How to use this Page

This month we've seen some changes on the best selling middle grade books list due to the well timed releases of Jason Segel's Nightmares!—a great choice for the upcoming spooky season—and Mike Lupica's Fantasy League (Did somebody say football?).

Twelve-year-old Charlie is a fantasy football guru. He may be just a bench warmer for his school's football team, but when it comes to knowing and loving the game, he's first-string.

Today's Trailer Tuesday features The Future of Us and The Underdogs. I've been waiting for quite a while to see what the trailer would be like for The Future of Us. What do you think? Does it make you want to read the book?


The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Click here to read or write reviews of this book!




The Underdogs by Mike Lupica
Click here to read or write reviews of this book!

Prolific sportswriter Mike Lupica has landed a book deal with Scholastic to write a middle-grade series that covers football, basketball and baseball through the adventures of reoccurring characters.

Esther Newberg from International Creative Management negotiated the deal with Scholastic Paperbacks, Non-fiction and Licensing publisher Debra Dorfman. The series will launch in May 2012 with Game Changers, a novel focused on football. Lupica (pictured, via) has written many books, including the young adult novels, Travel Team, Heat, Miracle on 49th Street, and Summer Ball.

Lupica explained the series in the release: “My love of reading really started with the great Chip Hilton series, written by Clair Bee … The books were about Chip and his buddies, and also about the things that are the most important themes of my books for young readers: Friendship and loyalty and teamwork. I’ve always had it in the back of my mind to write a series that would go from season to season, and now I’m lucky enough to do that for Scholastic, writing about a special kid named Ben McBain and his pals. Mostly I’m trying to do the same thing I’ve been doing since Travel Team, which means write the kind of books that I wanted to read as a boy.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: November 2, 2010

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.

Fall Books for Kids: 2010

Interview with Lian Tanner, Author of The Keepers Trilogy

2010 Children’s Choice Book Awards Nominees

Where to Find Free eBooks for Children Online

20 Sites to Improve Your Child’s Literacy

THE NEW RELEASES

The most coveted books that release this month:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth

by Jeff Kinney

(Ages 9-12)

Hero

by Mike Lupica

(Ages 9-12)

Pegasus

by Robin McKinley

(Young Adult)

Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider)

by Anthony Horowitz

(Ages 12 and up)

You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Fables to Read Together

by Mary Ann Hoberman

(Ages 4-8)

THE BEST SELLERS

The best selling children’s books this month:

PICTURE BOOKS

Llama Llama Holiday Drama

by Anna Dewdney

(Ages 0-5)

No matter which team you go for, here is a team of books to whet the appetite of any young soccer enthusiast.

Mike Lupica’s Travel Team opens this way:He knew he was small.He just didn’t think he was small.Big difference.In just three sentences, Lupica sets up the major issue confronting Danny, the story’s main character: his size and its potential for keeping him from doing what he wants, which is to play basketball.Plus, he gives the reader a sense of Danny’s character–the way he feels about being

The month of May was such a busy month here in the entwood that actual reading time has been minimal but BookMoot has been listening to some excellent audiobooks.

We may not be taking driving vacations this year but there are rooms to toss, and closets to clean out and corners to excavate and (sob!) bookcases to weed. I find I stay at these unpleasant tasks longer when I have a great book to listen to.

Ahhh... summer.





Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo by Greg Leitich Smith, Recorded Books, 2004

Three friends, a private middle school and a science fair.

As the school science fair approaches, seventh grader, Elias, lives in the shadow of his older brother's legendary science fair success. Eli is also dealing with his developing romantic feelings for his good friend Honoria. Honoria is determined to train piranhas to become vegetarians for her science project and she is attracted to Shohei who is totally unaware that he is the focus of her attentions. He is frustrated by his adoptive parents' intense focus on his Japanese heritage and their overreaching attempts to make sure he remains "in touch" with his cultural background. His own interest in the science fair is minimal, so, looking for an easy way out, he teams-up with Eli. His lack of effort spells disaster for their project which in turn, has terrible consequences for Elias.

The story is told in the first person by three main characters. Elias, Honoria and Shohei are wonderfully voiced by the actors in this audio version. My one regret is that Recorded Books, who produced the book, did credit the performers who so perfectly caught the tone and point of view of the three characters.

The story is full of humor. Greg translates that strange time that is middle school / junior high with sympathy and affection.

Great fun.





Lionboy by Zizou Corder, read by Simon Jones, Highbridge Audio, 2003

I know you've heard audiobook narrators who work so hard at different characters' voices that they seem to be about to strangle themselves with the microphone chord sometimes.
Audiobook performance is difficult, which makes Jim Dale's (Harry Potter) achievement even more extraordinary. In this production, Simon Jones's narration never gets in the way of the story. His expertise in this genre shines here.

Charlie Ashanti has a happy life. His scientist parents provide him with love and security. When they disappear under mysterious circumstances, Charlie uses the clues they leave behind and his gift for speaking the language of cats to trace their whereabouts.

His search takes him to the river's edge where he joins a circus which travels the rivers of Europe on a huge barge. The calliope music is of the circus is utterly beguiling and puts the listener on board the ship along with Charlie. He is taken on as the lionboy, the assistant to the sinister lion tamer. Keeping his ability to communicate with the lions, a secret is a challenge. He receives updates about his parents from cats at the various cities and towns where the circus performs. Charlie longs to free the circus lions from their captivity and continue the search for his parents but accomplishing an escape is dangerous. Then there is the problem of traveling through a city with a group of lions and not attracting unwanted attention.

Very original story with sequels to listen to.

Oh boy!!





Miracle on 49th Street by Mike Lupica, read by Michele Santopietro, 2006

Why couldn't Santopietro read Twilight? I might have enjoyed it. She gives twelve year old Molly Parker's voice a freshness and optimism that works perfectly with the story.

Molly's mother has recently died from cancer and she has come to live with her mother's sister and family. She is not unhappy, she has a great friendship with Sam, a brilliant guy with whom she can share everything. Her dream is to have a relationship with her father, Josh Cameron who is a star player with the Boston Celtics. Living in England for most of her life, her mother had not told her the truth about her father's identity until she became ill.

YA novels are often about a girl yearning for a relationship with the guy of her dreams. In this story, they guy is her dad. Now Molly is on a quest to meet her father and hopefully enjoy a happy father-daughter relationship with him.

Lupica includes lots of behind-the-scenes details of the pro basketball world which ring true.

Sweet story !
Mike Lupica sure knows how to engage me with characters I really cared about.






I confess I have been somewhat reluctant to take up Charlie Higson's Young Bond books. I have such a fondness for my Alex Rider (by Anthony Horowitz, nicely read by Simon Prebble.)
As Alex is a "sort of" young James Bond-like character, I wondered if Higson's "James" would be distinct or a mere shadow of young Alex. I have not even bothered with the new incarnations of Bond as I prefer the original Fleming novels.

I was thrilled and happy to discover that SilverFin and Blood Fever were compelling and "didn't want to stop" listens for me. Nathaniel Parker (clicked on his website and shouted, "Oh, him! Inspector Lynley!) is an outstanding voice actor who shades each character with a distinct tone and cadence.

I enjoyed Siverfin but I loved Blood Fever. There is much here for the guys. Blood Fever teaches fishing techniques, explains the workings of the internal combustion engine and learning to drive a car.

One nice aspect of the stories, for those who insist that a book has to teach a lesson (not me) is that the loutish bullies who make life miserable for James at Eton, are redeemed and end up as friends with him.

There are sly references to the future career of 007 which fans will "get." I have Higson's third book downloaded and ready for listening.

I guess it is time to go toss the entlings' rooms now. I'm ready.