![]() ![]() This format allows us to follow Mallory in real-time as she tries to figure out Jennifer’s whereabouts.Īt its core, this story is about bullying, why some kids bully others, and why others become silent bystanders. Keller does a fantastic job of peeling back the layers in the “Now” and “Then” chapters that show us how Jennifer and Mallory became friends and how things fell apart. This was a gripping mystery with a haunting opening line. The story alternates between past and present as readers discover that Mallory’s search is also motivated by an ulterior motive: the need to prove that she and her popular friends didn’t run Jennifer Chan out of town with their bullying. ![]() Mallory reunites with two former friends begging them to help her find Jennifer following clues from her time with Jennifer and the diary Jennifer left behind. As whispers begin, her next-door neighbor Mallory Moss worries that Jennifer may have been abducted by aliens (which Jennifer believed existed). Tae Keller’s newest middle grade book, Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone, opens with new girl Jennifer Chan declared missing at her middle school. ![]()
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![]() Jarrow’s narrative is as intricately constructed and perfectly paced as a best-selling novel. Jarrow lays out an articulate, accessible history of pellagra’s onset in the South in the early 1900s, early theories of its causes and remedies and the long road of research and experimentation that affected a definitive cure. It begins with red, scaly rashes on hands, feet and face, and after months of mouth sores, weight loss, diarrhea and lethargy, if it is not treated, it results in insanity followed by death. The book, “Red Madness: How a Medical Mystery Changed What We Eat,” has that title because of how the disease - most often caused by a chronic lack of niacin, or vitamin B3 - manifests itself. ![]() That disease, pellagra, is the subject of Gail Jarrow’s new nonfiction book for youth. ![]() In the United States of today it is astonishing - nearly incomprehensible - to realize that 100 years ago a nutrition-based disease was one of the leading causes of death in the American South. ![]() ![]() ![]() They struggle massively with adapting to life without access to all of the feed’s features, especially the communication tools. Now in hospital, the group discovers that their feed has been turned off. At the club, an old man confronts them and forces them to repeat the statement “We enter a time of calamity.” The party is shortly shut down by the police. The group invites Violent to go clubbing with them later that night. It is here that they meet the mysterious but attractive Violet, who immediately grasps the attention and curiosity of Titus, the protagonist and narrator of the story. Disheartened but eager to make sure they don’t remember the night as a disappointment, the group settles on going to a low-gravity amusement park. Though underage, they attempt to get into a party, but are refused entry. They discuss the ‘feed’: an implant in their head that essentially gives them direct access to the internet, so that they can access whatever information they want instantaneously. We are introduced to the characters as they journey to the moon for their summer vacation. ![]() ![]() ![]() He received favorable reviews and was subsequently cast by the influential vaudeville impresario Ned Wayburn for a circus-themed act called Ned Wayburn’s Side Show. While still a teenager, Julius got his first acting job in a touring play, The Man of Her Choice. Making fast progress, Julius was hired by the important vaudeville producer and songwriter Gus Edwards and joined Gus Edwards’ Postal Telegraph Boys. Prior to his brothers joining him on stage, he sang with a British singer named Lily Seville in the act, Lily Seville and Master Marx. Part of this act featured Julius as a female impersonator. He answered a classified ad and got his first professional job as a singer in small time act called the Leroy Trio. He had been singing in the choir of a Manhattan church and was inspired by his uncle, the vaudeville star Al Shean. Julius Henry Marx began his show business career in 1905, a few months before his fifteenth birthday. ![]() ![]() ![]() Fox Searchlight is eyeing dates in September for its North American release, presumably to put it into Oscar contention. There is a seriousness at the film’s core, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously: It delivers good, old-fashioned thrills.Īmericans anxious to behold the next great space movie will have to travel themselves as the film opens in the U.K., Hong Kong and other international territories this week, with further overseas rollouts throughout the month. There is this caveat: The emphasis here is on adventure, heroics and extreme tension. If anything, the film harkens back to Kubrick (“2001”) only with a rigorous fidelity to the probable science of a half century from now. It certainly is nothing like the pop fiction of “Star Wars” or “Star Trek” and certainly wants nothing to do with space aliens of “Alien” or “Mission to Mars.” But “Sunshine” is its own creature, taking inspiration from classic science fiction films but insisting on a gritty reality that much improves on past space adventures. ![]() The temptation is strong to compare this film, written by Alex Garland and directed by Danny Boyle, to previous space epics. ![]() ![]() Murphy stars in the British space adventure film "Sunshine". Irish actor Cillian Murphy arrives for the screening of British director Ken Loach's in-competition film 'The Wind That Shakes the Barley' at the 59th Cannes Film Festival, in this file photo. ![]() ![]() I know people that refuse to read a series until it’s complete. The series is still under development, so if that matters. ![]() The Kingkiller chronicles are excellent books as well. It’s more related to Sci-Fi or Alternative Future than it is Fantasy. If I were to recommend one of them over the other for someone who has never been a reader of Fantasy, I would say the Broken Earth series. Think powers more rooted in very advanced science as opposed to “magic”. There are beings with “powers” but not of the sort you are used to seeing in high fantasy novels. We, the human race, caused a global natural disaster that brought on a cyclical nuclear winter. ![]() The Broken Earth series is alternative Future Science Fantasy. Lighthearted but with solid story and engaging characters. Along the lines of Harry Potter, but IMO better written and more engaging. ![]() There are themes and scenes in those books that cross lines many people do not want to cross in their reading. FTR - despite having read, and enjoyed to a degree the GoT series, I would never recommend them to someone I did not know well. ![]() ![]() Then, lo and behold, a young man breaks in through her second floor window! We know who he is, of course, although this incarnation of Pan is noticeably scruffy and quite annoyed that the formerly abandoned house, now freshly rehabbed and sold to the Darling family, is fully occupied. ![]() After a round of frustrated arguing, she is banished to her bedroom as her parents head out for the night. The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out.Īncrum’s hero is Wendy Darling, a teen newly arrived in Chicago and chafing at her protective parents who won’t allow her to meet up with her online pal Eleanor who lives locally. Ancrum opens Darling, her dark and mysterious take on Peter Pan, she offers up an epigraph from Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy as a hint of what’s to come. ![]() ![]() ![]() Activities and a “Doglish” glossary are included. The broad humor and fast pace will likely entice many a reader turned off by longer, more deliberative tales. After all, who doesn’t like to hear of a dog using Ruff’s sister’s shoes for a latrine? The few human characters all appear to be the white default. A healthy serving of mild bathroom humor should appeal to the intended audience. Related in Junior’s endearingly canine first-dog voice, the tale is a quick one, accompanied by Watson’s numerous cartoon illustrations that perfectly capture Junior’s whimsical attitude. Junior-once he learns what’s needed-is happy to comply, until his enthusiasm gets the better of him once again. She presents Ruff with an ultimatum: either train his unruly dog (in her class), or she will have Junior returned to the shelter. ![]() Unfortunately, Junior accidentally gets away at the dog park and causes all sorts of amusing pandemonium, very annoying to nasty professional dog trainer Iona Stricker. He lets Junior sleep on his bed, takes him for walks to the dog park (neighborhood map included), and seems unperturbed by Junior’s ever-so-doggy ways. ![]() Recently adopted from the animal shelter by Mom-Lady, he’s the happy owner of a pet human boy he calls Ruff. ![]() ![]() ![]() Her secrets put Jay in danger, ensnaring him in a murder investigation that could cost him his practice, his family, and even his life. That is, until the night in a boat out on the bayou when he impulsively saves a woman from drowning-and opens a Pandora’s box. It is here that Jay believes he can make a fresh start. But he’s long since made peace with not living the American Dream and carefully tucked away his darkest sins: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him. His most promising client is a low-rent call girl and he runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy strip mall. Jay Porter is hardly the lawyer he set out to be. Writing in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Greg Iles, Attica Locke, a powerful new voice in American fiction, delivers a brilliant debut thriller that readers will not soon forget. ![]() Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository ![]() Format read: ebook borrowed from the libraryįormats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook ![]() ![]() And this time, when the battle is joined, it is a battle to the end. Read more against an old adversary - someone he hoped never to encounter again. Their search for the mastermind behind a pair of murderous gangland twins takes them from the clubs of Manchester to Spain and Germany, and Danny needs all his newly learned expertise when he comes up. Dudley knows that the security services have to act fast, and when his 4 x 4 arrives at their remote hideout in the Canadian lakes, eighteen-year-old Danny and his grandfather, ex-SAS hero Fergus Watts, are once again sucked into a deadly undercover operation and a race against time. ![]() A lethal new drug with devastating side effects, known as Meltdown, is threatening to destabilize society. Dudley knows that the security services have to act fast, and when his 4 x 4 arrives at their remote hideout in the Canadian lakes, 18-year-old Danny and his grandfather, are once again sucked into an operation and a race against time. Description for Meltdown (Boy Soldier) Paperback. ![]() |