Gossamer by Lois Lowry

Gossamer, Lois Lowry's newest book, is a reflection of the title - a fine intricate weaving of wonderfully delicate material. It's almost the telling of storymaking. Littlest and Thin Elderly weave dreams from tiny snippets of memories left lying about the house and then bestow the dreams on those deeply asleep. The lonely lady and the angry young boy who live in the large house with so many stair steps and so many things with memories are very lucky to find each other. They are also very lucky to have Littlest and Thin Elderly watching over them at night, helping to protect them from the horde of Sinisteed.

Read and rejoice in this tale of the littlest dream weaver and those that she touches!

Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Veldi

Giannine receives a gift certificate for her birthday to the Rasmussen Gaming Center for 30 minutes in a total immersion game. She should have know it wasn't going to be a good day when the automated bus would not stop at Rasmussen's because a group of angry Citizens to Protect Our Children were protesting outside. How could she have known that the protesters would batter the servers to the state of malfunction? Caught in a virtual reality game, complete with smell, hunger, emotions, and pain, Giannine has to win the game to be released by the computer functions that are connected to her mind or risk brain damage and possible death. But how could she win when every character in the game was trying to kill her and often enough did? How many times could she wake up to smell the sheep dung, get licked by the dog, and find out that she was the new heir apparent restarting the game once again before her time ran out?

This book is engaging, adventurous, witty, well plotted and skillfully written. I like the fact that it has a girl as the main character in the mix of technology, gaming, dragons, and political intrigue. Let's here it for the girls!

13 Blue Envelopes

Ginny’s eccentric Aunt Peg’s last wishes were contained in 13 blue envelopes. The first of which contained $1000 and instructions to get a passport, purchase a one-way plane ticket to London, take only a backpack, no maps or travel guides, and receive further instructions at the 4th Noodle in New York City just before boarding the plane to London. This was an enjoyable adventure across Europe as Ginny retraces her aunt's footsteps as a runaway artist and begins to evolve from a shy quiet person into a self-reliant individual. It will be a hit with female teens and tweens.

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Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem

Jack Prelutsky has done it again - of course! This is a wonderful read aloud or read alone. In any instance it will have you and everyone else laughing out loud.

Each poem has a narrative that explains how the ideas for the poem came to be. These narratives are as funny as his poems. Prelutsky tells on himself as "not the best behaved little boy in the history of the United States" and evokes even more laughter as he sets the stage for his writing ideas.

There is also a writing tip for young aspiring writers that accompanies each poem with poetry terms defined in a highlighted area . From Writing Tip #13 .... "Don't be afraid to exaggerate or to add or change a fact or two if you think that it might improve the poem. ...you're a creative writer telling a funny story and trying to make it as interesting and engrossing as possible."

So, make your day or someone else's day ... read aloud - laugh aloud with Jack Prelutsky's Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to write a poem.

The Dragon's Egg

by Sarah L. Thompson

Everyday Mella cares for the dragons and collects their eggs for breakfast. She has a special sense that she inherited from her grandmother when dealing with the dragons. Now the dragons are small farm animals but there are old stories that they were once large and powerful and still alive in the mountains. The rumors are hard to believe until one day ...