Book review - Guardians of the Gryphon's Claw

Title: Guardians of the Gryphon's Claw
Author: Todd Calgi Gallicano
Genre: fantasy adventure
Similar books: The Eye of the North by Sinead O'Hart
                      The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan
Rating:

A fun adventure

Summary (provided by publisher): A new action adventure series set in our famous national parks! Enter the world of the Department of Mythical Wildlife, where our protagonist, Sam London, is tasked with protecting legendary animals that secretly live amongst our treasured wildlife.
    Haunted by a dream of a mythical gryphon, Sam London uncovers an ancient secret that will change the way he sees the world forever. Recruited by Dr. Vance Vantana, an eccentric zoologist and park ranger sent by the government, Sam is whisked away on an adventure that takes him to the farthest reaches of the globe. Along this journey, Sam learns an incredible truth: mythical creatures are real and living among us in our national parks. A special department in the U.S. government ensures that their existence remains hidden.
   But Sam’s dream is an omen that the secret may now be in danger. Someone seeks the power to expose these creatures and overthrow humankind—and that power can only be found in a magical talisman known as the gryphon’s claw.

My opinion: On the one hand, this book has all the necessary adventure plot elements, especially for a mythology basked book: a sympathetic and unassuming protagonist, who finds himself enmeshed in a wild adventure, plenty of mythological beings both familiar and obscure, quirky characters, betrayal, and interesting settings. So its a fun read. Its also fairly expected. It doesn't push a lot of plot boundaries. Also, because there's a great dal of world building, the characters aren't particularly complex. Some of the plot points are sort of vague, floating between events without clear cause and effect. So to sum up: entertaining but will feel familiar.

More information: Guardians of the Gryphon's Claw releases August 29.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Leggings aren't pants (at least, not for me)

I'm not big on leggings. I won't wear them as pants and I don't wear many dresses. But when I found Sonic the Hedgehog leggings for $4, well that's a different story. The problem I discovered after my fantastic leggings arrived? I didn't have anything to wear with them. My hunt for a reasonably priced tunic was fruitless. I lucked out this weekend when I found a Man's 3xl t-shirt on clearance. A little simple modification turned it into a t-shirt dress.

I might yet add some patch pockets

Book review - Sidetracked

Title: Sidetracked
Author: Diana Harmon Asher
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: A Long Pitch Home by Natalie Dias Lorenzi
                      The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Rating:

a delight

Summary (provided by publisher): To Joseph Friedman, middle school might as well be the Running of the Bulls. He’s friendless and puny, with ADD to boot, so he spends most of his time avoiding class bully Charlie Kastner and hiding out in the Resource Room, a safe place for misfit kids like him. But then, on the first day of seventh grade, two important things happen. First, his Resource Room teacher Mrs. T encourages (i.e., practically forces) him to join the school track team, and second, he meets Heather, a tough, athletic new girl who isn’t going to be pushed around by Charlie Kastner—or anybody else.
At first, track is as much of a disaster as everything else in Joseph’s life. But slowly Joseph hits his stride, and instead of running from the bulls . . . he’s just running.

My opinion: There's plenty to love about this book. Sports have a presence but don't bog down the personal development. While many of the characters are characterized as "Resource Room" but it isn't the bulk of their character. They aren't labeled with diagnoses. We see them as more than their labels. The surface plot is simple: an outsider finds acceptance on the track team as he learns about effort and integrity. It's much more than that, though. Joseph and his friends learn about compassion, persistence, overcoming fears, the complexity of adult relationships, good sportsmanship and more, all flowing organically with the plot.

More information: Sidetracked releases August 22.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Graphic novel spotlight - The Wendy Project

The Wendy Project by Melissa Jane Osborne

 This is the perfect argument to present to people who claim that comics are superheroes, fart jokes, violence, and lazy reading. Osborne has done some fantastic work here. Framing her plot around a familiar story allows her to both draw stark contrasts and to use that familiarity to give herself a little space to further develop her characters. The plot is, essentially, quite simple. But beautiful in that simplicity. The real strength here is the art. Its largely soft lines, a loose flowing style that reflects Wendy's relationship with the world around her. Illustrated primarily in grey-scale, the whole thing has a softened tone that is contrasted by the occasional use of color to draw our eye to an object and mark it as "other". It doesn't' take long to read and can easily be reread without loosing any of its charm.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

"The Sharkticorn Origin" or "Why I'm Weird"

In the years that I've been blogging here, I've shared some crafts that can only be described as weird. I'm comfortable with that. As today's craft will prove, I'm a pretty weird person. And I come by it naturally.

In a casual conversation with my family, we somehow (naturally) came up with the concept of a sharkticorn - that is, a combination shark unicorn. And when I said "I feel like we need to draw it" nobody called me crazy. My mom just said "there's big paper in the cupboard". And now the sharkticorn is gracing my parent's refrigerator.

And because I'm me, I couldn't let it go at that. Since I had a plastic unicorn and a plastic shark, it was only natural that I make a sharkticorn.

The point of my story is that I have really awesome parents who have always given me space to be myself, who told me that there was nothing wrong with being a little weird.

Pick 6: Mysteries

There's nothing like a good mystery. Whether you're six or sixty, we all enjoy going over clues and trying to guess the solution before the book's characters do. Here are six new mystery stories published in the last six months. The first half of the list is geared at a younger audience while the latter half is more teen oriented.

6 new mysteries

1. Splinter by Sasha Dawn

2. The Mesmerist by Ronald L. Smith

3. Jack and the Geniuses at the Bottom of the World by Bill Nye and Gregory Mone

4. Duels and Deception by Cindy Anstey

5. Artie Conan Doyle and the Grave Diggers Club by Robert J Harris

6. Wallace and Grace Take the Case by Heather Alexander

Non-fiction book review - The Man Who Loved Libraries

The Man Who Loved Libraries by Andrew Larsen

Carnegie is a fascinating figure. A prime example of the American spirit: rising from nothing to great wealth through hard work and self improvement. I liked the emphasis on education and the value of reading, of course. But I also liked that it doesn't whitewash. Larsen sates that some of Carnegie's business practices were questionable, his treatment of employees not alway fair. Many children's biographies, especially picture book length, talk only about best moments. I appreciated this level of honesty.

More information: The Man Who Loved Libraries releases August 15.
 Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.