Publisher’s Description:

Passover is always a magical time, but this Passover is extra-special since Molly’s uncle Harry brings his latest magic tricks and new bride, Aunt Eda. When Uncle Harry hides the afikoman, Molly and her siblings must think carefully about the importance of Passover while they search for it. Will they discover the whereabouts of the matzoh and win the prize for finding it?

This book assumes that the child reading is probably Jewish and has some familiarity with Passover traditions. Throughout the story, the traditions and the reasons behind them are explained somewhat but not in great detail. After the story ends, there is a page at the end titled The Story of Passover that explains in greater detail the Biblical reason for Passover and its traditions. If you or your child are unfamiliar with the details, I would recommend reading this page first – it will help the story make more sense.

This was a heartwarming story that focused on family, food, and fun at the Seder. The illustrations were bright and colorful. I think this is a great Passover picture book for early elementary school age kids whether Jewish or not.

Buy this book at:
Amazon

(I received this book courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.)

For more reviews of books for children and teens, check out Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, you can go to her site to leave a comment and your link .

Publisher’s Description:

Coffins fill the basement of a crumbling Los Angeles movie theater. Five vampires crowd around fading horror idol Bela Lugosi, peppering him with questions. A malfunctioning plastic fang causes one of the undead-wannabes to lisp. The effect is less than fearsome, but Lugosi is terrified, for one of these oddballs has been making threats on his life. He hires Toby Peters to provide security against his unbalanced fans. The detective is not concerned, but he should be. Even fake vampires can kill.

Meanwhile, the Warner brothers contact Peters regarding a murder. A body has surfaced in one of Hollywood’s darker corners, and police suspicion has fallen on one of the studio’s star screenwriters: William Faulkner. As he struggles to balance the murder investigation while protecting Lugosi, Peters finds a thread connecting the two cases. To get Faulkner off the hook, he’ll have to find out who wants to kill Hollywood’s original Dracula.

Originally written in the 1970s and set in the 1940s, this mystery had a very film noir, dark and gritty atmosphere. I liked Toby as a character but I could not follow the murder mystery plot or figure out how he was solving it. I’m not sure if this was because I listened to it on audio and so I couldn’t flip back and re-read parts or if it was the book’s fault. I suspect some of both.

I liked all the voices the narrator did except for Toby. The book is written in first person from Toby’s point of view so there is a lot of Toby’s voice. I think he was trying to make Toby seem cool and confident but most of the time Toby sounded bored.

The author often had Toby commenting on how much something costs or what news is on the radio as he’s driving around. If you have nostalgia for the 1940s or the past in general, I think you’ll find this interesting.

Buy this book at:
Amazon

(I received a copy of this book from the publisher via the Solid Gold Reviewer program at Audio Jukebox.)

The movie Holes, follows the book very closely. There are a couple of characters in the flashbacks to the 1800s who die in the book. In the movie, the characters still die, but the action is filmed in such a way that it is not too intense or violent for young viewers. I appreciated this since my six year old, West, is really sensitive to intense action in movies.

The casting for this film was excellent. Who else could play the bad-ass female camp warden better than Sigourney Weaver? Shia LaBeof plays Stanley – he looks like a baby! I didn’t realize that he had done much acting before the Transformers movies. He is great in this movie (way better than in Transformers, in my opinion. That is no doubt partly a function of scripting. It’s hard to act well if the dialogue is crap. Anyway….)

Other actors you may recognize that are in this movie include Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, Henry Winkler, and Dulé Hill. This was a really fun movie and very faithful to the book. If you loved the book, you’ll love the movie too.

Buy this movie at:
Amazon

Cash and West set a trap for a leprechaun last night. Unfortunately, that sneaky leprechaun escaped so we won’t be getting rich off his pot of gold. He did leave us some gold chocolate coins though.

You may have noticed a new affiliate link at the end of my posts. I’m very excited to announce that I’m an affiliate for my local independent book store, Rainy Day Books. They are an awesome book store that brings in tons of great authors for speaking events every year. Chances are if I go to an author event in Kansas City, it’s sponsored by them. I’m glad to be able to support them in this small way.

Publisher’s Description:

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys “build character” by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

The author did a fantastic job of weaving the past and present together and bringing everything full circle in this book in a way that even young children could understand. It could have easily gotten very complicated and convoluted but he managed to make it intricate yet understandable. My second grader read this book on his own and figured it all out. I read this book aloud to my first grader which worked out nicely because I could discuss it with him as we went along and make sure he understood it. Most of the time he did on his own and he always did after we had a conversation.

Both my boys can be sensitive to darker plots and humor but they both really enjoyed this book – it wasn’t too much for them. It’s recommended for third grade and up but I found it appropriate for my first and second grader. The only mildly inappropriate instance is when one character says, “What the hell?” I didn’t even notice when I was reading it but West, my first grader, was quick to point out at our book club meeting that it was his favorite part – because of the “bad” word. Such a proud parenting moment.

Speaking of book club, this was a great selection for the Intergenerational Book Club (IGBC) at my church. There were kids from first through fifth grade (mostly boys) and all of them enjoyed this book. For snacks we had worms and dirt (made by the kids), doughnut holes, and pumpkin onion cookies. (Onions play an important role in the story.)

This book was made into a great movie a few years ago – watch for my review of it in a few days!

Buy this book at:
Amazon Powell’s Books Rainy Day Books

For more reviews of books for children and teens, check out Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, you can go to her site to leave a comment and your link .

****************************************

MEET GUTS

Every hero could use a sidekick, and Egg Masterson — the frequently bewildered 13-year-old at the heart of Deadweather and Sunrise — needs one more than most. Alone in the world and on the run for his life, Egg stumbles from one life-threatening situation to the next until he falls in with a crew of vicious pirates who decide forcing him into a fight to the death with a feral cabin boy would be a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Which is how Egg winds up meeting Guts, his foul-mouthed and possibly deranged new best friend. Although his first impression isn’t encouraging:

He sprang up fast, short and skinny, eyes darting under a mop of tangled hair that fell below his shoulders and was so blond it almost looked white. His head and limbs moved in unpredictable, spastic twitches, like a trapped and desperate animal.

He might have been nine or sixteen or anything in between. It was hard to tell. I’d never seen a human move like that. If someone had told me his father was a wolf, I would have believed it.

He was in such constant motion that it wasn’t until he’d been herded into the far corner of the ring that I realized his left hand was missing. At the end of his forearm, right where the left wrist should have been, his arm suddenly ended in a rounded-off stump.

That fight to the death comes to a sudden and premature end–although not before Guts nearly bashes Egg’s head in with a cannonball–and when the two adversaries find themselves washed up on the same deserted beach, Egg tries to make peace. It doesn’t go well:

I started over to him…there was nothing on the beach except sand, trees, me, the barrel, and Guts.

I was close enough to see the ragged tears in his breeches when he sat up in his usual quick, jerky motion and snarled at me.

“Sod off!”

I stopped. “Or what? You’ll hit me with another cannonball?” The swelling had

gone down some by now, but I was still bitter.

“Worse’n ‘at.” He held up a knife.

“Where’d you get that?” I was glad he hadn’t had it during our fight.

“Sod off!” he yelled again, swiping the knife through the air.

“Don’t be stupid. I’m done fighting you.”

“No’f ye get any closer.”

I sighed and held out my hand. “Let’s call a truce–”

“Nuts to that! Jus’ want the water!”

So that was why he’d taken the barrel. I had to admire his survival instincts. He’d washed up on the beach with fresh water and a knife. All I’d done was lose my shoes.

Eventually, these two will be inseparable. But it’s going to take a while–and the intercession of at least one wild boar…

****************************************

Thanks so much for stopping by Geoff! About Geoff Rodkey: 

Geoff Rodkey is the author of the Chronicles of Egg middle grade adventure series and the Emmy-nominated screenwriter of such hit films as Daddy Day Care, RV, and the Disney Channel’s Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas.

Geoff grew up in Freeport, Illinois, and began his writing career on his high school newspaper, the oddly named Pretz News. While in college, he was an editor of both the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine and the Let’s Go travel guide series. His early writing credits include the educational video game Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, the non-educational MTV series Beavis and Butt-head, and Comedy Central’s Politically Incorrect.

The first Chronicles of Egg book, Deadweather and Sunrise, was published by Putnam in May 2012. Its sequel, New Lands, comes out in the U.S. on May 2nd, 2013. The final volume in the trilogy, Blue Sea Burning, will arrive in 2014.

Geoff currently lives in New York City with his wife and three sons. They do not have any pets, mostly because the whole experience with the goldfish was just too upsetting.

***Please visit Buried in Books for the next stop on The Chronicles of Egg Blog Tour!.***

I am pleased to be able to giveaway one set of SIGNED copies of the paperback of The Chronicles of Egg Book 1:  Deadweather and Sunrise AND an ARC of The Chronicles of Egg Book 2:  New Lands (due out May 2, 2013) to one of my readers with a US or Canadian mailing address. Just fill out the form below. I will take entries until 11:59pm CST on March 19, 2013. Good luck!

Publicist’s Description:

Twelve-year old Egbert lives on Deadweather Island, home to broken-down pirates and his family’s ugly fruit plantation. Life on the island has never been easy for Egbert – less because of pirate-infested waters and more because of the constant ridicule of his two older, obnoxious siblings. But things soon get even more difficult when Egg’s family disappears in a freak hot-air balloon accident. Egg finds himself on the run from a wealthy and powerful villain who’s trying to murder him for his connection to a hidden treasure – a connection Egg barely understands. He’s also hopelessly in love with the villain’s daughter, who, along with his new friend Gus, he’ll have to depend on to help save the day.

Deadweather and Sunrise is a great pirate adventure that I think will appeal to its target audience – middle grade boys. The hero has some familiar qualities – a dead mother and a father and siblings who don’t treat him that well. I haven’t seen a pirate adventure recently though – I think it will be a nice change for boys who have already read all the wizard and dragon books out there. This is the first book of a trilogy so I think some of the characters will be fleshed out more in the next two books. I know that Guts, a thirteen year old pirate missing a hand, must have a great back-story that comes out at some point. I’m also looking forward to finding out why the pirate Burn Healy is so helpful to Egg when he is ruthless to everyone else.

This book is recommended for 5th grade (10 years old) and up, which I think is spot-on. It’s packed full of adventure, which I think boys that age will love, but it does have some killing and death and threats of killing that may be too violent for younger readers to handle even if they are reading at the 5th grade level. Also, when a 13 year old girl gets captured by pirates, it’s clear to an adult reader that she’s in danger of being sexually assaulted. However, it’s written cryptically enough that I don’t think the middle grade reader will catch on. They might ask you a question about it though. I have an 8 year old that could read this book but I’m going to wait a couple of years to pass it on to him. When I do, I think he’ll really like it.

Come back tomorrow – I’ll have a guest post from the author and a giveaway for SIGNED copies BOTH of this book AND the second book in the series!

Buy this book at:

Amazon Powell’s Books Rainy Day Books

(I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publicist.)

Publisher’s Description:

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille Preaker’s first assignment at her second-rate daily paper takes her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. As she works to uncover the truth, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims – a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.

It’s hard not to make comparisons to Flynn’s 2012 novel, Gone Girl, when reading Sharp Objects, which was her debut novel. I had to remind myself that since Gone Girl was my favorite book of 2012, it was highly unlikely that Sharp Objects would be as good. And that’s true it wasn’t – but it was still very, very good. Gillian Flynn has created complicated, creepy characters and a complex plot with a nice twist at the end. Flynn makes Camille’s hometown’s thick, gothic atmosphere jump off the page. And somehow she made me sympathize with Camille, even though she made so many bad choices. This book is an excellent thriller – a must read.

Buy this book at:
Amazon Powell’s Books

The first week, I was on some strong meds that bascially knocked me out I and couldn’t have read even if I wanted to. Now I’m at least feeling like reading. Friday, I spent the day reading Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects. I was reminded that a friend had loaned it to me and I needed to read it after reading Literate Housewife’s awesome review of it. It was fantastic – I should have my review up later this week.

I plan to spend today reading and resting. Hopefully, next Sunday I will bring you Sunday Salon: The Healthy Edition!