Monday, July 29, 2013

Familiar Yet Strange . . .

I love reading retellings of famous stories and books.  I always find it interesting to see how an author can tell the same basic stories with a few major changes.  Try one of these retellings for teens . . .

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Retelling of Cinderella
Cinder, a gifted mechanic and a cyborg with a mysterious past, is blamed by her stepmother for her stepsister's illness while a deadly plague decimates the population of New Beijing, but when Cinder's life gets intertwined with Prince Kai's, she finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle.

Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman
Retelling of Romeo and Juliet
Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Retelling of Don Quixote
In an attempt to find a cure after being diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen-year-old boy, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital.

Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George
Retelling of Cinderella
In the midst of maneuverings to create political alliances through marriage, sixteen-year-old Poppy, one of the infamous twelve dancing princesses, becomes the target of a vengeful witch while Prince Christian tries to save her.

Avalon High by Meg Cabot
Retelling of King Arthur
Having moved to Annapolis, Maryland, with her medievalist parents, high school junior Ellie enrolls at Avalon High School where several students may or may not be reincarnations of King Arthur and his court.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Historical Fiction

I'm not usually a reader of historical fiction.  I would much rather read a fantasy or suspense story.  However, every once in a while I come across a historical fiction book that I read and absolutely love.  Here a few of them . . .

The Seer of Shadows by Avi
In New York City in 1872, fourteen-year-old Horace, a photographer's apprentice, becomes entangled in a plot to create fraudulent spirit photographs, but when Horace accidentally frees the real ghost of a dead girl bent on revenge, his life takes a frightening turn.

Margret and Flynn, 1875 by Kathleen Duey
In the Colorado Territory in 1875, orphan Margret and her older sister Libby are staying with the kind-hearted Mrs. Fredrickson when Margret finds an injured horse which she nurses back to health and wants to keep, while Libby is too mistrustful of people to think that they might possibly have found a home.

Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop
It's 1910 in Pownal, Vermont. At 12, Grace and her best friend Arthur must leave school to work in the mill. They write a secret letter to the Child Labor Board about children working in the mill. A few weeks later, Lewis Hine, a famous reformer, arrives to gather evidence. Grace meets him and appears in some of his photographs, changing her life forever.

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson
Annika, a twelve-year-old foundling in late nineteenth-century Vienna, inherits a trunk of costume jewelry, and soon afterwards a woman claiming to be her aristocratic mother arrives and takes her to live in a strangely decrepit mansion in Germany.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.

Friday, July 26, 2013

On Vacation . . .

I haven't posted for a few weeks as I was on vacation.  So in honor of my vacation, I'll tell you about some of my favorite books about being on vacation.

The Big Bad Wolf Goes on Vacation by Delphine Perret
When Bernard, the Big Bad Wolf, joins Louis and his grandfather on their annual trip to the beach, getting there is half the fun.

The House Takes a Vacation by Jacqueline Davies\
While the Petersons are away, their house decides to take a trip to the sea to watch the "Dance of the Sunlight," despite some groaning from the chimney and the basement's refusal to rise to the occasion.

Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin
When Farmer Brown goes on vacation, leaving his brother Bob in charge, Duck makes trouble by changing all his instructions to notes the animals like much better.

Pictures from Our Vacation by Lynne Rae Perkins
Given a camera that takes and prints tiny pictures just before leaving for the family farm in Canada, a young girl records a vacation that gets off to a slow start, but winds up being a family reunion filled with good memories.

A Pork in New York by Catherine Stock
Monsieur Monmouton and his dog Cabot fly from France to New York City in pursuit of his farm animals, who are taking a vacation to see such sights as Blooming Dells and MOOMA.