Pippi Goes on Board by Astrid Lindgren

I so loved Pippi when I was growing up. 
Once, I even slept with my feet on my pillow and head under the covers.  Pippi seemed to have it all, money,  is incredibly strong, lives  in Villa Vllekulla with her monkey Mr. Nilsson and a horse who lives on the porch.  Plus, Pippi was always good for an adventure. Pippi Goes on Board is separated into kind of mini stories. Pippi goes shopping, writes a letter, goes to school, the fair, and ultimately decides that she, Tommy and Annika should get shipwrecked, on purpose no less.  So you know there are defiantly going to be some antics but most of all an adventure.   In the story where Pippi goes shopping with Tommy and Annika, she decides that she wants to buy a piano. "But, Pippi, says Tommy, you can't play the piano, can you?"  and Pippi replies, "How can I tell, when I've never tried? I've never had any piano to try on.  And this much I can tell you, Tommy-to play the piano without any piano, that takes a powerful lot of practicing."  There are quotes throughout the book that demonstrate Pippi's wisdom and special way of looking at the world which makes this a wonderful summer time read for me.  I especially love how Pippi is reunited with her father at the end.  A very touching moment follows.  I would put this book for 8-11 year olds.  My review copy was purchased.  

Seagulls Don't Eat Pickles: Fish Finelli Book 1 by ES Farber

Norman, known as Fish by his friends and family, has been fixing up an old boat with his pals Roger and T.J.   Roger is on the right and T.J. is the one with the pickle in his hand on the left.  Once the boat is finished, the trio plan to put on a Seagull motor boat engine then race in the Captain Kidd Classic. Fish has been saving up his money, but he is still about twenty-seven dollars shy of the fifty-four he needs for the motor.   To make matters worse, Fish enters into a bet with bully Bryce Billings that he can find the long lost treasure of none other than Captain Kidd himself.  Will he and his friends be able to pull off this feat?  

You know how on a hot summer day sometimes we stop for some ice cream? As soon as we're done eating it this feeling of "ah, refreshing" hits us.  Well, Fish Finelli kinda left me with that feeling.  Know what I mean? Seagulls Don't Eat Pickles is such a cute summertime read.  There is adventure, mischief, friendships and those illustrations by Jason Beene are so darn cute. Interspersed are some nice educational tidbits about Long Island, wild life and historical figures that seemed to enrich the story line for me.  Highly recommend for 7-10 year old boys and girls.  My review copy came from the public library.  

What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang

Eva and Addie are considered to be “hybrids, “ or two souls that are housed within one body. As hybrids grow, they are supposed to “settle.” One soul takes the dominant lead and the other just fades away. But doctors have run their tests and despite the whispers surrounding them, Addie was said to be “healthy” and Eva was gone. Yet, Eva never really left Addie, they just got really good at hiding it. That is until an opportunity arrives for Eva to move again, but are the risks in their best interest?   

Kat Zhang has written a very gripping story.  I was literally on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen to Eva and Addie.  There is some really beautiful character development in What's Left of Me, the author really gets you wrapped up in these two souls making them so realistic.  Eva and Addie read like two sisters, each with their own personality and voice.  It's a feat difficult enough when your talking about the two girls, but then Zhang adds in other characters who possess the same trait, not a small feat.  I guess that's why I really became vested in what would happen to Eva and Addie as they are picked up by the government and placed into an institution. For you see, hybrids are thought to be dangerous to society and must be dealt with.  What's left of Me is full of action, suspense, mystery and left we wanting to know where Zhang is taking things next.  

Whats Left of Me was provided by Martina Boone at Adventures in YA Publishing as a part of their One Million Visitor Blog Celebration, a big thank you for opening my eyes to more YA books.  http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/

ETA: Review copy donated to public library. 

Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor

As a part of Adventures in YA & Childrens Publishing's Million Visitor Blog Celebration there were tons of giveaways for authors and readers alike.   I was lucky enough to win two books selected by Martina Boone,  Laini Taylor's Lips Touch Three Times and What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang (which I plan to review next.)  If you haven't checked out their blog yet you really should, there is tons of information on publishing, guest blogger's and tips on writing and workshops.  http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/ Thank you again Martina.  

Lips Touch Three Times consists of three separate stories with a short graphic illustration prior to each that highlight specific plot ideas.  At first, I wanted to see the graphic illustrations placed on the cover.  Yet, there is something about the red lips that stands out and says YA to me.  

The first story is called Goblin Fruit.  It is about Kizzy, who has yearned to be "one of those girls, the kind with perfect hair and ankles that stood out in a crowd".  Instead, she comes from a family who isn't seen as "normal."  One full of old traditions and superstitions.  Kizzy should have listened more closely to her grandmother and heeded her warnings about how Goblins tempt you with their fruit.  Yet, when new boy Jack Husk comes to town, Kizzy is blinded to her fate.  Of the three stories, this one was my least favorite.  I was rooting for Kizzy the whole time, but felt more like I was watching a slasher movie and kept screaming at her "don't walk into the cemetery ".  Yet, I really felt for Kizzy and perhaps that was what the author was going for.  

The Second story is Spicy Little Curses Such As These.  It begins in Hell where an English women (Estella) and Demon are coming to an agreement regarding 22 kids in Kashmir lives in exchange for a curse being placed on a child (Anamique) that makes her voice the most beautiful thing you ever heard but if you hear it you die.  As Anamique grows, she has kept her "voice as a bird in a cage,"  that is until James finds her diary and falls madly in love with her. This was my favorite story.  I love the beautiful prose and little details that Lani Taylor added to the story.  

The Third story is Hatchling.  Of the three, it is the longest with more time spent on character development and world building.  Hatchling is about a young girl who finds out she is from another world, one her mother has been trying to protect her from for her entire life.  Yet this world has a queen who raises children as her pets and she wants the child back.   

Overall, Lani Taylor's fascination with ancient fairy tales and folklore from the British Raj and Persian religion of Zoroastrianism really stand out.  One can easily tell that she must have done lots of research into these areas but at the same time has her unique spin on them as she weaves into each story the theme of a kiss.   
ETA: Review copy donated to public library. 

East by Edith Pattou

Anyone who reads my blog can tell there are a few things that I really enjoy reading, Fantasy, Mythology and Fairy Tales.   Well there are others too, but basically give me one of the above three and I am one happy person.  I especially enjoy  when my fairy tales are written with the authors own spin on them.  East by Edith Pattou  is just that, a retelling of a Scandinavian folktale called “East of the Sun West of the Moon.”   So, picture your at an end of year book swap looking for books for your child and you hear  "this is something I know that you would like to read."    After seeing the cover, I had to agree.   

Synopsis from Goodreads, "Rose has always been different.

Since the day she was born, it was clear she had a special fate. Her superstitious mother keeps the unusual circumstances of Rose's birth a secret, hoping to prevent her adventurous daughter from leaving home... but she can't suppress Rose's true nature forever.

So when an enormous white bear shows up one cold autumn evening and asks teenage Rose to come away with it-- in exchange for health and prosperity for her ailing family-- she readily agrees.

Rose travels on the bear's broad back to a distant and empty castle, where she is nightly joined by a mysterious stranger. In discovering his identity, she loses her heart-- and finds her purpose-- and realizes her journey has only just begun."

Overall, East is a beautiful story.  The beginning was a tad slower to read, the author needed this time to get into Rose's mysterious fate, which worked out O.k. for me, but I enjoyed the action more when White Bear finally comes into the story.   Rose and White Bears story are told in the alternating voices of Father, Rose's brother Neddy, the Troll Queen, White Bear and Rose herself.  I found this style worked for me for this particular story.  It gave me a good sense of the various characters and enabled various takes on the situation.  Having White Bear initially speak via poems was also a nice touch.  One of the intriguing concepts in East is the use of compasses and maps.  They played heavily once Rose went on her journey.   Rose comes off as a strong, independent young woman eager to travel to new places and meet different people.   Edith Pattou states that she decided to turn the winds in the original tale of "East of the Sun West of the Moon" into " people who represent the four different points of the compass."  These people end up being guides for Rose, with each person representing the direction and characteristics of that direction.  The other aspect of East that I appreciated was the amount of research that must have gone into the story.  There are  details about weaving, compasses, map making, historic landmarks from Norway, mythology, and the great white bear, to name a few.  All which made for a wonderful story.    

Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams

Tunnels is the first book in the series by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams. Tunnels is broken down into three parts.  The first is Breaking Ground and centers on 14-year old Will Burrows and his archaeology father.  Dr. Burrows and Will have spent many a day excavating below the streets of Highfield,  even finding an underground railroad.  But, when Dr. Burrows begins to behave secretively and then ends up missing, Will enlists the help of his best friend Chester to try and figure out what is going on.  Beneath the Burrows home, Will and Chester find a passage behind a bookshelf.  Slowly they begin to clear it out and find themselves at a doorway into something unknown.   Section two is The Colony and begins around page 164.  For me, this is where the action begins to happen as Will and Chester find themselves in an underground city and end up getting captured.  Will also learns of his link to The Colony.  While Will is set free,  Chester is never allowed to return to the "topsoil."    In Section three,  The Eternal City, Will attempts to rescue Chester while looking for his father.    The story leaves room for a sequel but it resolved one of the main plot points that I kept hoping would not be left for book two.  Overall, I really liked my first jaunt into "Subterranean fiction" Or what Wiki calls " a subgenre of adventure fiction which focuses on underground settings, sometimes at the center of the Earth or otherwise deep below the surface."  Who would have known?  I still have so..so...much to learn. Silly me, thought it was science-fiction. 

Preview a Book Online: The School for Good and Evil

So who out there is familiar with the First Look Program by Harper Collins?  It doesn't exist anymore but is was my original first stop when I began reviewing books.  They were the ones who also helped me to find my way to Goodreads.  Now,  HarperCollins has changed it into a Browse Inside feature, which I am kinda liking.  It's a nice way of seeing whether a book is a match for you or not.  This was the book on offer at the moment.  The first six chapters are available to read and preview.  Here's the link if you want to check it out. http://browseinside.harpercollinschildrens.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780062104892

I'm not going to go into much detail about what it's about, I think the name kinda says it all.  I for one really love the cover.  I saw an interview with Soman Chainani, who said he grew up watching Disney movies and I'm paraphrasing when I say that it had an influence on him writing this story.  I can really see that reflected in the cover art and I'm not just saying that cause of the castles in the background (but the one on the left does make me think of Cinderella).  Overall, I think this book will be popular with middle graders who enjoy fairy-tale retellings.