Ricki – Page 69 – Unleashing Readers

Top Ten Tuesday: Books We Picked up on a Whim and Enjoyed

August 4, 2016May 17, 2016 by Ricki

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. The feature was created because The Broke and Bookish are particularly fond of lists (as are we!). Each week a new Top Ten list topic is given and bloggers can participate.

Today’s Topic: Books We Picked up on a Whim and Enjoyed

Ricki

1. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

I randomly saw this book in college and decided to give it a try. And so started my love affair with Sherman Alexie.

2. The Bus Driver who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories by Etgar Keret

This is the best collection of short stories that I’ve ever read. In high school, I saw it on the shelf and the title captured my interest. The stories were absolutely hilarious and highly entertaining. My best friend and I don’t enjoy the same books, but we both loved it.

3. Native Son by Richard Wright

I found this book in my school’s book room. No one had taught it in over a decade. I read it and loved it so much that I incorporated it into my college credit course. It’s fantastic!

4. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Computer science isn’t my thing, but I was intrigued by the futuristic take of this book and wondered if the title connected to 1984, a book I love. This book is fantastic, and I highly recommend it!

5. Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox

I saw this book and figured I’d pick it up because the binding was a bit different from a typical board book. Oh, I love this book so much!

Kellee

1. Don’t Push The Button by Bill Cotter

This book caught me off guard, and Trent and I think it is hilarious! I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of it before I picked it up at the bookstore.

2. Liberty’s Voice: The Emma Lazarus Story by Erica Silverman

I picked this book up on a whim at the Scholastic Book Fair because I wanted some new nonfiction picture books. This one was fascinating and taught me about a strong, talented woman of history I didn’t know.

3. Tommy Can’t Stop by Tim Federle

I loved the Nate books by Federle, so when I saw this at the library, I knew I had to grab it. I love Tommy! I see him in many of my students.

4. Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova

Graphic novels are what I probably read on a whim the most. I often will judge by the cover and hope that they will impress. This one did and my students love it too.

5. Heavenly Nostril series by Dana Simpson

I love this series! I hadn’t heard of it until I saw the second one on Netgalley, and I adored it when I read it. I then HAD to read the first, and I am currently reading the third. I love Phoebe!

Which books did you pick up on a whim and enjoy?

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Review and Giveaway!: Bucky and Stu vs. the Mikanikal Man by Cornelius Van Wright

May 12, 2016 by Ricki

Bucky and Stu vs. the Mikanikal Man
Author and Illustrator: Cornelius Van Wright
Published: July 28, 2015 by Nancy Paulsen Books

Goodreads Summary: It’s the adventure of a lifetime when best friends—and self-proclaimed superheroes—defeat bad guys of their own invention.

It’s wonk ’em time when Bucky and Stu have to stand up to Phat Tyre, TrashMan and Hose-Nose. No matter that the bad guys are all made out of household items that Bucky and Stu have assembled themselves—these bad guys don’t stand a chance against the boys’ power moves. Still, it’s quite a surprise when their latest villain, the giant Mikanikal Man, gets zapped during a lightning storm and comes to life! The battle—and thrill—of a lifetime ensue. Full of surprises and laughs, this upbeat, action-packed story celebrates imagination, creativity, and friendship in even the most unexpected forms. Cornelius Van Wright’s hilarious illustrations are full of surprises and are perfect for portraying the high-speed antics of two enthusiastic boys.

About the Author:

Cornelius Van Wright (www.corneliusvanwright.com) wrote and illustrated When an Alien Meets a Swamp Monster, and has also illustrated several other picture books, including Princess Grace (by Mary Hoffman) and Jingle Dancer (by Cynthia Leitich Smith). His work has appeared on Reading Rainbow and Storytime and has been exhibited with the Society of Illustrators. He lives in New York City.

Ricki’s Review: For me, this book celebrates the imagination. These two boys build their own villains out of household items, and the end results are hilarious. My son enjoys reading this book, and after our first reading we created our own villain out of couch cushions, a colander, and other cooking tools. While many readers will automatically attribute this book to boys, I think girls would love it, too! Who doesn’t love creating a monster out of every day items? Next winter, I plan to read this book with my son and take him outside to create an imaginative snowman. It will be the hit of the block!

Kellee’s Review: What a perfect book to review to coincide with the release of Captain America: Civil War! It highlights how anyone can be a superhero if they use their imagination and whatever they can find! I know that this is going to be a favorite of parents who like comic books and will be a reading ladder to super hero comic books because the next step after fighting Phat Tyre is Green Goblin! I also think that the story will really get kids’ minds reeling and get them playing! Too often I hear that kids aren’t playing enough anymore, but I believe that is because video games and TV are so stimulating. Bucky and Stu is imaginative enough that it will stimulate the minds of its readers and get them playing.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: This book would be a great choice to kick off a unit on imagination. Some elementary schools do invention fairs, and this would be a great book to initiate excitement in the fair. Further, with the highlight on STEM in education, teachers might consider pairing with a robotics teacher to show students how robots were made. It would be really neat if they could try their own hand at creating their very own robot! Now THAT is authentic learning!

Check out the downloadable CCSS-aligned curriculum guide at: https://www.scribd.com/doc/310658230/Bucky-and-Stu-vs-the-Mikanikal-Man-Curriculum-Guide

Discussion Questions: How does using our imagination help us in life? When have you had to use your imagination creatively? What famous people (current or in history) are known for their imaginations?; How might this book inspire you to make your own invention?

Book Trailer:

This made us giggle and highlights the good fun of this book!

Read This If You Loved: The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires, What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, The Noisy Paint Box by Barb Rosenstock, Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers, Journey by Aaron Becker

Giveaway!:

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Recommended For:

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**Thank you to Barbara at Blue Slip Media for providing copies for review!**

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Titles

August 4, 2016May 10, 2016 by Ricki

Today’s Topic: Favorite Book Titles

Ricki

1. I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Jude and Noah are twins and since their childhood, they have played a game where they bargain/trade parts of the world. I loved this aspect of the book, and it will stick with me.

2. Copper Sun by Sharon Draper

The title of this book sets the mood for the entire story.

3. More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

I feel like this title captures the essence of many adolescents. I think about it often.

4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Incorporating Shakespeare in a title always earns bonus points.

5. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

This book is a stunner, and the title feels just right. It makes me think of broken glass, fragility, and revealing truth.

Kellee

1. Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby

This title just captures the theme of the novel for me, and the time in the book where the title is explained makes me cry every time!

2. Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

The title of this books comes from one of my favorite quotes “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid,” and it fits perfectly with the book.

3. A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

This title just captures the tone and fluidity and bit of magic within Natalie Lloyd’s book.

4. Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle

Federle’s Nate books are some of my favorite audiobooks I’ve ever listened to. Whenever I hear the title, I can hear it in Tim’s voice (he’s the narrator), and it immediately brings me back to the book. The sequel’s title is pretty awesome too!

5. Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

Whoa! This book is so intense, and the title captures the pain, tiredness, sorrow, and resilience of Arn. Brilliant.

Which titles are your favorite?

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Blog Tour, Giveaway, and Author Guest Post!: “When Characters Come Alive” by Beth Vrabel, Author of Camp Dork

May 23, 2016May 8, 2016 by Ricki

“When Characters Come Alive”

“Do Lucy and Alice know each other?”

A young reader asked me this recently when I met with their class to talk about writing and reading. The students had read Pack of Dorks as a classroom read-aloud and several of them went on to read A Blind Guide to Stinkville on their own.

The grin on my face had to look ridiculous as I tried to figure out how to answer this question. Did Lucy, my snarky and loyal protagonist in Pack of Dorks, know quiet and brave Alice from A Blind Guide to Stinkville?

Luckily another student piped in. “There is no way they’d like each other, if they have met. Alice is way too mature for Lucy.”

“But Alice and Sam would get along,” replied the first student, mentioning Lucy’s best friend.

“Actually,” I said, and there really is no word to describe the thrill pulsating through me at that moment. “Sam and Alice are cousins.”

“What?” they said together, minds blown.

I nodded. “Look for clues in Camp Dork.”

As an author, that was the best conversation ever, one that’s making me grin like a scary clown as I write about it now. These readers weren’t asking if Alice and Lucy would meet in further books. They wanted to know if they knew each other now, in the land fictional characters live when we close our books. To them, Lucy and Alice aren’t personas I created. They’re real.

I see the same thing in my son when he talks about his current literary obsession—Harry Potter. “I wish he’d be a little more careful with his Invisibility Cloak,” he mused as I put him to bed. “It makes me nervous that he just leaves it lying around.”

Ask my son anything about Harry Potter, and he can immediately give you the answer. What’s in his pocket? “A golden snitch.” What’s on his bedroom floor? “Chocolate Frog wrappers.” What’s his biggest fear? “Dementors.”

This ability to talk about characters with the same conviction and intimate understanding we would use to describe as our friends happens because of one thing: Voice.

When a character has a distinctive and authentic voice, not only do the stories become alive, so do the characters.

Finding that voice is the hardest aspect of writing for me. Even writing the dreaded synopsis is easier than this essential step.

It’s tricky because it feels like I’m not working. It feels—and looks like—a lot of staring into space, eating candy and drinking coffee. But really, I’m thinking of my characters, trying to unravel what makes them meaningful, how they view the world, what makes them unique.

Assigning them quirks is easy. Making those quirks meaningful and capable of moving forward characters’ stories is tough.

A Blind Guide to Normal (releasing in October) tells the story of Ryder Raymond, a fourteen-year-old boy who always has a pun or a joke at the ready. The reason for this is pretty obvious: He wants to make you laugh before you can laugh at him.

But sometimes, as an author, I’m the only one who understands a character’s quirks. Take for example Sheldon in the Pack of Dorks series. He is completely obsessed with dinosaurs. He wears shirts with iron-on dinosaurs and shoelaces with dino prints. Every conversation with Sheldon will eventually go back to dinosaurs. I haven’t yet shared in the series why Sheldon is obsessed—how when he was a toddler, he and his dad used to go for walks looking for tracks and spend hours playing with toy dinosaurs. I haven’t mentioned that Sheldon’s dad isn’t part of his life any more, but the dinosaurs still are. But I know that, and it helps me move Sheldon through the series.

When I’m to the point where I can talk about my characters the way those students did Lucy and Alice—putting them in new situations and seeing how they’d respond—only then am I able to write their stories.

And it’s only when I see that these characters have blossomed to life for readers, too, that I know all that space-staring potato-chip-eating coffee-drinking was time well spent.

Young writers who are just beginning to tap into their own ability to story tell might benefit from continuing the stories of characters they already know and love.

I remember doing this myself when I was in middle school. Winnie Foster went on to have many more adventures in my mind after finishing Tuck Everlasting. I told myself stories about her growing older, times when she would run to the stream and debate drinking from it. Times that she was so glad she never had.

Another classroom I visited offered up another pinch-me moment as an author. The students told me they loved to play Pack of Dorks at recess, taking turns being Lucy, Sam and the rest of the gang. The character most coveted was Lucy’s baby sister Molly.

The teacher told me she encourages them to put these new adventures on paper during classroom free writing time. What an incredible idea!

Young writers given the freedom to continue their favorite characters’ stories will no doubt give them the confidence to tap into their own storytelling, find their own voice.

“I still think Lucy and Alice should meet,” the student told me as our classroom discussion ended. “It’d be a good story.”

“I think so, too,” I told her. “And you should write it.”

Camp Dork

About the Book:

Lucy and her pack are back, in this sequel to Beth Vrabel’s heartwarming and humorous debut, Pack of Dorks. Sheldon convinces Lucy, Sam, April, and Amanda to join him at a weeklong sleep-away summer camp—Camp Paleo: Live Like a Caveman. Like cavemen, they’re going to have to make do without air conditioning or a heated pool. They’ll learn archery and dig for fossils. And Grandma’s coming too; she’s taking a job as lunch lady for the camp next door.

At the last minute, Sam backs out to go to a gymnastics training camp instead. Lucy wonders why she misses him so much—it’s not like he’s her boyfriend or anything. Why does the word “boyfriend” make her blush, even when she’s only thinking it? She needs a distraction. Enter Mr. Bosserman, the grouchy camp leader who won’t budge on the caveman aspect of the camp. The old man needs some softening up, and Lucy knows just the person for the job: Grandma.

One successful match made, Lucy starts to see potential lovebirds everywhere. And setting up couples keeps her from facing the question tickling the back of her mind: Is she in love with Sam? But when the wrong campers fall for each other, the pack falls apart, all under the watchful eye of a super secret blogger who’s been writing about the camp’s activities Gossip Girl–style. Even worse? A thief is targeting everyone but Lucy, setting her up to look guilty. Soon Lucy again finds herself alone, left to fix the messes she’s made and face her own feelings. If she fails, the pack may be splintered for good.

For readers aged 8 to 12, this is a funny but poignant book about bullying, crushes, the harmful nature of rumors, and the importance of friendship and telling the truth. A great book to read aloud in the classroom for discussions or to simply read on a summer trip.

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25898670-pack-of-dorks

Giveaway!:

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About the Author: Beth Vrabel grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania. She won a short-story contest in fourth grade and promptly decided writing was what she was going to do with her life. Although her other plans–becoming a Yellowstone National Park ranger, and a professional roller skater–didn’t come to fruition, she stuck with the writing. Beth’s backround is journalism and was editor of two regional magazines and a lifestyle columnist. Beth now writes full time.

Her books include Pack of Dorks series and A Blind Guide to Stinkville (Sky Pony Press). Her latest release, Camp Dork, hit bookstores in May.

A Blind Guide to Normal releases in October.

Author Links:

Website: www.bethvrabel.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBethVrabel/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/beth_vrabel

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7710163.Beth_Vrabel

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorbethvrabel/

Thank you to Beth for this post. We hope our readers enjoyed her conversation with these students as much as we did! We’ve been fortunate to feature Beth on the blog before. Please check out her other guest post, “My Son’s Teacher’s Approach to Reading.“

Thank you to Lisa at Tasty Book PR for connecting us with Beth!

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Review, Signed Hard Copy Giveaway, and Author Interview: Invisible Fault Lines by Kristen-Paige Madonia

May 5, 2016 by Ricki

Invisible Fault Lines
Authors: Kristin-Paige Madonia
Anticipated Publication: May 3, 2016 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Summary: Tired of living in limbo, Callie finally decides to investigate her father’s disappearance for herself. Maybe there was an accident at the construction site that he oversaw? Maybe he doesn’t remember who he is and is lost wandering somewhere? But after seeing a familiar face in a photo from the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, she wonders if the answer is something else entirely.

Hailed by Judy Blume as a “remarkable young novelist,” Kristen-Paige Madonia, author of Fingerprints of You, explores how to rebuild a life after everything seems lost.

My Review: This book kept me guessing! From the very first page, I wondered what happened to the narrator’s father. About halfway through, I realized that it didn’t matter what happened to him because this is a story about character. It is an emotional ride through the trauma of a young girl’s life after her father goes missing. I felt all of her emotions right along with her—guilt, fear, anger. I particularly enjoyed the evolvement of her friendship with her best friend Beckett. I appreciate authors who feature characters who happen to be gay—rather than making this the sole focus of a story. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy strong character development.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Teachers might consider tying this story into a study of missing persons. This investigation could go beyond children as missing persons and extend into adults who are missing. Students might research local missing persons in their area, and this could lead to advocacy efforts.

Discussion Questions: What do you think happened to Callie’s father? What different potential realities does Callie explore in the story?; How does the author switch the point-of-view effectively to deepen our understanding of the story?; What emotions does Callie experience in the story? How might we tie these into the stages of grief? Should she feel guilty that she doesn’t start looking for her father immediately? Why or why not?

Flagged Passage: “My father disappeared on a Tuesday that should’ve been like any Tuesday, but eventually became the Tuesday my father disappeared.”

Read This Series If You Loved: Fingerprints of You by Kristen-Paige Madonia; If I Stay by Gayle Forman; Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver; Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley, The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci

Recommended For:

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Interview with Kristen-Paige Madonia

Can you tell us a little bit about your writing process/ How has writing this book been different from writing Fingerprints of You?

The most important thing I learned from writing Invisible Fault Lines is that my process will inevitably change depending on the project. My first book, Fingerprints of You, was a fairly straightforward novel with a traditional structure and timeline, so I wrote it start to finish and was able to create the first draft in less than two months — of course it took much longer to revise and polish, but in general is was quick and relatively easy to write. My new novel is much more complicated, as it blends a contemporary mystery set in 2006 with bits and pieces set one-hundred years earlier, as the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake plays a large role in the novel. It’s a hybrid novel, and the narrative arc is a bit more intricate, so though I initially tried to use the same process I used when writing Fingerprints of You, it just didn’t work. Eventually I wrote the book out of order and then went back, during revision, and braided the two storylines together. So in terms of process, I suppose it’s ever changing! And of course that’s one of the reasons that I write – there are no rules and there’s no one way to do it. It’s about experimenting, about doing something different each time you sit down to work.

Where/How did you come up with the premise of this book?

Like most writers, I write from a place of curiosity. With Fingerprints of You, I was curious about the ways we define family, but this novel stemmed from my curiosity about grief and the various modes we use to manage and process loss. I began writing it after hearing David Levithan read from his novel Two Boys Kissing, specifically honing in on the sentence that eventually became the epigraph of Invisible Fault Lines: “How beautiful the ordinary becomes once it disappears.” We were both at Wordstock Book Festival in Portland, and I was in between projects, hoping to find inspiration while traveling to publicize Fingerprints of You. And there it was. That line. I couldn’t get it out of my head. I tend to begin stories with an event after which nothing will be the same for the character, and that idea of ordinary, of how our version of ordinary can shift in an instant, intrigued me. So I wanted to write about that kind of shift and about the possibility of the impossible being possible, which is where the link to the historical event, the earthquake of 1906, originated. I knew I wanted to do something completely different than Fingerprints of You and that I wanted to experiment with form and genre while staying true to my character-driven style of writing.

From the outset, we wonder what happened to Callie’s father, and at one point, Callie and her friends explore potential reasons for his disappearance. We obviously won’t spoil the book for readers, but did you know how the book would end from the very beginning?

I did. I knew that I wanted to invite the reader to participate in the novel in a more active role than my last novel allowed. I believe all books are collaborative projects between the author and the reader, but this novel leans heavily on what the reader brings to the story, on what they want to believe and how they want to interpret the events in the book. When I first imagined the story, I decided that I wanted to write a book that honors the fact that not all questions have clear answers – I think it’s part of our job, as YA authors, to be realistic and honest with our readers while also allowing for and portraying hope, so that was one of my original goals, and it inevitably shaped the ending.

Beck is a wonderfully crafted character. Did you base him on anyone in your life?

Oh, he’s such a scene-stealer, isn’t he?! Every time he showed up in the novel, I fell a little bit more in love with him. No, he’s not based on anyone I know, but I imagine him to be a compilation of my best friends from high school and also my current best friends: honest, hilarious, and one-hundred percent golden-hearted.

You are a professor of YA Lit and creative writing. How has this impacted your position as an author or thoughts as a writer? Do you get feedback from students, or do you keep your work private?

This is such a complicated question, so in attempt to not write a fifteen-page essay here, I’ll simply say that I love what I do. I find great inspiration from working with students who hope to pursue a creative life, who find value in literature and the arts. But the reality is that every moment I spend teaching and planning and grading is one less moment that I spend writing my own work, and that’s the hard part. Teaching reminds me why I write and what my tools are in terms of craft, and actively publishing new work reminds me how important it is to be a positive literary citizen, to serve as a mentor and encourage and inspire young authors. It’s a hard balance, of course, but it’s also a privilege to be both a professor and a published author, so I could never complain about the challenges.

Are you working on anything new?

I am! And I’m in that bizarre and dreamlike phase of being equally terrified and excited by my new project. It’s also a protective phase in terms of not wanting to talk much about it yet, but I will say that it’s a project based on my curiosity about our reliance on technology and the environmental and creative effects of that reliance.

Thanks so much for having me on your blog – it’s been lovely to visit with you!

**Thank you to Kristen-Paige Madonia for providing an copy for review and a signed hard copy for the giveaway!**

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Childhood Characters We’d Love to Revisit as Adults

May 4, 2016May 3, 2016 by Ricki

Today’s Topic: Ten Childhood Characters We’d Love to Revisit as Adults

These are all characters we love, and we’d definitely love an update about how they are attacking adulthood!

Ricki

1. Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

I remember wanting to be Fern. I wonder if this would change in my adult years.

2. Pippi from Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Decades later, I still think Pippi is the coolest girl I’ve ever read about.

3. Amelia Bedelia from the Amelia Bedelia series by Peggy Parish

I get a warm feeling in my gut when I think about this series. I think I read every Amelia Bedelia book that was published.

4. Nancy Drew from the Nancy Drew Series by Carolyn Keene

This is another series I completed. Nancy Drew holds a special place in my heart.

5. Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Just the cover of this book brings back great memories!

Kellee

1. Ramona Quimby from Ramona (series) by Beverly Cleary

Ramona was quite the rambunctious child, but I loved her. She was so much fun! I’d love to see how she transition from such a handful to an adult.

2. Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl

The end of Matilda is just the start of Matilda’s journey, and I’d love to know what amazing things this brilliant young lady did during the rest of her life.

3. Betsy from Betsy (series) by Carolyn Haywood

Betsy books were the first books my mom read to me, and I would love to see middle grade, young adult, and adult stories about Betsy, her family, and friends.

4. Charlotte Doyle from The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

Oh Charlotte Doyle! You are so kick butt! And that is when you were only thirteen! What did you do with the rest of your life?

5. The gang from the Baby-Sitters Club (series) by Ann M. Martin

Lots of people try to predict what the BSC is up to now. Kristy, Mary Ann, Claudia, Stacy, and the gang were my first book best friends, and I spent so much time with them; I’d love to see what they were up to now!

Which characters would you want to revisit as an adult?

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Blog Tour, Review, Giveaway, and Author Interview: Curiosity House: The Screaming Statue by Lauren Oliver and H. C. Chester

April 28, 2016 by Ricki

Curiosity House: The Screaming Statue
Authors: Lauren Oliver and H. C. Chester
Anticipated Publication: May 3, 2016! by HarperCollins

Summary: Four orphans with extraordinary abilities and questionable pasts—Pippa, Sam, Thomas, and Max—are happy to be out of harm’s way now that the notorious villain Nicholas Rattigan is halfway across the country in Chicago. But unfortunately their home, Dumfreys’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders, is in danger of closing its doors forever.

But their troubles only get worse. The four friends are shocked when their beloved friend, famous sculptor Siegfried Eckleberger, is murdered. As they investigate, they find clues that his death may be tied to the murder of a rich and powerful New York heiress, as well as to their own pasts.

In this second book in the exceptional Curiosity House series by bestselling author Lauren Oliver and shadowy recluse H. C. Chester, the four extraordinary children must avenge their friend’s death, try to save their home, and unravel the secrets of their past . . . before their past unravels them.

My Review: I actually read the second book in the series before the first, and I had so much fun reading both! The murder mystery kept me guessing throughout the series, and I imagine both middle grade readers and readers of all ages will have great fun with this book! The world of this book feels like it is set about one hundred years ago, so I enjoyed reading sections aloud to my son. We talked with him about “freak shows” and their purpose and existence. He is very young, so the conversation did not get very critical, but I imagine that classroom teachers would have excellent discussions with students about these topics. Each of the characters is very different from the others, which made reading this book so enjoyable. What I enjoyed most about the book (and series) is its accessibility. While the freak show aspect is an element of our past, the book feels like it is set right in this moment, and this is what makes it such an engaging book for readers!

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: This series is a creative lesson gold mine for teachers. How neat would it be to print pictures from the museum and post them around the room? Students could walk around the room and be inspired to write their own fiction. Then, they might share stories and see how different their perspectives might be. This could lead to conversations about author’s craft and outside inspiration as a writing source.

Learn More about The Curiosity House:
The Book Website, which includes School Resources!: http://www.thecuriosityhouse.com/
Read More about Authors Lauren Oliver and H. C. Chester: http://www.thecuriosityhouse.com/authors.php
Downloadable Character Buttons!

Discussion Questions: Which character was your favorite? What characteristics made the character most interesting to you? How do others respond to this character?; How do you imagine Lauren and H. C. worked together on this project? (Hint: After guessing, take a peek at the interview questions below.); Why might author collaborations be so valuable?

Flagged Passage: “It was only eleven o’clock in the morning and already topping ninety degrees in New York City. The street outside of Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders was as still as a painting.”

**Please note that this passage is from an advanced reader copy and will potentially change with publication.**

Read This Series If You Loved: Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley, A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd, Mechanical Mind of John Coggin by Elinor Teele, Big Fish by Daniel Wallace, Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

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Interview with Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester!

What does your writing process look like? Is it mainly collaborative in nature, or do you work alone?

HCC: My working relationship with Ms. Oliver represents what I regard as the ideal collaborative arrangement. I permit her access to my unique collection of rare and extraordinary artifacts–as well as giving her the invaluable benefit of my encyclopedic knowledge of all things related to the strange and arcane–and she does all the work.

What have you learned from each other while writing these books?

HCC: I have learned that MS. Oliver possesses what can only be termed bananaphobia. My discovery of this strange phenomenon occurred when I invited her to join Trudy and myself for lunch during one of her–Ms. Oliver’s–research trips to my private museum and made the error of ending the meal with what I believed would be a delicious dessert of canned fruit cocktail adorned with hand-cut banana slices. I will spare you a description of the scene that ensued. Let me only say that Trudy was so traumatized that it took her an unusually long span of nearly fifteen minutes to finish off her dish of fruit cocktail.

Lauren, how has writing this series been different from writing your other texts, which explore a much different genre? Has the intended audience affected your writing process in any way?

LO: I actually have two other middle grade books, Liesl and Po, and The Spindlers, so writing for a younger audience wasn’t unfamiliar to me. I really love it, because it gives me a chance to explore my humorous side. And I love how sheerly inventive and, for lack of a better word, kooky you can be with a younger audience.

H.C., what have you learned from this writing process? Has it affected the ways you look at the museum?

HCC: I have learned that the most satisfactory writing process is one in which someone else does all the work. As for your second question, my answer is: not really.

Interview with the character, Phoebe the Fat Lady:

Weighing in at half a ton, Phoebe is tremendously proud of her size and keeps up a rigorous diet regimen that includes toast soaked in bacon fat and whole sticks of butter. The scariest day of her life was when she discovered, that due to the flu, she had lost ten pounds.

Since you’ve left, what adventures have you embarked on? Who do you miss most?

Phoebe: Hugo and I have traveled all over Europe, where we’ve seen things that are truly freakish! Do you know that in France, snails are a delicacy?

Have you maintained the same weight? How has life been for you, in general?

Phoebe: Oh, certainly not! That is one of the strongest misconceptions people have about my weight–that I do not have to work, every day, to maintain my fantastic enormity. But in fact as a child I could barely be considered plump! In order to maintain my beautiful physique, I follow a strict diet of twenty-six meals a day and restrict my exercise to less than one hundred meters.

Will we see you again?

Phoebe: Never say never!

**Thank you to Natasha Ochshorn and Lauren Oliver for providing an advanced copy for review!**

Be sure to visit the other great blogs on this blog tour! Before us was: http://www.literaryhoots.com and coming up next is: http://www.memyshelfandi.com!