Library Tip of the Week

When you're putting a book on hold, keep in mind that if you put a book on hold using Destiny Quest, any book that has the ASK orange icon is a book that we don't actually have here at the library.



These two Twilight titles are in other library collections in the district, but they aren't actually here at Smith. So stick with books that have the IN or OUT icon. Those are titles we have here at Smith!

BotW: The Roar

Let me be upfront with Emma Clayton's The Roar: I recommend you don't read it.

Whoa! Mr. Thomson is saying NOT to read a book?

In a word, yes.

To be perfectly honest, I found The Roar to be a book with too many problems to recommend. I am surprised it was recommended as a Lonestar finalist. Normally, I wouldn't book talk a book that I cannot recommend reading, but The Roar is a 2010 Lonestar winner, and I feel obligated to warn you that the book falls short of its peers.

So what's wrong with The Roar? The books starts off well enough, with a Pod Fighter chase sequence that could easily translate into a Hollywood action movie. But it all goes downhill from there. In the first place, Emma Clayton blatantly rips off core themes from the Star Wars franchise: boy and girl twins with a telepathic connection to each other, telekinetic powers that closely resemble The Force, and Pod Fighter spaceships and flying sequences that could have easily fit within any of the last three Star Wars movies. If Emma Clayton had thought to throw in some "laser swords," George Lucas might have had grounds to sue.

Now, imitation is the greatest form of flattery and I wouldn't normally mind if an author borrowed some ideas to write a good book. But Emma Clayton never seems to tie her borrowed ideas together in a satisfyingly coherent way. Her main character, Mika, is single-minded in his quest to find and rescue is sister, but written with no depth beyond that. In fact, almost all of the book's characters are high on melodrama and cliches, low on substance. Emma Clayton often had her characters do and say things that didn't make sense within the narrative of her own story.

The Roar, the namesake of the book, falls flat, described as a noise and din that manifests in Mika's head and is fueled by the injustices perpetuated by the book's main villain, Mal Gorman (mal in Spanish and other romance languages means bad, a not-so-subtle signal that Gorman is not a good guy). I understand the author's attempt to focus outrage and injustice into telekinetic power that Mika wields against evil, but she didn't come close to pulling it off.

The book's ending was a mess, due mostly to the fact that Emma Clayton threw a lot of themes into her book, but failed to tie them together in a way that made sense. The book's finale contains a twist, but I had already deduced it halfway in and Clayton did a poor job of explaining why the twist happened and what it meant for the characters' future. The final pages came to an abrupt halt. At first, I thought the book was missing pages.

I can't tell if Emma Clayton means to write a sequel to The Roar. The ending is so convoluted, I can't tell if it's meant to segue into a continuing story. Sequel or not, I recommend you stay away from The Roar. Even if Clayton manages to salvage a compelling story in future books, The Roar simply isn't worth the time investment.

New Arrival!

Have you ever been homeschooled? Know someone that has? If so, The Homeschool Liberation League by Lucy Frank might be the book for you! Check out Destiny's summary:

"Thirteen-year-old Katya convinces her parents to try homeschooling her for a month, but while she is finally excited about learning--and about Milo, the violin prodigy who lives nearby--not everything works out as she had hoped."

Library Tip of the Week

Are you using Google or Wikipedia when you do research for a class project or paper? If you are, stop! Google is a search engine, and while it does a great job tracking down hits from your keyword searches, it does not guarantee the accuracy of any information from the resulting websites.

Wikipedia is just that: a wiki that anyone can add to and edit. In general, Wikipedia does have some broad editorial control over the accuracy of its content. In reality, however, anybody can post whatever they want. The bottom line is you can't trust what you read on Wikipedia.

So where can you turn? To your very own library of course! Smith's Destiny homepage has a wide variety of online databases and encyclopedias, all of them just a click away. Best of all? You can trust the accuracy and authenticity of the information you get.

Here's how you get started:

1. Go to http://www.cfisd.net/
2. Hover your mouse over "Departments" in the middle menu tab
3. Click on "libraries"
4. Click on "Middle Schools"
5. Click on "Smith"

The default home page should immediately come up. The online databases and encyclopedias list is in the middle of the page, to the right. Click on a database and begin your searching!

BoTW: The Red Blazer Girls

The Red Blazer Girls by Michael D. Beil is a throwback to the young adult mystery books from a few decades ago. It centers around the investigative antics of three teenage girls, all of the them the best of friends. The girls attend a private Catholic high school for girls. They wear red blazers as part of their school uniform, hence their namesake. Sophie narrates the story and is the glue that holds the friends together. Margaret is the brains of the trio, an intellectual powerhouse who deduces with the best of them. Rebecca is the artist and the group's comic relief.

The three have the most active of imaginations, Sophie especially. The story begins when Sophie screams out loud in class when she sees a face peering out the window of the church across from her school. Undaunted by the scare, the three quickly agree to investigate the face and sneak into the church. Instead of a ghost or murderer, the girls discover an old lady and a decades-old mystery. The mysterious old lady tasks them with solving the whereabouts of a ring that according to legend grants wishes.

The Red Blazer Girls enthusiastically take the case and proceed to sneak into a church, hide under an alter table, and use Decartes' Cartesian coordinate system to track down the ring, among other detective activities. The girls employ a healthy dose of basic algebra and geometry to solve their case and Beil unfolds the puzzles in such a way that the reader can attempt to solve the equations right alongside the young sleuths.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Red Blazer Girls. As a kid, I read every The Hardy Boys mystery I could get my hands on. Beil's Red Blazer Girls are very much in the light-hearted, investigative spirit of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. If you enjoy a good mystery and solving math problems, pick up The Red Blazer Girls today!

New Arrival!

The Return of the Emerald Skull by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell is the latest book in the Barnaby Grimes series. Here's the Destiny summary:

"Barnaby Grimes' latest case has him tracking down the origins of a curse that is plaguing the local school, threatening students and teachers, but in the course of his investigation, Barnaby learns everything is not as it seems."

Library Tip of the Week

Have a pass to come to the library during class? No problem! Just keep in mind the following:

• Sign in at the circulation desk. Be sure to include the time that you arrived.
• If you see Mr. Thomson talking to a class, return to class and try coming another time.
• If you have books to turn in, hang on to them if you plan to check out more.
• If you don't see Mr. Thomson in the library at all, don't wait for him to come back! Return to class and try coming another time.

Remember the 10-10 rule! You can't be out of class the first and last 10 minutes of a class.

See you in the library!

BotW: Slob

When you pick up Slob by Ellen Potter and you stare at the book's cover with an Oreo cookie substituting as the title's "o," you might think you know what the book means by "slob."

To Ellen Potter's immense credit, you would be wrong.

The story opens with Owen Birnbaum, who declares at the beginning of the book that he is likely fatter and smarter than you are. Being overweight AND smart means Owen doesn't fit in well at school. He's got a friend or two, but most everyone at school makes fun of him. Bullies delight in humiliating him, especially Owen's sadistic gym teacher.

But being a social misfit isn't what troubles Owen the most. Well into the book you will find that even though Owen lives with someone he calls Mom, something happened to his real parents. Something tragic. Owen can't let go and move on from his parents' untimely death and so he works on his own personal invention, a device he calls Nemesis, to better cope.

Like Owen tells you from the start, he's smart. Genius smart. Owen knows all about satellite waves and he plans to build Nemesis so that it can grab some security camera footage of his parents the night they were killed.

Heavy stuff.

The book is also very funny and lighthearted. Owen's sister belongs to GWAB: Girls Who Are Boys and insists everyone start calling her Jeremy. The school's thug reportedly carries a switchblade in his sock. Owen's friend Nima makes tasty momos and talks about Tibetan Buddhism karma.

It's the ending, however, that makes Slob shine. The most beautiful and saddest aspect of the book is how Ellen Potter makes you think slob means one thing, only to turn it around on its head in the book's final pages. Potter artfully combines the themes of her book--loss, grief, forgiveness--and drives them home so poignently. If you don't like crying in public, read the ending in private!

New Arrival!

Bystander by James Prellar is a book about bullying in school. Here's the Destiny summary:

"Thirteen-year-old Eric discovers there are consequences to not standing by and watching as the bully at his new school hurts people, but although school officials are aware of the problem, Eric may be the one with a solution."

Library Tip of the Week

Did you know you can put your own books on hold? You can!

Here's how:

1. Go to Smith's Destiny library page.
2. In the upper right hand corner, click "Login."
3. Enter your student id number (sxxxxxx) and password.
4. If you logged in correctly, your name should display in the upper right hand corner.
5. Now, do a search of the book you want to put on hold.
6. When you find the book, click on its title to bring up its detailed information.
7. Off on the right side, you should see a red symbol that says "Hold It."
8. Click on that symbol.
9. You're done! When the book comes in, Mr. Thomson will check it out to you.

Keep in mind that when you put a book on hold, you are put in a queue. There could be one or five or twenty people in front of you that get to check the book out before you do. Also, holds expire after a few weeks. So if you put a book on hold and you don't get the book in a month or so, put in another hold.

Book Fair Starts Today!

The library book fair begins today and runs through this Friday! 6th grade will be coming to the fair with their reading class. 7th and 8th graders can come with a pass from their teacher.

The fair is also open Thursday night during 6th grade open house.

So swing on by the library and buy a good book!

BotW: Catching Fire

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the sequel to the critically-acclaimed The Hunger Games.

It picks up where the first left off. Katniss and Peeta have won the Games, but there are rumors that open rebellion lurks within every district and Kat has become a reluctant symbol for revolution against the Capital.

I found the first half of Catching Fire to be a bit on the slow side. It takes Collins some time to build the story up to the book's climatic, action-packed second half. But the next round of Games are as engrossing as they are bloody, a compelling clock mechanism that keeps the gladiators constantly on the run for their lives. I like how Collins handles the love triangle between Kat, Gale, and Peeta. She does a good job of pinging Kat back and forth between the two love interests.

Collins also does a good job of setting the story up for the inevitable third book in the series, Mockingjay. Given the circumstances surrounding open rebellion sweeping the districts and the revelation that District 13 might not be as desolate as The Capital claims, I bet Mockingjay will be an even stronger, more interesting book in the series.

New Arrival!

The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford looks to be an exciting mystery book, if not a bit on the violent side judging by the front cover. Here's the Destiny summary of the book:

"Eighteen-year-old Christopher, who plans to be a spy, learns of a murder cover-up through his summer job as a morgue assistant and teams up with Tina, a gorgeous newspaper reporter, to investigate, despite great danger."

Library Tip of the Week

I talked about Scott Westerfeld's gripping steam-punk novel Leviathan last Monday. If you didn't already know, Scott maintains his own website and updates it often. You can find it at http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/. He's got a ton of information about him and his books, including recent news and fan art and fiction.

On his site, Scott announced that Behemoth, the sequel to Leviathan, releases this October 5th! Here's a sneak-peak of the cover art: