Author: Tasha

Picture the Dead

| Tasha

Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin

After his death, Jennie had always felt the spirit of her twin brother near her.  Now her fiancé Will has died in the Civil War.  His brother, Quinn, has returned with injuries.  According to the army, Will died honorably in battle, but his brother tells a different story of prison and Will being a criminal.  Jennie seeks out the help of a spiritualist photographer, who takes the family’s picture and edits it by adding another image of an angle.  Jennie is not fooled, but soon she experiences things that she cannot explain.  Images of her are edited without anyone touching them, clues lead her deeper into a mystery, and time is running out as her place in Will’s family is threatened.  This paranormal, spiritualist mystery will have readers enthralled.

This book is so beautifully designed.  Lisa Brown’s illustrations take the book to another level, ensuring that readers are completely surrounded by Jennie’s world.  Jennie keeps a scrapbook and often takes small items to add to her book without the owners knowing.  As she adds these bits and pieces to her scrapbook, a series of visual clues start to emerge.  At the start of each chapter, readers will see items that will be added to the scrapbook in the next chapter.  This way each chapter starts with the clues and continues with the story itself.  This is an immensely entertaining way to read a book.

Griffin has created a book that lingers, slowly revealing its secrets.  The book is beautifully written.  Griffin has intertwined Jennie’s brother’s voice in the chapters, his advice for spies always right at hand when courage is needed.  Jennie is an intriguing protagonist who is multidimensional with her small thefts, desperation for a home, and ability to love two brothers.  It is her complexity that makes the book so fascinating.

Eerie, haunting and mysterious, this book is one that takes over your world.  Bright summer sun dims into streets at night, heat becomes a chill, breezes blow on still days.  Griffin and Brown have created a book that is an immersive experience that readers will not soon forget.

Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from copy received from Sourcebooks.

Check out other reviews at Bookalicious, Good Books & Wine, BookLust, Through the Looking Glass, Cindy’s Love of Books, and Poisoned Rationality.

DUFF Optioned

| Tasha

Variety reports that McG and his Wonderland  Sound and Vision is optioning film rights to The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend), a teen novel by Kody Keplinger.  This is the 20-year-old’s debut novel that is due to be released this September.

 

In the same article, Variety mentions that Wonderland is also producing a film version of I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President, adapted by the author Josh Lieb.

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Where in the World Is Fuse #8?

| Tasha

The beauty of technology that is blogging can sometimes also have a very frustrating side. 

What happens when you change blog platforms, it changes your URL, but you can’t tell anyone about it because you are posting to the new platform? 

You inform the peeps and then they blog about it for you!

So if you are missing the amazing Betsy at Fuse #8, head to her new URL and subscribe to her new RSS feed:

http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production

See you there!

Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2010 Longlist

| Tasha

The 2010 Guardian children’s fiction prize longlist has been announced:

 

Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin

Now by Morris Gleitzman

Unhooking the Moon by Gregory Hughes

The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson

Sparks by Ally Kennen

Lob by Linda Newbery

Ghost Hunter by Michelle Paver

White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick

 

Thanks to ACHOCKABLOG for the link.

Killer Pizza

| Tasha

/Film has the news that Adam Green will direct the film adaptation of Greg Taylor’s young adult novel Killer Pizza.  Christopher Columbus will produce.

Little Diva

| Tasha

Little Diva by LaChanze, illustrated by Brian Pinkney

Tony Award-winning actress LaChanze brings us the story of Nena, a little girl who wants to be a diva.  Right now she is a D.I.T.: a Diva In Training.  She wears stylish clothes, does vocal exercises, and even helps her mother with her yoga.  Her mother is a diva already, a Broadway star.  Nena gets to accompany her mother to the theater where there are costumes, wigs, and makeup and much more backstage.  Nena sits in her special place to watch her mother onstage.  Then she has to go home where she tells her Nana all about the show before heading to bed to plan her own performance for tomorrow.

LaChanze brings a breezy tone to this picture book that really captures the dreams of a youngster wanting to be just like her mother.  The allure of the stage is brought to life in the book.  I particularly enjoy the fact that diva is meant positively.  It doesn’t mean tantrums and drama, rather it is art, craft and the theater.  Pinkney’s art matches the breezy style of the text so well.  He uses free-flowing lines and swirls of color to show this young diva’s life.  There is an effortlessness to this book that makes it a pleasure to read.

Perfect for any little divas in your life that would have problems taking a short bow.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Feiwel and Friends.

Amazing Faces

| Tasha

Amazing Faces, poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Chris Soentpiet

This book is a great collection of poems that really reflect diversity and America.  Diversity in race as well as the range of emotions in human experience, both are on display in this collection.  The collection moves gracefully from one poem to the next, each fitting next to the other to make a cohesive whole.  This is helped by Soentpiet’s art which celebrates emotions, humanity and community in the faces he depicts.

Hopkins has created a collection that really meshes well.  Each poem and poet has a distinct voice and point of view.  The differences are celebrated here, the poems just as diverse as the world they share.  The first poem, Amazing Face by Rebecca Kai Dotlich, welcomes readers with open arms into the collection.  It is closed just as effectively with a Langston Hughes poem, My People. 

Soentpiet’s art captures moments in the world that we all want to grasp and hold onto a bit longer before they pass.  There is the smile of a baby, the power of a storyteller, the evening sky, and that moment that loneliness disappears.  All are illustrated with great detail, making those moments ever so real.

Highly recommended, this collection of poetry will help you celebrate what America is all about: the diversity of its people.  Appropriate for ages 5-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Lee & Low Books.

Wanted: The Perfect Pet

| Tasha

Wanted: The Perfect Pet by Fiona Roberton

More than anything Henry wanted a dog.  More than chips, more than a trip to the moon, more than world peace!  Henry already has lots of frogs, 27 varieties, but they are boring compared to a dog.  He knows just the kind of dog he wants: one with personality, one that does tricks, one that has floppy ears and a warm, furry tongue.  So Henry posted an ad in the paper and waited.  The ad was read by a lonely duck who decided that being Henry’s dog was the perfect place for him.  So he disguised himself as a dog and headed to Henry’s house.  Henry was very excited to see him, but got more and more puzzled as his dog failed to live up to his expectations.  When the dog was revealed to be a duck, what would Henry do?

Roberton has created a book with an interesting feel and style.  She includes clever asides and quirky perspectives.  The book has a very charming style of writing that gives the illustrations enough space to help tell much of the story too.  The illustrations are filled with white space and offer plenty of small details that readers will enjoy discovering.  Watch for the sheep flying past in the background on a windy day. 

A special, quirky picture book that takes selecting a pet to an intelligent and wise place.  Appropriate for ages 4-7. 

Reviewed from copy received from Putnam.

Boom!

| Tasha

Boom! by Mark Haddon

Jim is a magnet for trouble, which is why he thinks his older sister might be telling the truth when she says that the teachers at his school are talking about sending him to reform school.  So he and his best friend Charlie come up with a plan to bug the teacher’s lounge.  While listening, they discover that two of their teachers are speaking in an unknown language.  Jim and Charlie set out to discover what exactly is going on in their school and stumble onto a plot that is much larger than they had ever dreamed. 

Haddon has written a book with a fabulous blend of action, adventure and humor.  The book has a break-neck pace at times that young readers will find great fun, combined with a sense of humor that will have them laughing out loud.  The relationship between Jim and Charlie is so well done.  It completely captures the tension of two best friends, the fights, and the immense connection they have.  I also particularly enjoyed Jim’s father as a character who is losing himself in model aircraft and then discovers cooking as a passion.  There are character who will surprise readers too, but I’ll let you discover that for yourself.  Let’s just say that Haddon excels at creating characters with real dimension.

Teachers and parents looking for a book to hand to reluctant readers over the summer need look no further.  It will also work well as a classroom read aloud thanks to its great pacing and writing. 

This fun blend of intrigue and science fiction will win readers over easily.  Perfect for lifting your summer vacation into orbit.  Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Reviewed from copy received from Knopt Delacorte Dell.