Parent child book club

April 2010

BarbaraL — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:09:00 GMT

April's choice for discussion =

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

Unnamed and rejected by her mother, a girl (known as the lass) jumps at the chance to leave her meager home after a great white bear offers her a deal: if she accompanies him to his ice palace for a year and a day, he will reward her and her family with wealth. At the palace, she is waited on by an odd assortment of creatures, including salamanders and a selkie, but there are sinister undercurrents beneath the luxury, leading to a series of horrifying deaths. George has adapted Norse myths and fairy tales to create this eerily beautiful, often terrifying world in which animals talk, trolls marry humans only to destroy them, and weather forces are actual characters. Mystery, adventure, the supernatural, and a touch of love are woven together to create a vivid, well-crafted, poetic fantasy for readers who have enjoyed works by Robin McKinley and Esther Friesner or who are ready to move from Gail Carson Levine's fairy-tale adaptations to more sophisticated fare. -- Bradburn, Frances (Reviewed 02-01-2008) (Booklist, vol 104, number 11, p42)

If you liked this book, you may want to try one of these:

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

School Library Journal Review For Grade 5–8—When 12-year-old Stephanie's eccentric Uncle Gordon dies, a mysterious man bundled in an overcoat, scarf, sunglasses, and a hat shows up at both the funeral and the reading of the will. This man, as it turns out, is Skulduggery Pleasant, a walking, talking skeleton who rescues Stephanie when she is attacked while alone in the house that she has just inherited. It seems that a particularly evil person named Serpine is trying to obtain a scepter that will allow him to rule the world. Stephanie is swept into a world of magic, secrets, power, and intrigue as she and Skulduggery try to keep one step ahead of Serpine and various other nefarious folk. Deadly hand-to-hand combat, nasty villains, magical derring-do, and traitorous allies will keep readers turning the pages, but it is the dynamic duo of Stephanie and Skulduggery who provide the real magic. The girl eagerly jumps into this new, dangerous, action-packed life, but she isn't sure that she has the guts or the power to pull it off. Skulduggery Pleasant lives up to his name, performing amazing feats with such self-effacing drollness that readers will wish they had a similar skeletal friend. Give this one to fans of Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl" books (Hyperion) or to anyone who likes a dash of violence and danger served up with the magic.—Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library

Or try

The Conch Bearer by Chitra Banerjee Divakarvni

School Library Journal Review. For Grade 4-7-Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni sets this story in contemporary India with many fantasy elements (Roaring Book Press, 2003). Her familiarity with the sights and sounds of an urban setting in Kolkata lends local color to the story. The mystical elements that contribute to the fantasy aspects are also very well realized and blend with common understandings of Hindu philosophy. Alan Cumming provides superior narration, clearly delineating each voice and using authentic-sounding Indian accents where appropriate. Anand, age 12, lives in poverty, but finds himself drawn to an enigmatic elderly stranger, a member of the Brotherhood of Healers, and the mystical circumstances of his appearance in their home. Convinced by the old man's healing of her daughter, Anand's mother reluctantly allows him to go on a journey with the stranger to return a magical conch shell to its rightful home hundreds of miles away. An independent and pragmatic nine-year-old girl joins their party in a traditional good vs. evil pilgrimage. This exotic fantasy/adventure story with an unusual twist on the journey theme will be enjoyed by upper elementary and middle school students.
Jane P. Fenn, Corning-Painted Post West High School, NY

Our optional book is

Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

/* Starred Review */ Ten-year-old Peter Augustus Duchene goes to the market for fish and bread but spends it at the fortuneteller's tent instead. Seeking his long-lost sister, Peter is told, "You must follow the elephant. She will lead you there." And that very night at the Bliffenendorf Opera House, a magician's spell goes awry, conjuring an elephant that crashes through the ceiling and lands on Madam Bettine LaVaughn. Reading like a fable told long ago, with rich language that begs to be read aloud, this is a magical story about hope and love, loss and home, and of questioning the world versus accepting it as it is. Brilliant imagery juxtaposes "glowering and resentful" gargoyles and snow, stars and the glowing earth, and Tanaka's illustrations (not all seen) bring to life the city and characters from "the end of the century before last." A quieter volume than The Tale of Despereaux (2003) and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (2006), this has an equal power to haunt readers long past the final page. (Fantasy. 8-13) (Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2009)

March 2010

BarbaraL — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:40:00 GMT

This month's book is the graphic novel

"The Annotated Northwest Passage" written and illustrated by Scott Chantler

Booklist Review: A cover from the serialized version of this story proclaimed "two-fisted historical adventure," and seldom has a product so lived up to its advertising. Chantler conflates American western mythology and British naval adventure to tell the story of the Canadian northern frontier of 1755, when British, French, and private interests competed for the lucrative fur trade. In such a large-scale epic, characterization might easily have been lost, but by focusing on the fierce enmity between Lord, a British company man and explorer, and Montglave, an amoral French privateer, the story hangs its historical facts on an emotional stake. Though Chantler assembles a huge ensemble cast with complex backstories, his expressive, fluid art brings out the personality of even such supporting characters as a Han Solo—inspired trader and a Batman-like hunter. Readers, particularly boys, looking for a rich, suspenseful, action-packed story (with some fascinating historical details) will find it here in spades. Included is a nearly book-length annotated section, discussing the book's creation. -- Karp, Jesse (Reviewed 08-01-2007) (Booklist, vol 103, number 22, p62)

If you enjoyed these historical fiction graphic novels, try these two from our collection:

"The Storm in the Barn" by Matt Phelan YA GRAPHIX PHE

Kirkus Review: Starred review -- Eleven-year-old Jack Clark feels useless on his family's Kansas farm. It's 1937: The rain went away when he was seven, so he's never been able to help out. His older sister Dorothy is sick with Dust Pneumonia, and little sister Mabel doesn't provide much companionship. Jack is the favorite target of the town bullies, but general-store owner Ernie tries to cheer Jack with traditional "Jack tales." Then the boy sees a mysterious flash in the Talbots' abandoned barn. When he investigates, he discovers a frightening apparition. Talking about it starts rumors he is suffering from Dust Dementia. Just when his family has given up hope, Jack, inspired by Ernie's stories, confronts the creature and fights a fantastic battle with miraculous results. Author/illustrator Phelan's first graphic tale is part historical mystery, part fantasy thriller. The pencil-and-watercolor panels are cinematically framed and often wordless, advancing the plot and delineating character with careful strokes. The bleakness of the Dust Bowl comes through in both the landscape and the hopeless faces of his characters. This is not to be missed. (Graphic fiction. 9-14) (Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2009)

"Good-bye Marianne" by Irene Watts YA GRAPHIX WAT

Quill and Quire Review: Irene Watts’s Good-Bye Marianne is the story of an 11-year-old Jewish girl living in Berlin in the late 1930s. Over the course of several weeks, Marianne witnesses a murder, is barred from attending school, discovers that her new friend is associated with the Hitler Youth, has her apartment violently ransacked, and learns that her absent father has been forced to go underground. Jewish shops are vandalized, and Marianne and her mother are evicted from their apartment. This somewhat autobiographical story exists in three forms – as a play, as a children’s novel, and now as a graphic novel, illustrated (although there should be a better word for this – “realized”?) by Kathryn Shoemaker. If we compare these various modes of storytelling, we get an intriguing look at what the graphic novel can do. In presenting history to young readers, and especially history’s more brutal chapters, we need to ask two questions: how much can we assume children know, and how much are we willing to tell them? With movies, books, and school curricula now including the Holocaust, the potential audience for this story has a good deal more background in this subject than in previous generations. Watts and Shoemaker can therefore fashion a classic graphic novel, consisting of black-and-white pictures, speech and thought balloons, sound effects, and the occasional document, without resorting to running text or explanatory sidebars. In terms of how much it reveals of the horrors of the past, this depiction is conservative and protective, however. Shoemaker’s style is gentle, quiet, shaded, and soft-edged. She filters the horror, thus allowing some access to this world to quite young children – younger than would be appropriate for the core novel, and not just because of reading skills. For example, one of the most chilling scenes in the original novel concerns Marianne witnessing a raid on a Jewish house: “Marianne wasn’t listening, except to a voice in her head which was saying, ‘Go home.’ She turned her head, forced to do so by the sounds of glass breaking, a cry, the thud of a body landing on cobblestones.” In the graphic novel we see the event in five panels, bookended by the “screech” of the truck arriving and leaving, but we’re at too great a distance to see detail in the impressionistic pictures. The shocking trio of sounds exists – as is often the convention in graphic novels – in the gutters between panels. If we notice the victim’s cap left on the street, we really notice it: nobody points it out. Both modes of storytelling pull us in, but in quite different ways. Part of the engagement issue has to do with point of view. The text novel is written in limited third person; essentially, we are inside Marianne, looking out. In the graphic novel, except for a single panel in which we see through her eyes, we are looking at Marianne. We are privy to her thoughts via thought balloons, but we also “hear” the thoughts of her mother. This less focused point of view could lead to emotional distance, were it not for a few tricks graphic novelists have up their sleeves. For example, in the original novel we read that Marianne, after being barred from school, “felt colder and more alone than she had ever felt in her whole life.” In the same scene in the graphic novel, we get a close-up of Marianne’s shocked and saddened face. Then her face half disappears out of the panel; then it is replaced by the notice prohibiting Jewish students, a notice that obliterates her. Even more effectively, the page loses its equilibrium: as Marianne walks away from school, the panels break up into smaller images and slide onto a slanting plane. We share Marianne’s disorientation. Is anything lost in this graphic novel treatment? Several scenes and many details have been necessarily pared, and the medium doesn’t suit backstory, but what I missed most was colour – the fruit designs on the family’s Rosenthal china, the fact that the “Jews Only” benches in the park were painted yellow, the drops of blood in the snow, “scarlet as winterberries.” Gesture, on the other hand, is more effectively rendered in pictures. Marianne, alone and bored in her apartment, goosesteps around with her finger under her nose, impersonating Hitler. This scene appears in the original novel, but it wasn’t until I saw the picture that the poignant goofiness and vulnerability of this moment really sank in. The particular appeal of Marianne’s story is that the ordinary woes of childhood – loneliness, boredom, betrayal by a friend – are in the foreground. In its graphic novel incarnation, the story retains this familiarity and welcomes a new crop of readers.

February 2010

BarbaraL — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:34:00 GMT

February's book is:

Sisters of the Sword by Maya Snow

"Blows rained on innocent heads. And blood flowed, splashing walls with gory crimson." This swashbuckling story of honor, betrayal and revenge begins violently, when, in 1216 Japan, the Jito (Lord Steward) of the Kai Province is stabbed by his own brother, a shocking murder witnessed by his teenage daughters, Kimi and Hana. The sisters escape the subsequent bloodshed, but just barely. When the two girls come upon a local dojo, or samurai training school, they disguise themselves as boys to take refuge within. This isn't a stretch: Kimi in particular has long dreamed of being a samurai, and she and Hana, like their brothers, are skilled fighters. Once the girls are safe inside the dojo, gratefully working as servants despite their noble upbringing, readers can exhale...but not for long. Vivid characters, intriguing conflicts and cliffhanger chapter endings more than compensate for the occasionally labored plot reinforcement and make for a suspenseful, satisfying read. The fact that the girls' mother and brother, would-be heir Moriyasu, remain at large lays the groundwork for a sequel. (Fiction. 12 & up) (Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2008

Kids say = 4.375 stars Parents say = 4.2 stars

If you liked this book, you may want to try these ...

How to be a Samurai Warrior by Fional Macdonald

Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida

Spirit of the Samurai: Of Swords and Rings by Gary Reed

The Song of the Lioness Quartet (series) by Tamora Pierce

January 2010

BarbaraL — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:32:00 GMT

January's book is:

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

From Booklist

Bud, 10, is on the run from the orphanage and from yet another mean foster family. His mother died when he was 6, and he wants to find his father. Set in Michigan during the Great Depression, this is an Oliver Twist kind of foundling story, but it's told with affectionate comedy, like the first part of Curtis' The Watsons Go to Birmingham (1995). On his journey, Bud finds danger and violence (most of it treated as farce), but more often, he finds kindness--in the food line, in the library, in the Hooverville squatter camp, on the road--until he discovers who he is and where he belongs. Told in the boy's naive, desperate voice, with lots of examples of his survival tactics ("Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar out of Yourself"), this will make a great read-aloud. Curtis says in an afterword that some of the characters are based on real people, including his own grandfathers, so it's not surprising that the rich blend of tall tale, slapstick, sorrow, and sweetness has the wry, teasing warmth of family folklore. Hazel Rochman

Book Club rating?

Kids say = 4.1 stars Parents say = 4.875 stars

December

BarbaraL — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:53:00 GMT

Our Discussion book for our December 7th meeting was To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel by Siena Cherson Siegel [J GRAPHIX 792. 8092 SIE S]

Genre: Graphic Novel

Summary:

*Starred Review*
A husband and wife team up to provide an insightful, accessible, and aesthetically engaging graphic novel that follows the latter's dance career. Well-proportioned watercolor panels trace Siena Cherson Siegel's involvement with ballet from her introduction to it at the age of six and her training as an adolescent at the School of American Ballet to her leaving professional dance when she reached college and her return to it several years later, "because I still need[ed] to dance." The fully realized account goes beyond the sacrifices and rewards she experienced to other matters, such as the effects of her parents' separation and divorce and her awe of ballet master George Balanchine. As a girl, Siena discovered Jill Krementz's photo-essay A Very Young Dancer (1976), but unlike that portrait of a girl ballerina, this one is in no way glamorized. Mark Siegel's images are often pretty, but like the story his wife tells, they are honest about a ballerina's life. Foot pain, leg injuries, and more are a part of Siena's story, which provides those who hope for or wonder about a career in dancing with a candid view of an individual for whom ballet is essential to a fulfilling life.”

- Francisca Goldsmith from Booklist

The conclusion?

Adults = 3.75 stars Kids = 4 stars

November

BarbaraL — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:48:00 GMT

November's genre was historical fiction.

Our discussion book was Number the Stars by Lois Lowry [J LOW]

Summary:

Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen's life.

– From the Publisher

The conclusion?

4.5 stars

5 stars (2) 4.5 stars (3) 4 stars (2) 3 stars (0) 2 stars (0) 1 star (0)

Our optional book is: The Pole by Eric Walters

Summary:

The Pole is Eric Walters' powerful fictionalized retelling of Robert Peary's 1909 expedition to the North Pole aboard The Roosevelt, as experienced by a young cabin boy named Danny, away from home and at sea for the very first time. This highly adventurous tale features Canadian hero Robert Bartlett, captain of The Roosevelt (featured in Walters's mega-bestselling Trapped in Ice), and Matthew Henson, Peary's assistant and the first African-American Arctic explorer.

Comments?

October

BarbaraL — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:28:00 GMT

Hooray we're back!

This month we read and discussed The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg [J KON]

I Prefer Not To...
That's Margaret Rose Kane's response to every activity she's asked to participate in at the summer camp to which she's been exiled while her parents are in Peru. So Margaret Rose is delighted when her beloved uncles rescue her from Camp Talequa, with its uptight camp director and cruel cabinmates, and bring her to stay with them at their wonderful house at 19 Schuyler Place. But Margaret Rose soon discovers that something is terribly wrong at 19 Schuyler Place. People in their newly gentrified neighborhood want to get rid of the three magnificent towers the uncles have spent forty-five years lovingly constructing of scrap metal and shards of glass and porcelain. Margaret Rose is outraged, and determined to strike a blow for art, for history, and for individuality...and no one is more surprised than Margaret Rose at the allies she finds for her mission

The conclusion?

3.78 stars

5 stars (0) 4.5 stars (2) 4 stars (3) 3.75 stars (1) 3.5 stars (2) 3 stars (3) 2 stars (0) 1 star (0)

Our optional book was Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff by Jennifer Holm [J HOL]

Summary:

What is it really like to be a teenager? From September to June, readers explore twelve-year-old Ginny’s last year of middle school through party invitations, several report cards, science notes, poetry assignments, Instant Message conversations, graded papers, and in-class notes passed to friends. This book presents the angst and humor of seventh grade with authenticity and delight, falling gently into the stream of classic teenage voices. The accompanying artifacts of Ginny’s school experience are a wonderful collage that will be familiar to any seventh grade girl. Jennifer Holm, winner of the Newbery Honor award for Our Only May Amelia and Penny from Heaven, has once again created a story permeated with creativity. The gentle story is beautifully complemented by Elicia Castaldi’s illustrations. Young readers will enjoy following the adventures of Ginny from her to-do list to her school-themed poems to her slumber party guest list. Jennifer Holm has once again touched magic.

– Suzanna E. Henshon, Ph.D. from Children's Literature

Comments?

September

BarbaraL — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:13:00 GMT

We discussed "Heroes of the Valley" by Jonathan Stroud during the first Parent Child Book Club session of the fall programming period.

Summary:
*Starred Review*

“This refreshingly stand-alone adventure from the author of the Bartimaeus trilogy is a world apart from most contemporary fantasies, built akin to a double-layered Norse heroic epic. An unnamed valley is home to 12 houses descended from different heroes who long ago banded together to drive the monstrous Trows from their homeland. Now the valley is mostly peaceful, and the residents’ sole affiliation with adventure is in retelling and arguing over the finer points of their namesake heroes’ exploits. Young Halli Sveinsson (a likable prankster whose dominant characteristic is stubby-leggedness) of the House of Svein embarks on what he dreams will be a quest for vengeance and glory equal to those of his ancestor, but he quickly comes to realize that legend and lore have little relation to reality. Grades 6-10. --Ian Chipman from Booklist

The conclusion?

Three stars

5 stars (0) 4 stars (1) 3.5 stars (2) 3 stars (3) 2.5 stars (1) 2 stars (2) 1 star (0)

Our optional BLOG ABOUT book is

Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer [J FAR]

Summary: “In England in the early medieval period, young Jack is chosen by the village's bard to serve as apprentice. After the bard is attacked by a Nightmare, Jack develops the ability to feel everything at once, which causes him to be vulnerable to the ‘Life Force,’ the power that exists in all things in nature. When they realize that Viking berserkers are coming, Jack and the bard raise fog to hide the village, but Jack and his sister, Lucy, are captured by Ivan One-Brow and his crew and are taken to the court of Ivar the Boneless and his evil half-troll wife, Queen Frith. Jack casts a spell to make the queen's hair fall out. To save his sister from being sacrificed to the Norse goddess Freya, Jack must accept a quest to travel to the icy Troll kingdom to find Mimir's Well, from which he must drink in order to learn the magic spell to replace the Queen's hair. Throughout his journey, Jack must deal with an argumentative Norse Jill, trolls, giant troll bears, a dragon, and giant spiders. As he completes his quest, Jack matures and realizes that all beings have the Life Force within them and must answer to its calling, whether it is Yggdrisil, the giant life tree of the Norse, or the simple need of berserkers to raid and pillage. Farmer weaves the threads of Norse and Celtic mythology into a coming-of-age tale that followers of Tolkien and J.K. Rowling will enjoy.”
–Lisa D. Williams from School Library Journal

So what did you think? Post your comments below.

June 2009

Jade Shepherd — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:31:00 GMT

The Penderwicks : a summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy by Birdsall, Jeanne.

Meet the Penderwicks, four different sisters with one special bond. There's responsible, practical Rosalind; stubborn, feisty Skye; dreamy, artistic Jane; and shy little sister Batty, who won't go anywhere without her butterfly wings.

Parent and Child Book Club Rating:

1 star (0), 2 stars (0), 3 stars (1), 3.5 stars (4), 4 stars (4), 4.5 stars (6), 5 stars (1).

May 2009

Jade Shepherd — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:22:00 GMT

Rules by Lord, Cynthia.

Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules-from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public"-in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?

Parent and Child Book Club Rating: 1 star (0), 2 stars (0), 3 stars (1), 3.5 stars (1), 4 stars (10), 4.5 stars (4), 5 stars (2).

April 2009

Jade Shepherd — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:43:00 GMT

The game of silence by Erdrich, Louise, 1954-

Her name is Omakayas, or Little Frog, because her first step was a hop, and she lives on an island in Lake Superior.It is 1850, and the lives of the Ojibwe have returned to a familiar rhythm: they build their birchbark houses in the summer, go to the ricing camps in the fall to harvest and feast, and move to their cozy cedar log cabins near the town of LaPointe before the first snows. The satisfying routines of Omakayas's days are interrupted by a surprise visit from a group of desperate and mysterious people. From them, she learns that all their lives may drastically change. The chimookomanag, or white people, want Omakayas and her people to leave their island in Lake Superior and move farther west. Omakayas realizes that something so valuable, so important that she never knew she had it in the first place, is in danger: Her home. Her way of life. In this captivating sequel to National Book Award nominee The Birchbark House, Louise Erdrich continues the story of Omakayas and her family.

Parent and Child Book Club Rating: 1 star (0), 1.5 stars (1), 2 stars (0), 2.5 stars (1), 3 stars (2), 3.5 stars (2), 4 stars (7).

March 2009

Jade Shepherd — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:18:00 GMT

The house of the scorpion / by Farmer, Nancy, 1941-

MATTEO ALACRAN WAS NOT BORN; HE WAS HARVESTED. His DNA came from El Patron, lord of a country called Opium -- a strip of poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. Matt's first cell split and divided inside a petri dish. Then he was placed in the womb of a cow, where he continued the miraculous journey from embryo to fetus to baby. He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster -- except for El Patron. El Patron loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself. As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters, including El Patron's power-hungry family, and he is surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards. Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But escape from the Alacran Estate is no guarantee of freedom, because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn't even suspect.

Parent and Child Book Club Rating: 1 star (0), 1.5 stars (1), 2 stars (0), 2.5 stars (2), 3 stars (1), 3.5 stars (3), 4 stars (5), 4.5 stars (3), 5 stars (3)

February 2009

Jade Shepherd — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:34:00 GMT

Island of the blue dolphins / by O'Dell, Scott, 1898-1989.

In the Pacific there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it, blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea elephants and sea birds abound. Once, Indians also lived on the island. And when they left and sailed to the east, one young girl was left behind. This is the story of Karana, the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away. But while she waited, she kept herself alive by building a shelter, making weapons, finding food, and fighting her enemies, the wild dogs. It is not only an unusual adventure of survival, but also a tale of natural beauty and personal discovery.

Parent and Child Book Club Rating: 1 star (0), 1.5 stars (1), 2 stars (1), 3 stars (0), 3.5 stars (7), 4 stars (7), 4.5 stars (1), 5 stars (0)

January 2009

Jade Shepherd — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:50:00 GMT

The invention of Hugo Cabret : a novel in words and pictures / by Selznick, Brian.

Orphan, clock keeper, thief: Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. Combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film, Caldecott Honor artist Selznick breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience in this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

Parent and Child Book Club Rating: 1 star (0), 2 stars (0), 3 stars (0), 4 stars (0), 4.5 stars (1), 5 stars (15)