• 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 »

    Freefall

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:77 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.85 Fraction:3.85★ Rating:77 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.85 Fraction:3.85★ Rating:77 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.85 Fraction:3.85½ Rating:77 Star Piece:0.85 Fraction:3.85☆ Rating:77 Fraction:3.8577%

    Freefall (Book 3, Tunnels Series)

    Brian Williams, Roderick Gordon

    The Chicken House, 2010

    Fantasy

    ISBN: 0545138779

    608 pages

    Synopsis

    DEEPER sent Will and Chester into FREEFALL—tumbling through the subterranean Pore with the evil Rebecca twins in hot pursuit, both toting phials of the lethal Dominion virus. When, where, will they ever land?! Just when the drop seems infinite, the boys hit bottom, and find themselves in a realm of near-zero gravity atop a giant spongy fungus stuffed with artifacts from some lost golden age. But they are not alone. And above ground, black-clad Styx are sprouting like poison mushrooms, dead-set on spreading their plague!

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    Posted in Classroom, Ignite Imagination, Nature/Biology, Reviews, Science/Engineering, Series | No Comments »

    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 | 1 Comment »

    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 | 2 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 »

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