I’m A Winner

Hey Readers,

I’m a winner, but I already knew that…or says Alan Gratz in a recent email as he announced that I would receive a poster he had just created for him new novel Fantasy Baseball.  The said poster came in the mail last night and I am now even more excited to get my hands on this book when it comes out in March.

Gratz is a terrific author for the young reader.  His novels, Samurai Shortstop and The Brooklyn Nine  are go to books for both my students and my Guys Read club.

He is also a super nice guy.  He did a school visit (sorry all of the pictures and podcast are broken, they didn’t transfer from Typepad to WordPress when we moved the blog) for us a few years ago and I would highly recommend him if you are looking for an author visit.

So if you need something to keep you reading until March, check out some Alan Gratz…even if you aren’t the biggest baseball fan around you will enjoy the way he tells a story and weaves the baseball in with history.

Read on,

Mr. H

ps. Thanks Mr. Gratz for the great poster.  It will find it’s way to a special place of honor on my classroom wall.

13 Slightly Strange Words

Hey Readers,

The other day I emptied my iPod of all the audiobooks I had finished and filled her back up with five new adventures for my commute.  The first book I decided to listen to was 13 Words by Lemony Snicket.  If you are not familiar with Snicket’s work you really need to get on board.  He is one of the smartest and funniest writers out there today.  Horseradish, The Composer is Dead and others are really great books that many students don’t give the proper attention.

13 Words is a short story in the same vein as The Composer is Dead.  It tells the story of a bird that is despondant.  From there Snicket takes us on a wild ride through 10 more words, some simple…Dog, Baby and some complex…panache and mezzo-soprano.

In the audiobook version a mezzo-soprano actually sings the song in a very operatic way toward the end of the story.  It was surprising and thrilling and hard to stay on the road at times.

13 Words will only take a few minutes of your life to read and enjoy, but those few minutes will be well spent in the company of a despondent bird and a dog who tries to cheer her up with cake and a hat.

Read on Friends,

Mr. H

Riordan Does It Again or The Lost Hero

Hello Readers,

I am now finished with my second book of 2011 and this one was a journey.  I checked out the digital audiobook of Rick Riordan’s The Lost Hero back in December.  I was a little intimidated by the number of sections.  I transferred 14 sections on to my iPod and then discovered that each section was just over an hour in length.  I was going to be listening to this thing for a while.

I was excited for this new set of Half-Blood books from Riordan.  I loved the Percy Jackson series, but wasn’t completely in love with the Red Pyramid and the Egyptian series that he also started.  I think I need to give that series another try before the new book comes out in May.

The Lost Hero is a great book.  Riordan throws you right back into his world with the same excitement, adventure and humor we have all come to love.  The cool twist is that this time we don’t follow Percy and his friends on another adventure, but Percy does play an important role in his absence.  In this series we follow Jason, Piper and Leo.  Each is a half-blood and all have some interesting plot lines, but I found myself being most connected to Leo. Leo is a tinker, who is always moving and alway doing something with his hands.  Leo is funny, talented and an important part of the whole plot.  He also builds a giant mechanical dragon, he names Fetus.  The word Festus just happens to mean happy in Latin. Oh yeah he also makes a mean tofu burrito…My fave!!!

  When you read The Lost Hero you will be hit with the typical Riordan journey story, filled with all kinds of popular and obscure Greek Mythology.  The great thing about this series is that this time around instead of just hashing out more and more Greek myths, Riordan introduces the Roman Gods and how that works in his demigod world.  It opens another world of stories and introduces us to some really cool new characters.  I loved the idea of the wolf king wearing pelts and smelling like dead animals.  A great Guys Read image for you there.

On this journey you also get a great sampling of geography.  Something I think I took for granted in the Percy Jackson series.  It is fantastic how Riordan weaves interesting places into his stories.  In The Lost Hero we start the story at the Grand Canyon out over the new skywalk. Over the course of the story you will travel to Canada, Detroit, Chicago ( funny windy city wind god reference), Omaha (did you know that one of the riches men in the world lives in Omaha Nebraska?  In this story so does a king with a golden touch) and a few other places of interest.

I do think the book does have one little flaw.  A flaw that JK Rowling might have gotten herself into as her series progressed as well.  The Lost Hero is long!  I had days where I thought I was never going to finish.  I even got to the 13th section and thought I was at the end and then found out I had 45 more minutes to go.  For a young guy reading a book of that length, there might be some times of legging interest.  Some people might enjoy the longer story and even crave more, but found it to be a bit long and would have liked to see the book a little shorter and tighter.

So The Lost Hero is well worth a read.  It will keep those Percy fans happy and get you thinking about a new world of mythology.  Oh, yeah Riordan is also working on book two…The Son of Neptune right now.  It is due out in October.

Read on my friends,

Mr. H

My New Year’s Resolution or Book Review Number 1

Hey Readers,

Now that we are 20 or so days into this new year it is time for me to let you all in on my New Year’s Resolution.  Normally I don’t make resolutions, but this year I thought that I had a good idea that I have wanted to do more of anyway…so this year my resolution is to review every book I read this year on this blog.

Tonight I begin my book review odyssey with the novel Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.  I picked up Chains and the sequel Forge after I read that Forge could be a Newbery contender.  I have always enjoyed historical fiction, but I was especially interested in this timeframe as my family visited Colonial Williamsburg over the Christmas break.

Chains is a powerful novel that is frustrating and difficult to read at times.  I say this not because the story is bad, I say this because the story is just rough.  The main character is Isabel a Rhode Island slave who winds up sold with her little sister to an evil New York loyalist.  This is only the first in a painfully long series of setbacks and unfair, horrible events in Isabel’s life. 

The setting is Manhattan at a time when only the southern tip of the island is inhabited.  It’s cool to hear about places that still exist, but also to think about what is coming for that island.

Isabel finds herself in the employ of a loyalist household during the beginnings of the American Revolution.  She  is torn between helping the rebels…that would get her alway from the horrible family she is owned by, but she would still be a slave.  Helping the English could be a ticket to freedom. 

The end of the story brings the downfall of the English control of Manhattan and Isabel out her own.  I think the sequel must connect to the winter of Valley Forge, but Isabel is planning on heading south to look for her sister.

I really enjoyed Chains because it is one of those books that does a good job making a historical time seem real.  Laurie Halse Anderson has done a great job giving slavery in the colonial times a humanity.  You feel what Isabel feels and hurt for her constantly.  You also love her strength and want to see her find some peace in her life.

If you are looking for a solid historical fiction by an author who weaves a terrific tale then check out Chains.

Continue to read on,

Mr. H

More On Awards and Our Newest Honor Idea

Hello Reading World,

Ms. Yingling added comment on yesterday’s post dealing with reading awards, thanks Ms. Y!

  She wrote…”I hardly ever use an award to sell a book.” and I think it is a good point. I love to talk about the Newbery Medal as it gets a lot of attention and I like to use that excitement, and the cool gold sticker, to turn students on to a book. As with any award there can only be one winner, which means many, many worthy losers. I would never say to a student you should read this book just because it has a gold or silver sticker on the front, but I do like to use the juice that comes with getting a reading award.

She also turned us on to a Newbery Honor book called the Heart of a Samurai. I saw the book yesterday and it looks cool. It reminded me of Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry and Samurai Shortstop by Alan Grants all rolled together.  Could be a cool book ,but unfortunately does not work within the formula for our new Guys Book Award as it was published in 2010.  I did a little research looking for a list of books to be published in 2011.  Maybe Ms. Yingling can help us out here, we need to know what books are coming out so we can get find the cool sounding guys books and get them read.

Sean, a SMS Guys Read member, commented last night as well and reminded us about Rick Riordan’s new Son of Neptune book coming out this year.  How could I forget about that???  I’m listening to The Lost Hero right now!

Can you think of any other books coming out this year that should get a chance from us.  We also need to think of a name for this award…I’m thinking the Sciezka Medal or the Dude Award.  Thoughts?

Read On,

Mr. H

ps I am a few chapters into Ship Breaker and it is an interesting read.  Makes you think about what might happen to us in the future if we keep on the consumption path we are on.

2011 ALCS Awards and A New Idea for Guys Read

Hello Readers,

Today is a big day in the world of KidLit, today the Association for Library Services to Children handed out its 2011 Honors.   

The big honors are the Caldecott, Printz and Newbery.  This year I watched the live webfeed and followed along on Twitter.  It was a book lovers utopia. 

They starts with the myriad of minor awards including the Belpre Award, which I mention here because it was the only book of the award winners that I had actually read.  The winning book was The Dreamer written by Pam Munoz Ryan, illustrated by Peter Sis.  The Dreamer is a great story that tells a somewhat fictional account of poets Pablo Neruda’s young life.  I really liked the book and have always loved Peter Sis and his artwork.

The Printz award was given to Paolo Bacigalupi for his book Ship Breaker.  I have heard nothing but great things about Ship Breaker, so i just went out and used a few Christmas gift cards to pick it up.  It tells the story of a teenage boy who works as a ship breaker in a futuristic gulf coast of  America.  A ship breaker is someone who takes apart old and unusable ships for the spare parts.  This is a real industry and the people who do it face terrible hardships.  I am really looking forward to getting into this book this evening.

The Newbery Award is the big kids lit award and will give the author and the book new life in the publishing world.  I was nervous with excitement as the webfeed listed off the Newbery Honor awards, but when the winning book was announced I must have looked like a dog trying to understand Greek…I had never heard of the winning book.  Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool is the winning book.  After a little online research I sort of sunk my head in almost defeat.  “How am I going to sell this book to my Guys Read club?” I wondered.  This book may be great, I ordered a copy from Borders and will give it a try, but as a guy it just does not look like a great read.

My initial disappointment about the Newbery got me thinking about awards and getting guys to read.  Many of these big awards highlight books that may be appealing to the masses, but fall short when it comes to a middle school guy.  To help remedy that I am thinking we need to create a new award (they have a ton already, what’s one more) that is given to the best guy book of the year.  I want to get started on this as we come back to school and start meeting again.

What do you think of looking at the books that are published in 2011 and next January we choose the best Guys Book of the year?  I think it could be a great long-term project that would get us all reading and talking about the best new books out there.  So guys help us out…get reading the new books of 2011.  Send us in your reviews of your favorite books and we will come up with the best guy book next January. 

I can already think of two books that might be on the list…

Fantasy Baseball by Alan Gratz and Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

Are you looking forward to a book this year?  Are you excited about Ship Breaker or any of the other award winners?  Hit that comment button and let us know what you are thinking.

Read On,

Mr. H