I’m so thrilled to be sharing Ben Hatke‘s newest book, LITTLE ROBOT with you today! It is a fabulous, charming story enhanced by its nearly wordless graphic format. Thank you to First Second for providing a review copy and a copy for giveaway!

     When a little girl finds an adorable robot in the woods, she presses a button and accidentally activates him for the first time. Now, she finally has a friend. But the big, bad robots are coming to collect the little guy for nefarious purposes, and it’s all up to a five-year-old armed only with a wrench and a fierce loyalty to her mechanical friend to save the day!
     #1 New York Times Bestselling author Ben Hatke brings his signature sweetness to a simple, moving story about friendship and overcoming fears that will appeal to readers of all ages.

My thoughts:
Ben Hatke’s illustrations are charming, and this nearly wordless graphic novel with chapters is an entertaining read of friendship and determination. The story of a girl who goes on adventures with her tool belt and comes across a lost robot hooks the reader right away. Adventure begins and suspense is built when we see the robot ends up being hunted by a larger scarier robot trying to get him back. The main character’s ingenuity with mechanics and fixing things has a great message. Not only are the illustrations just plain fun to look at, the story itself is a delight. I so appreciate that the young girl is a tinkerer and engineer. Little Robot is about exploration, ingenuity, technology, and friendship. A strong addition to a classroom graphic novel collection.

Jess Keating’s middle grades debut book, How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes are Untied, was mentioned by a lot of my teacher friends last year as one to read, and now the second book in the series, How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel, is out. I’ve been following Jess on twitter and always interested to hear her perspective on things, so I’m thrilled to be welcoming her to my blog today as a part of her release week blog tour, and I’m especially excited about the topic she chose that can be used with students!

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Title: ATLANTIA
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Children’s (a Penguin imprint)
Release Date: October 28, 2014
Number of Pages: 368
Source of Book: ARC from Publisher at ALA

Can you hear Atlantia breathing?
        For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose.
        Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

My Thoughts:
I was very much looking forward to Ally Condie‘s follow up to the Matched series, and although I wasn’t as enamored with Atlantia as I was the first series, I still enjoyed reading it for it’s uniqueness and heart and engaging writing style. I will definitely be handing this off to students this fall. It seems a bit of a quieter book (perhaps having to do with the underwater location), and has themes of religion and persecution and acceptance and trust and truth and family and determination and corruption and environmentalism and self-reliance woven throughout within a well-built world.

Because I ended up with a second advanced copy of Ally Condie’s new book, Atlantia, in the mail (Thanks, Penguin Classroom!!),  I’m giving away an early ARC to one reader. 


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I’ve been anxiously awaiting the final installment in Laini Taylor’s DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE series, especially since reading the second book, DAYS OF BLOOD & STARLIGHT over a year ago, and the final book, DREAMS OF GODS & MONSTERS comes out tomorrow! Laini’s writing is beautiful and literary and draws the reader in, and this fantasy world creates an epic story.

Title: DREAMS OF GODS & MONSTERS
Author: Laini Taylor
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: April 8, 2014
Number of Pages: 528
Source of Book: egalley from publisher

        By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

        When Jael’s brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.
        And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.
But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz … something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

        From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy. 
        At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?

In honor of the release of this final book in the series, I’m re-sharing my recommendation for book one in case you missed it, so you can start at the beginning and go on this stunning and shattering journey from the first words.


My original recommendation for DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE:
Laini Taylor’s writing is beautiful, but in that way that it doesn’t jump out at you and take you out of the story, it is just woven subtly in as part of the story and you don’t realize how beautiful it is until you get to a stopping point and heave a deep sigh of relaxation from having enjoyed the writing and been lost and wrapped up completely in the world she created. The artistry with which she weaves storylines together between the two different main characters and between the present with flashbacks of backstory is enticing. There is a twist in the plot about two-thirds of the way through that almost changes the books into a different story, but it’s of utmost importance to our understanding and works so well the way Laini has written it.


And the setting…the book mainly takes pace in Prague and in Laini’s deft hand, the mystery, history, and beauty of this city lives and breathes its own life into the novel. There are exotic settings around the world (and in fantasy realms) throughout, and each one is written to evoke its own individual mood for the reader and the characters situations.


Karou is a kick-butt girl, but is struggling with feeling lonely as she discovers that the world with the “monsters” she thought she understood is not what she was led to believe. As she interacts with Akiva, the angel she encounters on one of her errands, it becomes obvious that she has some kind of pull toward him, and he to her. Little does she know that even as he tries to destroy all she holds dear, he might actually hold the key to her figuring out who (or what) she really is – what she’s been seeking to find out for awhile. Toward the end as we discover, along with Karou, what has really happened, it is shocking in the best possible way for a novel.


This is definitely a fantasy book for fans of fantasy. It has a unique take on the angel mythology and the backstory and world Laini has created is entrancing. Pre-order it now so you can escape into Karou’s world in September! I know I’ll be anxiously waiting for the next book indicated by the “…to be continued” ending to delve back into the artistry and uniqueness of the story Laini Taylor has created.

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Elizabeth Eulberg is one of my favorite authors when I want a guaranteed enjoyable book (we bonded over our cheeseheadedness) and have been a huge fan of all of her books since I first read THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB. Then came PROM & PREJUDICE, followed by TAKE A BOW, and the latest, REVENGE OF THE GIRL WITH THE GREAT PERSONALITY. So I was thrilled when I heard that Elizabeth’s latest book was set in Wisconsin (finally!) and even more excited when I was able to get an early copy of BETTER OFF FRIENDS to read in September. And let me tell you, I was up early the next morning to keep reading the book because I couldn’t stop thinking about Macallan and Levi. When I finished later that day, I declared it Elizabeth Eulberg’s best book yet. And now (well, tomorrow) you get to read it, too! We Wisconsin bloggers were so excited that Elizabeth’s launch part would be in Milwaukee, and I knew I had to be a part of the blog tour. And the best part? Elizabeth is visiting my school today! 

*If you can’t make it to the launch party event,  SIGNED copies can be pre-ordered or purchased after the Better Off Friends Launch Party through Boswell Books by calling (414) 332-1181. If you want it personalized, you have one more day to order!

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Title: THE INVENTOR’S SECRET
Author: Andrea Cremer
Publisher: Philomel (a Penguin imprint)
Release Date: April 22, 2014
Number of Pages: 336
Source of Book: ARC from ALAN Workshop

Sixteen-year-old Charlotte and her fellow refugees have scraped out an existence on the edge of Britain’s industrial empire. Though they live by the skin of their teeth they have their health (at least when they can find enough food and avoid the Imperial Labor Gatherers) and each other. When a new exile with no memory of his escape from the coastal cities or even his own name seeks shelter in their camp he brings new dangers with him and secrets about the terrible future that awaits all those who have struggled has to live free of the bonds of the empire’s Machineworks.
        The Inventor’s Secret is the first book of a YA steampunk series set in an alternate nineteenth-century North America where the Revolutionary War never took place and the British Empire has expanded into a global juggernaut propelled by marvelous and horrible machinery.

I love Andrea Cremer’s NIGHTSHADE series (the original, the prequel, and the new legacy follow-up). She’s a fantastic, intelligent writer who creates depth to the worlds she builds. Her newest series is her upcoming steampunk coming in April. Thanks to the generosity of publishers at NCTE & ALAN, I ended up with a second copy of the ARC for THE INVENTOR’S SECRET, and Andrea generously signed it for me to use as a giveaway on the blog.

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After the panels at the ALAN Workshop, the authors are available for silent signings. Since I had two copies of THREATENED, I asked Eliot to sign the second one for a giveaway on my blog, which he was happy to do.

A bit about THREATENED…and the entry form below.

Title: THREATENED

Author: Eliot Schrefer
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: February 25, 2014
Number of Pages: 288

Into the jungle. Into the wild. Into harm’s way.
        When he was a boy, Luc’s mother would warn him about the “mock men” living in the trees by their home — chimpanzees whose cries would fill the night.
        Luc is older now, his mother gone. He lives in a house of mistreated orphans, barely getting by. Then a man calling himself Prof comes to town with a mysterious mission. When Luc tries to rob him, the man isn’t mad. Instead, he offers Luc a job.
        Together, Luc and Prof head into the rough, dangerous jungle in order to study the elusive chimpanzees. There, Luc finally finds a new family — and must act when that family comes under attack.
        As he did in his acclaimed novel Endangered, a finalist for the National Book Award, Eliot Schrefer takes us somewhere fiction rarely goes, introducing us to characters we rarely get to meet. The unforgettable result is the story of a boy fleeing his present, a man fleeing his past, and a trio of chimpanzees who are struggling not to flee at all. 

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I loved, loved, loved Shannon Messenger‘s first middle grades book, KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES, (and for that matter, her first young adult book, LET THE SKY FALL), and since I ended up with a second copy of the ARC of book 2 in the KEEPER series, EXILE, I decided to host a giveaway to share the love of this fantasy series.

Author: Shannon Messenger
Publisher: Aladdin (a Simon & Schuster imprint)
Release Date: October 1, 2013
Number of Pages: 576

Sophie Foster thought she was safe. Settled into her home at Havenfield, surrounded by friends, and using her unique telepathic abilities to train Silveny–the first female alicorn ever seen in the Lost Cities–her life finally seems to be coming together. 
      But Sophie’s kidnappers are still out there. And when Sophie discovers new messages and clues from the mysterious Black Swan group, she’s forced to take a terrifying risk—one that puts everyone in incredible danger. 
      As long buried secrets rise to the surface, it’s once again up to Sophie to uncover hidden memories—before someone close to her is lost forever. 
      In this second book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie must journey to the darkest corners of her luminous world in a sequel that will leave you breathless for more.

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Original Cover

The thrill ride that began in Cold Fury kicks into high gear in Flicker & Burn, as the threats to Sara Jane Rispoli come at her from all directions. She continues the desperate search for her missing family, but this time she’s on the run from creepy beings with red, pulsing eyes and ghostly white skin chasing her through the streets of Chicago in black ice cream trucks – they can only be described as Ice Cream Creatures. They're skeletal and ferocious, hell-bent on catching or killing her, but also a weird link to her family, a clue to where they might be and who has them.

While Sara Jane battles these new pursuers, she learns painful lessons about the phenomenon that possesses her, cold fury. At the same time, she’s uncovering buried secrets about the misdeeds of her family – old murders and blood vendettas – that might be connected to the disappearance of her mom, dad, and brother. The mysteries, violence, and constant state of chasing or being chased could be the undoing of her relationship with handsome Max Kissberg. Despite the love growing between them, Sara Jane can’t tell him the truth about her life, and fears for his safety.

Not only do the Ice Cream Creatures display the grisly amputated finger of her mom to prove their viciousness, and not only does Lucky, the Outfit Boss of Bosses, whistle in Sara Jane for a sit-down with deadly consequences, but her gorgeous cousin, Heather Richards, enters the scene, as well. All that matters to Sara Jane is saving her family and keeping everyone she loves alive and safe. But the forces she encounters, both external and the ones crackling inside of her, fight her every step of the way.

Title: THE CARPENTER’S GIFT: A Christmas Tale about the Rockefeller Center Tree
Author: David Rubel, illustrated by Jim LeMarche
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Number of Pages: 48

This new classic
Christmas gift book “brings together two great traditions: the
Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and the neighbor-helping-neighbor
program of Habitat for Humanity.” Opening in Depression-era New York
City, The Carpenter’s Gift tells the story of eight-year-old Henry and
his father selling Christmas trees. They give a Christmas tree to
construction workers building Rockefeller Center and celebrate together.
Through the kindness of the construction workers and neighbors, Henry
gets his wish for a nice, warm home to replace his family’s drafty
shack. He plants a pinecone from that first Rockefeller Center Tree. As
an old man, Henry repays the gift by donating the enormous tree that has
grown from that pinecone. After bringing joy to thousands as the
Rockefeller Center tree, its wood will be used to build a home for
another family in need.

Written by children’s nonfiction author
David Rubel in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity. Gorgeous
illustrations crafted by Jim LaMarche.

Behind the Scenes: The Making of THE CARPENTER’S GIFT

 

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Don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops on the Holiday Blog Tour!

·         SharpRead 

Title: MIRA’S DIARY: LOST IN PARIS
Author: Marissa Moss
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Number of Pages: 224

Mira is shocked when she
receives a postcard from her missing mother from Paris. Her father
decides it’s time for a trip to France to search for her. While visiting
Notre Dame, Mira touches a gargoyle and is whirled into the past. There
she meets the famous painter Degas and catches a brief, shocking
glimpse of her mother. Mira begins to suspect that her mom didn’t run
out on them but is a prisoner of the past. Can one family on an
incredible worldwide adventure stop a plot in time?

I’ve lived in Paris and Rome, each a wonderful experience. Living in a foreign city broadens your sense of who you are and how you want to live in ways that are delightfully unpredictable. In both cities, I explored the cultural riches in a way you can’t during a brief visit, but more than that, I learned the rhythm of a different lifestyle. There’s no such thing as rushing in Rome, no sense of urgency – or, frustratingly – of efficiency. You learn the Italian shrug of acceptance.


Travel in general demands that kind of flexibility. Planes are delayed. Connections are missed. A drive into the Amazon jungle that was supposed to take five hours ends up taking ten because roads have been washed out. But being open to what happens during travel mishaps means you end up having tea with Bedouins in Petra or are invited into a house-raising for a newly married couple in Vietnam. I love the expected parts of travel, the amazing sites, the great art, but I also love the completely unplanned, the moment you have to be open to in order to experience it.


I’ve been to more than 30 countries. The ones that have been the most difficult, have also been the most rewarding – India, Peru, Vietnam, Jordan, Egypt. I hope I can keep adding to this list. I’d love to see Indonesia, South Africa, Namibia, anywhere new. But the place I keep going back to, the city that has my heart, is Rome. Must be the gelato.
Guest post generously provided by Sourcebooks.

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Title: THE LIAR SOCIETY: LIES THAT BIND
Author: Lisa and Laura Roecker
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: November 6, 2012
Number of Pages: 320

Just when Kate Lowry
thought she had life at elite private school Pemberly Brown figured out,
she cracks open a fortune cookie to find a message from her best friend
Grace–who’s supposed to be dead.

Another Sister Gone

A
classmate has gone missing, and Kate soon realizes that the
disappearance is tied to the secret societies that rule her private
school. Her best friend died for their secrets, and there’s no way
she’ll let them get away with it twice. It’s up to quirky outsider Kate
to get some answers, but in a school where every answer leads to more
questions and nothing’s as it seems, who can she trust?

Guest post generously provided by Sourcebooks.

Thanks to Sourcebooks (love them!), I get to giveaway one copy of THE LIAR SOCIETY: LIES THAT BIND. Enter below.
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-must be at least 13 to enter
-ends at 11:59pm on May 31st

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Summary:
WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE

As Deuce’s perception shifts, so does the balance in the constant
battle for survival. The mindless Freaks, once considered a threat only
due to their sheer numbers, show signs of cunning and strategy… but the
elders refuse to heed any warnings. Despite imminent disaster, the
enclave puts their faith in strictures and sacrifice instead. No matter
how she tries, Deuce cannot stem the dark tide that carries her far from
the only world she’s ever known. (from Goodreads)

To enter, FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW:
Rules: 
* Teachers get an extra entry!!! (see note below the cover picture)
– Must be a GFC follower (don’t normally require it, but since it’s a follower giveaway…) *OK, so since blogger is being wonky and my follower gadget in the sidebar is not working, I’ve taken away the requirement; however, if you do want to follow, you can click on the Follow link on the top navigation bar of the page. Thanks for being understanding
– Must be at least 13-years-old
– Extra entries available (not required, but appreciated!)
– US addresses only
– Giveaway ends Sunday, August 21st at 11:59pm

This contest is now CLOSED. Thank you for entering!

In anticipation of the start of last school year and wanting to have a central place to put my thoughts about books to share with my students to get them more motivated to read, I started this blog on August 10, 2010. Little did I realize how much I would enjoy doing this, and the connections I would make with authors, publishers, teachers, and other bloggers through this process.

I’ve had so much fun, and one of my favorite parts of doing this book blog over the past year was getting my custom design from fellow book blogger @loriimagination of Use Your Imagination Designs. See my post here to read my thoughts after launching the new look.

Lori was awesome to work with and gave me a blog personality to match what I wanted and fit me so well. So…to celebrate my first year of blogging and one of my favorite parts, I’m hosting a giveaway for a free custom blog design for one lucky winner!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
One person will win a custom blogger blog design package from Lori at Use Your Imagination Designs:

Including: Custom header, custom background, link bar, signature, blog button with code, custom rating system for reviews, custom colors to match new design and installation.
(If you win, you’re welcome to communicate with Lori to upgrade at your own cost.) 

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED!!! Oh, and if you have any thoughts about my blog design, I’d love to hear them in the comments so I can pass them on to Lori.

Thanks to the generosity of the publisher (Farrar Straus Giroux), I’m giving away a galley copy of MY LIFE UNDECIDED by Jessica Brody!  Read my review HERE and enter to win your own copy by filling out the form below.

Contest Rules:
– Only one entry per person
– U.S. addresses only
– Must be at least 13 years old to enter
– Contest ends at midnight on June 28, 2011
– Winner will be randomly drawn
– Publisher will send the book to the winner

CONTEST HAS ENDED – THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST!
Congrats to Cheyenne @ thehollowcupboards.blogspot.com