Fairy Tales Retold.

Two books, both modern retellings of fairy tales, have jumped off the shelves at me this year.
What I know about kids is that they have one foot planted firmly in their childhood pasts and one foot in the future that's promising, exciting, modern. These two books can be described similarly. Try them and enjoy. Keep reading, everyone.


Beastly by Alex Flinn
Ash by Malinda Lo

A Call for a Challenge

Many of the 7th graders at OGM are looking for a good challenge book. What makes a challenge book? Many different things...

• a reader's lexile and the lexile of the book
• a lengthy and complicated plot
• universal themes that require a mature, critical mind
• books written for an adult audience but enjoyable for yound adults
• lots of other things too.

Anyway, because many kids have asked for some challenging titles, I thought I'd take a moment to share a few.

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Matt Cruse is a cabin boy aboard the luxury passenger airship Aurora when the ship encounters a battered hot air balloon with an unconscious man aboard. Before dying, the man claims to have seen beautiful creatures swarming in the air over an uncharted island. Not until a year later, when Matt meets the man's granddaughter, Kate de Vries, who boards the Aurora, does he learn that the man wasn't hallucinating. Pirates board, rob, and kill, and a fierce storm grounds the Aurora on the very island that Kate's grandfather spoke about--which proves to be the pirates' secret hideaway. Though readers will need to suspend disbelief of the mysterious flying creatures, which Matt and Kate call "cloud cats," details of life and work aboard the ship as well as the dramatic escapade itself make this a captivating read.
-from American Library Association

Mysterious Benedict Society by Treton Lee Stewart
I just loved this book. From start to finish it was flat out great. The characters were all interesting and deep (as opposed to superficial cliches), and the plot had some clever twists and neat puzzles. It was fun solving those puzzles along with the characters, too. So if you're looking for a fun read that's not about magic and dragons (as way too many kids books today are), I highly recommend The Mysterious Benedict Society! I can't wait for the sequel. -by Max on Amazon.com

The Sledding Hill by Cris Crutcher
This clever, spirited post-modern meta-narrative is a quick read that is bound to be controversial. It has no profanity, sexual acts, drug or alcohol use, or bloody violence but takes dead aim at censors who can't get past counting swear words or the notion of a gay character who is still alive at the end of a book. Eddie Proffit, 14, is a prototypical Crutcher protagonist, a misunderstood teen who in quick succession has lost his father and best friend, Billy, in accidents. And he must deal with Mr. Tartar, who is both a feared English teacher at school and the minister to a flock of Protestant fundamentalists at the Red Brick Church. -from the School Library Journal

Keep reading!
-stenson