FREE audiobook downloads this summer!

Seriously cool offer of free audiobooks being offered all summer!  Take advantage of this!!  There are so many great titles on the list.  You can sign up for text alerts or emails notifying you when the downloads are available, too.  Two books every week!!!!!! (Can you tell I'm a little excited about this?!)

Teachers/Librarians: HERE is a link to some great promo materials.

Here are the titles for this summer:

SYNC Titles
Summer 2013

May 30 – June 5, 2013
Of Poseidon by Anna Banks, read by Rebecca Gibel (AudioGO)
The Tempest by William Shakespeare, read by a Full Cast (AudioGO)

June 6 – June 12, 2013
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 1: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood, read by Katherine Kellgren (HarperAudio)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, read by Wanda McCaddon (Tantor Audio)

June 13 – June 19, 2013
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, read by Will Patton (Scholastic Audiobooks)
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, read by Robert Ramirez (Recorded Books)

June 20 – June 26, 2013
Once by Morris Gleitzman, read by Morris Gleitzman (Bolinda Audio)
Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr., read by Dion Graham (christianaudio)

June 27 – July 3, 2013
Rotters by Daniel Kraus, read by Kirby Heyborne (Listening Library)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, read by Jim Weiss (Listening Library)

July 4 – July 10, 2013
Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford, read by Nick Podehl (Brilliance Audio)
She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, read by a Full Cast (L.A. Theatre Works)

July 11 – July 17, 2013
The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann, read by Peter Altschuler (HarperAudio)
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, read by Simon Vance (Tantor Audio)

July 18 – July 24, 2013
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers, read by Erin Moon (Recorded Books)
Hamlet by William Shakespeare, read by a Full Cast (L.A. Theatre Works)

July 25 – July 31, 2013
The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen, read by Charlie McWade (Scholastic Audiobooks)
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain, read by Steve West (Blackstone Audio)

Aug 1 – Aug 7, 2013
Death Cloud by Andrew Lane, read by Dan Weyman (Macmillan Audio)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, read by Ralph Cosham (Blackstone Audio)

Aug 8 – Aug 14, 2013
Enchanted by Alethea Kontis, read by Katherine Kellgren (Brilliance Audio)
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, read by Miriam Margolyes (Bolinda Audio)

Aug 15 – Aug 21, 2013
Sold by Patricia McCormick, read by Justine Eyre (Tantor Audio)
Let Me Stand Alone by Rachel Corrie, read by Tavia Gilbert (Blackstone Audio)

The Moon and More - Sarah Dessen

My fave YA author, Sarah Dessen has a new novel coming out, The Moon and More, and I was lucky enough to get a copy at ALA.  As with Hattie Ever After, I waited and waited to read this one, wanting to have it waiting for me instead of having it be finished.

I've found something interesting with Sarah Dessen's novels.  I love her work - strong characters, a little romance, set at the beach usually, good conflict, everything I want in a novel.  And yet, for some reason it takes me a little while to let her books sink in before I really love them. I like this one a lot, don't get me wrong, but I do not love it like I love the Truth About Forever or Just Listen my two very, very favorites of hers.  I do not even love it like I love What Happened to Goodbye or Along for the Ride. And yet, I remember feeling the very same way when I first read those books.

For some reason, her books have to percolate around a little for me.  I might even have to read them for a second time.  In part, I'm sure it's that once I start, I am full steam ahead.  In part, though, I think it's that there's so much to think about, so many layers, so much happening underneath the surface, that I can't process it all at once, and so I let it sit, and I think about it vaguely, or sometimes something happens to make me think about it wholeheartedly, and then suddenly, one day, I'm just like, that was a terrific book.  It's interesting.

This story has cameos by many Sarah Dessen characters, but is focused on a new character, Emaline, who's about to go off to college, Emaline's longtime boyfriend, Luke, and a perhaps new love interest, college hipster, Theo.  Emaline's (unhappily) working for the family business and her father, with whom she's had minimal contact with over the years, has just moved to town with her ten year old half brother. Over the last year, her father had gotten her all keyed up to apply for top tier colleges that he said he'd help pay for, only to suddenly change his mind and say he couldn't help her with anything and basically start ignoring her yet again.  What the what?  Turns out her father's in the process of divorcing his second wife. Ugh.  If that weren't enough, things aren't great between her and Luke, and the very high maintenance clients in one of the rentals want her to run interference between them and a local artist.  It's a little overwhelming, but if Emaline can hang on and get through it, she just might make it to the moon and more.

On sale June 4th.

Updated May 2nd HERE'S a new video just posted about Sarah and her new book :-)

Hattie Ever After

Have you ever read a book that just really stuck with you?  Of course I have, but it's not so often the YA book that do that for me.  Kirby Larson's Newbery Honor book, Hattie Big Sky was one of those books for me.  Hattie just wormed her way into my soul from her Montana homestead and took up residence.  I rooted for her and loved her and cried with her when things got difficult.  I didn't expect, however, to ever see her again once I'd finished Hattie Big Sky.  So perhaps you can imagine my excitement when I heard at the ALA conference that Hattie was back, and then they even gave me an advanced reader's copy.  Can I just tell you that I left it sitting on my shelf for more than a month because I didn't want to read it?

And here's why I didn't want to read it.   On the one hand, I was afraid it wouldn't hold up to the original.  Writing a sequel is a tough thing to do, at least in my estimation.  Well, actually, I should say, writing a good sequel.   I was a little worried I wouldn't love Hattie as much in book two.  That Hattie might have changed in ways I wasn't prepared for.  On the other hand, I knew it was going to be so good that I didn't want it to be over too soon.  I wanted to have that experience still waiting for me.  It's kind of a weird thing I have with authors I love.  I know once I start reading that in just a few hours the experience will be finished, and then I'll be waiting again.  I don't want it to go too quickly, so I give myself time to just look at the cover and imagine what might be.

What might be in Hattie Ever After is pure brilliance.  I think I might have actually liked it more than I liked Hattie Big Sky.  The writing in both books is beautiful. But I think that Hattie as a little bit older character has even more appeal for me than she did as a younger woman.  She wasn't a little girl in the first book, but she's more mature in this one, even though she's still quite young by today's standards.  She's looking to discover herself (even at the cost, perhaps, of the relationship with her boyfriend). She's looking to start a career as a reporter, one that's really interesting, and one that requires courage and determination for a young woman at the time.  Seems like a perfect set-up for a girl like Hattie, don't you think?

Kirby Larson does an amazing job of creating a character I can see so very clearly in a town (San Francisco) I can see so very clearly, too. It's as exciting for the reader to live vicariously in San Francisco as it was for Hattie, I think. So many exciting things are happening at that time, and Hattie gets a chance to experience them. In turn, I did, too.

Books like Hattie Big Sky and Hattie Ever After are the reason I love historical fiction and I highly recommend them. Anyone else out there vote for a third book in the series???

Playing catch-up - story of my life!

I read several books during our spring break trip to Hawaii which I haven't gotten to blogging about, but I'm determined to whip out some serious posting today.



First up I read the Printz winner, In Darkness by Nick Lake which was available through Multnomah County Library as an e-book.  Good choice for the title, b/c it was seriously DARK.  It's set in Haiti, and I like that there is now a YA book set there, because I can't think of another one.  Someone chime in if you know of one.  The book takes place in the slums of Haiti just after the big earthquake and is super intense, depressing and creepy. The main character, Shorty, is a gang member, and he's been mixed up in some seriously bad stuff. In the novel, he's trapped in the rubble, sure he's going to die, and telling his life story mixed in with visions of the Haitian liberation from the early 1800s.  I didn't love this book. It was a little too intense, violent and weird.  And it's definitely not the kind of book I usually read on vacation! But by the last third of the book, I really did care about Shorty and was engaged in the story.  If it hadn't won the Printz, I probably wouldn't have stuck with it, and I think that will be the reaction of all but the most sophisticated teen readers, but I'm glad I did.

Real Mermaids Don't Need High Heels by Helene Boudreau. I didn't realize this was the second book in the series when I read it, but I didn't feel like I was missing any information, so it clearly worked well as a stand alone. For some reason, I just love mermaid books. I'm not sure why, but they're just fun. And while I did enjoy this book overall, I thought it was a little too mermaid-y, a little too obvious or overdone.   Jade is half mermaid and half human, and not everyone knows she's a mermaid, so she has to deal with some interesting problems. Luckily, her boyfriend is also half mer. In fact, there are quite a lot of mer-people in the town, perhaps there were too many?? anyway, things are going crazy in the mer-world in the lake in Jade's town, and she and her friends have to do their best to try and get things figured out. I read an advanced reader's copy of this book.

Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally. I thought this was a great storyline, about a girl, Kate, who'd helped a friend who wanted to get an abortion even though she firmly believed abortion was wrong.  Kate couldn't quite forgive herself for helping her friend or her friend for aborting the baby, and she was miserable.  Kate hopes that spending the summer as a church camp counselor might send her the sign she's been seeking, that she's forgiven.  There's a romance in the story, and some typical petty girl stuff, and normally I'd be all in favor of this type of story.  I thought, however, that the Christian aspect of this book was way too over the top for many readers. I don't have a problem with authors bringing in religion or religious ideas. I know they're important to many people and they're issues young people struggle with.  Heck, adults struggle with them.  Unfortunately, I thought this book was too heavy handed and I think it will turn many readers off. I read an advanced reader's copy of this book.

Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt. I just love Lindsey Leavitt, and this book reminded me why.  It's terrific.  Fun and funny, but with serious issues woven in as well.  Mallory's boyfriend Jeremy has been cheating with her via an online girlfriend.  When Mallory finds out, her reaction is a little overboard, but it leads to a great story.  Mallory swears off all technology - no Internet, no Facebook, no cell phone. Can you imagine? I mean screen free week is one thing, but this is something else altogether. And that's not all.  She's also found an old list her grandmother made in the 1960's of things to do, and she wants to do everything on it.  She wants to, for example, sew a prom dress.  Does she know how to sew?  No.  She wants to start a pep club at school.  Does she know what a pep club even is, really?  No.  All of these things lead to some very funny results, and they all have some unexpected consequences.  I think you'll find yourself charmed by Mallory in her vintage period if you can get your hands on a copy of this recently published novel. I read an advanced reader's copy of this book.

Double Crossed  by Ally Carter was a super short fun read that combined her two worlds of the Heist society novels and the Gallagher girls novels (one of my all time fave series).  It's actually available for the Kindle (or on the Kindle app if you have an iPad or iPhone) for FREE here. It's only about fifty pages, but it's a great introduction to both series if you've never read them, and I thought she did a great job mixing the two worlds.  There are excerpts from both series with the download, too.

Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King is the most recent installment of the Mary Russell series, written about sherlock Holmes and his wife Mary Russell.  I quite love this series, and although I was a little disappointed in the last one, I decided to give this one a try.  SO glad I came back to it because it was great.  In this story, Mary Russell has a case of amnesia, to the point of not knowing who she is, let alone who Holmes is. When the story begins, doesn't even know where she is or why her head hurts so badly.  Piece by piece, bruise by bruise, the story unfolds and readers discover with her, what happened when she disappeared with the little boy who doesn't speak.  Fabulous series which I highly recommend to lovers of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

So that was my spring break.  Have you read any great books on vacation lately?

The Language of Flowers/ and Unbroken - Grown up book club books

The Language of Flowers was a book I thought I would love!  I adore flowers, and to learn they had their own language?  What's not to love?  I'll tell you what.  The main character.  Couldn't stand her.  She drove me nuts.  She made terrible choices over and over and over again.  I should have had more sympathy for her, given her background, but I couldn't find it.  I felt kind of bad about it, too.  Still do, actually.  Which is kind of a little weird, isn't it?  I mean, she's not real.

This book, though, led to some awesome discussion in our book club.  Hardly anyone liked that main character, but she gave us lots to talk about and explore.  She made us stop and examine how our society deals with children in foster care, for instance, which most of us never even give a moment's thought to.  She made us think about guilt and how that affect people. We discussed post partum depression and post natal care.  So many rich ideas came out, that while I went into book club feeling like I didn't really like this book, I came out thinking differently.  I didn't like the character, but the book was worth reading.

And the language of flowers itself?  Super cool. Recommended for book groups.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is also an adult book club book which I am sure will lend itself to all kinds of great discussion.  The book chronicles the life of Olympic track runner Louis Zamperini, focusing mostly on the period from when his airplane was shot out of the sky by the Japanese through his capture and imprisonment as a POW. I thought the writing in this book was excellent, and the story was also excellent.  The events are intense and suspenseful, gripping the reader's attention.

There was too much violence for me, though.  I think that some examples of the barbarity and inhumanity inflicted on the prisoners would have been enough to get the point across, but that Hillenbrand put too many examples in the story, and it became wearisome.  I'm not sure if that's more a poor commentary on me - like I want to bury my head in the sand and pretend those horrible things didn't happen - or if she really did put too many details in, but that's how I felt. I did listen to this book on audio which did not allow me to skim sections, which I probably would have done had I had the actual text.

History buffs and those who like biographies and/or war stories will be intrigued by this powerful story.

Got Poison?

On March 12th Poison, by the delightful author and librarian, Bridget Zinn, was released and and I hope you have gotten your copy of this fun novel.

I only got to meet Bridget once before she passed away, but she was what I call a sparkly personality, and that sparkle comes through in this delightful novel.  This is a book that's got beautifully crafted language as well as an exciting plot!

Here's the info from the publisher about the story:

Sixteen-year-old Kyra, a highly-skilled potions master, is the only one who knows her kingdom is on the verge of destruction—which means she’s the only one who can save it. Faced with no other choice, Kyra decides to do what she does best: poison the kingdom’s future ruler, who also happens to be her former best friend. But, for the first time ever, her poisoned dart…misses. Now a fugitive instead of a hero, Kyra is caught in a game of hide-and-seek with the king’s army and her potioner ex-boyfriend, Hal. At least she’s not alone. She’s armed with her vital potions, a too-cute pig, and Fred, the charming adventurer she can’t stop thinking about. Kyra is determined to get herself a second chance (at murder), but will she be able to find and defeat the princess before Hal and the army find her? Kyra is not your typical murderer, and she’s certainly no damsel-in-distress—she's the lovable and quick-witted hero of this romantic novel that has all the right ingredients to make teen girls swoon.

There are potions and dastardly deeds in this story, obviously, but there's also a girl crossing a river with a pig on her head! There's fun afoot intermingled with all the possibility for destruction, and just a tiny bit of romance, which we all know I am all in favor of. 

If you'd like to know more about Bridget and her writing, you can check out her blog HERE.

I wish Bridget had gotten to see her novel published, but I'm sure she's looking down and celebrating with a cupcake, as she should be!

Finished the last Caldecott Honors!

Finally I finished the last Caldecott Honors last week.  Both were fantabulous, and both were completely different.

One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo and David Small is a funny book about proper and polite Elliot.  Well, polite, at any rate, but not always so proper perhaps.  Elliot wants a penguin, and his dad, assuming he wants a stuffed animal, gives him $20 to buy one.  Elliot has something completely different in mind, and perhaps you can guess what it was.  There's a fabulous twist at the end, but I don't think many young readers will get it.  Great story written by a librarian!! Huzzah!

Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue and Pamela Zagarenski isa lush and beautiful story that's quiet and lovely where One Cool Friend is loud and brash.  The illustrations are simply astonishing in this work.  Like many kiddos, the young girl in this tory does not want to go to sleep.  Her parents have her complete her regular nighttime routine and describe the nighttime routines of various animals while she does it. By the end, of course, she's curled up sound asleep, like a tiger.  Beautifully told and magically illustrated.  A definite must for all homes with young children.

Happy World Book Day!!

Hey, hey, it's World Book Day today!  

Not that I need a special day to celebrate books, but it's fun.

HERE are some fun games to play.

(I played soccer, but I was horrible! I got only 25 points!)

HERE is a fabulous video trailer for the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

How will you celebrate??

Finished several books this last few weeks

I finished several books this last few weeks, and I also apparently spent WAY too much time in my car the last few also, since 4 of the books were on audio.  That does not make for a very nice carbon footprint. Yikes!

I wanted to talk about these in order of how much I liked them, but the problem is, there's one favorite, one I really didn't like too much, and all the others are basically tied at really excellent books.

And now, after 45 minutes of writing about these books, Blogger wigged out, and all is lost.  Argh. Save, save, save, people.  How many times do I have to tell you???

OK, well,  I do not have 45 more minutes to re-do these entries, so let's go with the one sentence reviews.  If you want more info, let me know. Dang it!


Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan - LOVED this book about the intersection of the past and future and the intersection of people and technology.  LOVED. this book was an Alex Award winner for adult/teen crossover.

Death Cloud, Andrew Lane - Really liked how Andrew Lane brought in some of the grown up Holmes to this MG novel of the young Sherlock Holmes.  So much action.  No way could any regular human have made it through all that!

Notorious Nineteen, Janet Evanovich - Well, I am sad to say, I think this is my last Stephanie Plum because I'm kind of over her.  There's not any real character growth, and if I'm going to stick with a character, I need that.

The Birth House, Ami McKay - This book was OK.  I read a bunch of it a while ago and just returned to finish it this week for my adult book club.  Obviously it was not that compelling, since I didn't bother to finish it earlier. Not bad, just not great.  Other friends have loved it.

Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys - An Oregon Battle of the Books grades 6-8 FABULOUS story of Stalin's overthrow of the Baltics, particularly Lithuania.  So much interesting history I didn't know, and really well done characters.  Holocaust genre readers will definitely want to read this one. Get out your box of tissues.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson, David Levithan and John Green - Also required tissues, although in several parts I was laughing out loud. Written in alternating chapters, which I like and hate at the same time, these two master storytellers weave the lives of two HS boys, one gay and one straight, and both named Will Grayson, together beautifully.

Battle of the Kids' Books

Ooooh, I love this time of year.  We're coming into March Madness!!!!!!  And I'm not talking basketball here, peeps.  The SLJ Battle of the Kids' Books is coming up, and the anticipation is starting to build.  It begins on March 12th, and here's the list of this year's contenders:

Bomb by Steve Sheinken (Macmillan)

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion)

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer (Scholastic)

Fault in Our Stars, The by John Green (Penguin)

Jepp, Who Defied the Stars by Katherine Marsh (Hyperion)

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead (Random House)

Moonbird by Philip Hoose (Macmillan)

No Crystal Stair by Vauda Micheaux Nelson (Lerner)

One and Only Ivan, The by Katherine Applegate (Harper Collins)

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman (Random House)

Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)

Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin (Little Brown)

Temple Grandin by Sy Montgomery (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (Penguin)

Titanic by Deborah Hopkinson (Scholastic)

Wonder by R. J. Palacio (Random House)

It's gonna be a tough year, folks!  Several that I loved are on the list.  Now I NEED to finish Bomb right away and Titanic.  I'm enjoying it much more this second time around.  Glad my arm was twisted to try it again.

If you wanna play along at home, download the bracket HERE.

I read some of the award winners this weekend

 My nephew Willie let me read three of this year's medalists to him last night, and it was so much more fun to share them with a little person than to just read them to myself.  I haven't gotten to do that nearly enough lately, what with overseeing sixteen schools instead of having one of my own, so it was a real treat for me. And these books were a treat for both of us.  What fabulous work was rewarded this year. Just top notch.  Of course!

 



I, Too am America by Langston Hughes and Bryan Collier won the Coretta Scott King illustrator award. The text in this book is only that of Langston Hughes's poem, "I Too, am America," so it is quite sparse, but  the illustrations that Bryan Collier created to go with it are simply splendid.  They are mixed media, oil paintings and cut paper, and somewhat muted in color, but they have lots going on in every page.  The book uses Hughes's poem as a backdrop for a focus on the history of African Americans as Pullman porters.  Many of the illustrations show the porters cleaning things in the train cars and then dispersing what they've collected along they're route, spreading words and music to African Americans all across the country.  There is a note from that artists at the end of the book explaining his thoughts and illustrations, but young readers will enjoy the book whether they know the full backstory or not.

(The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.)



Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown was a Caldecott Honor and a very fun and funny bunny story about Jasper Rabbit who picks and eats carrots every day, sometimes several times a day, from Crackenhopper's Field (which, in itself, is just fun to say).  However, one day he's sure the carrots are stalking him, and he becomes very, very afraid. He asks his mother and his father about it, but they can't find any carrots after him.  Everyone basically tells him it's his imagination.  But Jasper's sure it's not.  Is it?  Will this story end with a bowl of carrot soup or a bowl of rabbit stew?  Both? Neither?  check this book out immediately to enjoy Peter Brown's very creepy (actually only a tiny bit creepy) black and white charcoal drawings highlighted by many things that are orange.  Some of which are even carrots. Fun, fun, fun.

(The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.)


Martín de Porres, The Rose in the Desert - Gary D. Schmidt and David Díaz - Pura Belpré Illustrator winner. This is a picture book biography of Martín de Porres, the first black Catholic saint in the Americas.  Martin was born illegitimately in Lima, Peru to a former slave and a nobleman.  Later his father took him back to Ecuador to be educated.  The book talks about his young life and then his adult life as a healer and priest.  I learned all kinds of things about Martín de Porres that I didn't know, and I really liked the bright illustrations.  There was a lot of detail in the illustrations that we could talk about while we read. This is an good foray into biography for younger readers, although I think that due to some complexities in the storyline, it is probably one best read together with an adult.

(The Pura Belpré award is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.)