Graphic Novel Spotlight: Foiled and Curses! Foiled Again

Foiled and Curses! Foiled Again by Jane Yolen

Fencing and magic combine in this tale of a teen girl trying to find her place in high school. The real appeal, beyond an awesome fantasy plot, is the art. The illustrations are highly stylized and mostly in greyscale (the main character, Aliera, is color blind). Then Aliera encounters magic. Anything magical in origin is illustrated in full color. Backgrounds remain grey but the foreground is peppered with yellow fairies, red dragons, green trolls, and more. Visually, that element alone sets these books apart. The second book takes this idea of a regular girl thrown into a magical world and complicates it, the magic intruding on her non-magical life more and more. 

Aliera sees the magical creatures in full force

 

WWW Wednesdays

What are you currently reading?
Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Lee Alexander
Charlie is a self-professed nerd. He's been dreaming of attending MIT since the fifth grade. He treats love as a math problem to be solved, his attraction to girls as a series of experiments. Then he meets Charlotte. Charlotte who has a tattoo on the back of her neck and who believes in hope and art and beauty. Charlotte who may be the only one capable of making him see life beyond science and math. Through his relationship with Charlotte, Charlie may finally stand a chance at understanding love.
I enjoy books that have nerds for main characters (maybe because they seem more real to me than popular people) and this is certainly no exception. Charlie is this loveable awkward dork. A little self-righteous and close-minded at times, but in a way that makes him more human rather than insufferable. The breakdown into short chapters/sub-chapters makes it feel like a quicker read than it actually is. So far, this gets a big thumbs up from me.
 
What did you recently finish reading?
A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond
Claire and Ella have been best friends since they met as small children. They shared everything. Things are beginning to change. Their final year of school has begun and they expect to be headed in different directions before too long. Then they meet Orpheus, a wandering musician who enchants both girls (as well as most of their friends) with his good looks and haunting music. Ella, in particular, is entranced by Orpheus and he returns her feelings. Claire tries to be happy for her friend, not knowing that worse things than losing Ella to love are coming.
Almond approaches this retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice with his typical, mystical style. He finds both the eerie and the lovely in this tragedy. In typical Almond style, there is a level of emotional distance that lends the book more of a mythological sense than your typical modern novel.
 
What do you think you will read next?
H2O by Virginia Bergin
Dystopias/post-apocalyptic societies definitely make for interesting reading. Given the focus of this one on the lack of drinkable water, it could be pretty exciting.  

Book review - Meet the Bigfeet

Title: The Yeti Files #1: Meet the Bigfeet
Author: Kevin Sherry
Genre: fantasy
Similar books: Kung Pow Chicken series by Cyndi Marko
                     The Abominables by Eva Ibbotson
Rating:

Silly fun

Summary: Blizz Richards' life mission is to protect cryptids from human detection. Cryptids like himself. Blizz is a yeti. Along with his assistants (a goblin and an arctic wolf) Blizz is headed to a family reunion in Canada in hopes of finding his cousin Brian, a bigfoot who has been in hiding since being spotted by a photographer, putting the whole family at risk of discovery.
My opinion: How cool is it to have a kid's book starring cryptids?! Ashely Spires' picture book Larf (the story of an isolated sasquatch, if you're unfamiliar) is already a hit with our young patrons and this book seems like the next logical step for kids beginning to read independently. The plot is pretty simple, making it easy for the youngest readers to understand. Mostly, it is just a lot of fun. The illustrations are cute and silly. The Bigfeet have these really cool, involved, lairs. Each character has a distinctive personality,even the supporting characters. This is a fun start to what should be a pretty cool new series.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

A slouchy beanie

A friend recently asked me for a slouchy beanie made out of Lion Brand Homespun yarn. A little bit of searching lead me to this pattern. It is really simple to follow and gives instructions for DK, Worsted, and Bulky weight yarns. I'm relatively pleased with the results.

Book review - The Madman of Piney Woods

Title: The Madman of Piney Woods
Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
Genre: historical fiction
Similar books: Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
                     Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt
Rating: 

Absolutely engrossing

Summary: Benji wants nothing more than to be a newspaperman, to finally be good at something that will get him praise like his younger siblings get all the time. Red is trying to make it through each day with his angry, sometimes viscous, Irish grandmother. These two very different boys have never met but when a local competition brings them together they for a loose bond, a bond that will be cemented by a mysterious man in the forest.
My Opinion: While this is a companion to Elijah of Buxton, one need not read it first to understand the plot of this novel. I didn't. And I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Curtis has this almost conversational writing style so that even the sections narrated by Red, which were far more formal in their narrative style, felt like the narrator was sitting nearby talking to you. Pair that with a great plot, a sense of play but also of duty and respect for those who have gone before. While the conclusion is somewhat dark and serious, it's a great book for a middle grade reader and could spark some excellent discussion.
More Information: The Madman of Piney Woods releases September 30.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Pick 6: Heists

This is actually the list that inspired this whole feature. I was noticing a surprising number of books with plots that centered around heists and complicated plans. So, here are six heist novels published in the last six months.

6 new heist novels
1. Fat Boy Vs. The Cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach

2. The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson

3. Coin Heist by Elisa Ludwig

4. Loot by Jude Watson

5. Pretenders by Lisi Harrison

6. The Graham Cracker Plot by Shelley Tougas

WWW Wednesday

What are you currently reading?
Famous Last Words by Katie Alender
When Willa moved in with her new step-father in Hollywood. she didn't have a lot of expectations. Life had been rough since her father died two years ago. Meanwhile, Hollywood is under siege by a serial killer attacking young actresses. These two things converge when Willa begins to see things. Is she hallucinating? Or is there a spirit trying to tell her something about the killer?
Who doesn't love a serial killer story? This one has started out really well and I look forward to seeing how the case unfolds.

What did you recently finish reading?
The Madman of Pine Woods by Christopher Paul Curtis
Benji wants nothing more than to be a newspaperman, to finally be good at something that will get him praise like his younger siblings get all the time. Red is trying to make it through each day with his angry, sometimes viscous, Irish grandmother. These two very different boys have never met but when a local competition brings them together they for a loose bond, a bond that will be cemented by a mysterious man in the forest.
I haven't actually read the book that precedes this one (Elijah of Buxton) but that really isn't a big deal. The story stands very much on it's own. While race does play a role in the plot, at heart it is much more than that. It is more about what it means to be human, to be a good person. Curtis does not bully us into any conclusions, but leads us gently to some thought provoking ideas. This will be a great one to discuss with young readers.

What do you think you will read next?
The Only Thing to Fear by Caroline Tung Richmond
When I was a kid in history class I occasionally found myself wondering what life would be like if a key battle or something had ended differently. Clearly I am not the only one who thinks this way as Richmond has written a whole novel about a world where the Nazis won WWII. This could be amazing.