Captain Wentworth's Diary

Calling all Austen-a-holics here is a book that can't be missed. Captain Wentworth's Diary by Amanda Grange, is a retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion told from the point of view of the captain. Anyone who has had unanswered questions regarding Persuasion will relish in Grange's creation.

I came across this book by a happy accident while searching amazon and I am better for it. The moment I began reading this book I found it hard to put down and when I was finished I had the joy in discovering she has many other titles along the same strain.

Some other great novels to check out by Amanda Grange are:

Mr. Darcy's Diary

Mr. Knightly's Diary

Midnight for Charlie Bone: Children of the Red King Book 1

Charlie Bone is just your average ten year old boy until an accident at the film counter changes his life forever. All of the sudden Charlie's world get turned upside down when he discovers that he has the gift of hearing the thoughts and events of people in photos. Suddenly he is forced to attend the sinister Bloor's Academy and his nasty grandmother and her three evil sisters are constantly breathing down his neck. What's a boy to do?

Midnight for Charlie Bone is an excellent series for children who have read or would like an alternative to Harry Potter. I particularly like this series because the characters are well developed and unlike the Potter series Charlie isn't the only protagonist. I have found that this series is great for younger readers and the great thing is that the plot is interesting enough to hold the attention of an older audience.

Life As We Knew It: Susan Beth Pfeffer

I have mixed emotions about this book. I loved it and at the same time hated it. Part of me thought it was a beautiful coming of age story in the face of great adversity. While the other half of me thought it was a brutal and terrifying account of how humans adapt when facing a survive or die situation. This book to me was such an important read but yet I'd rather forget I ever picked it up.

Miranda is a 15 year old girl starting her sophomore year of High school. Her parents are divorced, in fact her father is having another baby with his much younger new wife. Her best friends have become polar opposites of each other one has become a Jesus freak and the other has started experimenting with boys. Nothing to out of the ordinary in the life of a teenage girl. Oh, did I mention the meteor shower?

Scientist are predicting a meteor shower that will be visible for all to see.They say Earth is in no danger that the meteors are just going to fly by us nothing to be worried about. They were wrong. What do you do when everything you know as normal changes? How do you cope? How do you survive?

This is a wonderful and terrifying story about survival. This would be a great book for young adult readers. I myself would be hesitant to recommend it to anyone under the sixth grade.

Revenge of the Witch: The Last Apprentice

Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a local County farmer. Until now his life has been routine but, he has just been informed by his father that he will be apprenticing to a local tradesman. This sounded wonderful until he found he was apprenticing to the County Spook. Being a Spook apprentice is a dangerous occupation as the job requires you to help rid the county of darkness.This means that Tom will be facing witches and boggarts and other creatures that go bump in the night. Will Tom succeed in this treacherous field?

"Revenge of the Witch" is the first book in the Last Apprentice Series (The Wardstone Chronicles in the UK). This is a series that I stumbled upon by chance and I couldn't be happier. I was in the library with my daughter and after picking up books for her I was looking for something for me. After searching for what felt like an eternity I glanced at a cover that caught my eye so I picked it up and read the back I was in love. There was only one problem it was book two "The curse of the Bane," so I put it down and promptly began searching for book one but sadly my search was in vain someone had checked it out. So disappointed I shuffled over to the computer baby in hand and placed it on hold. One week later "Revenge of the Witch" was in hand and there it stayed until I finished it.

I cannot say it enough, this series is awesome. Pick it up you and you will not regret it. I was venture further into the plot but I am so afraid of spoiling it for potential takers. So if you have further questions just ask and I would be delighted to go into detail. A word of warning for my younger readers this book is not for someone who scares easily.

Matilda Bone

Matilda Bone is the second novel that I have read by author Karen Cushman. The story of Matilda Bone is a thought provoking historical fiction novel set in the dark ages. Matilda is a young woman who a has been living at a manor house as a guest after the untimely death of her father. During this time she has been under the instructions of a monk Father Leufredus who has taught her everything she needs to know about the Saints, Latin and Heaven. Then suddenly when the father is called away to another parish he sends Matilda off to apprentice as a bone setter in Blood and Bone Alley. Matilda's world is turned upside down as all her knowledge of the world and religion is tested and she must learn to adapt to this new lifestyle far away from the manor house. Will Matilda be able to overcome her prejudices in time to save a friend.

This is a beautiful coming of age story written through the eyes of a precocious young girl. It is a very fast read and it leaves the reader so thirsty for knowledge about the time period. I would recommend this book to children sixth grade and up I believe that some of the concepts may be hard to understand for younger children and some of the language. As always though it is up to the parent and the child.

The Midwife's apprentice

The Midwifes apprentice by Karen Cushman is a book that was published before I graduated high school. That being said, I have passed it millions of times in countless libraries and bookstores and it always caught my attention but didn't have that "je na sais quoi" to hold it. So why now? I would be lying if I said that I read this book last week but I have recently came across a read alike and I figured I would share both.

The Midwife's Apprentice is on countless grade school reading lists and it is the recipient of the Newbury Award in 1996. This is a great choice for a child who needs a book for a historical fiction project. The book relates the story of a young girl named Beetle (this is not her given name) who is taken in as a apprentice by a midwife in England during the Middle Ages. Beetle works for the Midwife learning her trade but after a setback involving a town woman's delivery and the constant criticisms and insults by her master Beetle runs away from home and re-invents herself as Alice and begins work as an inn girl.

Hap and Circumstance eventually bring the innkeeper and her former apprentice back together and after the delivery of an inn guests child. Alice returns to the midwife with a new understanding of life and her future career.

This is a great read I believe for students six grade and older. I made this decision because of the content and some thematic elements that may be a little difficult to grasp for younger readers. However is depends as always on the child and their parents.

The Field Guide: The Spiderwick Chronicles Book 1

The Spiderwick Chronicles was a series that always seemed to slip through my hands. I would be all set to read it and then something else would cross my path and occupy my attention. So Spiderwick became one of those series that I placed on my "to do list" and swore that I would get to. I am glad that day has finally come.

The Field Guide is the first spellbinding book in the Spiderwick Series. The Field Guide introduces us to the books main characters, the three Grace children Mallory and the twins Simon and Jared. After their parents divorce the children move to an aging Victorian house owned by a distant relative. Soon after moving in things start to go amiss for Jared he's getting in trouble at school, fighting with his mom and strange things are going on in the old house. One day when their mother is out the children decide to explore their new surroundings. In a secret room Jared stumbles across Arthur Spiderwick's guide to the world around you and this is where the mischief begins.

The Spiderwick Chronicles are an excellent series for boys and girls alike. The authors Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi manage to recreate the flavor of an old Victorian fairytale mixed with just the right amount of humor. It is these elements that make the Field Guide so exciting. This series is also a great choice for reluctant readers because the book's size isn't overwhelming but the narrative however entertaining is not oversimplified. Check it out!! Book two is the Seeing Stone.


Oh the books website is awesome check it out.

http://www.spiderwick.com/

Coraline: Movie vs. Novel

Okay, anybody who knows me personally knows I am hypercritical of children's novels that are made into movies. Let's face it very few can hold a candle to their book counterpart. Now, I know that some artistic liberties must be taken to make the book translate to screen but often times it is these edits and liberties that ruin the spirit of the actual novel and the movie is just a bad replica like dollar store soda. All that being said there are some notable exceptions and Coraline at least to me happens to be one of them.

Coraline the novel just happens to be one of my favorite books and one that I recommended many times to kids that I believed could handle it. So when I heard they were making a movie I was to say the least disappointed. I immediately thought that Neil Gaiman had sold out and that Hollywood was about to ruin another one of my favorite characters. Then I heard that Henry Selick one of the creative minds behind the "Nightmare Before Christmas" was involved my initial skepticism turned into curiosity. I liked the "Nightmare Before Christmas" is it possible that I could end up enjoying this travesty? The answer is YES. I have to say that Coraline the movie though still no comparison to the original was actually good.

Even though I normally do not approve of movies making to many artistic liberties and Coraline had many. I have to hesitantly admidt that these liberites were probably for the best. What I mean to say is even though they changed specific scenes and characters the flavor of the novel was not lost. Coraline was still represented, I was still creeped out and most importantly I still was inspired.

Dark Sons

Nikki Grimes's "Dark Sons" is a compelling story of loss and forgiveness as told by two young men. This novel, told all in verse draws the reader in with it raw emotion and dynamic characters.

"Dark Sons" follows the lives of the biblical Ishmael and his modern parallel Sam as they both experience a sense of abandonment when their family dynamics change. Grimes. takes the old testament story of Abraham and his sons and reworks it from another perspective. Ishmael voices his side of the story, the first son replaced by Issac and then forced to leave his home by the jealous first wife Sarah. The story's other protagonist Sam is a young African American boy whose father leaves him and his mother for a younger white women. The story follows Sam's feeling of anger and abandonment as his father remarries, has another child and, eventually relocates across the country to his final acceptance and eventual forgiveness.

I loved this novel for so many reasons and found it hard to put down for even a minute. It's heartfelt honesty and emotion was so powerful that I felt all of Sam and Ishmael's highs and lows. Dark Sons is a reminder to parents that divorce and separation is often harder than children than we think.