GREAT BOOKS - Teen Top Ten List for 2009

Last year over 8,000 teenagers voted for their favourite books. Do you know which book was the top book of 2008? You guessed it! Stephanie Meyer's Eclipse was #1. If you want to see what the other top books of 2008 were, you can click HERE.

In April 2009, the ALA released its new selection of 25 nominated books. Teenagers now have 25 weeks to read the 25 books and review them. Then, in October, they will vote for the top ten books of the year.

This list is excellent because it gives us a starting point for selecting the next great books we want to read. Have a look at the blurbs for these popular books HERE.

Will Stephanie Meyer be number one for a second year with her fantastic conclusion to the Twilight series - Breaking Dawn? To be honest, I can't see how any book has a fighting chance against this book. Twilight is a phenomenon and just around the time the judging will be done, the next movie will be coming out. Anyway, maybe Suzanne Collins could sneak from behind to win with her bestselling Hunger Games. If I had to choose between the two, it would be very, very difficult. Maybe another writer will surprise us. Clare hit #6 with City of Bones last year so maybe she can climb up the list with City of Ashes. Who knows? Also, I'm very curious about this book called Truancy. The 15-year-old New York student/writer (now 18), Isamu Fukui, actually has two books nominated so it must be a popular series. It will be interesting to see who makes the top ten.

THE NOMINEES ARE...

Absolutely Maybe Yee, Lisa.

Bloodline Moran, Katy

Breaking Dawn Meyer, Stephenie

City of Ashes Clare, Cassandra

Daughter of the Flames Marriott, Zoё

Eternal Smith, Cynthia Leitich

Evermore Noёl, Alyson

Flygirl Smith, Sherri L.

Geek Charming Palmer, Robin

Graceling Cashore, Kristin

Identical Hopkins, Ellen

Impossible Werlin, Nancy

Living Dead Girl Scott, Elizabeth

Melting Stones Pierce, Tamora

Paper Towns Green, John

Runemarks Harris, Joanne

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks Weingarten, Lynn

The Graveyard Book Gaiman, Neil

The Hunger Games Collins, Suzanne

The Knife of Never Letting Go Ness, Patrick..

Truancy Fukui , Isamu

Truancy: Origins Fukui , Isamu

Untamed Cast, Kristin & P.C

Wake McMann, Lisa

Wherever Nina Lies Weingarten, Lynn

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Amazon.co.uk The Kite Runner of Khaled Hosseini's deeply moving fiction debut is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly where a downed kite will land. Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970s, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-year-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, something unspeakable happened between the two boys.

Narrated by Amir, a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling.

So many books, so little time. I'm still working on a couple of books, but I couldn't resist this one when I saw it at Best Eastern tonight. I was about to order it from Amazon. That was before I decided to buy the Much Ado DVD which cost a fortune. Anyway, I figured I'd save a few bucks and grab this book here. It turns out the paperback I bought cost $18.80. Now, I had it worked out that through Amazon I'd be getting it for $16.80. So much for saving money. Can somebody explain that to me? How can Amazon be cheaper even after you pay $8 for shipping and handling. Arrghh!

Everybody keeps talking about The Kite Runner. It seems like it is a very popular book even though the topic seems quite serious. I thought I'd give it a shot. I've been pretty lucky with the bestsellers I've bought the last few years so I hope this one pans out too. Once again, I'm reading a book that I wouldn't normally read. Let's see what happens.

BTW, has anybody read this book?

Stay tuned for the review...

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

Amazon Product Description It's a brand-new year and a brand-new journal and Greg is keen to put the humiliating (and secret!) events of last summer firmly behind him. But someone knows everything – someone whose job it is to most definitely not keep anything embarrassing of Greg's private – his big brother, Rodrick. How can Greg make it through this new school year with his cool(ish) reputation intact?

The Wimpy Kid is sweeping the country. I went to Best Eastern a couple months ago and bought the first book in the series after searching all the bookstores for weeks to get one. They had just received a shipment and had quite a few in stock. A couple of weeks later they were sold out of part one, but had the second one in the series so I grabbed it. Now, you can have all the Twilight books you want, but you can't get a Wimpy Kid.

This is the second book in the Wimpy Kid Series. I really enjoyed the first book a lot and the second book was fun too. It is a quick book to read and it has a number of funny parts to it. As usual, the drawings add to the enjoyment. I think you will like it. It is so easy to read and is bound to make you laugh.

I will give this one 3/5 stars. It's a solid follow-up to the first book.

For a preview of the book, click here.

The Iron Man by Ted Hughes

Amazon Product Description: Mankind must put a stop to the dreadful destruction caused by the Iron Man. A trap is set for him, but he cannot be kept down. Then, when a terrible monster from outer space threatens to lay waste to the planet, it is the Iron Man who finds a way to save the world.

A few years ago I was at a teacher's workshop where we read the first few pages of this story. I was hypnotized. Ever since, I've had my eyes out for it and even planned to order it from Amazon. As luck would have it, I was at ISB last week and noticed this little gem at a book sale in the library.

This short 63-page book is magical. I especially loved the first chapter. Hughes writes poetically and brings the Iron Man alive for us. It sounds like poetry. It sounds like a fairy tale. Most of all, it sounds like an iron man - simple and strong, ambling forward step by step, too enormous to live comfortably on our small world.

Hear is a very short excerpt from the first two pages of the book:

The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff.

How far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where had he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows.

Taller than a house, the Iron Man stood at the top of the cliff, on the very brink, in the darkness.

The wind sang through his iron fingers. His great iron head, shaped like a dustbin but as big as a bedroom, slowly turned to the right, slowly turned to the left. His iron ears turned this way, that way. He was hearing the sea. His eyes, like headlamps, glowed white, then red, then infra-red, searching the sea. Never before had the Iron Man seen the sea.

Isn't that amazing? It is really fun to read out loud. It sounds so neat. It sounds like the iron man the way the sentences kind of awkwardly lurch forward one after another. I love it.

You'll be amazed by this story. If you have a little brother to read to, he'll be fascinated too.

I'll give this one 4/5 stars. It is well worth reading.

Save Our Books!

This is just a reminder to take care of the books in our collection as best as you can. I'm so happy that everyone enjoys reading them as much as I do and I'm also happy that 95% of the time our books come back the way they go out. That's actually pretty good.

However, some of the most popular and loved ones come back after only a few people have read them and they look like they have been through a hurricane. We need our books to have a longer lifespan. We can't have them falling apart after only three or four people have read them.

I take books everywhere. I take them in the car. I take them to school. I carry them around to Telbru, Immigration, the electric company, and even to coffee shops. And when I return them, they still look brand new.

It's because I enjoy books so much that I carry them lovingly in my hand or put them in a safe position in my bag. If I set them down somewhere, I make sure they are safe. Nobody is going to sit on them. Nothing is going to get spilled on them. They aren't going to get rained on. A baby isn't going to scoop them up and start ripping pages out of them (babies love that).

Please take care of our books so the next reader will have as much fun reading them as you did.

Thanks. That is all.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Amazon Product Description:

Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into a new year and a new school where undersize weaklings share the corridors with kids who are taller, meaner and already shaving. Desperate to prove his new found maturity, which only going up a grade can bring, Greg is happy to have his not-quite-so-cool sidekick, Rowley, along for the ride. But when Rowley's star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend's popularity to his own advantage. Recorded in his diary with comic pictures and his very own words, this test of Greg and Rowley's friendship unfolds with hilarious results.


Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a lot of fun. I pounced on it when I saw it on the shelf of a local bookstore and rushed off to the nearest coffee shop to read the first sixty pages. I'm sure the other customers thought I was a bit strange as I kept trying to stifle my laughter, but at times I just couldn't stop chuckling out loud. I was afraid to turn a page and sip my coffee at the same time just in case my coffee drinking and laughing came together in a page-splattering explosion.

Needless to say, I didn't put it down until I finished reading it. I found the comic art / diary style to be an interesting gimmick. The artwork is funny in its simplicity and it drives home a lot of the humour in the stories. The book is really just a collection of interesting thoughts and little stories about life in middle school. In fact, the book is fairly random that way. However, it is still a lot of fun and well worth reading.

I'm curious to see what you will think of it. The thing is, it represents a boy's North American school experience. I'm not sure if the humour will translate. Will it be just as funny for you as it was for me? It's funny to me because I can recognize a lot of what happens in this book as being similar to experiences I had when I was growing up. Please let me know what you think of it.

At the very least, you should read this book because it was in third place on the 2008 ALA chart just behind Eclipse and Harry Potter. It is worth checking it out just to see what all the fuss was about. You be the judge.

Have a look at the first few pages here at Amazon. By the way, Best Eastern just got a shipment in and the cost is $15.80. You can also get on the wait list for this one if you like by adding a comment or leaving a message on the shoutmix. Icklebooks is waiting for their copies and I asked Reader's Haven to order it. BTW, I enjoyed this book and I will probably read it again someday. Therefore, I probably won't be donating it to the reading room. Sorry, waitlisted students are the only ones who will get to read it (unless you buy a copy yourself).

4/5 Stars

Perils and Dangers of this Night by Stephen Gregory

amazon.com:

A bleak mid-winter. An icy wind blows through the corridors of Foxwood Manor, a boys' prep-school deep in the woodlands of Dorset. The boys have gone home at the end of the Christmas term and the old house is left to the headmaster, Dr Kemp, his wife, and Alan Scott, a boy abandoned by his mother. As the snow falls heavily on the house and the surrounding woods, a story of revenge and retribution unfolds: a web of half-truths and innuendo's woven into a bizarre game of hide-and-seek through the corridors and dormitories of the school. "The Perils and Dangers of this Night" is a compelling story of unfolding horror as a small boy undergoes a rite of passage, seeking redemption from his haunted past.

If you like horror stories, you're going to love this. Even if you don't like horror stories, you're going to love this.

Mr Stephen Gregory's novel is the first horror story I've ever read cover to cover. I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I started reading it early one morning and I couldn't put it down. I read it page after page until I finished it with only the odd break here and there to attend to family matters.

I hadn't realized that something so terrible and disturbing could be written so beautifully. You can see that Gregory loves language. He plays with it. I enjoyed the way he developed the characters and described the setting. It created a vivid dream-like world that set me on edge.

This story is very interesting and it slowly sneeks up on you. It lulls you into a dream and carries you along though all the while you know that in the end it is going to get nasty. My favourite character was an old dog. Gregory manages to describe the mutt in a way that reminded me of so many old hounds I've known over the years. I became quite attached to him. You know how that goes, right?

The ending is good horror story nastiness. You'll hate it, but you'll find you just can't stop reading... kind of like when you can't help turning your head to see a traffic accident on the side of the road.

Anyway, I can't recommend it to young readers because of the adult content in it. However, for the mature young adult readers it should be fine. Stick with it. I think you might just enjoy this one.

BTW, I love the design of the book. For a paperback, it is incredible. I love the colours and the cool photo on the cover. I love the print design with the dominant title and the author's name sweeping across the bottom of the book. Great stuff! I'm sure Gregory was pleased with the publisher's treatment.

4.5/5 Stars

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Amazon.com Review:

In A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson tackles what is, for him, an entirely new subject: the American wilderness. Accompanied only by his old college buddy Stephen Katz, Bryson starts out one March morning in north Georgia, intending to walk the entire 2,100 miles to trail's end atop Maine's Mount Katahdin.

If nothing else, A Walk in the Woods is proof positive that the journey is the destination. As Bryson and Katz haul their out-of-shape, middle-aged butts over hill and dale, the reader is treated to both a very funny personal memoir and a delightful chronicle of the trail, the people who created it, and the places it passes through. Whether you plan to make a trip like this one yourself one day or only care to read about it, A Walk in the Woods is a great way to spend an afternoon.

I've been telling my students to try reading a book you wouldn't normally read. Try something a bit different. I'm doing that myself.

Right after I finished Bryson's Made In America I picked up this book. Once more, I thought, "There is no way I'm going to read this. How boring could this be?" And once again I read the first few pages and before I knew it I had read the whole book. It's so weird.

Anyway, the characters in this book are really funny. I've met crazy people like the ones described by Bryson and I've had weird experiences like he has. I've done a tiny bit of mountain hiking and a little hiking in the woods so I can kind of relate to what he is talking about.

Bill made me laugh. His hiking partner Katz had me rolling on the floor.

Once again, there are parts of the book that will put you to sleep. I probably won't make it hiking on the path he describes in the Eastern United States so some of the detail gets to be a bit too much. That said, I read about 75% of the book and I quite enjoyed it.

You may want to take a quick flick through this book and see if something interests you. Read the first chapter and see if Bryson can get your attention. He just might.

3/5 Stars

Made In America by Bill Bryson

Amazon.com Review:

Readers from Toad Suck, Arkansas, to Idiotsville, Oregon--and everywhere in between--will love Made in America, Bill Bryson's Informal History of the English Language in the United States. It is, in a word, fascinating. After reading this tour de force, it's clear that a nation's language speaks volumes about its true character: you are what you speak. Bryson traces America's history through the language of the time, then goes on to discuss words culled from everyday activities: immigration, eating, shopping, advertising, going to the movies, and others.

Made in America will supply you with interesting facts and cocktail chatter for a year or more. Did you know, for example, that Teddy Roosevelt's "speak softly and carry a big stick" credo has its roots in a West African proverb? Or that actor Walter Matthau's given name is Walter Mattaschanskayasky? Made in America is an excellent discussion of American English, but what makes the book such a treasure is that it offers much, much more.

A few weeks ago one of the teachers at my school mentioned a book she had read by Bill Bryson and she told me he had found a way to make history interesting and easy to read. In particular, she said it was funny how he would describe people and places and you'd think, "Hey, I know what he means." Maybe you've met somebody just like the person he describes.

The next time I was in the reading room I picked up one of his books. It was called Made in America. I was thinking that I probably wouldn't like it much. Since Bush, I've found it really hard to like Americans and it was going to be a big stretch for me to like reading about American history.

Anyway, I thought I'd read just a few pages. But a few pages became a few chapters and before I knew it I had read the entire book. Weird. Actually, I'm lying. There were parts I skipped. Sometimes Bill gets just a little too excited about some topics I'm just not interested in. For example, he will get very involved in the origin of words, but even as a language teacher I find he gets just a bit too enthusiastic sometimes.

That said, there are a lot of interesting chapters and I generally enjoyed most of the book. I found myself laughing out loud sometimes. It is interesting to know how things came to be in America and if you can start from the beginning and get a good feel for what has happened over the years there, I think it gets increasingly difficult to dislike Americans.

If you get a chance, you may want to take a quick flip through this book. It won't all interest you, but stuff like how Hollywood began might catch your eye.

3/5 Stars

2008 Books of the Year

In 2008, the ALA had 8,000 teens vote for their favourite books and the top 10 books are listed below. I'm curious to know how many people have read them. I'm also curious to know which ones are being sold in local bookstores.

1. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
4. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
5. Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
6. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
7. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
8. Extras by Scott Westerfeld
9. Before I Die by Jenny Downham
10. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Like most of you, I have read number one and two. Although, I think Harry Potter was better than Eclipse, don't you? I have read Westerfeld's Uglies, Pretties, and Specials, but I haven't bought the fourth book in the series which is Extras. The series was great so I guess I should finish it off.

Now, what about the others? Here is some info on the other books that maybe you haven't heard of. By the way, the new set of nominated books for the ALA awards will come out in about four weeks. Woohoo! The info is from the ALA website which can be found here: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/teenreading/teenstopten/2008_nominees.pdf

3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Greg Heffley knows he’s not popular, but he tries hard to fit in. He records his
observations about life in middle school in his journal (NOT a diary, he says)
along with frequent drawings. Realistic and laugh out loud funny!

Comment: This book looks like a lot of fun. It has a lot of cartoons in it. I wonder if we can find it at a local bookstore. Please let me know if you have seen it.

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Diary-Wimpy-Kid-Jeff-Kinney/dp/0810993139

4. Vampire Academy

Two best friends, one a pure vampire and one a half-blood vampire, are captured
and returned to the private school they escaped from two years ago. But things
have changed since they left and there is now danger to add to the drama that
resides in the halls of St. Vladimir’s Academy.

Comment: I'm not sure I can do another vampire series. Well, if anybody has read it, please let us know whether or not it is good. Is this a Twilight copycat?

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Academy-Book/dp/159514174X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237116347&sr=1-1

5. Maximum Ride

Max and her flock of winged, genetically engineered teens have been literally
stamped with an expiration date. Additionally, they are split apart and spread
around the world, hiding or captive to their worst enemies. The whitecoats
(scientists) are at it again, tinkering with the usual way of things. How will the
flock manage to defeat a “re-evolution” plan to engineer a superior human race
and save the world?

Comment: This series sounds interesting. Teens that can fly? Genetic engineered teens? I'm in. Where can I buy a copy of this? :)

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Saving-World-Maximum-Ride-Book/dp/031615427X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237117123&sr=1-1

Why I'm Jealous of You...

When I was a teenager (yeah, a long, long time ago), I didn't read for pleasure very often. I had a lot of other things on the go I guess. I'd read a book a month maybe and it was mostly literature rather than books that were just good fun to read. We had a decent enough library in my school and there were some okay books but nothing like today.

A few things were different for me. First of all, I didn't have a big group of friends or classmates who loved reading for pleasure like you do. In fact, I'm pretty sure I never had a friend say, "Hey, Jason, you've got to read this awesome book!" I didn't have anybody around me recommending books. If you can believe it, I just "discovered" Roald Dahl three years ago! Why, oh why, didn't somebody read me Roald Dahl when I was a kid? I feel ripped off. Roald Dahl might have got me into reading in a big way.

I never had that Harry Potter moment. When a young reader first discovers Harry Potter, it can be a "magical" experience. He/she reads the books and discovers how good a book can be! Harry Potter is one of the many incredible books that can stand up against almost anything else that might catch a young person's attention - video games, sports, MTV, movies... I just wish I'd had that moment as a teenager. It's like the first time you watch a really thrilling movie. You can't wait to capture that moment again. You want to see another movie that will give you that feeling.

Also, the young adult writing that is out there nowadays just didn't exist before I don't think. Maybe it is just my imagination, but it really seems like there are more and more interesting young adult writers out there. They probably used to avoid the young adult market, but since Rowling came along they know that it is possible to write books that appeal to everyone since even adults enjoyed HP.

You're so lucky. There are so many interesting books out there just waiting for you to discover them and you have so many wonderful reading buddies who can recommend great books for you to read!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Amazon.com:

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before—and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...

This is one of the best books I've read in years. I really enjoyed it and read almost all of it in one day because I didn't want to put it down.

Okay, about The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins doesn't make us wait. We get right into the action. She sets up her interesting world and gets her characters busy right away. The world is fascinating. Katniss, a teenage girl, lives in what used to be North America near the Rocky Mountains (the place I call home BTW). Things are strange in this futuristic place. The government of the Capitol keeps tight control of the districts around it. The people live in misery. They can barely scrape enough food together each day to feed themselves and in Katniss' district some people actually starve to death or die in mining accidents.

In order to exert their control over the country, the government sets up a "contest" each year and they draw two teenagers' names from each district to compete in a deadly game. 12 boys and 12 girls compete in the forest to see who can live the longest. They must find food and fight each other in order to survive.

To make it even more interesting, the government broadcasts it like a reality TV show. It is kind of like Big Brother or Survivor meets Lost. Everything that Katniss does or says is being shown to everyone in the country, including her family and friends back home.

Katniss is a hunter and she's very good with a bow. She's also pretty good at identifying edible plants and those that can be used for medicine. Her chances of surviving this crazy battle are actually quite good.

There's a boy from her district who makes it even more complicated. He says he loves her and wants to help her. Will they cooperate and take care of each other? Will they fall in love? You'll need to read it and find out.

If you like stories with action and excitement, you're going to love this book. I've given it a full five out of five stars and I would recommend it for anybody to read.

I'm very pleased that there will be two more books. The first one can stand alone as there is a clear beginning, middle, and end but I think most of us are happy to know that this isn't it. We want to know what will happen next. How is it possible, though, to wait for seven more months for the second book? This is going to be a new kind of torture for readers around the world.

I was so ready for this. After reading the marathon of five books by Meyer (Twilight Series and The Host), I needed a different kind of story. Meyer takes it slow. She develops her characters and their feelings and the story moves along at a crawl. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed them all, but I kept hoping for some action. In fact the whole sequence in Italy was one of my favourite parts because I finally felt like we were getting into something and that something exciting was really going to happen.

5/5 Stars

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Meyer's fascinating science fiction love story is now being waitlisted.

This is another popular title right now so we had better start another waitlist. Yikes, it is going to be a challenge to keep track of all these. After a number of girls have read it, I will eventually release it to the SRR. However, we know how that works. Each girl has ia book for two weeks. Sometimes they don't bring it back on time and then they end up with the book for two months. That means all the eager readers lose out. I think that with a hot book like this, it will work better if I waitlist them and then the super readers will chew the books up in two days and pass them on to the next reader.

So, those of you who are interested in Meyer's alien love story (you can read more about it in an earlier post on my blog), please add your name in the comments sectionof this post.Right now one of the girls in 5D has it, but you could be next.

Current waitlist: nobody.

Thanks,

Mr Jason

New Geraldine McCaughrean book in SRR!

A New Kind of Love Story by Geraldine

With Meyer's Twilight I read a story about a woman who fell in love with a vampire. Then, I read Meyer's The Host about an Alien who fell in love with a human. Okay, now it is time for McCaughrean's quirky love story: It is about a woman trying to survive in the antarctic and she she starts to become a bit crazy and she falls in love with a man who, as far as she can tell, exists only in her imagination. Cool.

Who knew? We have had a copy of this new paperback book by Geraldine in the collection for a few weeks now. I don't know how this one got past me. Anyway, it sounds really cool.

Asiyah in 5B has signed it out and I'm sure it will be back in circulation soon...

Here I was going to buy this one from Amazon and we had a copy the entire time!!!

Princess Stories by Geraldine McCaughrean

Available now for lending if you'd like to be put on the wait list.

Hi everyone,

I'll cover this one in plastic and lend it out if you are interested. Again, this is a one-of-a-kind book as it is signed by the author and addressed to you so extra care must be given to protect it from damage. Please, please take extra special care of it.

Amy in 5D requested it first so she has it. Amal in 5D has asked to get it next. If you'd like it when she is done, you know what to do - leave a comment in this post that you want to be next on the waitlist.

Current Waitlist: Amy, Amal, Arni, Ezzati.

Thanks,

Mr Jason

The Hunger Games

This book is wicked. King and Meyer loved it.

A lot of girls are excited about reading this book I bought. It is a story about a futuristic world where people are all starving. The main character has to compete in some sort of dangerous TV reality show and in order to win she must kill the other 12 boys and 11 girls in the competition. This is going to be another hit - I can feel it now!!! Book two is out in a few more months.

BTW, I've already told Reader's Haven about it and I hope they will get some in.

This book is the one that Stephenie Meyer recommended on her website. Have a look at her entry for Sept. 17th at:

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/

Anyway, after I read it, I will be giving it to Naqiah in 5E. Then Khairunnisa in 5F has asked for it. If you want to be next, just put your name in the comment section of this post.

Current Waitlist: Naqiah 5E, Khairunnisa 5F, Barirah 5D.

Geraldine McCaughrean Wrote You a Letter!!!

I'm so excited to share this news with you.

The autographed book she sent us as a gift!

Geraldine McCaughrean, author of Peter Pan in Scarlet, sent us a package today. Isn't she the sweetest author ever? She has written a letter to our classes and she included a few gifts. We have autographs which can be posted into our books, some photos of her wearing a leafy waistcoat she made herself, some beautiful autographed limited edition prints, and a book called Princess Stories (quite suitable don't you think considering we are at a girls' school). I must say I'm overwhelmed with her generosity. She even sent me an autographed book called "Smile" which I will be delighted to share with you of course. I hope she won't mind if I copy the letter for you here in the post so you can see what she wrote us:



Wow, isn't that wonderful? Geraldine writes excellent letters! What a joy it is to read a book and then to have the chance to tell the writer how much you enjoyed it. I wanted her to know what special treatment we gave her book in our class and how much we liked it. She got one thing wrong, though. I've got the best job in the entire world. I get to work with such lovely young ladies and I get to share lots of exciting books with them. :)

The Host by Stephanie Meyer

stepheniemeyer.com:

Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves—Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

Meyer likes writing love stories. It didn't matter that in Twilight the lovers were humans, vampires, and werewolves. We still enjoyed it and the supernatural forces just added a new twist to it all.

The same goes for The Host. What, you don't like stories about aliens? Don't worry about it. Although this book will be found on the Science Fiction shelf in the bookstore, it is still a love story. In fact, it is a very compelling one. If, like me, you make it past the first 150 pages, you will really enjoy it.

Imagine if the world were taken over by aliens. Beautiful little worms insert themselves into the backs of people's necks and then take over the human bodies. In spite of the fact that they've taken over the entire planet, the aliens are nice. Unlike their former human selves, the aliens are very passive and sweet. They don't even use money to buy things. They take care of each other.

Something strange happens, though. Wanderer, that's our narrator and the hero of our story, takes over the body of a very strong-willed woman and even after taking over her body, she can still hear the human in the back of her mind. Melanie, that's the human consciousness locked inside Wanderer's mind, is driven by her love for a man and an adopted son. Her love for them pushes her to fight back against Wanderer. Interestingly, Wanderer becomes haunted by Melanie's love. She sets out with the help of Melanie to find the man and boy.

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 stars. There were times that I couldn't put it down and at one time my eyes even got a little misty (so I guess I did grow to really like and care about the characters).

If you thought you'd hate books about vampires but learned to like them, you may also find yourself discovering that science fiction love stories are pretty cool too.

4/5 Stars

The Twilight Effect - Readers Score Better Results on Finals

I haven't done a scientific study of this, but it seems like students who read the entire Twilight series in the months leading up to the final exam have gotten better writing scores.

I'm serious. If you look at the writing that students did at the beginning of the year (let's say the first term test), then you look at the reading hours in the past three months (especially those of Twilight fans who read a whopping 2400 pages in a short time) and then you look at the scores on the final exam, you will see a strong correlation in improved writing scores.

It's no mystery. Meyer's intense narrative is exactly the kind of writing that makes for good O-level Paper 1 scores. Students who read her stuff before an exam (or something like Harry Potter), are likely to imitate her style and to hear that "narrative voice" in their heads as they write. They devise interesting plots and relationships in their stories. Each character that they write about is more interesting. Their paragraphs have greater emotional depth to them.

You know, you only spend three hours a week with me, so it is great if you can spend an extra hour each day with Cg Stephenie. She is modeling exactly the kind of thing you need to do to be a successful writer. Forget tuition classes. Put down your $20 and get endless hours of English lessons with Cg Stephanie. She can teach you a lot and you don't even have to leave your home.

I'd like to take this chance to congratulate the students who put in the extra reading hours this year and are now enjoying the benefits. Those students have seen an incredible (almost magical) transformation of their writing. I am truly amazed at how much some students have improved and, in fact, I think many of you are worthy of publishing.

Last night I marked a large number of scripts and I felt a bit like I was reading a short story collection from a book - some of the stories were that good! Numerous writers had me turning the page, breathless, wondering what was going to happen next. Some scary stories even creeped me out. Wonderful!

The Host is here!

Best Eastern's Shipment Arrives!

I was pretty excited when I got the call yesterday that The Host had arrived at Best Eastern. As you know, I've been trying to hunt this book down ever since I finished the Twilight Saga. Last night I swung by The Mall to get my copy, but there was so much traffic I couldn't get anywhere near the building. I mean, what's with that? It was Wednesday night at 7 pm. It's not like it was payday or anything.

Anyway, I went to get my copy today and things were pretty quiet. They have piled the books on top of the Twilight books. That's probably a good marketing move. My copy was safely tucked behind the desk like a lost child waiting to be picked up and taken home where it belongs.

I asked about Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion, but the woman at the counter had no idea what I was talking about. It looks so cool. I thought it was a typical movie picture book kind of garbage, but when I looked inside the book (on Amazon) I could see that there is a lot of interesting information in it. I guess I should have ordered it along with my other book. D'oh. Here's the link. Have a look inside the book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0316043133/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link

Also, did you know that there are Twilight trading cards?! Imagine having a few of these under your plastic desk protector to show off! Check out the website:

http://www.inkworks.com/products/twilight/movie/twilight1.html