Saturday, September 24, 2011

Banned Books Week


 September 24 - October 1, 2011 is Banned Books Week! BBW is held every year to remind the public about the problems of censorship by highlighting books that have been challenged or banned in libraries and schools around the country.

 Celebrate your right to read this week by reading a banned book!

The Top 10 Challenged Books of last year:
1) And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
2) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
3) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
4) Crank by Ellen Hopkins
5) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6) Lush by Natasha Friend
7) What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
8) Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
9) Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
10) Twilight by Stephenie Meyer


Kimberly

Monday, September 19, 2011

Avast! Here be books on pirates!

Arrrr! Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. First, check out the official TLAPD website to learn exactly how to talk like a pirate and then check out one of these great books!

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Steampunk Pirates! Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist's granddaughter that he realizes that the man's ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious. In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, this is an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer
Desperate to escape a life of poverty on the streets of London, twelve-year-old Jacky Faber joins the HMS Dolphin as a ship's boy. Looking forward to daring adventures and riches galore, Jacky soon discovers that surviving life at sea requires more than quick feet and hard work. Being shot at from all directions, taking on a fully-grown toothless pirate, or being washed up on a desert island demands courage and a lot of luck. But Jacky loves it. There is just one problem - Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every ounce of cunning she has if she is to keep the crew from discovering her secret.This is the first book in the Bloody Jack series.


Pirates! The True and Remarkable Adventures of Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington, Female Pirates by Celia Rees
Nancy Kington, daughter of a rich merchant, suddenly orphaned when her father dies, is sent to live on her family's plantation in Jamaica. Disgusted by the treatment of the slaves and her brother's willingness to marry her off, she and one of the slaves, Minerva, run away and join a band of pirates. For both girls the pirate life is their only chance for freedom in a society where both are treated like property, rather than individuals. Together they go in search of adventure, love, and a new life that breaks all restrictions of gender, race, and position.

Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean by Justin Somper
Twins, Connor and Grace, never dreamed that there was any truth to the Vampirate shanty their father sang to them before he died, but that was before the two were shipwrecked and separated from each other. For Connor, who is taken aboard a pirate ship, there's the chance to learn to sword fight, but for Grace, aboard a mysterious ship of vampire pirates, the danger is great. What will it take for them to find each other? First in the Vampirates series.

Piratica by Tanith Lee
Artemesia is the daughter of a pirate queen, and she's sick of practicing deportment at the Angels Academy for Young Maidens. Escaping from the school, she hunts up her mother's crew and breezily commands them out to sea in a leaky boat. Unfortunately, Art's memories of her early life may not be accurate-her seasick crew are actors, and Art's infamous mother was the darling of the stage in a pirate drama. But fiery, pistol-proof Art soon shapes her men into the cleverest pirate crew afloat. And when they meet the dread ship Enemy and her beautiful, treacherous captain, Goldie Girl, Art is certain that her memories are real. The Seven Seas aren't large enough for two pirate queens: Art will have the battle of her life to win her mother's title--and the race for the most fabulous treasure in pirate lore.

Pirate Curse by Kai Meyer
The Pirates of the Caribbean have a name for kids who walk on water: polliwogs. Fourteen-year-old Jolly believes that she's the last polliwog still alive and this special talent makes her invaluable to the pirate captain who raised her. When someone sets a trap for Jolly's ship, she alone escapes. Washed up on a tiny island, she meets Munk, a polliwog who has been raised in hiding. Evil forces are stirring in the Caribbean, and a demon from the sea attacks and murders Munk's parents. Was the demon really after Munk? And Jolly, too? Why are the polliwogs so valuable, and who's willing to kill to possess them? Jolly and Munk must sail with a strange crew of outcasts, led by the mysterious Ghost Trader, to avenge their loved ones and try to stop an ancient, malevolent force known as the Maelstrom. First in the Wave Walkers series.

Kimberly

Monday, September 12, 2011

Divergent by Veronica Roth




Imagine that you have one choice to make. When you’re 16, you must decide which group you will live among for the rest of your life. Choose correctly, or you may be shunned. This is the choice that Tris Prior must make. Does she belong with Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, or Erudite? Aptitude tests help determine which group Tris belongs in, but what if they’re inconclusive? She’s given a different label, but one she must never tell anyone.


I enjoyed this book. It was a good mix of action and adventure with just a little bit of romance mixed in. The setting is future Chicago, and I enjoyed reading about Chicago in a different light. If you like dystopian fiction, give Divergent a try. This is the first book in a trilogy, and if the other books in this trilogy are as good as Divergent, we’ll be entertained for a long time.

Carrie