Thursday, April 23, 2009

2009 Mark Twain and Truman Award Books

After spending two days with the state library association, I have some news to pass on to you Mark Twain and Truman readers.

The 2009 Mark Twain Award went to Rick Riordan for Sea of Monsters. Mr. Riordan was at the conference to accept the 2008 Mark Twain Award for The Lightening Thief, and seemed surprised and pleased to be accepting as he put it his "Twin Twain". This is the first time this Missouri award has been given to an author for two consecutive years. A handful of other authors have won multiple times but never consecutively.

Runners up were Million Dollar Putt in second place and Rules in third.

For you older readers this is the first year for a new award for middle school age students. The 2009 Truman Award winner was Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. This same book took second place in the high school award race so maybe we'll get to see the author next year at the conference.

Runners up were Runaway in second place and Rash in third.

Stay tuned for more reviews if the 2009-2010 Truman nominees and other great books on this blog.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Looking for a good mystery or maybe two?

Try out this new series my Lisa McMann. The series starts with Wake which is now available in the Carver Library. Wake is the account of Janie Hannagan's junior year in high school. Janie's not your average junior though, she can see your dreams, really she dreams them with you. Wake has mystery, some romance and little sci-fi twist with the dreamcatcher gift Janie has that will keep you reading. I would recommend this mostly for an older reader since it's a little more high school in content. Once you read Wake if you want more the sequel Fade will be arriving soon.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Atherton House of Power

Carmin Patrick's new series Atherton introduces readers to the satellite world of Atherton. The first book, House of Power, tells us about Edgar from the grove. Edgar is a climber and he's trying to climb up Atherton. This is only possible because Atherton isn't like earth. Instead of being round Atherton is more like a three layer cake, with each layer getting smaller. Edgar lives in the grove (the second layer) and his climb up the side of Atherton will change everything in his life. Edgar learns more than he expected about Atherton from his climb up and later from his climb down. Atherton is changing and the people living on it are going to have to change too. The series continues with Rivers of Fire and the soon to be out Dark Planet. House of Power is a 2009-2010 Truman Nominee