#BookReview: The Meadows by Stephanie Oakes

Synopsis: "A story of pain, injustice, love, resistance, and hope, this glorious book will lodge inside you and make you feel everything.” —Helena Fox, award-winning author of How It Feels to Float

A queer, YA Handmaid’s Tale meets Never Let Me Go about a dystopian society bent on relentless conformity, and the struggle of one girl to save herself and those she loves from a life of lies

Everyone hopes for a letter—to attend the Estuary, the Glades, the Meadows. These are the special places where only the best and brightest go to burn even brighter.

When Eleanor is accepted at the Meadows, it means escape from her hardscrabble life by the sea, in a country ravaged by climate disaster. But despite its luminous facilities, endless fields, and pretty things, the Meadows keeps dark secrets: its purpose is to reform students, to condition them against their attractions, to show them that one way of life is the only way to survive. And maybe Eleanor would believe them, except then she meets Rose.

Four years later, Eleanor and her friends seem free of the Meadows, changed but not as they’d hoped. Eleanor is an adjudicator, her job to ensure her former classmates don’t stray from the lives they’ve been trained to live. But Eleanor can’t escape her past . . . or thoughts of the girl she once loved. As secrets unfurl, Eleanor must wage a dangerous battle for her own identity and the truth of what happened to the girl she lost, knowing, if she’s not careful, Rose’s fate could be her own.

A raw and timely masterwork of speculative fiction, The Meadows will sink its roots into you. This is a novel for our times and for always—not to be missed.

#BookReview: Attack of the Ninja Frogs (Dragonbreath, #2) by Ursula Vernon

Synopsis: Danny Dragonbreath knew girls were trouble. But the new foreign exchange student, Suki the Salamander, is beyond trouble. Not only has she reduced his best friend, Wendell, to a blithering, lovesick tadpole, but she?s apparently the object of an elaborate ninja frog kidnapping plot. Danny is never one to pass up an adventure (especially one involving ninja frogs), and so he and Wendell and Suki set out on a dangerous quest through the mythical Japanese bamboo forests to find out what these fearsome frogs want.

 Danny may not be able to breathe fire like a normal dragon, but he and Wendell have watched lots of kung fu movies and can totally take on a bunch of ninja frogs. Or, um, so he hopes . . . Using her trademark hybrid style of comic-book panels and text, Ursula Vernon has packed this second book in the hilarious Dragonbreath series with lots of kung fu, a little bit of loooove, and plenty of everyday school drama. A perfect fit for fans of Wimpy Kid and Bad Kitty.

#BookTour: This Moment Is Your Life (and So Is This One): A Fun and Easy Guide to Mindfulness, Meditation, and Yoga by Mariam Gates

About the Book:

This lively, hands-on guide to meditation, mindfulness, and yoga is a perfect introduction for tweens and teens.

Don't just do something, be here.

The key to happiness is being able to find comfort in this moment, here and now. When you are completely present and not distracted by regrets, worries, and plans, even for a little while, you begin to feel more confident and can deal more easily with everything you experience. This is mindfulness: paying attention to this very moment, on purpose and without judgment--simply being present with curiosity.

This engaging guide, packed with simple exercises and endearing full-color artwork, provides a handy starting point for bringing mindfulness into your daily life. Chapters on meditation, yoga, and mindful breathing explain the benefits of these practices, and you are free to pick and choose what to try. There are quick exercises throughout, and a more extensive tool kit at the end of each chapter. The final chapter offers satisfying five-day challenges that map out ways to pull all of the book's mindfulness techniques together in your day-to-day life.

With the appeal of a workbook or guided journal, and full of examples relevant to tweens and teens today, this book will be your trusted companion as you begin the valuable, stress-relieving work of being still with skill.



This title will be released on May 22, 2018.

#BookReview: Pet Dad by Elanna Allen with @_AwesomeAnnie and @PenguinKids

About the Book:

Plum wants the perfect pet, but instead realizes she has the perfect dad in this charming and hilarious picture book that's great for father's day.

Plum wants a pet. Plum's dad wants NO pets. So Plum, who never takes no for an answer, gets the only pet she can: a pet dad. Dad is a great pet--he loves playtime, tummy rubs, and scratches behind the ears. But every time Plum tries to get him to sit, or fetch, or chase, dad barks NO. Plum doesn't take no for an answer. How will she train her perfect pet (without getting a time-out)?

Hilariously relatable and with ultra-cute art, Pet Dad is perfect for kids who love or want pets--or who already have the perfect parents to make up for it.

#BookReview: Ladybug Girl and the Rescue Dogs (Ladybug Girl) by David Soman

About the Book:

Ladybug Girl and her friends help at a dog-adoption fair and discover that even the littlest things can make a big difference in this tenth hardcover in the New York Times bestselling Ladybug Girl series.

Lulu is excited to meet all the rescue dogs when the pet-adoption fair comes to her local farmers' market. She wants to take all of them home--but she already has Bingo, and Mama says one dog is enough for their family. That doesn't mean Lulu can't help, though. It's time for Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad--her friends Grasshopper Girl and Bumblebee Boy--to step in! The Bug Squad can do all kinds of little but important things, like brush the dogs, play with them, and bring them water and food. And then Lulu comes up with the perfect plan to help the dogs find their forever homes. Her idea is such a success that the Bug Squad knows they'll be back again next week. Together, they can help every dog get adopted.

This beloved series is celebrated for its gentle, authentic, and imaginative exploration of kid-emotions and -truths.

#BookReview: The Not-So-Boring Letters of Private Nobody by Matthew Landis

About the Book:

A trio of seventh graders become one another's first friends as they discover the secrets of a Civil War soldier in this middle grade novel for fans of Gordon Korman and Gary Schmidt

Twelve-year-old Oliver Prichard is obsessed with the Civil War. He knows everything about it: the battles, the generals, every movement of the Union and Confederate Armies. So when the last assignment of seventh-grade history is a project on the Civil War, Oliver is over the moon--until he's partnered with Ella Berry, the slacker girl with the messy hair who does nothing but stare out the window. And when Oliver finds out they have to research a random soldier named Private Raymond Stone who didn't even fight in any battles before dying of some boring disease, Oliver knows he's doomed.

But Ella turns out to be very different from what Oliver expected. As the partners film their documentary about Private Stone--with Oliver's friend Kevin signing on as their head writing consultant--Oliver discovers that sometimes the most interesting things are hiding in uninteresting places. Even Private Stone is better than expected: There's a mystery buried in his past, and Oliver knows he can figure it out. 

#BookTour: I am Gandhi & I am Sacagawea by @bradmeltzer Christopher Eliopoulos

 

Today we have the honor to share two books with you! I am Gandhi and I am Sacagwea!  Awesome Annie had such a great time with these books and you can see her video below! We hope you enjoy this post as much as we did making it. 

#BookReview: The Chalk Artist by Allegra Goodman

  Tension arises in the love affair of a young artist for whom nothing is permanent and his girlfriend, a teacher who believes that things are meant to last by the New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist.

This is a compelling love story between two very different young people: Collin, a disarming chalk artist who thinks nothing of erasing his dazzling work, and Nina, an idealistic teacher who struggles every day to make a lasting impact on her students. Wanting Collin to realize his full talent, Nina warily introduces him to her powerful father, who owns the most cutting edge virtual reality game company in the world. Add to this a brilliant but unstable pupil of Nina’s who is gaming obsessed, and you have contemporary life caught in the crosshairs by one of our most charming and socially astute literary voices.

#Review Marked (Tracked #2) by Jenny Martin

    Mad Max meets Firefly in the exhilarating sequel to the sci-fi novel Tracked
After an escape gone wrong, Phee barely made it out of Castra alive. But Cash, the leader of the rebellion, is still missing--and Charles Benroyal is to blame. Caught between grief and blinding thoughts of revenge, Phee fights for the resistance, gaining new allies and, perhaps, making new enemies, too. Meanwhile, Phee can't control her growing feelings for Bear, her best friend since childhood, and she's forced to make a choice--between the boy who has always been there for her, and the one who might never return. As Benroyal's attacks grow bolder, Phee and her team embark on a daring mission to defeat the Sixers and save the planet. But no one is prepared for the sacrifices Phee will have to make to win this war once and for all.

With nonstop action and a wholly original science fiction world, Marked will have your heart racing until its breathless conclusion. 

The Door in the Moon (Chronoptika #3) by Catherine Fisher

This New York Times bestselling author once again shows us that she is a master of world-building and surprising plot-twists. The vast, intricate world, fascinating revelations, and unexpected turns in the final book of the Obsidian Mirror trilogy will appeal to readers of Cassandra Claire, and will satisfy existing fans fully.

The Slanted Worlds (Chronoptika #2) by Catherine Fisher

Part Dr. Who, part Blade Runner, and part A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this genre-busting fantasy from the author of Incarceron asks: If you had the chance to change the past, would you do it?
In book two of the critically acclaimed Obsidian Mirror series, New York Times bestselling author Catherine Fisher, called “the first lady of British fantasy” by the London Times, once again shows us that she is a master of world-building and surprising plot-twists. Jake, Sarah, and Oberon Venn continue their fight for control of the Obsidian Mirror, and whoever wins will either save a life, change the past, or rescue the future.
But the Mirror has plans of its own.

Obsidian Mirror (Chronoptika #1) by Catherine Fisher

Jake's father disappears while working on mysterious experiments with the obsessive, reclusive Oberon Venn. Jake is convinced Venn has murdered him. But the truth he finds at the snow-bound Wintercombe Abbey is far stranger ... The experiments concerned a black mirror, which is a portal to both the past and the future. Venn is not alone in wanting to use its powers. Strangers begin gathering in and around Venn's estate: Sarah - a runaway, who appears out of nowhere and is clearly not what she says, Maskelyne - who claims the mirror was stolen from him in some past century. There are others, a product of the mirror's power to twist time. And a tribe of elemental beings surround this isolated estate, fey, cold, untrustworthy, and filled with hate for humans. But of them all, Jake is hell-bent on using the mirror to get to the truth. Whatever the cost, he must learn what really happened to his father.

#Review of The Slanted Worlds (Chronoptika #2) by Catherine Fisher

Part Dr. Who, part Blade Runner, and part A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this genre-busting fantasy from the author of Incarceron asks: If you had the chance to change the past, would you do it?
In book two of the critically acclaimed Obsidian Mirror series, New York Times bestselling author Catherine Fisher, called “the first lady of British fantasy” by the London Times, once again shows us that she is a master of world-building and surprising plot-twists. Jake, Sarah, and Oberon Venn continue their fight for control of the Obsidian Mirror, and whoever wins will either save a life, change the past, or rescue the future.
But the Mirror has plans of its own.

ARC

#Review of Obsidian Mirror (Chronoptika #1) by Catherine Fisher #Giveaway

Jake's father disappears while working on mysterious experiments with the obsessive, reclusive Oberon Venn. Jake is convinced Venn has murdered him. But the truth he finds at the snow-bound Wintercombe Abbey is far stranger ... The experiments concerned a black mirror, which is a portal to both the past and the future. Venn is not alone in wanting to use its powers. Strangers begin gathering in and around Venn's estate: Sarah - a runaway, who appears out of nowhere and is clearly not what she says, Maskelyne - who claims the mirror was stolen from him in some past century. There are others, a product of the mirror's power to twist time. And a tribe of elemental beings surround this isolated estate, fey, cold, untrustworthy, and filled with hate for humans. But of them all, Jake is hell-bent on using the mirror to get to the truth. Whatever the cost, he must learn what really happened to his father.

ARC