FINISHED:

Trueman, Terry. (2000). Stuck in neutral. New York: HarperCollins.

[Whoa...]

STARTED:
Hunter, Erin. (2009). Seekers: Great Bear Lake. New York: HarperCollins.

[Saw a review copy of this at BPL and almost peed my pants. For some reason, I REALLY liked the first in this series and have been waiting for this one. Put it on hold when I saw that BPL was getting it, but now I can read it right away!]

*

FINISHED:

Feldman, Jody. (2008). The Gollywhopper games. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[Holy cow! Follow the link above to the official website - how fun does THAT look!?!

Total fun, this one! Is it the best book ever? Well, no - the writing and the narrative aren't perfect, but golly-gee it's a compelling bunch of enjoyment. Gil's father was wrongly implicated in an embezzlement scandal at the Golly Toy & Game Company 18 months ago and now he's determined to get his "revenge" by winning a large-scale contest that the toy company is putting on. Gil makes it through the first few rounds of the competition and, as one of the final 10, is invited back to the toy company headquarters to participate in the Gollywhopper Games. Of course, the toy headquarters are an incredible land of large-scale rooms with rainbows, hot-air balloons, snacks, and toys and games galore. Thankfully, the set up is short with the majority being the games themselves. Readers are given the wordgames that the contestants get and can try to figure them out on their own, and there's loads of intrigue and cheating to keep the pace. In a note in the back from the author she says that she was inspired to write the novel after a child in a library asked her for a book that is like Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, and that's pretty much EXACTLY what she has produced here. Sure, it doesn't have the witicism of Dahl's timeless masterpiece, but Feldman does an admirable job. The location, the descriptions of these large rooms and crazy games, the honest boy competing against a couple of creeps, etc. HIGHLY recommended.]

STARTED:
Trueman, Terry. (2000). Stuck in neutral. New York: HarperCollins.

[Recommended by a colleague - looks like a quick read...]

*

FINISHED:

Bode, N.E. (2004). The anybodies. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

STARTED:
Feldman, Jody. (2008). The Gollywhopper games. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[Stumbled across a review of this one that made it sound intriguing. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was name-checked... what more does one need?]

*

FINISHED:

Gordon, R., and Williams, B. (2008). Tunnels. New York: Chicken House/Scholastic.

[LOOK AT THAT COVER! BRILLIANT!! Now THAT'S an attention grabber!!

Hmm. Liked this one a lot, but there were certainly things that I had problems with. For one, it was a bit too long - it shouldn't have taken me a WEEK to read. Will's father is an archaelogist and runs a small, unattended museum in town, and Will and his father go on digs together, finding small trinkets from days past - antique bottles and the like. Will's father comes into possession of a glowing orb in a metal sphere that seems to react to natural light - getting brighter in the dark and lighter in the day - and soon disappears. Will and a friend, Chester, go down in the basement where Will's father has a workroom and discovers a tunnel behind a bookshelf which leads them to an underground world ruled over by pasty, nasty beings. The two boys are discovered and captured, and as it turns out, Will was originally born down there and his mother went Topsoil (to live above ground) shortly after giving birth. Will gets to leave captivity and live with the brother and uncle he never knew he had and then shortly decides to steal away and get back up to the real world. After getting there, however, Will decides to go BACK underground to rescue Chester who was doomed to be banished to the SUPER underground. SO, what I think could've been edited here is the trip that Will took back up above ground because, as I just mentioned, he ends up going back right away. There's really no good reason for him to go back up home except that his new brother goes with him and doesn't like it there... Could've been edited down. VERY atmospheric, claustrophobic, and intriguing (there's a TRAITOR in the midst that you won't see coming!!) - the title is an acurate one - I'll certainly be checking out the sequel... although I think it's supposed to be even LONGER than this one.

NOTE: some of the stuff that happens at the end is PRETTY DARN GRUESOME - more so than I believe it should be for the intended age group... though, really, it's only a couple of paragraphs out of a whole 472 pages.]

STARTED:
Bode, N.E. (2004). The anybodies. New York: HarperCollins.

[Heard good things about this series and keep seeing them in the library. Drawn to the cover artwork as well...]

*

ABANDONED:

Hunt, Stephen. (2008). The court of the air. New York: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates.

[Although I TRULY do not like to abandon a book in the middle, and I likely didn't give this one enough of a chance, I'm going to have to here. It's just kind of not my thing, and ended up being WAY more science fiction than I thought it would be. Lot's of character names (although they tend to die right away...), crazy descriptions of crazy contraptions, odd creatures - just too complex for what I want to be reading right now. Plus, being so dense, it would've taken me way too long to read it - there's SO much else to read instead...]

STARTED:
Gordon, R., and Williams, B. (2008). Tunnels. New York: Chicken House/Scholastic.

[Remember there being some buzz when this one came out.]

*

FINISHED:

Murphy, Rita. (2008). Bird. New York: Delacorte/Random House.

[I REALLY liked this one - was just completely sucked in. Looking back, my interest in the whole tone and style may have been influenced by the film version of Coraline. My review will go here - I'm nominating it for Distinguished, though I'm not certain others will find it as compelling as I did.]

STARTED:
Hunt, Stephen. (2008). The court of the air. New York: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates.

[Saw it over at a friend's house the other night and was intrigued...]

*

FINISHED:

Aiken, Joan. (1962). The wolves of Willoughby Chase. New York: Yearling/Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Murphy, Rita. (2008). Bird. New York: Delacorte/Random House.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:

Martin, A.M., and Godwin, L. (2008). The runaway dolls. New York: Hyperion.

[My review for ACL when it has been written...]

STARTED:
Aiken, Joan. (1962). The wolves of Willoughby Chase. New York: Yearling/Random House.

[Meant to read this one a while ago. Was in the mood for a "classic".]

*