• 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 | 1 Comment »

    The Maze Runner

    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%
    The Maze Runner
    James Dashner
    Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2009
    Fantasy
    ISBN: 0385737947
    384 Pages

    Synopsis

    When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

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    Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Ignite Imagination, Recommended, Reviews, Series, Social Commentary | 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 »

    I Am The Darker Brother – Reviewing Classics

    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%
    I Am The Darker Brother
    Compiler: Arnold Adoff
    Simon Pulse, (reprint edition) 1997
    Genre
    ISBN: 0689808690
    192 pages

    Synopsis

    A collection of African American poetry from the 20th century originally compiled in the late 60s, I Am The Darker Brother is one of the few anthologies of African American poetry amassed specifically for younger readers. From cover to cover, each poet leaves a legacy about life in America as ‘the other’. This edition adds more current writers that carved out a career post 1968, like Maya Angelou, Rita Dove, and Ishmael Reed.

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    Posted in Award Winners, Best Of, Classics, Classroom, English/Reading, Geography/Culture, History/Period, Poetry, Reviews, Social Commentary | No Comments »

    The Hunger Games

    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%
    The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, Book 1)
    Suzanne Collins
    Scholastic Press, 2008
    Science Fiction
    ISBN: 0439023483
    384 pages
    Awards

    Synopsis

    Katniss lives in the dystopian future, where America has been sectioned into 12 different districts. District 12, where she lives, is the mining district, and other than the difficulty of hunting outside the perimeter to catch food for her mother and sister her life is generally fine. However, the selection for the Hunger Games is about to begin, and when her sister is chosen to be a participant, Katniss steps in to take her place. Now she must fight to the death with 23 other tributes in a televised game, and even her hunting and tracking skills may not be enough to keep her alive.

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    Posted in 2008, Award Winners, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Ignite Imagination, Recommended, Reviews, Series, Social Commentary | 1 Comment »