Believe it or not, the author of this week’s mystery book series dreamed up his three main characters when he was in kindergarten! It took quite a few more years before the rest of the world could meet them, but now anyone can see their adventures in the published graphic novels — and sometime in the future, movie-goers will hang out with them in theaters too.

In the meantime, check out our video introduction to this trio of unlikely heroes. And afterwards, send in your guess for the series. We’ll name the first person to get it right in our next podcast!

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My Mystery Book Theater Guess:

On Friday, Nancy and I were among the crowds lined up to see the new Alice in Wonderland movie on opening night. How was it? Well, you’ll have to wait a little longer for our KidsmomoMO movie review, but I’ll give you a hint: one of the most exciting things on screen came before the film even started… the premiere of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole movie trailer!

Entitled Legend of the Guardians, the film is due out in September and will cover the first three books in Kathryn Lasky’s popular book series*. Of course, like every other movie these days, it will be in 3D. And while I’m not always the biggest fan of 3D, in this case I think it’s going to make a HUGE difference. Because I’m sorry to say that this online trailer isn’t nearly as breathtaking as what I saw in the theater. But check it out anyway, and leave a comment with your thoughts! What do you think — did they get it right?

— Karen

* If you’re not familiar with the books, check out these 5-star reviews from Ayra (age 10) and Milo (age 9).

Author John Grisham -- my, he looks serious...

With about a zillion films based on his books (okay, fine, there are eight), you’ve probably heard of John Grisham, the author of about a zillion and one books for adults (actual number: 23). But you probably haven’t seen any of his books in the children’s section of your local bookstore or library — until now!

That’s right, John Grisham just announced that he has a series for kids in the works. And since most of his adult books are legal thrillers, it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that the first book in the new series will be titled Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer. The 13-year-old main character is apparently the son of two lawyers in a small Southern town.

I myself am the child of two lawyers, and I can tell you, that does not make me an expert on anything except how to argue with my parents. But if this series turns out to be about a kid fighting with his mom and dad, I will not be a happy reader! I assume we have some actual courtroom adventures from Theodore to look forward to. Guess we’ll find out when the book comes out in May…

In the meantime, here are a couple other books about kids who take on roles normally reserved for adults — and totally rock them(!):

• The Kid Who Ran for President by Dan Gutman
• The School Story by Andrew Clements

And check out these offerings by authors who are famous for their books for adults:

• Summerland by Michael Chabon
• Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

— Karen

Children's book illustrator John Rocco, with The Lightning Thief Deluxe Edition.

It’s been Percy Jackson madness here on Kidsmomo (literal madness — have you heard our Kidsmomo Karaoke Tribute to PJ?) so I’m gonna write a serious blog post about some serious Percy Jackson stuff.

I GOT TO MEET THE BOOK COVER ILLUSTRATOR! HA HA! IN YO FACES!

And now that I’m done gloating (yes, very immature of me), I’ll get to the good stuff — at the event (which was held at a bookstore in Manhattan), Percy Jackson editor Jennifer Besser talked about how the original cover illustrations weren’t really working, and they then found John Rocco, illustrator extraordinaire!

Maybe “personal illustrator” to Rick Riordan is an exaggeration, but John Rocco has designed all five covers of the Percy Jackson series and he’s also working on the new Kane Chronicles series.  I made sure to capture as much as possible on video:

John talking about how he came up with the idea for the cover of The Lightning Thief:

For aspiring artists: his process is really interesting! Check out all the different versions of The Titan’s Curse:

John also took some tough questions from the audience…

And some questions led to some DRAMA!

Some more goodies from John Rocco and Jennifer Besser:

• The new Camp Half-Blood series by Rick Riordan will be released in October 2010!
• John enjoyed working on The Last Olympian cover the most, and often went to the Empire State Building for inspiration.
• John also worked on the new Rick Riordan series The Kane Chronicles, and afterwards I bugged him about the water tower on the cover of The Red Pyramid — and turns out it’s not significant in the story. (I guess I went a little overboard scrutinizing the cover!)

— Nancy

Drinks that let you fly. Applesauce that melts snow. Sushi made of candy. And foreign wax apples. Believe it or not, only two out of these four tasty treats are from books featured in our latest podcast, all about books involving food! Yes, that means the other two are for real! Which ones are which? You’ll just have to listen to find out:

Part 1: Oompa loompa doopity doo, we’ve got a mystery book for you!
  (6:22)
Download the MP3 (3 MB)

Part 2: Take a bite outta our food book picks, plus one from you — The Chocolate Touch, Blue Moose, and This Book Is Not Good For You
  (6:17)
Download the MP3 (2.9 MB)

And don’t forget: our themes are now two weeks long, and our new topic is… graphic novels and hybrid books! So send us a review of your favorite visual read, tell us what book/movie/song/TV show you would want to see as a graphic novel, and check out these gorgeous graphic novels and hybrid books. Next week, we’ll post a Graphic Novel Mystery Book Theater, and then we’ll connect the dots with a podcast on March 16th! (Get it, we’ll connect the dots to make a picture? Because our theme is graphic novels? Nevermind…)

— Nancy and Karen

Please don't send us any personal information such as your last name, address, or phone number. Read our Terms of Submission below before you submit your article.

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Book Title:

Author:

My Book Review:

Give it a rating: 11.522.533.544.55 out of 5 stars.

Terms of Submission
Before being published, your submission will be reviewed. It will be checked to see that it does not contain any inappropriate language or personal information. By sending us your submission, you are giving Kidsmomo permission to edit, promote, and put it up on our site and/or read it in its entirety in our podcast. However, because lots of kids send us submissions, we won't be able to publish all of the submissions that we receive. Also, it's really important to send us only your own writing and not anything that you copied from somewhere else. Thank you.

Sweet, pastel-shaded shorts. Bold, colorful, action-packed adventures. Dark, spooky tales. Even adaptations of favorite books. These may sound like film genres, but movies aren’t the only way to visually escape into a story… Feast your eyes on graphic novels!

We’ve picked a few (in no particular order) — plus some “hybrid books,” which are told in alternating illustrations and text:

Graphic Novels:

1. Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale (Karen’s pick)
2. Robot Dreams by Sara Varon (Nancy’s pick)
3. The Baby-Sitter’s Club series (graphic novel version), written by Ann M. Martin and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier
4. Artemis Fowl series (graphic novel version), written by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, art by Giovanni Rigano, color by Paolo Lamann
5. Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi
6. Magic Pickle series by Scott Morse
7. Coraline (graphic novel version of Neil Gaiman’s original) adapted by Craig Russell
8. Into The Volcano by Don Wood
9. Amelia Rules! series by Jimmy Gownley
10. Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom by Eric Wight
11. Mail Order Ninja by Joshua Elder
12. Owly series by Andy Runton

Hybrid Books:

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
2. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
3. Dear Dumb Diary series by Jim Benton
4. Adventures in Cartooning by James Sturm
5. Amelia’s Notebook series and Max Disaster series, both by Marissa Moss

If you’ve read any of these, send in your book review. Or send in a review of your favorite graphic novel or hybrid book! We’ll feature the best kid-submitted reviews in our next podcast!

Please don't send us any personal information such as your last name, address, or phone number. Read our Terms of Submission below before you submit your article.

Kids: Ask your parents or teachers for approval before you submit anything to us, and read our Privacy Policy Statement.

Your First Name ONLY:

Your Age: State: ---AlabamaAlaskaAmerican SamoaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaGuamHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaNorthern Marianas IslandsOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaPuerto RicoRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaVirgin IslandsWashingtoWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingOTHER

Book Title:

Author:

My Book Review:

Give it a rating: 11.522.533.544.55 out of 5 stars.

Terms of Submission
Before being published, your submission will be reviewed. It will be checked to see that it does not contain any inappropriate language or personal information. By sending us your submission, you are giving Kidsmomo permission to edit, promote, and put it up on our site and/or read it in its entirety in our podcast. However, because lots of kids send us submissions, we won't be able to publish all of the submissions that we receive. Also, it's really important to send us only your own writing and not anything that you copied from somewhere else. Thank you.

If you’ve followed our edible exploits over the last few days, then you know that it’s finally time for the culmination of our culinary competition. That’s right, people — it’s FOOD FIGHT TIME!

For our food theme, we each cooked up a dessert based on a children’s book. Then we presented our sweets to a panel of judges without revealing who made which dish.

Whose cuisine reigned supreme? Watch our KidsmomoMO video to find out:

And to see our step-by-step adventures in the kitchen, or if you want to do some book-based baking yourself, check out our posts on Karen’s baked custard pudding and Nancy’s almond flan!

If you ask me, this food fight doesn’t seem very fair. My selection was inspired by the soulful and heartstrings-tugging Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, but meanwhile, Karen picked a recipe that’s been used as a magical projectile weapon. @_@ (That’s my look of worry and shock.)

But there’s no use in worrying now when there’s almond flan to be made! You know what would cheer you and me up?  Saying the word “flan.”  Flan, flan, flan! Shout it with me! Fuuuuuuh-laaaaaaaaan!!!

Click on my photos to see my step-by-step flan formation:

To continue having flan fun, grab your parent and see if you can do this recipe justice:

Read the rest of this entry »

Since our current theme is books about food, Nancy and I knew we couldn’t let this topic go without a… FOOD FIGHT! Well, sort of. In this case, we mean a Kidsmomo cooking competition:

Nancy and I each tried our hand at a recipe based on a children’s book. Then we presented both of our dishes to a panel of judges without saying who made which recipe. Whose cuisine reigned supreme? To find out, you’ll just have to tune in on Monday, when we bid farewell to our food theme with a special KidsmomoMO video of the judging and results.

In the meantime, you can whet your appetites (literally) by following along on our culinary journeys. Today, you can see how I transported my kitchen to Number 4 Privet Drive. And then on Saturday, check back for Nancy’s cooking adventures.

So, let’s get to the actual food, shall we?

Aunt Petunia’s Baked Custard Pudding

With all the amazing edible concoctions in J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world, I surprised myself by choosing a Muggle recipe. But remember the dessert that Dobby splattered all over the Dursleys’ guests in Harry Potter Book 2? How could I possibly resist replicating that? (The dessert, not the Hover Charm, unfortunately…)

Click on my photos to see my step-by-step pudding process:

Want to try baking your own custard pudding? Put on an apron, grab your parent to help you, and use this recipe:

Read the rest of this entry »

Are you constantly craving dessert? Do you have a sweet tooth? Does your mouth water at the mere mention of… SUGAR? Then chances are, you’ve already devoured this week’s mystery book. But you’ve never seen it like this — re-imagined as a television infomercial!

So watch the video, and then send in your guess of what book it’s from. We’ll name the first person to get it right in our next podcast!

UPDATE 3/2/10: Wanna know the book? Listen for the answer in our “Get In My Belly” Podcast, all about books involving food.