Friday, October 17, 2008

Shadow Thieves
















Shadow Thieves
by Anne Ursu
c. 2006


Notes:

  • This is the first book in a planned trilogy called The Cronus Chronicles. The second book is already out, called The Siren Song; Little Harbor owns one copy. The Promethian Flame, book 3, will be released summer 2009.
  • Genre: fantasy
  • Mielswetzki is pronounced Meals - wet - ski
  • Share with grade 5 - nothing inappropriate, just a challenging book requiring some background knowledge

---------

In The Shadow Thieves, a fantasy book by Anne Ursu, the author imagines a world very much like our everyday world, except that ancient Greek myths are real.

Charlotte Mielswetzki is a pretty ordinary girl, but something extraordinary happens to her, and
it has everything to do with her creepy English
teacher, Mr. Metos and the peculiar, yellow- eyed men in tuxedoes that have begun
to follow her everywhere.

And then there's her new cat, Mew, who stopped her on the street and insisted Charlotte take her home and seems to have some strange abilities.

Charlotte's cousin Zee lived in England, where all of his friends became mysteriously and seriously ill. Sent to Charlotte's family in
America, Zee discovers that the same thing starts to happen to his new
friends.

Read p. 76 "Perhaps everything would have unfolded differently ...."
through
p. 77 ".. and just about every new release the movie rental place had."

p. 79 "Zee's days of bed rest meant he was not in school on Monday ..."
through
p. 80  "and make-up work to, well, make up."

p. 80 "by Wednesday afternoon parents had called parents, doctors had called doctors ..."
through
p. 81 "and on Tuesday half the students are out sick."

When Charlotte learned there was to be no school, she ran up to the den to tell Zee

p. 83 "Hey, Zee! Guess what?"
through
p.84 "They followed me."


Zee believes he is the cause of the mysterious sickness , and Zee and Charlotte set out to solve the mystery in order to help their friends. The cousins must get down to into Hades and across the River Styx to get to the bottom of this …they must save the world from The Shadow Thieves.

------

5th grade booktalk

Sara Zoe Patterson
10/08

some text taken from: http://booktalker.blogspot.com/2008/07/ursu-anne-shadow-thieves.html
SLJ review
Book cover/flap


On the Wings of Heroes
















On the Wings of Heroes


by Richard Peck


© 2007

Great Stone Face Nominee, 2008-2009

(Better for 5th grade - will end up on that "list" next year but booktalk it to both 4th and 5th for the GSF)





On the Wings of Heroes is by Richard Peck. This book is historical fiction. Historical
fiction
books are from the author’s imagination yet set
in an actual time and place in history. This story takes place in the year 1941, as World War II was just beginning for the United States.



When the United States enters World War II, life changes for everyone, including Davy Bowman. Davy's older brother Bill enlists and becomes a bombardier on
a B-17, flying dangerous missions over Germany. Davy's mom and dad worry about his brother, waiting anxiously for news about him.
Instead of playing hide-and-go-seek, Davy and his friend Scooter spend their time collecting metal, paper, and milkweed for the war effort, and meet the town's cast of quirky characters.


Davy and Scooter are combing the countryside for milkweed, which will be used to fill life vests, when they spot a very interesting barn, and inside the barn, a very cool old car. They start exploring the barn and the car, when suddenly ...


Read: p. 67 " an explosion about busted my eardrums. Hail rattled the roof from a clear blue sky."

Through p. 70 "He looked modest. Also, he had a buttermilk mustache. Miss Titus's was real."


Sugar, shoes, toothpaste, and car tires are all rationed, leaving Davy wearing shoes many sizes too small while he waits for his turn to get larger ones. But school goes on (with Miss Titus as a surprise substitute!), and Davy's adventures with his friends and his father keep him busy with funny and sometimes sad adventures and misadventures while he waits to hear news of his brother Bill, flying secret missions overseas. 


Sara Zoƫ Patterson

August 2008, revised 10/08