Cybil Challenge

More Graphic Novels – One great, two not so much

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

OK It’s not that two of them were bad, they weren’t bad. They just were not great. And with the number of really great graphic novels on the market right now – they have to be great or I’m easily bored.

First, Crogan’s Vengeance. I didn’t like the story very much. The drawings bored me. Ho hum. Liz said she thought it was kind of boring too but I suspect she liked it more than I did – possibly because some of her sister’s pirate fixation rubbed off on her so she kind of thinks anything pirate is cool. (The only reason not to get this for younger kids would be violence – it’s all black & white so there’s no gore – but pirates do kill each other….)

Next, Dreamer. Ugh. It’s nicely drawn – really nicely drawn. But I truly hate the story. I hate the flighty girl. I hate her bouncing around between her own time and the Revolutionary War. I hate the way the guys treat her and I hate the way she treats the guys. If you’ve got a boy crazy, romantic 14 year old in your life – maybe this is her kind of graphic novel.  Blech.

Thank goodness for the Secret Science Alliance! I didn’t expect to like this one. I don’t really like science and I tend to not like books about geeky nerdy kids who don’t fit in and are mistreated by the cool kids. This book – excellent. All of the normal things happen to the nerdy kid but the book doesn’t stop there. The storyline gets a twist – and the SSA is born. The drawings are fabulous. Liz kept stealing the book from me so she could look at the pictures.  At first, I didn’t understand WHY she was doing this but once I sat down with the book – I got it. I didn’t want to stop looking either. But, as soon as I finished it – the kid grabbed the book from me and took it up to her room to look at it all over again. (This is another graphic novel without a single hint of sex or drugs.)

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Two more Cybils graphic novels

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

I’m finally making time to read some graphic novels from the Cybils list and I’m enjoying them quite a bit.

I didn’t expect to like Adventures in Cartooning but it was amusing. Cute easy drawings that did make it seem like cartoons and graphic novels could be created by anyone. And, descriptions and explanations about cartooning told in story fashion. Really quite nice.

I was grouchy about The Stonekeeper’s Curse: Amulet because it’s the second book in a series and I hadn’t noticed it. Why was the mom sick, (yea yea, bit by a spider but how, why?), why does the girl have that stone? Now I need to go back and read the first book. Hmph.

I don’t think either of these will win … but I could be wrong. The Adventures in Cartooning book might appeal to the judges.

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Fire

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Women, Young Adult /

I was a little worried about Fire. A second book is often not great. Also, when talking to people who had read Fire, they seemed ambivalent. Or at least less gushy than they had when they talked about Graceling.

Sure enough, I had a hard time getting into Fire. It started slowly. In those first 100 pages or so, I was just waiting for them to connect the dots between the graceling who started the story and the people in Fire’s world. Once I let go of that, and once Fire made her way to King City, I settled into the story and ended up liking it BETTER than Graceling.  I think I like monsters better than the gracelings. Or maybe I just liked Fire more than I liked Katsa.

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Gunnerkrigg Court

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

Love, love, LOVE Gunnerkrigg Court.  Liz also loves it and is anxious for the next book, (wait til I tell her she can read all the Antimony and friends that she likes online…) Brilliant story. Brilliant characters (I’m a fan of Kat, myself.) Brilliant graphics. Great Cybils selection, I  can see this winning. In fact I hope it does win. I’m tempted to buy these, that’s how much I love the first book.

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Joey Fly, Private Eye: Creepy Crawly Crime

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

The first graphic novel from the Cybil’s list and it was a fun one. Joey Fly Private Eye is everything you’d want in a private eye – if you wanted a private eye who is an insect. His assistant is pretty annoying though. Scorpions are like that, I guess. Joey Fly will be a great graphic novel series for the younger crowd.  Not a teen sex/drug scene in the whole book. Kind of refreshing.

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The Cybils Shortlist Challenge – 2010

3 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge /

I’m addicted to YA and I enjoy children’s books as well, so it seemed smart to challenge myself to read all of the Cybil’s Short List books. Honestly, it wasn’t much of a challenge. I finished pretty early in the year and it was a piece of cake. I’m doing it again this year just because I enjoyed it so much. And, because I really appreciate the folks who work so hard to make the Cybil’s what they are. Here’s what I’ll be reading in 2010 (http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/):

Easy Readers/Short Chapter
Dinosaur Hunt – 11/9/10
Good Dog, Aggie – 10/25/10
Mr Putter & Tabby Spill the Beans – 11/6/10
Shampoodle – 10/25/10
Watch Me Throw the Ball – 10/31/10
Alice’s Shooting Star – 10/25/10
Bad to the Bone – 12/1/10
How Oliver Olsen Changed the World – 10/31/10
Mercy Watson: Something Wonky This Way Comes – 10/31/10
Roscoe Riley Rules #7 – 11/6/10

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade)
11 Birthdays – 4/21/10
Dreamdark: Silksinger – 5/10/10
The Farwalker’s Quest – 5/5/10
Odd and the Frost Giants – 4/14/10
The Prince of Fenway Park – 4/27/10
Serial Garden – 5/3/10
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – 4/28/10

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult)
Candor – 9/5/10
The Demon’s Lexicon – 9/12/10
The Dust of 100 Dogs -8/22/10
Fire – 3/19/10
Lips Touch Three Times – 8/19/10
Sacred Scars – 9/12/10
Tiger Moon – 9/15/10

Fiction Picture Books
The Curious Garden – 10/25/10
The Lion & the Mouse – 9/12/10
Jeremy Draws a Monster – 9/12/10
The Listeners – 10/31/10
All the World – 9/12/10
The Book that Eats People – 10/25/10
Silly Tilly – 9/12/10

Graphic Novels
Creepy Crawly Crime 3/13/10
Adventures in Cartooning – 3/20/10
The Stonekeeper’s Curse – 3/20/10
The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook 3/21/10
Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom 3/22/10
The Dreamer: The Consequence of Nathan Hale 3/21/10
Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation 3/16/10
Crogan’s Vengeance 3/21/10
 Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Death and Dementia 3/22/10
Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood 3/22/10

Middle Grade Fiction
Captain Nobody – 11/6/10
Chains – 11/15/10
Anything But Typical – 11/9/10
Heart of a Shepherd – 11/9/10
All the Broken Pieces – 11/8/10
Operation Yes – 10/27/10
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis – 10/30/10

Non-fiction (Picture)
Mermaid Queen – 8/14/10
The Day-Glo Brothers – 2.5.11
Life-Size Zoo – 8/22/10
14 Cows for America – 8/14/10
Moonshot – 8/14/10
Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea – 8/14/10
Faith – 8/14/10

Non-fiction (YA/Middle Grade)
Claudette Colvin – 4/18/10
The Frog Scientist – 6/26/10
I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets – 4/16/10
Marching for Freedom – 6/26/10
Written in Bone – 4/18/10

Poetry
African Acrostics – 6/26/10
The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry – 6/26/10
The Monsterologist – 6/26/10
Red Sings from Treetops – 6/26/10
The Tree that Time Built – 6/26/10

YA Fiction
Blue Plate Special – 9/20/10
Carter Finally Gets It – 11/8/10
Cracked Up to Be – 11/21/10
How to Say Goodbye in Robot – 8/13/10
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder – 11/13/10
North of Beautiful – 10/19/10
Wintergirls – 9/18/10

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The Year We Disappeared

2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

The very best thing I can say about The Year We Disappeared is that with this book I finished my Cybil Challenge. Yay me!

I really wish I hadn’t finished with such a dull book. Dull, dull, dull. Disappointing because it’s a true story and a great story.

I’ve always wondered about relocation programs. So this should have been interesting and compelling for me. Did I mention it was dull?

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Wake

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

Oops, almost forgot another Cybil Challenge book. Wake.

TW and RJ read it ages ago and both were surprised to see it appear from the library, apparently RJ owns it. Who knew? Oh, I think I did – I just forgot. It’s hard to keep track of all of the books RJ owns. She does not avail herself of the library nearly enough.

So, about Wake. That would be my nightmare. To find yourself inside of someone else’s dreams? Ugh. No thanks. Interesting book, though. I’ll read the sequel.

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A couple more Cybils

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My Cybils Challenge is almost complete! I wish I could say that the last two books from the challenge were great ones. They weren’t. They were good, but not great.

Ten Cents a Dance was probably only interesting because of the Chicago backdrop. I found it just a wee bit boring.

I think I might enjoy the story of what happens to Ruby when she leaves Chicago more than I enjoyed the story of her in the Taxi Dancing business.

And then there’s The Explosionist, a book I’d really been looking forward to reading. Slow. Slow. Slow. It was only at the end that I began to really get into it and enjoy the plot. I expect the sequel will be better because we’ve gotten a ton of backstory out of the way. Surely there will be a sequel. We will find out what happens to Sophie and more about Nobel and his brain in a jar. Won’t we?

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King George: What was his problem?

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I stayed up til midnight last night to finish King George: What was his problem?. Please do not take this to mean it is the best book ever. It’s simply a piece of my childhood rearing its ugly head and I could not help it. Blame my father.

This is what the first history textbooks should look like. Too many kids hate history because it’s boring. History is not boring. Should not be boring. If you can’t make it un-boring with the textbooks you have, then ditch them and use a book like this instead. Or call my dad.

He’ll drive you around to every battleground in the United States and force you to listen to everything he knows about THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR (it’s bolded for a reason) and you will hate it and you will be bored but not nearly as bored as trying to read a stupid dry text book. And when you’re an adult who no longer has to think about Ft Ticonderoga or who was to blame for the whole Benedict Arnold fiasco (Gates, I’m looking at you) you will find yourself happily devouring a fun book about THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR and it will be your father’s fault.

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