Brooklyn Book Festival!

Today is the brooklyn book festival! And I'm going just as soon as I can finish cooking breakfast, wake my husband, feed everybody, take a shower, get dressed and pile everyone into the car.

http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/

I've already printed out a map of the place and who is speaking when at the Youth Stoop.

At 2pm, I will be listening (and taking notes) to Ned Vizzini (Be More Chill), Aimee Friedman (Sea Change) and Anna Godbersen (The Luxe) speak about different approaches to writing about love in teen fiction.

After that, I have a couple hours to browse the book sellers. I am hoping to purchase THE SWEET FAR THING by Libba Bray, EVERNIGHT by Claudia Gray and SEA CHANGE by Aimee Friedman. There will be book singing so maybe I'll snag an autograph or two :)

At 4pm, it's back to the Youth Stoop to hear M.T. Anderson (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing), Marilyn Nelson (The Freedom Business) and Margaret Peterson Haddix (Shadow Children and Missing series) talk about writing in the past.

And at 5pm, Claudia Gray (Evernight Series) and Carolyn MacCullough (Once a Witch) speak about high school and the paranormal :

I'll be sure to post a quick blog tonight when I get home. If you're there and you see me, say hello.

LIST of authors of children and youth books attending:

Youth and Teens
M.T. Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson
Coe Booth
Libba Bray
Michael Buckley
Matt de la Peña
Kate DiCamillo
Gayle Forman
Aimee Friedman
Anna Godbersen
Claudia Gray
Paul Griffin
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Carolyn MacCullough
Marilyn Nelson
G. Neri
Danica Novgorodoff
George O'Connor
Raina Telgemeier
Ned Vizzini

Children’s Authors
Judi Barrett
Nick Bruel
Peter and Randall de Seve
Ayun Halliday
Alison Josephs
Victoria Kann
Grace Lin
Christopher Myers
Sahar Simmons
Maureen Sullivan
Tom Tomorrow
Mo Willems
Paul O. Zelinsky

The Vampire Diaries

My hubby is out tonight doing a memorial thing for 9/11/01 so I settled in with my laptop and a good friend (via AIM) to watch the season premier of The Vampire Diaries.

Not a big fan of the changes, but I understand why they were made. Bonnie wasn't at all what I had expected and where is Meredith? I really don't like how they say "Stephan" but it'll grow on me. Other then that, I enjoyed it.

Did you watch? What did you think?

Nordic Poem

This is a translation of a romantic poem by Bjarni Thorarensen, 'Veturinn' (Winter) made by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Icelandic/American pathfinder:

Who rides with such fury
A fiery charger
Through the high heavens
A horse snow-colored?
The mighty steed
From his mane tosses
Frozen flakes
That flutter earthward.
Glowing glitters

His gray armor
On his shoulder there hangs
A shield ice-covered
On his head he wears
The helm of terror
The fearful Aegis
Frosty helmet

He comes from the hoary
Haunts of midnight
Where the world force flows
From the well eternal
Where restless seas
Roar in breakers
On shores without spring
And summerless rocks.
He knows not of age

Though the oldest gods
Where his playmates ere
The earth was fashioned
The last world will die
And desolation
Veil the suns
Ere his way is ended.

The strong are strengthened
When his step approaches
The soft Earth grows firm
In his fierce embraces
The tears she wept
Are turned to diamonds
And her mourning garb
To a mantle of ermine.

�tis not truly said

That when Summer approaches
Winter flees
To the frozen Northland
He broods in the heavens
While humble spring
Leads summer in
Through sunlit meadows

�tis in his hands
The earth turns daily
In his powerful grasp
The poles are twirling
And he leaves
E�en a little moment
Naught of earth
That�s near to heaven.

�tis therefore we see
While summer lingers
The mountains still wear
The Winter�s livery
�tis therefore we see
That summer melts not
Heaven's hoar-frost
From the head of age.

http://www.trobar.org/prosody/pnort.php

Paris Pan Takes the Dare!

Paris Pan Takes the Dare by Cynthea Liu

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (June 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399250433
• ISBN-13: 978-0399250439

Product Description
So what if it’s a rite of passage for every seventhgrade girl in town to spend a night in the woods? Paris Pan only just moved here, the woods are supercreepy, and she has enough weirdness to deal with in her own family. Finding out a girl died mysteriously years ago while on the Dare—right near Paris’s new house, no less—is bad enough, but the unmistakably ghostlike noises coming out of the broken-down shed at the edge of the Pan’s property? Definite deal breaker.

All Paris wants is to make friends, try to fit in, and not have to deal with a dead girl. But everyone has to take the Dare, and the new girl’s turn is up. . . .

This book really surprised me! I loved it! It's cute, funny, a little scary at times and an altogether entertaining coming-of-age story. The mystery keeps you guessing all the way up to the end, but it's not so complicated that young readers wouldn't be able to follow the clues. The book its self is beautiful. I love the cover design and the colors. It's a perfect scary-starter book for young readers, but its sure to be enjoyed by adults (such as myself) as well.

Eighth Grade Bites

Eighth Grade Bites

The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod (Book 1)

By Heather Brewer

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 182 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (August 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525478116
• ISBN-13: 978-0525478119

From Amazon.

Product Description
Junior high really sucks for thirteen-year-old Vladimir Tod. Bullies harass him, the principal is dogging him, and the girl he likes prefers his best friend. Oh, and Vlad has a secret: his mother was human, but his father was a vampire. With no idea of the extent of his powers, Vlad struggles daily with his blood cravings and his enlarged fangs. When a substitute teacher begins to question him a little too closely, Vlad worries that his cover is about to be blown. But then he faces a much bigger problem: he’s being hunted by a vampire killer.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Not to imply I thought it would be terrible, I just assumed it was for much younger readers. Having an 8th grade boy for the main character did not seem like something that would interest me, but I was wrong.

Brewer explores the modern teen vampire in a way I haven't seen yet. With his blood capsules hidden in his pb&j sandwiches and his "tea" and cookies, Vladimir Tod is a fun, believable character. I've added NINTH GRADE SLAYS to my wish list for my next trip to the bookstore.

My baby on her first day!

Of Kindergarten!!!

BALLAD by Maggie Stiefvater

Ballad, A Gathering of Fey

By Maggie Stiefvater

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Flux (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738714844
• ISBN-13: 978-0738714844

From Amazon.com

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL SHIVER

"Ballad is giddy, intoxicating, and threatening all at once. It is a sheer edge-read: you feel like you stand on a cliff through every scene, only barely clinging to the world, not knowing who is coming up behind you!"
—Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author of the
Protector of the Small Quartet

"With its razor wit, compelling characters, and deliriously beautiful prose, Ballad will make you laugh and gasp out loud even as it breaks your heart."
—R.J. Anderson, author of Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter

"Maggie Stiefvater excels at writing wonderfully complex characters who face wickedly impossible obstacles. Ballad had me hooked until the pulse-pounding end. Readers who loved Lament will devour Ballad and plead for more!"
—Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Remember us, so sing the dead, lest we remember you

James Morgan has an almost unearthly gift for music. And it has attracted Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and then feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. James has plenty of reasons to fear the faeries, but as he and Nuala collaborate on an achingly beautiful musical composition, James finds his feelings towards Nuala deepening. But the rest of the fairies are not as harmless. As Halloween—the day of the dead—draws near, James will have to battle the Faerie Queen and the horned king of the dead to save Nuala's life and his soul.

I've read all three of Maggie's books that have been released and I've not been disappointed. I love her poetic writing style and particularly in this book, her mixing of folklore and modern life. Like LAMENT, I couldn't put this book down. It grabbed my attention from page one and held it all the way through to the end. I was happy to see James, a character from LAMENT get his own story. BALLAD is the sequel to LAMENT, but you do not have to read LAMENT to enjoy it.

Definately a keeper. I'm putting it on my to-be-read-again shelf, right next to LAMENT and SHIVER.

You can also check out reviews on each of Maggie's books at http://bookreviewsbyjess.blogspot.com/

Jess is much better at reviews than I.