Review: Twilight

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I kept hearing about this book: a student reading it on the bus on the way to a soccer game, coming across the author's site on the internet, strange reports of teen girls' obsession with a certain character. So I picked it up as a little gift to myself at the Scholastic book fair at the elementary school a while back.

When I got home, I opened it up and couldn't put it back down. I was up quite late and probably wasn't firing on all cylinders at work the next day.

I raved about it to the student I had seen reading it and she smiled knowingly as I rambled on about how great it was - oh my gosh, Edward! - and so on. Then I borrowed the sequel, New Moon, from the public library and gushed to her after I read that one too. I think she might believe I'm a little obsessed (although she has read both books multiple times, as I understand it), which I will neither confirm nor deny.

So yes, this is supposed to be a review. Onward!

Brief synopsis: Bella has just moved to Washington to live with her father. She notices a strange yet strikingly beautiful group of students sitting in the cafeteria - one boy in particular. When she sits beside him in chemistry class it seems like he can't even look at her, let alone speak to hear. Even when she comes to find out that he is a vampire and finds her irresistable (a dangerous prospect!), it doesn't stop her from falling in love with him and finding herself in imminent danger.

This book is written in a way that makes legions of girls fall in love with Edward and wish they were Bella (despite her klutziness). Stephenie Meyer portrays vampires in a way that makes them more like fun-loving superheroes than bloodsucking nocturnal beings that sleep in coffins and transform into bats, and her characters are all lively and believable. Even though Twilight is a pretty long book, it will leave you wanting more.

5 stars out of 5.

Read a review.

Read about the author on her fantastic website.

New Books!

I got two boxes of books in yesterday and I'm really excited about them - as are a few students since they've been hounding me about the Darren Shan books since September! One cancelled order later, they have finally arrived.

Killers of the Dawn
Lake of Souls
Lord of the Shadows
Sons of Destiny, books 9-12 of Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak series.

Lord Loss
Demon Thief, books 1 and 2 of Darren Shan's Demonata series.

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a graphic novel by Bo Hampton

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Eragon and
Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Tithe: a modern faerie tale by Holly Black

Twilight and
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

On Thin Ice by Jamie Bastedo

Vampire Plagues: Paris, 1850 and
Vampire Plagues: Mexico, 1850 by Sebastian Rook

A Treasury of Victorian Murder by Rick Geary

Nonfiction:

Stone Voices by Keibo Oiwa

DK Eyewitness Electricity by Steve Parker

Review: Stormbreaker: an Alex Rider adventure

Stormbreaker: an Alex Rider adventure by Anthony Horowitz


Although I had heard about the Alex Rider books, I really wasn't sure what I would be getting into when I opened the cover and began to read. As it turned out, once I opened the cover I didn't put the book down again until I was done. Full of suspense and non-stop action, Stormbreaker is the first in a series that I now plan on reading.

Fourteen-year-old Alex Rider wakes up late one night to a knock on the door from a policeman who relays the news that his uncle, Ian Rider, has died in a car accident. Alex has lived with Ian in London, England, since his parents were killed in a plane crash when he was a young child, and now he has no family left. Alex doesn't believe the policeman's story about Ian dying because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt because, as Alex knew well, Ian was a stickler for such things. Alex decides to find out what really happened.

When he finds his uncle's car in a junkyard with bullet holes in the windshield he vows revenge against his uncle's killers. But how? Who killed Ian? And why is the British spy agency, MI6, so interested in Alex?

Stormbreaker is a very fast-paced and exciting novel. Among other things, Alex has to go through basic training with men twice his age, learn how to drive an ATV while being chased by one, scuba dive in a pitch-dark cave, and face a deadly Russian assassin.

4.5/5 for Stormbreaker.



Alex Rider website: http://www.alexrider.com
Read interviews with author Anthony Horowitz.

Post-Apocalyptic novels - virtual display

Truesight by David Stahler Jr.

Everyone in Jacob's colony is born blind. It has always been this way. They embrace the philosophy of Truesight: Blindness brings unity, purity, and freedom. It is an exceptional community. Everyone is happy.

As Jacob nears his thirteenth birthday, he anxiously anticipates his new role as an adult and all the changes that will bring. But as the day approaches, a far greater change threatens Jacob's future. It all starts with a searing pain in his eyes ... -from the publisher

Read a review.



Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.

Read a review.

Read about Ray Bradbury.


The City of Ember by Jeanne duPrau

Ember is a city in eternal darkness, only kept light by its increasingly unreliable electric system. Other systems are falling apart as well, and stockpiles of food and essentials that have lasted hundreds of years are running out. The city was only meant to last 220 years, and now it has been 241. But the instructions the Builders left have been lost and forgotten.

Lina finds them, but not before her baby sister has chewed them into virtual indecipherability. Now she and her friend Doon must figure them out from the few disjointed letters left, before the city falls apart. Their efforts lead them to discover long forgotten secrets about the nature and purpose of Ember, and what the Builders intended. They want to share their discoveries with the rest of the citizens -- but only if the corrupt mayor and his guards don't stop them first. -from the publisher

Read a review.


The Dirt Eaters by Dennis Foon

In this first book in the trilogy of The Longlight Legacy, the wars have transformed the world, and 16-year-old Roan is about to discover a terrible truth.

When Roan''s parents and the people of Longlight perish in a raid, Roan is filled with rage. Torn between his desire for revenge and the legacy of peace he has inherited, he is taken in by a sect of warriors. With them he learns he has exceptional talent as a fighter. But Roan is haunted by visions he can''t understand. When he commits his first act of violence, he flees in disgust into the most wasted lands of all, the Devastation.

He meets friends and allies in unexpected places, as his enemies hunt him down. But it is only when Roan meets Alandra that he begins to understand his life's purpose and why his village, Longlight, was destroyed. -from the publisher

Read some reviews written by teens.

Read about Dirt Eaters on Dennis Foon's website.

Happy Holidays!

Today is the last day of school before Christmas holidays begin, and I hope everyone has a fun and enjoyable vacation.

School (and the library) will start up again on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007. See you then!

PRHS Senior Boys Basketball

The senior boys basketball team schedule is as follows:

January 9th, HOME vs. Advocate, 7:00pm

January 11th, HOME vs. CCA, 4:00pm

January 15th, AWAY vs. Tatamagouche, 5:00pm

January 25th, AWAY vs. Amherst J. V., 7:00pm

February 6, AWAY vs. Musquodoboit, 4:30 pm

Want to use Google more effectively?

Sick of getting 2.3 million hits, none of which are what you really want?

Want to find more precise results, or search more than one search engine at one time?

Well, it's your lucky day! I have given this presentation about searching the internet to a number of classes here at the high school and received feedback from teachers that they, too, found it helpful. So I'm putting it out there for anyone at PRHS (and elsewhere) to look at.


Finally...

A wonder of the web - Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is fantastic! It has become one of my favourite internet tools since I learned about it last year. What it does is allow you to save links to webpages that you can access from any internet connection, which is a whole lot better than just having a Bookmarks or Favorites folder on your computer (because you can only access those bookmarks from that computer). All you have to do is create a free account and start posting (adding) websites.

Take a look at what the PRHS library account looks like.

When you post websites you can also add tags, or descriptive words to help you find that website later in your del.icio.us account. For example, if you added this blog to your del.icio.us account, you might use the tags "PRHS," "library," and "blog." I currently have 90 items in the PRHS library del.icio.us account and my tag cloud looks like this:



The bigger the tag in the tag cloud above, the more posts I have tagged with it. Also, if you click on one of those tags, perhaps "astronomy," you will get a list of all the websites that I have tagged with the word "astronomy." You can also bundle the tags, which basically makes folders that contain all the posts that contain a particular tag or set of tags. If you go to http://del.icio.us/prhslib/space it is the bundle of all the posts that contain the tag "space."

You might have noticed that anyone can look at the PRHS library's Del.icio.us account and its contents. Although I am the only one who can add more websites, anyone can access the links themselves, which is great for student projects (like the grade 9 project on space) because it is accessible from any internet connection.

So, if you are interested in making your own del.icio.us account, go here to get started.

Enjoy!

Grade 9 space project

Below are links to some helpful websites about space (also found at http://del.icio.us/prhslib/space):

• Solar System Exploration homepage - a NASA site.
• Windows to the Universe - find information on Earth, the solar system, and other astronomical entities.
• Lunar and Planetary Institute - go to Resources on the menu bar to find "Exploring Mars" and "Exploring the Moon" sites.
• CSA - Canadian Space Agency
• Chandra Field guide to x-ray sources - a Harvard site that provides clear overviews of astronomical entities like white dwarf stars and supernovas.
• National Science Teachers Association - links to space websites.
• NASA ISS EarthKam
• Astronomy magazine - links to brief overview articles.
• Astronomy websites - from Librarian's Internet Index.

If you have any questions or comments about these sites, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Fantasy books - virtual display

Pendragon: The Merchant of Death by D. J. MacHale

Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby: he is going to save the world. And not just Earth as we know it. Bobby is slowly starting to realize that life in the cosmos isn't quite what he thought it was. And before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution.
If Bobby wants to see his family again, he's going to have to accept his role as savior, and accept it wholeheartedly. Because, as he is about to discover, Denduron is only the beginning. - from the publisher.

Pendragon website.


The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

Although she is the daughter of Damar's king, Aerin has never been accepted as full royalty. People whisper the story of her mother, the "witchwoman", who allegedly cast a spell on the king so he would marry her - and then died of despair when their first child was a girl. But no one knows Aerin''s destiny. From dragon-killer to defender of Damar, she will become a true hero, and wield the power of the Blue Sword, Gonturan. - from the publisher.



Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Doomed to - or blessed with - eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing that it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a starnger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune. - from the publisher.

About Natalie Babbitt.


The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Lyra Belaqua is content to run wild among the scholars of Jordan College, with her daemon familiar Pantalaimon always by her side. But the arrival of her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, draws her to the heart of a terrible struggle--a struggle born of Gobblers and stolen children, witch clans and armored bears. And as she hurtles toward danger in the cold, far North, young Lyra never suspects the shocking truth: She alone is destined to win, or to lose, this more-than-mortal battle. - from the publisher.

This is the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy.

His Dark Materials series website.

Read a review.

Author's website.


Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me. She meant to bestow a gift. When I cried inconsolably through my first hour of life, my tears were her inspiration. Shaking her head sympathetically at Mother, the fairy touched my nose. "My gift is obedience. Ella will always be obedient. Now stop crying child."
So begins this richly entertaining story of Ella of Frell who wants nothing more than to be free of Lucinda's gift and feel that she belongs to herself. For how can she truly belong to herself if she knows that at any time, anyone can order her to hop on one foot, cut off her hand, or betray her kingdom - and she'll have to obey?
Against a bold tapestry of princes, ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters, and fairy godmothers, Ella''s spirited account of her quest to break the curse is a funny, poignant, and enchanting tale about an unforgettable heroine who is determined to be herself. - from the publisher.

Read an interview with the author.