VVMBookBlog

(Originally posted 2/26/06)

There’s lots to think about in this book–Wrecked by E. R. Frank. This author usually writes books for more mature readers and this is no exception.

Anna was driving her friend, Ellen, home from a party and ran into another car that swerved into her lane. Both Anna and Ellen were badly hurt, but the driver of the other car was killed, and that driver was Cameron, the girlfriend of Anna’s brother, Jack. Jack’s life had just taken off since his relationship with Cameron started up and now she was dead–and Anna feels like she killed Cameron.

The rest of the book describes the difficult healing process for everyone–both from the physical pain of the accident and especially from the painful emotions experienced by Anna and Jack as brother and sister, and also by their parents. Flashbacks of their childhood help explain why their family has problems dealing with these major problems today.

While it wasn’t enjoyable to read about what everyone went through to deal with the psychological effects of the accident, the everyday activities of Anna and Ellen and all their friends showed how important friends and family are in recovering from such a trauma.
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Sudoku “Trivia” Update
Several PrimeTimes turned in completed puzzles and several more turned in puzzles that showed good attempts given the short time you had to complete it. Great job! Seems like lots of students are doing sudoku so we’ll have some sample puzzles printed out for you in the media center.

Before I get to today’s book, here’s the Sudoku website mentioned on our news last Friday:
http://www.websudoku.com/

You can choose from Easy, Medium, Hard or Evil puzzles. The site will keep track of your times and show you how your time compared to the thousands of other people who did that puzzle. Lots of fun!
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This weekend I was at the Mall of America and saw the new book by Kate DiCamillo, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I bought one copy to read and bring to school, never expecting to even read it this weekend and REALLY not expecting to like it. How could anything be better than Because of Winn-Dixie, and how could Kate DiCamillo shine again after her Newbery-award winning, Tale of Despereaux? Well, I read it and Ms. DiCamillo is definitely shining again!

Edward Tulane is a very FINE china rabbit, dressed in the very best clothes, and cared for and loved by 10-year-old Abilene Tulane. As it often happens when we are in a good situation, we don’t always appreciate how good we have things, and Edward definitely didn’t appreciate the life he was living. Then it happened…Abilene and her family was on an ocean journey and Edward was accidently tossed over the side of the ship! Edward spent the next 297 days on the bottom of the ocean, where for the first time Edward felt something, and that was FEAR!

Fortunately that wasn’t the end of Edward, but I don’t want to mess it up for you and tell you the rest. As the title says, the rest of Edward’s journey is quite “miraculous” and takes him to a variety of places–some rather funny and all very touching. And his journey takes Edward, and us as the readers, on a big journey of emotions–all in a little book about a rabbit.

You can read it at “story level” and just enjoy a fairytale-like story, or go deeper and see what Edward had to do in order to really get involved in life. Lots of lessons for all of us!

(originally posted 2/19/06)

Recently our Bloomington teacher/media specialist YA (young adult) Book Club read Caroline B. Cooney’s Code Orange as our monthly selection. While I missed that meeting of the group, the many good things I’d heard about this book motivated me to read it that weekend. And it made for quite a weekend of reading!

Mitty, short for Mitchell, is a junior in high school and needs to get going on his disease report. It’s Sunday night and his assignment is to have some notes taken by classtime on Monday. But he doesn’t even know what disease to research!

But, it just so happened that his mother, an interior decorator, has a large inventory of old (really old!) but classy-looking books that she uses to decorate her customers’ homes. Mitty noticed a couple books on the topic of smallpox, and one was from 1902 and written by a doctor who had treated smallpox victims. But…in the book…he found an envelope and inside the envelope were a couple smallpox scabs which he touched! And one kind of disintegrated in his hand and he breathed in the dust!

He didn’t think much about it right then but over the next few days, as he conducted the actual research for his project, he learned more about the disease–the symptoms, how the disease progresses and mortality rates–he realized he might be in trouble. And as he anonymously contacted various health agencies by email to find out if he had the disease–and if he would infect the rest of New York City with him, he also accidently contacted a group of bioterrorists who figured out they could use him for their own evil purposes! Now he’s really in trouble!

The “experts” say this isn’t Cooney’s best book, but it really kept me reading. She teases the reader into always guessing whether he has the disease or not. Is he going to make his way to safety or not? And there are the parts discussing small pox as a disease and what it does to people that give the book a definite “gross” factor.

Other books by Cooney: The Face on the Milk Carton, Both Sides of Time, Burning Up, Flight 116 is Down, and many other suspense-filled novels.

Come and check them out!

(originally posted 2/4/06)

I heard it was coming, saw it in Target, and had to buy a couple copies for school. I’m talking about Louis Sachar’s new book called Small Steps. It’s sort of a sequel to Holes where the author takes one of the characters, Armpit, and tells what he’s doing now 2 years after getting out of Green Lake Camp.

He’s still digging holes! Except now he’s being paid for it and earning some respect from his boss and others in his life, including his handicapped 10-year-old neighbor, Ginny.

Then X-Ray, another former Green Laker, shows up with a get-rich-quick plan to get some easy money scalping tickets for a rock concert. Sound like trouble? Well, probably, and I really had to keep reading to see what was going to happen with all of them, including the teen rock star herself, Kaira DeLeon.

I don’t know if the author could come up with a book AS GOOD AS HOLES, but Small Steps really kept me reading to see how Armpit realizes maybe a better life comes by just taking small steps.

Our copies are all processed and ready. If they are checked out, just ask us to put them on Hold.