Can you imagine being the adopted only child of two orphans?  Isabelle Beans knows it’s very hard not to know who she is and who she came from, but it explains a lot.  Like why she doesn’t have any friends, why she seems to get into trouble, why she’s lonely, why she has trouble fitting in.  After being sent yet again to the principal’s office, she falls into a closet and travels down through a tunnel.  Here is where the story seems a bit like Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel.  Isabelle comes to another world where she encounters children running away from home, afraid that the witch will come and eat them. They live in a camp, much like Never Never Land.  Instead of running away from the witch’s direction, Isabelle runs towards the witch’s house.  Instead of encountering a typical witch, she finds an older woman who gathers herbs,  medicinal plants and roots for the villagers’ ailments.  This couldn’t be the wicked witch could it?  Is Isabelle a witch, too, because she understands this woman and her herbs?  This is a place where she finally feels at home.   A confrontation between the runaway children and the woman answers some questions, but asks many more which Isabelle needs answered.  An interesting adventure sure to keep the reader wondering.  Those who love fairy tales will enjoy this book.

Example, after example, after example of an interjection (“Oh, no!”, “uh-oh!”, “The jerk”) accompanied by rough whimsical color sketches.

Delightful! It will definitely grab the readers attention!

I first read Encyclopedia Brown in the 1970s, so I was interested in how they stood the test of time.

The opening of the book still explains why Encyclopedia Brown is called that and how his father is the chief of police  of Idaville. The 10 cases Encyclopedia Brown solves are copy written 2010 and so are new. I was able to solve a few of the cases myself: having to do with military time, dates- B.C., and the differences between the  seasons in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Both, he and I did this through the powers of observation alone. No computers or cell phones required (or even mentioned). And he still only charges a quarter!  The solutions to the cases are in the back of the book.

The illustrations have been modernized several times over the years, much as Betty Crocker’s image has been over the years.

STILL TOTALLY ENJOYABLE!

In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Movie Prequel: Defiance Volume 2 the Autobots and the Decepticons are philosophically divided over whether they should continue their passive ways or aggressively attack those who attacked them.

This is issue number 2 of four. There is a very short summary of the previous episode on the title page before the graphic novel begins. I almost missed it. True graphic novel readers, might not have this same problem. True fans would probably not have any trouble telling the Decepticons from the Autobots, either.

The Demon Queen: This book was just plain weird. A boy who comes from nowhere, who has no parents and no homeland just happens to be fostered in the town where a mother and her daughter Honor relocate after a terrible tragedy in Indonesia that claims the life of  Honor’s father. And Honor just happens to be the gateway for the mother of all evil goddesses to enter the world and take over.  And the only one who can stop her is Jesse, the boy with the mysterious past.  I kept thinking that the plot sounded familiar, like some cheesy movie I had seen on the SciFi channel. I picked it up because I was interested in having a story based on a mythology other than Greco-Roman, but this is so out there that it will be a hard sell to my high school students. Some middle school boys who are into weird monsters and fighting might go for it.

One of the Survivors: Joey is one of two students in his high school history class who escape and survive the fire that destroys his school.  The book starts with Joey waking up from a nightmare – seeing the school burning while he is trying to go inside and save his cat. And his mother.  And all the other students in his class. The rest of the book is about Joey dealing with his grief, trying to reconnect with Maureen, the other survivor, and the blame placed on him by most of the students and much of the community. People need someone to blame and they blame Joey and Maureen – after all, they were the only survivors from their class, they must have survived because they started the fire themselves and escaped. Without being weepy or preachy, Shaw deals with a difficult situation in a way that is plausible and understandable. The book is short, just under 200 pages, and alternates between narrative and a journal Joey is advised to start to help him through his grief. This might sell well to some of my reluctant readers.

After the death of her reporter father, Maggie Chen decides to follow in his footsteps and interns at a local Seattle newspaper. However, on her first story, she finds a connection to her father’s death that leads her to wonder if  there is more to his life than she has been led to believe.  Is everything she knows about her father a lie? What is the connection between her family and 1930s immigrant Fai-yi Li?  Maggie will find some of  her answers in Chinatown and learn about the Chinese Exclusion Act to find others. Part historical novel, part contemporary mystery.

Amy had a rough junior year. Trying to escape her abusive boyfriend a mother and stepfather who were probably glad to have some time alone, she moved from her Seattle neighborhood to a tiny town in the north Cascades with her aunt. Trying to start a new life in a small, rundown trailer in an unwelcoming rural town isn’t easy, until Amy meets Henry in the misty clearing behind her aunt’s trailer.  Henry is totally unlike her ex-boyfriend Quinn.  Henry is a gentleman.  Soon Amy finds out just how different – Henry and his family live in 1944.  But the fact that Amy is able to move through the mist threatens the existence of Henry and his family.

These two teens have a lot to learn from each other: Amy must learn to trust again, and Henry has to learn to face his fears or neither one of them will be able to move on with their lives. A sweet romance that is not too sweet, with a touch of the paranormal that will appeal to teens, this novel should appeal to girls in middle school and up.

Once you get past and accept the fact that you are reading about werewolves in a humous manner, not in a gothic way, and get past the fart dialogue, 100% Wolf is actually a pretty engrossing story–funny, good character development, and nonstop action.  By the end of the story, you end up cheering for the underdog (no pun intended).  Because of the setting and ‘castle’ is mentioned, I am guessing the story takes place in Europe.  The Lupin family comes from a long and distinguished line of werewolves–the Fangen clan.  On each youngster’s 125th month birthday, on the monthly full moon, there is a wolfification–where the youngster makes his or her first change into a wolf and gets to lead the pack on the hunt.  Freddy lives with his uncle, who is the leader of the clan, and his two cousins who are absolute terrors with no boundaries.  When his big night arrives, instead of changing into a wolf he changes into a poodle.  You see, his mom was bit by a poodle while she was pregnant with him and although his father is a full-blooded werewolf, he still mutated.  His rotten cousins strap a moonstone around his neck making it impossible for him to change back into human form.  While a dog, he discovers a plot to kill off the Fangen clan, but he can’t warn anyone because of his dog form.  Very funny and engaging.

This is a new addition to the Writer’s toolbox series, this time we are learning how to write a simple play.  Like the others in this series, you will be entertained with a short play that can be red on it’s own with engaging artwork, or learn to write a play of your own using the Tool sidebars.  The Tools help break down the process of writing for the stage, covering areas like; Character development, scenes, stage direction, dialogue, emotions, plot, climax, and conclusion.  Good for browsing or classroom use.  Contains writing tips, exercises, glossary, and index.