Cloudy With a Chance of Books

I LOVE THIS GRAPHIC NOVEL. I borrowed it from the library and despite diminishing space for books may need my own copy.

Give to any science geek 3rd grade and up. Give most especially to 5 – 7th grade science geeks. Though adult science geeks will not be immune to its charms. Give to fans of comic books. Give to those who appreciated Scooby Doo in younger days, but have now outgrown it. Give this one to people who loved the Goonies and kept Data close to their hearts.

The Secret Science Alliance is a club with three members: Greta, a paranoid prankster, Ben, a smart kid who does not test well, and Julian, the classic geek who while brilliant never manages to make friends. The trio develop new inventions in their secret underground lair after school.

They uncover a nefarious plan to steal treasures from the local museum. When police don’t take them seriously and the clock is ticking, the Secret Science Alliance must use all their gadgets to stop the thieving scientist and save the day.

The plot isn’t complicated, but the detail in the artwork describing everything is intricate. All the characters, even the supporting parent types are well drawn and pull the reader into the story. The author has each kid sneak out of their rooms at night and the sequence of panels detailing how they fool their parents (each one has a different method) is brilliant. Some comics that do detailed artwork well, don’t do action sequences well, but not here. The madcap action complete with glue bombs and spring-loaded shoes is interspersed with detailed maps and timelines seamlessly.

I laughed out loud for the final scene of our heroes eating waffles together. You’ll have to read this one to see why.

I am putting this one in the science fiction category, though it is more fiction about science & invention than the speculative fiction or classic science fiction.

I hope Eleanor Davis writes more about these three lovable inventors: Julian, Greta and Ben. 2009.

I finally got around to reading our new Newbery winning book for 2009.

I really enjoyed it as anyone who loved Madeleine L’Engle as a child and early teen would. I still love her, but that’s where the love started. My dad read Wrinkle in Time aloud to me and I was hooked. Rebecca Stead clearly felt the same love of this author in her youth.

I would tell parents who enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife that this is a juvenile book with similar reading appeals. Sure, this was about time travel, but really it is was about life which is made of time. It’s also about that special time of realization that each child experiences when they lift the veil of their childhood world to see the wider world. I’ll join everyone else in highly recommending this title. 208p. , 2009.

Jake’s parents have disappeared on an archaelogical expedition. They send Jake and his older sister, Kady, each half of an ancient Mayan coin. When the artifacts his parents recovered from their last expedition are displayed in London, Jake visits the exhibit. He puts the coin halves into a miniature golden pyramid which pulls him and his sister into another world.  In this world Native Americans fly on dinosaurs and Romans live alongside Mayans in a valley protected by the power of crystals. This valley is in danger from the rising power of the Skull King and his unnatural creations.  Jake makes two good friends, a Mayan girl and a Roman boy, with whom he will fight the Skull King and his warriors.

This book reminds me of Narnia as siblings who love each other but don’t always like each other are pulled across time to a land where a battle rages against a powerful evil.  Instead of religious undertones it is pinned on scientific principles.  The nature of light and the theory of continental drift both figure prominently in the plot.  The Skull King who literally wears shadows is less willing to use charm than the White Witch, but both plan to rule and sap the land of its vitality.  Jake is driven to pursue the discipline that his parents loved.  The author has provided Jake a host of mysteries and he takes them on like a young Indiana Jones.  There is plenty of action for this young adventurer and the unanswered questions about his parents’ fate will drive readers to want to pick up the upcoming sequel.

I enjoyed this book and think it is a great read for 6th – 8th graders particular those who like MacHale’s Pendragon books or Indiana Jones.  Pure adventure. 399p., 2009.

The sequel to Hunger Games leaves me feeling like I’ve been rubbernecking. Everything that happens to the heroine, Katniss, is so awful but I just can’t tear my eyes away.  

In a dark, future world, Districts 1 -12 are left in poverty while supplying the Capitol with a lavish lifestyle.  In order to remind the Districts of their place, each year tributes, usually children, are sent to the Hunger Games to compete in an arena of tortures from which there will be only one survivor.  This event is televised as a grand spectacle of reality entertainment.  Katniss by competing in the only Hunger Games ever to have two winners has unwittingly become a symbol of the rebellion that is beginning in the Districts.  Everyone she loves is now in danger from the Capitol and she finds herself back in the arena to compete against other Hunger Games victors.

As the middle of a series, this book left me wishing the next one weren’t so darned far off. Collins has made me care for her characters deeply and I am unsettled not to know that they will be okay. It seems impossible they will all make it to the end of the series.  391p. ARC Copy, 2009.

Since the alien invasion, things have changed a lot.  People have to fear being eaten at any turn.  William is not too sad when his step-parents are eaten and he finds their feet left in a pile.  These are the people who constantly sent him out to risk alien attack to get food and supplies.  William will finally get to go live with his Uncle Maynard who has always cared for him.  However, when aliens kidnap his friend Sophie’s scientist parents, it is time to mount a rescue mission.

This was an odd combo of zany action and truly frightening moments.  The aliens who are now dying of the chicken pox and don’t like to eat feet are funny in ways.  The actual eating of characters and the threat of Uncle Maynard’s ill health are harrowing.  The book is clearly the first in a series and the ending left me with mixed emotions, but certainly wanting to follow William’s next adventure. 227p., 2009

Six people (so far) have reviewed this one on amazon and each gave it all 5 stars and I agree. This is a romance with great depth of character and an interesting planetary political scene.

Aerin is from outside the Alliance of planets and has faked her identity to test into the elite school Academy 7. Dane is the son of the Alliance’s leading general. He attends Academy 7 to displease his father who holds a grudge against his alma mater. Aerin comes from a life of brutal slavery on an outer world and Dane from a life of great privilege. They are soon Academy 7’s two top students, but each has secrets.

What made this story great was the way these two guarded characters learned about each other. Both Dane and Aerin made assumptions about the other and this book showed them learning that though they had the superior intelligence required to attend Academy 7 neither knew as much as he/she thought.

I am really hoping Osterlund is writing a sequel because I loved this book and will be recommending it widely.  258p., 2009.

In a dark future city run by the ruthless Chaosonic corporation, a rebel organization called “the Deck” launches resistance missions.  Agent Six of Hearts is the Deck’s best field operative.  He infiltrates enemy installations with ease escaping with valuable intel past hundreds of security forces without killing a single enemy soldier.  Six has a secret only known by King of Hearts who runs the field operations.  Six is a product of the Lab’s Falcon project to create indestructible human soldiers by illegal genetic tampering.  In this book Six is sent back to the Lab to stop their new project to create more soldiers from his genome.

Heath knows how to write action and there is almost no page of this book that lacks for it.  Jumping off a dam in a hail of bullets, fighting a robotic killing machine, escaping attacking sharks, and more. . .  Six is a superhuman and his ability to outsmart and outfight the enemy is satisfyingly clever.  Underneath his cool superhuman façade, he does wonder just how human he is and his meetings with other superhumans from the Falcon project cause him to further question who he is.  The Deck’s secrets remain and I expect another book to illuminate the identities and motives of “the Jokers” who run the Deck.  A great read for fans of spy action. 312p., 2008 (first published in Australia in 2006)

This is the third book in the trilogy that began with Airborn. Matt Kruse who aspires to captain a hydrium powered airship finds himself invited to train to become one of the first astralnauts. His aristocratic girlfriend, Kate, is invited aboard the first space mission as a scientific expert on high-altitude life. Matt and Kate must keep their relationship a secret in tight quarters as Kate’s parents would not approve the match. This becomes the least of their worries when the cable tethering the ship to its satellite is attacked by alien life.

The book begins with Matt’s daring high altitude foiling of a terrorist bombing and the action does not let up from there. Between terrorist threats against the space mission and inhospitable aliens, the danger never stops. Matt and Kate’s romance also comes under threat when she must agree to become engaged to another man in order to be allowed on the space mission by her parents.

This is a swashbuckling, high-action romance with wide appeal. Despite the knucklebiting danger, Oppel takes time for humor too. I loved the monkey taken on the space flight who learns he can propel himself with monkey farts in zero gravity. I listened to Airborn, the first of the series, as an audiobook and think it makes a great listen for family road trips. It is better to begin at the beginning and enjoy all three books, though this could stand alone. 390p., 2009.

A strong opening to a new sci-fi series. With the world’s population dying of a mysterious plague brought by a comet, the Gallahad project launches 251 of Earth’s best and brightest teenagers into space to look for a new home. The premise is not unique, but the writing is strong and the tale is a well-structured mystery. There is an extra passenger aboard the ship with murderous intentions who causes the first big dilemma for the ship’s young ruling council. The mystery is only part of the story, the book follows the back story of the creators of the project as they assemble the ideal crew. Several of the crew members’ stories are told filled with angst, loss and the power of being chosen for the Gallahad project. There is shipboard romance brewing and a computer with a very real sense of humor about the antics of his teenage charges.

The book will appeal to sci-fi fans, but also to mystery fans as the identity of the stowaway is sought. The addition of humor and romance make the pages fly by. 240p., 2009

A giant genetically engineered T-Rex named TIM is the Earth’s only hope against a nanobot Swarm bent on consuming everything in its path. Two teens find themselves trying to save London. Chris is mystically linked to the Earth’s defender, the man-made dinosaur TIM. Anna is the daughter of the scientist who has disassembled himself down to the atomic level to become the leader of the nanobot swarm.

The battle sequences are clearly written by a fan of monster movies as Big Ben is hurled as a weapon and the Parliament building comes crashing down. Anna was the stronger of the two characters for me. Chris got awfully whiny by the end of the book with his “why me?” refrain which detracted from the overall action fun of the book.

I think action and budding sci-fi monster fans will appreciate this. Giant monsters are wreaking havoc on the whole of London and only two teenagers can save the world! Plus that nanobot swarm was really scary. 284p., 2008.>