Boy Bites Bug

Reviewer extraordinaire, Izzy, is back this time with a review of the new book, Boy Bites Bug by Rebecca Petruck. Izzy shared that as soon as she started reading it she could not stop.  She had to force her brain to say, "No more!" Otherwise, she was going to stay up too late reading it.  Here's her summary:

"This book is about a boy named, Will.  At the beginning he is in the library with some of his friends. He's reading a book called, Wrestling for Dummies, when his friend dares him to eat one of the stinkbugs that were crowded on the wall. And his 'so called' friend said, 'Make the Mexican eat it. They eat bugs all the time.' [That's not good to say stuff like that.] So the people were saying how racist that was and were stomping on all the stinkbugs and it was a huge mess.  Will ate one and threw up, adding to the chaos. 

"The library ended up being shut down for the rest of the year. Will started to doubt his friendship with Darryl. Then Will gets the class to eat grasshoppers for a class project to show that it's normal to eat bugs. Then his friend, Eloy, tries to tell Will that his project was making fun of his culture and so not a good thing. Will lost yet another friendship and feels really bad for making that project.  He struggles with his decision about the project because on the one hand, he thinks it was terrible but then the on the other he thinks it wasn't that bad. 

"Eventually, he visits Eloy's house to apologize and he does.  But his next idea still includes bugs.  If kids donate $1 to a charity they get a treat with bugs in it like 'chocolate covered ants' or 'wax worm cookies'. [There are actually recipes for them in the back of the book.] Will said that if he raised $250 he would eat a scorpion.  Does he earn the money?

"Will Will show the kids in his school that eating bugs is normal and cool? Will he regain his friendship with Darryl? Crawl into this page turner of a book today."

This book has been out in the world for a month now.  According to Izzy, it's definitely one to add to your collection!

 

Short & Skinny

Today's review of Short and Skinny a new graphic novel by Mark Tatulli is brought to you by Evan, Brianna, Olivia, Sophia, Taylor and Izzy!

Evan: This is a story about a kid who is short and skinny (cough-cough like me) and is super self conscious about it. Mark tries to use all these things to make him grow bigger and stronger like "miracle muscle."

Brianna: I liked how the author changed the name from "Star Wars" to "Star Bores."

Evan:  I thought this book was hilarious, but in the end it got kind of sad.

A little revolt erupted just now because no one else thought it was sad.

Izzy:  I don't think it got sad in the end.

Olivia:  How is it sad? He shows his movie to a bunch of people and he's happy.

(The sad/happy ending debate continued for a while...)

Evan:  Remember he throws his movie everywhere because he was mad?


Brianna: Remember at the roller skate arena and Alan said, "I don't like her as much as you do."

Was that sad?

Izzy:  It wasn't sad

Olivia:  I read the book three times.  It was SO good! I just liked the Star Wars/Star Bores part. 

Izzy:  And because of Star Wars he realizes being short and skinny isn't so bad!

Sophia:  The cover made me want to read the book because it made it look like it would be a funny Star Wars book.  And it sort of was because Mark was making a funny version of Star Wars.

Izzy:  To me the cover look confusing.  He was just randomly in the hallway with the mom, the dad and some kid filming them.

Olivia:  I wanted to read the book after looking at the cover because of all the little details.  It looked so interesting.

Taylor:  I didn't like that the cover was all yellow.  I like the illustration on the cover.  I just don't like the yellow.

Olivia:  I think the beginning should change because some people might pick it up and it might turn them off with the aliens.

Evan:  I like the illustrations.  They kind of showed how Mark was short and skinny.

Izzy:  And how he was struggling.

Evan:  Hashtag The Struggle is Real  #thestruggleisreal

All:  I would recommend it!

Brianna:  I would recommend it to everyone!

Olivia:  I would recommend it to people who like graphic novels.

Evan:  I would recommend it to people who are sappy (sad/happy).

Olivia:  YES! I would definitely read another book by this author.

Evan:  I think he should make another book and call it "Tall and Strong" and they would meet and become friends.

Sophia and Izzy:  There's was just a little too much romance in the book.

Brianna:  I think the author should make more graphic novels.

All:  The third book should be "Normal and Boring."

Olivia:  This book was great!

Brianna:  No, it wasn't a great book.  It was an awesome, amazing book!

Evan:  This wasn't a great book...This was an AWESOME book!

Izzy:  This book is great for people who are short and skinny, tall and strong and normal and boring!

The book comes out in September with full color illustrations! We can't wait to see it!

Nightbooks

Izzy is BAAAAACCCCKKKK! Over the weekend, she read Nightbooks by J.A. White (comes out in July!).  This time Izzy's twin sister, Sophia, helped guide our conversation about the book.

Izzy:  Nightbooks is a book about a boy named Alex.  He is going down to the basement to burn his nightbooks in the incinerator.  His nightbooks are where he writes down his scary stories.

Sophia:  Why does he want to burn his nightbooks?

Izzy:  Because he feels like he doesn't fit in with the other kids. He's that weird kid.

Sophia:  How does that relate with him being the weird kid?

Izzy:  Because of the nightbooks. The nightbooks are what make him weird. 

Me:  The other kids know about the books?

Izzy:  Yeah. They do. Once he read one of the stories aloud in class and they all gave him a weird look.

Sophia:  What kinds of stuff are in the nightbooks?

Izzy:  Scary stories. You know, vampires, death, werewolves.  Back to the story...when he's going down his hallway in his apartment, he hears the soundtrack to his favorite movie, The Night of the Living Dead. So he's so tempted to go knock on the door and watch it with his neighbor. So he does.  When he opens the door a blast of pumpkin pie smell hits him. A nice looking lady answers the door and asks, "Why are you here?"  And Alex says, "I heard my favorite movie."  Hmmm...I never heard that before. So he walks in and the room turns BLACK.

Sophia:  Izzy! Is that the book you told me about where there's an evil witch in the apartment that traps kids?!

Izzy: Yep! So Alex finds himself in a cell...

Sophia:  With many other kids?

Izzy:  Not really...

Sophia:  Ohhh....

Izzy:  So then he goes out the door and keeps finding himself in the exact same cell over and over again. He's thinking he will never see his family again.  He misses them.

Sophia:  How long has he been in there?

Izzy:  Not very long but he's worried he won't get out.  Will he find a way to get out? Read this frightening book to find out.

I asked Izzy for a few last words about the book and she shared this:

"When I first started the book, I was worried I was going to have nightmares. But I didn't!  It was definitely worth worrying about what's in the dark!"

The Doughnut Fix REVISITED

By Izzy, of course!

Izzy is BAAAAACCCKKKK from a very short hiatus! This time she's got thoughts to share about The Doughnut Fix by Jessie Janowitz.

"Tristan Levin is a boy from New York City who just moved Petersville, the middle of nowhere, in upstate New York. When he sees his house for the first time he says 'Why do we have to move? We were perfectly happy in NYC.' The next morning he decides to check out the actual town. He bikes down there and most of the buildings are abandoned. Then he sees a sign that says, 'Yes we do have chocolate cream doughnuts.' So he walks in and says that he'll take a dozen. The lady behind the counter says, 'Eggs?' He replies, 'No, doughnuts!' Turns out that they don't even serve doughnuts anymore. So instead he gets eggs and bikes back home.

"Later in the book, Tristan's parents ask him and his sisters to think of a project  because they aren't starting school for a couple of months. He tries to think of a project but all he can think about are chocolate cream doughnuts. He asks the lady at the counter for the recipe and she said he had to prove that he was worthy of the 'life changing and heavenly' recipe.  Will he get the recipe?  Will his project have to do something with doughnuts? Read this chocolate creamed filled book to find out."

I was thrilled to revisit this sweet book again while Izzy dictated her review to me.  Here's a link to my earlier review before it even hit the shelves!  Now I have missed meeting Jessie once while she was only a doughnut hole's throw away from my town but I can't let that happen again.  We NEED to meet for doughnuts and coffee asap!


PS-Reason #17 of why I leap? So I can eat doughnuts!

Mac B. Kid Spy Mac Undercover

Izzy is back again the second time this week!  Yesterday she went home with Mac B. Kid Spy Mac Undercover, a new book by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Mike Lowery that comes out in September. She read it in one night! Here's what she had to say about it:

"This book is about Mac, just a regular kid. Then he gets a call from the Queen of England! She says that one of the crown jewels has been stolen and Mac has to find it."

One of Izzy's classmates, Gabe, stopped by and was eavesdropping in our conversation.  He started to ask Izzy some questions:

"Who's Mac? Is he cool?" Gabe asked.

"He's the main character and yeah, he's cool!" Izzy said with a smile.

"Who's the dog?" Gabe wondered while stealing a look at the cover.

"He's one of the many Queen of England's corgis! She has them as pets." Izzy replied. "Now back to the book--Someone left a note that they stole the jewel and Mac has to figure out how to get it back. Will Mac find the jewel? If he does, will he be able to outsmart the guards to get it back to the Queen? Read this sneaky spy book to figure it out! I recommend this book to kids in grades 1 and up.  You can't be too old to read a good book.

"By the way, I was on the swings when I was the reading the part when the Queen called Mac and said she wasn't paying him to eat cheeseburgers and she wasn't even paying him! That made me fall off the swing!"

 

  

 

 

 

 

The Serpent's Secret: Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond

I saw Sayantani Dasgupta speak on a panel at TLA and bought her book for our library as soon as I returned home.  I haven't read it yet, but put it in the hands of one of my best book reviewers, Izzy. She came in first thing this morning with her thoughts.

First her summary:

"Kiranmala is just regular sixth grader in New Jersey but then on Halloween her parents are nowhere to be found.  Then two boys dressed up as princes point out that there is a demon (aka rakkhosh) right behind her, destroying her house.  They  fight the rakkhosh and escape it when it becomes unconscious. They go to the Transit Corridor in search of her parents and Kiranmala can't go through unless she passes the Transit Officer.  She is able to solve the riddles to get through but she finds out that you aren't supposed to live when you go to the Transit Officer.  So she has to run away and finds herself in a strange city in a different dimension. She's still searching for her parents.  Eventually the two boys find Kiranmala and are surprised to see that she is alive. Together the three of them go to the castle to find Tuni.  They have been told that Tuni can figure out basically anything but you first have to figure out what his poem means. Tuni tells them a poem which they figure out that Kiranmala's parents are in a well of darkness. Will she find her parents?  Read the book to find out!"

Why did you like it?

I liked it because it was a fantasy with some action.  And it was believable, too!  That's hard to do with a fantasy book! 

 

I don't know about you, but I am going to put this book at the top of my ever growing TBR pile for sure! Thank you, Izzy!

Sidenote: Izzy LOVES Adam Gidwitz and Adam was on the same panel at TLA!  Coincidence that she liked this book, too, then?