More "Writes Like". Who writes like your favorite author? Remember back in Oct. when we first took on this topic. Here are a few additional sites. Visit the following:
Google docs.
Book Recommendations for Jodi Picoult Fans
If you like The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
http://www.wcl.govt.nz/popular/fictionwriters.html
New Materials
Adult
The Sherlockian by Graham Moore
Amazon.com Review
Rescue by Anita Shreve
Paramedic Pete Webster is worried sick about his daughter, Rowan, a high-school senior whom he has raised single-handedly ever since she was two. Rowan has adopted very untypical behavior, ignoring her studies and drinking heavily. It brings back bad memories of his ex-wife, Sheila. He pulled her from a car wreck while on the job and soon fell madly in love with her both for her beauty and her irreverent sense of humor. When she became pregnant, he married her though he was only 21. They were very happy until Sheila began drinking all day, every day. Now Pete is worried that their daughter believes she is doomed to repeat her mother’s mistakes; he decides to contact Sheila, whom he has not seen or heard from for 16 years. The prolific Shreve brings her customary care to this thoroughly absorbing, perfectly paced domestic drama.
The Athena Project by Brad Thor
The world’s most elite counter-terrorism unit has just taken its game to an entirely new level. And not a moment too soon . . .From behind the rows of razor wire, a new breed of counterterrorism operator has emerged.
Just as skilled, just as fearsome, and just as deadly as their colleagues, Delta Force’s newest members have only one thing setting them apart—their gender. Part of a top-secret, all-female program codenamed The Athena Project, four of Delta’s best and brightest women are about to undertake one of the nation’s deadliest assignments.
When a terrorist attack in Rome kills more than twenty Americans, Athena Team members Gretchen Casey, Julie Ericsson, Megan Rhodes, and Alex Cooper are tasked with hunting down the Venetian arms dealer responsible for providing the explosives. But there is more to the story than anyone knows.
Dead Like You by Peter James
Det. Supt. Roy Grace and his major crimes team discover disturbing similarities between two Brighton rapes in the thrilling sixth entry in James's popular U.K. crime series (Dead Simple, etc.). In particular, the rapist used the women's shoes to violate his victims. In 1997, a similar series of rapes occurred in Brighton, committed by someone known only as the "Shoe Man." The Shoe Man had five confirmed victims, but Grace always suspected that 22-year-old Rachael Ryan, who disappeared soon after the rapes ceased in 1997, was the Shoe Man's only murder victim. Grace's failure to find Rachael's body has haunted him since. James ably shifts between the present-day investigation, with its numerous suspects, who all appear guilty of something, and the earlier inquiry.
Young Adult
The Tenth Power by Kate Constable
Grade 6 Up–In the final installment of this trilogy, Calwyn, who once had several of the nine singing magic powers (called chantments), has lost all of her extraordinary gifts. Bitterly, she returns to Antaris with hopes of recuperation, but instead finds that a number of the chanters have been affected with a deadly snow-sickness. Entrusted by the dying high priestess with knowledge of a wheel that contains the tenth power to heal the world, Calwyn sets out with her companions to track down Samis, a wicked sorcerer whom she had believed was dead, and wrest from him the missing half of the wheel. On her perilous journey, she discovers a long-lost relative, delves deeper into the conflicted relationship with her chanter friend Darrow, and discovers new gifts that lead her reluctantly toward her destiny as the Singer of All Songs.
Invisible Things by Jenny Davidson
Gr 8 Up–Set in 1939 Denmark, this story uses the same alternative history device as Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan (S & S, 2009), but it doesn't work here. Instead, the book is a confusing mishmash of characters with the history and science not fully explored. It is a novel more of explanation than action. Sixteen-year-old Sophie, an orphan living at a scientific facility operated by Niels Bohr, has been smuggled out of Scotland for her own safety. She's hoping to speak to Alfred Nobel about the death of her parents. After a gas and pellet attack at Bohr's birthday party and the subsequent invasion of Denmark, Sophie, her friend Mikael (undergoing some strange personality changes due to the gas), and a few of the scientists from the institute evacuate to Sweden where they stay in the same boarding house as Mikael's brother. After a rather surreal meeting with Nobel, during which she finds out that her father had successfully designed the atomic bomb, she gets confirmation that she is Nobel's granddaughter and heir. She is sent on a long journey to negotiate plans for the weapon, and to rescue Mikael, who has been hypnotized into following Elsa Blix, a weapons dealer and also an illegitimate child of Nobel's who only wants recognition of her paternity. Few readers will stick with Invisible Things to its unsatisfying and rather sudden conclusion.
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Grade 9 Up—Samantha Kingston has worked her way up the popularity ladder; now a senior, she and her three best friends rule their school. On Cupid Day, Sam expects to receive Valentine roses, to party with her friends, and to finally (maybe) have sex with her equally popular boyfriend. The last thing she expects is that she will die, but in the final moments of her life, as she hears "a horrible, screeching sound—metal on metal, glass shattering, a car folding in two," everything turns to nothing. Only, it is not the end for Sam. She wakes up to start the same day over again, and again; in fact, she relives it seven times. At first, being dead has its advantages, as she realizes that nothing worse can happen to her. She first conducts herself with reckless abandon, seducing her math teacher and smoking marijuana. It is difficult to feel pity for Sam; she is snobbish, obnoxious, a cheater, and just plain mean. However, her gradual and complete transformation is so convincing that when she finally puts others before herself in order to save another life, it is moving and cathartic.
First Readers
Mouse Noses On Toast by Daren King
When Paul Mouse overhears a customer in a restaurant ordering mouse noses on toast, he assumes it must be a joke. Mouse noses on toast is a myth, isn’t it? But when the waiter asks if that would be with or without whiskers, Paul knows it’s no joke. So begins a laugh-out-loud funny ride involving mouse activists and cheese addicts. Along with his friends— Sandra the Christmas tree ornament, Rowley Barker Hobbs, a shaggy sheepdog, and the Tinby, a sort of monster, Paul Mouse, who’s sadly allergic to cheese, campaigns to bring an end to this disgusting human eating habit. This inviting chapter book will keep young readers giggling.
Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner
Gr 5-7–Claire Boucher is a busy seventh grader. She not only balances school with the responsibilities of work on her family farm, especially now that the maple sap is running, but also coaches young skaters at the nearby skating school. On the day that this delightful novel opens, she is rushing to get ready for the annual Maple Show. While she's aware that a famous Russian skating coach will be scouting, she is not hopeful that he's there for her. Competition terrifies her. But she lands her double toe loop and is offered a scholarship to the summer program at Lake Placid. But how can Claire ask her already busy parents to make the hour and a half drive three days a week? Does she really want to compete? Is she squandering her incredible talent if she chooses not to accept the offer? Messner has a flair for depicting engaging characters who are imperfect without being quirky. The dialogue between classmates and siblings is realistic, and the intergenerational or extended family relationships are interesting.
Picture Books
Piglet and Granny by Margaret Wild
PreSchool-Grade 1—In this creative team's third collaboration, irrepressible Piglet looks forward to a visit from Granny. Even though she is "soft and squishy," Granny always has "such good ideas for things to do." Waiting by the gate, the youngster becomes impatient. To pass the time she practices some of the tricks her grandmother taught her. Her farmyard friends admire Piglet's ability to balance on the stone wall, chase butterflies, and do somersaults. As they praise her, they also provide reassurance that Granny will no doubt be there soon. And she is. King's bucolic watercolor-and-ink illustrations enliven Wild's sweet but repetitive narrative. In a gentle palette of pastel shades he deftly captures the special relationship between the two characters.
Miss Brooks Loves Books by Barbara Bottner
Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2010: If ever there were a perfect picture book for those so-called "reluctant readers" this is it. Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don't) tells the story of Missy, a little girl who rejects just about every story that comes her way. She complains that "They're too kissy. Too pink. And too silly." The tireless librarian Miss Brooks is not about to give up, nor is Missy's mom. When Missy realizes she'd like to read about warts, Mom comes through with an inspired choice that sets this picky reader on the path to book bliss. Leave it to the pros--author Barbara Bottner and illustrator Michael Emberley to hit the funny bone with this clever and quirky new read.
Ernest the Moose Who Doesn't Fit by Catherine Rayner
PreS-Gr 1–Ernest tries his darnedest to fit on the pages of this book. With the help of his chipmunk friend, he attempts to “shimmy, shift, and shuffle in forward” and “squidge, squodge, and squeeze in backward.” Nothing works; all of him just won't fit. Then chipmunk has an idea; fetching masking tape and paper, she and Ernest cobble together a gatefold for the last page. Now, the moose “fits in perfectly.” The graph-paper pattern on heavy stock is the perfect background against which loose, textured line drawings humorously depict the predicament of the gangly Ernest and his furry friend. The amusing extension, cleverly constructed from a hodgepodge of gaily patterned “paper” stuck together with much tape, makes for a delightful resolution.
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