Hark! A Vagrant!

Hark! A Vagrant Kate Beaton

Do you read Kate Beaton's most awesome webcomic Hark! A Vagrant? because you should.

In it, Beaton regularly makes history, Canadians, and classic literature hilarious. Often with a paragraph or two of commentary that is also hilarious. Listen to Charlotte and Emily Bronte tease Anne about her horrible taste in men. Doesn't she know that drunk losers who ruin everyone's lives are HOTTTTT? What if Ben Franklin's political cartoons had a modern editor? And, well, her retellings of Shakespeare just make me laugh a lot. I especially enjoy her comics where she sketches out the plots of books based solely on their covers. (In this collection, she has a series of books with covers by Gorey and some classic Nancy Drews.) Nothing is safe or sacred, but it's all hilarious.

Her comics are funny and awesome and hey look! There's a whole book of them! So you can read them when you're not on your computer. You should probably go read them.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Strange Case of Origami Yoda

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda Tom Angleberger

Dwight is one of the biggest weirdos at McQuarrie Middle School, and when he starts carrying around an Origami Yoda on his finger and dispensing advice in the worst Yoda-voice ever, it's pretty par for the course. Except... Origami Yoda gives good advice, advice that Dwight would never be able to give in a million years. Does Origami Yoda have special powers? Tommy needs to know if Origami Yoda's real or not, because Origami Yoda told Tommy to do something and Tommy's a bit afraid.

So, Tommy collects different stories of his classmates' interactions with Origami Yoda in an attempt to decide whether or not to trust his advice.

What results is a very fun and funny book about middle school, friends, girls, and, of course, the Force. With fun illustrations dotting the margins and other students' comments on the case files, this is book readers are sure to love.

All the love this book has gotten is spot-on and I'm just adding mine to the pile.

ALSO, there are instructions in the back so you can make your own Origami Yoda!

I've had a lot of fun booktalking this one by sticking my own Origami Yoda on my finger and doing my horrible Yoda voice and having the following conversation with myself:

Me: So, Origami Yoda, is this book any good?

Yoda: Hmmm... Funny it is. Read it you shall. Like it you will. But! A warning I have...

Me: A warning?

Yoda: Do not drink milk while reading this book, or laugh so hard, shoot it out your nose, you will.

Me: Good advice. Thanks Origami Yoda!

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Blast from the Past

Blast From The Past Meg Cabot

New Allie Finkle! New Allie Finkle! New Allie Finkle!

Allie's class is going on a field trip. She's excited because events have always consipired against her so she's never actually been on a field trip before. She's also never ridden on a school bus before and Rosemary, who rides the bus every day has promised her that "if you sat near the back, over the real wheels, and the bus went over a pothole or the train tracks too fast, you went sailing up into the air... it was the most amazing thing I'd ever heard."*

BUT! They're going to Honeypot Prairie, which is a living history museum AND because of budget issues, they have to share a bus and field trip with Allie's old fourth grade class. And when Cheyenne and Brittany Hauser team up, well... watch out. They're wonder twins of alpha-mean girls, creating snotty discord where ever they go.

Allie's in a pretty bad mood for most of this book and drags everyone else down with her, but only Allie can save the day in the end. Everything I've ever said about Allie still stands. I mean, how can you not like Allie? She's strong and smart and a good friend and good sister. Plus, she's just funny. Even though the funniest line in the book goes to Sophie, when they're complaining that their parents say they're not responsible enough for cell phones yet:

I know what you mean, Allie, about being responsible. It's not fair. My mom was so distracted over her PhD the other day that she left her laptop on the roof of the car and drove all around town with it like that until someone finally told her when she was stopped at a read light. But my dad didn't say she couldn't have a cell phone.*

Plus the part where Allie discovers George Washington's rules was just awesome.

*All quotations are from the ARC, so they might be different in the final version, but I hope they stay the same!

ARC Provided by... the author, at my request

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies

Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies Andrea Beaty illus. Dan Santat

Kevin and Joules Rockman don't want to go to summer camp, but it's better than attending SPAMathon with their parents. Until their summer camp is invaded by Fluffs-- Fierce, Large, Ugly, and Ferocious Furballs. They can also be described as viscous, 7-foot tall, candy-addicted rabbits. Using all the knowledge they've gained from years for watching horror movies on the Late, Late, Late Creepy Show for Imsoniacs, the Rockman twins are out to save the world.

Good, silly, fun about the horrors of summer camp and evil rabbit aliens. Also, a great love-letter to cheesy horror movies. Parts of it are told in comics and there are good lists and charts covering such necessary information on how Fluffs differ from Earth rabbits and famous last words. Did I mention silly fun? Because that's what it is. Very good silly fun that kids are sure to love.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Spaceheadz + BIG GIVEAWAY

Spaceheadz Jon Scieszka with Francesco Sedita, illustrated by Shane Prigmore

Are you ready for some good, silly fun? (You didn't think Scieszka would be writing something that wasn't good, silly fun did you?)

Michael K. has moved and started at a new school. His fifth grade teacher thinks he's Bulgarian and sticks him with these other two (very, very weird) kids whom she also thinks are Bulgarian. No one is Bulgarian. Michael K. is American, and Brian and Jennifer (and the class hamster) are actually aliens from Planet Spaceheadz! On Planet Spaceheadz, they feed on our TV waves and if Brian and Jennifer and Major Fluffy don't find 3,140,001 people to be Spaceheadz, Earth will be turned off.

As if Michael K. didn't have enough problems to worry about on his first day of school (really, ALIENS?!) Brian and Jennifer have seen every commercial ever. And think they're real. Charmin really is ultra-strong AND it makes bears happy, so they should probably get a lot of it...

But, Agent Umber from the Anti-Alien Agency is hot on their trail. Luckily, he has no idea what he's doing, so they might be safe. For now.

Very silly and funny. Agent Umber is classic doofus bad guy, which a lot of silly/cool gadgets. Like a Pickle phone. My favorite parts were actually the inter-chapter interludes with information about waves and patterns and super organisms and other cool science things that did play a role in the book. ALSO! All the websites in the book (and there are several) are real sites that you can go to for extra content and fun things. (Like if you go to www.sphdz.com you can sign up to be a Spaceheadz and get your Spaceheadz name. Mine is Original-Scent Cornflakes. Also, they are a long way away from getting 3,140,001 people, so you should probably go join.)

The ending is just a partial one for one adventure-- it's obviously a series (the next one is coming out in late December.) But it's not a cliffhanger, which is nice. And refreshing.

Fans and Scieszka will like this one-- we got it in at the library at mid-July and I can't keep it on the shelf. I just peeked a look at the circ figures and the stats prove what I already knew-- it's going like hotcakes.

You can read the first chapter right here!

Look! A book trailer:



AND NOW! FOR THE BIG GIVEAWAY NEWS!

To celebrate Spaceheadz, the good people at Simon and Schuster are giving one reader of Biblio File a Middle Grade Book Pack! With 5 awesome books! Just fill out the form below by midnight (eastern) on Monday, September 13. One name will be chosen at random!

Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka
Brixton Bros: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity Mac Barnett
Amelia Rules! The Tweenage Guide to Not Being Unpopular Jeff Gownley
Nightmare at the Book Fair Dan Gutman
Keepers of the School: We the Children Andrew Clements

How can you NOT want to win those? Just fill out the form!




Book Provided by... the publicist, for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Oops!

Depending on how often my feed feeds to your feed reader, or if you clicked over at the right minute, y'all just got a sneak peek of Thursday's Fables post.

Oh, the joys of sloppy pre-scheduling.

Anyway, it's down now and you can wait until Thursday to read it if you missed it, BUT! to make up for it, check out this twitter feed: Chrisvstwilight with such amazing tweets as:

How can a book about a werewolf who builds motorcycles be this boring? 

At this point, I have to wonder how much of this book is going to be devoted to the fact that Bella is really, really, really sad. #wegetit
It's like if Dickens had taken 200 pages to establish that Marley was really, really, really really really dead.

He reads Twilight  so you don't have to.   

Girl, 28, Catching Up on Reviewing, (Slowly) Going Insane

I am from the midwest. While winter is not my favorite season, I do enjoy it. DC winter makes me sad. It's cold enough to be annoying, but not cold enough to actually be cold. It's gray and rainy. There's no snow. :(

Today, I didn't wear my jacket when I went out to dinner, because it would have been too hot. IT IS WINTER! I NEED TO WEAR A JACKET!

Anyway, books. Today I'm reviewing the rest of the Girl... series by Sue Limb. It's hard to review a series book without some spoilers for previous books. I apologize, but I don't have the skillz to do it any other way.

Girl, (Nearly) 16: Absolute Torture Sue Limb

Jess and Fred are in luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurve, but tragedy awaits them—mainly in the form that Jess is going on holiday with Granny and Mum. How will insecure Jess handle being torn away from Fred for weeks?! Even if Jess is looking forward to finally visiting her Dad at his place, how can she leave Fred with the bevy of beauties inevitably surrounding him?

So, I was a little disconcerted with the ending of Girl 15, Charming but Insane. I mean, Jess’s best friend Flora, really likes Fred. But at the end of the book, Jess and Fred hook up. What about Flora? Even if you like a boy, if your best friend expresses interest first, he’s off limits until she says otherwise. I feel very strongly about this and was kinda pissed at Jess for not really thinking about Flora. Bad friend! (Plus, I was reading this after sunrise during the 24 hour readathon, so I was really mad.) Anyway, I thought there would be some friendship drama in the start of this book but Flora was over it (even though she had sulked about it for three days.)

Anyway, I really liked this one. Jess is insane and insecure and invents her own drama, but her voice is laugh-out-loud hysterical (she does want to be a comedienne when she grows up) A great addition to the funny Brit chick-lit scene—good for fans especially of Georgia Nicolson or Angelica Cookson Potts.

Girl, Going on 17: Pants on Fire Sue Limb

After their fantastic summer, school’s about to start. Sadly, this means a heart-breaking comedy of errors as Jess and Fred break up over pride and misunderstanding. To top it off, there’s a new teacher at school—one that hates Jess and her comedy. Things are so awful Jess keeps getting “sick” and keeps spinning outrageous tales to cover her absences.

Once again, Jess must lie in the bed of drama that she made. And! If she can get around annoying MacKenzie and the horrible Miss Thorn, there will be an end-of-term comedy show to end all comedy shows.

I think this is my favorite of the series. Jess’s drama is entirely invented, and entirely avoidable, but yet, entirely real and believable. Problems escalate when she doesn’t want to show vulnerability, and in her attempt to keep her life under control, it spins wildly out of it. Hysterical and full of heart.

Girl, Barely 15: Flirting for England Sue Limb

This is the prequel to the saga of Jess. In the term before Girl, 15, Charming, But Insane, before Fred, before lusting after Ben, before Granny moves in, a group of French exchange students is coming. Luckily, the student Jess is hosting sends a picture that shows him to be super-hott. Jess can’t wait. Too bad her French sucks. But, when Edouard arrives, he’s a small, little kid! With English skills to match Jess’s French ones. International romantic drama (and hilarity) ensues, culminating in a camping trip of comedicly epic proportions.

This is a well-done prequel—it sets up the first series perfectly, without everything pointing to things that fans of the series already know (like Gossip Girl: It Had to Be You does.) It’s also nice to see Jess completely insane, but not in relation to Fred—you know it’s just her.

Poetry Friday

Today I bring you snippets from a poem written by Shakespeare Shapiro, the hilarious main character of

Spanking Shakespeare Jake Wizner

Milton himself was a mischievous louse
Whose favorite hobby was to egg Shakespeare's house.
And with whom did Milton engage in this fun?
Sometimes Ben Johnson, sometimes John Donne.

...

I don't know much philosophy, but I know that Descartes
Was renowned in his day for the way he could far.
But even Descartes was not nearly as smelly
As that malodorous scoundrel Percy Bysshe Shelley.


Maybe NOT the best way to woo your literary dream girl.

It's Senior Year. Shakespeare Shapiro has never had a girlfriend, has a best friend obsessed with bowel movements, and has to write a memoir for English class. Following him through the standard trials of trying to get the girl and the college, this is hilarious. Shakespeare's voice, both in his narration and in the bits of his memoir we see, never sees his own faults but will still make you laugh out loud.

This is one of those books where it's hard to write about how good it is, but seriously. Funny. Good funny. Read it now funny.

Poetry for Children has the roundup.

Monday? NO! Tuesday!

I love 3 day weekends, except then I'm always off for the rest of the week. Let's see if tomorrow I remember it is Wednesday (so must go to work in the morning) instead of Tuesday (when I go to work in the afternoon.)

Also, this weekend, I managed to seriously (well, not hospital-serious, but serious enough it's totally gross to look at and I can justifiably whinge about pain) mangle a toe on BOTH feet, in 2 separate incidents. Really. Saturday night was my right foot, last night, my left. Oiy.

But... let's talk books, shall we? Today's review is about a book written for adults, except I first read it at 11 or 12 or around there and loved it. I have been looking for this book for years and finally figured out (well, Sean figured out) what book it was. So, I reread it. I'm happy to say that, for the most part, it stands up to reread AND! I found out that it was actually the first in a trilogy. WooHoo!

Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming Robert Zelazney and Roger Sheckly

Every 1000 years, the forces of Good and Evil hold a contest. The winner controls man's destiny for the next millennium. Anxious to get out of duty in the Pit, Azzie is the demon in charge of Evil's entry. He has a budget, an assistant, and a drive to win. Azzie's plan involves building a princess and Prince Charming and have them act out the tale of Sleeping Beauty, but with disastrous consequences. Of course, nothing goes according to the plan.

Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming is funny, and almost a fantasy spoof. It very consciously plays with some of the fantasy genre mainstays. It's very silly, but in a smart way. I loved it as a kid and very much enjoyed it as an adult. There are a few things that I understand now that I'm pretty sure I didn't get then--nothing content wise, but some mythology and Citizen Kane references/allusions. I think I appreciated the silliness more when I was younger, but this was an extremely pleasant reread--I'm very glad I found this story again.

I'm a Card-Carrying Library Card Carrier!

I went back to my Alma Mater this weekend to help plan my 5 year reunion. Even though it will really have been 6 years. My college was weird like that, and in a lot of different ways.

Dan and I were invited to a house party and served a mixed beverage that entails Keystone Light and Sunny D. And everyone freaking out and getting down to the exact same song we all freaked out and got down to back in the day. (For your listening enjoyment, I present you with that SAME song. So you can freak out and shake your booty. Like A Prayer)

I wandered around new buildings and old buildings and was comforted that the old smells were still there.

And, while looking for the Chinese department so I could say a hearty ni hao to my old profs, I accidentally stumbled into Kelly's office. Well, outside her office. I met her later for coffee. She gave me more books and Dan was not amused. :)

Do you know did amuse Dan? And myself? This:

I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert

[T]his book is for America's Heroes. And who are the Heroes? The people who bought this book. That bears repeating. People who borrow this book are not Heroes. They are no better then welfare queens mooching off the system like card-carrying library card-carriers. For the record, we're not offering this book to libraries no free rides.

For the record, welfare queen that I am, I got it at the library.

For those of you without a TiVo who like to go to bed a resaonable hour and therefore might not be familiar, The Colbert Report is a spin-off of The Daily Show. What Daily Show does to fake news, Colbert does to fake punditry. In a perfect send up of The O'Reilly Factor, Colbert offers biting social and political commentary in a way that frequently makes me want to pee my pants in laughter.

And now it's in book form. Reading much like Colbert's monologues (with margin notes that read a bit like an extended segment of "The Word") we get his faux-conservative thoughts on everything from Immigrants to Family, Sex, and Science. And it comes with stickers!

Parts of it, especially in the beginning, go on a bit long, but overall, it's pretty hysterical. I highly recommend it along with Jon Stewart's America (The Book).

And, some thoughts to leave you with:

Think books aren't scary? Well, think about this: you can't spell "Book" without "Boo!"

On why you don't need to take comparative religions? Jesus Wins

Why not take Women on Women: The Literature of Liberation? It's not what you think

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Sorry, Darwin-huggers, bit it's not "In the beginning, a monkey evolutioned gay marriage."

Nothing is less American than the Army-Navy game. Whichever side you pick you're rooting against our boys.

Hi-sterical

Things my Girlfriend and I... was the funniest thing I've read in a long time.

Kinda like David Lodge on crack? I don't know if I like that analogy, but he captures relationships well and academia (but this time the support staff side) well, as does Lodge.

But there's more to it. More slapstick. More crazy. I mean, Lodge's people/situations are all totally believable everyday observations.

Millington's world is crazy, and yet, you do believe it anyway. I mean, Lodge would never have his university pay Chinese mobsters to recruit Asian students.

Don't read it if you're a librarain who is easily offended, though. He hits them pretty hard. But, on the other hand, I've known several librarians like the one in his book.