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5 Stars Geronimo Stilton #11: We'll Always Have Paris Lewis Trondheim Nanette McGuinness Papercutz 56 Pages    Ages: 7 and up .......................... .................................... Back Cover:  Geronimo Stilton is the editor of the Rodent’s Gazette, the most famous paper on Mouse Island. In his free time he loves to tell fun, happy stories. In this adventure, Geronimo [...]

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Unlike the original Geronimo Stilton series, the Papercutz titles (I haven't read them all) are a blend of fact, fantasy and adventure, à la Magic Tree House. Following is a review of the 7th book in the series.

Stilton, Geronimo. 2011. Dinosaurs in Action. New York: Papercutz.

In the course of a slim, 50-page volume (equal in size to a typical beginning reader book), the reader is entertained by the adventures of Geronimo and his gang as they try to foil the plans of the dastardly Pirate Cats, while they are simultaneously educated in the classification and habits of dinosaurs in the Cretaceous Period. 
Both within the context of the dialogue,

Moldy Mozzarella! That's not a cloud.

It's a quezacoatlus!

It's enormous!

And looking for prey ...It's heading for us!

HIDE!

Look! It's going away.

Thank goodness ... I wouldn't have wanted to end up in its belly!

We were lucky! The quezacoatlus is the biggest flying animal that ever lived.

and in integrated panels that contain encyclopedia-style facts, the reader learns about each dinosaur featured in the story, as well as information on flowers, plants and prehistory in general. In keeping with the style of the original Geronimo Stilton series, the fonts in the dialogue bubbles are often varied in size, style or color.

Here's a page from the first book in the series (note the fact panel, bottom right):

The Discovery of America ©Papercutz

Reading Guides and Games for the several Geronimo Stilton graphic novels are available he

3 Comments on Geronimo Stilton: Dinosaurs in Action, last added: 10/24/2011

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The Accidental Adventures of India McAllister
By Charlotte Agnell
middle grade
(151 pp with some b/w illustration)

I won the advance arc for this book on Sarah Laurence's website and eagerly awaited its arrival. My youngest daughter is a serious Junie B. Jones, Judy Moody, Flat Stanley, Geronimo Stilton, you-name-the-series-she'll-read-it kind of kid. I wondered if India would fit the bill.

She more than lived up to my expectations. One of my pet peeves with series books these days is the flatness to the characters. This is not to say they don't have their own quirks, but rather, that they all seem to come from the same amorphous, fictitious middle America neighborhood. It's a great marketing ploy, but gets a little boring after a while, at least for me.

Which is what drew me into this book immediately. India is a adopted from China. Her parents are divorced. Her dad is gay and in a relationship with another man. Her mom is a self-sufficient artist (that really sealed the deal). India lives in a real place, Wolfgang, Maine. It is not middle America. It is a little town with a forest where you can get lost! There is so much texture to this story and its characters. The adventures India has are regular kid adventures. She has a boy who is her friend but not her boyfriend, Colby. He has a crush on a girl India cannot stand. India and Colby sleep out in a field to watch for UFOs. India spends time with her elderly neighbor next door. And all around these adventures is the enticing flavors of real setting, modern day family, and real life.

Go India!

Add to that the gentle illustrations with which Agnell enlivens the pages, and it's a winning combination. I cannot wait to read more.

For more adventurous tales, hop over to our fearless leader, Barrie Summy's blog!

On a tangentially related note, I got to see the inside illustrations for my upcoming picture book, ROPE 'EM, that comes out in March 2011 with Kane Miller. Gorgeous (author swoons).

I'm in love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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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.

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Pictured here is Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye, Book #1 of the Geronimo Stilton chapter books - the international best-selling children's book series published by Edizioni Piemme of Milan, Italy, since 2000. Scholastic has published the English version of this series since February 2004. So far, readers have been delighted by 35 titles, with the latest scheduled for release in 2009. The series is aimed at the 9-12 year-old set, and has been translated into 35 languages.

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Geronimo Stilton - a monacle-wearing, mild-mannered mouse - is a best-selling author and publisher of The Rodent's Gazette newspaper. Online issues of The Rodent's Gazette can be found on the Scholastic website. 

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If sunlight and warmth have hit the almost-polar regions of the Pacific Northwest, then it must be summer everywhere in this hemisphere–time for lemonade, picnics, beaches, long days spent outdoors, and lots and lots of books!

Summer reading is its own special category of literature–it’s the time of year when we remember that books are instruments of delight and amusement. It’s also the time of year when so many other things compete for our time and attention that reading sometimes is put aside until autumn and the required reading lists roll around.

When The Papertigers blog first began, Corinne had a wonderful post that discussed summer reading programs presented by libraries (which, Marjorie told us, also takes place in England under the wonderful name of “reading schemes.” Wouldn’t you rather scheme than take part in a program?) and said that she and her children celebrated the end of school by going to their library, signing up for the reading program, and going home laden with books. What a splendid way to mark the beginning of summer!

Of course not everyone lives near a library that offers such a program–I certainly didn’t when I was a child–or perhaps a crowded schedule of sports, summer camp, and family vacations prevent participation in a library program. For these people, we invite you to make The Tiger’s Choice your summer reading program. It fits into any schedule since you can comment when you are ready, on your computer, at any time of the day or night. It welcomes readers of all ages who love children’s literature, so you can discuss books with your friends, your parents, or even your teacher! It’s also a great way for youth group leaders to supplement their own summer activities with discussions about books, or for educators to stay in touch with their students.

If the monthly selections don’t appeal to you, tell us what you are reading on your own and why you like it–you may help someone else to find a new favorite author. (This is what happened to kids who responded to our Asking the Kids questionnaire–Geronimo Stilton and Young James Bond now have new readers.)

We’ll keep track of your suggestions and comments–when the end of August comes around we hope all of us will have found new books to love and new ways at looking at old favorites. Please join us!

And please add your comments to our discussion of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which will end as June draws to a close.

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After a decade of work, on February 4th Oxford University Press and the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute will publish the African American National Biography(AANB). The AANB is the largest repository of black life stories ever assembled with more than 4,000 biographies. To celebrate this monumental achievement we have invited the contributors to this 8 volume set to share some of their knowledge with the OUPBlog. Over the next couple of months we will have the honor of sharing their thoughts, reflections and opinions with you.

To kick things off we have AANB contributor Dr. Marybeth Gasman, an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Gasman’s has published several books, including Charles S. Johnson: Leadership beyond the Veil in the Age of Jim Crow, Supporting Alma Mater: Successful Strategies for Securing Funds from Black College Alumni, and Uplifting a People: African American Philanthropy and Education. In addition to these works, Dr. Gasman recently finished a book entitled Envisioning Black Colleges: A History of the United Negro College Fund (Johns Hopkins University Press). Recently Dr. Gasman was awarded the Promising Scholar/Early Career Award by the Association for the Study of Higher Education for her body of scholarship.  In the article below Gasman looks at criticism of Historically Black Colleges.

Public discussions of Black colleges’ troubles are often distorted by the tendency to attribute one institution’s shortcomings to the entire group. Furthermore, I have noticed that critics often base their critique on anecdote rather than evidence. As someone who works with and studies Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) on a daily basis, I find this practice to be deeply troubling. Let me offer a few examples. (more…)

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