Leviathan

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:84 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.2 Fraction:4.2★ Rating:84 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.2 Fraction:4.2★ Rating:84 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.2 Fraction:4.2★ Rating:84 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.2 Fraction:4.2½ Rating:84 Star Piece:0.2 Fraction:4.284%
Leviathan
Scott Westerfeld
Simon Pulse, 2009
Fantasy
ISBN: 1416971734
448 pages

Synopsis

It is the cusp of World War I, and all the European powers are arming up. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.

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Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, Fantasy/Science Fiction, History/Period, Ignite Imagination, Nature/Biology, Recommended, Reviews, Science/Engineering, Series | No Comments »

Red Claw

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:87 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.35 Fraction:4.35★ Rating:87 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.35 Fraction:4.35★ Rating:87 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.35 Fraction:4.35★ Rating:87 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.35 Fraction:4.35½ Rating:87 Star Piece:0.35 Fraction:4.3587%
Red Claw
Philip Palmer
Orbit, 2009
Sci Fi
ISBN: 0316018937
464 pages

Synopsis

Professor Richard Helms heads up a tight-knit band of scientists and soldiers sent to explore New Amazon, a lush but savage planet seemingly determined to attack them at every turn. When they are done cataloguing every detail of this vast, unfamiliar ecosystem, they will burn it to the ground and make it fit for human habitation. But when the team falls under attack, Helms and his followers are forced to flee into the depths of the jungle. Here, old enemies and petty rivalries surface as they struggle to survive. They soon end up fighting for their lives – against the planet they are exploring, the robots designed to protect them and, most of all, against each other. For the countdown into madness is ticking.

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Posted in Best Of, Classroom, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Nature/Biology, Reviews, Social Commentary | No Comments »

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

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%
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Jacqueline Kelly
Henry Holt & Co, 2009
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 0805088415
352 pages

Synopsis

Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones. With a little help from her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist, she figures out that the green grasshoppers are easier to see against the yellow grass, so they are eaten before they can get any larger. As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and comes up against just what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century.

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Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, Historical Fiction, Nature/Biology, Recommended, Reviews, Science/Engineering | No Comments »

The Giant Slayer

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:96 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.8 Fraction:4.8★ Rating:96 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.8 Fraction:4.8★ Rating:96 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.8 Fraction:4.8★ Rating:96 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.8 Fraction:4.8½ Rating:96 Star Piece:0.8 Fraction:4.896%
The Giant Slayer
Iain Lawrence
Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2009
Historical Fiction/Fantasy
ISBN: 0385733763
304 pages

Synopsis

A girl’s imagination transports polio-afflicted kids into a fantastic world.

The spring of 1955 tests Laurie Valentine’s gifts as a storyteller. After her friend Dickie contracts polio and finds himself confined to an iron lung, Laurie visits him in the hospital. There she meets Carolyn and Chip, two other kids trapped inside the breathing machines. Laurie’s first impulse is to flee, but Dickie begs her to tell them a story. And so Laurie begins her tale of Collosso, a rampaging giant, and Jimmy, a tiny boy whose destiny is to become a slayer of giants.

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Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Geography/Culture, Historical Fiction, History/Period, Ignite Imagination, Nature/Biology, Recommended, Reviews, Science/Engineering | No Comments »

Bog Child

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:98 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:4.9★ Rating:98 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:4.9★ Rating:98 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:4.9★ Rating:98 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:4.9½ Rating:98 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:4.998%
Bog Child
Siobhan Dowd
David Fickling Books, 2008
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 0385751699
336 pages
Carnegie Medal

Synopsis

Fergus is recently 18, and on what should be a normal run to get peat to sell to the locals, he discovers a child in the bog—the child that time forgot. Unbelievably well preserved, she becomes the focal point of many theories about who she was, where she came from, and why she ended up there. Riddled with dreams about the child he’s found, Fergus must negotiate the complex world around him as Northern Ireland fights for its independence from England.

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Posted in 2009, Award Winners, Best Of, Classroom, Geography/Culture, Historical Fiction, History/Period, Nature/Biology, Recommended, Reviews, Science/Engineering | No Comments »

Deeper

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:82 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.1 Fraction:4.1★ Rating:82 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.1 Fraction:4.1★ Rating:82 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.1 Fraction:4.1★ Rating:82 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.1 Fraction:4.1☆ Rating:82 Fraction:4.182%
Deeper (Book 2, Tunnels Books)
Roderick Gordon & Brian Williams
The Chicken House, 2009
Fantasy Fiction
ISBN: 0439871786
656 pages

Synopsis

Now on a quest to the deeps with his best friend Chester and his brother Cal, Will Burrows and the boys begin to discover that things are more than they seem to be. Initially in search of his father, Dr. Burrows, Will is rescued by a pair of rebels who have been tracking them across the Great Plain. These two insurgents reveal that the Styx have been plotting to unleash deadly diseases on the surface in order to wipe out the Topsoilers and reclaim what they believe to be rightfully theirs.

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Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Ignite Imagination, Nature/Biology, Reviews, Series | No Comments »

The Underneath

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:91 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.55 Fraction:4.55★ Rating:91 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.55 Fraction:4.55★ Rating:91 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.55 Fraction:4.55★ Rating:91 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.55 Fraction:4.55½ Rating:91 Star Piece:0.55 Fraction:4.5591%
The Underneath
Kathi Appelt
Atheneum, 2008
Fiction
ISBN-10: 1416950583
320 pages
Newbery Award Nominee
The National Book Awards Nominee

Synopsis

A pregnant calico cat is discarded to fend for herself, and as she is making a new home in the backwaters of the bayou, she hears the lonely howls of a hound dog. Compelled to act against her normal nature, she finds the dog and moves in with him in The Underneath, the space beneath the porch of the house of Gar Face.

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Posted in 2008, Award Winners, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Fiction (non-fantasy), History/Period, Nature/Biology, Recommended, Reviews | No Comments »

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