Shannon Hale

I am a huge fan of Shannon Hale Books. Like it says in the video clip they are written like fairy tales. They are imaginative, and the characters are easy to relate to. I have read her "Books of Bayern" series including Goose Girl, River Secrets, and Enna Burning. She has a brand new book in this series coming out and I can't wait. Other books by this author include The Princess Academy, and Book of a Thousand days which were both excellent. So check it out :D.

You can visit her website here

What I've been reading this summer...

My televisions haven't been working very well this summer... so that means we all have more reasons to READ! I don't think we'll be fixing our TV reception any time soon...

Some of the books I've read over the past few weeks are:

The Shadow Children Series: I thought they were great page turners and a bit intense. They may be suitable for more mature readers.

The Septimus Heap Series: I love this series! Fans of Harry Potter will love these books!

Green Rider and it's sequel The Rider's Call: These books remind me a little bit of Lord of the Rings and have a lot of darker magic in them. They would be better for older and more mature readers.

The Penderwicks on Garden Street which is the sequel to The Penderwicks: I think these books are absolutely charming and suitable for ages 8 and up

Ever: Usually I really enjoy Gail Carson Levine, but I had a hard time connecting with this one.

Dragon Flight which is the sequel to Dragon Slippers. I love this trilogy and am currently reading the final book, Dragon Spear. I even met Jessica Day George at a book symposium and had all of my books signed!

I'd write more detailed reviews, but that will have to wait, my book is calling...
What are you reading this summer?

A peek at Brandon Mull

If you have any Fablehaven fans in your house, they might enjoy watching this!

Gloria Whelan

I just finished Parade of Shadows by Gloria Whelen. I've read almost all of her books and have really enjoyed them all!
Here's a review I liked from commonsensemedia.org:
National Book Award winner Gloria Whelan tells a classic, enjoyable tale of spies, mystery, adventure, and romance in PARADE OF SHADOWS. Whelan's pace throughout the book mirrors the pace of teen heroine Julia's adventure. At times the book speeds through the ancient streets of the Ottoman Empire. Other times it plods along through the desert. Even when the pace slows down, the layered characters and glimpses at their hidden agendas keep things interesting.
Even though Julia is rather sheltered, she begins to catch on to the true nature of almost everyone -- though at times readers will jump up and down in frustration at her moments of blind trust. Readers will never want her to feel too comfortable since suspense and suspicion are everywhere. As a bonus, Parade of Shadows is peppered with detailed historical references. It's kind of like a sneaky history lesson disguised as fun.


My favorite book by Whelan is Listening for Lions! Here is a review from allreaders.com:
"Rachel Sheridan was born and raised in British East Africa, the daughter of British missionary parents who ran a hospital there. Africa is the only home Rachel has ever known, and she loves it. But everything changes in 1919, when Rachel is thirteen. An influenza epidemic arrives and kills her parents. Because her parents were orphans, Rachel has no family to turn to, and is caught up in the devious plans of their wealthy neighbors, the Pritchards.

The Pritchards lost their daughter Valerie, who was Rachel's age, in the epidemic. Valerie was about to leave to visit her grandfather in England, and the Pritchards force Rachel to impersonate Valerie and take her place. They hope Rachel will win the grandfather's heart and persuade him to leave his estate and money to the Pritchards. Rachel is devastated to leave her beloved Africa and travel to cold, lonely England. She finds herself coming to care for her "Grandfather," but hates living a lie, and fears the Pritchards will someday follow her to England. At the same time, she is determined to find a way to return to Africa and reopen her parents' hospital. "

Beehive Award Nominees

Every year the Children's literature association releases a list of nominees for the Beehive awards! I almost always love the books that are on the list each year! If you'd like to see the list for the 2010 nominees visit this website. Winners are chosen from the nominated books by the children of Utah, who vote for their favorite books. I'd love to what you think about any you might have read! Many of the authors listed are among my favorites, so I'm excited to check them out!

Good Night Gorilla

I've checked this book out at the library more times than I can count! I checked it out again, thinking that my two year old might be old enough to enjoy it- and he LOVED it! Mitchell laughs out loud every time we read it! He's been carrying it around all day.

Here is a review from the scholastic website:
In this practically wordless bedtime story, a weary zookeeper bids good night to his charges and then goes home to bed. He doesn't notice, however, that clever Gorilla has pickpocketed his keys and is letting the animals out of their cages, one by one. In single file, they follow the zookeeper home and settle into comfy spots all around the bedroom he shares with his wife. Finally, a chorus chiming "good night" alerts the zookeeper's wife, whose eyes pop open in surprise in the darkness. As the zookeeper sleeps, she walks the animals home, and her final "Good night, zoo" means business. But watch out - Gorilla has done it again, however this time only Mouse gets to come along.

As she did in her Caldecott Medal-winning Officer Buckle and Gloria, Peggy Rathmann uses her expressive, richly colored pictures to give young readers a joyful look at what animals might do when people's backs are turned. Observant children will find extra fun in poring over the illustrations to follow the progress of a released balloon into the sky, laugh at Mouse's valiant efforts to carry one of Gorilla's bananas from cage to cage to house, find the animals in the zookeeper's family photos, and note the appropriate toys each animal has to play with (. . . is that a Babar doll in the elephant cage?). Irrepressible fun for any time of day, Good Night, Gorilla is a gem of a picture book from an award-winning author and illustrator.

There are some fun lesson plan ideas at:
http://www.first-school.ws/activities/books/animals/wild/gngorilla.htm

Magyk

I just finished Magyk by Angie Sage. It's the first book in the Septimus Heap Series, and I actually really enjoyed it. (from an Amazon review)..."With a colorful cast of fully drawn characters, creative plots, and pure imagination and control over her world, Sage takes her first plunge into the world of children's' novels and succeeds wonderfully. It's not the magic that makes Magyk such a great novel, it's the characters. Readers will race along with the thoughts, emotions, and experiences of the quirky main characters of Jenna (a girl who just might be Queen), Boy 412 (a mysterious child from the young Army), Marcia (The very fashionable Extraordinary Wizard), and Nicko (Jenna's brother and sailor)."
The book was a bit predictable, but I thought it was a lot of fun. I wouldn't compare it to Harry Potter... but thought it a great read for middle school age readers and above. There is a fun website if you want to find out more about this series:
http://www.septimusheap.com/

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

I just finished this book and thought it was pretty great. It is a wonderful story, but a little slow in places. I agree with the review that the book could have been shortened easily. However, I am the kind of person who loves to read thick books and this didn't bother me too much. It is another book that is sort of old fashioned and a little "Roald Dahlish". It has that same sort of flavor. Anyway, it's worth checking out.

Review from Amazon.com:

*Starred Review* "Are you a gifted child looking for Special Opportunities?" This curious newspaper ad catches the eye of orphan Reynie Muldoon. After taking exams that test both mind and spirit, Reynie is selected along with four other contestants--Sticky Washington, a nervous child with a photographic memory; irrepressible Kate Weatherhill; and a tiny child who lives up to her name, Constance Contraire. The children soon learn they've been chosen by mysterious Mr. Benedict for an important mission: they are to infiltrate the isolated Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, from which messages of distrust and compliance are being broadcast into the minds of the world's citizens. Debut novelist Stewart takes some familiar conventions--among them, an orphan struggling against evil forces (Harry Potter, anyone?)--and makes them his own. But like the Potter books, his story goes beyond mere adventures, delving into serious issues, such as the way sloganeering can undermine society--or control it. Through its interesting characters, the book also tackles personal concerns: abandonment, family, loyalty, and facing one's fears. The novel could have been shortened, but Stewart writes with such attention to the intricacies of plot and personality, his story rarely feels slow; only a significant disclosure about Constance seems forced. Smart kids who like Blue Balliet's books are the natural audience for this; but, read aloud, the novel will attract many others as well. Illustrations to come. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book List

I am having the 11 year old girls in my ward come over for an activity to talk about reading! I put together a book list to give each of them and thought I would share! I have read most of them, but I haven't read them all. However, they all came highly recommended by people I know and love! Some are for younger readers, others are for more mature readers, so just make sure they are age appropriate for your readers!

Dragon Slippers
Ella Enchanted
Bella at Midnight
Princess Academy
Goose Girl
Young Merlin Series
Calico Captive
Behind the Attic Wall
Matilda
Invincible Louisa
Harry Potter Series
The Star of Kazan
Shadow Spinner
The Tale of Despereaux
Ballad of Lucy Whipple
Skylark (The Sarah Plain and Tall series)
Bat 6
Because of Winn Dixie
Shiloh series
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
The Silk Dress and others by Author Anne Rinaldi
The Witch of blackbird pond and others by Author Elizabeth George Speare
Fablehaven series
Dragon Keepers series
Magyk (Septimus Heaps) series
Disney After Dark and Disney at Dawn (Series)
Narnia series
Mistmantle series
Fire within series
Found
The giver
Dragon rider
Deep and dark and dangerous
Charly
My name is sally little song
The Man Who Was Poe
The Thief Lord
Seekers the quest begins (new series)
The old Willis place
Where the old fern grows
The stranger next door
The Westing Game
Jeremy fink and the meaning of life
Escape From Saigon(non-fiction)
American Girl Series
Charlotte's Web
The Tale of Emily Windsnap series
Harry Potter series
Secrets of Droon series
Two Princesses of Bamarre
Fairest
Peter and the Starcatchers series
Lightning Thief Series
Ranger's Apprentice
Great Brain and Soup books
The Secret Garden
My Side of the Mountain (series)
The Little Princess
Serpent Tide Series
Ida B
Pictures of Hollis Woods
Girl of the Limberlost
Freckles
An Old-Fashioned Girl
Little Women (and the sequels)
Trixie Belden Series
The Black Cauldron books
Peppermints in the Parlor
Anne of Green Gables series
Emily series (same author as Anne of Green Gables)
Emily’s Runaway Imagination
Pollyanna
Little Women Series
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Summer of the Monkeys
Listening for Lions
Nancy Drew series
The Face on the Milk Carton
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Number the Stars
The Phantom Tollbooth
Airborne
Chasing Vermeer series
The Wizard of Oz series
The Candyshop War
The View from Saturday
The Sisters Grimm series
Inkheart
A Wrinkle in Time
Little Britches
Tuck Everlasting
The Thirteenth Reality
Charlotte's Web
Stuart Little
Treasure Island
Once Upon a Marigold
Gregor the Overlander series
Pippi Longstockings
Matilda Bones
The Cay
The Indian in the Cupboard series
Yellow Star
Jip, His Story
The Midwifes Apprentice
The Rangers Apprentice Series
Julie of the Wolves
The Devil’s Arithmetic
The Lady Grace Mysteries

Series for boys

I think it's so fun to find a series that will hook boy readers! (Girl readers will like them too, I'm just always on the lookout for series I think my boys will enjoy now or down the road)
Some of my recent favorites are:
Gregor the Overlander Series:

Rangers Apprentice Series

The Percy Jackson & the Olympians Series
(see the Lightning Thief review written by Emily!)

The Pendragon Series: I've only read the first two so far, but I enjoyed them. They are probably better for teenagers because at least in the first one, the boy kisses a girl. EWW!

Deltora Quest Series: I'm suggesting these because my oldest really liked them, but I must admit, I only read the first one.

Fablehaven

Written by Brandon Mull
My family has loved these books. My Husband and I have read them, and our 3rd grader has read them each 3 times! I'm highlighting this series because the 4th book is coming out in April!
A breif review from Amazon:
Kendra and Seth Sorenson are the grandchildren of the caretakers of Fablehaven preserve, one of the few places left on earth where magical creatures can live on in an increasingly skeptical world. The trouble is, not all magical creatures are nice. In fact, some of them are downright evil. All the worst ones have been locked away in a magical prison, and if they ever get out, the world as we know it is basically over.

Mull creates a world where the stakes are high, danger is real, and almost everyone is under suspicion. His book has an endless parade of fascinating magical creatures, each with their own habits and personality. Fablehaven 3 contains Mull's best paced plot so far, with lots of adventures (including a visit to a preserve on a reservation in Arizona), an intense action climax, and an ending that leaves the reader eager for the next book.











I also really enjoyed Mull's book, The Candy Shop War!

2 year old favorites

My two year old loves to read the same stories over and over. After a few weeks he'll try a new one...this is the stack he is currently bringing to me every day to read before his nap!

Dragon Slippers

By Written by Jessica Day George (a Utah author!!)

Many stories tell of damsels in distress, who are rescued from the clutches of fire-breathing dragons by knights in shining armor, and swept off to live happily ever after.

Fortunately, this is not one of those stories.

From the book's website: http://www.dragonslippers.net/
True, when Creel’s aunt suggests sacrificing her to the local dragon, it is with the hope that the knight will marry Creel and that everyone (aunt and family included) will benefit handsomely. Yet it’s Creel who talks her way out of the dragon’s clutches. And it’s Creel who walks for days on end to seek her fortune in the king’s city with only a bit of embroidery thread and a strange pair of slippers in her possession.

But even Creel could not have guessed the outcome of this tale. For in a country on the verge of war, Creel unknowingly possesses not just any pair of shoes, but a tool that could be used to save her kingdom…or destroy it.

Dragon Slippers is the thrilling debut novel by Jessica Day George. Full of dragons, humor, adventure, alchemy, dogs, evil princesses and some wicked cool shoes, it will delight anyone who enjoys a ripping good book.

I just finished this book and loved it! I'm putting the sequel on hold right now!

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I really enjoyed reading this book. I have been a fan of mythology for a long time and it was fun to have the ancient Greek world updated to modern times. The story is fast paced and engaging, and an easy read. I was able to finish the book easily in a day.

Review by Matt Berman

Percy Jackson, dyslexic and hotheaded, has been kicked out of yet another school. But stranger things are happening around him, and soon he finds himself at Camp Half Blood, a refuge and training ground for children of the Greek gods, who are still around and causing trouble for humans. He discovers that his dyslexia is caused by his brain being hardwired for Greek, and his hotheadedness is because, well, he's a hero. All too soon he discovers which god is his father, and that he is a pawn in a titanic battle between the gods that may ignite World War III. Accompanied by a daughter of Athena and a young Satyr, Percy is sent to retrieve Zeus' lightning bolt from Hades, who supposedly stole it. But things are even more complicated than he and the gods imagined, and there are dangerous plots afoot.

Other books in the series are just as good and include: The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian. (The Last Olympian is due to come out in May 2009)

Little Britches by Ralph Moody

This is a wonderful true story about how a young boy learns some of life's best lessons while working a small ranch with his father. I love simple heartfelt stories like this, and like the cover says it is a perfect book to read aloud. If you are like me and believe that you are what you read, then you will learn a lot from this book.

Amazon.com review:

Without the flamboyance or the caricature of other "life with Father" books this tells, simply, directly of the Moody family and their life in Colorado. Father's health necessitated a move and all seven of the Moodys moved to a godforsaken little ranch. There Little Britches learned how to face a situation, through emphatic lessons and Father's kindly but firm insistence on cause and effect. This is the story of hard luck, stubborn pride, and altruistic community endeavor, for Father is the one who evolves a solution for the water problem, and of the implanting of an honest, moral philosophy. It is the story too of Little Britches' first earnings, of his interrupted schooling, of his Indian friend, Two Dog, who added to the excitement of the new life, of the many accidents culminating in nine broken toes, of his burning desire to be accepted in a man's world. And how he went from cow poke to bronc buster, cowboy on the Y B mountain spread, and rodeo rider, until Father's death made him head of the family and his courageous Mother's indispensable right-hand man. Real stuff here with none of the artificiality of the more eccentric domestic chronicles. (Kirkus Reviews)

Other books in the series include: Man of the Family, The Home Ranch, Mary Emma and Company, The Fields of Home, Shaking the Nickel Bush, The Dry Divide, and Horse of a different Color.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

This book is one of my very, very favorite. I cannot read it without crying. It is a powerful story of love between friends.

Amazon Book Review:
To say that this particular apple tree is a "giving tree" is an understatement. In Shel Silverstein's popular tale of few words and simple line drawings, a tree starts out as a leafy playground, shade provider, and apple bearer for a rambunctious little boy. Making the boy happy makes the tree happy, but with time it becomes more challenging for the generous tree to meet his needs. When he asks for money, she suggests that he sell her apples. When he asks for a house, she offers her branches for lumber. When the boy is old, too old and sad to play in the tree, he asks the tree for a boat. She suggests that he cut her down to a stump so he can craft a boat out of her trunk. He unthinkingly does it. At this point in the story, the double-page spread shows a pathetic solitary stump, poignantly cut down to the heart the boy once carved into the tree as a child that said "M.E. + T." "And then the tree was happy... but not really." When there's nothing left of her, the boy returns again as an old man, needing a quiet place to sit and rest. The stump offers up her services, and he sits on it. "And the tree was happy." While the message of this book is unclear (Take and take and take? Give and give and give? Complete self-sacrifice is good? Complete self-sacrifice is infinitely sad?), Silverstein has perhaps deliberately left the book open to interpretation. (All ages) --Karin Snelson

All God's children by Thomas Eidson

I read this book while I was in the hospital with Caleb over Christmas. I usually read a lot of children's and Juvenile literature... however, this was an adult fiction book. I really enjoyed it! A review on amazon states: "It is a tale of true grit on the Kansas plains in the early 1890s--an unintentionally uproarious amalgam of 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' 'Friendly Persuasion,' and 'Les Misérables'...Eidson does convey the unshaken purity of Pearl's faith effectively, sometimes even movingly" I fell in love with each of the characters and their flaws. There were a few times when the black character, "prophet" uses some rough words, but I would still feel comfortable recommending this book to any of my friends!

Love You Forever

This book has been one of my favorites since my teacher in 2nd Grade read it to the class and cried through it. I read it many times as a child and now as a mom, I have to read it at least once every couple weeks. It serves as a great reminder that despite the challenges we face as parents, there is nothing that would ever shake our love. We've worn out a couple copies of this book, it is a classic in our home.

The Velveteen Rabbit By Margery Williams

This is a wonderful story about love and the impact toys have on children and their imagination. It was one of my favorite bedtime stories as a kid.

Amazon.com Review:

A stuffed toy rabbit (with real thread whiskers) comes to life in Margery Williams's timeless tale of the transformative power of love. Given as a Christmas gift to a young boy, the Velveteen Rabbit lives in the nursery with all of the other toys, waiting for the day when the Boy (as he is called) will choose him as a playmate. In time, the shy Rabbit befriends the tattered Skin Horse, the wisest resident of the nursery, who reveals the goal of all nursery toys: to be made "real" through the love of a human. "'Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'" This sentimental classic--perfect for any child who's ever thought that maybe, just maybe, his or her toys have feelings--has been charming children since its first publication in 1922. (A great read-aloud for all ages, but children ages 8 and up can read it on their own.)