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 »

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 »

Going Bovine

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:80 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0 Fraction:4★ Rating:80 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0 Fraction:4★ Rating:80 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0 Fraction:4★ Rating:80 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0 Fraction:4☆ Rating:80 Fraction:480%
Going Bovine
Libba Bray
Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2009
Fantasy Fiction
ISBN: 0385733976
496 pages

Synopsis

Coasting through life thus far, 16-year-old Cameron just wants to make it through high school. However, he soon contracts a disease that is eating away at his brain and will likely die soon. Fortunately, a mysterious punk angel named Dulcie with pink wings delivers a message that Cameron can be healed from his disease, but first he must go on a quest to find a brilliant doctor. The journey takes him through an often dark but adventurous America, pulling him out of his languorous personality into someone far more engaging with life.

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Posted in Classroom, Ignite Imagination, Religious/Mythology, 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 »

Airman

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%
Airman
Eoin Colfer
Hyperion Book CH, 2008
Fantasy
ISBN: 1423107519
416 pages

Synopsis

Conor Broekhart was born in flight, on the maiden voyage of a hot air balloon, advanced technology for his time period, and thus was destined to be great in so many ways. The son of a genius scientist mother, and sharp-shooting military captain who live on the Saltee Islands, Conor quickly becomes indoctrinated into the upper echelon and royalty of the palace. The new monarch, good King Nick, as he’s commonly called, is an American aeronaut who suddenly becomes king as he’s the only undisputed relative in the line of the Saltee royalty. King Nicholas’s daughter, Isabella, is around Conor’s age, and the two grow up together.

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Posted in 2008, Best Of, Classroom, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Ignite Imagination, Reviews, Science/Engineering | No Comments »

Starclimber

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:74 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:3.7★ Rating:74 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:3.7★ Rating:74 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:3.7½ Rating:74 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:3.7☆ Rating:74 Fraction:3.774%
Starclimber (Book 3 – Airborn Series)
Kenneth Oppel
HarperTeen, 2009
Fantasy Fiction
ISBN: 0060850574
400 pages

Synopsis

 

Working as a pilot for an airship that transports building materials from the ground to the upper regions of the tower that the French are building to reach into space, some Babelites attempt to use Matt Cruse’s ship to bomb the tower. Narrowly escaping both death and rescuing the city from major impending doom, Cruse becomes a hero yet again. However, the French government cover up the whole thing in order to keep its citizens from becoming frightened.

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Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Ignite Imagination, Reviews, Science/Engineering, Series | No Comments »

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