Alvin Ho: Totally Awesome

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters Lenore Look

Yay! Alvin's back! Alvin Ho, scaredy-cat supreme, has to go camping. His older brother Calvin has helped all he can by ordering tons of survival gear off the internet.

"Will this cost a lot of money?" I asked.
"None," said Calvin. "I'll use Dad's credit card. He said it's for emergency use only--and this is an emergency."
I nodded.
"This way no one has to spend any money," Calvin explained, "you pay with plastic."

My favorite part was the fact that Anibelly talks herself onto the trip. Anibelly might be the greatest 4-year-old ever. Anibelly's not afraid of anything and says whatever she's thinking which leads to some fun unrelated thoughts: I thought hiking was where you beat back the bushes with a sword and you get all sweaty and look like you're about to die... oh, how I wish I had a guinea pig!

But, she ends up being extremely useful to help Alvin pull himself together in time to save the day.

There's good use of changing font size to express volume without being too confusing for newer readers, and LeUyen Pham's illustrations are (once again) a delightful addition. I love Alvin as a character, how everyone accepts his extreme fear as part of who is and just rolls with it. These are great books for transitional readers!

Book Provided by... my local library

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I LIVE!

Well, all of my work has been turned in and all of my classes have been attended. Assuming I didn't totally fail that last paper, I will graduate from my MLIS program next Sunday.

And, now that I am no longer writing 2 research papers on rather depressing topics (intellectual freedom for students in American public schools and the inherent power plays involved in where a nation/culture's archives are physically located) I can get back to babbling about books.

And maybe catch up on my blog reading. That 1000+ unread posts on my Google Reader is a more than a little daunting! And I'll whittle it down to a cool 500-something unread and then, next thing I know, I'm back up to 1000+ le sigh

Anyway, books. Today's reviews have nothing to do with each other, but just a random hodge-podge of what I've read lately. (Really, I have a bag of books that need reviewing and I'm just reaching in and pulling them out.)

White Sands, Red Menace Ellen Klages

Did you love The Green Glass Sea? I know I did, and this sequel did not disappoint. Dewey is living with Suze and her parents in a small town in New Mexico in that oft-forgotten time after WWII, but before the 1950. The scientific community that worked at Los Alamos is still trying to come to grips with what it has done, TV may be the next big thing, and their town is divided between White and Hispanic. Plus, the legality of Dewey staying with the Kerrigans is totally up in the air.

I liked the struggles of Dewey and Suze's friendship--how well they knew each other, and how sometimes that didn't matter. I also liked how they were able to branch out and make friends and have projects independent of each other--I was worried how they would survive once they left the very insular community of Los Alamos. Like she did in Green Glass Sea, Klages really captures the chaotic time well, while still never giving her characters more knowledge than they should have, or letting it overpower the story.

An excellent book about a period in time we tend to completely skip right over.

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things Lenore Look

From the same author who writes the fantastic Ruby Lu books comes a new character.

Alvin longs to be a gentleman, but it's hard when he's too afraid of school to actually talk and when his only friend at school is a girl (ew). Plus, there are a lot of rules to remember. It's hard. But short, episodic chapters make this an excellent (and hysterical) book just right for those who have just finished withthe transitional, my-first-chapter type books.

My favorite part was when he finally talked to his therapist, but only in Shakespearean insults.

I'm looking forward to June, which brings us Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters!

Julian Rodriguez: Trash Crisis on Earth

Ok, the whole plot of this book is that Julian doesn't want to take the trash out and is sent to his room until he does.

But the premise is that Julian is an alien (or thinks he is) and is communicating with the very sympathetic mother ship about how horribly unfair his life on earth is. Something I think many kids, even if they aren't aliens, will relate to. Lots of pictures, some comic book type format, and computer interaction makes this a fun one for the one-step up from beginning readers.

It's even good on pizza. Trust me.

I'm having a mad craving for Peking Duck right now. This presents a problem, as all food eaten between now (noonish) and 9pm will be eaten in the car. That means I'm scheduled to eat a lot of Cheerios and Teddy Grahams. That's because today is schoolday, so I have to drive all over the metro area in pursuit of book learning. We're work-shopping my seminar paper today. I am dreading this.

PEKING DUCK!

Anyway, some book reviews for y'all

Ruby Lu, Brave and True Lenore Look

In the proud vein of Clementine and Ramona comes Ruby Lu. She has a best friend and a baby brother and things are going pretty well--she even has her own magic show in her backyard.

Then her brother decides to start talking and announces to everyone how Ruby's doing her magic tricks.

Then her mother makes her go to Chinese school. Ruby's heard about Chinese school. It was held on Saturdays, which was a bad idea. The building was cold and dark. A fire-breathing dragon lived in the dungeon. The teachers were former prison guards from China. They served snacks of roasted snakes. Children who forgot their homework were turned into crickets. Children who learned Chinese spoke English with an unshakable Chinese accent.

But Chinese school is not so bad--there's even another Ruby! And when Ruby Lu decides to be helpful and drive herself to Chinese school? Watch out!

It's pretty funny, and a good bet for something harder than the "I Can Read" beginning chapter books. You can even learn some Cantonese! Anne Wilsdorf's black-and-white line drawings, with Ruby's pigtails performing feats of gravity that Pippi Longstocking would be envious of, add greatly to the humor.

Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything

At the end of Ruby Lu, Brave and True we learned that Ruby's aunt and uncle and her cousin, Flying Duck, were moving to the US. Ruby's heard about immigrant relatives. She's not so sure about this...

BUT! Flying Duck is awesome. And she's deaf, so everyone gets to learn Chinese sign language. But... also, everyone at home is speaking Cantonese. And using chopsticks (which Ruby isn't so good at) Ruby's not entirely sure about this.

And then when summer rolls around, Ruby and Flying Duck have to go to summer school. And swimming lessons. Ruby isn't so sure about swimming lessons. She's not a fan of drowning, so she stays in the shallow end, attached to the wall, with all of her personal flotation devices. Sadly, Emma is also in swimming and attached to the wall. Emma is Ruby's best friend. Sometimes. This is not one of those times.

How much worse can Ruby's summer get?

A fantastic follow up to the first one, this one even has an illustrated dictionary of some Chinese sign language! The glossary at the back is also great, covering some of the Chinese words, as well as some English ones such as e-mail Do-it-yourself, easy mail. No stamps. No mail delivery person. Just type and click! Grandparents love it.

All in all, Ruby is a great character that kids will enjoy.

Sadly, typing about Flying Duck has not helped my urge for Peking Duck...

One more book:

Unicorns? Get Real! Kathryn Lasky

You know, I wasn't a big fan of the last Camp Princess book I read, so I'm still not entirely sure why I read this one. But I did.

In the princess book genre, these aren't great. Which is sad, because there is promise there. I'm not a fan of the different "ethnicities" representing the different kingdoms-- they seem a little stereotypical.

In this one, the girls of North Tower are back for the second session. Only, Princess Gundersnap has discovered that her mother (Empress Mummy) has taken her beloved pony into battle, where he's sure to die. Empress Mummy has a good track record of winning battles, but not keeping ponies alive during them.

Meanwhile, there's a unicorn round-up going on and Empress Mummy says unicorns don't exist, so obviously they don't! Plus, they're competing against Prince camp and there's going to be a ball. How can Gundersnap save her pony amidst the chaos? And what is the magical tapestry and the witch in the woods trying to tell her?

This is one of those weird series where I don't really enjoy it, but I have a feeling I'll read every single volume in it. WHAT IS WITH THAT? WHY DO I DO THAT? Do you ever do that? I do it all the time! There's so much good stuff out there? Why do I read stuff I don't like? Why do I read books I know I won't like? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?