The Friendship Doll by Kirby Larson - Review

Reviewed by MG Annie


The Friendship Doll by Kirby Larson
200 pgs.


Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 4/5 stars
Date: 2011, Delacorte Press


Format
Each section of this book was a new doll and a new time that Miss Kanagawa, the friendship doll, came to know by watching. This setup was different for me and I had to get used to it.


Thoughts
From 1928 to present time, Miss Kanagawa helped the dolls in her own way. Mostly the book described people from earlier times. It also explained what friendship dolls were really about. I learned some interesting facts about the time periods in this book.


Although I didn't think this novel was very intriguing in the first and last chapters overall I enjoyed it. I would recommend The Friendship Dolls by Kirby Lawson to girls aged eight to twelve. 



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Facing the Giants by Eric Wilson - Review

Synopsis:

Never Give Up. Never Back Down. Never Lose Faith.

These were the most important words ever used, and said. Ones that are put into place in the story.

Grant Taylor has had six consecutive losing seasons, as a high school football coach. He believes that nothing else could possibly go wrong. But he's wrong. With failure and fear over powering him, this coach, and husband turns to God for help. Trusting God somehow did the impossible for the Shiloh Christan Eagles, as they soon discover how faith plays out of the football field.

My Review--

What an emotional read, and more importantly an inspirational read! When they had given up strength was here to pick them up. After seeing the movie, I read that there was a book. I immediately went searching for it and read it. I loved the movie, and I must say the book was just as good. The book went into a deeper meaning which I love. I got to figure out certain things, that I didn't get a chance to see in the movie.

In the book we got more of a background on David and Larry, a more behind the scenes look of Coach Duke, a better understanding of Mr. Bridges and his dedication to the football team, a background of Grant and Brooke, and  better understanding of the interaction the footballers had with each other... and of course... The Georgia football history. Lets also not forget the Death Crawl... but you have to see or read to figure that out.

If you liked the movie, you would really want to read the book, and if you read the book and didn't see the movie... Then you want to see the movie!!

**Watch out! I think I'll be also reading Fireproof, and Courageous. They are all based on the screen play by Alex and Stephen Kendrick!!

This is the trailor for the movie.

Loving to Read One Step at a Time

KRWLucy
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Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally-- Review

Synopsis:

 What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though-she leads them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there's a new guy in town who threatens her starting position... suddenly she's hoping he'll see her as more than just a teammate.

My Review
 I LOVED this book! It was amazing! The romance, the relationships, it's not often you see all of this in a book! One of my favorite parts of the book, is the relationship Jordan has with her teammates. They get along really well, and you don't always see that much acceptance when it comes to boys and girls playing on the same sports teams. I play golf, and basketball, and I love playing with the opposite gender! They are competitive in many different ways, and they also love to have fun!
Below are some topics I wanted to touch base on:

• Girls Playing with Boys: According to statistics there are over 1,200 female high school football players across the country. What are some of the positives and negatives of blurring the lines between female and male sports? Do you support it?

- YES! I definitely support this for many reasons! There are many positives to this experience. You get to experience a different level of competition. Boys seem to be more competitive at certain things! Girls think differently then boys. Therefore in a sport the opposite gender might have a more genius idea about a certain play than another. However they our some down falls. Boys can be stronger than girls (SORRY LADIES!), also there is the possibility of not getting equal opportunity since we look at males being more tough.

• Breaking through the Ranks: Jordan is symbolic for the many girls/women who choose to fight the status quo. What have some of your own experiences been like?

- This can be hard for any female. In some ways being a female you feel that you're hair has to be done perfect, you're shoes have to be in style, your clothes must all match from head to toe, and that you should be involved in all the girly stuff! I really have to disagree with that. Everyday (except like 5 days of the year) my hair is up in a pony tail. I don't have the time to straighten, or have the energy, and nor do I care! I wear sweats everyday except Fridays. (I try and make an effort to put on jeans, and either my school spirit top, or a nice top) If someone wants to like me in any way they will like me for the way I am, and tough fudges if they don't! It is their loss! I don't feel that I need to change because someone wants me to. I will stay the same and that will never change. You are you, and you should never change, just to get someone to like you. Someone does like you, and I don't think any girl should ever feel different.

•  Untraditional Romance: Catching Jordan puts a great emphasis on the untraditional relationship and character role Jordan possess in the book. What effects (if any) do these types of relationships have on kids and people today? Is it important for people to be exposed to them?

-I feel people should date who they want. In this case it is not the most "traditional" relationship. Jordan isn't the best looking girl around, yet she is dating one of the hottest boys around. I think that anyone should get to choose their relationship, and you don't have to do what every person says you should do! This exposes people to be the person they really are instead of the stereotypical image we are told to be.

Here is my interview with Miranda Kenneally, the author of Catching Jordan.

Where did the idea for the title Catching Jordan come from? Originally the book was called SCORE, but we needed to find something less racy! So my publisher and I put together lists of hundreds and hundreds of possible titles. We came up with some very corny stuff, but finally CATCHING JORDAN was suggested during a meeting at Sourcebooks. Everyone liked it! A friend of mine suggested "This Gridiron Aint in the Kitchen" but we didn't go with that. Obviously.

Who's your favorite character in Catching Jordan and why? Jake Reynolds, the pervy guy who's friends with Jordan's brother, Mike. Jake is just hilarious to me. He's definitely a jerk at times, but he's a good friend to Mike and he acts real. Plus, he's the only person ever who can successfully deliver terrible pick-up lines.

Is this book based on any real life events? A few things. 1) We totally had a Jonah and the Whale hallway at my church when I was little. It freaked me out! 2) A guy friend of mine wouldn't let me buy checkered bedding because he thought it looked like graph paper. 3) We had to take care of electronic babies in middle school.

Which character did you have the hardest time writing? Jordan's dad. It was hard to get his worries and character development across without being too blunt. I'm still not sure I succeeded.

Are you anything like Jordan?Oh yes! I can't stand giving up. I try, try, try at everything I do.

Where did you come up with the relationship with TY, and then with Sam Henry?Ty was around from the very, very first page I ever wrote. Henry showed up a few pages later, and he was this goofball friend character. No matter how hard I tried, he just kept showing up and taking over scenes. Finally I just let him take over. :)

 Thank-you Miranda for doing this! I appreciate it!
*This review was meant to be done weeks ago! My apologies to Miranda!*
**Please remember that the answers to the questions were my opinions. Other people might have different opinions!*
Loving to Read One Step at a Time




KRWLucy

The Sunday Salon - A Wrinkle in Time Anniversary

This Saturday, February 11, 2012, marks the 50th Anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time.

At school we are participating in the celebration of A Wrinkle in Time with a display case and a giveaway! We'll be giving away tote bags, t-shirts, and buttons! On the blog, one lucky entry can receive:

1 T-shirt
1 Tote Bag
1 Bookmark
1 Button

Just complete the entry form! All entries must be in by Friday, Februrary 10, 2012 at 11:59pm, EST. Winner will be picked Saturday, February 11, 2012 during the 50th Anniversary Celebration!

The comment section will NOT be used for entries - please do not leave your email address in the comments.





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Battle of The Kids' Book 2012 - It's HERE!

 Yes! The School Library Journal Battle of the Kids' Book officially kicks off today with the posting of the The LIST! These 16 titles will battle it out for King of the World, er Best Kid's Book of the Year!! This will be my third year participating and I am psyched!

I am challenging myself to read all 16 titles BEFORE the battle begins on March 13th.  There will be a pronouncement from some cool kid's book author-turned-judge EVERY DAY except weekends! You gotta be on your toes for this one!! The throw-down is fast and furious and the winner will be crowned on April 2nd.  Make sure you bookmark the Battle Page and download The Brackets and visit the site each day.  Soon we'll meet the judges but in the meantime, let's get reading!

1. Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming
2. Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
3. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
4. Bootleg by Karen Blumenthal
5. Cheshire Cheese Cat by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright
6. Chime by Frannie Billingsley
7. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
8. Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
9. Drawing From Memory by Allen Say
10. Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami
11. Heart and Soul by Kadir Nelson
12. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
13. Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet
14. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
15. Okay For Now by Gary Schmidt
16. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

As a proud member of The Nerdy Book Club, I've read 12 of these already!

BUT, I haven't read them in this order!! I'm going to read all of the books in the order listed (same as brackets) so I can do a comparison of each and try to guess the winner before the judges do! I've only got six weeks to get all the books, read them and write about them!! ACK!

The only thing left to decide is buy or borrow???

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It's Monday: What Are You Reading? 1/30/12

Check out Teach Mentor Texts with Jen and Kellee to find more #kidlit bloggers joining in this special meme.

In The Past

These are some reads over the past two weeks.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - This started out strong for me but then it felt draggy. I realy didn't like the parts with Valentine and Domosthenes either.  I thought those parts could be left out. I also thought it could have ended after the twist or the trial. The speaker for the dead felt like an unbelievable add-on.  Could it just have been because I was listening to this?

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand - I liked this one almost as much as Unearthly. I thought it could have been much shorter - parts with Clara's vision of the cemetery repeated too often. I didn't like Clara or Angela in this one, either. Christian and Tucker were still awesome but Tucker made a choice I didn't think he would based on what we'd learned about his character. I loved the history of the Mom/Dad and finding out about Jefferey, both of which made up for the "shortcomings".

Jane by April Lindner - Read this as part of the Classic Double Challenge. I'll be comparing/contrasting this with Jane Eyre, which I hope to start this week also.

The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis - Follow up to Bud, Not Buddy. I wonder if I needed to re-read that one first? Maybe I need to re-read this one.

Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henke - Great story about a girl, Martha, coming of age during a family vacation. Very well done.  Read for booktalks at school.

Legacy and Ignition by Clifford Riley - Short background stories about the characters in the 39 clues series. They are each only 30-40 pages long, I think.  Reading them on Kindle Fire - no page #s.

Darkness Falls by Cate Tiernan - Book 2 in The Immortal Beloved series.  It's nice to read a YA book where the characters are over 100 and so are the love interests.  I liked this one a lot but I felt she spent too much time re-hashing the first book.

In the Present
Reading Jane Eyre and listening to Friday Night Knitting Club.

In the Future
I'm finally going to start my Printz challenge! Plus I'll attempt to read the 2012 Newbery winner as well as finish Jane Eyre.  I am also blowing through the 7 books in the Rapid Fire series as I wait for the next Cahills vs Vespers book in the 39 Clues series.

Reviewing This Week
I hope to review these two titles this week for my Cybils Sci/Fan challenge.

Ok, I think I've given quite enough information! What are you reading this week?
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My ALA Experience!

ALA was in one word, amazing. Seriously. There were so many people and so many books! Most everybody was super amazing and nice and polite. I met some really nice bloggers in line while I was waiting for Bitterblue. And yes, I got Bitterblue! I'm still excited over that!




Isn't that just a gorgeous cover?! I'm still so excited I got it! I'm going to be re-reading Graceling and Fire before reading this book, but expect a review sometime in the future.

The books that I got:

Yeah, so alot right? My favortite titles that I got were:
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore [DUH!]
Gilt
The Catastrophic History of You and Me
Fracture
Bittersweet
There is No Dog
Illuminate
Partials
Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff
... and basically all the other books I got. I loved everything!

ALA was such an exciting and new experience for me. I loved being in a place where everyone loves books, which is definitely not the case at my school! I also got a chance to meet a few other bloggers, who were super amazing. Plus, I got the opportunity to meet Heather Burch, author of Halflings, who also signed my book. She was wonderful and super kind. I can't wait to start her book!

Overall, my first ALA experience was amazing, and I can't wait until the next time I get to go! =)



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The Sunday Salon - Are You My Newbery 2012 - What the Students Think

We had our final meeting! And the Mock Newbery winners are:



Winner: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Honors: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
             Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt

 The titles we read were:

1. City of Orphans by Avi
2. Sidekicks by Jack Ferraiolo
3. Trouble with May Amelia by Jennifer Holm
4. Icefall by Matthew J Kirby
5. Inside Out and Back Again by Thannha Lai
6. Apothecary by Maile Meloy
7. The Adventures of Sir Gawain The True by Gerald Morris
8. Divergent by Veronica Roth
9. Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt
10. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
11. Bigger Than a Breadbox by Laurel Snyder
12. Emerald Atlas by John Stephens
13. Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
14. Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
15. Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by M Wolizter

Somehow, I'd forgotten some of us met over summer! I forgot to include True...Sort of and Between Shades of Gray on the published reading list!

This year's club was fundamentally different than last year's.  We didn't have any sixth graders and ended up with half as many students.  You can tell that most were older by the titles that won!

Also, due to budget constraints, we didn't get the books until late and didn't have many copies of each. Since many students use the school library as the place they receive books - some dropped out because they couldn't get the books in time.

One thing that was the same; it was requested that we do a "popular" book club.  I think I will move my focus next year.  Maybe read books that are/were on the Battle of the Kid's Books.  As of next month, I'll be moving to a lunch time read for each grade.  3 book clubs per month!! For sixth grade, I'll continue using the above list. For 7th graders - which has one boy - I'm going to use fantasy and for 8th - a mix of contemporary romance, fantasy, and mystery.


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Incarnate by Jodi Meadows- Review

Reviewed by: Aneeqah's Not So Real Life
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Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Genres: Dystopia, Paranormal
Release Date: January 31, 2012
My Review:

First off, thank you so much to HarperCollins for giving me an ARC of this book!

In this story, we meet Ana. She is a totally new soul. In her world, souls have been reincarnated for thousands of years. But before she was born, a person named Ciana died. Ciana should have been reborn, but she wasn't. Instead, Ana, a totally new soul, was born. In the history of their world, this has never happened before. Obviously, people don't like the idea of this. So when Ana travels to the City of Heart to find some answers, she doesn't expect anyone to be nice to her at all. But Sam is.

The world-building was very intricate in this book. The whole thing with reincarnation was really cool, but there were also lots of different creatures, like dragons, sylphs [which are shadow-like things], centaurs, and a bunch of other things. It was really neat, and well-done, except it was a tad bit creepy that you could be reincarnated to be a boy or girl. And that your parents could become your children when they get reincarnated. It's complicated, and yes, a little disturbing, but it's still pretty easy to grasp the idea of this whole incarnation thing.

I liked Ana. She wasn't perfect, not even close to it. She started out insecure, because of all the lies her meany mother told her. But she slowly changed when she realized everything her mother told her was a lie [her mother was a really mean and cruel to her, by the way]. I think her switch from non-trusting to trusting was good, it wasn't too fast or anything. Overall, she was just trying to find out who and what she was supposed to be.

I also liked Sam. He was super sweet and kind, and helped out Ana alot. My only concern was that he was a little too perfect. Just a little. He was always there for Ana, always knew what to say, etc. He didn't really have any bad qualities at all. I really liked that he was sweet, but I also enjoy a flawed character too, but I didn't get that with Sam.

The romance wasn't insta-love, which made me happy! I hate, hate, hate insta-love so much, so I was thrilled when it wasn't the whole love-at-first-sight thing. However, that being said, the romance was just alright for me. I didn't really see a connection between Ana and Sam, except for one thing [which I won't say here, because I think it's a little spoilery]. Maybe I'm just being critical of romance now that I've read Under the Never Sky [because the romance in that book was AMAZING!], but the romance... didn't work. I did appreciate the un-insta-love though.

There was lots of action in this book that really kept me hooked. Lots of unexpected things too, which I loved. There were things that I never say coming and I was like "BAISJFASDVP;OIUA!". I love being taken by surprise, and that happened in this book! And whenever you thought things were getting a little dull, the author always threw something in the book to keep you wanting more. This book had it all, action scenes, running scenes, getting shot-at scenes, slow scenes, and even a big glittering party scene!

The reason this book didn't get a full 5 stars was probably because of Ana. I did say I liked her, but she wasn't unique. For me, she was just your typical girl protagonist. And then the whole creepy thing with incarnation. I just couldn't get over that fact.

Overall, this was a very unique story that I would recommend to anyone looking for a interesting YA story that has it all!




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Everneath by Brodi Ashton - Review

Reviewed by: Aneeqah's Not So Real Life
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Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genres: Mythology, Paranormal
Release Date: January 24, 2012
My Review:

First of all, thank you to HarperCollins for giving me an ARC of this book!

In Everneath, we meet a girl named Nikki Bennett. She traveled to this place called The Everneath [shocking, yes, I know!] and this guy named Cole 'Fed' off of her energy. So, 6 months later in human years [100 years in Everneath time] she 'wakes up' and chooses to return to her old life. But she only has 6 months.

Obviously, this book is hard to explain, and I didn't do such a good job... If you're still confused about what this book is about [which, you probably are!] check out the Goodreads summary HERE which does a much better job explaining than I do!

First off, let's talk about that cover! It's beautiful! I love the swirling red dress, which is absolutely gorgeous. Overall, a really great cover.

I really liked the mythology in this book. It got confusing at times, but it wasn't any mythology that I've read before, so it was interesting for me to find out more. I'm a huge mythology fan, so this aspect of the book was great!

I also like how layered this book was. It had a whole other side to it, that applies to real life. Nikki was faced with the choice of staying in the real world, where life is tough, and going back to the underworld with Cole, where life is easy. There's alot of those types of choices that we have to make in our life, you know, the whole easy path, hard path thing? And it also touched on addiction a little too. For Nikki, being with Cole was almost an addiction, something she craved, and she had to fight that. So there's alot of undertones in this book, which is something I really enjoyed.

Nikki's old boyfriend, Jack, is a character I really liked. He was so sweet, and he was always there for Nikki. But, he seemed a little over obsessed, to the point where it seemed creepy. He also seemed like "the perfect guy" we so often see in YA. I wished he would have been a little more unique, although I still liked him.

The main thing I didn't like about this book was that it was pretty predictable. I mean, I guessed what was going to happen at the end, and I guessed a few of the things that were supposed to be totally shocking for us. I love it when I guess something in a book, and it turns out totally wrong, but unfortunately, that doesn't happen.

Also, Nikki was kind of irritating for me. When she returns to school, she's so quiet and she whispers everything. It made me want to slap her and say "SPEAK UP!". And she was so blind at times too. Definitely not one of my favorite main characters.

Overall, however, it was a pretty good read! I enjoyed the story and the mythology a lot, so if you a person who loves mythology, give this book a shot.





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