Amulet

By Kazu Kibuishi

My boy recommended this one to me. And when we went to the LIT QUIZ this year there was practically a whole section dedicated to it.
This is the first book in a series and it's a goodie. The illustrations are wonderfully done. The dialogue sharp, the story begins explosively and doesn't let you go. 10/10

Synopsis

THERE'S SOMETHING STRANGE BEHIND THE BASEMENT DOOR...
After a family tragedy, Emily, Navin and their mother move to the ancestral home to start a new life. On the family's very first night in the mysterious house, Em and Navin's mom is kidnapped by a tentacled creature. Now it's up to Em and Navin to figure out how to set things right and save their mother's life!

Author

Kazuhiro "Kazu" Kibuishi is a Japanese–American graphic novel author and illustrator. He is best known for being the creator and editor of the comic anthology Flight and for creating the webcomic Copper.

Other works

• Flight, Vol. 1 (Flight, #1) 2004 
• Daisy Kutter: The Last Train 2005 
• Flight, Vol. 2 (Flight, #2)2005 
• Flight, Vol. 3 (Flight, #3) 2006 
• Flight, Vol. 4 (Flight, #4)2007 
• The Stonekeeper (Amulet, #1) 2008 
• Flight, Vol. 5 (Flight, #5) 2008 
• The Stonekeeper's Curse (Amulet, #2) 2009 
• Flight, Vol. 6 (Flight, #6) 2009 
• The Cloud Searchers (Amulet, #3) 2010 
• Copper 2010 
• Flight, Vol. 7 (Flight, #7) 2010 
• The Last Council (Amulet, #4) 2011 
• Flight, Vol. 8 (Flight, #8) 2011 
• Prince of the Elves (Amulet, #5) 2012 
• The Mystery Boxes (Explorer, #1)2012 
• The Lost Islands (Explorer, #2) 2013 
• Escape from Lucien (Amulet, #6) 2014 
• Firelight (Amulet, #7)2016 
• Supernova (Amulet #8) 2018

Novel Study

Amulet Book One Reading Guide: This is a reading guide for book one of the Amulet graphic novel series by Kazu Kibuishi. The guide is broken down into eight days of assigned reading pages and corresponding comprehension questions.

The Martian

By Andy Weir

I was delighted when we unwrapped this penultimate book from the book club this year. It's been sitting on my shelf for a year now, just waiting.
For the past month I had two copies in my house. My boy and I read it at the same time. Well, when I say "the same time" my boy obviously polished it off in three days and I'm still, 24 days later, finishing it off.
I loved it. A book with some action, brilliant.
Now that we've both read the book we might well watch the movie.

Do you think it'll ruin the book? 

Synopsis  

I'm stranded on Mars.

I have no way to communicate with Earth.
If the Oxygenator breaks down, I'll suffocate.
If the Water Reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst.
If the Habitat breaches, I'll just kind of explode.
If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death.

I'm screwed.

Author

Andrew Taylor Weir is an American novelist whose debut novel, The Martian, was later adapted into a film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott in 2015. He also worked as a computer programmer for much of his life. He received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016. Wikipedia

Other Books

The Martian (2011)

Artemis (2017)

Study Guides

The Martian: Classroom Edition Teacher’s Guide

Fever Crumb

By Philip Reeve

So, if you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know my son is in process of reviewing the Mortal Engines series of books but I thought I go right back to the prequels and go from there in order. Maybe this book is littered with 'aha' moments but I won't know for a while. I do have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this first book in the series. It's a weird world, its London, but not the London we know. The names have shifted. Like its set hundreds of years from now, for example, the is Ox Fart Circus and the Orbital Moatway.

Synopsis

An Abandoned Baby hides an explosive truth.

Thousands of years from now, Fever Crumb is rescued from the ruins of London by some eccentric Engineers. Could her mysterious powers be the key to saving their city?
Fever Crumb is the first of Philip Reeve's sensational prequels tothe mortal engines quartet, one of the greatest fantasy worlds ever created.

Author

Philip Reeve is an author and illustrator. First known as the creator of the fantasy fiction quartet Mortal Engines. He won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize with his Mortal Engines series, as well as the Nestlé Book Prize - Gold Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award.

Others in the series:

• Mortal Engines (2001)
• Predator's Gold (2003)
• Infernal Devices (2005)
• A Darkling Plain (2006)
• Traction City (World Book Day, 2011), a novella

Infernal Devices (Predator Cities #3)

By Philip Reeve.

This book is the third in Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines quartet and is recommendable only if one is doing a full-series read-through. The best part for me was when the sky-castle thingy-ma-doodle exploded in a blaze of easily-forgettable glory! It is set about 16 years after the end of the previous book and is kind-of "meh" in comparison to some of the other books in the series, but remember that's just my opinion and it certainly doesn't prevent you from voicing yours! :)

Synopsis

Wren is desperate to escape the static city, and a charming submarine pirate is happy to help her. But when she steals a mysterious object, she ignites a conflict that could tear the world apart.

Author

Philip Reeve is an author and illustrator. First known as the creator of the fantasy fiction quartet Mortal Engines. He won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize with his Mortal Engines series, as well as the Nestlé Book Prize - Gold Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award.

Others in the series:

• Mortal Engines (2001)
• Predator's Gold (2003)
• Infernal Devices (2005)
• A Darkling Plain (2006)
• Traction City (World Book Day, 2011), a novella

Predator Gold (Predator Cities #2)

 By Philip Reeve

As soon as I finished Mortal Engines I immediately went to get this follow up novel. I have enjoyed all of them, but this was a bit of a low point in the series, mainly because not much happened, I mean, sure, he introduces a lot of new characters, but nothing cool happened. It was a little disappointing for the second in the series but I'm hoping it'll just get better and better from there.

 Synopsis

Anchorage is fleeing across the ice wastes. Far above a tiny aircraft falls from the sky. Having escaped from London, Tom and Hester seek refuge in a city devastated by plague, haunted by ghosts, and filled with deadly secrets...

 

 

Author

Philip Reeve is an author and illustrator. First known as the creator of the fantasy fiction quartet Mortal Engines. He won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize with his Mortal Engines series, as well as the Nestlé Book Prize - Gold Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award.

Others in the series:

• Mortal Engines (2001)
• Predator's Gold (2003)
• Infernal Devices (2005)
• A Darkling Plain (2006)
• Traction City (World Book Day, 2011), a novella

Mortal Engines (Predator Cities #1)

By Philip Reeve

This book was pushed towards me by my intermediate teacher this year. I was reluctant at first, but I soon polished off it and two others in the series. I am currently reading number 4 in the series. I have thoroughly enjoyed the plot, the characters, and the world it's set in. If you haven't read this series, I suggest it with great enthusiasm.

Synopsis

In the distant future, cities on wheels fight each other for survival. As London pursues a small town, young apprentice Tom is flung out into the wastelands, where a terrifying cyborg begins to hunt him down.

Author

Philip Reeve is an author and illustrator. First known as the creator of the fantasy fiction quartet Mortal Engines. He won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize with his Mortal Engines series, as well as the Nestlé Book Prize - Gold Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award.

Others in the series:

• Mortal Engines (2001)
• Predator's Gold (2003)
• Infernal Devices (2005)
• A Darkling Plain (2006)
• Traction City (World Book Day, 2011), a novella

Under the Mountain

By Maurice Gee

I'm not a fan. I'm really not a fan. I just don't know yet whether I'm not a fan of science fiction or just not a fan of Maurice Gee in particular. I found the whole premise outrageous, but then its science fiction, perhaps that's the point. But giant worms, good grief! I understand that it is a New Zealand children's classic that has appeared in study units over the years, but what I don't understand is, why?
I have not read any other Maurice Gee so I don't want to judge the author too harshly but suffice to say that, in my opinion, Under the Mountain is not worth a look unless, for some reason you have been force-ably required to by some curriculum or other.
Its the story of two twins that communicate with aliens from another time, another world, who have been conscripted by a 'watcher' to, literally, save the world from giant worms who are eating it from the inside-out. But I return to my orginal point: giant worms, good grief!

Leave a comment and tell me about the books you've had to read in school.

Synopsis

Beneath the extinct volcanoes surrounding the city, giant creaturesare waking from a spellbound sleep that has lasted thousands of years. Their goal is the destruction of the world.
Rachel and Theo Matheson are twins. Apart from having red hair there is nothing remarkable about them - or so they think. They are horrified to discover that they have a strange and awesome destiny. Only the Matheson twins can save the world from the terror of what is under the mountain.

Author

The Big Season(1962)
A Special Flower (1965)
In My Father's Den (1972)
Glorious Morning Comrade (1975)
Games of Choice (1976)
Plumb (1978)
Under the Mountain (1979)
The World Around the Corner (1980)
Meg (1981)
The Halfmen of O (1982)
Sole Survivor (1983)
The Priests of Ferris (1984)
Motherstone (1985)
The Fire-Raiser (1986)
Collected Short Stories (1986)
Prowlers (1987)

Dark Matter

By Blake Crouch

I've spent quite a long time on this book. But not quite as long as deciding whether to publish a review of a book here that I did not like. This blog is supposed to be reflection on good reading material, for students, teachers, parents and generally everyone. Once people have read a few of the posts here I think they'll get a sense of the types of books I like, and if you tend to like the same sort of reading material I hope you'll stick around, or keep coming back (pick your metaphor).

But my question to myself is "Do I publish a review of a book I did not like?"

I am not going to waste time giving you a run down of why I didn't like. I read the blurb, thought the premise was interesting then was very disappointed with the style and tone the book had. I will still share the blurb, perhaps you can dwell on it for a moment and see what it was that perked my interest.

Synopsis

"Are you happy in your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Desson hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.
Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.
Before the man he's never met smiles down at him and says, 'Welcome back.'
In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life in not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.
Is it this world or the other that's the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined - one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Author

Blake Crouch is best known for the Wayward Pines trilogy, which has sold more than a million copies, been translated into thirty languages, and adapted into a prime-time event series on FOX. He lives in Colorado.

Other books by the author

Pines
Wayward
The Last Town
Desert Places
Locked Doors
Break You
Stirred
Serial Killers Uncut
Run
Abandon
Snow Bound
Famous
Eerie
Draculas
The Pain of Others
Sunset Key
Grab
*69
Remaking
On the Good, Red Road
Shining Rock
The Meteorologist
Unconditional 
Perfect Little Town
Hunting Season
Fully Loaded
Thicker than Blood