Maggie has always been homeschooled. She’s been happily comfortable in her relationship with her mother and three adored older brothers. Now she’s enrolled in a public high school and she is terrified. Her brothers leave her to fend for herself but she manages to make some friends. But, of course, life is never that simple – complications arise and as Maggie navigates the complex paths of high school relationships another factor player enters the scene – a ghost!
Watch the conversation with author Faith Erin Hicks as she speaks about this book.
Photojournalist Rafal Gerszak spent a year in Afghanistan with the American military documenting life on the front lines and gaining affection for the land and its people. He returned with a different focus: giving the Afghani people a voice for their stories to be told. This collection of photos and journal entries creates a fine balance between the destruction of war and the life and heart of the Afghani people. Sidebars include background information that will give readers a bigger picture of this moment in history.
Taking place in small town Saskatchewan during the Great Depression and written in blank verse, the story and images flow vividly and easily off the page. Four children experience the death of their beloved mother, the remarriage of their father to a Bible thumping wicked stepmother and his cruel death as only the beginning of their trials. Adults in their small town are not as they seem and the children are victims of more than one immoral adult. With no parents to protect them other adults are quick to take advantage and add to their misery. Despite this, the strength of the eldest sister keeps them together and able to survive the misfortune of their lives and hope for a better future wins out in the end.
This contemporary story, set in Ahmadinejad's Iran in 2009, tells the story of one missing nineteen year old boy and the search for him undertaken with great persistence and at the risk of great harm by his mother and brother. There is no rule of law and official actions are random and corrupt, creating a whole atmosphere of despair and hopelessness. We meet characters from all walks of Iranian life in a world where nothing is as it seems. The graphic format only adds to the horror of the story. There are references to the Iranian Candaian journalist, Zahra Kazemi, who was murdered by the regime and whose story was told in the Canadian news. Read it and weep.
Steampunk, according to Willeford, harkens to a world of gadgets, alternative history, mad scientists, and dashing heroes. Advanced technology of the computer age has no place here. While there are authors of fiction writing the Steampunk story, willefords book shows fans how to build the gadgets. Just looking at them and reading his descriptions is fantasy itself. Be aware that his projects are not easy, but use many skills and tools of the tradesman, and asks you to work with copper, leather, and power tools, among other things. His instructions, both written and visual, are precise, but you'll need to heed his advice and set yourself up a workshop to be a nattily-attired Steampunk character.
Konrad and Viktor are twins, living a charmed life at the Frankenstein family chateau in Geneva. Their days are full of fun and adventure until one day, they stumble upon the family's secret library, the Biblioteka Obscura, filled with dark, mysterious books. When Konrad falls gravely ill, Viktor is impatient with the doctors' feeble efforts and anxiously returns to the dark texts of the secret library, where he discovers a formula for the elixir of life. On a quest to save his twin, Viktor and his friends Elizabeth and Henry set out to find a mysterious and powerful alchemist, and risk their own lives to find a way to turn back death. Kenneth Oppel delivers with this prequel to Mary Shelley's gothic masterpiece, Frankenstein.
Like many Canadians, I am very proud of the Canadian Team at the London Olympic 2012.
There were so many memorable moments including Canada’s first medal a bronze in diving from Jennifer Abel and Emilie Heymans, Canada’s gold medal by Rosie MacLennan in Trampoline and the women’s soccer match between Canada and France where the Canadian team won the bronze medal.
The closing ceremony is going to be on Sunday but we can continue the Olympic Fever by reading some of these exciting sports books:
Share your most memorable moments from the London Olympic 2012 and your favourite sports books.
Matthew lives in Safe, an underground haven for outcasts with strange abnormalities and abilities including Whisper who can speak with ghosts, Jack who can control electricity, Ariel who can transform into a bee and Safe’s crab-clawed leader, Atticus. When a former friend returns for revenge, Matthew and the others must flee their home, forced above, to the streets of Toronto. There, the group must find a way to take back their home, even if it means discovering dark secrets about Safe and placing trust in those they fear.
Q. Where was the American Declaration of Independence Signed? A: At the bottom.
If you’ve ever been tempted to give a more “creative” test answer during an exam, F in Exams is the book for you. Hilarious, off-beat, and surprising, these answers are the best of the worst! We guarantee this book will have you and your friends ROFL. (Warning: use these answers at your own risk!)
What would happen if a manga character found himself in the world of Western-style comics?
In Mangaman, Ryoko Kiyama, a manga character with big eyes and an amazingly small waistline, falls through a mysterious rift into a North American comic-book drama. Ryoko seems like a freak to the more “realistic” characters, who wonder at first if he’s even alive. But if he can’t get home, he needs to find a way to fit in to this new world—whether it is “real” or not.
