BookWormin'

Lucy Norton is convinced her life is bad.  Like Cinderella-before-the-bibbitty-bobbity-boo.  In fact, there is a lot of similarities between Lucy and Cinderella.  Cinderella's mother died, so did Lucy's.  They both have wicked stepmothers, and two evil stepsisters.  Unfortunately, Cinderella gets Prince Charming.  Lucy has a crush on the 'prince' of the varsity basketball team, Connor Pearson.  He doesn't know anything about her though, other than her name.  But what did Prince Charming know about Cinderella except her shoe size? In school, Lucy is kinda a loner.  Once, in her art class, she tried to make friends with a boy who was a really good artist.  His name is Sam Wolff, and when she compliments his paintings, he says thanks,  but it's more of a could-you-possibly-crawl-back-into-whatever-hole-you-came-from-and-stop-bothering-me sort of thanks.  Then one day her popularity status is changed when she sits down at an empty table.  The popular girls, Jessica

Hi!  Today for school I have creative writing, and for my teacher/mom that basically translates into writing stories, or books.  I love writing as much as I love reading, but it is really hard to write a book that I think I would want to read if I hadn't written it, if that makes sense.  It's hard to make the story interesting, without making it so busy that there's no dialogue.  It's hard to make sure you don't leave out characters.  It is hard for me to include parents in my stories, because so far all my kids are running away from evil step-parents, or they are orphans trying to bring back a lost kingdom, or something of the sort.  Have any of you tried writing a book and thought it was harder than it looks?  Got any writing tips?  Here's one, test it out.  If it's a book for your age group, have one of your friends or family members in that age group read it.  Let them criticize, or praise it, and listen to what they say.  I think it would help.  (Maybe

Dear readers, Happy Thanksgiving!  I am thankful for everyone who even looks at this blog, because without you guys I wouldn't have continued blogging.  Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving! I just really quickly want to share with you guys a book I think of every time I think of Thanksgiving.  It's called the Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.  I think this is a good Thanksgiving book because the characters always stay thankful for what they have even when they don't have much.  They go through flooding, losing family members, being accused of being witches, and still find things to be thankful for.  Thank you so much. ~laila

Some of you might have heard of the Disney Channel movie called Lemonade Mouth.  Well, this is the book.  I really like the movie, and the songs, and I like the book too.  In my opinion, the book is pretty much the same as the movie.  Of course, the book has more details. Lemonade Mouth tells the story of five freshman in high school who all get detention on the same day and thanks to a dental commercial with a catchy tune and the school's music teacher, they form a band. Wen plays the trumpet, Mo is on bass, Stella plays guitar/ukulele, Charlie is on drums, and shy Olivia sings.  Of course, the band has trouble starting up at first but with the music teachers help and Stella's determination, they do just fine.  Lemonade Mouth earns it name before the first performance, and are banned from the school after it.  Thankfully, they manage to keep going and become something of role model to the kids in school who are always getting picked on or told that they aren't cool.  That

Hi!  I was going through my bibliographies and came across some books I really liked as a middle schooler. First is a trilogy by Laura Anne Gilman.  It's called Grail Quest and it's about three unlikely friends, a squire, a servant girl, and a stable boy, who have to break a spell, find the Holy Grail, and defeat a Shadow.  The trilogy is set in the times of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and of course Merlin is in there too.  The first book is called the Camelot Spell, the second is Morgain's Revenge, and the last book is the Shadow Companion.  I really liked these books and still sometimes get them out of the library to re-read them! Next is a book called The Sisters Club by Megan McDonald.  It is really funny and tells the story of three sisters who have a club, obviously.  Alex is the oldest and she wants to be an actress, Joey is the youngest and she loves homework and wants to be a pioneer.  In the middle is Stevie and she is like the vanilla in bet

Okay, so I am so so so so glad I got to buy this book like right once it came out.  The Drifting is the sequel to The Binding, which is one of my favorite books. The Drifting brings you further into the story of Lily and Tharin.  At the end of The Binding, Lily and Tharin are separated from each other when Tharin's less known brother kidnaps Lily.  Tharin vows that the next time he sees his brother Ziri, he will kill him.  In the beginning of The Drifting, Lily is with her captor, and when some bandits come near, Ziri injects Lily with something that knocks her out.  When she wakes up, she has no idea where she is and tries to escape.  She is stopped before she gets very far though, and realizes that she may not be in danger..from her captors.  One of them is a lady she was briefly acquainted with, and she assures Lily that no harm will come to her unless she leaves.  Ziri and the lady, Sema, try to train her in combat and her powers that she gets from her mother.  The first coupl

I admit, I saw the movie before I read the book.  I didn't like the movie.   I loved the book .  Although the movie is like exactly the same dialogue and everything, I like being able to "hear" the characters thoughts.   It adds detail to the story and helps you understand the characters more. This book is about Ronnie aka Veronica Miller.  Her parents are divorced, and this summer Ronnie and her little brother have to stay with their dad.  Their dad was a concert pianist and also piano teacher.  He taught Ronnie how to play.  She doesn't play anymore and even though her dad doesn't pressure her, Ronnie is convinced he only wants her there to play the piano.  Rebellious and resentful, Ronnie threatens constantly to leave.  Until she sees a raccoon sniffing around a turtle nest.  From then on, her life pretty much revolves around that nest.  And when Will, a volunteer at the aquarium who ran into her and made her spill soda down her shirt, comes by and sees she

Have you ever heard of the language of flowers?  Laurel has, and she can use flowers in magic ways.  She gave her teacher some flowers for finding love, and her teacher is getting married not long after.  As long as Laurel says the magic words and feels a tingle, her flowers can do anything.  Iris ~ Message, Ivy ~ Marriage, Lily of the Valley ~ Return of Happiness, and lots more.  Every flower has a meaning.  Laurel makes those meanings become reality.  Sometimes she gets it wrong, like when she accidentally uses basil, a lot.  And if one person doesn't actually have feelings for the one with the flowers, then the effect of roses won't last.  Not to mention her flowers can't always work when she uses them for herself.  Can Laurel find a way to solve all her problems while helping other people solve theirs with flowers? "Bright cut flowers, leaves of green, bring about what I have seen."

I really thought that was an interesting title.   The Cardturner .  I had no idea what I was in for when I took this book off the shelves at the library.  This is a really great book and even though I couldn't understand most of the parts about bridge, the story was amazing.  I hope you read it and like it! Image courtesy of Google Alton has a rich uncle who likes to play bridge.  His uncle, who he's only met once when he was five, is also blind.  When his uncle's housekeeper, Mrs. Mahoney, calls asking Alton if he will be his uncle's cardturner, he has no idea what that means.  After a brief conversation with his uncle in which he learned that it didn't matter he didn't know how to play bridge, it was settled that he would take his "favorite uncle" as his mom always said, to his bridge club.  Apparently, Toni Castaneda was his Uncle Lester Trapp's old cardturner.  And one day, when Lester Trapp told her which card to play, Toni said "Ar

The main reason I love Heather Vogel Frederick's books so much is that it's really easy for me to see myself as one of the characters.  I can relate to most of the problems (I say most because I have never had to spit up frogs), and the stories always have little surprises.  Heather Vogel Frederick's The Mother Daughter Book Club series is well written and packed with adventures, books, and mischief.  Once I finish one of these books I always go right to the library website and request whichever book the girls were reading in their book club.  Most of them, I had already read, but after the book club girls talked about the books and described their favorite part, I wanted to know what they were talking about and tell them my favorite part!  I like how Ms. Frederick tells you about the books and their authors in her books, and even includes Fun Facts throughout the stories. In Once Upon a Toad, there is lots of twists and turns and toads.  Heather makes you feel sorry for

Embrace is a story about angels, exiled, souls, Soles, and a seventeen year old girl named Violet Eden.  On her seventeenth birthday, and the seventeenth anniversary of her mother's death, Violet doesn't really feel like celebrating. The day before her birthday, one of her best friends and the boy she has a crush on, Lincoln, lets her paint his wall.  The giant wall in his warehouse that she's wanted to paint forever, that is.  But Linc is acting kinda weird, especially when she tells him she plans on painting some sort of representation of good keeping evil away.  And then during her birthday dinner, when she bumps into a random stranger, Licoln acts like it was a serious crime.  She finds out why the next day when she accidentally overhears him say that he is not completely human.  And apparently she isn't either.  Finding out you're half angel can kinda be a shock for anyone.  To be more specific, Violet is a Grigori, part angel-part human, and the angelic part

Libby Kelting is a history nerd.  Which is why she's going to live at Camden Harbor in the Museum of Maine and the Sea, where it's always 1791.  The only thing is that Libby is totally into fashion.  Short-shorts, high heels, lots of makeup, and can't live without her cell phone.  So she is totally horrified when she has to wear a uniform whenever she isn't in her 1800's costume because khaki shorts and a aquamarine polo T-shirt are so not cute.  Plus, there is no makeup or cell phones!!  And Libby needs to impress, because this place has totally cute boys, mainly Cameron, the super cute Squaddie who chops the wood for her wood stove and climbs ropes on ships all day.  Thankfully, she manages to acquire some saucy 1800's gowns instead of sackcloth dresses, and improvises on the makeup.  Beets and ash are perfect for blush, lipstick, and eyeshadow.  As for the cell phone... well, she has to sneak that into her costume.  Her best friend, Dev, wouldn't survive

Hi!  I'm just blogging this really quickly, because I really have tell you about these books before I forget them. The Game of Truimphs by Laura Powell The Master of Misrule by Laura Powell Check them out at  http://laurapowellauthor.com/?q=node/3 You might also like: Once Upon a Toad by Heather Vogel Frederick. A girl and her step sister are having some problems.  Mainly, the stepsister is like, perfect.  So the girl's great aunt tries to help and it ends in a total fail because now the girl is talking in toads.  Like, toads fall out of her mouth every time she talks.  And her stepsister gets diamonds and flowers!  Totally not fair. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith Can four minutes change your life forever? Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks (This book is recommended for high school and up peoples.) and other Nicholas Sparks books.   http://www.nicholassparks.com/

Okay, so I got the book, I read the book, I loved the book.  I really don't want to give to much spoilers, but there isn't much I can do to stop myself.  The Mark of Athena starts with Annabeth and a giant warship.  The Greek and Roman demi-gods meet and manage to avoid killing each other, until Leo goes crazy and fires on Camp Jupiter and that pretty much starts a war.  Percy and Annabeth are re-united briefly before they have to jump aboard the Argo 2, Leo's awesome war ship, to avoid the angry Roman demi-gods.  The nice Roman demi-gods, Jason, Hazel and Frank, jump aboard the Argo 2 as well, and the seven questers get out of there as fast as possible.  After trying, and failing, to figure out why Leo went crazy, they get some supplies to repair the ship, Leo starts a fan club of nymphs before they realize that they don't like Leo, Hazel and Leo meet Nemesis the goddess of revenge, and Echo the girl cursed to always repeat the last thing she hears, all while the other

I think that it's pretty obvious that I am totally OBSESSED with Rick Riordan's books.  I admire his writing style and his ideas.  All of his stories have details that are easy to overlook the first - or even fifth - time reading, but eventually I catch on to more and more. I have blogged about Rick's books on many occasions, the links which you can find: here  with the first 3 books of the PJO series here with the 4th book here with the 5th book The 1st book of Heroes of Olympus can be found here I did not blog about the second book of Heroes of Olympus for some reason (must have gotten lost somewhere on my to-do list).  But the rest of the books are available. Click for the 3rd book here and bonus pre-read post here 4th book here 5th book here with bonus pre-read here The first book of his most recent series, the Trials of Apollo, is here Also, three posts about his books and their educational value: Greece         Egypt      and     Rome . I

Well, I had a whole bunch of Halloween-ish books that I was going to blog about, but I completely forgot!  Sorry!  So I guess I will tell you about all the recently released or soon to be released books that I want to read/am reading/read. Book #1:  The Maelstrom by Henry H. Neff  (Released Oct. 23, 2012) I haven't said anything about these books yet, but The Maelstrom is the fourth book in the Tapestry series.  In my opinion, this series is a little bit of Harry Potter, a little bit of Percy Jackson, and a whole lot of awesome!!  The main character of the series is Max McDaniels.  Max is visiting a museum one day and finds an alcove that wasn't there before.  Inside is a Celtic tapestry.  As Max watches, the pictures on the tapestry start moving.  A couple days later, he gets a visit from a scout who is checking to see if Max has the potential to attend Rowan Academy.  He has amazing abilities that he never knew about and they are going to get put to the test when Max arriv