Yes...it has been a LONG time since I had a topic for a top ten and a list on that topic with ten in it! This one took a lot of thought...These books are all in a series. I have read most if not all of the books in the series with them (OK, the only series I haven't read all of represented on the list is Captain Underpants...now you know). These are the ones I like more than the other books in the same series. Only one is a first book (one other is kinda of a first book; just not written first). Two are graphic novels. Two are hybrid graphic/text. And two are SADLY out of print at present. These are series books that prove that not all series (serieses?) are fluffy and sub-par fiction. Try them all--Mr. Tim guarantees they is good books! Series books · Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor PP Poopypants by Dav Pilkey · Lamp from the Warlock’s Tomb by John Bellairs · Celery Stalks at Midnight by James Howe · Magician’s Nephew by C S Lewis · Bad Kitty: Drawn to Trouble by Nick Bruel · Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angelberger · Ghost in the Third Row by Bruce Coville · And Then There Were Gnomes by Colleen AF Venable · Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J K Rowling · Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires |
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Just finished the sequel and thought I would revisit the first book which I liked a little more: I read a lot of children's books in 2011, upwards of 200 and this was one of my top ten or so picks for the year...wink wink, some of you can guess what that means if you know why I read so many books in 2011. At the turn of the (19th to 20th) century in a very different New York city from the one on our Earth (magic works but is frowned upon, everyone uses it but it's kind of illegal): Sacha Kessler is glad he made it through his bar mitzvah without showing any signs of magic. His grandfather is a rabbi and an expert on Kabbalah...but then Sacha SEES magic as its being cast, and he's recruited to be an Inquisitor's Apprentice (the magical wing of the NYPD). Sacha and the rich Lily Astral both are assigned to Inquisitor Wolf who has quite the reputation. Lily is enthusiastic but a little clueless about the world outside of her life of privilege. The three investigate attacks on the inventor Edison at the behest of J P Morgaunt, the richest and most powerful man in New York, maybe the country. There are also attacks that appear to be perpetrated by a dybbuk (devil or doppelganger). Sacha learns he might be a wizard in the making...and he saves the day (with a bit of help) narrowly escaping Morgaunt's machinations...but can he escape the dybbuk? Full of wonderfully descriptive writing, this book brings to life a New York that never existed but which feels totally real. The characters are memorable and well-rounded and true to their milieu. This is a page-turning adventure story that while fast-paced, suspenseful, unpredictable, and full of quirky humor invites readers to contemplate prejudice, ethics, immigration, classicism, gender stereotypes, and race in a totally inoffensive and age-appropriate manner.
Rebecca is a sixteen year old New Yorker whose father has to work in China for six months. Her only relative is a pseudo-aunt (who reads Tarot cards for tourists & seems appropriately fruitly-spacey) in New Olreans & that's where Rebecca ends up...in the snobby Garden District. Only her younger cousin Aurelia is friendly--well, the school assigns a couple girls to walk her around and eat lunch with her, but you can't exactly call that friendly. Then Rebecca meets Lisette, an African American girl who seems a bit down on her luck, in one of New Orleans's creepy graveyards...they strike up a friendship until Rebecca discovers that Lisette is not among the living. She's part of a long standing curse on a Garden District family--and to tell you more would ruin (sorry) this fun read. Despite a few slightly grim ghost-origin details, this is a tame version of Haunted New Orleans for anyone who has gone on a good haunted NOLA tour (as huge fans of the Big Easy, we done that repeatedly). There's not a lot of scare here, but the story is well developed and the characters are, for the most part well fleshed and believable. Katrina's continuing aftermath is tastefully worked into the tale as are nice chunks of NOLA lore and history. Though teens who flock to gory horror flicks won't be overly spooked, but they'll enjoy the story and the atmosphere. AND Now there's a sequel "Unbroken"...which I need to read, now! Konigsburg never fails to amaze me...spinning story lines and characters aimed at the sophisticated child readers and creating stories that touch and entertain kids and adults. Even her "more accessible" novels like From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler ask more of readers than most of children's literature, and that's a good thing. Her books are works of art you can either spend time picking the levels and relationships of events and people apart...or just enjoy the gestalt. In this near-sequel to The Outcasts of 19 Schyuler Place, Amadeo Kaplan and his mother move from New York to St Malo, Florida. It's his first time being "the new kid" and he's smart and rich, so he doesn't make many friends right off the bat. He does befriend William whose mother is helping to catalog the possessions of the strange and pretentious Mrs. Zender, a retired opera singer who is moving to a retirement community before her money runs out. Amadeo wants to discover something no one else has, and there's a chance of that, he thinks, in helping William and his mother with Mrs. Zender's belongings. Through bits of memoir and letters, the boys uncover a mystery that touches on art history and Nazi oppression. Maybe I just had a weird childhood, but no matter whether her books are set in the modern world or before I was born or back in the mists of history, reading Konigsburg puts me in mind of my own childhood. Her one-of-a-kind Newbery win (Mixed up Files) and Newbery honor (Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth) in the same year happened the year I was born--maybe that's the root of my connection to her books. Give them a try; you're in for a treat. |
About MeTim is a writer, book reviewer and Librarian. He has a Master's of Library Science and was on the Newbery Committee twice. Technology scares and often annoys him, but he is always game for a silly costume! Archives
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