Hennepin County Library - KidLinks: book talks: autumn 2008 :

book talks: autumn 2008 Favorite books from our librarians, focusing on horror, humor, animal stories, multicultural literature and non-fiction. more book talks	Print this list Email this list Return to all Books & Reading lists
19 listings found.

	Avi A Beginning, a Muddle, and an End Avon the snail decides to become a writer with the help of his friend Edward the ant, which leads them into a series of adventures involving close encounters with an anteater, a crow, a tree frog, and a hungry fish. 164 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book AVI Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Boos, Ben Swords A celebration of swords and swordsmen from ancient warriors such as Beowulf to medieval knights; from ninja and samurai to legendary maidens of war. Swords offers lavish background details on design and use as well as photos showcasing specimens in all their shining glory. 81 p. 2008 Children's Nonfiction Book 623.441 B Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Cabot, Meg Moving Day Nine-year-old Allie Finkle has rules for everything and is even writing her own rule book, but her world is turned upside-down when she learns that her family is moving across town, which will mean a new house, school, best friend, and plenty of new rules. 228 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book CABOT Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Ferraiolo, Jack D. The Big Splash Matt Stevens, an average middle schooler with a glib tongue and a knack for solving crimes, uncovers a mystery while working with the organization, a mafia-like syndicate run by seventh-grader Vincent Mr. Biggs Biggio, specializing in forged hall passes, test-copying rings, black market candy selling, and taking out hits with water guns. 277 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book FERRAIO Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Fleischman, Sid The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West Here, in high style, is the story of a wisecracking adventurer who came of age in the untamed West. A rebel who surprised himself by becoming the most famous American of his time. 224 p. 2008 Children's Nonfiction Book 921 T911 Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Fradin, Dennis B. Duel: Burr and Hamilton's Deadly War of Words In the early morning hours of July 11, 1804, two men stood facing each other on a New Jersey cliff side. One was the U.S. vice president, Aaron Burr, and the other was Alexander Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury. They were ready to fight to the death for honor. 2008 Children's Nonfiction Book 973.46 F Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Gaiman, Neil The Graveyard Book Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard. 312 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book GAIMAN Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Grabenstein, Chris The Crossroads When eleven-year-old Zack Jennings moves to Connecticut with his father and new stepmother, they must deal with the ghosts left behind by a terrible accident, as well as another kind of ghost from Zack's past. 325 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book GRABENS Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Kibuishi, Kazu Amulet. Book One: The Stonekeeper After the tragic death of their father, Emily and Navin move with their mother to the home of her deceased great-grandfather, but the strange house proves to be dangerous. Before long, a sinister creature lures the kids' mom through a door in the basement. Em and Navin, desperate not to lose her, follow her into an underground world inhabited by demons, robots, and talking animals. Eventually, they enlist the help of a small mechanical rabbit named Miskit. Together with Miskit, they face the most terrifying monster of all, and Em finally has the chance to save someone she loves. 185 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book KIBUISH Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Lawson, JonArno Black Stars in a White Night Sky Most of the poems in this collection are short, and topics range from personal yet universal issues such as following the crowd ("…the path to conformity/is different for each person") to the abstract, like the comically sad lot of being a peppercorn (which, "…fell in a sprinkling/of savory dust"). 118 p. 2008 Teen Nonfiction Book 811.54 L445 Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Levine, Gail Carson Ever Fourteen-year-old Kezi and Olus, Akkan god of the winds, fall in love and together try to change her fate--to be sacrificed to a Hyte god because of a rash promise her father made--through a series of quests that might make her immortal. 244 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book LEVINE Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Look, Lenore Alvin Ho, Allergic to Girls, School, and other Scary Things A young boy in Concord, Massachusetts, who loves superheroes and comes from a long line of brave Chinese farmer-warriors, wants to make friends, but first he must overcome his fear of everything. 172 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book LOOK Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Murdock, Catherine Gilbert Princess Ben A girl is transformed, through instruction in life at court, determination, and magic, from sullen, pudgy, graceless Ben into Crown Princess Benevolence, a fit ruler of the kindgom of Montagne as it faces war with neighboring Drachensbett. 344 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book MURDOCK Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Nelson, Scott Reynolds Ain't Nothing but a Man : My Quest to Find the Real John Henry Historian Scott Reynolds Nelson recounts how he came to discover the real John Henry, an African-American railroad worker who became a legend in the famous song. 64 p. 2008 Children's Nonfiction Book 973.0496 N Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Nye, Naomi Shihab Honeybee : Poems and Short Prose In eighty-two poems and paragraphs, Naomi Shihab Nye alights on the essentials of our time--our loved ones, our dense air, our wars, our memories, our planet--and leaves us feeling curiously sweeter and profoundly soothed. 164 p. 2008 Children's Nonfiction Book 811.54 N984 Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Reisman, Michael Simon Bloom, the Gravity Keeper Nerdy sixth-grader Simon Bloom finds a book that enables him to control the laws of physics, but when two thugs come after him, he needs the formulas in the book to save himself. 298 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book REISMAN Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Seidler, Tor Gully's Travels Gulliver leads a life of luxury with his master. But when his master falls in love with a woman who is allergic to dogs, Gulliver is sent to a new home. He finds himself with a family of raucous human beings and three mutts. But just as Gulliver begins to make a grudging peace with his new reality, he gets swept up in a harrowing new adventure. 173 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book SEIDLER Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Vernon, Ursula Nurk : The Strange Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew Nurk, a sort-of brave shrew, packs up a few pairs of clean socks and sails off on an accidental adventure, guided by wisdom found in the journal of his famously brave and fierce grandmother, Lady Surka the warrior shrew. 131 p. 2008 Children's Fiction Book VERNON Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.
	Winchester, Simon The Day the World Exploded : The Earthshaking Catastrophe at Krakatoa Eruptions. Explosions. Shock waves. Tsunamis. The explosion that destroyed the volcano island of Krakatoa was followed by an immense tsunami that killed more than thirty thousand people. Today, 125 years after the volcano erupted in one of the greatest catastrophes the world has ever known, the name Krakatoa is still synonymous with disaster. 96 p. 2008 Children's Nonfiction Book 551.21 W Listen to a book talk by Library staff Get the Flash Player to see this player.

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