Books & Media

Garfield is off to solve a mystery in the latest graphic novel from Papercutz: His food bowl is gone. Oh the humanity! Check out our preview of vol. 8 of Garfield, below, and keep an eye out for the book, which just came out this week.

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick, Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin. 2012. Copy provided for review. The Plot: Samantha Reed’s mother explained to her about the family next door: “There’s one in every neighborhood. The family that never mows their lawn. The toys scattered everywhere.” The message to Sam is clear: stay away from [...]

A new app takes viewers on a virtual tour deep inside the tombs and pyramids of Egypt's Giza Plateau.

Check out this week's News Bites for the latest information on library grants, writing contest for young adults, and more.

Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta (Candlewick Press, 2013) will be published April 2013. My full review will appear then; in the meanwhile, my tease — and tease it is — is I loved Quintana and loved this conclusion to the Lumatere series. You’ll be seeing this as a Favorite Books Read in 2013. Reviewed from [...]

The number of kids reading ebooks has nearly doubled since 2010, according to Scholastic’s Kids & Family Reading Report, which was released today. The national survey of kids age 6–17 and their parents also found that half of kids age 9–17 say they would read more books for fun if they had greater access to ebooks—although 80 percent of kids who read ebooks say they still read books for fun primarily in print.

Titanic: Voices From The Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson. Scholastic 2012. Review copy from publisher. Finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award. It’s About: The sinking of the “unsinkable” Titanic on April 15, 1912, resulting in the loss of over 1,400 men, women and children. The Good: I believe the first Titanic movie I [...]