Student Saturday: The Last Thing I Remember - Andrew Klavan

Student Reviewer: Kaden

For the past few weeks I have been reading, The last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan and I have got to say, it is one of the very few fiction books I'm actually interested in. The main character, Charlie West is a hard working kid who wakes up literally in a nightmare. He is strapped to a chair nailed into the ground and he hears a voice that says, "Kill him!" He is just stuck there trying to remember the last thing he remembers and that's the interesting part. The last thing he remembers is going to bed and staring at his girlfriend;s number he got earlier that day. In the nightmare it is gone so therefore I predict over a year has passed from the last thing he remembers and they gave him some pill to make him forget what happened. I look forward to reading the next three books in this series and would recommend it to all action and cliff hanger lovers.

Orenda - Ruth Silver

Genre:  Middle Grade, Young Adult Fantasy

Source:  I received a copy in exchange for my honest review

 

From Goodreads

Join forces with a parallel universe.
Dark forces, magical creatures, and the world Lil thought she knew collide when a dream
transports her to the strange world of Orenda. Stunned and terrified, Lil comes face to face
with her doppelganger, Willow, who possesses the ability to travel between the two worlds. Everything Lil knows logically says that Orenda can’t exist, but a small clue may be proof that
it was more than an ordinary dream. With the threat of her sister in danger, Lil crosses
dimensions but it may cost her even more than she bargained for.
A sword wielding girl, the eternal suit, and a parallel universe come together in this action-
packed Young Adult fantasy adventure that will keep readers of all ages turning the pages.
Orenda is the first novel in the Orenda series.

 My Thoughts

I enjoyed the author’s Aberrant series so I figured I would like this series.  I was not disappointed.  I absolutely loved the idea of alternate worlds.  I am not so sure I would like to meet my doppleganger though.  For me most fantasy authors spend so much time building their world that I get lost.  There is more world building than plot.  Ruth gave just enough about Orenda to keep me interested.  I look forward to seeing what else I learn about this world in the next book in the series.  I believe this is exactly the kind of fantasy book my middle school students will enjoy.  Can’t wait to let them know about it.

 

About the Author:
Ruth Silver is the best-selling author of ABERRANT, a young adult dystopian adventure series published by Patchwork Press and Lazy Day Publishing, in 2013. Silver attended Northern
Illinois University and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Communication in the spring of 2005
While in college, she spent much of her free time writing with friends she met online and penning her first novel, Deuces are Wild, which she self-published in 2004. Her favorite class was Creative Writing senior year where she often handed in assignments longer than the professor required, because she loved to write and always wanted to finish her stories. Her love of writing led her on an adventure in 2007 to Melbourne, Australia. Silver enjoys reading, photography, traveling and most of all writing. She loves dystopian and fantasy young adult stories. Ruth has been actively writing since she was a teenager. Upcoming works include Royal Reaper, a young adult series about grim reapers, due for release June 3rd, 2014. She currently resides in Plainfield, Illinois.

 Where you can find her:

 Website  

Twitter  
Facebook  
Goodreads  

Release Day Book Blitz

DEAD GIRL WALKING by Ruth Silver

a Young Adult Paranormal Adventure

published by Patchwork Press

http://royalreaper.com

Forget everything you know about grim reapers.

Princess Ophelia Dacre sneaks out of the castle to visit her boyfriend in secret. A perfect night cut short when she’s brutally murdered.

Ophelia is given the rare chance to become a grim reaper. She must become Leila Bele, cut ties with her old life, and follow the rules of the reapers. Her greatest adventure begins with death.

Amazon - Borrow Dead Girl Walking for FREE with Amazon Prime

Signed Copy

Goodreads

Excerpt

“Forget everything you know about grim reapers, Ophelia. Humans have it wrong. It’s easier to believe in angels and demons, than to see what’s right in front of you. Who wants to believe the undead walk among us with beating hearts? It would frighten humans. It would probably send many to their graves faster,” Edon said.

About the Author: Ruth Silver is the best-selling author of ABERRANT, a young adult dystopian adventure series published by Patchwork Press and Lazy Day Publishing. Silver attended Northern Illinois University and graduated with a Bachelor's in Communication in the spring of 2005. While in college, she spent much of her free time writing with friends she met online and penning her first novel, Deuces are Wild, which she self-published in 2004. Her love of writing led her on an adventure in 2007 to Melbourne, Australia. Silver enjoys reading, photography, traveling and most of all writing. She loves dystopian, paranormal, and fantasy young adult stories. Ruth has been actively writing since she was a teenager. She currently resides in Plainfield, Illinois.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Amazon Author Page | Goodreads

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Student Saturday: What Happened to Goodbye - Sarah Dessen

Student Reviewer: Kamryn

The book that I recently read was called What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen This book has been one of the best books that I have ever read in my entire life! On a rating from 1 to 10 I would of course give this book a 10! I have always loved Sarah Dessen's books but this one has been my favorite book of hers so far!

Mclean moves to many different towns being someone different each time. Right now she is with her father in a small town that needs a lot of improvement. Her dad being in the food business always needing to travel when that particular restaurant gets shut down.l Mclean never likes getting close with anybody when she stays at a different town because she is just going to be pulled away from them in 3 weeks. Why not just stay lonely and invisible. It's better that way right?

When she moves into this town, she stays longer than expected. Her parents go divorced and her dad took custody, Mclean's mom is the last thing Mclean wants to hear at any time of the day. She just gets in between her life and ruins it. She is the one who cheated on her father, In fact, it was her fault, Mclean meets friends while almost getting busted for under aged drinking. The adorable guy next door might just help her get her life back on the right track.

I would recommend this book to my older cousin who is in 9th grade because she is very much like Mclean and I think that she would very much enjoy a book that she can connect to, Sometimes we all wish someone would come up and give us hugs and be sweet and kind until we re tired but sometimes that doesn't happen. We all want to have a perfectly good normal life but that never happens either, We all have problems, we all make mmistakes, and we all get sand and angry. Don't worry about it. Just enjoy the roller coaster that is life and everything will go just as planned...........hopefully.

Fantasyland - D.J. Starling

Genre: Adult, Romance

Source: I received a copy for review in exchange for my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

 This was a wonderful love story. From the minute Rick and Sandi meet the love story blossoms.  Not always the way you think it should or will.  Sandi first falls for Rick when she is eleven years old. Rick was the teen idol hanging on so many bedroom walls.  Remember those days? Sandi is so obsessed she dreams of going to college in California in hopes of one day meeting him. Her father raised her and her brother after her mom died. They always played a game using song lyrics.  This kind of made me think of the show my mom watches NCIS where one of the characters is always spouting movie lines from old movies.  Sandi’s father always encouraged her to follow her dreams.  After he passes away she does just that. She moves to California to go to college. Once there she meets a gorgeous guy named Paul and falls for him.  Imagine her surprise when she learns that he is actually her teen idol all grown up. Their relationship in the beginning is complicated yet moves along at a realistic pace. As we get further into the book we find there is also heartache.  This is not unrealistic, yet borders on it.  It is a great book for those of us who want to believe in our romantic dreams.

Keeping Score: A guide to Love and Relationships – Marc Brackett

Genre:  Self-help, marriage
Source: I received a copy to review.  The opinions expressed here are my own.

I want to start this review with two facts I learned: 50 % of all first marriages fail and 67% of all second marriages fail.  This is important because I am a part of that first statistic as is my husband. “I” worked hard for nine years to keep my first marriage together.  This included pre-marriage counseling and counseling throughout our marriage.  It still ended in divorce.  I remarried and once again we started with pre-marriage counseling along with my kids from my first marriage.  We were determined to make the second marriage work.  This book for us was a great refresher course. I believe it is a book that should be read before and throughout a marriage. The author starts off with a self-evaluation test.  There is one for the men and one for the women. As you read through this book you read about important topics such as communication trust, religious beliefs, and spending time together. For us it was a way to see if we were still on track with our relationship and where we wanted it to go. I am happy to report it is very healthy and we are preparing to celebrate our 21^st anniversary in just a couple of weeks. So, when all is said and done is this a book I would recommend?  Most definitely.  I’d recommend it to anyone getting ready to get married, anyone who has been through a divorce and in a new relationship, as well as to married couples to force yourself to take a good look at where you are and where you are going.

Morgan Kane Without Mercy – Louis Masterson

Genre: Adult, Western, Action, Adventure
Source: I purchased a copy

I grew up watching westerns on television. I can honestly say that this is the first western novel I’d ever read. It took me back many years. The main character, Morgan Kane is a Teas ranger. He finds himself seeking revenge. While trying to bring a man in, he is forced to kill him. The man’s brother and friends set out to “make things right”. They know his weaknesses for women, alcohol and gambling, and they use these to lure him in. After losing a very large sum of money in a poker game he’s lured onto a train platform by a beautiful woman. Once there he is shot. He falls from the train but doesn’t die. After he heals, his mission is to go after the four people who tried to end his life. This is fast and steady in pace and adventure. The characters are very believable. When I learned that this was translated from Norwegian I was shocked that the author definitely knew what the old west was like here. This is definitely a series to look out for.

LIbby of High Hopes by Elise Primavera

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pages:192

Genre:  Upper Elementary/Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction

Source:  I received a copy from the author in exchange for my honest review

From Goodreads: 

Libby Thump Riding Princess is a middle grade illustrated novel about a young girl who wants riding lessons more than anything else in the world. With passion and her love for horses nothing can stop Libby. She tries to live up to her potential and in so doing changes the lives of everyone around her.

My Thoughts:

This is a realistic look at what it is like to grow up and find your way in a confusing world. Libby is a young girl almost 11 years old. She is passionate about horses. Her ex-best friend, daughter of Libby’s mom’s best friend, is going down a different path.  One day Libby comes across a horse farm. She tries to persuade her parents to lether take riding lessons. Instead they give her older sister riding lessons and Libby is given swimming lessons. Libby lears many lessons that are lessons kids everywhere could identify with. Life isn’t always fair, I repeat this almost daily to my students. Another lesson is you need to hold onto your dreams and reach for them no matter what or how difficult it may seem to reach them. This is the very type of book I want on my shelves at school in my classroom as I try to inspire my students to reach for their own dreams.

Time Square Time Shift – S.W. Lothian

Genre: Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Suspense, Humor
Source: I received a review copy from the author

 This is another wonderful series from this author.  In this series we meet Dr. Rex Hudson and his family.  Dr. Hudson and his assistant are in Peru at Machu Pichu looking for something important.  They find a black oblisk and have it shipped back to his home.  Once home he shares the exciting find with two of his three children, twins Eva and Lewis.  While inspecting it the three of them are sucked into it and find themselves in Time Square where all time goes through.  Unfortunately when they are sucked through the youngest son Thomas is left at home with his aunt who had been staying with them while their father is away.  Once in Time Square Dr. Hudson realizes by bringing back the oblisk he has upset time and time travelers everywhere are stuck.  He and the children must find a way to get back home and get the oblisk back to where it belongs.  Unfortunately the oblisk is stolen making their job more difficult.  The children are set to the task of helping to rescue those stuck in time.

Like his previous books in the Quest Series, S.W. Lothian is a master at creating time travel stories. The oher thing I love about his books is that he has the ability to tie adventure, suspense and humor all together in one book.  This is definitely the recipe for hooking a middle grade reader. I am so glad I had the opportunity to read and review this book. It is one I will put on my shelves at school and then sit and wait impatiently for the next book in the series.

Author Bio From Amazon

S.W. Lothian is a funny and cool guy from Australia. His kids call him 'Phil Dunphy', because he reminds them of the dad from Modern Family. He isn't sure whether this is a compliment or not, but he takes it as a compliment.
As an imaginative kid he dreamed of creating exciting worlds and funky characters, and thought he'd be the most famous person to ever do this. He loved to draw and was dux of Art in High School. Top of his dream list was to be an animator. He loved watching all those classic cartoons on TV - Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Road Runner, Wacky Races, The Simpsons, the list goes on and on.

BOOM! Reality hit. The dreams were parked as the corporate world beckoned. Then, 25 years later, the long-held dream to create erupted like a jam donut in a microwave and S.W. started writing fiction for kids of all ages.

His books can be summed up as fun-action-packed-time-travel-adventures-for-the-kid-in-everyone. He writes stories to excite, inspire, teach and thrill. Stories with awesome edge-of-your-seat fun. Stories that let kids escape to new places, and adults remember the dreams of their own childhood.

His debut novel, The Golden Scarab, was a 2013 READERS' FAVORITE BOOK AWARD FINALIST.

S.W. Lothian can be followed via

Twitter 

Facebook 

Websites: www.swlothian.com and www.timesquaretheshift.wordpress.com

Great Lessons in Picture Books

Joey and the Net – Amos Ordan
Genre: Children’s Picture Book
Source: I received a copy for review from the author

The book starts out talking about a fish called a tilapia. I enjoyed the information the author gave about the fish. It is one of my favorite types of fish to eat, yet until I read this book, I knew nothing about it. The story is about Mam, a mother tilapia who carries her babies in her mouth to keep them safe. She lets them out from time to time but makes them swim back in when danger is present. They all obey except little Joey. He likes hiding. One day they see a worm dangling from a hook. All of the babies except Joey swim into Mam’s mouth. Joey is about to take a bite of the worm when his mom slaps him with her fin. She tells him of the danger. The next day she is so determined to keep Joey in her mouth that she doesn’t see a net that has been dropped in front of her. When she cries out Joey swims out. Joey convinces his siblings to swim out and help to save their mom. You must read the book to find out how they save her. This was a wonderful book and there was even a link to the video book at the end of it.

Maya and Filippo Look for Whales – Book and Coloring Book

Genre: Children's Picture Book
Source: I received a review copy in exchange for my hones review

 

Maya & Filippo live and travel on the cruise ship the Fun Princess, with their parents and cat. ON this trip we find them visiting Ketchikan, Alaska. Maya wants to see whales on this trip. Their first tour stop takes her and her brother to a native village. Filippo loved the totem poles, but Maya thought they were boring. All she wanted to do was see a whale. She listens to the story of one totem pole that was about a man trying to catch fish. He  wasn’t having any luck so he pretended he had caught lots of different fish. He finally caught a salmon who told him if he would put him back then he would soon have many fish. The Review native put the salmon king back in the water and soon caught many salmon. Maya listened to the story and decided to pretend she was watching whales.  Id she get to see whales? I guess you’ll have to read the book to find out. While you are at it this book also has a wonderful matching coloring book. It is full of scenes from the book.

 

Maya and Filippo Find Happiness in Tauranga

Genre: Children's Picture Book

Source: I received a review copy in exchange for my honest review

On this trip Maya and Filippo travel to a small town in New Zealand called Tauranga.  Maya slept in on this morning. Her brother ate breakfast with his parents. He had five cups of chocolate mousse because his parents weren’t paying attention.  When Maya got up there was none left. She blamed Filippo for eating it all and he blamed her for his stomach ache.  Their mother made them leave the ship and explore Tauranga. They went separate directions. Maya visited a Maori village and watched the dancers. One of the dancers saw how sad she was.  Maya told her what had happened with her brother.  The dancer explained everyone was responsible for their own happiness and how they reacted to things they didn’t like.  Filippo visited a geyser.  When a young boy gets mad at him because he won’t play ball with him and he is bored, Filippo screams it is not his job to make him happy.  Can you guess what lessons Maya and Filippo learn from this experience?  Check out the book to find out.