Mini-Me Reads - Zero Tolerance

TITLE  Zero Tolerance
AUTHOR Claudia Mills
PUBLICATION June 18th 2013 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
READ June 07 to 08, 2013
SOURCE From Raincoast Books for review

Seventh-grader Sierra Shepard has always been the perfect student, so when she sees that she accidentally brought her mother's lunch bag to school, including a paring knife, she immediately turns in the knife at the school office. Much to her surprise, her beloved principal places her in in-school suspension and sets a hearing for her expulsion, citing the school's ironclad no weapons policy. While there, Sierra spends time with Luke, a boy who's known as a troublemaker, and discovers that he's not the person she assumed he would be--and that the lines between good and bad aren't as clear as she once thought. Claudia Mills brings another compelling school story to life with Zero Tolerance.

After reading a few mindless middle grade books that were purely for fun and to pass the time it was nice to pick up Zero Tolerance and delve into a story with strong characterizations and an important message for young readers. We are quickly thrown into Sierra Shepard’s life where being a leader at school and getting A’s are the most important things. We also get to meet a host of really great secondary characters and learn a little something along the way.

Right off the bat I was really happy with Sierra as our MC. She was a great role model for a younger audience in that good grades and being a leader at her school were very important to her. She strived to impress her teachers and parents and she also knew how to respect her elders. We do get to see her falter a bit in her path of righteousness which really brought her to life for me. She has a core group of friends in the beginning and we get to witness their ups and downs as well. As is with most MG titles there is also a pretty subtle romance in Zero Tolerance. Actually I would say that there is a bit more of a focus on the boys in Sierra’s life than in most other MG titles but it was still very much in the background. I liked the progression that her crush’s went on in the novel and how the shift really helped drive the moral of the story home with the reader.

While Sierra always ensures that she does the right thing she never guessed that it would get her into the trouble that it did. She opened her lunch kit one lunch break to find that she had brought her mothers matching kit by accident. What made this so bad is that her mom had packed an apple in her lunch, and along with that, a knife to cut it. Immediately Sierra turns it into the lunch lady who marches her straight to the office. Due to the schools “Zero Tolerance” policy when it comes to bringing weapons to school she faces immediate in school suspension and possibly expulsion. I liked how the plot really brought out that there are grey areas in what is right and wrong. Sierra did the right thing and got herself into so much trouble and I could really see both sides of the argument (though of course I think she should never have been penalized for such an innocent mistake.) We also get to meet the “bad kids” while she serves the full week of her suspension which also brought to light that people aren’t always who you think they are.

A very sweet, quick read with a great lesson to be learned, Zero Tolerance is a great read for any MG reader. Bringing to light a story of acceptance and not judging books by their covers this is not one to be missed.

Mini- Me Reads - The 13-Story Treehouse

This week I am super excited to be featuring a really fun book that I got from Macmillan here on Mini-Me Reads.  I know this meme has kind of fallen to the wayside in the last little while but I got a whole bunch of children's and middle grade books so it will slowly be coming back!

TITLE The 13-Story Treehouse
AUTHOR Andy Griffiths, Terry Denton
PUBLICATION April 16th 2013 by Feiwel & Friends
READ May 23, 2013
SOURCE From Macmillan for review

Who wouldn't want to live in a treehouse? Especially a 13-storey treehouse that has a bowling alley, a see-through swimming pool, a tank full of sharks, a library full of comics, a secret underground laboratory, a games room, self-making beds, vines you can swing on, a vegetable vaporiser and a marshmallow machine that follows you around and automatically shoots your favourite flavoured marshmallows into your mouth whenever it discerns you're hungry.

Two new characters – Andy and Terry – live here, make books together, and have a series of completely nutty adventures. Because: ANYTHING can happen in a 13-storey treehouse.

This is a major new series from Andy and Terry- and it's the logical evolution of all their previous books. There are echoes of the Just stories in the Andy and Terry friendship, the breakaway stories in the Bad Book (the Adventures of Super Finger), there's the easy readability of the Cat on the Mat and the Big Fat Cow, and like all these books, the illustrations are as much a part of the story as the story itself.

On an afternoon when I was incredibly tired and just had no drive to pick up the next novel in my reading pile, I decided I needed a light read and picked this one up. It was just what I needed at the time! This was wildly funny and reading it just didn’t take much thought at all. I breezed through it in about a half an hour (which made me feel like I accomplished something huge on an otherwise unproductive day, so brownie points there) and had so much fun in the process.

Andy and Terry live in the most kick-butt treehouse ever thought up. I mean, this place is complete with a bowling alley, full bathroom, underground laboratory and even a shark tank. With the pressure of their publisher on their backs to finish their next novel, Andy and Terry are trying to buckle down and get their work done but there are just distractions everywhere. As you can tell, there isn’t a whole bunch of realism here, it’s an escapism tale and brings the laughs.

Terry & Andy are pretty much opposites of each other. While Andy is much more goal oriented and spends much of the novel simply going along with Terry so he can finally get him settled down to work, Terry is just everywhere. This guy had the attention span of a fish! He could not sit down and concentrate on anything. I had hoped that there would be a message there about how in life it is important to buckle down at times and get the task at hand done, but it ended up that Terry's zaniness payed off and helped the cause.

The illustrations are rich and plentiful. Some pages didn’t even have words and just featured funny comic strip like doodles for the reader to zoom through. I actually found myself staring at the pictures for much longer than I spent really reading the novel. Upon finishing my 5 year old daughter came up and flipped through the book while I described the story for her and I basically ended up reading it twice. The second time around she laughed even harder than I had.

There isn’t much of a lesson to be learned here but I did enjoy watching Andy and Terry get up to random shenanigans and realize that the best stories come from every day life. From flying catnaries to gorillas hunting oversized bananas and sea monsters disguised as gorgeous mermaids this hilarious middle grade novel holds nothing back and it pays off in the end. This is middle grade for a younger audience, I would say 5-10, and it’s perfect for exactly who it is aimed at. I think this is one that my kids and I will be reading a few times in the future.

Mini-Me Reads (4)

After a prolonged Christmas/New Years hiatus, Mini-Me Reads is back!  I've been getting back into the swing of blogging daily and getting my house back into it's routine and I kind of let this meme stray for a bit but it's back!  I am changing one thing about the meme.  Since a lot of these books I read for fun with my children and rate simply on readability and their interest, I won't be assigning a numbered rating.  I could never figure out where to place these little gems on the scale so I have decided to just let the reviews speak for themselves.

My Brave Year of First: Tries, Sighs and High Fives

Written by Jamie Lee Curtis | Illustrated by Laura Cornell

Published September 4, 2012 by HarperCollins

The tenth collaboration between Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell celebrates the everyday bravery of trying new things for the very first time. While our spunky heroine, Frankie, learns to ride a bike, tie her shoes, make new friends, love her first dog, borrow a book from the library, say when she's wrong, try yucky food and work with her dad, she also learns that trying new things is how she grows--and that being brave enough to do so is what growing up is all about.

I will be the first to admit that what really drew me to picking up this title was when I saw Jamie Lee Curtis's name on it.  I have been a fan of hers ever since her early Halloween days & finding out that she was now an author of children's books was a very pleasant surprise. What was even more intriguing was when I flipped through the book and saw that it was about getting back up and dusting yourself off after taking a fall.

Having been a mother now for a few years I have seen how disheartening it is for my children to attempt something that they see someone do, not be able to achieve it and then get pretty down on themselves.  I'm constantly telling them "practice, practice, practice!"  So I thought that this would be the perfect book to introduce into my house and have a great learning experience.  It fulfilled that expectation that I had for it and was so much more.

Not only is this about retrying things that you have previously not had success with, but it's also about the more simple firsts in life.  The first day of school, making your first friends, your first walk around the block with your friend unsupervised (Mommy was totally hiding in the bush on that page) This book is about facing new adventures in life that scare you and being "brave, true and strong."

We had many laughs throughout this book and had a good conversation after about all the new things that the character did that my children want to try out in the future. The illustrations were adorable and the message was a great one.  This is definitely a great book for kids of all ages as it tackles a plethora of firsts.

The Magic Nesting Doll

Written by Jacqueline K. Ogburn | Illustrated by Laurel Long

Published September 1, 2000 by Dial Books

Katya's grandmother took a little matryoshka, a nesting doll, out of a small box. "If your need is great, open the doll and help will come. But you may only do so three times. After that the magic will be gone." A wicked spell has changed a handsome young prince to a pale glassy figure made of "living ice," and his kingdom to a frozen landscape of night without moon, darkness without dawn. Katya knows that it's up to her to rescue the prince and undo the evil spell that has banished the sun. Armed with only the magic nesting doll and her own valiant heart, she is determined to succeed. But will the combined effort of her courage and the mysterious nesting doll be strong enough to prevail? Laurel Long's radiant paintings and Jacqueline K. Ogburn's enchanting original tale were inspired by Russian folk art and stories. This talented duo has created a modern classic that honors its folklore heritage while depicting a world in which a girl can be anything, including a hero.

My daughter has become pretty well-known at her school for picking out the most elusive, odd looking library books that other kids never take a second glance at.  While the other kids are bring home The Magic School Bus, Dr. Seuss, and Dora The Explorer, Sloane always brings home more artsy titles, and I have to admit I am pretty proud of that.  But in the case of The Magic Nesting Doll it meant that I had to read it to her, word for word, and there are a lot of words! Here is an example of a page of this book:

Pages like this made for a really long bed time story!  While I did enjoy the story quite a bit, the kids started to wane somewhere around the 25% mark and get pretty antsy.  I do think that the story could have been shortened quite a bit, as it was pretty repetitive and was full of Katja going back and forth.  Because of the kids losing interest in it pretty early on I have to say that it was an unsuccessful book in our home.

One thing that can not be overlooked in this story is the wonderful illustrations. They're not just illustrations but they are paintings and the detail in each and every one is absolutely breathtaking.  When the kids minds started to wander we would take time to stare at the paintings and talk about the details we saw that stood out to us and it reigned their attention back in.

This is a very pretty book and a plot feels very fairytale-esque.  Instead of having a sleeping beauty who needs to be brought back to life, we have a frozen prince.  It felt to me as if this book was a high fantasy children's book, with all the fleshing out of details and the epic quest that Katja went on.  I think there are people who will love this book, but make sure your child is a bit older when you read it to them.  It's very long and very detailed, so it's definitely not for the wondering mind of a toddler!

Mini-Me Reads (3)

Sofia The First

Sofia The First

Written by Catherine Hapka | Illustrated by Grace Lee

Published October 30, 2012 by Disney Press

Meet Sofia, a little girl who lives a rather ordinary life. But everything changes when her mother, Miranda, marries the king. Overnight, Sofia becomes a princess, moves into the castle, gains a step-brother, a step-sister... and the ability to talk to her new animal friends thanks to a magical amulet Now, life is anything but ordinary for Sofia the First

Sofia The First was a book that was quickly grabbed by my daughter on one of our trips to chapters. She was immediately taken with the sparkles and the super cute princess on the cover. There was no way I could say no so we came home and read it. In the end this was a cute story, but I think it had a lot of missed potential.

Sofia is a regular girl whose mother recently married a king. Becoming a princess is wreaking havoc on Sofia’s nerves as she struggles to fit into the role and live up to her new step sister, Amber. Sofia looks for help along the way and gets it from the sorcerer of the castle (who is really no help at all) and the one and only Cinderella teaches her a bit about dealing with unruly stepsisters. I had expected a cute story about Sofia shaking things up in the palace and making the royals realize they didn’t need to be so stuffy all the time. But what we got was Sofia’s struggle to fit in and the lessons that make her perfect, and then she ended up being just that.  My daughter did let out a few chuckles throughout and really enjoyed the wonderful illustrations but I would have liked to see Sofia being accepted for who she was, rather than becoming the perfect princess.

While I was disappointed in the direction Sofia’s growth took, I did enjoy her coming together with Amber and them working together to find a solution. This is a cute story with no real lesson to be had. It definitely has cute drawings, but don’t look for anything too deep in this one.

Memoirs of a Goldfish

 Memoirs of a Goldfish

Written by Devin Scillian | Illustrated by Tim Bowers

Published April 1st, 2012 by Sleeping Bear Press

With his bowl to himself, Goldfish loves his life...until one day...
A personal account from a goldfish on life in his bowl as other intruders crowd him.

Memoirs of a Goldfish was such a funny and heartwarming read! It's written as a daily account of Mr. Goldfish's tank being invaded by new decorations/plants/fish.  I really like that the author chose to tell the story in journal form, the frankness of the entries elicited many laughs out of both my husband and I  & especially our children.

The illustrations are very adorable; the big, bug eyes on the fish and the wispy, lifelike plants were perfect.  As the bowl gets filled up we even zoom in on the tank and it definitely lends to a claustrophobic feeling.  Not only do we zoom in but the pages also get way more colourful and cheery. Once Goldfish is taken out of his tank for a cleaning the canvas is once again very white and colourless.  I loved how well the illustrations conveyed the emotions of the writing, they were spot on in every possible way.

I also loved the revelation Goldfish had in the end of the story when he was left alone in the silence.  Seeing him learn to appreciate his company and even find love was a perfect ending to a very cute story.  This was a very fun story to read and lent a perfect opportunity to get into character & really get into the story.  I highly recommend this one for parents and children alike!

Mini- Me Reads (2)

Yay! It's time for Mini-Me Reads again here at Alluring Reads. I am having so much fun finding new books to feature in this meme and I hope you are enjoying it as well! This week it's all about Pete The Cat!

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes

Story by Eric Litwin | Created & Illustrated by James Dean

published July 26th 2011 by HarperCollins

Pete the Cat is back--and this time he's rocking in his school shoes. Pete discovers the library, the lunchroom, the playground, and lots of other cool places at school. And no matter where he goes, Pete never stops moving and grooving and singing his song . . . because it's all good.

One thing that I absolutely love about my daughter being in Kindergarten is that she comes home from school and talks about all the books they read in class that she wants to get for home.  One of the first ones that she became enamoured with was the Pete the Cat series.  I had never heard of them before so off to Chapters we went! Upon coming home and reading them, I can see why she is a fan!  Rocking in My School Shoes is an adorable little story that is loads of fun to read.

Pete is a musical little cat and he gets through a day at school by putting whatever he is doing into his Rocking in My School Shoes song.  What I found most endearing about this book (beside the cute song the kids and I sang along to) is that every setting Pete goes to is introduced in the form of a riddle leaving time for the kids to figure out where he is and shout out the answer.  We had so much fun solving where Pete was headed next and it made for a great interactive read.  I also let the kids put the new action the cat got up to in the song by themselves before I sang the one in the book.

I'm not too sure how the rest of this series is but at this point I can say that I really enjoy how interactive and musical it is! I also like the grungey cute vibe the illustrations have.  I will say that I wish Pete had a mouth because you can never tell if he's happy or not!  We will be delving into more Pete the Cat for sure.

The Harpercollins Childrens website has a great interactive section just for Pete the Cat and it features a read-a-long song of Rocking in My School Shoes.

Check out the read-a-long here!

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas

Story by Eric Litwin | Created & Illustrated by James Dean

published September 25th 2012 by HarperCollins

'Twas the day before Christmas and Santa was ill.

In the cold winter wind he had caught a bad chill.

Will Christmas be canceled? Will it come to that?

"Never!" cried Santa. "Let's call Pete the Cat!"

In this rockin' new spin on the traditional tale "The Night Before Christmas," Pete the Cat proves that giving your all in the spirit of Christmas is the totally groovy thing to do.

We had a lot of fun reading this one! After exploring the Pete the Cat section on Harper's website we decided that instead of reading this one we would listen along to the .mp3 file on there!  What a great idea, the kids (especially my 5 year old daughter, Sloane) had such a blast singing along to the song and boogying as well!  Check out how into it she got:

As for the story here, it's a cute tale of Santa getting ill and our beloved Pete stepping in to get the gifts out to the children of the world.  While I found Rocking in My School Shoes to be a fun read and loved the interactive element in it, this one didn't excite me as much. Yes, there was the song to sing along to but this one came with more of a message about giving your all and being your best.  But the addition of the little riddles in School Shoes was missing here and we had so much fun with that.

Once again, I love the lazy, grungey look of the illustrations and I'm still yearning for Pete to get a mouth! There are a few other books in this series and we will definitely be grabbing them, so be sure to come back the next time we feature Pete the Cat!

Click here to listen to the Pete the Cat Saves Christmas song!

Mini-Me Reads (1)

Mini-Me Reads, exclusively titled for Alluring Reads, is a bi-weekly meme that features reviews of childrens books.

Hello lovelies! Welcome to my very first Mini-Me Reads post.  I decided to create this feature for the blog because I am constantly reading children's books to my kids and there are so many fantastic ones out there.  I feel that children's books don't necessarily get the love that they deserve from bloggers. I'm going to start this feature off with a bang and include three reviews of books I recently discovered and that my kids and I loved very much.  So here we go...

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

 Written by William Joyce | Illustrated by Joe Bluh

published June 19th 2012 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Morris Lessmore loved words.

He loved stories.

He loved books.

But every story has its upsets.

Everything in Morris Lessmore’s life, including his own story, is scattered to the winds.

But the power of story will save the day.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morries Lessmore caught my eye at the book store because of it's wonderful drawings.  It boasts on the cover that it is "the story that inspired the Academy Award-winning short film" having never heard of the short, I was definitely intrigued to take this little story in.  What I got was an uplifting tale about the power of the written word that shines through with stunning imagery.

After a an upset in Morris's life, in the form of a devastating storm, he is lost and depressed, constantly looking down.  When he looks up he sees an uplifting site in the form of a woman drifting through the sky, pulled by her favourite books.  She drops a book down to Morris and the book leads him to a magical place full of novels where Morris begins to piece himself (and his books) back together again.

This is a touching tale about how much a good book can do for someone.  My children loved the illustrations and immediately wanted to go to "the place with all the flying books." This is one that we will be reading over and over again because I think it captures the allure of reading, and how good it can be for a person perfectly.  No matter how old a person grows and what may come in their life, a good bookshelf of books can always make you feel young again, such a great message.

Upon finishing, I immediately went to YouTube to watch the short film and I can safely say that it is just as touching as the book.

Watch the short!

The Man in the Moon

The Man in the Moon (The Guardians of Childhood #1)

Written & Illustrated by William Joyce

published  September 6th 2011 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Up there in the sky.

Don’t you see him?

No, not the moon.

The Man in the Moon.

He wasn’t always a man.

Nor was he always on the moon.

He was once a child.

Like you.

Until a battle,

a shooting star,

and a lost balloon

sent him on a quest.

Meet the very first guardian of childhood.

MiM, the Man in the Moon.

The Man in the Moon is the first book in The Guardians of Childhood series and tells a beautiful story that is sad at times and incredibly beautiful in its entirety. I always find Joyce's books to have the most stunning imagery and I love the out of this world tone of the illustrations in this one.  This is the tale of how a little boy, a child aboard the ship the Moon Clipper surrounded by family and friends, became the Man in the Moon (MiM) and gathered up all the Guardians of Childhood.

This tale starts off perfectly happy but once Pitch, the King of Nightmares, finds out that this boy has never had a nightmare he vows to make the boy his own and deem him the Prince of Nightmares.  In the outcome of the battle the boy is left alone on the moon to be raised by the Moonbots, Moonmice and giant Glowworms who were also left behind.  As he grows, he discovers the planet Earth through his father's telescope & realises that there are children on the far away planet that are much like him. As the children's lost balloons float up to him he finds that  he can hear their hopes and dreams if he held them to his ear.

Once MiM sets about his mission of making the children of Earth happy I got really lost in the story.  The tale brings together Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and many other familiar childhood figures.  It even tells how MiM set about lighting up the moon so the children of Earth never had to be afraid of the night again.  My children absolutely loved the appearance of all the figures and it definitely got them asking questions about each of them.  We all hope that there will be a book for each Guardian and will be anxiously awaiting the arrival of more books!

The Sandman

 The Sandman (The Guardians of Childhood #2)

Written & Illustrated by William Joyce

published October 2nd 2012 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

One foggy night, the Man in the Moon has a startling thought: When the moon is less than full and bright, who will keep children safe at night? He needs a backup plan! Or a backup Guardian, as it were. His keen eye falls upon a sleepy little fellow living on a sleepy little island who is a sweet-dreamer extraordinaire. Since good dreams always trump bad ones, this means Pitch, the Nightmare King, will be further thwarted in his nefarious quest to terrorize children. So Sanderson Mansnoozie seems the perfect choice. But there are two problems. Firstly, given that Sandy has never had a bad dream, how can MiM convince him how important this new role is to the happy-being of children everywhere? And secondly, how can MiM keep this snoozy ally awake long enough to help?

This follow-up to The Man in the Moon, a New York Times bestseller called “dazzlingly inventive,” by Publishers Weekly, introduces us to the sleepy little fellow to whom we owe many a good nights’ rest, the second Guardian of Childhood, the Sandman.

I have to admit here that this was my first William Joyce book, yes, I read the first two books in The Guardians of Childhood series backwards.  My kids found this one at the grocery store and were so excited because they had seen the Sandman in the movie trailer for The Guardians so I was told we had to get the book.  I read it to them that night and finished with a tear in my eye.  This is a beautiful story about protecting our children from the darkness & all the things they are afraid of.

My favorite thing about this series is the rich illustrations, they are absolutely gorgeous and I could flip through the book just to look at them and it still be a worthwhile book.  They have a vintage looking quality to them and remind me of the epic fairy tales of my childhood.  Reading it to my children they were constantly pointing out little details in the drawings that they loved and my daughter sat flipping through the book long after we finished reading it.

Not only is this chalk full of stunning imagery, it also has a beautiful tale to go along with the pictures.  I love the idea behind these books and the way that they put a fresh spin on the origin of beloved childhood figures. This one was very special and led to a conversation between my children and I about where the morning sleep crusts in your eyes come from.  I couldn't believe that I had never gone into the childhood lore about that with them and it was definitely fun to go into it now.  I hope there will be more Guardian tales to come, my children are definitely pining for more!

Don't forget that The Rise of the Guardians comes out TOMORROW and looks AWESOME!

Check out the trailer