Spring Reading 2015 Gotham Academy Volume 1: Welcome to Gotham Academy

This has the school story appeal of Harry Potter, plus the gritty setting of Gotham, and appearances by Batman and some of the city's criminals. Olive Silverlock is an intriguing character with her amnesia of the summer's events when she returns to school in the fall. It makes readers wonder if the memory loss has something to do with the closing off of North Hall on the school's campus, since they both happened over the summer break. She needs a little space, but distancing herself from her boyfriend proves hard when Olive is assigned to mentor his little sister, Maps, as she begins her first year at the Academy. With reports of ghosts loose in the girl's dorm, caped figures seen heading into the cemetery at night, even the sound of footsteps and chains clinking from behind the walls, tension is running high among the students. And the mysterious notes scribbled in the historical journal that Olive and her partner are assigned to do a report on for class just add more layers to the puzzle. 

For readers who enjoy superhero stories, but don't mind the superhero taking a minor role in the mystery, Gotham Academy offers a unique view of Batman's city.

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Summer Reading 2015 Trollhunters

Ever been the underdog? The one who is picked last for teams, or not picked at all? The short, skinny kid who gets stuffed into a locker? The chubby kid who is bullied? Then you may understand how Jim and his friend, Toby (a.k.a. Tub), feel every day. They are picked on and bullied, forced to hand over their lunch money, never make it up the rope climb in gym class, and have pathetic home lives. Jims' father is super paranoid because his older brother disappeared when they were just kids in what was called "The Milk Carton Epidemic". He has alarm systems, steel shutters, and multiple locks to keep the house secure. Jim isn't allowed to walk to school, stay out after dark, or take part in any dangerous activity. Tub lives with his grandmother and her incredibly large collection of cats; there are so many that he has given up on keeping their names straight and just calls them "Cat #2" or "Cat #46."

But things are about to change. It seems that "The Milk Carton Epidemic" may be returning. Children have begun to go missing in the town of San Bernadino where the boys live. And Jim thinks he has seen something inside his house after his dad has secured it for the night. He's right. Trolls are coming to the surface in search of children to snatch. What can two misfits do to protect not only themselves, but others?

The degree to which the troll world (or underworld) is described is mind-boggling. All the different types of trolls with their various appearances, weaknesses, and methods of attack must have taken forever to imagine and then write down. The theory of why trolls are associated with bridges makes perfect sense once it is explained. And the role of television in the story is brilliant and subversive. The action is written with enough gore and gross details to satisfy the most bloodthirsty reader, and it is balanced with the possibility of romance between Jim and the fair Claire (however much it is a long-shot).

Readers who enjoy swashbuckling, heroes fighting monsters, and urban fantasy will enjoy this fast paced epic. And they will be longing for a sequel when they reach the end.

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Summer Reading 2015 Your Kids: Cooking!

The students at my school love cookbooks, so I am always interested when I see one written especially for kids. Your Kids Cooking! is not just a recipe book, but an entire program to teach young people the terms and skills needed to be successful in the kitchen. The program consists of the book, a DVD, and a website. The book contains 10 recipe lessons that build upon each other, so that kids learn 100 cooking skills, techniques, and terms by the end of the program. Within each lesson is the main recipe, an additional recipe of a similar dish for further practice, and a recipe for a sweet treat or snack to reward the chef for all the hard work. The DVD goes through a demonstration of the recipe step-by-step, and the website has 10 more recipes to accompany each lesson.

Within the book, each lesson is written up with kid-friendly directions and photos of the ingredients, utensils, and the steps of the recipe. Information includes how many the recipe will serve, the amount of prep time needed, suggestions for completing the meal (side dishes), "Easy-Fix Options" (such as buying frozen meatballs instead of making them from scratch), a shopping list and shopping tips, a MyPlate.gov breakdown of the nutrition for the dish and extra nutritional info (like the difference between regular and wholegrain pasta), and even interesting food facts from around the world. The beginning of the book includes a list of the utensils needed for each recipe and there is a buyer's guide on the website. The book also contains tips on kitchen safety, covering "sharp stuff, hot stuff, and germy stuff." The DVD has a segment on knife safety.

Pancake lovers know that you can order a short stack, if you aren't very hungry, or get the full stack. In this program, STACK stands for "Skills, Terms, and Cooking Know-How." By the time future chefs have completed Your Kids Cooking! they will have the tall STACK, for sure.

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley. You can visit the website to see a sample lesson. You can also see what others are saying about the program by visiting the FaceBook page.

Spring Reading 2015 Batgirl Volume 1: The Batgirl of Burnside

Batgirl is back in action after recovering from a crippling attack. She's moved to the hippest area in Gotham, Burnside. Her roommate Frankie is a computer nerd working for a dating site called Hooq. Babs has been accepted for a PhD program with her thesis proposal of an intelligent algorithm that can actually analyze social movements and connections and predict crime before it happens. (Anybody having flashbacks to "Minority Report"?) 

But everything is not coming up roses. Dinah's place is  burned to the ground. Frankie's been putting in a lot of overtime trying to flush a virus out of the Hooq servers. Someone has been stealing personal electronics and selling them to Riot Black, who releases the privileged information for the world to see. Babs actually gets matched up to someone through her Hooq profile, but her date thinks Batgirl is a criminal vigilante. And someone is posing as Batgirl and actually committing crimes and posting selfies about it. Sigh... Being a superhero used to be so simple. Whatever happened to the good old days?

There are plenty of twists, turns,and surprises to keep readers hanging on the edge and waiting for the next page. The storyline does a nice job of balancing the real world problems of paying bills, meeting with your thesis adviser and trying to find someone to date with the superhero details of where to get new gear, how to protect your secret identity, and dealing with public perception and police suspicion.

An entertaining new addition to the Batgirl legend.

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Summer Reading 2015 The Trotters of Tweeville: Zavis DaMavis

Other than the protagonist's name, I really didn't think this story was in the style of Dr. Seuss, as the blurb stated. It is written in rhyme, but it doesn't have all the whimsical Seussian nonsense words or the same style of illustrations. The book does a good job of showing situations in which the Golden Rule is being followed by Zavis. I can see it being used by parents and teachers to start a discussion about treating others kindly and taking the initiative to help when you see a need. Since all the examples take place around the school day, it would work well in an elementary school setting, but could also be used at home or in preschools and day-cares. 

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Summer Reading 2015 Artie's Party: Featuring the Vita-Men

This is an interesting and fun way to help explain how the body works. The body is a village and all the organs live there and work together. Artie Heart is the main character in this story. He is busy doing his job of delivering oxygen and nutrients to all the residents of the body and he begins to notice that everyone is feeling tired. Artie visits Raymond Brain and they decide to invite the Vita-Men band to come for a visit. The band's performance perks everyone right up.

The illustrations are colorful and eye-catching. The job that each organ performs is described, not in a medically precise way, but so that young readers can understand. Raymond Brain, for example, sits in a control center with lots of switches and knobs, while Artie Heart pushes around a cart full of oxygen and nutrient packages. (We all know the heart doesn't actually travel through the body, but it does pump those necessary elements around.)

The companion website has activities, videos (including a music video by The Vita-Men), parent information and even a weekly challenge. Offering the online tie-in makes the characters more appealing to youngsters who enjoy multimedia presentations of information. And the book makes the point that vitamins are necessary for proper functioning of the body without being preachy in getting the message across.

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Summer Reading 2015 The Jinni on the Roof

It can sometimes be hard to find children's books that depict cultural diversity but offer enough commonalities that readers can identify with the characters. This story does that easily by showing a boy who decides to play a trick on his family. At some point or other most of us have probably craved a particular food or been so hungry that we didn't want to wait until meal time to eat. That is Raza's situation; he wants the "hot, flaky parathas" and doesn't want to go to school and miss out on the breakfast being served at home. So he decides to make the cook think there is a hungry jinni on the roof who wants her to leave some parathas for him. 

Young readers will laugh at Uncle Hassan snoring and waking Raza up, and at Raza's clever impersonation of a jinni to trick Amina the cook. They will also be able to identify with a house full of relatives gathered for the holidays. The humor and the things they relate to will help the unfamiliar parts of the story not seem too strange. There is a glossary of terms in the back to define words such as iftar, chai, and lassi. The author's note explains about the tradition of Ramadan and the festival of Eid-ul-Fitr. 

This would be an excellent book to include in units about holidays or families. A class could even use the recipe at the back of the book to make their own parathas and find out why Raza enjoys them so much.

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.