Deadly

How do you catch an invisible killer? Set in the early 1900s, Deadly by Julie Chibbaro, follows 16-year-old Prudence Galewski, who leaves school to take a job assisting the head epidemiologist at New York's Department of Health and Sanitation. They investigate an intriguing case, "Typhoid Mary," a woman who seems healthy but is infecting other people with Typhoid Fever. Historical notes are included.

When I have several new young adult titles that arrive together, our language arts teachers are always willing to be "first readers" when we discuss books. Mrs. Googe, eighth grade LA teacher, likes how the author relates a good story using historic details of the Spanish-American War and Typhoid Mary. "It's great for girls as a motivation to pursue careers, too," she says.

For Accelerated Readers, the book has a 6.4 reading level (Lexile 930) and the quiz is worth nine points.

Cover art is a striking black silhouette on yellow. Find this title in our collection, filed under Fiction (FIC CHI). 293 pages. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Recommended.

--GS

Shadowcry

A moonlit city with shadows across an open grave "yawning like an open throat..." A woman with a lamp in her hand, hooded against the wind with shovelfuls of earth being thrown about her... Shadowcry,  by Jenna Burtenshaw, snatches the reader on Page 1 of the prologue with a spine-tingler of a setting. The Night of Souls -- when the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest -- is only days away. Wardens have been sent by the High Council to harvest citizens for battle. They are kidnapping innocent citizens and searching for one of the Skilled. It's Kate Winters, 15, who has just resurrected a blackbird without meaning to -- or knowing that she could -- and now the wardens are after her.
Sit by the fire. Forget the chores. You'll want to know what happens to Kate when she's taken to the graveyard city of Fume and its many secret tunnels and underground villages.
Highly recommended.

--GSouth

The Oak Leaves

I'm reading The Oak Leaves by Maureen Lang. Talie Ingram has a devoted husband, a beautiful one year old son and another child on the way. But, an old journal that had been tucked away in an attic, reveals a family secret that shatters everything. Talie begins reading the 19th century journal that belonged to her ancestor, Cosima Escott. I'm intrigued with this tale that delves into what it's like to have a child who is "different" and compares those differences historically in the family tree.
Good reading for adults and young adults, too.
--GS

Eyes Like Stars

Recently, I read a delightful book, Eyes Like Stars. Set in the Theatre Illuminata author Lisa Mantchev takes characters from the the classics of the stage and weaves them into the tale of Beatrice Shakespeare Smith. Beatrice is not one the the trapped characters of the theatre, but she is enchanted by how she came to live there. When her existence at the theatre is at risk, she will do anything to prove she belongs. In the end, however, it is in the world off the stage where she must venture to save the one she loves. (Or is he with her already?)

I enjoyed being swept away by the constant change of scenery and fast action in this book. Characters are well developed, lively, and usually humorous. I recommend this book to those who have a love of the stage and those who enjoy a good fast paced fantasy/suspense.

Dystopian novel: Across the Universe

Dystopian novels are what teen readers want to check out this year. Dystopian novels have been around before. We may not have called them that, but they've been here. Orwell's 1984 is a good example. Dystopian is a futuristic society that appears utopian, or perfect, on the surface, but characters in these stories live in oppressive, authority controlled societies. Sort of a worse-case scenario, society wise. No freedom. No choices. The Haves versus the Have Nots...
Anyway, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, has been popular this year. The teenagers in this tale must represent their districts in an arena full of deadly contests. They must fight until there is one winner left -- and everything takes place on screen for all the districts to watch.

 And that brings me to this review of Across the Universe by Beth Revis (Razorbill. 2011. 398p. ISBN 9781595143976. $17.99). From the Library Journal's Book Smack... "This book's first scene is a chiller. Amy watches as her parents are (painfully) cryogenically frozen, preparing themselves to wake 300 years in the future as colonists of a new planet. Rather than facing a life without them, she decides to be frozen as well. But as her consciousness is freezing, she overhears some alarming news: it may be 301 years, or more. The colony's funding is in question. Flash forward 250 years. Amy awakes aboard the spaceship Godspeed and learns that her parents are still in state, that she was thawed accidentally, and that a cryo-killer is opening the frozen coffins, leaving the people inside to die. The ship is managed by the tyrant Eldest, and his teenaged successor, Elder, is infatuated with Amy, which may be the only thing between her and a one-way trip out the space lock. Part space opera, part murder mystery, this first novel holds its pace and fulfills the promise of that chilly opening scene."

Sounds like a good summer read to me...

--G

 

The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous

I am reading Suzanne Crowley's The very ordered existence of Merilee Marvelous and I find I like listening to Merilee's voice in this story about a young girl with Asperger's Syndrome. She's Merilee Monroe (she'd snicker, too, she says), 13, wears the same things every day (yellowy orangey shirt with the words Dilley's Chicken & Feed emblazoned on the front) --an extreme source of embarrassment to her sister, Bug. She keeps a journal and writes facts that people tell her and she likes big words...like marvelous. She must keep her VOE -- Very Ordered Existence, but that's hard to do with a new kid who seems to be making himself a part of the family.

2011-2012 Georgia Children's Book Awards Final List

These books are the 2011-2012 Georgia Book Award winners (to be officially announced at the Children's Literature Conference March 4 in Athens, Georgia. BTW, Mary Downing Hahn will be there!
Books For Grades 4-8:
Connor, L. (2008). Waiting for normal. New York, NY: Katherine Tegen Books
Draper, S. (2010). Out of my mind. New York, NY: Atheneum
Williams-Garcia, R. (2010). One crazy summer. New York, NY: Amistad
Sonnenblick, J. (2010). After ever after. New York, NY: Scholastic
Erskine, C. (2010). Mockingbird. New York, NY: Philomel
Lin, G. (2009). Where the mountain meets the moon. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company
Alvarez, J. (2009). Return to sender. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf
Haissen, C. (2009). Scat. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf
Philbrick, R. (2009). The mostly true adventures of Homer P. Figg. New York, NY: Blue Sky Press
Baskin, N.R. (2009). Anything but typical. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Wiles, D. (2010). Countdown. New York, NY: Scholastic Press
Pearsall, S. (2008). All shook up. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf
Korman, G. (2008). Swindle. New York, NY: Scholastic Press
Books for Younger Audiences (Grades 4-6)
Angleberger, T. (2010. Strange case of Origami Yoda. New York, NY: Amulet Books
Klise, K. (2009). 43 Old Cemetery Road: Dying to meet you. Orlando, FL: Harcourt
Clements, A. (2009). Extra credit. New York, NY: Atheneum
O'Conner, B. (2010). The fantastic secret of Owen Jester. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Books for Older Audiences (Grades 6-8)
Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York, NY: Scholastic Press
Berg, A. (2009). All the broken pieces. New York, NY: Scholastic Press
Anderson, L.H. (2008). Chains. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books
Alternates
Buckley, M. (2009). N.E.R.D.S.:National espionage, rescue, and defense society. New York, NY: AMulet Books (Books for Younger Audiences Grades 4-6)
Maas, W. (2009). 11 birthdays. New York, NY: Scholastic Press. (Books for Younger Audiences (Grades 4-6)

The Georgia Children's Book Award was established in 1968 by Sheldon Root, Professor of the Department of Language Education in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. The purpose of the award is to foster a love of reading in the children of Georgia, and to introduce them to books of literary excellence. The award is given in two categories – picture books and middle grade novels. Books are nominated for the awards by teachers and media specialists from the state of Georgia. The final lists of 20 nominees are selected by a committee of teachers and media specialists (chaired by a member of the faculty from the Department of Language and Literacy Education).