• Eona

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:79 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.95 Fraction:3.95★ Rating:79 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.95 Fraction:3.95★ Rating:79 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.95 Fraction:3.95½ Rating:79 Star Piece:0.95 Fraction:3.95☆ Rating:79 Fraction:3.9579%
    Eona
    Alison Goodman
    Viking Juvenile, 2011
    Fantasy
    ISBN: 0670063118
    637 pages

    Synopsis

    Eon has been revealed as Eona, the first female Dragoneye in hundreds of years. Along with fellow rebels Ryko and Lady Dela, she is on the run from High Lord Sethon’s army. The renegades are on a quest for the black folio, stolen by the drug-riddled Dillon; they must also find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona’s power and the black folio if he is to wrest back his throne from the selfstyled “Emperor” Sethon. Through it all, Eona must come to terms with her new Dragoneye identity and power-and learn to bear the anguish of the ten dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered. As they focus their power through her, she becomes a dangerous conduit for their plans. . . .

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    Eon

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:79 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.95 Fraction:3.95★ Rating:79 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.95 Fraction:3.95★ Rating:79 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.95 Fraction:3.95½ Rating:79 Star Piece:0.95 Fraction:3.95☆ Rating:79 Fraction:3.9579%
    Eon
    Alison Goodman
    Firebird, 2008
    Fantasy
    ISBN: 0142417114
    576 pages

    Synopsis

    Eon has been studying the ancient art of Dragon Magic for four years, hoping he’ll be able to apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. But he also has a dark secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been living a dangerous lie for the chance to become a Dragoneye, the human link to an energy dragon’s power. It is forbidden for females to practice the Dragon Magic and, if discovered, Eon faces a terrible death. After a dazzling sword ceremony, Eon’s affinity with the twelve dragons catapults him into the treacherous world of the Imperial court where he makes a powerful enemy, Lord Ido.

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    Posted in Classroom, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Geography/Culture, History/Period, Ignite Imagination, Religious/Mythology, Reviews, Series | No Comments »

    Dragons of Silk

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5½ Rating:90 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.590%
    Dragons of Silk
    Laurence Yep
    HarperCollins, 2011
    Fiction
    ISBN: 0060275189
    352 pages

    Synopsis

    The Weaving Maid wove robes of silk for Heaven, but when she met the Cowboy, she abandoned her loom to be with him. But Heaven would not allow this, and put the Milky Way in between them.

    Silk binds the lives of four girls from different generations with the fate of the Weaving Maid. Across a span of seventy-five years both in China and America, each girl shows the strength and courage of a dragon as she fights and sacrifices for the survival of her family and the pursuit of passion.

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    Posted in 2011, Classroom, English/Reading, Fiction (non-fantasy), Geography/Culture, Historical Fiction, History/Period, Recommended, Reviews, Series | No Comments »

    Behemoth

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:86 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.3 Fraction:4.3★ Rating:86 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.3 Fraction:4.3★ Rating:86 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.3 Fraction:4.3★ Rating:86 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.3 Fraction:4.3½ Rating:86 Star Piece:0.3 Fraction:4.386%
    Behemoth (Leviathan, Book 2)
    Scott Westerfeld
    Simon Pulse, 2010
    Fantasy
    ISBN: 1416971750
    496 pages

    Synopsis

    The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.

    Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan’s peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.

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    Posted in 2010, Best Of, Classroom, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Geography/Culture, Ignite Imagination, Recommended, Reviews, Science/Engineering, Series | No Comments »

    Escaping the Tiger

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:88 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.4 Fraction:4.4★ Rating:88 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.4 Fraction:4.4★ Rating:88 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.4 Fraction:4.4★ Rating:88 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.4 Fraction:4.4½ Rating:88 Star Piece:0.4 Fraction:4.488%
    Escaping the Tiger
    Laura Manivong
    HarperCollins, 2010
    Fiction
    ISBN: 0061661775
    224 pages

    Synopsis

    When you’re so skinny people call you Skeleton Boy, how do you find strength for the fight of your life?
    Twelve-year-old Vonlai knows that soldiers who guard the Mekong River shoot at anything that moves, but in oppressive Communist Laos, there’s nothing left for him, his spirited sister, Dalah, and his desperate parents. Their only hope is a refugee camp in Thailand—on the other side of the river.

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    Posted in 2010, Best Of, Classroom, Fiction (non-fantasy), Geography/Culture, History/Period, Recommended, Reviews, Social Commentary | No Comments »

    Marcelo in the Real World

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5½ Rating:90 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.590%

    Marcelo in the Real World

    Fransisco X. Stork

    Arthur A. Levine Books, 2009

    Fiction

    ISBN: 0545054745

    320 pages

    Synopsis

    Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear–part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify–and he’s always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm’s mailroom in order to experience “the real world.” There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm.

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    Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Fiction (non-fantasy), Geography/Culture, Recommended, Religious/Mythology, Reviews, Social Commentary | No Comments »

    Boys Without Names

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7½ Rating:94 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.794%
    Boys Without Names
    Kashmira Sheth
    Balzer + Bray, 2010
    Fiction
    ISBN: 0061857602
    320 pages

    Synopsis

    For eleven-year-old Gopal and his family, life in their rural Indian village is over: We stay, we starve, his baba has warned. With the darkness of night as cover, they flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager to help support his struggling family until school starts, so when a stranger approaches him with the promise of a factory job, he jumps at the offer.

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    Posted in 2010, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Fiction (non-fantasy), Geography/Culture, Recommended, Reviews, Social Commentary | 2 Comments »