The town of Darlington–formerly known as Highsmith–is in deep trouble. All the heros left years ago, including Mason’s father. Their services were no longer needed after the Duke offered his protection services. Unfortunately, the Duke’s scam has been found out and orcs and goblins are on the way to attack.
That’s where Mason and his best friend Cowell come in. They may not be heroes, but they are the town’s only hope. They set off with a borrowed sword on a borrowed horse with some borrowed gold to find some real heroes to come back to save the town. Along the way they encounter a sleeping swordsman, vicious pixies, a cross-dressing bully, a witch-in-training, vicious whats-its, a werewolf, and a town that wants nothing to do with heroes.
Their best guide is Quayle’s Guide to Adventures for the Unadventurous. According to it, neither Mason no Cowell has what it takes, but just what is a hero? They do discover that “Outside of the songs,however, there were decisions, which were irritatingly always accompanied by consequences” (Anderson 139).
Take the quiz and find out if you have what it takes to be a hero.
Fans of Percy Jackson will not want to miss this take on modern Greek gods, or rather their descendents, in Oh. My. Gods. (Penguin Group, 2008) by Tera Lynn Childs. Instead of being chased and nearly destroyed by mythical monsters, these kids of the gods gather at the exclusive Academy on the Aegean island of Serfopoula. The ony entrance requirement? Be descended from one of the Greek gods, big or small.
Phoebe Castro thinks she has her life all planned out. After winning the final race of the USC summer cross country camp, all she has to do is keep her grades up and have a strong cross country season her senior year. The she will be set to accept a full running scholarship to the University of Southern California and enjoy college with her best friends since kindgergarten, Nola and Cesca.
Then mom shows up. With a guy. A guy from Greece named Damian, who just happens to be headmaster at the Academy. Now Phoebe is dragged halfway across the world to spend her senior year at a school where nobody wants her because she is nothos, not god-descended. She must deal with her evil stepsister Stella while drooling over one god-of-a-dude who is charming one minute and devastatingly cruel the next.
The only way Phoebe can get her life back is to keep running (even if her shoelaces become zapped together) and keep her scholarship to USC. Fortunately new friends Troy and Nicole guide her through a high school not quite like any other.
Childs captures the drama of high school (complete with the ability to zap things) with humor and good fun. Phoebe finds herself over her head among all those godly students, but she keeps her head up and charges headlong into and out of trouble. Maybe there’s more to her than meets the eye.
Coming soon: I hope to finish Goddess Boot Camp this week and release both titles into the classroom. I also just signed up for an ARC tour of Fins Are Forever, (the sequel to Forgive My Fins), coming out this summer.
What other books about mythical creatures do you recommend?
Who knew that writing about the zombie apocalypse could be so beautiful? I should have known. I’ve been hearing about this book–nothing but good things–for a long time. Thanks to one of my students, Mistina, I moved this one to the top of my pile to read over spring break.
Carrie Ryan creates a world that is both beautiful and terrifying in The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Delacorte Press, 2009) . Mary lives in a village that is bound by both the fence that surrounds it and by the Sisterhood that guards its secrets. Outside the fence roam the living dead, zombies that endlessly hunger for human flesh. Inside the sisterhood lurk secrets that the sisters would kill to protect.
Within this world, Mary is torn by the choices she must make: between the one she loves and the one who loves her, between the freedom she yearns for and the commitments she is expected to honor. Once the unthinkable happens–the Unconcecrated breach the fence–she must confront the Forest in order to claim her life.
I love how Mary’s yearning weaves through every page of this novel. I stand with her at the fence, wondering if there is any other life out there. The mysteries are never completely revealed, but the action keeps Mary and me moving forward to life and hope.
I may have come to this one late, but I will be ready to devour the next one, The Dead Tossed Waves and the next one, The Dark and Hollow Places (available March 22). You can even see Carrie herself when she’s on tour. Here’s the closest she’ll be to us:
Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 1:00 PM Cincinnati, OH Joseph Beth Booksellers
2692 Madison Road
Cincinnati OH 45208
(513) 396-8960
Magic and love are laced with blood and hidden behind masks in Blood Magic (Random House) by Tessa Gratton. I’ve been waiting not-so-patiently to get my hands on it ever since I learned I won a copy of the ARC from The Merry Sisters of Fate. (If you haven’t browsed the short stories there, go now–at least once you finish reading this review.) It arrived in my mailbox on Monday, and I can’t wait to share it.
Silla Kennicott is at once strong and vulnerable. She is haunted by her past–both the one she knows about and the one she is about to discover. Just after her parents’ gruesome deaths, she receives a book from The Deacon. The book is written in her dead father’s handwriting and contains notes and spells for creating magic. Just as she performs her first spell in the cemetery, the new next door neighbor, Nicholas Pardee, comes up. Whether or not Nicholas saw what he thought he saw, he has secrets of his own to keep. Silla is not his first encounter with magic or tragedy. Nicholas, Silla and her brother Reese work together to explore the blood magic their father had kept hidden from them. Their exhileration soon turns to doubt as they question just who Robert Kennicott was. Do they dare to claim the magic that runs in their blood?
There are so many things I love about this book:
The opening lines: Click here to see Tessa perform Chapter 1. The beginning of Chapter 2 also grabbed me: “It is impossible to know who you really are until you spend time alone in a cemetery.”
Silla: She is both strong and vulnerable, not to mention smart and determined.
Nicholas: A big-city baddie (not to mention incredibly cute) stuck in a small-town still life. I loved his sarcastic edge, but don’t try it in class.
Reese: I always wanted a big brother, and Reese would be perfect–strong and stubborn while always looking out for Silla. Will he punch Nicholas?
The alternating points of view: Silla and Nicholas never repeat each other’s stories. Instead the alternating points of view rush the story ever closer to danger as they realize the secrets of their past will either draw them closer or drive them apart. Then Josephine’s voice from the past menaces the present. How soon will you figure out who she is?
The theater masks: Not only do these masks line the walls of Silla’s room, they provide her strength and courage and a place to hide throughout the story.
The language: Entire sections just blew me away. I keep dipping back into the book now that I’m finished just to enjoy the way the words dance across my mind as I read them over.
This is an intense book, not for everyone. Does it sound like something you want to read? If you dare, let me know what you like about it.
Today I am one of 100 blogs across the blogosphere who gets to reveal the cover for Tera Lynn Child’s newest trilogy about three descendents of Medusa. Isn’t it lovely? Here’s the teaser found on the bookmarks from the publisher:
Three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in a world where monsters lurk in plain sight. You can find out about the three teen beauties–Grace, Gretchen, and Greer–by checking out the character collages Tera Lynn Childs created at the Books, Boys, and Buzz blog.
Sweet Venom is coming to bookstore near you in October 2011. But while you wait for its release, you can join in the anticipation by checking out these sites:
Yes, there’s more! I have signed bookmarks to give away in my blog’s very first swag sweepstakes! Actually, I don’t have the bookmarks yet, but I have been assured they are in the mail. If you would like to enter to win one for yourself, leave me a comment telling me why you want to read this book. I need your comment by midnight on Friday. This contest is open to US residents only. If you are not a student in my class, let me know your email so I can contact you to get an address to send the bookmark to. I will choose a comment with some sort of random selector–computerized if I can figure out how to do it. Otherwise, the names go on slips and paper to be drawn out of a hat!
I know several of you have said that The Girl Who Could Fly (Scholastic) by Victoria Forester was one of your top picks from this year’s Young Hoosier Books. I suspected I would agree with you because, after all, the girl can fly! One of my favorite dreams was one I had where I could fly. And then I grew up to get my pilot’s licence.
I wasn’t disappointed. From the first line, “Piper decided to jump off of the roof. It wasn’t a rash decision on her part,” I was hooked. Piper McCloud grew up on a farm down in Lowland County with her Ma and Pa where things hadn’t changed in generations–until Piper, thta is. From her effortless floating as a baby to her ever-bubbling chatter as a girl, Piper changes everything and everyone around her.
Once Piper demonstrates her flying ability to the townspeople, it gets to be too much. The children and their parents are afraid of Piper, news crews surround the farm, and an invisible person nearly scares Piper out of her skin. Then Dr. Letitia Hellion (okay, her name gives her away) comes to the rescue and takes Piper to I.N.S.A.N.E., a school for exceptional children buried deep beneath the snow. Once again, nothing is quite what it seems, and Piper manages to transform it all.
If you haven’t discovered this homespun gem, grab a copy now to read!
If you are looking for an eerie collection of short stories to entertain your spare moments and haunt your dreams, head over to the Merry Sisters of Fate, where Maggie Steifvator, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff post a new short story every week. Well, almost every week. Some weeks they have guests, round table discussions, and CONTESTS!
If you head over this week, you can enter to win an ARC of Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton. I’ve been eyeing this book ever since I first found Tessa’s blog. It’s already on my amazon wish list, but I wouldn’t mind reading it early! All you have to do is blog about your favorite short story on the site and leave your link in the comments.
Of course, my favorite story is by Tessa. Sorry Maggie and Brenna, but you just can’t top a slightly evil fairy. Who wants a sweet Barbie fairy when you can encounter something much more interesting. Go now and read “Thomas and the Fairy Door.” Is Thomas good or not? Can’t make up your mind? Then you can read more Thomas stories here.
What is real? Who can you trust if you cannot trust even your own memories? Finn has escaped Incarceron, the living prison, but he is not sure who he is on the Outside. As far as he is concerned, the people here are just as trapped by the Protocol, which keeps time frozen, as the prisoners are inside Incarceron. Claudia has claimed that he is Giles, prince of the Realm. Now their very lives depend upon Finn convincing the Court that he is indeed the true prince while Claudia and the Sapeint Jared work to unlock the secrets of the Portal, which is their only connection with inside Incarceron.
Meanwhile, Attia and Keiro (Finn’s oathbrother) are desperate to find their own way out of Incarceron. The prison is shifting all its power to find a way out, too. Entire sections of Incarceron are shutting down, sending the prisoners on desperate migrations. They are all looking for a magical glove. rumored to be Sapphique’s means of escape. Attia and Keiro must battle both Rix, the Dark Enchanter, and Incarceron itself for control of this glove.
Catherine Fisherhas created a world with layer upon layer of reality. I gladly got lost in its pages, wandering among the legends of Sapphique, the terrors of Incarceron, and the false granduer of the Realm. One of my favorite things in this book are the old stories and legends from our world that get changed to fit this fantasy world.
Have you read this one, or the first book Incarceron yet? Let me know what you think: How long can people survive if they live fooling themselves?
I am so excited. Today you–and I–can finally get my hands on Across the Universe by Beth Revis. Beth is from my home state of NC, and I have been hooked and waiting to read this book every since I read the first chapter posted on the official website. And now I get to help usher this book into the world! But first, you need to check out the website where you can explore the spaceship Godspeed. I had to borrow my daughter’s new laptop because our home computer was not playing nice this morning. Not only can you explore different levels of the ship, you can download wallpapers (not on the schoool computers, please) and upload cool avatars (you know, for your blogs). You never know, something might show up on this blog from it. This ship is like an entire world. Did you know they even raise animals on it? The crew lives and dies and raises children to replace them–all enclosed within the walls of the ship. I’m not sure I’d like that. They are travelling, but never get to leave.
You can check out this excusive interview with Beth as she tells a little about the book and herself (hey, she used to be a teacher, too!):
If you missed the trailer for Across the Universe the last time I posted it, here it is again:
Doesn’t it sound good? I know I can’t wait to read it.
If you are a part of Facebook, join the Facebook fan page. You can enter a contest with very cool prizes over there. Just send a picture of you with the book.
I know you want more. Follw Beth and her adventures as a writer in all the following locations:
Now, go, find a copy of Across the Universe, and READ! If you can’t get out to a bookstore today, explore the Godspeed at http://www.acrosstheuniversebook.com
OR you can read a 111 page exerpt at io9’s website. Don’t delay! These 111 pages will only be up from 11:11 am – 11:11 pm today, 1-11-11.
What would you do? Would you go ahead and be frozen for 300 years as you join your parents on a spaceship hurtling across the universe? Or would you walk right back out the door into life on Earth with other people in your family who love you?
If you’re looking for a spooky romance, Becca Fitzpatrick has written the book for you with Hush, Hush. I found myself wanting both to rush through to the end to see what happens and to slowly savor each word.
Nora looses her best friend, Vee, as her lab partner in biology. She’s now stuck with Patch, whom she finds both attractive and terrifying. Somehow, Patch seems to know everything about her, but doesn’t reveal much about himself. He has a habit of showing up everywhere she goes and and has a definite talent for getting under her skin.
Besides, strange things keep happening to Nora. A guy in a hooded ski mask jumps in front of her car, ransacks her room, and attacks Vee. By the time anyone else sees it, the damage is gone. Is Nora losing her mind, or is someone messing with it? Who is behind it all–Patch or the good-looking Elliott, who has a murder investigation in his past?
The town of Darlington–formerly known as Highsmith–is in deep trouble. All the heros left years ago, including Mason’s father. Their services were no longer needed after the Duke offered his protection services. Unfortunately, the Duke’s scam has been found out and orcs and goblins are on the way to attack.
