City of Fallen Angels excerpt

As a teaser, the first chapter of City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare is up on her website! Go check it out! I'm counting down the days until April 5th...

Pretty New Covers!

The past few weeks, there have been so many pretty cover releases! You've probably seen most of these already, but here are my favorites:

The sequel to Heist Society... I love how it follows the theme of the first cover with the same model and sunglasses, but the color scheme is different. I love the purple and the teal!

The sequel to Paranormalcy... the dark reds are gorgeous!

And this one is my absolute favorite - the last book in the Theatre Illuminata series. Everything about this is amazing. :)

It doesn't help that I can't WAIT to read all of these! Only a couple more months...

Breakage

I go down to the edge of the sea.
How everything shines in the morning light!
The cusp of the whelk,
the broken cupboard of the clam,
the opened, blue mussels,
moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred—
and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,
dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone.
It's like a schoolhouse
of little words,
thousands of words.
First you figure out what each one means by itself,
the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop
full of moonlight.

Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.

-by Mary Oliver

(Poetry Friday roundup here.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! I hope you had a wonderful day filled with lots of candy and sweets. :)

A couple updates:

First of all, I'm going to be doing another CSN review soon! CSN is a chain of online stores that sells a variety of goods from office desks to yoga mats. I would highly recommend checking them out!

Second of all, my sister Maya and I were the featured guests on the Seedlings show on the Bit by Bit podcast. The show is hosted by three teachers and basically is all about education and technology in the classroom. Here's the link to our show if you're interested in listening. By the way, I read this poem at the very end.

Enchanted Ivy

by Sarah Beth Durst

Lily Carter, age 16, just wants to finish high school and get into her dream college, Princeton. As everyone knows, the admissions process can be very difficult - however, her grandfather, a Princeton alumnus, has signed her up for the Legacy Test, which, if she passes, will grant her automatic admission into Princeton. Her task? To find the "Ivy Key." What's that? Who knows. As Lily struggles to complete the test, her magical past is revealed and she realizes that the world is nothing like she thought it was.

Enchanted Ivy was yet another entertaining read from Sarah Beth Durst. With witty writing, a fast plot, and a cast of admirable characters, this book was so much fun to read. I appreciate how closely readers can identify with Lily - college admissions is definitely a big part of high school and it was nice to see a character who finally cared about their education and wasn't constantly off having adventures and not doing their homework.

However, I felt like Lily was so skeptical whenever she encountered magic. She was always looking for secret controls and speakers, even when there obviously were none. I understand why she would deny that magic exists at the start, but after being exposed to it several times, she still refused to admit that magic exists. That was annoying.

I still tremendously enjoyed the book though, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves YA, fantasy, and gargoyles. :-)

The Princess and the Frog

I FINALLY got a chance to watch "The Princess and the Frog" at the beginning of January. It was such a cute movie! I didn't realize until I watched it that it was set in the New Orleans bayou. Disney did a really good job of depicting the setting and bringing it to life - I could almost feel the warm, muggy air. It reminded me of our stay at the Port Orleans Resort in Disney World last summer (the resort has a Southern mansion/bayou theme).

The story was quite unique. I enjoyed the new aspect of Louisiana voodoo, although I was a bit surprised to see it in a Disney movie. I was also surprised by some of the scenes involving the villain, like when he called up creepy shadow monsters. They were actually rather scary, and I can imagine several younger children getting extremely frightened.

However, I did like Disney's fresh take on the movie. The main character, Tiana, is not born a princess - rather, she grows up in a poor community and has to work hard to achieve her dreams. I liked all of the other characters as well, including Ray the firefly. There are no fireflies here in Washington so I have to get my fill of them through books and movies! I've always wanted to see a real firefly...

I liked some of the songs, but they were definitely a bit disappointing compared to many of Disney's other songs. I had trouble figuring out the words several times, especially since many of the voices (unique as they were) were a bit hard to understand.

The main thing I liked about the movie was the message of working hard - not just having a goal, but actually doing your best to reach it. This is something that never really comes across in any other Disney movie, so I was glad to see it here.

"The Princess and the Frog" was definitely not my favorite Disney movie (in fact, "Tangled" was much better in my opinion), but it was still adorable and entertaining and worth the time.

Harry Potter Calligraphy

Finals are over, so I'm back to blogging! One thing I wanted to share with you was a calligraphy manuscript that I did in art class in December. I decided to write the Harry Potter school song from the first book.

By the way, it's much harder than it looks - everything has to be perfect and if you even make one teeny tiny mistake (spelling mistake, writing a letter in the wrong font, having one letter look weird, smudging), you have to start over because you're using India Ink (which is permanent) and "calligraphy" means 'beautiful writing,' so it HAS to be exactly perfect.

Anyways... here it is!

(you can click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Bleh... studying

Finals are coming up next week, so I'll be off this blog until next Friday the 21st. Sorry... see you then!

Blizzard

I discovered this poem in the January edition of Cricket Magazine and just wanted to share:

Above and around us
the white dragon howls,
hoarse and hollow.

Ice-claws click
at the windows.
We cower inside.

Sudden silence.

The monster sprawls
across our lawn;
the dragon drowses.

Our boots crunch
on mounded shoulders,
crush diamond scales.

Winter's spell:
now we
breathe out dragon-steam.

-by Sandi Leibowitz

The Butt Book

by Artie Bennett, illustrated by Mike Lester

The Butt Book is a fun, cute picture book for little kids... all about butts. Funny without being crude or inappropriate, this book uses colorful pictures and great rhymes to entice young readers, for example:

Patches found on baboon rumps
help them when they sit on stumps.

On their butts, skunks have a gland
that sprays a stink no one can stand.

So it's educational as well as entertaining! I also learned a few new synonyms that I never knew before. :)

I can see how this irresistible book would encourage reluctant young readers to pick up books and read more. However much we deny it, this is the type of stuff that little kids love and find hilarious, and if it results in more books in their hands, awesome! I would definitely recommend this to younger children, and even teens and adults will probably get a kick out of it.

(pdf provided by author)

Interviews and Guest Posts

Author Interviews
Ingrid Law (Savvy)
Janet Lee Carey (The Dragons of Noor)
Lauren Mechling (Dream Life)
Lorie Ann Grover
R.J. Anderson (Wayfarer)
Shannon Hale (Calamity Jack)

Blogger Interviews
Cate (Sparrow Review)
Danielle (Seeking Neverland - now blogs at Sesquipedalian)

Interviews of Me
Notes from the Nerdette
Sparrow Review

Guest Posts
L.M. Preston on Trusting In Yourself

Happy New Year!

As 2010 comes to a close, I would like to thank all my readers, everyone who has ever visited this blog and left a comment, sent me an email, etc. Your support and encouragement motivate me to keep on blogging. You guys are the best!

Happy New Year!

Favorite Books of 2010

This year, I read a total of 92 new books, and I just wanted to highlight some of my best reads this year. I had trouble narrowing the list down, but here are my top favorites (in no particular order):

Books Published in 2010:

Heist Society (Ally Carter)
Mystery, adventure, history, art, and thievery come together in this book for a fast-paced and exciting read.

A Conspiracy of Kings (Megan Whalen Turner)
I've always loved the wittiness and clever twists of the Attolia series, and this newest release did not disappoint.

Perchance to Dream (Lisa Mantchev)
Shakespeare, magic, legends, costumes, mischievous fairies, and lovely words... what more could you ask for? I adore this series (and the covers are amazing as well!).

Scarlett Fever (Maureen Johnson)
Maureen Johnson's writing is so much fun to read. Her characters are so endearing and hilarious, making this a great feel-good book.

Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
Although I despised the ending (I'll always be Team Gale!) and was very disappointed in Katniss at the end, this was such an anticipated, mind-boggling, EPIC read that I had to put it in.

The Dragons of Noor (Janet Lee Carey)
Rich in storytelling and magic, Janet Lee Carey's new book is imaginative and original - a must read for anyone who likes fantasy!

The Heart is Not a Size (Beth Kephart)
I actually read this last year, but it's still one of my favorite books. I enjoyed reading about Juarez and the surprising strength of the people there, and this book was written in a simple yet touching manner.

Dangerous Neighbors (Beth Kephart)
Can you tell by now how much I love Beth Kephart and her writing? :D Dangerous Neighbors is a wonderful showcase of her amazing writing talent, and the story kept me reading until the very end.

The Lost Hero (Rick Riordan)
Although this book was a bit of a letdown after the Percy Jackson series, it was still nice to reconnect with the characters and dig deeper into the history and mythology of the Greek gods. And the ending.... all I can say is that I can't wait for the next book!

Clockwork Angel (Cassandra Clare)
A great prequel to the Mortal Instrument series with well-developed characters and a unique story. I would recommend reading City of Bones/Ashes/Glass first though.

Books Read This Year (but not published in 2010)

Study series (Maria V. Snyder)
This is one of my favorite series - it's so full of adventure and exciting escapades and magic that I could never put the books down!

City of Glass (Cassandra Clare)
Thrilling and suspenseful... I don't know how Cassandra Clare does it every time. :)

Leviathan (Scott Westerfeld)
Before reading this book, I barely knew anything about WWI, and I hadn't read anything in the steampunk genre. Leviathan was surprisingly interesting and informative at the same time, and I loved all of the drawings that accompanied the story.

The Mystery of the Third Lucretia/Rescuing Seneca Crane (Susan Runholt)
I discovered this series through another blogger and immediately got hooked! The characters are great and so much fun to read about, and the stories are exciting as well. These books are perfect middle grade mysteries for the average sixth or seventh grader.

Clockwork Angel

by Cassandra Clare

I can't believe I didn't read this book until now! Clockwork Angel is just as good as the Mortal Instruments series. Set a few centuries ago in Victorian London, it follows the story of sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray, who arrives from New York and is immediately wrapped up in the wild and violent world of Shadowhunters and Downworlders. Even worse, an unknown figure known as the Magister is after her.

I didn't think I would like this book much, but I was proven wrong! It was so exciting to get back into the Shadowhunters' world, with a series of new and old characters. The characters were great - way too close to the characters in the Mortal Instruments, but still fun to read about. The plot was great as well, with some nice twists near the end.

My favorite part was seeing the parallels between the two series and having those aha moments when something I read in one of the Mortal Instruments books was finally explained or referred to. Overall, Clockwork Angel was a great start to the Infernal Devices series... can't wait to read more!

Merry Christmas!