Kidsmomo

So, as you’ve probably gathered by our photos from the last few weeks, Nancy and I visited London recently! Well, we’re still gossiping about the royals while wearing funny hats and eating fish and chips — in other words, it’s time for another London-based book review!

This time, I’m recommending Freaks by Kieran Larwood. The book takes place in Victorian London and follows the adventures of Sheba, a wolf-girl who performs with a freak show. Between her oddball roommates and the stinky but fascinating setting, you’d probably find her story interesting on its own — but things get really exciting when poor kids start disappearing into the muddy banks of the River Thames.

Sheba leads the investigation, along with Monkey Boy, a supernatural ninja girl, a strong man, a bunch of rats and their “mama,” and a cast of other freaks. What they discover is partly mechanical, absolutely evil, and definitely dangerous.

Read Freaks if you like The Name of This Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch, The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby, or anything else steampunk. Don’t read Freaks if you’re not into action-packed mystery, stories with historical elements, very real danger, or strange human/creature hybrids.

Have you read Freaks? Leave a comment and let me know if you liked it as much as I did, or send in a full review of your own!

— Karen

Karen definitely would NOT want to live in Victorian England. The smell would do her in immediately!

More about Karen »

Guess what tomorrow is! Well, yes, it’s Monday. And yeah, traditionally Mondays have not been our favorite days ever. But this week, we’re making an exception because tomorrow kicks off Children’s Book Week 2013!

From May 13th to May 19th librarians, teachers, publishers, kidlit bloggers (like us!), and children’s book lovers everywhere (us again!) will be celebrating how totally completely AWESOME books and reading are.

This year, we’re celebrating by taking part in a Giveaway Hop — which means that a ton of websites about kids’ books are all hosting their own Children’s Book Week sweepstakes at the same time! The brilliant idea of Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews blogs, the hop is kinda like a big virtual party in honor of kidlit — the only bad part being that you can’t eat virtual cake…

Here at Kidsmomo, we’re giving away two — count ‘em, TWO — prize packs for our Children’s Book Week Giveaway! Check out our prize swag below, then enter for a chance to win!

And after you do that, check out the other sweeps! NOTE: You guys can enter our sweepstakes yourselves, but a lot of the other Giveaway Hop sweepstakes are not specifically for kids. However, they are ALL related to books for kids, so please grab a parent and check out these sweeps together!

And also leave a comment and let us know: What are YOU reading right now, during Children’s Book Week 2013?

TWO WINNERS WILL RECEIVE A PRIZE PACK EACH!
Prize Pack #1 includes:
• Children’s Book Week poster
• Sidekicks
• The Boneshaker
• Dear Dumb Diary, Year 2, Book 1: School. Hasn’t This Gone on Long Enough?
• Vordak the Incomprehensible
• Noonie’s Masterpiece

Prize Pack #2 includes:
• Children’s Book Week poster
• Skulduggery Pleasant
• The Classroom: The Epic Documentary of a Not-Yet-Epic Kid
• Gossip from the Girls’ Room
• Raja: Story of a Racehorse
• ParaNorman

Enter before May 20th! See official rules.

This sweepstakes has ended.

Are you sitting down? You’re probably at a computer, so you’re probably sitting down.

Now, set aside any fragile glassware you have nearby and get ready to jump up and absolutely burst with JEALOUSY and AMAZEMENT! Because… *drumroll please*… we just came back from the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesdon, UK, and we have tons of pictures to share with you!

(Pause for screams, shouts, and jumping… maybe even some fist pumps.*)

Okay, now are you sitting back down?

So yes, just like Karen mentioned in her last blog post, recently we went to the country of Harry Potter and had a chance to visit the exhibition and movies sets. Check out our photos by clicking on the thumbnails below!

*If you rolled your eyes at this… well, this is how we reacted to the Harry Potter Studio Tour.  Because we love Harry Potter. Duh.

— Karen and Nancy

I hope you guys are into afternoon tea and want God to save the queen — because for the next few weeks, Kidsmomo is going to be all about jolly old England. That’s because Nancy and I visited London recently!

We checked out the usual tourist sights: the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, etc. But one of the things I was most excited about beforehand was the London Eye — a huge Ferris wheel that offers spectacular views of the whole city.

Did my interest have anything to do with The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd? Okay, you caught me. As soon as we bought our tix to London, I put this book at the top of my list — and it turned out to be even more exhilarating than my sky-high ride on the wheel!

Seriously. If you think that view is breathtaking, then you should read this book. When I got near the end, I stayed up WAY past my bedtime to see what would happen.

Here’s the mystery: Ted and his older sister, Kat, are standing in line to ride the London Eye with their cousin, Salim, who’s visiting London for the first time. A stranger offers them an extra ticket for free, and they decide Salim will go on the wheel alone. Ted and Kat watch Salim get on the wheel when it’s his turn — but then it’s like he disappears; they never see him get off…

Their family is frantic, the police are turning up dead ends. It’s up to Ted and Kat to solve the mystery and find Salim.

I like a good mystery, but I particularly loved this one because of Ted’s voice as the narrator. As a kid with Asperger syndrome, he sees the world differently than most everyone else and he has his own unique challenges to overcome — but it’s not something that holds him back. Instead, it’s the opposite, as Ted’s unusual way of thinking leads him to answers that no one else even guesses at.

I wish Ted had been with me during my ride on the London Eye, to point out all the sights and explain how the wheel works. Instead, I had to settle for Nancy’s company. (Ha ha, just kidding, Nancy…) At any rate, at least I had the London skyline to greet me and a crazy capsule ride to add to my London memories!

— Karen

On her last vacation, Karen also rode on a Ferris wheel — that one was in Seattle. Maybe from now on, she’ll only travel to cities with Ferris wheels!

More about Karen »

Look. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m not a cat person. I know you may hate me for it, but it’s a fact I cannot change. As a kid, I was bitten by a cat and I just haven’t been too fond of any cat since then.

BUT I have to admit, I did come to care about the star of The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook by Joanne Rocklin.

Named after the fried zucchini he loves to eat (and called Zook for short), this particular feline managed to find his way into my anti-cat heart — mainly because of how much he matters to the family in the book. And I REALLY loved this book. Therefore, I loved this cat.

You see, Zook is sick, and it’s really worrying Oona, her little brother Fred, and their mom. So Oona starts to tell stories about how every cat has nine lives and how Zook is only on his fifth life now. Oona dreams up adventures that Zook had in his past lives (from haunting a bad guy as a ghost cat to being worshipped as a magical cat), but all the while, Zook’s current-life story seems to be getting more complicated than Oona would like.

For example: Could Zook’s previous owner be an animal abuser — and also Oona’s mom’s new boyfriend? And will Oona ever tell the truth about the time they smuggled Zook into the hospital before her dad died? And what about the truth of the day they found Zook?

Oona doesn’t know the answers to these questions herself — and she’s got plenty more throughout the book. But don’t worry; as the reader, all your questions will be answered by the end of the story.

And what a lovely story it is! If you’re like me, you’ll find it funny and sweet and sad and realistic and just plain great. Recommended if you’re a fan of Because of Winn-Dixie, When Life Gives You O.J., Three Times Lucky, and Pie.

— Karen

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Karen also loves fried zucchini. And pretty much anything else fried too.

More about Karen »

On Monday night, I found myself surrounded by NYC students, all buzzing with excitement. They were waiting to meet a big-deal celeb and get her autograph — and also get some answers about character, plot, and writing process.

That’s because the celeb of the night wasn’t a famous actress or singer, but instead a rock star of the literary world: R.J. Palacio, the author of Wonder. She made an appearance at a NY Barnes & Noble store to talk about her inspiration for the book, answer questions from the audience, and sign copies of her book.

I’ve read some interviews with R.J. Palacio in the past, so I thought I was already clued in to the behind-the-scenes story of how Wonder came to be. Well, I was wrong. Totally, completely wrong. Because I learned SO MUCH MORE at the event! And obviously, I will now share my newfound wisdom with you!

Some highlights:

• Wonder was inspired by a real-life experience that Palacio had at an ice cream shop. She was sitting next to a girl with a craniofacial difference (the scientific term for the kind of deformed face that Auggie has in the book). When her 3-year-old son noticed the girl and started crying, Palacio didn’t know what to do and she got up in a big hurry and tried to rush both of her sons out of there — spilling milkshakes everywhere and causing a huge scene in the process. All the rest of that day, she kept obsessing over her behavior and how she should have just talked to the girl and her family instead. That night, she was inspired to start writing Auggie’s story… on Post-its!

 

• Palacio was also inspired by her 11-year-old son’s experiences starting middle school. She was surprised to see lots of mean behavior among his classmates, so Wonder became a book about being kind just as much as about Auggie in particular.

 

• Since Palacio had a full-time job and a family while writing Wonder, she did all of her writing from midnight to 3:00 a.m. every night! Good for her! I’m pretty sure I would fall asleep in my own drool during the day if I tried that…

 

• Palacio got the name Jack Will from twin boys who were friends of her son’s. Their names were Jack and Will and whenever their mom came to pick them up, she would call out, “Jack, Will!” (Maybe someday, we’ll come across a book character named Nancy Karen!)

 

• Palacio called Via a “much hipper, cooler, prettier” version of herself at the age of 15.

 

• But the character Palacio most relates to is Charlotte, who was never mean to Auggie but also never reached out like Summer did. To Palacio, the difference between the two girls is that Charlotte stands for “being nice” and Summer stands for “choosing kind.” But Palacio does think that the next school year after the book’s end, Charlotte will probably “stop being a bystander and she’ll be an upstander.”

I also found out that Wonder has been optioned for a movie! That doesn’t necessarily mean that the movie will get made, but everyone in the audience — including yours truly — definitely gasped in delight at that news! But, as Palacio pointed out, casting Auggie will be very tricky. She posed a question to all of us in the audience, and now I’m putting the question to you guys. Vote in the poll below!

Personally, I’d love to see a movie based on this book. But I really really really hope that if it happens, it’s actually a good film — because this story is really really really good!

What do you think? Have you read Wonder yourself? Leave a comment with YOUR thoughts or send in a full review!

— Karen

While waiting for the event to start, Karen had to stop herself from jumping into conversations with everyone about their favorite books. Hello, weirdo stranger alert! But geez, it was so hard! Karen really loves talking about books!

More about Karen »

Supposedly, April is the season for rain showers and spring flowers. But did you know it’s also National Poetry Month?

Yes, you probably did. Your teacher has probably already talked about it a bunch, am I right? And we’ve also talked about it here on Kidsmomo in past Aprils.

But here’s something you maybe didn’t already know: April 18th is Poem in Your Pocket Day! (If you already knew that, well, you are much smarter than me and should be running this website because I just found about it!)

Poem in Your Pocket Day is exactly what it sounds like: You pick out a favorite poem, write it down or print it out, fold it up, and put it in your pocket. Then throughout the day, you and your friends can take turns sharing the poems that you’ve picked.

Or you could put lots of copies of your favorite poem in your pocket and then hand them out to people. Or if you want, you could even keep your poem to yourself and just take it out of your pocket every once in a while to read silently when you need a little pick-me-up, like when your little brother is being super annoying or you find out it’s tuna mystery surprise day at the cafeteria.

If you don’t already have a favorite poem, here are some books and sites with awesome options — from funny to beautiful to downright silly (a jump-roping rhino, anyone?). Check ‘em out now — you’ve only got a week to decide which poem gets to make a home in your pocket!

For my part, I’ve decided on this poem:

The Boa
by Douglas Florian

Just when you think you know the boa,
There’s moa and moa and moa and moa.

-From the book Beast Feast: Poems and Paintings

— Karen

When she was a kid, Karen’s favorite kind of poem to write was the haiku. Now it’s limericks!

More about Karen »

How excited are we for the next  Percy Jackson movie? Really, really, REALLY excited. For example:

The trailer was posted online, and two seconds later in a chat…
Nancy: [doesn't bother to say 'hello;" just links to video]
Karen: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

So here it is!

After you’ve watched it a couple hundred times like us, check out our coverage for the first Percy Jackson movie (karaoke hilarity) and other Percy Jackson love (general hilarity).

— Nancy & Karen

*cue trumpet noise* doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doooo!

It’s almost that time of the year again! Children’s Book Week is coming up!

This year, Children’s Book Week is May 13 to May 19 — which means there’s just about a month left to vote for the Children’s Choice Book Awards that are part of the big celebration. As you’ve probably already guessed, these are book awards where the votes come from kids like YOU. Teachers, librarians, and other old fogies (like me and Karen) vote separately, so your vote is all the more important!

Check out this year’s finalists for Book of the Year and see how you can vote below!

If you’re in 3rd or 4th Grade… Vote Here!

If you’re in 5th or 6th Grade… Vote Here!

You can also vote for Author and Illustrator of the Year. Finalists include R.J. Palacio, Jeff Kinney, and Rick Riordan — all of whom always make us think…

We’re not worthy!

Happy Voting!

—Nancy

Nancy hates voting because she hates making decisions. But we all gotta do what we gotta do…

For years, I’ve been dying for whatever incredible magic could transport me to Hogwarts as a wizarding student. Well, now I’ve got a new destination in mind: the Lawless School, where young criminal masterminds learn the tricks of their trade.

Now, I’m not saying I’m aiming to become a thief. But I wouldn’t mind training in lock-picking, escaping from dangerous situations, and general subterfuge.

In Lawless by Jeffery Salane, this is exactly the life M Freeman falls into — or rather, she’s forced into it when her mom basically gives her no choice and she’s personally escorted out of the house by a “guardian” sent by the school.

Soon, it becomes clear that M’s been training for her life as a thief all along — all the home-schooling and the plans laid by her father before he died, they were all leading to Lawless.

So now that M’s there, what’s next? Apparently, there’s no such thing as a quiet life of crime. This book is full of heart-pounding action and mystery, popping on every page: sabotage by her classmates, almost getting kicked out of school, piecing together the mystery behind a secret society, hunting down and stealing masterpieces — and all the while, M is discovering long-buried secrets about her father’s past.

If you enjoy a good caper, this is the perfect book for you. Think Swindle + Chasing Vermeer, times 10!

Lawless comes out next week. Until then, are there any similar books we should all check out? I’m obviously a sucker for capers — leave a comment if you have any others to recommend!

— Karen

Karen’s only concern about the Lawless School is that it’s located somewhere near the equator — which means it’s hot and muggy. Danger at every turn? No problem. Warm weather? No, thanks!

More about Karen »