Little Brother

So I just finished an amazing book called Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.  It's about a boy named Marcus and his three friends who are accused of being terrorist after a bombing takes out the Bay Bridge in California.  After they are held hostage for a week and tortured for information, they are set free under the condition that they tell no one what has happened.  It was awesome!  It has alot of computer tech jargon which makes it take a little while longer to read but it was totally worth it! I have put it on Miss Laura's Recommended Reads Bookshelf so be sure to come in and check it out!!!

Here is the book review for it:

Starred Review. Grade 10 Up—When he ditches school one Friday morning, 17-year-old Marcus is hoping to get a head start on the Harajuku Fun Madness clue. But after a terrorist attack in San Francisco, he and his friends are swept up in the extralegal world of the Department of Homeland Security. After questioning that includes physical torture and psychological stress, Marcus is released, a marked man in a much darker San Francisco: a city of constant surveillance and civil-liberty forfeiture. Encouraging hackers from around the city, Marcus fights against the system while falling for one hacker in particular. Doctorow rapidly confronts issues, from civil liberties to cryptology to social justice. While his political bias is obvious, he does try to depict opposing viewpoints fairly. Those who have embraced the legislative developments since 9/11 may be horrified by his harsh take on Homeland Security, Guantánamo Bay, and the PATRIOT Act. Politics aside, Marcus is a wonderfully developed character: hyperaware of his surroundings, trying to redress past wrongs, and rebelling against authority. Teen espionage fans will appreciate the numerous gadgets made from everyday materials. One afterword by a noted cryptologist and another from an infamous hacker further reflect Doctorow's principles, and a bibliography has resources for teens interested in intellectual freedom, information access, and technology enhancements. Curious readers will also be able to visit BoingBoing, an eclectic group blog that Doctorow coedits. Raising pertinent questions and fostering discussion, this techno-thriller is an outstanding first purchase.—Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library


Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
 

Interesting New reads!!!

To start off the school year awesomely...here is a list of interesting new reads from the School library Journal...I will definitely be ordering them soon so come on in and check em out!!!

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6696834.html?nid=4302&source=title&rid=299297222

Ms Laura

The Lightning Thief to be a Motion Picture!!!

This just in, February 12th, 2010 the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series will be made into a movie starting with the first book, "The Lightning Thief"!!!

Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd and Melina Kanakaredes have been cast in Fox 2000’s fantasy-adventure adaptation Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief as classical Greek gods Chiron (Brosnan), Medusa (Thurman), Zeus (Bean), Poseidon (McKidd) and Athena (Kanakaredes). Aries, Hades and Persephone have not yet been cast.
The film, being directed by Chris Columbus, is shooting in Vancouver for a February 12, 2010 release.

Columbus and Craig Titley have adapted the screenplay from Rick Riordan’s best-selling children’s novel. The Greek mythology-inflected book involves Poseidon’s half-human son, Percy, who’s on a quest across modern America to prevent a war among the gods.
Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario and Brandon T. Jackson have already been cast as the book’s lead teenagers.

“Lightning Thief” is the first of five novels about Percy Jackson and the Olympians — the fifth, “The Last Olympian,” is due in stores in May. The studio hopes to spin the books into a franchise in the “Harry Potter” mold.

Wintergirls

I totally forgot to write about Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. This book was awesome!!! I really enjoyed it. Anyone who likes books about people with problems, pick this up!!!

Check out this awesome book preview as well!: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/mBR84KI4N5BRO

Check it out:

*Starred Review* Problem-novel fodder becomes a devastating portrait of the extremes of self-deception in this brutal and poetic deconstruction of how one girl stealthily vanishes into the depths of anorexia. Lia has been down this road before: her competitive relationship with her best friend, Cassie, once landed them both in the hospital, but now not even Cassie’s death can eradicate Lia’s disgust of the “fat cows” who scrutinize her body all day long. Her father (no, “Professor Overbrook”) and her mother (no, “Dr. Marrigan”) are frighteningly easy to dupe—tinkering and sabotage inflate her scale readings as her weight secretly plunges: 101.30, 97.00, 89.00.

Anderson illuminates a dark but utterly realistic world where every piece of food is just a caloric number, inner voices scream “NO!” with each swallow, and self-worth is too easily gauged: “I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.” Struck-through sentences, incessant repetition, and even blank pages make Lia’s inner turmoil tactile, and gruesome details of her decomposition will test sensitive readers.

But this is necessary reading for anyone caught in a feedback loop of weight loss as well as any parent unfamiliar with the scripts teens recite so easily to escape from such deadly situations.

Deadly Little Secret

This book is absolutely amazing. I started it this morning and it took me about 3 1/2 hours to read! Absolutely fabulous, couldn't put it down!!! Check out the synopsis:

Until three months ago, everything about sixteen-year-old Camelia's life had been fairly ordinary: decent grades; an okay relationship with her parents; and a pretty cool part-time job at an art studio downtown.

But when Ben, the mysterious new guy, starts junior year at her high school, Camelia's life becomes far from ordinary.Rumored to be somehow responsible for his ex-girlfriend's accidental death, Ben is immediately ostracized by everyone on campus. Except for Camelia. She's reluctant to believe he's trouble, even when her friends try to convince her otherwise. Instead she's inexplicably drawn to Ben...and to his touch.

But soon, Camelia is receiving eerie phone calls and strange packages with threatening notes. Ben insists she is in danger, and that he can help – but can he be trusted? She knows he's hiding something...but he's not the only one with a secret.

Ms. Laura's Recommended Reads!

I have started a new specialty book shelf at the library entitled" Ms. Laura's Recommended Reads". On that bookshelf that is directly behind the new book shelf, you will find books that I think are awesome or have read. Many of the books that I have written reviews of on here are on the shelf. That way, if you come in and I'm not here and you need a good book, you know where to find them!!!

Ms. Laura

Never judge a Book by its cover!

So I just finished an amazing book called "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" and the cover looks a little boring but don't be fooled. Check out the review and synopsis for the book. I hope you will enjoy it just as much as I did!

Here is also a link to a video preview of the book...very good!!! http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m18KFIH7XSEF5H

Mary lives in a small village in the middle of the forest governed by the religious Sisterhood and bordered with a fence to keep out the Unconsecrated—a horde of the undead unleashed many generations ago by a mysterious and cataclysmic event.

Life is simple but preordained; Mary fears her betrothal to a man she doesn’t love almost as much as the hungry jaws slavering at the fence links. Under the colonial trappings, this is a full-blooded zombie thriller, reminiscent of the paragon of the genre, George Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead.

Soon Mary and a small band of desperate survivors are thrown together to outwit the undead and work through their own weaknesses, suspicions, and jealousies. Ryan’s vision is bleak but not overly gory; her entry in the zombie canon stands out for how well she integrates romance with flesh-eating. Ryan’s ability to write a nail-biting escape scene will keep most readers riveted.

Grades 9-12.

Video of Staff

Now that I have new knowledge as of Monday i played around with making a video...since the free version only allows 30 seconds, I couldn't fit the entire staff in, but it's totally worth it!!! Imagine what we could do with this stuff!!!

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

So I don't know why I'm surprised that I thought this book was amazing... I have been wanting to read it for such a long time and now I finally was able to! This book is absolutely fantastic (as are all of Laurie Halse Anderson's books.





To sum it up quickly, Tyler went from scrawny to steamy over the summer after having to do community service. Now the most popular girl in school, not to mention Tyler's dream woman, Bethany is starting to notice. But when riskay pictures end up on the internet of Bethany, the cops think Tyler did it. What is Tyler suppose to do. Everyone tells him he's on a short leash and on thin ice. Tyler tries to act like a man, but no one ever told him how to be one.





Here's a review:


In TWISTED, Laurie Halse Anderson presents readers with Tyler Miller, whose transformation from a meek, social Mr. Cellophane to a chiseled, admired "tough guy" sets his world on end. As someone who spends his days unnoticed, Tyler finds himself with more attention than he wanted after he vandalizes school property and, to pay for his crime, takes a summer job doing landscaping. The unforeseen side effect is that he returns the next school year with a brand new bod that's turning heads, most notably the head of Bethany Milbury.

But not everything --- even Bethany's advances --- works out well for Tyler. As he struggles to contend with his angry father, a mistrustful faculty and the aftermath of a drunken party, Tyler comes to the painful realization that there's a substantial price tag for his newfound popularity, and juggling the consequences lead him to thoughts of suicide.

While the overall story tackles weighty issues such as identity, family and suicide, Anderson masterfully interjects wry humor that always seems to find its mark. There's something very genuine in the portrayal of Tyler's struggle, both as he seeks attention and as he seeks to banish it. His volatile family situation --- especially his relationship with his father --- is familiar without bowing to a stereotypical, dysfunctional family. Despite times when Chip Milbury (Bethany's brother and the bane of Tyler's rebirth) comes across a little cartoonish in his machinations, the characterizations ring true.

TWISTED, with its tip of the hat to black comedy, does what all good cautionary tales should do: leaves the reader with the certainty that something would be missing in their life without it. Don't miss out on this.

HEY!!!

So I know it's been a while, but I just read an amazing book!

Exposed by Susan Vaught is awesome.

The story goes like this. There once was a girl named Chan who had it with real boys... she decides to go online and meet a man...well a man she does meet. And she does things she really shouldn't in order to keep talking to him. She goes against all of her gut instincts and eventually finds out the truth.

Here's a review:

Chan Shealy’s got most things going right in her life—straight A’s, a shot at the regional majorette championships in baton twirling, and the best best friend a girl could wish for. But after the football quarterback spreads a vicious lie about her, and the whole school decides she’s too trashy for words, Chan begins to wonder if the only place she’ll find love is online.
She’s careful. She follows all her parents’ rules, mostly anyway. A girl’s got to trust herself at a certain point, right? But what if your gut is telling you something that you’re just not hearing… until it’s too late?
From the moment Chan logs on and meets Paul, until the truth begins to show through, Susan Vaught sends readers on a fast-paced and gripping ride. Even when you know something bad will happen, you still might not see it coming…