"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Sunday Salon ...April 29, 2012

Remodel Update: the counter-tops are installed, the tile back-splash is in and grouted. We have moved our pots, pans, and utensils back into the lower cupboards. Now we are painting which extends into the Family Room. we should be done by next week-end. no more eating out and living around boxes! What do you think? The kitchen looks lovely, doesn't it?

Weather today... Clear and warm.

I'm reading:  Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay...a teen love story written in verse.

 
I'm listening to: Rotters by Daniel Kraus. This book won the 2012 Odyssey Award for good audiobooks. About grave-robbing, it is in equal parts mesmerizing and mortifying. I am nearly finished with this tome.

Book finished this week:  
  • Black and White by Paul Volponi---Mrs. Story's 5th period class and I had a Skype visit with Paul Volponi on Monday.  It was a tremendous experience.  Read about it here.
  • Breaking Night by Liz Murray---a memoir about a girl who went from homelessness to Harvard.  Her parents were drug addicts and she lived in absolute chaos most of her life.  This was a book club selection. It generated a great discussion, one that even those who didn't care for the book enjoyed.

Scripture lesson in church: John 8:10,11 "Jesus...said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" And she replied, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you."

I'm praying for: Friends who are divorcing. Life can be so sad sometimes.

Around the house: Floors. Check. Counter-tops. Check. Back-splash. Check. Paint.  Hang drapes.  Move out of boxes. Still lots to go, but we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

From the kitchen: First night with a functioning oven after three weeks without, I made corned beef and cabbage. Lucky we like it because it is the only thing I had in the fridge.

Yesterday we got the wedding invitations in the mail. Finally!

Today we head to Seattle for a Seattle University Choir Concert.

A favorite quote this week: "This remodel project is the hugest Moose-a-muffin project ever." -Rita, my daughter who has helped us along the way on all our changes. 
The phrase "Moose-a-muffin" comes from the book, If You Give a Moose a Muffin. If you give him a muffin, he will want jam to go with it, and you'd realize you need to pick the berries, etc., etc. It is a co-opted saying our family uses to mean one thing leads to another.




 

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Knife of Never Letting Go news!

Patrick Ness announced this week that his awesome book, The Knife of Never Letting Go will be made in to a movie. Charlie Kaufman, an Oscar award-winning writer will be writing the script.

As you know, if you are a reader of HeadFullofBooks, I am a huge fan of the Chaos Walking trilogy of which The Knife of Never Letting Go is the first book.  I hope that this announcement brings in readers who want to learn more about the book and the series.

Patrick Ness, who attended high school in my area, is a friend of Sarah M., a teacher in my building.  She keeps me posted on his doings so vicariously I feel like I know him. I'm delighted for his success.  Stay tuned.

 

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Author Visit with Paul Volponi






Monday was a special day for me and for an English class full of high school juniors. Why? Because we had an Skype visit with Paul Volponi, the author of over ten books for teens. In preparation for the visit, each student read one of his books and wrote out questions they would like to ask Mr. Volponi about the book they read or about his writing style. I contacted the district for technology support to establish the Skype connection and to set up microphones so that all of us could see and hear what was going on.

The experience was exhilarating. Students were invited to join Paul in the front to ask questions and to interact with him.  To begin our "visit", Paul told the students how he wasn't a reader when he was in school and the techniques he used to fool the teacher. This built an instant bond between the author and his audience. Students could relate to him. In addition to talking about writing, he engaged students by playing "games" with them, connecting in a way that I wouldn't have thought possible considering the remote nature and the lack of proximity of our visit. The ten kids who came forward asked very astute questions. One girl asked him if he had meant to make the characters seem like stereotypes. Another wanted to know if any of the characters were real. The last questioner wanted to talk to Paul about basketball and the issue of compensation of NCAA athletes. Paul Volponi answered each question with candor and thoughtfulness. He was charming and funny.  When the bell rang at the end of class, no one wanted to leave.  In fact, when I went back to debrief with the class the next day, many students commented how enthralled they were and how they didn't want the experience to end when it did. All the adults who participated in the experience felt the same way.

Just prior to this session I finished reading my third Volponi book, Black and White, which is about two high school basketball players, one black and one white. They commit a crime together and their experience with the justice system is vastly different. The book sheds a light on racial inequalities as it relates to teens. Paul Volponi explained that he had been a high school teacher for five years at Ryker's Island. Nearly all of his students in the prison were black or Hispanic, not white. It was very obvious that kids of color were not receiving a fair deal by the penal system. He exposed a bit of that in this book. Published in 2005, the story is told in two voices in alternating chapters, the book's messages are still relevant today. In fact, I think the book would make an excellent book for students to discuss in a class setting.

To learn more about Paul Volponi I recommend that you visit his website. If you are reading this Paul, thank you for the visit!


 

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Sunday Salon...April 22

View of the new floor looking into the kitchen from the family room.
Remodeling update.  Entering week three of remodeling.  Week one- hardwood floors installed. Week two floors sanded and stained. We had to move out for three days. Friday we cleaned top to bottom. Yesterday we moved all the furniture back in and started rearranging our china and trinkets. Week three, this week, we will have new counter-tops installed. Today we have to move everything out of all the lower cabinets. It has been a topsy-turvy time for us but the new look is wonderful and there is light at the end of the tunnel
Our stairs used to be carpet that had been shredded by the pets and long use.  Don't these hardwood stairs look nice?

Weather today... Clear and warm. Last night we took the new iPad outside with the stargazing app and viewed Venus, Mars, the space-station, and other things in the sky.

I'm reading:  
  • Black and White by Paul Volponi---the Volponi event is happening tomorrow during 5th period, so I must finish this book today!
  • Breaking Night by Liz Murray---a memoir about a girl who went from homelessness to Harvard.  Her parents were drug addicts and she lived in absolute chaos most of her life.  This book is very well-written. It is for my book club that meets Wednesday.  I'm afraid I will have to start speed reading it soon in order to complete it by then.
 
I'm listening to: Rotters by Daniel Kraus. This book won the 2012 Odyssey Award for good audiobooks. About grave-robbing, it is in equal parts mesmerizing and mortifying.

Book finished this week:  
  • The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough. An old favorite;  
  • Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (audio)- a twist on the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Very creative.
Scripture lesson in church: Galatians 2:10 "All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along"

I'm praying for: All those who are dealing with some anxiety over job insecurity.

Around the house: Hardwood floors!

From the kitchen: We have been eating out all week. It is getting old.

Memorable event of the week: Youth Auction for church.

A favorite quote this week: "I want to be a golden commandment person."



 

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

WWW Wednesday... April 18

Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
  •  Rotters by Daniel Kraus....Winner of the Odyssey Award for audiobooks. This book has creepy written all over it...it is about grave robbers.
  • Breaking Night by Liz Murray... a memoir about growing up in a drug-addicted household yet triumphing over adversity. Very well-written.
  • Black and White by Paul Volponi... I've been carrying this book around in my purse for a few weeks and I'm over half finished.  I don't know why I can't seem to push through to completion.
• What did you recently finish reading?
  •  The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor... the first book in a very imaginative series that plays a twist on the Alice in Wonderland story. I listened to this on audiobooks.
  • The Ladies of Missalonghi by Collen McCullough...I love this little novella. This is my third time reading it and I enjoy it every time. A little historical love story set in Australia. Yum!
• What do you think you’ll read next?
  • Soldier Bear by Bibi Dumon Tak... winner of the 2012 Batchelor Award for books translated into English from another language, in this case Dutch. 
  • Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick...this will be my next audiobook.

 What about you?  What are you currently reading?

Retrospective Wednesday #6...The Wall


***Excuse my week-long hiatus from blogging.  We are doing extensive home remodeling and are currently displaced. I'll be back to "normal" soon.

Retrospective Wednesday is a new feature at My Head is Full of Books designed to give bloggers a chance to highlight a book that was published in previous years, in the hope that it will cause others to go back and read it. The featured book must have been published one or more years ago.  Please leave a comment and link back to Headfullofbooks from your blog post. Join in the fun highlighting favorite "old books."

Retrospective Wednesday #6...The Wall by Peter Sis


Peter Sis, the author and illustrator of the marvelous, fascinating, and illuminating book The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain won the Hans Christian Anderson Illustrator Award this past month. Sis who lives in the United States now was born in Czechoslovakia. The Wall is his story of what it was like growing up behind the Iron Curtain and what it was like when that "wall" was torn down. The story is told mainly through detailed and minute designs. I can look at each diagram for hours and still notice something new every time I look around the page. See the sample page below. In addition I learned so much about what life was really like for average folks in countries with such repressive governments. This book won all kinds of awards for its illustrations when it was published in 2007. Though we often think of books with lots of illustrations as children's books, I think this book would be interesting to anyone who picks it up.  I thumbed through the my library copy again yesterday after I learned about the Hans Christian Anderson Award and I was reminded how completely captivating it is. I highly recommend that you hunt down a copy and check it out yourself.

Sorry, this is not a very clear picture but you get the idea of how detailed his illustrations are. All colors, except red, represent Peter's subversive use of art as his thinking breaks away from all the government control!



Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Retrospective Wednesday---I Am the Messenger



Retrospective Wednesday is a new feature at My Head is Full of Books designed to give bloggers a chance to highlight a book that was published in previous years, in the hope that it will cause others to go back and read it. The featured book must have been published one or more years ago.  Please leave a comment and link back to Headfullofbooks from your blog post. Join in the fun highlighting favorite old books.

Retrospective Wednesday #5 --- I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

"Meet Ed Kennedy—underage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That’s when the first Ace arrives. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. . . . Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary), until only one question remains: Who’s behind Ed’s mission?"---Goodreads
 It is spring time. The time of year when librarians have to reach down deep to find those books that interest seniors in their last term of school.  Not an easy task.  I Am the Messenger is one of my go-to-books for senior boys this time of year. Boys seem to identify with Ed Kennedy, a slacker who morphs into hero. I've had more than one of these boys tell me that this is the best book they have ever read. First published in 2002 in Australia and 2005 in the US this tremendous book still speaks to teens and young adults today.  Due to mature themes, I do not recommend this book for younger teens.  This story is both funny and touching.  It is also intriguing. Who is sending Ed on his assignments and why?

Read it and find out for yourself.


 

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Sunday Salon...Easter 2012

The sanctuary was dark except for the light behind the cross.It was draped with a purple fabric and a crown of thorns.


Happy Easter.

Spring Break ends today.  It was a wonderful and very busy week.

Weather today... Cold night with frost on the grass in the morning.

I'm reading: Black and White by Paul Volponi
 
I'm listening to: The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor---the real story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Book finished this week:  

  1. Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson. A girl gets involved using meth (she calls it moon) after her family is transplanted to a new town after Hurricane Katrina claims the lives of her mother and grandmother. 
  2. The Returning by Christine Hinwood. Cam returns home after a long war and find he no longer belongs
How did I do on my reading/bookish goals for the week: I read 4 of the 5 goal books.  I blogged every day except Friday and I completed reviews for four books.

Scripture lesson in church: Easter. All four gospels have the resurrection story.

I'm praying for: A long-time friend who is dealing with chronic fatigue.

Around the house: The whole first floor of the house is in boxes and moved to the garage. We spent all-day Friday boxing up everything.  Movers arrived this morning to help us move the heavy things. This afternoon we dropped off the drapes and the area rugs at the dry cleaners. It is really shocking how much dirt and cobwebs are hiding underneath and behind furniture seldom moved.  Ugh. Now the house is ready for hardwood floor installation starting Monday.

From the kitchen: It was not a cooking week.

Memorable event of the week: Watch at the Cross vigil with my husband.

A favorite quote this week: "I lied on my Weight Watchers list.  I put down that I had 3 eggs... but they were Cadbury chocolate eggs."  ~Caroline Rhea





Saturday, April 7, 2012

Review: Beneath a Meth Moon: an Elegy by Jacqueline Woodson


The full title of this book by Jacqueline Woodson is Beneath a Meth Moon: an Elegy. An elegy is a poem or song written as a lament for a deceased person. Though not written in verse, Beneath a Meth Moon is a beautiful elegy written with very poetic prose.

Lauren, now a high school cheerleader, has her happy childhood in Pass Christian, Mississippi ripped away from her by Hurricane Katrina. She not only loses loved ones, but she is forced to leave her community and her roots. Finally Lauren, her brother, and her father land in Galilee, Iowa. The town's slogan: "Welcome to Galilee where life is a walk on water," is in direct opposition to everything the family has been through in the past year. Here Lauren must make new friends and start over. And she does. She becomes a cheerleader and makes a close friend on the squad. But, in ugly contrast to the new life she is creating for herself, she is introduced to meth by a boy on the basketball team. She says yes the very first time he offers the drug to her. From that moment on all Lauren allows herself to crave is the drug, even when using it starts to destroy her life.

It is astonishing how fast things go down hill for Lauren and how tremendously addictive methamphetamine is. Of course, underneath all the drug use is the sorrow that Lauren feels, but is not acknowledging, for the death of her loved ones and the loss of her childhood. Thus her recovery hinges on her ability to write an elegy, a lament for all she's lost.

As a parent I was struck by how few coping skills Lauren had. Certainly someone told her that drugs were bad and that meth was not to be toyed with. Right? As parents we mustn't take things for granted with our children.  Who knows what Lauren's dad told her about drugs before she ever used, but there certainly did not seem to be any red flags that went up when she was offered it the first time. This book would offer a wonderful opportunity for parents and children to read it together and have such a conversation.

This book is very well-done and I bet we will see this one on award book lists at the end of this year.





Thursday, April 5, 2012

Review: The Returning by Christine Hinwood


With the reading of The Returning by Christine Hinwood I have completed The Printz Award Book Challenge for the year. This book won a 2012 Printz for it's superb writing and imaginative plotting. Set in a by-gone non-magical era with a whole cast of characters living in the Uplands and the Lowlands.  When a war breaks out between the people of the two lands Cam answers the call to fight. But when he returns home his life isn't as he thought it would be.  Now what does he do?
Cam has a hunger, an always-hunger; it drives him from home, to war, from north to south. When he returns from war alone - all his fellow soldiers slain - suspicion swirls around him. He's damaged in body and soul, yet he rides a fine horse and speaks well of his foes. What has he witnessed? Where does his true allegiance lie? How will life unfold for his little sister, his closest friend, his betrothed, his community, and even the enemy Lord who maimed him?---from Goodreads
Though it is fairly easy to imagine this land from Hinwood's writing, the tale was very confusing to me.  There are so many characters and many with similar names. The use of "made up" words and phrases is confusing. What is the meaning? Often the only transition that indicated a time or setting change was a extra space on the page. What just happened and when did occur? The point-of-view is constantly changing at the same time. I think I spent 200 of the 300 pages trying to figure out what was happening before I could just get swept up in the story as it neared completion. Because of all these issues, this book will only get limited recommendations from me.  I know there are students who read fantasy and enjoy books about imaginary lands who will find a lot to like in this book. The average reader, however, will likely be too frustrated by the confusing aspects of the book to wade through it.

As I closed the book on the last page I had a very satisfied feeling. It was worth the effort to make my way through this imaginative and unique story.

 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Review: Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall won the 2012 Pura Belpre Award, given for an outstanding book by a Hispanic author. It also won a Morris Award Honor given to exceptional debut authors.  WOW.  Pretty impressive pedigree for a small book written in verse about a young Mexican-American girl, Lupita, whose mother is diagnosed with cancer.

Here are a few samples of the lovely, evocative poems:

When Lupita turns fifteen her mother tells her she is now a senorita:
"But for me, senorita means
melancolia: settling into sadness.
It is the end of wild laughter.
The end of chewing gum
and giggling over nothing with my friends at the movies, our feet up
on the backs of the theater seats."
Spanish words are splattered in to the poems are italicized:
En los Estados Unidos
I nibbled on school lunches
of fish sticks and macaroni
while my soul craved
the chocolaty gravy of mole
on a bed of Spanish rice.
The Mesquite tree comes to symbolize growth and a new direction:
...It isn't the beauty
that strikes me. I envy the mesquite
its undaunted spirit, its ability to turn
even a disabling pruning
into an unexpected opportunity
to veer in a different direction,
flourishing more profusely than before.
This gem of a book reads very fast.  It is a completely delightful book. I hope my "samples" tease you into reading this book.

 

Retrospective Wednesday #4---Mirrormask


Retrospective Wednesday is a new feature at My Head is Full of Books designed to give bloggers a chance to highlight a book that was published in previous years, in the hope that it will cause others to go back and read it. The featured book must have been published one or more years ago.  Please leave a comment and link back to Headfullofbooks from your blog post. Join in the fun highlighting favorite old books.



Retrospective Wednesday #4---Mirrormask  by Neil Gaiman


Mirrormask  by Neil Gaiman with art work by Dave McKean is a darling graphic novel that reminds me of a several favorite tales.  It is a little bit Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a bit of Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, and a bit of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and yet all it's own story which makes it completely charming. The book is not only full of delightful graphics but it uses fonts in different sizes to emphasize points and to carry the story along.  Published in 2005 as a companion to the movie by the same name I only recently learned of this book. As a Gaiman fan I'm not sure how I missed it but I'd recommend that you remedy the situation, if you like me haven't heard of it before, and spend a hour in sheer delight reading it. As soon as I finish this review I will check the library holdings to see if the movie is available to checkout.


Here is a favorite few lines from the book. As a librarian, I am captivated by these prose:
"Throw it a book," he said. I threw him a book and it tore into it, like a cat ripping a small animal apart..."We need more books. Big books." It didn't seem like a good time for reading, but I pulled two huge old books off the shelf in the corner and carried them over to him. He took one, but didn't read it. He told it what a bad book it was and threw it on the ground. The book bounced in the air and hung there quivering, and the juggler man jumped onto it and began to float away. "As long as they think you don't like them they migrate back to the library. And we get a free ride."... I rode next to him on my book, and we crossed the chasm safely....
There was a grumpy librarian in the library. I could tell that he was the librarian, because he seemed to be made of books. I told him that we needed information, and he got us some butterfly nets and sent us up to the top floors of the library.




 

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Review: Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach





"I am not stupid funny. I am stupid fast"

Overnight, it seems, Felton Reinstin's voice dropped, he grew hair, and he got fast, really fast. So fast that all the athletic-types swiveled their heads in his direction, not to tease him as in years past, but because they wanted him on their team. Suddenly Felton was one of the guys and he even had a love-interest but all this new-found social life does not help Felton at home where everything was falling apart.

"So I train. And I run. And I sneak off to Aleah's house in the night. But deep down I know I can't run forever. And I wonder what will happen when I finally have to stop."

Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach is a sneaker of a book.  Published last year, it won the Cybils Award for YA realistic lit. Until recently I hadn't seen too many reviews or heard too much about this book but I think it is still building up steam and will be upon us in no time flat. Meaning: soon everyone will know about this book and will want to read it. By the cover one would think that this book is a book about football, one that would appeal mainly to boys.  It does have a bit about football in it and I hope that boys want to read this fast-paced, fun book, but it more a coming-of-age story about a boy who is just trying to find a way to fit in.  It is also a story about the devastation that comes upon families who try to hold things together at the same time trying to keep secrets at bay that threaten to overtake them at any moment. 

I was expecting the laughter and lighthearted parts of this book and was surprised by the genuine gut-wrenching bits. I found this book to be a much fuller, complex, and satisfying book than I expected.  However, I was a bit off-put by the language.  I get it that for the book to be real the teen boys couldn't talk like 18th-Century lads, but the injudicious foul language and slang just started to grate on my nerves at times. In fact, I'd say that the language would be the reason I would recommend this to high school level readers, not younger kids. As a fast and fun read I will recommend this to all students, not just boys, and I plan to add it to my Nifty-Fifty cart of books.  That is where I display books that are almost always sure bets, which I'm sure this one will be..                                
 



Monday, April 2, 2012

Top Ten Books that can be read in a day

The Broke and Bookish
TTT: Books that can be read in a day. (No particular order.)

1. Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach---I just finished this book in day so it is first to my mind. It is a very fun, yet touching coming-of-age story.



2. Stitches by David Small---The graphic biography by a master illustrator about his early years when he was raised by neglectful, abusive parents. (Do graphic novels count?)


3. Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman---this is one of those special books that can easily be read in one sitting.

4. Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall---written in verse so it reads very fast but you may want to slow it down in order to savor this lovely book.



5. Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony---This one probably shouldn't count since there are very few words. I felt like I was telling myself the story.

6. Exposed by Kimberly Marcus---told in verse this is the story of a girl who is conflicted if she should side with her brother or her friend.  I read this one in an hour.



7. The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan---written in dictionary form this is a story about a budding relationship.



8. Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick---I read this story in one sitting.  It was so exciting I couldn't put it down.



9. Staying Fat for Sarah Brynes by Chris Crutcher---I read this book one summer afternoon in the hammock.



10. Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan--- thirteen little graphic vignettes. I love this book.


What are your favorite books that you read in a day?

 

It's Monday, April 2nd, and I'm reading...

Jen and Kellee at Teach Mentor Text
Sheila at Book Journey

 





                                                                   
What I am currently reading and my progress:
  1. The Returning by Christine Hinwood. A 2012 Printz Honor book. I've had this book on my nightstand for two months.  20% complete.
2. Emma by Jane Austen.. ..I started reading this book on my smart phone during jury duty, and I admit that I haven't read anything since then. 15% complete.

What I am listening to:
1. Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson. A young teenager gets involved with methamphetamine when her family is transplanted to a new town after Hurricane Katrina takes the life of her mother and grandmother.

What I've recently finished:
1.  Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones---This was an Alex Award winner a few years back. Set on a small island in Papua New Guinea. The teacher, Mr.Watts, reads Great Expectations by Charles Dickens to his class and this book becomes important for a variety of reasons.
2. Under the Mesquite by Guadeloupe Garcia McCall. Written in verse. A lovely and touching story about family love and loss.
3. Irises by Francisco X. Stork...Another story of family love and loss, and following your dream.
4. Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach. A coming-of-age story where family secrets are revealed and mental health issues are finally addressed, set against a back drop of sports and young love.

What I hope to read next:
1. Black and White by Paul Volponi.  I am hosting a Volponi event at my school in a few weeks and I want to read as many of his books as I can in the meantime.
2. The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour. I enjoyed her first book, Hold Still, and this book is getting good reviews.
3. Breaking Night by Liz Murray. A book club selection. A memoir of a girl who goes from homeless to Harvard.


What are YOU reading this week?


 

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Prequel to Maze Runner Coming Soon

My goodness.  Where have I been?  I just learned that James Dashner, the author of the Maze Runner series, is publishing a prequel to the story. It is coming August 14th in North America.  It is called The Kill Order.  I am so psyched. It will cause quite a stir in my library, I am sure.

Here is the official announcement on The Dashner Dude blog.