Emily The Strange – Stranger and Stranger

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:71 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.55 Fraction:3.55★ Rating:71 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.55 Fraction:3.55★ Rating:71 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.55 Fraction:3.55½ Rating:71 Star Piece:0.55 Fraction:3.55☆ Rating:71 Fraction:3.5571%
Emily The Strange: Stranger & Stranger
Rob Reger, Jessica Gruner & Buzz Parker (Illustrator)
HarperCollins, 2010
Fantasy
ISBN: 0061452327
272 pages

Synopsis

Emily is working on a new invention, a machine that duplicates people in order to pull off the greatest prank ever in her current dull town. However, it’s time to pick up and move, yet again. She spends most of her time procrastinating, but eventually gets packed. In the new town, she again resumes the quest for the new invention and the greatest prank ever, but ends up only duplicating herself before breaking the machine. Can the world possibly handle two Emilys?

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Posted in Art, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Graphic Novels, Reviews | No Comments »

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

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%
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (Book 4)
Jeff Kinney
Amulet, 2009
Fiction, Graphic Novel
ISBN: 0810983915
224 pages

Synopsis

It’s summer vacation, the weather’s great, and all the kids are having fun outside. So where’s Greg Heffley? Inside his house, playing video games with the shades drawn.

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Posted in Art, Best Of, Classroom, Graphic Novels, Reviews, Series | No Comments »

Emily The Strange: The Lost Days

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:78 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:3.9★ Rating:78 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:3.9★ Rating:78 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:3.9½ Rating:78 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:3.9☆ Rating:78 Fraction:3.978%
Emily The Strange: The Lost Days
Rob Reger, Jessica Gruner & Buzz Parker (Illustrator)
HarperCollins, 2009
Fantasy
ISBN: 0061452297
264 pages

Synopsis

Sitting on a park bench in a strange town called Blackrock, Emily has no recollection of who she is and why she’s there. This little town is so odd. There is only one tree, and everything has been painted beige. Realizing that she must have amnesia for some inexplicable reason, Emily begins a journey to regain her identity. However, she quickly realizes that there’s more to this situation than first meets the eye, even though she can’t seem to quite put her finger on exactly why. Now, she must try to regain her memory and discern why this town is so odd because it must have something to do with why she’s there in the first place. She relays the whole story through a personal diary, complete with Polaroid’s, illustrations, lists, and descriptions of all the events that take place.

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Posted in 2009, Art, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Graphic Novels, Reviews, Series | No Comments »

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:70 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:3.5★ Rating:70 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:3.5★ Rating:70 Fullstar:3 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:3.5½ Rating:70 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:3.5☆ Rating:70 Fraction:3.570%
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (Book 3)
Jeff Kinney
Amulet Books, 2008
Fiction, Graphic Novel
ISBN: 0810994739
224 pages

Synopsis

Greg’s school year is winding down and so is his journal; however, he seems to live the same way and make the same sorts of self-centered choices that have a tendency to get him in trouble throughout the previous three books. This graphic-novel style story chronicles the life of middle-schooler Greg Heffley as told by Greg through hand-written words and pictures in his diary.

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Posted in 2009, Art, Best Of, Classroom, Graphic Novels, Reviews, Series | 2 Comments »

The Arrival

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:92 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.6 Fraction:4.6★ Rating:92 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.6 Fraction:4.6★ Rating:92 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.6 Fraction:4.6★ Rating:92 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.6 Fraction:4.6½ Rating:92 Star Piece:0.6 Fraction:4.692%
The Arrival
Shaun Tan
Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007
Graphic Novel – Fantasy Fiction
ISBN-10: 0439895294
128 pages

Synopsis

A story told solely through breathtaking art, Tan paints an imaginatory tale of an immigrant who leaves his family in a dangerous country in order to find work in a new place and save money to bring his family there.

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Posted in 2007, Art, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Geography/Culture, Graphic Novels, History/Period, Ignite Imagination, Recommended, Reviews | No Comments »

The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian

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 Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie
Little, Brown Young Readers, 2007
Fiction
ISBN-10: 0316013684
240 pages
National Book Award Winner

Synopsis

Told from the first person narrative of Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, the story chronicles a year in his life as a Spokan Indian from Wellpinit, WA, as he bravely decides to go to a high school outside of the reservation in a neighboring White town. Forced to overcome his insecurities as an ethnic outsider and his handicaps and speech impediments having been born with water on the brain, Junior discovers that choosing hope and pursuing his dreams will be the most difficult thing he’s ever done.

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Posted in 2007, Art, Award Winners, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Fiction (non-fantasy), Geography/Culture, Graphic Novels, Recommended, Reviews, Social Commentary | No Comments »

The Invention of Hugo Cabaret

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%
The Invention of Hugo Cabaret
Brian Selznick
Scholastic Press, 2007
Historical Fiction
ISBN:0439813786
544 pages
National Book Award Winner

Synopsis

Both of his parents have died, so Hugo Cabaret lives with his uncle inside of the clock room at the train station in London. He’s inherited his father’s ability to tinker with toys and anything that has working gears, parts, and pieces. Before the fire, his father happened upon a mechanical man that was calibrated to draw or write something as part of a magic act.

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Posted in 2007, Art, Award Winners, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, History/Period, Ignite Imagination, Recommended, Reviews, Science/Engineering | 2 Comments »

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