Bettina Valentino

I just received Bettina Valentino and the Picasso Club from the lovely people at Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. If the wonderfully colorful cover doesn't drag kids into the book, I don't know what will. Bettina is my new favorite quirky character! She has very unusual parents as well. In Bettina's school, her new art teacher, Mr. Popart, is inspiring great art and teaching the 5th graders about amazing artists. Bettina and some friends start The Picasso Club and create more outrageous art outside of school as well. All is fine until the quintessential uptight classmate goes home and tells her parents that the art teacher showed them "dirty pictures" from an art book. The climax erupts with parent meetings and Mr. Popart's "discipline" from in the hoity toity private school. But, Bettina is one of the most charismatic, spunky characters I've seen in Tween fiction in a long time. I loved her artistic style and her parents' down to earth attitude. This is a great Tween book and I can't wait to pass it on to my daughter!

Audio-Firestorm

I am a huge David Klass fan and I read You Don't Know Me to my 8th graders every year. They laugh and cry and wait for me to cry on the last couple of pages (I tell them ahead of time that I do this). So, it's surprising that I've not picked up Firestorm until now. Rather, I ran into the audio book at the public library and remembered I hadn't read it yet! So, I've been riveted to my car CD player while I listen. This action-packed and seat-gripping novel was seemingly all over the place. Jack Danielson is a normal boy with a normal life until his parents tell him that they're not really his parents. Within hours, Jack finds out that he's been sent from the future to save the world's ecosystem-namely the oceans. With the help of a telepathic dog named Gisco and a beautiful, karate-chopping shape-changer named Echo, Jack learns to live with his new role as the "Beacon of Hope." My favorite character (besides Jack) was Dargon, with his evil ways, his long hair and bulging muscles. Plus, who wouldn't love a great villain with his own island? The pull of finding out what Firestorm actually was lent an additional draw for me. This is a great middle school book for boys since the action is non stop and incredibly engaging.

I instantly turned a 7th grade boy onto this book and he loves it! We kept comparing where we were until he got sick this weekend and fell behind.

YIKES!

I can't believe March is half over and I haven't been blogging! I hope everyone else has taken part in all of the awesome posts for Share A Story Shape A Future this week. There have been some amazing posts and I've apparently been too busy to respond. Sometimes, life just gets in the way--I have a son who prefers his "birthday suit" over clothes and a daughter who enjoys "throwing" her shoes at random teachers when she's angry. Hmm....slightly feisty. I have no idea where she gets it! :)


So, here's what I've been reading....

I finished Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies by Erin Dionne and loved it. Such a cute book about self image and learning to love yourself, something I think I had a very difficult time doing as a teenager. I loved the name of the contest Celeste's family enters her into- the Ms. Husky Peach contest. Her humiliation and the humor associated with the entire contest were uplifting. I ate this one during a sick day last week. No pun intended. Additionally, I love the fact that Dionne gave good advice about how to lose weight and then Celeste's friends gently encourage her to begin walking for exercise. A very realistic and uplifting book full of hope and discovery. This is a refreshing change after reading several anorexia/starving yourself books.

Other than that, I've been dabbling while battling a huge illness and I haven't completed much lately. Coming soon: Flygirl and The Indigo Notebook