I’ve already read it) and Sea Serpent and Me just made me nervous. I’ve never had a child afraid of the water in the bathtub or the drain but I’ve heard horror stories – who in their right mind would read this book to a pre-schooler?
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