• 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 »

    Cool Salsa

    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%
    Cool Salsa
    Lori Carlson (compiler)
    Fawcett, 1995
    Poetry
    ISBN: 044970436X
    160 pages

    Synopsis

    Cool Salsa is a collection of bi-lingual poems written by Latin Americans in order to express their lives here in America, their thoughts about their old countries and cultures, and what they’ve left behind, and how they can fit into the culture they’ve found themselves in while keeping their heritage in tact. Many of the poems are interlaced with both English and Spanish, and most of them are translated into both languages side by side.

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    Posted in Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Excellent Underknown, Geography/Culture, Poetry, Recommended, Reviews | No Comments »

    Thirteenth Child

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:81 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.050000000000001 Fraction:4.05★ Rating:81 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.050000000000001 Fraction:4.05★ Rating:81 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.050000000000001 Fraction:4.05★ Rating:81 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.050000000000001 Fraction:4.05☆ Rating:81 Fraction:4.0581%
    Thirteenth Child (Frontier Magic, Book 1)
    Patricia C. Wrede
    Scholastic Press, 2009
    Fantasy
    ISBN: 054503342X
    320 pages

    Synopsis

    Eff was born the thirteenth child in a magical family, her brother Lan, born fourteenth and the seventh son of a seventh son. This means that Lan will have natural amazing magical powers, and Eff will be doomed to bring only bad things to the people around her. However, her parents believe that it will be better for the twins not to grow up hearing such things, so they move their family out to the frontier where their father will work to be a professor of magic. Although things have gotten better, Eff can’t help but believe that there’s something wrong with her. She must learn to be herself and like who she is despite the fears that she keeps hidden in order to uncover a deadly adversary and save the people of the frontier.

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    Posted in 2009, Best Of, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Recommended, Reviews | No Comments »