• Solace of the Road

    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%
    Solace of the Road
    Siobhan Dowd
    David Fickling Books, 2009
    Fiction
    ISBN: 0375849718
    272 pages

    Synopsis

    Holly’s story will leave a lasting impression on all who travel with her.

    Memories of mum are the only thing that make Holly Hogan happy. She hates her foster family with their too-nice ways and their false sympathy. And she hates her life, her stupid school, and the way everyone is always on at her. Then she finds the wig, and everything changes. Wearing the long, flowing blond locks she feels transformed. She’s not Holly anymore, she’s Solace: the girl with the slinkster walk and the supersharp talk. She’s older, more confident—the kind of girl who can walk right out of her humdrum life, hitch to Ireland, and find her mum. The kind of girl who can face the world head-on.

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    Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Fiction (non-fantasy), Recommended, Reviews | 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 »