Bad Kitty Gets a Bath

Bad Kitty Gets a Bath is Nick Bruel's chapter book sequel to his picture book Bad Kitty, which is one of the funniest picture picture books ever; the sequel, however, fails to meet expectations. The illustrations are still hillarious and reluctant readers will love the way the pictures they break up all the text (It's 120 pages long, but reads like it's 30). But the prose lacks the punch and off the wall humor of the original, if this had been the first book I would have never Bad Kitty and that would have been a shame.

Give this book to cat lovers and children who like to comedy and mayhem combined, for grades 1 to 4.

The lump of coal

"Perhaps miracles only happen to human beings... perhaps I should just bury myself and become a diamond after thousands of years of intense pressure."

This is the story of lump of coal hoping for a Christmas miracle told in Lemony Snicket's usual hilarious and slightly dark manner. The coal is brooding, grumpy and ultimately lovable, never have I felt such a connection with a lump of coal before. This book is short, but it packs a lot of punch per page. Offer this one to youngster who love to laugh. For grades K thru 3.

Found

An unscheduled airplane arrives at an airport terminal on board are 36 babies and no one else! Who are they? Where did they come from? No one no knows. Now skip forward 13 years to suburban Ohio, Jonah had never thought much of being adopted, but when he starts getting creepy letters that say things like "you are one of the missing," he starts wondering about his past. His adoption records have always been sealed, but maybe its time to investigate a little bit of his own. You see where this is going? Down a one way to street to freakin' awesome that's where!

I loved this book start to finish whenever I wasn't reading it I was thinking about reading it and now that I'm done reading it, I'm dreaming about reading the next book in the series (Sent to be released August 2009). Some authors just flat out know how to write and Magaret Haddix is one of those authors, she could write a book about making and toast and it would turn out awesome- with this kind of subject matter of course the book is great.
Give this book to Sci-Fi lovers grades 5 thru 9.

Nation

"When much is taken, something is returned." Nation is the latest book by Terry Pratchett (best known for his adult sci-fi series Discworld). The book is set in an alternate universe South Pacific and follows 13 year old Mau as he copes with the aftereffects of a tsunami, which kills everyone else on his island. As weeks pass, refuges begin to arrive from the surrounding area, because Mau's island (though tiny) is one of the largest in the area and holds religious significance for the people of the area.

This book is part survival story and part coming of age story, it's about rebuilding a society and young love, it explores issues such as belief and the responsibilities of leadership and it also explores the possibilities of tree climbing of octopuses and irreverent parrots "AWK - show us your drawers!", that is to say this book does it all. The only part i didn't enjoy was the last chapter (no worries no spoiler here) which suddenly jumps hundreds of years in the future and acts like this whole thing had been a story told to children by an old man by the sea. That would have been okay with me if the book had begun with the storyteller, or even if he had been referenced somewhere in the middle of the story. An unfortunate end to an otherwise great story. Offer this book to fans of survival and adventure stories grades 6+

Junie B Jones and A Little Monkey Business

After doing my best to ignore Junie B Jones for years, I finally read one (the second book, the first was checked out) and I'm so glad I did! It was super funny! I loved the part where Junie B. made her friends keep giving her things for the right to see her "new monkey brother," because it's exactly the type of things little kids do (I know I did). I could also totally relate to Junie B's hatred of "stewie pewie tomatoes."

Give this book to young readers who love to laugh, for grades 1 thru 3.

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little

Moxy Maxwell and Stuart Little had practically been best friends all summer, the two of them had been inseparable. When Moxy Maxwell was in the car on her way to swim practice, Stuart was there, when she was on the porch drinking lemonade, Stuart was there and last Monday at swim practice Stuart Little fell in the pool with her, that's how close the two of them are. No, the reason that Moxy hasn't read Stuart Little all summer long has nothing to do with a lack of time spent together, the problem simply was that Moxy's in-betweens kept getting interupted. You see the perfect time to read a book is when one thing ends and the next thing hasn't begun yet, an in-between. However Moxy's in-between keep getting interrupted by more pressing matters, for example lemonade spills. Unfortunately tomorrow is the first day of fourth grade and if Moxy doesn't read Stuart Little this afternoon, her mom won't let her participate in the water ballet she's been practicing all summer.

This book was a HILLARIOUS examination of summer procrastination. A must read for any child who has ever put off doing anything. For grades 3-5

Keeping Score

Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, the entire New York Yankees team, the 50s were a great time to be a baseball fan in New York, whether you were a Dodgers, Giants or Yankees fan. Of course, Maggie Fortini doesn't see it that way, because her team, the Dodgers, always fall just short of winning the world series. Maggie, already the Dodgers biggest fan, becomes an even more ardent supporter when she learns to keep score from one of the guys down at her dad's fire station- Jim (a Giants fan yuck!). Maggie and Jim quickly become close friends because of their shared interest in baseball. So much so, that even after Jim is drafted and sent to Korea Maggie writes him letter after letter. But when the letters abruptly stop coming Maggie wonders were they ever really friends at all?

A great book, Maggie's character is instantly lovable and I really got into the whole baseball thing when I was reading the book (I still kinda want to learn how to keep score). A great book for sports fans (especially female sports fans) for ages 10-14.

Jennifer Government

OkayI feel like I've been on a real dystopia bender lately, but hey it's my favorite genre and this blog is even called dinosaur dystopia (BTW I'm still searching for a great piece of dystopian dinosaur fiction so if you know of one lemme know), so y'all are gonna have to bear with me.

Jennifer government was awesomely dystopian, but not in the standard dystopian model. Usually dystopias are set in a post-apocalyptic world or they deal with a big brother type government. Jennifer Government does the opposite. The government has next to no power, taxes have been abolished and the police are a private organization. Large corporations hold sway over the world and more or less do as they see fit. In this story Hack Nike (Employees last names are dictated by the company they work for) signs a contract to work with the Nike corporation's guerrilla marketing department, unfortunately he doesn't read the small print and finds out he's just agreed to assassinate 10 people in order to hype the new Nike shoe line.

The book is wild ride thru a future which examines the consequences of consumerism and self-regulation. An exciting read and a great conversation starter. For grades 9+

Saga

Saga is the sequel to Epic and even though it not quite on the same level, it's still freakin' rad! Saga, like Epic, is set in a video game, but this time the setting is cyberpunk instead of fantasy. Erik's character Cinderella is back, but this time she's not the central focus of the book, instead we meet 15 year old Ghost, an anarchist airboarder who lives "off the the grid." Like Epic Saga has a strong dystopian theme, but Saga takes it in a more anarchist direction. Teens who are into anarachy signs and punk rock will relate.

Saga is much grittier than Epic, which some will like, as for me its a great book, but my heart is heart still pines for Epic ;)
For grades

Every Man for Himself

This is a collection of short stories about being a guy and mostly coming of age stories. Honestly I only picked it up because Mo Willems wrote one of the stories and I've been on a Mo Willems kick for the last few months (I even bought an elephant and piggy toy recently). The story by Mo Willems was good, it was about super heroes, but honestly it wasn't the best one in the book- I think my favorite one was about a boy had a raffle to see who his prom date would be- so funny. I didn't recognized most of the authors, but when i was reading the bios at the back I found out one of them wrote the graphic novel Blankets, which I love. Overall I really enjoyed this collection, although I worry it might not be as appealing to teens as nostalgic adults, nevertheless give this one to teen boys, I suspect they'll get something out of it and possibly even *gasp* enjoy it. Ages 14+

The Maze of Bones

What would happen if you discovered that your family was one of the most powerful in human history? What if you were told that the source of the family's power was hidden around the world, in the form of 39 clues. What if you were given the choice - take a million dollars and walk away... or get the first clue? If you're Dan and Amy Cahill, you take the clue - and begin a very dangerous race.

Wow money, mystery and danger, awesome isn't? The answer is yes, although with admittedly a few reservations. I really liked the adventure and all the traveling in the book. I'm trying not to spoil anything, but the "maze of bones" is a real place and it's awesome. I've been there and it made me want to go again so bad.

One thing that did bug me about the books were the really obscure clues that the kids instantly knew how to solve. Maybe it's just because I'm bad at that time of thing, but "Seek out Richard S" would never make me think of Richard Sanders of Poor Richard's Almanac.
This book will be a hit the adventure junkies out there though. Great book for grades 4 to 7, maybe even 8.

Bulbasaur's Bad Day

I'm really tempted to just say this book has no redeeming qualities and be done with it, but you know what? I like pokemon. I really and truely do. I think they're awesome little creatures and I wish i had a real live pokemon myself, in particular, I would like a bulbasaur. So while it may be true that the story in this book is mediocre, that the dialogue is mediocre and even the characters are pretty mediocre, it still does exactly what it's supposed to do. And that's serve up a hearty helping of pokemon. Give this one to young poke-fanatics, I'll bet they'll even thank you for it. For ages 6-9.