Reading Abounds

Title:  The Boundless Canadian Author :   Kenneth Oppel Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 97004 Description:    Aboard "The Boundless," the greatest train ever built, on its maiden voyage across Canada, teenaged Will enlists the aid of a traveling circus to save the train from villains. Rubric Rating:  Level 3 - Laud It Why I Read It:  Read aloud with my son.  First read aloud that he, as a dyslexic, read to me.  Notes:   William Everett is an artist.  However, his father doesn’t want him to study art – he wants him to work on the railway in a good paying job.  Will has lived both poor and privileged – growing up poor as his father worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and as a child of privilege going to private school after his father is promoted within the organization after saving the life of Cornelius Van Horne, the owner of the railway.   Van Horne’s greatest creation is the Boundless, a 13 mile long t...

Title: The Bite of the Mango Author: Mariatu Kamara ***Canadian*** Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 34938 Description: A courageous biography by a woman from Sierra Leone who at 12 was tortured and lost her hands to child soldiers, her subsequent life in refugee camps, begging in Freetown and her eventual arrival in Toronto where she began to pull her life back together. Rubric Rating: Level 3 - Laud It Why I Read It: This book was recommended to me by several teachers as a novel suitable for curriculum study. Lori's Notes: This is a difficult read in terms of subject matter, but a compelling story written in easy language.  Mariatu's journey from a tortured 12-year-old girl in Sierra Leone who has her hands chopped off by child soldiers, through her recovery, and eventual move to Canada borders on the unbelievable.  I am amazed at the strength Mariatu shows both in surviving her physical attacks but also with the mental fortitude to survive these atrocities.  I ...

Title: The Uninvited Author:  Tim Wynne-Jones ***Canadian Author*** Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 34459 Description: Mimi arrives at her father's vacation cottage and is surprised to find someone living there. She's even more surprised when the someone accuses her of leaving strange and threatening tokens inside. Now she must figure out who's responsible and, more importantly, what they want? Rubric Rating: Level 2 - Like It Why I Read It: I had already read a couple of titles by Wynne-Jones and picked this up as part of an author study. Lori's Notes: This book was not what I was expecting from the cover.  I was expecting more of a supernatural story, perhaps a haunted house, but this novel was nothing like that at all.  After a bad break up, Mimi travels to Canada to spend time at her estranged father's cabin but finds someone else living there.  Turns out she isn't an only child and has a stepbrother. They are plagued by break-ins and strange messag...

Title: A Thief in the House of Memory Author: Tim Wynne-Jones Perma-Bound Canada Catalogue #: 297240 Description:   The death of an apparent stranger in the Steeple family's old home triggers troubling questions for sixteen-year-old Declan as he tries to make sense of his fragmented dreams, random memories, and unexplained coincidences, hoping to learn the truth about the mother who suddenly left when he was ten. ***Canadian Author*** Rubric Rating: Level 2: Like It Why I Read it: I loved this book's title and the air of mystery of the cover.  The gate surrounding a misty mansion evoked such a foreboding atmosphere as well as the idea of something being locked away.  Plus it's a Canadian Author. Lori's Notes:    The book started well, a death in an old mansion on a hill captures your interest right away.  Being based in Eastern Ontario I also found the setting recognizable.  I expected it to be a suspenseful novel but it was rather a bo...

Title: Blink and Caution Author: Tim Wynne-Jones Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 50958 Description: Two teenagers who are living on the streets and barely getting by become involved in a complicated criminal plot, and make an unexpected connection with each other. ***Canadian*** Rubric Rating: Level 2: Like It Why I Read It: The title was interesting and I have read other Wynne-Jones novels so I thought I would check out this book. Lori's Notes: Two teens, nicknamed Blink and Caution, find their lives entwined when they become part of a "kidnapping." Blink, who suffers from Tourette's syndrome, is pilfering food from a Toronto hotel when he finds himself in the middle of a mystery after witnessing an apparent "crime in progress."  Caution, a girl who ends up in Toronto after the accidental death of her brother (something she thinks is her fault), decides to help Blink after pick pocketing him at the train station.  Travelling by train across eastern...

Title: The Game (Previously Titled: Invitation to the Game) Author: Monica Hughes Perma-Bound Cat#: 157695 Description: An adventure/survival story set in the future as teenagers are either assigned jobs or unemployed status when they graduate from high school. *** Canadian *** Rubric Rating: Level 2: Like It Why I Read It: I was looking for a dystopian novel by a Canadian and this book was enticing.  I also read some of Hughes' other books and quite liked them. Lori's Notes:  After being educated in a government school, Lisse and seven of her friends end up as "unemployeds" living in an inhospitable "DA" (designated area).  When they hear about "the game" they do everything they can to get invited.  A good read but further explanation as to some of the book's issues would have gone a long way, for example: Why couldn't the government get rid of the robots after the population rebounded?  Despite the number of questions I h...

Title: Little Brother Author: Cory Doctorow Perma-Bound Cat #: 26651 Description: After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right. ***Canadian*** Rubric Rating: Level 3: Laud it Why I Read It: This book was recommended by an associate. The cover didn't really appeal to me, so I may not have picked it up on my own. Lori's Notes:   Set in the near future, Marcus and his friends; Darryl, "Van," and "Jolu," skip school to participate in the geo-game "Harajuku Fun Madness."  Unfortunately, the teens find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time - the vicinity of a terrorist attack.  To make matters worse, while trying to get into a fall-out shelter, Darryl is stabbed by someone in the crowd.  I...

Title: Egghead Author: Caroline Pignat Perma-Bound Cat#: 33352 Description: Three teens struggle to find their way through life with a bully. ***Canadian*** Rubric Rating: Love 4: Love it. Why I Read It: I was looking for some books with Bullying as the main theme and this was by a Canadian. Lori's Notes: Freshman year in high school is not easy for anybody - but it's even worse when you have to put up with a bully, or you're best friends with a bully, or you stand up to a bully.  Devan is Shane's best friend and Shane is a bully.  Devan understands the difficult home life Shane has and knows that he needs a friend to tell him right from wrong.  William is the kid who's just a little bit odd, nicknamed "egghead" by Shane, William just tries to get through school without getting in anybody's way.  And then there's Katie, she likes Devan but doesn't know how he can be friends with someone like Shane.  She's friends with Will...

  Title:  Half Brother Author: Kenneth Oppel Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 45359 Description: In 1973, when a renowned Canadian behavioural psychologist pursues his latest research project, an experiment to determine whether chimpanzees can acquire advanced language skills, he brings home a baby chimp named Zan and asks his thirteen-year-old son to treat Zan like a little brother. *** Canadian *** Rubric Rating: Level 3 - Laud  It Why I Read It:   I thought the premise of this story was quite interesting.  The cover art is great.  Simple and exactly what the book is about. Lori's Notes:   Zan (short for Tarzan) comes to live with Ben’s family as part of a social experiment.  Can a chimpanzee be raised to be part of a human family?  Not wanting a brother, Ben doesn’t want to be involved, but Zan eventually wins him over.  Soon Ben is his biggest advocate.  When the experiment looks like it will fai...