Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Wonder Struck by Brian Selznick

The book Wonder Struck is by Brian Selznick, who wrote the Caldecott Award winner The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a book that is told in pictures and words (about 50-50). The way he writes his books is in a very special way, the slower, dialogue heavy parts of the book he does in words and the more action-y parts of the book he does in pictures. In Wonder Struck he does it differently, one of the stories is in pictures and the other is done in words. It give the book that sense of wonder when one of them is missing words and the other is missing pictures. Wonder Struck is one of those books where there are two different stories going on at the same time, but close to the end of the book the stories become intertwined.

So be on the look out for this cover in book stores during the month of October (when it comes out)!
                                         
I will make another blog post on this book when this book comes out.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

I made this video for my aunt to put online and I just found it again.
Warning: I did this when I was 8.

If there is a problem watching this video click on this link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzoqFCrgWzk 


If you think you will enjoy this book from the description, you should know a few things about the series. One of them is that there are 5 books in the series. Book 1: Skulduggery Pleasant (The first book might not be called Skulduggery Pleasant any more because the publishing company changed the name and the cover during the process of publishing. I think it's called The Scepter of the Ancients now but, I'm not sure). Book 2: Playing with Fire. Book 3: The Faceless Ones. Book 4: Dark Days. Book 5: Mortal Coil. (The 4th and 5th books might not be available the US for the time being. If you would like to buy the 4th and 5th books you might have to order them from somewhere else.)

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson, is a young adult version of his book Manhunt. It's a non-fiction book about the 12 day hunt for Abraham Lincoln's killer, John Wilkes Booth. I found this book in the little bookstore in the Lincoln Memorial, I was just looking around the store and BAM there it was. At first I thought it was just some dumb (excuse all of my followers who like these books) books where some kid travels back in time and helps "change history". This book is actually a real, honest to goodness, all facts book that seemed like it was historical fiction, not real history. I normally don't like history books where it's just a bunch of facts listed on a piece of paper that got published and called a book. But, Chasing Lincoln's Killer isn't just a bunch of facts it's actually an interesting story to read.

I think that if you are interested in Lincoln's political life this book doesn't really portray his political life, it tells the story of him being assassinated and the scheme that John Wilkes Booth used for killing Lincoln and getting away with it. I think the most interesting thing I learned is that John Wilkes Booth wasn't working alone, he and two of his friends went out to kill other people, too. He sent someone to kill the Vice President and another person to kill Seward. The reason why I think we don't really know about the other two is because the person who went to kill the Vice President got drunk (I think that is the only time that drunkenness is okay) right before he was going to kill him so he didn't.  Also the person who was trying to kill Seward only severely injured him. I think my favorite (Well, if it weren't in real life) thing is that Booth shot Lincoln during a "laugh line" so some of the people in the theater didn't know that Lincoln was murdered. A lot of people though it was all just part of the show.

I think that if you are a person that likes fantasy or just general fiction, you will like this book because it's told from  a point of view of a fiction book.

I hope you like this book as much as I did!