Wandering Librarians

Thursday, October 31, 2013

News

Happy Halloween! Here are some oh so scary links for you! The top 10 horror stories. 11 most evil characters in books. Why Frankenstein is the greatest horror novel ever. From PW.

Too much testing is killing kids' love of reading. From Los Angeles Times.

An in-depth look at the challenges to Eleanor & Park. From StarTribune.

Are school librarians part of your project-based learning team? They should be! From edutopia.

How Amazon and Goodreads could lose their most passionate readers. From Salon.

"I'm so surprised Allegiant is selling well!" said no one ever. From PW.

Should more YA fiction be read in school? From The Guardian.

Ahahha! Luna would totally read Francesca Lia Block! What books would Harry Potter characters read? From Mashable.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday: Uncrashable Dakota by Andy Marino

"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 Uncrashable Dakota by Andy Marino.

In 1862, Union army infantryman Samuel Dakota changed history when he spilled a bottle of pilfered moonshine in the Virginia dirt and stumbled upon the biochemical secret of flight. Not only did the Civil War come to a much quicker close, but Dakota Aeronautics was born.

Now, in Andy Marino's Uncrashable Dakota, it is 1912, and the titanic Dakota flagship embarks on its maiden flight. But shortly after the journey begins, the airship is hijacked. Fighting to save the ship, the young heir of the Dakota empire, Hollis, along with his brilliant friend Delia and his stepbrother, Rob, are plunged into the midst of a long-simmering family feud. Maybe Samuel’s final secret wasn’t just the tinkering of a madman after all. . . .

What sinister betrayals and strange discoveries await Hollis and his friends in the gilded corridors and opulent staterooms? Who can be trusted to keep the most magnificent airship the world has ever known from falling out of the sky?

Uncrashable Dakota comes out November 12, 2013.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Cold Spell by Jackson Pearce

Kai and Ginny have grown up together, and they knew when they were were 11 they'd spend their lives together. Ginny knows Kai loves her, so when Kai disappears with a strange girl named Mora, Ginny knows he hasn't just left her. Ginny sets out to find Kai, discovering along the way a world of darkness and monsters she never knew existed.

This was a retelling of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. Sort of. I mean, that was the intention, and it did certainly have call-backs to the story. But it was pretty different, which is true of the other books in Jackson Pearce's Fairy Tale Retellings series. They're not retellings exactly, maybe "inspired by The Snow Queen" would be more accurate.

I haven't loved most of the Jackson Pearce I've read. I read Sweetly and Purity. Maybe I should read Sister Red. I'd heard good things about that one. Anyway, I enjoyed this more than the others, although I found it choppy and the world building was weak. Although perhaps if I read all the books in the series I would understand the world better. I recall now there were evil, girl-eating wolves in Sweetly. The probably build on each other.

The core of both the original fairy tale and Cold Spell is there, which is that love can be incredibly powerful. Cold Spell puts a twist on this by questioning whether love is enough. I liked that Ginny, who doesn't really have an identity of her own at the beginning, she just sees herself as part of Kai, learns her own strength and starts to realize that while she loves Kai and never falters in her determination to find him, she doesn't need him to be her life the way she did before.

Spoilers

News

Finalists for 2013 National Book Award for Young People's Literature announced. From PW.

A brief history of young adult literature. From CNN.

Make Lemonade is part of the NY city curriculum for 8th graders. Now some principals are questioning the choice. From NY Daily News.

How children's books thrived under Stalin. From The Guardian.

Kids' comics aren't just for kids anymore at New York Comi-Con. From PW.

So excited to see The Phantom Tollbooth documentary! From boingboing.

A 13 year-old has coordinated the collection of one million books to be donated to kids in need. From The Huffington Post.

A new breed of teen-services librarian. From boston.com.

Ohhh, there's going to be a Harry Potter Forever stamp! From Mugglenet.

Finally, some good news out of the Philadelphia school system. Two school libraries that were closed will reopen thanks to an anonymous donation. From infoDocket.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere banned at a New Mexico high school after a complaint from one parent. From SLJ.

Plaquemines Parish School lifts a 12 year ban on To Kill a Mockingbird. From wwltv.com.

Harassment and objectifying women alive and well at New York Comi-Con. From The Beat.

Friday, October 25, 2013

The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett

In the beginning, there was nothing but endless flatness. Then came the Carpet . . . That’s the old story everyone knows and loves. But now the Carpet is home to many different tribes and peoples, and there’s a new story in the making. The story of Fray, sweeping a trail of destruction across the Carpet. The story of power-hungry mouls—and of two brothers who set out on an adventure to end all adventures when their village is flattened.

It’s a story that will come to a terrible end—if someone doesn't do something about it. If everyone doesn’t do something about it . . . (Goodreads).

So this was quite interesting. Terry Pratchett wrote The Carpet People in 1971, before he was all famous. It went out of print. Now, it was decided it was time for a new edition, but it wasn't just republished. Pratchett actually went back and reworked the book he wrote when he was 17. In the author's note Pratchett says, "It's not exactly the book I wrote at seventeen. It's not exactly the book I'd have written at forty-three." So of course I spent the whole book wondering what was different from the original. Could I get the original from the library so I could read and compare? I'm quite curious.

Waiting on Wednesday: Extracted by Sheery D. Ficklin and Tyler Jolley

"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 Extracted by Sheery D. Ficklin and Tyler Jolley.

Welcome to the war.

The Tesla Institute is a premier academy that trains young time travelers called Rifters. Created by Nicola Tesla, the Institute seeks special individuals who can help preserve the time stream against those who try to alter it.

The Hollows is a rogue band of Rifters who tear through time with little care for the consequences. Armed with their own group of lost teens--their only desire to find Tesla and put an end to his corruption of the time stream.

Torn between them are Lex and Ember, two Rifters with no memories of their life before joining the time war.

When Lex’s girlfriend dies during a mission, the only way he can save her is to retrieve the Dox, a piece of tech which allows Rifters to re-enter their own timeline without collapsing the time stream. But the Dox is hidden deep within the Telsa Institute, which means Lex must go into the enemy camp. It’s there he meets Ember, and the past that was stolen from them both comes flooding back.

Now armed with the truth of who they are, Lex and Ember must work together to save the future before the battle for time destroys them both…again.

Extracted comes out November 12, 2013.