Friday, February 25, 2011

Storm Runners by Roland Smith (not yet AR)

I love pretty much anything by Roland Smith and this was no exception. I didn't realize it until the end when I was left hanging, but this is the first book in a new series. In this story, Chase Masters and his father travel across the country from one disaster to another. His father owns a construction company that specializes in clean-up and repair after disaster. The travel to Florida in anticipation of a huge hurricane. His dad is normally pretty good at predicting storms, so he leaves Chase with family friends on a farm about 50 miles north of where he thinks it will make landfall. This farm is a little on the unusual side, instead of cows and pigs, it has lions and elephants. It's the winter home to a traveling circus. When the storm does make landfall, it's not when or where anyone predicted. It hits right where Chase is as he is traveling home from school on a school bus. I'm not going to give away any more, but the cover should clue you in that it's a pretty exciting story!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Book Fair Update

The Book fair went very well. I am excited about all the new books that we were able to get. There are several that look really good. Go Long by Tiki and Ronde Barber and Storm Runners by Roland Smith look particularly interesting. I will try to get them cataloged and out in circulation as soon as possible!

As for what I'm reading:
I just finished Magky by Angie Sage. It is the reason I haven't been posting the past two weeks. It has taken me that long to read it! At over 500 pages, it's quite a long read, but that's not why it took so long. I hate to say this, but it just wasn't that interesting to me. It is about a family of wizards who have seven children. They actually had 7 boys, but one died as an infant and they adopted a baby girl. When the she is about ten her true identity is revealed. Jenna is the future Queen. She was placed with the Heap's to hide her after her mother was murdered. Marcia, the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, comes to get the Jenna and they are forced to leave town and hide with the Heap's aunt, who is the white witch. DomDaniel, the Necromancer, is an evil ex-ExtraOrdinary Wizard and he takes over the city. He wants to find and kill Jenna so that he can take over. It was all just a little too much for me. I have said before that I don't really like books about magic, but I thought after reading and liking the Magic Thief series I would give this one a try. It took me a long time, but I powered through as I am not someone to stop in the middle of a book. There were just too many things going on and not enough action, if that makes any sense. On a positive note, even though I didn't like the book, I know that there are a ton of students who have checked it out and loved it. If you like magic, then I think it would be worth the read. If you don't, I'd skip it.

Pants On Fire by Meg Cabot- I read this one last night. It was so cute. Typical Meg Cabot style. Katie is going to be a senior at Eastport High School in the fall. She works as a waitress at the local hang out serving quahogs to the Quahog football players. In the town of Eastport, the Quahogs are considered gods. The problem with Katie is that she hates quahogs (both varieties), but she is dating the super-cute kicker of the football team and participating in the Quahog Princess Pageant. She's beginning to think her brother was right all those years ago when he would chant, "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!"

Friday, February 11, 2011

Academy Book Fair

Next week is the Academy Book Fair. We will be open on Monday through Wednesday from 8:30-2:40 and on Thursday from 8:30-6:30 to allow parents to visit before or after their conferences.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Magic Thief: Found (4.9/7.0) by Sarah Prineas

Just finished the third installment of The Magic Thief series. Many are reading books one and two, so I don't want to tell too much about this one because it might ruin those. I will tell you that while on the search for his locus magicalicus Conn discovers where the magic comes from and why it is alive. Will he be able to prove it to the magisters before it's too late?
Overall, it's a good book that seemed to wrap up the series nicely. A must-read if you have started the series.