Cycler by Lauren Mclaughlin

OMG! I loved this book. Jill McTeague desperately wants to go to prom with Tommy Knutson, but she has an unusual medical condition that may stop her. Once a month, right before her period, she transmogrifies into a adolescent male for four days. Her parent’s keep Jack (Jill’s male persona) locked in the house each month for his entire four day existence. The family’s cover story is that Jill is absent once a month from school due to blood transfusions.

The problem is that Jack has a crush of his own, on Jill’s best friend Ramie, and decides to sneak out in order to express his adoration. As the book progresses the love triangle just gets more and more awkwardly humorous. As prom approaches Jill isn’t sure who is going to attend, Jack? Jill? Tommy? Ramie? Definitely pick this one up to find out, and don’t worry a sequel is already in the works. One FYI, this book does contain frank discussions of sex. Appropriate for anyone 14 and up. Highly Recommended.

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Naruto is on Hulu.com. And here is the first episode below. Enjoy!

Naruto, Season 1 Episode 1:

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Hey, found you can embed previews of books via Google Book. Thanks Jessamyn!

Here is a taste of Fablehaven. I LOVED this book! Give it a try and then check it out for some good reads!

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Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
5 Stars

This book is about a boy named Luke who is a shadow child or an illegal first child. Due to a famine the most number of children a family can have is two. Luke is forced to hide all his life until rich Barons move in across the street and he sees a girl’s face in a window where two boys already live. He goes to investigate and meets Jen, another illegal child. But Jen starts to plan a rally to gain freedom for the shadow children. But things go wrong. Fatally wrong.

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The Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner

I was really blown away by the raw power of this book. Diary of a Teenage Girl is about a young girl named Minnie growing up in 1970’s San Francisco. It is written in a diary format that also includes cartoons, much like a graphic novel, that also tell the story. Minnie comes from a broken home and has no positive role models in her life. Feeling unloved and unwanted she turns to sex and drugs to fill the void in her life. This could easily turn into a cliche, but it is Minnie’s distinctive voice and the incredible artwork that lifts the material so it becomes a truly powerful story. Throughout the story Minnie battles with depression, suicidal thoughts, sexual abuse (by a family member and a friend), and drug abuse.

Because of the subject matter, this book is appropriate for teens that are 16 and older. It should be of interest to anyone who is into alternative and underground comics, coming of age stories, or has a connection to the subject matter. Highly recommended.

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The 39 Clues: Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

The 39 Clues is a new book series released by Scholastic. Rick Riordan has written the first novel and plotted out the other nine books. There are also trading cards, a website, and sweepstakes tied to the series. If you create an online account, collect the cards, and figure out their clues, you could win lots of money. On one hand the profit motive is an obvious driving force for the series. Scholastic wants to make money. On the other it is a grand experiment in connecting a story through different media - a serialized novel, the audiobook, the trading cards, and the web. There are clues all over - in the physical book (there are misnumbered pages), a hidden track on the audiobook, and the trading cards have problems to solve. All this is well and good, but what is The 39 Clues about? And is it any good?

Let us answer the second question first. Is it good? Yes. I enjoyed it and found it to be an interesting mix of the movie ‘Goonies” and Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code. Rick Riordan has written a great start to the series and I hope the other books can live up to this one. Unfortunately each book will be written by a different author, each being released a few months after the last (book 2 is due in December) for a total of 10 over 2 years. Plus there is a movie already being planned. Between the interconnectivity and the schedule it makes the series rather complex, which makes selling it to readers rather hard. At times it almost seems like too much information at once. For example, here I am on my second paragraph of my review and I have yet to discuss any content. I have had similar discussions with patrons already, and then when we do get to the plot of the series it is almost as an afterthought. The consensus I have come across online is that the actual characters and plot might wind up like they do in my discussions of the book, an afterthought. Fortunately Riordan has made a very entertaining beginning and let’s hope that Scholastic doesn’t drop the ball in the following chapters.

So what is The 39 Clues about? Amy and Dan Cahill are caught up in a globe hopping adventure as they must find and deduce hidden historical clues. Their grandmother, Grace Cahill, the matriarch of the family, has suddenly died, and has left a peculiar will. A handful of family members are chosen as beneficiaries and given a choice. They can either collect a million dollar inheritance or they could receive the first clue to the Cahill family’s ultimate treasure, one that they have protected throughout history and one that would give the winning family member extraordinary political power. Those that choose the clue must compete against one another to be the winners. Unfortunately for Amy and Dan, their family members just happen to be the motliest, most dangerous, and most ruthless individuals this side of Voldermort. So begins their race to figure out the first clue. These clues could be invisible messages in ancient documents, or buried deep underground, or just in the local library. What the clues do, though, is lead them on a scavenger hunt that takes them around the world, and ultimately to Paris.

Honestly, think of The DaVinci Code, but with kids, and minus the religion, but with more of the type of danger the kids from “Goonies” find themselves in. I really enjoyed it. In the end I think we need to look past the complexity of the engineered 39 Clues phenomena and see the extremely enjoyable, well written adventure yarn that it is. Go read it. The Maze of Bones is highly recommended and suitable for all ages.

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The Fablehaven Series by Brandon Mull
Fablehaven
Rise of the Evening Star
Grip of the Shadow Plague

I have read the first two book so far and absolutely love these books. If you need a fantasy fix you should definitely check these out.

Kendra and Seth are just a normal sister and brother until their first visit to their grandparents’ estate. Their grandparents have always been aloof and mysterious. They hardly visit and when they do it is only one or the other but never both. When they arrive at the estate only Grandpa Sorenson is there to greet them, and lays out bizarre rules they have to abide by. They are given a chicken, to care for, forced to sleep in the attic, and not allowed to venture onto the grounds of the estate. Kendra is given however three small keys as part of a riddle. The riddle leads her to a seemingly empty journal, but she finds a small inscription towards the back, “Drink the Milk.”

Once she and her brother drink the milk, their eyes are opened to the reality of the estate - it is a giant preserve for mythical and magical creatures, Fablehaven. The butterflies they have been seeing are actually fairies. Seth inadvertently offends the fairies when he captures one and starts a chain reaction that turns their first visit to their grandparents into an adventure of life and death proportions. Soon a demon is loosed and is about to tear Fablehaven asunder. It is up to Kendra and Seth to save the preserve and find out about Evening Star, a shadowy organization who is really behind all the mischief in Fablehaven. The second and third books continue the children’s exploits at Fablehaven as they fight to stand against the overwhelming forces of the Evening Star.

This series is incredibly well written and highly enjoyable. After reading the first volume I had to pick up the second right away. I would have read the third by now but it was checked out. This series is enjoyable for all ages. Anyone who likes magic, fairies, ogres, satyrs, witches, and demons will love this series as much as I do.

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