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By Bianca Schulze, The Children's Book Review
Published: October 30, 2009

Thirteen Days of Halloween 

by Carol Greene (Author), Tim Raglin (Illustrator)

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover: 32 pages

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (September 2009)

What to expect: Halloween, Rhyme, Parody, ghosts and gouls

I love a good song and it looks like Carol Greene does, too. She has taken "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and put her own spooky spin on it.

The song begins with, "On the first day of Halloween, my good friend gave to me: a vulture in a dead tree." You can only imagine where it goes from there: hissing cats, fat toads, giggling ghosts, cooked worms, and so-on; until, "On the thiteenth day of Halloween, I invited my good friend to tea, and I gave HIM a present. A real, live ..." and this is how it ends: with a big, fat question mark.

Raglin's illustrations are eerie and completely complimentary to this imaginatively-creepy and lots-of-fun sing-a-long book. He has conjured up a classic, spooky crew to portray the books troupe of ghosts and ghouls, who certainly bring energy and entertainment to Greene's inventive parody. The guessing-game-ending took me by surprise, but it sure makes for a good conversation -- or even an introduction into Pandora's box. Spooktacular!

Publisher's synopsis: "On the first day of Halloween my good friend gave to me: a vulture in a dead tree."

Children will love to sing along!

Everyone knows "The Twelve Days of Christmas," but are you ready for The Thirteen Days of Halloween? In this delightfully offbeat story, a dashing ghoul tries to win his ghostly love's heart with heaps of hilarious gifts ranging from broomsticks and bats to cauldrons and cats! Carol Greene's lively verse is perfectly complemented by Tim Raglin's enchantingly erie illustrations. Children of all ages will love to sing along. The result is a frightfully funny Halloween tale you'll never forget.

About the author: Carol Greene wrote her first poem when she was six years old (it was about a spider). To date she has published over a hundred books for children. Carol also likes to read, sing, and make teddy bears. She lives in Webster Groves, Missouri, with her cat Dulcie.

About the Illustrator: Tim Raglin brings his wacky imagination and wonderfully odd cast of characters to The Thirteen Days of Halloween. His previous books include Five Funny Fights, Pecos Bill, and The Birthday ABC. He received a silver medal from the New York Society of Illustrators for his book Uncle Mugsy & the Terrible Twins of Christmas. Mr. Raglin lives in his hometown of Independence, Kansas.

Add this book to your collection: Thirteen Days of Halloween 

By Bianca Schulze, The Children's Book Review
Published: October 20, 2009

The 39 Clues: Book Two: One False Note

by Gordon Korman

Reading level: Ages 9-12

Hardcover: 220 pages

Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1st edition (December, 2008)

What to expect: Mystery, Action, Suspense, Babysitter, Brothers and Sisters, Family, Orphans, Travel

Here is what I had to say after reading book one: Calling all reluctant readers! Action, mystery, suspense, and orphans, all mixed into a well-balanced, fast read. Not to mention the interactive website and collectible clue cards. Maze of Bones is the first book of a ten book series written by ten different well-known authors. Rick Riordan (author of The Lightning Thief) has set the pace well, creating a suspenseful adventure and scattering it with secretive clues. Riordan has outlined the rest of the series, but it will be completed by the 9 other authors.

Note: A discovery I made is that the books will be completed by 5 authors, each writing 2 of the books in the series.

Author number 2 of 5, Gordon Korman, transitions readers smoothly into book two, One False Note, and manages to strengthen the readers relationship with the characters. As the Cahill siblings continue on their journey to win the race by solving the mystery of all 39 clues, determination and self discovery are key themes in the series. Knowing your grass roots, extended family and all, can be a huge part of understanding one's self. The Cahill's certainly have an exciting and powerful family, including Benjamin Franklin (book one), and a whole branch of artistic members, including the historical figures Mozart and Picasso (book two).

Remaining true to the readers, Korman mixes history with a dash of hip-hop (Snoop Dog) and current themes to hold their interest levels. He has packed in plenty of action and suspense, not to mention a bunch of geographical locations. From Paris to Germany to Austria and then Italy, readers truly are presented with a nice tasting of culture and scenery as the pace of the race for clues quickens.

Publisher's synopsis: THIS JUST IN! Amy and Dan Cahill were spotted on a train, hot on the trail of one of 39 Clues hidden around the world. BUT WAIT! Police report a break-in at an elite hotel, and the suspects ALSO sound suspiciously like Amy and Dan. UPDATE! Amy and Dan have been seen in a car . . . no, in a speedboat chase . . . and HOLD EVERYTHING! They're being chased by an angry mob?!?

When there's a Clue on the line, anything can happen.

Add this book to your collection: The 39 Clues: Book Two: One False Note

Visit the website: www.the39clues.com

Have you or your children been reading and playing along? Let us know what you think, leave a comment below.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children's Book Review
Published: October 6, 2009

The 39 Clues: Book One: Maze of Bones

by Rick Riordan

Reading level: Ages 9-12

Hardcover: 220 pages

Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1st edition (September 9, 2008)

What to expect: Mystery, Action, Suspense, Babysitter, Brothers and Sisters, Family, Orphans

Calling all reluctant readers! Action, mystery, suspense, and orphans, all mixed into a well-balanced, fast read. Not to mention the interactive website and collectible clue cards. Maze of Bones is the first book of a ten book series written by ten different well-known authors. Rick Riordan (author of The Lightning Thief) has set the pace well, creating a suspenseful adventure and scattering it with secretive clues. Riordan has outlined the rest of the series, but it will be completed by the 9 other authors.

Amy and Dan Cahill, sister and brother, are orphans who have found themselves in a 39 clue hunt for a a power to change the world. Their competitors ... vanity stricken, greed driven, family members who all happen to be distant relatives of Benjamin Franklin. What happens when the people you are supposed to turn to for help could be working against you? As far as siblings go, they have a pretty good relationship considering their unique personalities, so, at least they have each other and their uber-cool au-pair (a nose pierced-iPod-using-linguist). Collecting all 39 clues will lead to the fortune, along the way, Amy and Dan will also learn about their parents while traveling the world and learning some interesting historical facts. A witty and exciting read with interesting characters, which ends with a big question mark. Fun stuff!

Publisher's synopsis: Minutes before she died Grace Cahill changed her will, leaving her descendants an impossible decision: "You have a choice - one million dollars or a clue."

Grace is the last matriarch of the Ca hills, the world's most powerful family. Everyone from Napoleon to Houdini is related to the Cahills, yet the source of the family power is lost. 39 clues hidden around the world will reveal the family's secret, but no one has been able to assemble them. Now the clues race is on, and young Amy and Dan must decide what's important: hunting clues or uncovering what REALLY happened to their parents.

The 39 Clues is Scholastic's groundbreaking new series, spanning10 adrenaline-charged books, 350 trading cards, and an on-line game where readers play a part in the story and compete for over $100,000 in prizes.

The 39 Clues books set the story, and the cards, website and game allow kids to participate in it. Kids visit the website - the39clues.com - and discover they are lost members of the Cahill family. They set up on-line accounts where they can compete against other kids and against Cahill characters to find all 39 clues. Through the website, kids can track their points and clues, manage their card collections, dig through the Cahill archives for secrets, and "travel" the world to collect Cahill artifacts, interview characters, and hunt down clues. Collecting cards helps: Each card is a piece of evidence containing information on a Cahill, a clue, or a family secret.

Every kid is a winner - we'll give away prizes through the books, the website and the cards, including a grand prize of $10,000!

Add this book to your collection: The 39 Clues: Book One: Maze of Bones

Visit the website: www.the39clues.com

Have you or your children been reading and playing along? Let us know what you think, leave a comment below.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children's Book Review
Published: June 3, 2009

Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass

by Erica Kirov

Reading level: Ages 9+

Hardcover: 256 pages

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (May 1, 2009)

With its gold embossed razzle-dazzle cover and the publisher's synopsis, I was allured by a super-natural power that the Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass beholds. When Nick turns 13-years-old his life takes an unsuspecting turn. He's been living in a not-so-cool hotel in Las Vegas, The Pendragon, with his magician father whose magic skills are more illusion than magic. Nick has trouble making friends because everyone he meets is only in Las Vegas for a vacation. On his birthday everything changes -- he discovers that his heritage runs much deeper than one could ever anticipate. He is part of the most powerful Russian magic family there is, and they live in The Winter Palace Hotel and Casino where the world-famous Damian puts on the greatest show on earth.

With a strong Russian heritage, author Erica Kirov brings an old-world depth to the fast paced neon-world of today's Las Vegas. Two very different times and cultures collide in an out-of this-world experience. Swords, caviar, and Siberian tigers meet skateboards, pizza, and hedgehogs. Kirov's descriptions of characters and scenes are vivid and picturesque. This book is so well thought through that I am beginning to think that Erica Kirov may actually be from a family of magicians. I have been bewitched and I can't wait for book two. A vonderful novel!

If you like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, or The Navigator by Eoin Mcnamee, you'll be really happy with Magickeepers. I also found a few very basic similarities between Kirov's story and Ingrid Law's Savvy. For more information visit: http://www.magickeepers.com/index.html and http://www.magickeepers.blogspot.com/

Publisher's Synopsis: What would you do for an hourglass that stopped time?

Nick Rostov's father is the worst stage magician in Las Vegas. He can barely pull a rabbit out of a hat. So it is a strange morning indeed when Nick wakes up to find himself on the top floor of the Winter Palace Casino with a promise from the greatest magician in the world to teach him magic.

And not just stage magic. Real magic. Nick sets out to learn about his mother's family, the strange Russian clan of magicians that secretly run the Winter Palace. But there is a catch: Nick has the sight, the ability to see into the past. And so it must fall to him, with only his cousin Isabella to help, to pick up the long-buried clues and unravel the mystery of The Eternal Hourglass, the only magic artifact ever created that can actually stop time.

About the Author: Erica Kirov is an American writer of Russian descent. Though she is not from a family of magicians, she is from a proud family of Russians, and she grew up hearing stories of their lives there.

Erica lives in Virginia with her husband, four children, three dogs, parrot, her son's snake (she really hates snakes), and a pet hedgehog. She is busy at work on the next Magickeepers novel.She also writes on http://teenfictioncafe.blogspot.com as well as her parenting blog, http://demonbabyandme.blogspot.com/.

Add this book to your collection: Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass

Check out more reviews of this book at the following blogs:
YA Books Central
Books For Your Kids
The Reading Tub
Book Loons
Dolce Bellezza
The Written World
Biblio File
Abby the Librarian
Booking Mama
A Childhood of Dreams
Eva’s Book Addiction
Word Candy

And even more reviews coming soon:
Looking Glass Review (6/5)
Alea Pop Culture (6/18)
Beth Fish Reads (6/23)

By Amanda Lynch, The Children's Book Review
Published: May 31, 2009

The Ghost at Old Oak Way: An Acorn Mystery

by Laurie Cameron and Laura Meagher

Reading Level:  Ages 9-12

Paperback:  216 pages

Publisher:  UnTapped Talent LLC (June 1, 2009)

What to Expect:  Mystery, Civil War, Friendship, Suspense, Supernatural Experiences

The Ghost at Old Oak Way, the debut novel by Laurie Cameron and Laura Meagher, is an exciting read that keeps you guessing until the very end.  The follow-the-clues mystery is combined with an interweaving of Civil War History and elements of the supernatural which make it difficult to put the book down.  I certainly had a hard time!

Eliza and her family live in Alexandria, Virginia.  They are proprietors of The Bookshop:  a cozy bookstore which has been in their family since the Civil War.  Eliza is a fun and endearing heroine:  while not always the best at school, she is a hard worker and has a very kind heart, as manifested by her willingness to welcome Simon, the new kid at school, into her friend group.  What makes Eliza special, though, is that she also has inherited a quirk unique to her family:  she can see the ghosts of her ancestors, and they are trying to tell her something. 

So in the midst of trying to get schoolwork done, spending time with her best friend, Melinda, and helping out around The Bookshop, Eliza finds herself face-to-face with a mystery:  what are the ghosts trying to tell her?  She finds clues and hidden spaces in her family's store, but isn't quite sure what they mean until she finds out that her parents may lose the business.  With the help of the ghosts, will Eliza be able to help save her family's store?

I really think this is a timely book:  the reality is Eliza's story could relate to a lot of children nowadays, whose parents might be worried about losing their jobs, their business, their houses.  It's also a powerful tale of family banding together to weather the hard times. The book itself would also be a fun read-aloud for the family, as adults will enjoy the fast-paced writing and adept attention to detail.  As to the story itself, the content is appropriate for ages 9 and up. 

For more information about the book, check out www.acornmysteries.com.

Add this book to your collection:  The Ghost at Old Oak Way

Summer is approaching fast, which means school will be out very soon. It also means it's baseball season. What better way to entice our kids to read over the summer than giving them a series of books that is based around a sport that they love -- topic can be everything! SLUGGERS, a series about three kids who travel the country playing baseball, is sure to captivate it's audience with mystery, fantasy, and even some historical-fiction. Loren Long, one of my all-time favorite illustrators and the guy who thought-up the series, has ever so kindly answered some questions, shedding light on his career and SLUGGERS.

Bianca: Can you tell us about your journey to becoming an illustrator?

Loren: My journey as an illustrator started with a confused college education from the University of Kentucky majoring in a number of different areas from Business to Communications to Architecture and finally to art in my senior year. Next came one year of art school at The American Academy of Art in Chicago which lead to my first professional job as an illustrator at Gibson Greeting Cards in Cincinnati, Ohio. I worked at Gibson illustrating greeting cards by day and trying to forge a freelance illustration career by night. Left Greeting card land after almost 4 years to freelance full-time mostly working for magazines. I had become a student of the American Regionalist painters from the early 20th century such as Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood. This began to show up in my illustration samples and seemed to give me an identity of style on the national illustration scene.  I began to get jobs from magazine's like Time, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, Atlantic  Monthly and Reader's Digest.

This continued to shape my artistic direction as I began to have my work accepted into national juried illustration exhibits such as The Society of Illustrators and Communication Arts magazine. After some time, publishers began calling me to do book covers for the YA book market. I loved it. My very first book cover assignment was Gail Carsen Levin's novel, Dave at Night. I remember the excitement of reading a manuscript for a novel that was yet to be published and the pride that I'd been chosen to create one piece of art that would be the face of the book on the bookshelf. It also helped that I loved the stories they were sending me.

After illustrating a couple dozen book covers I began to get calls to try my hand at chapter books (more art) and picture books (even more art). I was hooked. I fell in love with children's publishing. I love the fine art of making a picture book and as my own son began learning to read chapter series, the idea for SLUGGERS hit me.

Bianca: How does it compare illustrating picture books vs. chapter books?

Loren: There is a significant difference for me between illustrating a picture book and a chapter book.  In simple terms, (in my opinion) art for a picture book is essential to help the text tell the story. The illustrations work in symphony with the words. They work together along with the voice of the reader and the imagination of the child to complete the picture book experience. The art in a picture book is vital.

In a chapter book, the overall design and art of the book is also important but in a different way. The packaging of a chapter series is vital. The jackets are important. The interior art is also important to help the story create mood, a sense of drama and to support the setting and character development. Especially in our series SLUGGERS, where a magical element creates quite bizarre occurrences on the baseball field such as magical horses thundering through the baseball diamond during the game or baseball bats going up in flames while the hitter is swinging at the ball. But the art cannot tell the story as significantly as picture book art can. In my mind, the art in a chapter book seems to "enhance" the book rather than in a picture book the art "is" the book. I do not mean to diminish the role of art for chapter books OR the role of text in picture books. Each component is vital for the audience. They each depend on another. The roles are just  different.

Bianca: Being baseball season, tell us about the series SLUGGERS and how you collaborate with Phil Bildner?

Loren: SLUGGERS is a baseball chapter series about three kids who travel around the country with a quirky band of barnstorming baseball players in the summer of 1899. It is part mystery, part drama, part historical fiction with a fantasy element in which the kids have possession of a very special, magical, mysterious baseball. And when the 3 children hold the ball at once, strange, bizarre and mysterious occurrences appear on the field during the baseball games. The children learn that they are being followed by an evil villain who wants what the children have.He wants more than one thing they have and he also has something that the children want.

Readers will learn lots of "vintage" baseball terms that were common in the old days of baseball such as calling a ground ball a "daisy cutter", a fly ball a "rain maker" and the baseball bat a "willow".

The initial "seed" idea for SLUGGERS came from my own experience playing on a vintage baseball team here in Cincinnati in which we wore 1869 uniforms and played and performed the game of baseball to the rules, practices, sportsmanship and vernacular of the day. It was such fun playing the grand old game that I thought it would make a wonderful backdrop for a chapter series for today's young readers.
Being only a picture book illustrator at the time, I felt I needed a writer to make my dream project come true. This is where Phil Bildner came in. I was aware of his work from his picture book, Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy and I thought he'd make a good co-creator for SLUGGERS. I pitched my "seed" idea to Phil and together (by way of e-mail and phone) we concocted the entire arc of the 6 book series. In the early days it was great fun exchanging ideas, developing the characters, naming the characters and coming up with the story-lines of SLUGGERS. From the very beginning, Phil and I knew where and how we wanted the 6 book series to end. It was a blast. I would call Phil from Cincinnati to Brooklyn with all these crazy ideas. And let me make it clear that I may have pitched an initial overall idea for the project to Phil but he brought so much of his own ideas to the book series and together we shaped and crafted the books into what they are today. It has been an interesting collaboration and one that I am very proud of.

It is a co-creation collaboration where even though I am the chief artist and Phil is the chief writer, our roles are much more involved than the than simple designation of one writer and one illustrator doing separate work. We weigh in at every step of the way on the work each of us are contributing.

Bianca: What was the decision making process behind changing the series name from Barnstormers to SLUGGERS?

Luisa: To read more about the decision process that went into changing the name of the series from Barnstormers to SLUGGERS, please go to www.LorenLong.com. The main issue was that in large part, the title "Barnstormers" was not an easily identifiable "baseball" term and we felt that we were not reaching the audience we are trying to reach with SLUGGERS, the series that saved baseball. In short, if you write a book about baseball for emergent readers, you want your title to say "baseball" and many folks did not understand that "Barnstormers" was about baseball! It was a learning experience. Changing the title of our series was a decision that we did not take lightly. But ultimately, we feel that it was the right decision. Please go to my website for more scoop and visit Readsluggers.com to see more and even hear some SLUGGERS music written specifically for the books!

Bianca: Of all of your works, which has been the most rewarding for you on a personal level? Why?

Loren: I've been very fortunate that on most every level, all of my books have been incredibly rewarding. I'm perhaps most honored by the opportunity to have illustrated the classic, Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper because of what the book has meant to so many of us and in particular, what it meant to my mother and me and our lasting close bond.

It has now been very rewarding to begin writing and illustrating my own picture books such as the recently published DRUMMER BOY and the upcoming Fall '09 picture book OTIS...because I never thought I'd be a writer.

And it is very rewarding to create a chapter series like SLUGGERS that I hope will ignite an interest in reading for that sluggish, reluctant young, emergent boy or girl reader. And with SLUGGERS, it may be because they simply like baseball or the idea of how three children help save their family with a magic baseball.

Bianca: Please tell us about winning the two Golden Kite awards.

Loren: I'm a big supporter of The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (the scbwi). My very first picture book, I DREAM OF TRAINS won the Golden Kite for picture book illustration. And later, WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN'D ASTRONOMER won the Golden Kite Honor for picture book illustration. I was over the moon to be recognized and those awards will always be a little happy place in my career in publishing.

Bianca: My favorite version of  Watty Piper's The Little Engine That Could is the 2005 edition that you illustrated. Do you have any plans to re-illustrate anymore classics?

Loren: I've been excited that my 2005 edition of Watty Piper's THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD has been accepted and well received by so many for young and old. What an honor, I'm pleased that folks are gifting it to graduating seniors and older kids and adults alike who are "struggling in medical school" and loved the book as a child. It's been rewarding to hear those stories and to know that I'm a small part of the rich The Little Engine That Could publishing history.

It was digging into the classic Little Engine That Could as an illustrator that ignited my interest in creating my own books that I hope to have a classic feel such as TOY BOAT and I very much had my favorite classic books in mind as I created OTIS (Philomel, Fall'09).

Bianca: What should we expect to see from you in the near future?

Loren: I'm working on the last two books in the SLUGGERS series for Spring 2010 and I mentioned my newest picture book, OTIS coming this September 2009 about a little tractor who befriends a baby calf on the farm.

Bianca: If you had to illustrate a picture book which was about a well-known children's author or illustrator, who would you choose and what story would the pictures tell?

Loren: Hmmm, if I had to illustrate a picture book about a well known children's author I'd probably zoom in on Virginia Lee Burton and try to get to the heart of how she came up with Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel!

Thank you so much for your time, Loren!

  

Check out the SLUGGERS series (Ages 8-12) at www.lorenlong.com