Posted in Fantasy, Tween Reads

Oddkins – A Dean Koontz tale for middle graders

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

oddkinsOddkins, by Dean Koontz, (2012,Open Road Media). $6.99/ebook, ISBN: 9781453265901

Recommended for ages 8-12

Toymaker Isaac Bodkins loved to make toys for children. He even gave them a little something special, so the toys were able to help children going through a rough time. He called them his Oddkins, and he loved them. Right before he died, he asked Amos the Bear to find a fellow good-hearted toymaker in The City, and let her know that she’d been selected to receive his gift and become the new toymaker. Amos, a sweet and brave bear, set out with a group of Oddkins to do just that – but just as Isaac Bodkins died, a group of darker toys woke up in the same house. They were the toys made by the previous toymaker, a dark, evil man who hated children and made toys that would hurt them. These toys have been awakened and tasked with stopping the Oddkins, while the dark presence finds another toymaker that will serve his purposes.

Thus begins the tale of Oddkins by horror novelist Dean Koontz. It’s a classic good vs. evil tale, albeit a bit heavy on Christian allegory. The good toys have to learn to work together to accomplish their task, and the bad toys are single-minded in their purpose – to destroy the good toys and help the new, evil toymaker ascend to power. It’s a pretty simply-told tale that should keep middle graders’ attention with some well-paced action and conflict.

The book was originally published in 1988, but brought back as a digital edition by Open Road Integrated Media. It’s available on Amazon.com.

Posted in Fantasy, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

Frostborn – Family Intrigue, Frost Giants, and Dragons!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

frostbornFrostborn, by Lou Anders, (Aug. 2014, Random House Children’s). $16.99, ISBN: 978-0385387781

Recommended for ages 10-13

Take one firstborn son, heir to a large, multi-generational family farm. Add one half frost giant-half human girl, whose mother’s past is shrouded in mystery. Place in a backdrop of a Norse mythological world, and add dragons, and you have the potential for a fantastic adventure. This is the world of Lou Anders’ Frostborn.

Karn is the son of a landowner, expected to take over the family farm one day. He’d rather just play Thrones and Bones, a board game of strategy. Thianna is a half-human frost giant, an outcast of sorts, never quite belonging to their world; her human mother’s origins lay wreathed in mystery. When the frost giants and the humans in Karn’s father’s tribe gather for their annual trading meeting, Karn’s traitorous uncle sets plans into motion that send Karn and Thianna on the run for their lives.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; fans of mythology-based fantasy will, too. Anders is a Hugo Award-winning editor; this is his first book, and kicks off a promising fantasy series that will appeal to boys and girls alike. I love that Karn is a “gamer” – and so are other characters in the book, which will appeal to gamer boys and girls out there, who try to explain to their disapproving parents that games help sharpen their mental acuity. The characters have rich backgrounds, with the promise of more to be revealed in future books, and Anders’ description of various terrain is so vivid, I could feel the chill of the frozen land of the frost giants.

If you’ve got middle graders looking for a fantasy series along the lines of Kelley Armstrong’s Blackwell Pages, this is a great place to steer them. The book hits stores today – go get your copy!

Posted in Fiction, Humor, Middle Grade, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor – Jon Scieszka makes science awesome.

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

anitmatter motorFrank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor, by Jon Scieszka (2014), $13.95, ISBN: 9781419712180

Recommended for ages 8-12

In his neverending quest to get boys – and guys! – to read, Jon Sciezska has taken on alternative history (The Time Warp Trio), fractured fairy tales (so very many), and anthology genres (his Guys Read series). He’s got a website devoted to getting men and boys to love books, and understands that there are biological and sociological factors tied into the recent decline in boys’ reading; he’s determined to find the best books and the best subject matter to write about.

Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor is Sciezka’s foray into science, and it is fantastic. Frank Einstein is a kid who loves science. While his parents are away, scoping out travel locations for his dad’s job, he’s with his grandfather, working on experiments in his quest to win the science fair. He’s up against his archenemy, the bratty T. Edison, who is not above stealing others’ ideas to further his own fame – and buy up Einstein’s grandpa’s shop.

Frank finds that one of his experiments wasn’t a bust after all – his attempt to create robots worked, with some lighting providing electricity! Klink and Klank are a hilarious duo who work to help Frank create an antimatter machine – until T. Edison starts to make trouble.

Scieszka loads his novel up with legit science backup, and it is amazing to read. I learned about antimatter and robotics in a way that no science textbook ever taught me as a kid. Teachers and librarians should be all over this book for its nonfiction elements that will enhance their Common Core curriculum, but mainly because it’s fun, it’s hard science made readable and understandable, and Scieszka never, ever talks down to his audience. Brian Biggs’ illustrations will empower every kid to make their own antimatter machines at home – trust and believe it. And while they’re at it, kids will be breaking down states of matter so that we parents can finally figure it out.

The book releases on August 19th. Pre-order yours from Amazon today.

Posted in Toddler Reads

Toddlers need Cthulhu!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Every now and then, I see a Kickstarter that’s too good to click away from. When I saw this one for the board book, C is for Cthulhu, I had to be part of it. My husband introduced me to H.P. Lovecraft’s works when we first met (a long time ago…), and I was immediately hooked. Seeing his monsters made adorable, and offering me the opportunity to introduce my own toddler to the cuddliness of Cthulhu and Yog Soggoth? Couldn’t resist.

c is for cthulhu

The great news is that these guys hit 100$ funding FOUR DAYS IN. Amazing, right? I’m not the only Lovecraft-loving parent out there! Anyway, I’m posting about it here because now, they’ve introduced stretch goals – goals to shoot for now that their initial funding is met. And this stretch goal is amazing. For every additional $750 they get, they will donate two copies of C is for Cthulhu to a library! I love these guys!

stretch

 

If you’re a fan of classic horror – whether or not you’re a parent – give this Kickstarter a look and consider backing it. You’re supporting libraries, independent creators, and getting great artwork!

Posted in Graphic Novels, Non-fiction, Teen, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

Raina Telgemeier’s Sisters – A Companion Tale to Smile

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

sistersSisters, by Raina Telgemeier, (Aug. 2014, Scholastic Graphix). $10.99, ISBN: 9780545540605

Recommended for ages 10+

A companion to her Eisner Award-winning graphic novel, Smile, Sisters examines Raina Telgemeier’s relationship with her sister, Amara. The autobiographical novel takes place mainly during a road trip to visit her mother’s family that Telgemeier took when she was 14, with flashbacks that spotlight key points in Raina and Amara’s relationship, leading up to the road trip.

Sisters is about relationships, and emotions that come into play in those relationships. The primary relationship is the one between Raina and Amara, but there are other important relationships here – relationships that, for the purposes of this book, orbit Raina and Amara, but will strike a chord with any reader – the relationship between the sisters and their younger brother, Will; their relationship between their parents; the relationships between their mother and her siblings (and how it mirrors theirs) and the relationship between Raina and her cousins.

Sisters examines family tension on many levels – it’s not a dark novel, but it does inject realism and humor into situations many of us know all too well, and Ms. Telgemeier’s soft cartoon art is like comfort food for my psyche.

Smile still continues to be one of the most popular graphic novels in my library. I’m positive that Sisters will join it.

Posted in Animal Fiction, Early Reader, Fiction, Graphic Novels

BirdCatDog: A graphic novel for beginners, with multiple points of view

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

birdcatdogBirdCatDog, by Lee Nordling and Meritxell Bosch (Nov. 2014, Lerner Publishing Group). $25.26, ISBN: 9781467745222

Recommended for ages 5+

Three narratives, three separate points of view, all come together in this graphic novel by Lee Nordling and Meritxell Bosch. A bird, a cat, and a dog all start their day with different achievement – the bird, to find freedom, the cat, to explore his world, and the dog, to defend his home. Each character meets and interacts with the others throughout the course of the book – the bird chases the cat, who ends up on the wrong side of the dog’s fence – and other character come into play to lead to more pandemonium.

The stories can be ready separately – each character’s narrative is color-coded – or as a whole. The pages are split into three panels, facilitating the individual narratives. The animals are cartoony, but not exaggeratedly so. They have expressive faces and body language, and the story is straightforward, making it perfect for new readers and even pre-readers, with the help of an adult or older sibling.

The split narratives make this book useful in many different ways across different ages. You can talk about perspective and point of view; you can read the individual narratives; you can encourage children to talk about what they see happening on the page in any number of combinations. It’s a great way to introduce sequential concepts in reading to kids.

Posted in Uncategorized

Benny and Penny in Lost and Found – A WhatchaReading Review!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

If you’ve got kids, I hope by now you’ve introduced them to comic books. When I was a kid, kids’ comics meant Richie Rich, Casper, and Archie. Now? There are virtually hundreds of titles to get kids started on a love of graphic, sequential storytelling.

Toon Books is a great resource for parents and educators that want to get more graphic novels into their little ones’ lives. I have a pretty nice collection of Toon Books in my library, including Jeff Smith’s Little Mouse Gets Ready. You read that right – Bone’s Jeff Smith does comics for Toon. Quality creators making quality comics.

Today, though, I’m talking Benny and Penny, the brother and sister mouse series also published by Toon and written by Geoffrey Hayes, who also won a Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the series back in 2010. The siblings’ newest adventure, Benny and Penny in Lost and Found, hits shelves on August 5th, and is an adorable addition to the series.

Read more of my review over at WhatchaReading and pre-order your copy of Benny and Penny in Lost and Found here!

benny and penny

Posted in Animal Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Humor, Intermediate

Bird & Squirrel on Ice – A New Adventure!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

bird and squirrel on iceBird & Squirrel on Ice, by James Burks (Sept. 2014, Scholastic Graphix), $8.99, ISBN: 9780545563185

Recommended for ages 7-12

Bird & Squirrel is an adorable, fun graphic novel series for younger readers. The series follows the adventures of two friends: Bird, a bright yellow bird, and his buddy, Squirrel, a blue squirrel with an acorn hat. Bird seems to blunder into things, and Squirrel plays the voice of reason.

In the second book in this series, Bird & Squirrel on Ice, the two friends find themselves in the South Pole, befriended by a group of penguins that swear Bird is their Chosen One – he will fight the giant killer whale that bullies them, threatening to eat them if they don’t make an offering of food to him. They’re going to starve if they need to keep feeding this whale! Bird is only too thrilled to bask in the accolades, but Squirrel knows something’s up – and sure enough, it’s a doozy. With the help of their new penguin friend, Sakari, maybe they can just make it out after all.

This book is an adorable look at friendship. It uses the “Odd Couple” model, with two contrasting personalities, but who ultimately fit together nicely. It’s a sitcom, set in a graphic novel: the situation is set up, the problem introduces itself, and the resolution plays out. There’s some fun dialogue, and the cartoon art is adorable and eye-catching, with bright colors that will draw all readers in.

This is a great addition to graphic novel collections for younger readers: there’s a plucky female heroine, and there are strong themes about friendship and honesty. Pick this one up when it publishes in September, and check out the first book, Bird & Squirrel on the Run.

Posted in Middle School, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads, Uncategorized

Somebody on This Bus is Going to Be Famous – but why?

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

busSomebody on This Bus is Going to Be Famous, by J.B. Cheaney (Sept. 2014, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky), $16.99, ISBN: 9781402292972

Recommended for ages 9-13

The bus picks the kids up every day, and heads to school. Someone, someday soon, is going to be famous. But why?

The story takes a deeper look into the lives of nine people on that bus – eight kids, one adult (the bus driver, Ms. B), twining their narratives, as their lives intersect, and leading to a taut climax. There’s Shelley, the wannabe pop star; Miranda, so desperate to have popular kids be her friend that she’ll let them walk all over her; Spencer, the nerd who’s having a crisis of faith in himself; Igor, whose dad is a big mystery that he wants to unravel; Jay, the jock whose grandfather – his biggest fan – is slipping away; Bender, the son who can’t get out of his brother’s shadow, Matthew, who’s just… average – at first; and Alice, who has some secrets of her own. Tied into these stories is the story of the high school graduation of 1985, where a prank was carried out, with tragic circumstances.

I had a rough time with this book. I didn’t like most of the characters, who just didn’t seem to be like good people. As I thought more about them, though, I realized that it’s not that they’re good or bad, they’re kids. They’re largely elementary and middle school students, and the depictions are pretty realistic-adolescence can be a hard time, and sometimes, tweens and teens and adults just don’t speak one another’s language. The narratives are largely depressing – there is some humor in the book, but most of these kids have some pretty awful stuff happening in their lives.

The ending was satisfying, and the overall story will draw readers in with the different narratives. The book can be used in a book group discussion on different personalities working together.