By: Maryann Yin,
on 1/6/2016
Sony Pictures has unleashed several clips from The 5th Wave adaptation.
The videos embedded below offer glimpses of Chloë Grace Moretz as Cassie Sullivan, Zackary Arthur as Sammy Sullivan, and Liev Schreiber as Colonel Vosch. According to The Wrap, the story for this project comes from Rick Yancey’s 2013 dystopian young adult novel.
This movie will hit theaters on on Jan. 22. Follow these links to watch the book trailer and the first official film trailer. (via The Fandom)
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By: Maryann Yin,
on 10/9/2015
By: Maryann Yin,
on 9/1/2015
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By: Savita Kalhan,
on 3/4/2014
It’s World Book Week this week, so I thought I would share some of my favourite reads over the last year in teen/YA and adult fiction. I hope you’ll share some of your favourites, books you would recommend, in the comments section. It’s always nice to find undiscovered treasures...
Here's my recent Teen/YA reads:
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell 
Wonder by R J Palacio
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
The Uninvited by Liz Jensen
And one of my all time favourite books –.jpeg?picon=3103)
By: Jenny Miller,
on 10/21/2011
By: Jason Boog,
on 8/16/2011
Last week, Simon & Schuster told YA novelist Rick Yancey they wouldn’t continue his award winning Monstrumologist series.
Yancey shared the news with his fans, the Stephanie Reads blog launched a letter-writing campaign to save the series–attracting the attention of School Library Journal and Booklist. Today Yancey had a long interview with Bookshelves of Doom about the future of the series.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “I was surprised. I won’t say shocked. Times had changed since S&S had acquired the series in ’07. The whole damn world had changed. I understood – even expected – a much lower advance. But no more books? Really? What was the reasoning? My agent quoted them as saying, ‘We think we’ve spent too much on these books already. We’re not prepared to spend any more.’ (As a rather odd tidbit, I’ve recently learned that the very same month they told me no, they said yes to a multi-book deal with Hilary Duff.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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By: Jennie,
on 8/14/2011
I'm not going to fault Simon and Schuster. They're a business and have to go where the money is. So... let's save the series by putting the money there. If you have $10, but a copy. If you have $20, but two copies and give one away. If you have $30, give two copies away, or all three. You get the idea. If you don't have any money, check it out from the library. (How many times a book is checked out lets us gauge popularity. It tells us if we need more copi
By: Kimberly Pauley,
on 11/17/2010
In celebration of the release of The Curse of the Wendigo, the sequel to Rick Yancey's The Monstrumologist, we're giving away a Grand Prize Pack!
One (1) lucky YABC winner will receive:
- A $50 Cash Card -- Is money the root of all evil? Found out what evil really is with a $50 VISA
- Copies of both The Monstrumologist and The Curse of the Wendigo!
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Click the books to fill out the entry form! |
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By: Lizzy Burns,
on 3/2/2010
The Monstrumologist
The Plot: 1888. Will Henry, 12, is taken in by his father's employer, Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, after Will's parents die in a fire. Dr. Warthrop's specialty? Monsters. Or, to be scientific, monstrumology, the study of monsters. "There are monsters that lie in wait under our beds." The object of this particular adventure? Anthropophagi. Deadly man-eaters, with no heads -- eyes are on shoulders, shark-like mouths in the middle of the chest -- they are fast, killing and tearing apart their human food.
The Good: This seemed to be written with a checklist of "all things Liz B likes in a story." Thanks, Rick, for thinking just of me! I guess some other people liked it, also; it did get a Printz Honor.
Prologue. June 2007. The author Rick Yancey is speaking with someone who helped him with research for another book, and winds up with the handwritten journals of an old man, William James Henry, who insisted he was born in 1876. The old man just died, without heirs, and maybe Rick wants to look at it. Rick explains that what follows is the story told in the first three journals....
And thus the story begins. 1888. Will Henry is 12. But these are not a boy's journals: they are written forty years after the death of Dr. Warthrop.
Full stop as we look at this great framing device. Will's story, told as an adult, capturing the spirit and point of view of a twelve year old while having some distance and wisdom of an adult. Will insists his memory of boyhood is sound ("I can't recall what I had for breakfast this morning, but I remember with nightmarish clarity that spring night in 1888..."); at another time he acknowledges that the confession of someone, while true to memory, "spare[s] the reader ... somewhat tiresome and frustrating divagations." But wait! There is more! As Rick Yancey has transcribed Will's journals, Will's words were "edited only for spelling and correction of some archaic uses of grammar." Layers upon layers, with questions of what is told when and how. Delicious!
While short, those quotes reveal that Will's journal is written in nineteenth century style. Divagations indeed! Like Octavian Nothing, the prose seems true to time yet the story remains accessible.
A monster story that is not supernatural! The Anthropaphagi are simply creatures, not yet discovered and documented sufficiently by scientists so designated "monsters." Dr. Warthrop is the type who, as he hunts these creatures, scoffs at the idea of witchcraft or demons. He is a scientist, thank you very much. Since this is the start of a series, I am besides myself trying to guess what monster next gets the monstrumologist treatment. I hadn't realized, until reading this book, how much of the horror I'd been reading was more supernatural. Very refreshing to read somethi
By: Darth Corder,
on 11/10/2009
Hello all valiant readers out there in "The Land of Blog." Ti's I, your Reading Advisor, the very mysterious and bearer of mirth The Phantom Strange Bill of Sith!!!!!! Today I will talk about some books that will chill you to the bone, yet also make you laugh in much merriment!!!!! Enough talk, let us begin our journey into great books!!!!!
The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey - Man if you are looking for a book that is:The Thirteenth Skull by Rick YanceyReview by Cindy of Diggin Up BohnsAfter saving the world from complete destruction twice, you'd think Alfred could get a chance to sit back and relax for a bit. Nope. This book takes up just minutes after The Seal of Solomon ends, and it's back into the fray for Alfred.If you haven't heard of this series (and it seems to be a well kept secret), you are missing
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Meeting Alfred Kropp in THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ALFRED KROPP was extraordinary! Then I eagerly read ALFRED KROPP THE SEAL OF SOLOMON, wondering what could surpass the thrill of Alfred first stealing, then losing, and then recovering Excalibur, King Arthur’s sword. The author, Rick Yancey, didn’t let the reader down. Alfred was forced to fight demons! So, naturally, I couldn’t wait to read ALFRED KROPP THE THIRTEENTH SKULL!
I’ve rated this book 6+, as I have his first two titles, but with a caveat. Mr. Yancey pulls no punches when describing the violence and clear danger Alfred faces. I do not doubt that younger readers will devour the Alfred Kropp books, but parents will want to use their discretion.
Mr. Yancey doesn’t even let the reader get good and comfy in their favorite reading chair before relentlessly yanking them to the proverbial edge of their seat. The first chapter starts with a bang – literally. A truck blows up beneath Alfred’s new penthouse suite window, on the 30th floor of Samson Towers. In short order one man is shot and Alfred is fighting for his life with his attacker. Soon the two are racing to the ground floor, one by express elevator, the other by parachute. And Mr. Yancey’s not done yet. There’s still a police car to commandeer, complete with the surprised officer at the wheel, a car chase through city streets, and yet another explosion.
Once again Alfred is sucked back into the OIPEP. But can he trust the new Operative Nine? What about the beautiful new field agent? And who is trying to kill Alfred, and more importantly, why?
First it was Excalibur, then the Seal of Solomon. Both times he nearly lost his life. Now it’s the Thirteenth Skull. Alfred knows that this time it will be different. Samuel, the former Operative Nine and now Alfred’s guardian, is not reassuring. Alfred must find out what the Thirteenth Skull is. The clock is ticking and Alfred knows his time is about up.
I absolutely will not tell you more. You MUST, MUST, MUST go buy ALFRED KROPP THE THIRTEENTH SKULL. But only after you buy and read his first two titles as this series is best read in order. Mr. Yancey has created a cast of characters equal to the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. I can’t wait to see Alfred Kropp’s adventures on the big screen!
This review is cross-posted here at Teens Read Too.
Alfred Kropp is big enough to play football, but too clumsy to be any good, and too dense to remember the playbook. In fact, Alfred doesn’t really excel at anything. Except for his height and big head, he’s pretty much average. Ordinary. If only he were smaller, he could go through each day unnoticed.
He has no father and his mother died of cancer when he was only twelve. For two years he’s juggled between various foster homes until his Uncle Farrell appears and takes him in. And that’s when his life becomes anything but ordinary.
A slick, devious, stranger offers Uncle Farrell one million dollars to steal a special sword back from Mr. Samson, Farrell’s boss. Alfred has many questions. How do they know it really belongs to the stranger? What happens to him if his uncle gets caught for stealing? Why is this man asking them to steal it? Uncle Farrell threatens Alfred. He has no choice. He either helps steal the sword, or he goes back to foster care.
As soon as Alfred wields the sword in his hands, he knows it is no ordinary sword. He finds out he’s holding Excalibur, King Arthur’s sword. The same sword that knights have been guarding for centuries. From the moment Alfred steals the sword he is pitched headlong into a world unlike any he has ever known. A world that clashes with knights, swords, fast cars, helicopters, daggers, guns, and much more.
Alfred, the ordinary foster kid, finds he has a not-so-ordinary connection to a world forgotten, and through that connection, he has been charged with saving the world by saving Excalibur. An extraordinary task for an ordinary kid.
My fourteen year-old son grabbed this book from my shelf before I had a chance to start it and daily badgered me to read it once he’d finished. I will be adding the second and third installments of this series to my library. This action-packed adventure is a must read. I dare you to try to put it down once you’ve begun. In THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ALFRED KROPP, Rick Yancey has done the impossible by merging a world of knights in shining armor with today’s age of technology, an extraordinary combination! Amazing!
This review is cross-posted here at Teens Read Too.
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By: Gail Piernas-Davenport,
on 9/29/2007
Here's a great contest that gets kids to read and write while connecting them to their favorite authors:
"The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, in partnership with Target Stores and in cooperation with affiliate state centers for the book, invites readers in grades 4 through 12 to enter Letters About Literature, a national reading-writing contest. To enter, readers write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre-- fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic, explaining how that author's work changed the student's way of thinking about the world or themselves."
Info here: http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/letters.html
It made me think about the books I read as a child and wondered who I would have written. As an elementary student, I read Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and books of similar ilk. But then I also read every book on World War II and being a Catholic school girl, I read a lot of books about the saints. Then in high school, I read a lot of political fiction (Allen Drury, Fletcher Knebel), and then Arthur Hailey books plus sci-fi writers like Isaac Asimov. I also read a lot of scripts from Broadway plays, checking out the Best of Broadway book from the library each year.
But I'm pretty sure the person I would have written would have been Gwendolyn Brooks. Her poetry really resonated with me, and as a student in the 1950s and 1960s, she was one of the few African American female writers I knew. Literature today is so much more diverse and I hope students will take advantage of this opportunity to tell the writers who speak to them how much they matter.
It's a great idea to push good literature, and I applaud this effort.
Thanks for sharing about these books.
Here's MY SUNDAY SALON POST