VVMBookBlog

The results are in for VVMS!

Here are our winning books for the 2005-2006 Maud Hart Lovelace Minnesota Young Readers’ Award:

1. Fill Tilt by Neal Shusterman
2. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
3. (Tie) – City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau & House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Our results will be added to all the other schools and public libraries in Minnesota and we’ll find out the statewide winner at the end of April. At that time we’ll also find out what books will be on next year’s reading list.

Here’s the website with more information: http://www.isd77.k12.mn.us/lovelace/lovelace.html

I’ll be the first one to say that I’m not a big fan of reading fantasy books. Strange beasts and social groups of thinking and talking rabbits or rats, let’s say, just usually aren’t my favorites to read. Then I read Airborn by Kenneth Oppel and I think I could be convinced fantasy isn’t such a bad thing.

Matt Cruse works as a cabin boy on a huge airship/dirigible that transports rich people around the world, following in his dad’s footsteps except his dad died in an airship accident years ago. Matt is happiest when he’s flying and feeling the bouyancy of the airship.

Early in the story Matt helps rescue a dying man in another smaller balloon. As the man died, he talked about seeing some strange furry, winged creatures. No one took him seriously until a year later when his granddaughter, Kate, and her chaperone boarded Matt’s airship, the Aurora. Kate is determined to find the truth in her grandfather’s sightings and gets Matt to help her.

Disaster comes to the Aurora in the form of pirates robbing the wealthy passengers, and then a huge storm forces the airship to land on a tropical island. And then the excitement really begins!

What will Kate, Matt, and the rest of the passengers and crew do while they are on the island? And what’s going to happen between wealthy Kate and Matt, a lowly cabin boy? It’s a real page-turner at the end and then comes the sequel called Skybreaker. What can happen next?