the emmephant librarian

Book Review: Blue Chameleon

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:41:34 -0500

Reading Level: Ages 4+

Poor, lonely blue chameleon. He can turn into anything, and blend in anywhere, but despite this wonderful ability, blue chameleon cannot find anyone who wants to be his friend.

Enchanting colored pencil drawings and excellent use of color, expression, and symmetry will delight readers as chameleon struggles to find a friend.

If you liked Blue Chameleon, try these great picture books:

Art and Max by David Wiesner

Ernest, the Moose Who Doesn’t Fit by Catherine Rayner

Book Review: The Brave Cowboy

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:00:06 -0500

Originally published in 1959, this small book is sure to warm your heart. Stark black and white illustrations of a young cowboy contrast wonderfully with red drawings of imaginary wild animals, Indians, and outlaws that our hero must face. Great for any imaginative reader.

Book List: @loolabette

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:40:24 -0500

A list of awesome YA books @loolabette should read. Links head to my own reviews here on the tumblr. There are a handful I haven’t reviewed yet… BUT THEY ARE NO LESS GOOD I JUST HAVE NO TIME D: :shameface:

THE WHOLE LIST ON GOODREADS (without any of my reviews.)

Baratz-Logsted, Lauren - The Twin’s Daughter

Black, Holly - White Cat

Boudreau, Helene - Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings

Brande, Robin - Fat Cat

Bray, Libba - Beauty Queens

Christopher, Lucy - Stolen

deGramont, Nina - Every Little Thing in the World

deStefano, Lauren - Wither

Doctorow, Cory - Little Brother

Dunn, Mark - Ella Minnow Pea

Fforde, Jasper - The Eyre Affair

Forman, Gayle - If I Stay

Garsee, Jeannine - Say the Word

Greenwald, Lisa - My Life in Pink and Green

Gruen, Sara - Ape House

Haines, Lise - Girl in the Arena

Johnson, Maureen - The Name of the Star

Johnson, Maureen - Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes

Kessler, Jackie Morse - Hunger

King, A.S. - Please Ignore Vera Dietz

Kluger, Steve - My Most Excellent Year: a Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park

Mackall, Dandi Daley - My Boyfriend’s Dogs

Mieville, China - Un Lun Dun

Millard, Glenda - A Small Free Kiss in the Dark

Na, An - The Fold

Nelson, Blake - They Came from Below

Oliver, Lauren - Before I Fall

Oliver, Lauren - Delirium

Oppel, Kenneth - Half Brother

Ostlere, Cathy - Karma

Parkhurst, Carolyn - The Dogs of Babel

Pfeffer, Susan Beth - Life as We Knew It

Revin, Beth - Across the Universe

Roth, Veronica - Divergent

Ryan, Sara - Empress of the World

Scott, Elizabeth - Living Dead Girl

Shusterman, Neal - Bruiser

Spinelli, Jerry - Stargirl

Suma, Nova Ren - Imaginary Girls

Urrea, Luis Alberto - Into the Beautiful North

Vande Velde, Vivian - Companions of the Night

Vande Velde, Vivian - Dragon’s Bait

book review: into the beautiful north

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:22:13 -0500

Nayeli lives in the small town of Tres Camarones, Mexico – a town abandoned by its men for the optimistic, job-filled land of Los Estados Unidos. With the town unprotected and vulnerable, banditos have begun to settle their drug cartels in. After seeing a rerun of The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli decides that she herself will go to the States and bring back seven men who will protect the town, just like Yul Brynner. My description does it little to no justice.

book review: they came from below

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:21:05 -0500

Emily and Reese are best friends who see each other only over summer vacation, where they both pass the time lazing on the beach or going to parties, hoping to pick up a summer fling. After a strange organism washes up on the local beach, the girls meet Steve and Dave, two ‘foreign-exchange students,’ their whole summer turns upside down. Steve and Dave are strange, giving Emily and Reese the idea that they don’t really know how to be human. It turns out that Steve and Dave are really alien organisms called up from the depths of the ocean and manifested in human form. Their goal? To try and stop the threat of increasing global pollution, which threatens to destroy their ocean home. Blake Nelson’s novel is an amusing look at a very real and frightening problem.

Book Review: The Fold

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:19:35 -0500

Joyce has always lived in her sister Helen’s shadow. Helen is beautiful, smart, an aspiring doctor – everything Joyce isn’t. Joyce would do anything to be beautiful like Helen, especially so she can attract the attention of her crush, John Ford Kang. So when Joyce’s aunt Gomo shows up with a once-in-a-lifetime offer, Joyce wants to jump at the opportunity. But Gomo’s gift of plastic surgery sounds like it will hurt, something Joyce isn’t good with at all. And Joyce just isn’t sure whether or not she should get ‘the fold’ - the eyelid surgery that will make her look more American and less Korean. Could the surgery help even her ugly face to be more appealing to John Ford Kang? And if not, was it worth it?

Book Review: Un Lun Dun

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:18:33 -0500

Zanna and Deeba, twelve-year old best friends, think that their lives are pretty normal. But when the girls follow a broken umbrella down into the world of Unlondon, a world on the brink of war against the Smog, they learn that their lives are a little more significant than they thought. Zanna is a girl long-prophesized as the Shwazzy – the girl who will save Unlondon (and London) from the Smog. But when an attack leaves Zanna with no memory of having traveled to Unlondon, Deeba remains the abcity’s only hope against the Smog. With her pet milk carton Curdle, a pincushion-headed man, a group of utterlings, a book, and a bus conductor, Deeba sets off to prove to Unlondon’s Propheseers that there is an evil plot afoot. If you liked The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster, or Coraline by Neil Gaiman, this book is perfect for you!

Book Review: Ape House

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:16:48 -0500

This novel centers on a group of Bonobo chimps living in a laboratory and being trained in American Sign Language by our heroine, Isabel. Of course, Isabel has fought against activist groups who feel her work with the chimps is wrong, inhumane, and should be stopped, but she feels her work is important, and that the chimps enjoy their surroundings as well as learning experiences. One day she and the chimps accept a reporter, John Thigpen, into their world, allowing him to compose a story praising the chimps’ intelligence. The very next day, a group of activists bomb the laboratory, nearly killing Isabel, and the chimps are lost. The apes soon find themselves re-purchased and stars of a new pornographic reality TV show based on their inherent sexuality, called Ape House. As Isabel and John struggle to regain the chimps and stop their exploitation, the show becomes more and more wildly popular. Ape House is a stunning, all-too-short novel that will harshly open your eyes about human treatment of animals (and each other).

Book Review: My Life in Pink and Green

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:15:26 -0500

Lucy Desberg is, like, businesswoman of the year in training. She plans to single-handedly save the future of her family’s pharmacy by creating a Relaxation Room (which she later decides will become an eco-spa) and doing makeup for kids in town before special events. The only problem is, her mom and grandmother don’t take her seriously. And she has a crush on her best friend’s older brother.

Book Review: Wither

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:44:55 -0500

In this first installment of the Chemical Garden Trilogy, we meet Rhine, a girl stolen from the streets where she lived with her brother and sold as to a rich governor’s son as a wife. Polygamy is common in Rhine’s world, as a virus (caused by the over-sterilization and genetic purification of <i>our</i> generation) kills men at the age of 25 and women at 20. Rich men like Governor Linden collect wives (some from orphanages, some kidnapped and sold) for breeding purposes, and Rhine wants absolutely nothing to do with it, as you can imagine. This new dystopian novel is absolutely stunning – though the setting at time falls flat, and the reader, like Rhine, often finds it easy to forget the marrow of her situation as sister wife, this haunting novel is one you won’t soon forget.

Book Review: White Cat

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:34:24 -0500

The Sharpe family is full of curse workers, con artists, mobsters, thieves, and generally tricksy people. Cassel is no different, except that out of all the members of his family, he is not a worker, and wants nothing to do with the mafia. He’s perfectly content attending Wallingford, a private school where he runs a betting circle and keeps to himself, his secrets buried under a handsome facade of normalcy. Cassel Sharpe has it made. But like all seemingly perfect, charming, handsome guys, Cassel has a secret. Three years ago, he stabbed his best friend Lila (his older brother’s girlfriend) to death. Everything changes when Cassel wakes up one night on the roof of a school building, seemingly about to jump. He is expelled from school as a suicide risk, and has to go live in his jailed mother’s house with his estranged grandfather, a death worker. Plagued with dreams about a white cat and reliving the murder of Lila far more often than he ever wanted to, Cassel begins to suspect that he is being worked. As he attempts to unravel his memories and his past, Cassel begins to find out dark truths about his family’s involvement in the mafia. White Cat is a gripping novel that you won’t be easily able to put down - and if you’re on a train reading, you WILL miss your stop. Trust me. I did it twice. A dark, twisting tale of magic, mobsters, con artists, and normalcy, Cassel Sharpe and his White Cat will pull you into their world with just a touch of the page.

Book Review: Inkblot

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:06:05 -0500

Reading Level: Grades 3 - 6

Inkblots: a messy, awesome project with fascinating techniques for such a seemingly random piece of art - and they aren’t just used for Rorschach tests, either! After reading this, I want to buy gallons of India Ink and rolls of parchment!

Book Review: Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:02:06 -0500

Whiteblack the penguin is running out of stories to tell on his radio show - not a good thing to happen to the Chief Storyteller of Penguinland. Waving goodbye to his friends, Whiteblack sets off in a little boat, in search of new stories. His journey is fraught with mishaps and misadventures, and doesn’t quite go as Whiteblack had planned - but the plucky little radio star takes it all in stride, planning to use everything as a new story!

Whiteblack was written at the same time as Curious George, and smuggled out of Paris during World War II as well. His adventure fell by the wayside as Curious George became more and more popular, but in my opinion, is must more enjoyable than the cheeky, troublesome monkey. (I never liked him.)

Book Review: Tiny Little Fly

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:00:05 -0500

Tiny Little Fly lands on everyone he meets but no one wants him there at all! Everyone swats at Tiny Little Fly and tries to capture him, but he is too fast for them!

Little readers will enjoy the fly’s-eye-view of each animal he bothers, and guessing what the animal will be!

Book Review: My Boyfriend is a Monster #1: I Love Him to Pieces: or My Date is Dead Weight: or He Only Loves Me For My Brains

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:01:06 -0500

Athletic baseball star Dicey Bell and quiet, nerdy Jack Chen are assigned to a school project together - care for an egg as if it were a real baby. Over the course of the project, the two bond over the egg, finding that they have much more in common than they initially thought. At the conclusion of the project, Jack musters up the nerve to ask Dicey out on a date.

A typical, perky-yet-enjoyable realistic high school romance, right?

Wrong. While on their date, Jack and Dicey learn that a zombie outbreak has begun in their town.

Book Review: Winnie the Witch

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:05:06 -0500

Winnie the witch has a problem. She lives in a biiiiiiiiig black house with black everything. The floors are black, the walls are black, the furniture is black, even her bathtub is black. Winnie loves the color black.

Like most witches, Winnie also has a black cat. His name is Wilbur. Winnie loves her cat Wilbur. There’s just one problem…

When Wilbur is awake, she can see him just fine. When Wilbur is asleep and his eyes are closed, Winnie cannot… and she is always tripping over him.

So Winnie turns him green. But that doesn’t work out at all either. Neither does the next color. Or the next. Finally, Winnie waves her wand at Wilbur and turns him into a five-colored rainbow cat! Let’s see him blend in to anything now!, she thinks.

But poor Wilbur is miserable, embarrassed that he looks so absolutely ridiculous. And Winnie doesn’t want her poor cat, her best friend who she loves more than anything in the whole world, to be sad. What on earth will she do in order to stop tripping over him?

Winnie the Witch kicks off a series of British picture books I wish we owned all of at the library. She is a delightful character, and the illustrations are simply wonderful.

Book Review: Imaginary Girls

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:04:05 -0500

Chloe’s older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can’t be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby’s friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby. But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood. With palpable drama and delicious craft, Nova Ren Suma bursts onto the YA scene with the story that everyone will be talking about. (Description from GoodReads)

I got this book as an ARC from LibraryThing, and didn’t remember reading anything about a supernatural aspect to the book in the description - so for a lot of the book, I struggled to figure out whether or not there was something supernatural going on, or if the descriptions were just very mystical and spine-tingling. Once I realized there was something spooky going on, the book completely shifted focus - it was almost as if the author planned for the somewhat confusing & thoroughly creepy novel to suddenly become even MORE creepy as the reader realizes that wait, that nagging suspicion you had from the beginning but wrote off as crazy is actually what’s going on. The book reminded me completely of the movie Silence Becomes You - it’s absolutely beautiful, confusing yet easy to understand, and intensely creepy. I recommend this book highly.

Book Review: Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:03:05 -0500

When Eleanor’s babysitter Bibi moves far away, Eleanor is devastated. Life without her favorite person is hard. Everything Eleanor used to like to do is now unpleasant and sad because it reminds her of Bibi. It’s awful - way worse than pickle juice on a cookie. Things get even worse when Eleanor’s parents hire a NEW babysitter.

Written in verse, this short, charming novel explores loss in a fresh way - no one dies; Bibi has only moved away and still cares very much about Eleanor. Eleanor learns to accept and even come to like her new babysitter, but no one can ever replace Bibi.

Book Review: Flygirl

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:00:05 -0500

Ida Mae Jones dreams of flight. Her daddy was a pilot and being black didn’t stop him from fulfilling his dreams. But her daddy’s gone now, and being a woman, and being black, are two strikes against her. When America enters the war with Germany and Japan, the Army creates the WASP, the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots - and Ida suddenly sees a way to fl y as well as do something significant to help her brother stationed in the Pacific. But even the WASP won’t accept her as a black woman, forcing Ida Mae to make a difficult choice of “passing,” of pretending to be white to be accepted into the program. Hiding one’s racial heritage, denying one’s family, denying one’s self is a heavy burden. And while Ida Mae chases her dream, she must also decide who it is she really wants to be. (Description from GoodReads)

This book was a little slow, but ultimately, this is a great historical fiction novel. I asked a kid I was talking to about this book a week ago whether he thought this was more a book about race, or a book about gender. He said race, but honestly, I feel like this book was far more about gender than it was race. Ida Mae passed so well, and was never caught (which sort of bothered me… the book ended very quickly) that the book focused on gender for me. It’s not a book that I fell off my seat reading with excitement, but I did take it home from work to finish it off the clock, which is pretty rare.

Book Review: The Marbury Lens

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:05:05 -0500

Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury. There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he’s trying to kill them. Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he’s losing his mind. Conner tells Jack it’s going to be okay. But it’s not. Andrew Smith has written his most beautiful and personal novel yet, as he explores the nightmarish outer limits of what trauma can do to our bodies and our minds. (Description from GoodReads)

This is one of those books that, once you finish it, you need to pick it back up again and re-read in order to find out what the hell just passed through your brain. I haven’t had a chance to re-read this yet. But I can tell you right now, it’s the best psychological novel I have read in a long time. I’m not a huge Michael Grant fan, but his blurb on the front is damned accurate: “Andrew Smith’s the Marbury lens will own you, mind, body and soul. You can’t put it down, but you’ll want to. you’ll want to put it down and away but that is not happening. The Marbury Lens crawls into your head and won’t leave.”