Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on Awake at Dawn by C.C. Hunter.

Now that she’s settled in at Shadow Falls Camp, Kylie Galen’s determined to discover the extent of her supernatural abilities. But with a ghost insisting someone Kylie loves is about die, a rogue vampire on a murdering rampage, and her sixth sense telling her someone is watching her, Kylie’s quest for answers is quickly put on hold.

To make matters worse, just when she’s about to give her heart to Derek, a half-fairy, he starts pulling away. When Lucas, a werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past, returns, Kylie’s feels more conflicted than ever. Her weekend with her mom should have been just the break Kylie needs, but it turns out to be her breaking point. Someone from the dark side of the supernatural world has plans for Kylie--and it'll take all her resources to get back to Shadow Falls alive... (Summary by Goodreads)

You might remember that I read Born at Midnight a while back and really enjoyed it. So I'm pretty excited to see what happens next. Especially since I want to find out what Kylie's secret power is, if Derek is manipulating Kylie's emotions for him, and if Luke will come back (which let's be honest I'm sure he will).

Awake at Dawn comes out Oct. 11.

Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians by J. Krosoczka

Something strange is going on with the librarians.  And it involves the Book Fair and the new X-Station 5000!  Luckily, Lunch Lady, her trusty sidekick Betty and the Breakfast Bunch are on the case!

Adorable.  Hysterical.  I love the Lunch Lady series.  I love the gadgets Betty makes, like the Taco-vision Night Goggles and Sonic-Boom Juice Boxes.  Lunch Lady is dedicated to fighting crime, but doesn't let that get in the way of her duties as a lunch lady.

One problem:  It sort of made me sad that even in an adorable elementary level graphic novel the librarians are evil technology haters.  Sigh.  They're planning on destroying all the X-Station 5000s so people will have to read books.  And then they'll take over the world.  Like you do.

It takes Lunch Lady to put the two together and have an awesome Book Fair where students can also play the new X-Station 5000.  Because all librarians are against gaming in the library.  So again: sigh.  I really like this series, and I don't even mind the librarians being made evil.  I just wish they'd been made evil in some way not relating to hating technology, that's all.

On the plus side, the librarian's evil weapons were releasing "beasts" from various books - the three little pigs, the black stallion, the wolves from Call of the Wild, various characters from Alice in Wonderland and so forth.  Awesome weapon.

But this is a GREAT series and I highly recommend it for your elementary grade students!

Without Tess by Marcella Pixley

Tess and Lizzie are sisters, sisters as close as can be, who share a secret world filled with selkies, flying horses, and a girl who can transform into a wolf  in the middle of the night. But when Lizzie is ready to grow up, Tess clings to their fantasies. As Tess sinks deeper and deeper into her delusions, she decides that she can’t live in the real world any longer and leaves Lizzie and her family forever. Now, years later, Lizzie is in high school and struggling to understand what happened to her sister. With the help of a school psychologist and Tess’s battered journal, Lizzie searches for a way to finally let Tess go.
- Publisher's description (I had a hard time summarizing this one for some reason)

This was sad.  Poor Lizzie.  I felt so awful for her, especially when she was little.  We spent a lot more time in the book with young Lizzie than 15 year-old Lizzie, and I think that's why I sympathized with her younger self more.  Lizzie idolized her older sister.  She wished she could be more like her - imaginative and free spirited.  Tess seemed to have a magic about her that Lizzie couldn't get.  As much as Lizzie worshiped Tess, Tess was often cruel to her.  Tess was trapped in her fantasy world and didn't see that she often ended up hurting other people, and that person was usually Lizzie.  Tess had Lizzie eat a dried, dead crab, which made her throw up, to prove to Tess that Lizzie loved her.  When Tess said she was a selkie but that Lizzie wasn't, she had Lizzie lie naked in the ocean in fall, almost freezing before she finally got up.  Tess stabbed Lizzie's hand with her earring to make a blood promise, and gave her blood poisoning, and then wouldn't let Lizzie go inside to get their mother when she started feeling sick.

The Watch that Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic by Allan Wolf

Everyone knows the story of the sinking of the Titanic, but now you can hear the story in a thoroughly unique way.  In the voices of Captain Smith, the lookout, the wireless man, J. J. Astor, a Lebanese immigrant girl, the undertaker who comes to recover the bodies, and many more, characters tell their stories as the Titanic makes its first and only journey.

This was certainly an interesting read.  What I found most interesting was getting to hear about things from the perspectives of people who don't often get mentioned, like the wireless man who was sending out the messages for help, or the immigrants in third class, or the children on board.   I wished there had been more women's voices.  The only women were Margaret Brown (the "unsinkable Molly Brown", even she was never called Molly), and the Lebanese immigrant girl.  There were women working on the Titanic, I would have liked to hear their stories along with the stories of the stokers and the baker and the wireless man.

Brain Camp by Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan, and Faith Erin Hicks

Jenna and Lucas are two young teens who don't seem to fit in. Jenna's family are all geniuses and Jenna's immaturity and fixation on role-playing are troubling. Lucas has been sucked into the wrong crowd of friends and is continuously getting into trouble with the law. They are shipped off to Camp Fielding, where their families are assured that their behaviors will be 'fixed,' and return super smart. There's only one problem, Jenna and Lucas don't want to be fixed. Especially when it seems like everyone around them is turning into drones, and more than a few are going missing...

I think it's a well documented fact that I generally don't like horror. This was just enough science fiction mixed in with horror to completely entertain me. Lucas and Jenna are sassy, engaging, and funny. Their families are pretty off the wall and yet believable. And spoiler: the camp is implanting alien birds into the heads of their campers, which is killing some of them off. Watching the camp director yank a bird fetus from some kid's throat was disturbing to say the least.

Fun, hilarious, and scary-ish. Definitely a worthwhile read.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman, adapted by P. Craig Russell

Coraline has just moved into a new flat with her somewhat neglectful parents, and everything seems just terrible. The weather is bad, the other tenants are weirdos, and school is starting soon. Coraline just wants to escape, and it seems that someone has answered her wish. A door appears and Coraline enters a world that mirrors her own. But here all her wishes come true, nothing is beyond her reach. But her Other Mother and Father seem a bit off... a bit too eager to keep her and make Coraline their own. When Coraline's real parents disappear, the true nature of the Other Mother unfolds. Only with the help of a taciturn cat can Coraline free her parents and save the souls of three other children.

I don't know if I've ever discussed my love of all things Neil Gaiman. He is a genius in my eyes. I've read this book, watched the movie, and now read the graphic novel. I have to admit that I was expecting the graphic novel to underwhelm me. But to my surprise it snuck under my skin and really creeped me out. Which is what I wanted! Really all my hopes rested on how the Other Mother was portrayed. She's one of those characters that should be bone-chillingly horrifying. Cloyingly sweet until she is thwarted. My favorite scene from the book was well represented in the graphic novel. You know the one, where the Other Mother sits, eats beetles, and taps at her button eyes? Excellent.

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on The Twilight of Lake Woebegotten by Harrison Geillor.

A small town... a plucky heroin, a shiny vampire, and a hunkey Native American rival with a secret. But all is not as it seems in Lake Woebegotten. Let Harrison Geillor reveal what lies beneath the seemingly placid surface. You''ll Laugh. We promise. When Bonnie Grayduck relocates from sunny Santa Cruz California to the small town of Lake Woebegotten, Minnesota, to live with her estranged father, chief of the local two-man police department, she thinks she''s leaving her troubles behind. But she soon becomes fascinated by another student - the brooding, beautiful Edwin Scullen, whose reclusive family hides a terrible secret. (Psst: they''re actually vampires. But they''re the kind who don''t eat people, so it''s okay.) Once Bonnie realizes what her new lover really is, she isn''t afraid. Instead, she sees potential. Because while Bonnie seems to her friends and family to be an ordinary, slightly clumsy, easily-distracted girl, she''s really manipulative, calculating, power hungry, and not above committing murder to get her way - or even just to amuse herself. This is a love story about monsters... but the vampire isn''t the monster. (Summary by Goodreads)

As someone who loved Twilight and then came to her senses and a native Minnesotan, this spoof tickles me. It looks hilarious and I'm totally going to read it. Edwin Scullen... *smirk* The Twilight of Lake Woebegotten comes out Oct. 18th.