So Harry Potter's done...now what do I read?

I've had several students in the library looking for books to read now that the Harry Potter series is complete and they want something similar. Here are a few suggestions that are ALL available at the PRHS library.

Looking for action-packed adventure?

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (I review it here)








Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel







Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz (a review of the first book in the series is here).








The whole good vs. evil clash more your thing?

Eragon by Christopher Paolini









Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien









The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman









The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper









Do you like reading about characters who have powers that are either different or magical?

Meg Cabot's Mediator series










Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (reviewed here)









Tithe by Holly Black (reviewed here)









Peeps by Scott Westerfeld (reviewed here)









Perhaps you really like the fact that Harry Potter lives in a bit of a different world beside our own.


The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis









The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black








Pendragon series by D.J. McHale

Review: Green Angel

Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Green and her family live in a small town near to a large city and make their living by farming and selling their harvest at the city market. Green is especially talented at making things grow, and is upset when her parents leave her alone at the house and take her little sister with them to the market. When a bomb is dropped on the city that day it changes Green’s life forever.

Green is a great character, and the way she copes with losing her family and life as she knew it is fascinating. She renames herself Ash and begins to tattoo dark images of thorns and raven wings on her skin and wear boots with spikes sticking out of them. When she retreats into her garden, she discovers that her talent remains and others come to rely on her. Written full of imagery, Green Angel is a very different kind of dystopic novel.

4 stars out of 5 for Green Angel.

Reviews:
http://www.cbc.ca/kids/reviews/2006/10/green_angel.html
http://www.scholastic.com/titles/features/fiction/greenangel_rrr.asp

Vision of the Future...

...from 100 years ago.


Illustrations by a French artist named Villemard are his interpretations of what life would be like in the year 2000 are viewable on the website of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. I think his visions of firefighters were pretty optimistic, but how he thought sea rescues would happen isn't far off!

Review: Twisted

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson


Tyler is not having the best summer of his life: he got caught for vandalising school property at the end of the school year and has spent his entire summer vacation working off his debt. He's getting ready to head back to school as a senior, and after 2 months of physical labour he looks a whole lot different than the scrawny dweeb people knew him as in June.

At first, things seem to be going his way. Not only is he bigger and stronger than his former bully, but the most beautiful girl in school actually seems interested in him. Tyler almost thinks he's living a dream until the aftermath of a party when everything goes horribly wrong.

I read Twisted in one evening - and that doesn't happen often. I just couldn't put it down! Tyler was such a vivid and realistic character that I got drawn right into the story and wanted to find out how everything ended, and I was pulling for Tyler the whole way.

I would highly recommend this to boys in grade 9 and up (even though the book cover design is a bit ambiguous).

4 stars out of 5 for Twisted.

Reviews:
http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/0670061018.asp
http://www.teensreadtoo.com/Twisted.html

New school year = new books!

As most people around the library know, I love getting deliveries of new books. Julie, the administrative assistant, claims I can smell boxes of new books. I will neither confirm nor deny that hypothesis.

At any rate, there are quite a few new books on the shelf this September and here is the list. I think a few of them will be in high demand (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows anyone?).

Alex Rider books 4-5, Scorpia and Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz.

Bone: Eyes of the Storm and Bone: Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border by Jeff Smith.

Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling.

The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding.

Kiki Strike: inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller.

Looking for Alaska by John Green.

Mediator books 3-5: Reunion, Darkest Hour and Haunted by Meg Cabot.

Sleeper Code and Sleeper Agenda by Tom Sniegoski.

Specials by Scott Westerfeld.

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Waiting for June by Joyce Sweeney.

The Wish List by Eoin Colfer.