JacketFlap connects you to the work of more than 200,000 authors, illustrators, publishers and other creators of books for Children and Young Adults. The site is updated daily with information about every book, author, illustrator, and publisher in the children's / young adult book industry. Members include published authors and illustrators, librarians, agents, editors, publicists, booksellers, publishers and fans. Join now (it's free).
Login or Register for free to create your own customized page of blog posts from your favorite blogs. You can also add blogs by clicking the "Add to MyJacketFlap" links next to the blog name in each post.
Blog Posts by Tag
In the past 7 days
Blog Posts by Date
Click days in this calendar to see posts by day or month
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: john flanagan, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 12 of 12
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: john flanagan in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
A reader wrote to ask me if I've seen John Flanagan's The Ghostfaces. I haven't, so am adding it to the "Debbie--have you seen" series.
Here's the synopsis:
From John Flanagan, author of the worldwide bestselling Ranger's Apprentice, comes a brand-new chapter in the adventures of young Skandians who form a different kind of family--a brotherband.
When the Brotherband crew are caught in a massive storm at sea, they’re blown far off course and wash up on the shores of a land so far west that Hal can’t recognize it from any of his maps. Eerily, the locals are nowhere in sight, yet the Herons have a creeping feeling they are being watched.
Suddenly the silence is broken when a massive, marauding bear appears, advancing on two children. The crew springs into action and rescues the children from the bear’s clutches, which earns them the gratitude and friendship of the local Mawagansett tribe, who finally reveal themselves. But the peace is short-lived. The Ghostfaces, a ruthless, warlike tribe who shave their heads and paint their faces white, are on the warpath once more. It’s been ten years since they raided the Mawagansett village, but they’re coming back to pillage and reap destruction. As the enemy approaches, the Herons gear up to help their new friends repel an invasion.
"Ruthless, warlike tribe"?!
"On the warpath"?!
My head hurts just reading the synopsis. One red flag after another! It came out on June 14, 2016 from Penguin.
According to Amazon, it is already #1 in its Kindle Store and in the Children's Books category, too, in the "Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths/Norse."
If I can get Flanagan's The Ghostfaces, I'll be back with a review.
0 Comments on Debbie--have you seen John Flanagan's THE GHOSTFACES? as of 7/1/2016 2:23:00 PM
[A]s you dive into The Tournament at Gorlan, prequel to the series, you can imagine the author’s invitation: “curl up and get comfortable; I’ve got a story for you.”
Hot New Releases & Popular Kids Stories
We think our list of the best new kids books for October is sensational! It highlights some amazing books from many different genres: non-fiction, reality fiction, and fantasy. Take a gander and let us know which titles and covers catch your eye ...
Read the rest of this post
I’m just back from a tour of (mostly indie) London bookshops. My visit to the Tower of London was enhanced after seeing Sonya Hartnett’s Children of the King, which alludes to the missing princes held captive by their uncle Richard III in the Tower, in a Notting Hill bookshop. Australian YA, as well as children’s and […]
We have quite the variety of books to share with readers this month. We're featuring picture books all the way to popular teen books. Jeffrey Brown returns with the highly anticipated sequel to the NY Times Bestseller Star Wars: Jedi Academy! There is fun stuff for picture book and puppy fans; as well as great chapter books for older readers.
Duncan Ball was a fabulous MC with hundreds of kids, 40 schools, the best of Australian kids and young adult authors and illustrators at the annual Bookfeast in Sydney’s West.
The Q & A Session was fun with witty comments by:-
Andy Griffiths author of ‘The Day My Bum Went Psycho’
John Heffernan author of “Charlie Carter” series
Deborah Abela,of Max Remy Super Spy fame
Richard Newsome, journalist and author of ‘the Billionaire’s Curse’
John Flanagan of Ranger’s Apprentice series.
It was a feast of authors and illustrators – Oliver Phommavanh, Moya Simons, Anna Feinberg, Belinda Murrell, William Kostakis, Sadami konchi, Jacqueline Harvey, Gabrielle Lord of Conspiracy 365 success and more, more, more …..
With more than 30 schools Villawood North to Haberfield – and the kids were fantastic.
#69 The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan (2006)
28 points
This is by far the most popular series at my campus and has been for the past couple of years–boys and girls alike enjoy it. – Jerry Jarrell
Wow! Did NOT see that one coming! Here we have a series that is hugely popular in my own library system yet isn’t discussed much at all in the children’s literary circles. This Australian series of books is sold worldwide and makes a good pick for reluctant boy readers. Little wonder when you consider its origins.
The description from Kirkus reads, “Sturdily competent fantasy from a veteran Australian screenwriter, this quartet opener introduces five teenaged orphans raised together in the medieval-like kingdom of Araluen, focusing on the apprenticeship of wiry, clever Will to a mysterious scout/spy, and on Will’s changing relations with oversized, rival-later-friend Horace. Though Will’s slight physique keeps him out of Battleschool, his first choice, it turns out to be just the ticket for Ranger work, which combines survival skills and keen powers of observation with the ability to move about unseen. As Will is learning these arts, Horace is finding Battleschool almost more than he can handle, thanks to a trio of particularly brutal bullies—and further afield, evil Lord Morgarath, being bent on conquest, has sent two kalkera, brutish bear/apes, out to assassinate Araluen’s most prominent war leaders.”
The standard story behind the book series is that Flanagan found his inspiration in his own reluctant reader son. In a Washington Post interview he said, “When I was writing advertising, I started doing these as short stories for my 12-year-old son, Mike. He didn’t like reading, and so I based the character on him and did the kinds of things Mike did. He’d stand around, you know, throwing knives at trees for hours. I said, ‘See what you think of this.’ Of course, he recognized that the character was like him and that sort of drew him in and got him reading. Mike was small, and his friends were all bigger and stronger than he, so that’s why I created Will: to show that there’s an advantage to being small and fast and agile. I did about a story a week for 20 weeks, and it got so he’d come in and ask for them, and they made him feel a bit better about himself. I remember, there’s this one part where Will is on a ledge, and suddenly a hand comes out and grabs his wrist. Mike came back and said, ‘That scared me. I didn’t know that could happen when you’re reading.’ So I never changed a comma of that part.”
Booklist praised it for being set in, “a colorful place, threatened by an evil warlord and his fierce minions, but its the details of everyday, but its the details of everyday living and the true-to-life emotions that are memorable.”
SLJ said the, “well-paced plot moves effortlessly toward the climax, letting readers get to know the world and the characters gradually as excitement builds.”
Kirkus was more circumspect in its praise saying, “Flanagan does nothing to boost his typecast characters, familiar themes or conventional, video-game plot above the general run, but readers with a taste for quickly paced adventure with tidy, predictable resolutions (kalkera and bullies vanquished, Will and Horace heroes and buddies) won’t be disappointed.”
Lots of covers abound for the book. It’s fun to
3 Comments on Top 100 Children’s Novels #69:The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan, last added: 5/22/2012
Wow I have never even heard of this one. Hmm will keep on my informal reluctant reader list.
David Ziegler said, on 5/22/2012 6:19:00 AM
Hooray! I voted for this last time too, and am very pleased to see it this high. It’s been very popular at the public library where I worked. Thanks for including the Washington Post interview, which I’d missed. I think it’s important to have books that appeal to boys in top 100 lists like this. FYI: Flanagan’s newest series is the Brotherband Chronicles. So far there are two: The Outcasts (2011) and the recently released The Invaders (2012).
Sondy said, on 5/22/2012 9:34:00 AM
A fellow librarian had recommended the audio version of this book, and then I saw it come up on the list with my insider knowledge. So I chose it when I finished my last audio. So far, I’m finding it rather predictable, and there are “familiar themes.” But it’s still good. I’m going to keep going. That’s fun knowing the background. (I’m also kind of glad to hear Will and Horace will make up.)
Here’s the scoop on the most popular destinations on The Children’s Book Review site, the most coveted new releases, the bestsellers, and kids’ book events.
Wow I have never even heard of this one. Hmm will keep on my informal reluctant reader list.
Hooray! I voted for this last time too, and am very pleased to see it this high. It’s been very popular at the public library where I worked. Thanks for including the Washington Post interview, which I’d missed. I think it’s important to have books that appeal to boys in top 100 lists like this. FYI: Flanagan’s newest series is the Brotherband Chronicles. So far there are two: The Outcasts (2011) and the recently released The Invaders (2012).
A fellow librarian had recommended the audio version of this book, and then I saw it come up on the list with my insider knowledge.
So I chose it when I finished my last audio. So far, I’m finding it rather predictable, and there are “familiar themes.” But it’s still good. I’m going to keep going. That’s fun knowing the background. (I’m also kind of glad to hear Will and Horace will make up.)