Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading by Tommy Greenwald

 Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading by Tommy Greenwald

Summary:
Charlie Joe Jackson may be the most reluctant reader ever born. And so far, he’s managed to get through life without ever reading an entire book from cover to cover. But now that he’s in middle school, avoiding reading isn’t as easy as it used to be. And when his friend Timmy McGibney decides that he’s tired of covering for him, Charlie Joe finds himself resorting to desperate measures to keep his perfect record intact.This is the hilarious story of an avid non-reader and the extreme lengths to which he’ll go to get out of reading a book. Amazon.com


Review:
Need I say I was a bit reluctant to recommend this book. It's hard enough to get some kids to read without having a book to give them ideas about NOT reading. However, this may be a really great choice for the reluctant readers out there. Charlie Joe keeps his chapters short (Charlie Joe's Tip #1) and interesting (Charlie Joe's Tip #19). It also has a story kids can relate to (shh.... yes, I said there's actually a story line too!).

The Secret Underground by Natalie Bahm

Twelve year old Ally, and her irritating little brother Eric are surprised on their way home from the movies one night when Ally comes across a bank robbery in progress. Terrified by the dreams of the "Gauze Men", especially the robber with his scary light blue eyes who knocked Ally over, she starts isolating herself from the group of girls in her class and joins her brother and the other boys in the neighborhood who start digging holes in the backyard. Except, they aren't just building a hole! It's a series of tunnels which run all around the neighborhood. The final goal of the boys is to enter the forbidden and long abandoned steel mill across the field. What boy doesn't dream of building tunnels in your backyard to exciting destinations?  But the boys and Ally are not the only ones who know about the tunnels or the abandon steel mill.  Those exciting adventures can have terrible consequences!

100% of proceeds from this book will be donated to help a baby boy named Jayden, and contribute toward his family's massive medical expenses. Jayden suffers from a combination of congenital problems including Hirschsprung's disease.

This book was a treat to read! I would highly recommend it to any boy or girl who doesn't mind dirt under their fingernails and has a sense of adventure! Thrilling, adventurous and terrifying all in one! 

 Publisher: NLA Digital Liaison Platform LLC (September 28, 2012)
 Print Length: 136 pages

disclosure: received galley copy through www.netgalley.com 

Poseidon by George O'Connor

Poseidon by George O'Connor

This is the 5th is the graphic novel series by George O'Connor. 

The Greek Gods comes to life with the 5th in George O'Connor's dynamic graphic novel series. In this book we learn of the illusive and often misunderstood Poseidon, King of the Seas. Readers will learn the stories of the minotaur, cyclops and founding of Athens. A treat for readers 9 and up.

Part of the Olympians Series including: Hades, Zeus, Hera, Athena and Perseus.

Publication Date: March 19, 2013  

disclosure: received galley copy through www.netgalley.com

The Island Horse by Susan Hughes

Susan Hughes transports us back in time with her new novel, "The Island Horse".

Ellie loses her mother to an illness and her father loses his job while caring for her.  Life is difficult for Ellie and her father but coastal Nova Scotia is home and she can visit her mother's grave on the bluff. Then everything changes when her father finds a job on the remote off the coast of Nova Scotia. Sable Island, basically a sandbar manned to rescue sailors, passengers and cargo of the ship's that have run aground. It's a dangerous job for her father and a strange, isolating place.  Not much survives on the island but the families, hardy grasses and the wild horses. Ellie feels anger and grief for having to leave her mother and all she's ever known to live on a the remote Sable Island. She doesn't like this new place or Sarah, the new spirited girl who lives on the island. While her father works Ellie begins to explore the island, forming a trusting relationship with one of the wild stallions she names Orchid and his herd.  When Orchid and his family are threatened, it's up to Ellie and Sarah to form a friendship and save the herd.


This book is a gem for anyone who grew up dreaming of horses. Susan Hughes' detailed description of life on Sable Island helps visualize life on the remote islands off Nova Scotia at the early half of the 19th century. Although the characters are fictitious, the island and wild horses are not. Sable Island is now protected by the Canadian government. 

The Island Horse, 160 pages is suitable for readers seven to 10 years old (grades 2-5).
disclosure: galley copy received through www.netgalley.com

Into the Pumpkin by Linda Franklin

Into the Pumpkin
by Linda Franklin

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780764341830
• Publisher: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
• Publication date: 7/28/2012
• Pages: 48
• Sales rank: 766,183
• Age range: 4 - 7 Years
• Product dimensions: 8.70 (w) x 11.10 (h) x 0.60 (d)

Linda Franklin is the author and illustrator for this Halloween story that is sure to be one the family will take out and read-aloud for their children every Halloween night. The illustrations may be a little too scary for younger children but the poem is not. Beautifully illustrated in Fall colors and written in poem form, the story tells of the preparations the witches, ghosts, crows and other scary creatures are doing to prepare for their Halloween party.

 Full disclosure: Review copy received from NetGalley Aug2012

 Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult

My rating: 4 of 5 stars





If you are hoping to read a new Jodi Picoult's highly intense, ripped from the headlines, dramatic YA book..... you are probably not going to like this one.

This novel is a collaboration between Jodi Picoult and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer who presented her mother with a story idea. Her mother decided to encourage her daughter's writing ideas with this  book being the result. That being said... here is my review:

Ever wonder what happens to the characters in a story once the reader closes the book? This witty and creative spin on happily ever after is told from three viewpoints: The fairy tale story "Between the Lines" as it was written, Prince Oliver's character who desperately wants to break free from his life in the book, and Delilah, the teenager who's difficult life has made her obsessed with the story and romantic Prince Oliver. 

I found the story to be different yet clever although the ending was not what I was expecting. It was fun to read! I could imagine a young girl's imagination coming through the pages as we find out what happens to the characters once the fairy tale book concludes with the words "The End". Although I enjoyed the story I would, as Jodi Picoult suggests in her acknowledgments, recommend the book to readers "too young to address the issues discussed in her adult novels."



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Heist Society by Ally Carter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2010 | Age Level: 11 and up | Series: Heist Society

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre...to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria...to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own--scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she'd expected. Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat's dad needs her help. For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in history--or at least her family's (very crooked) history.
www.amazon.com

This is a great book series by Ally Carter! Katerina Bishop is from a family of professional thieves and she wants out! But leaving the family business is a lot harder than she thinks! Soon her inherited skills comes in handy to save her father from a heist he is falsely accused of causing. "Heist Society" and her second in the series, "Uncommon Criminals" will have you on the edge of your seats. Coming soon... "Perfect Scoundrels" (book 3 in the Heist Society series). due out February of 2013.
Also check out Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls Series!!

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