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Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland

The seven tribes of dragons have been at war over a forgotten treasure for generations, and there is a prophecy saying that only five dragonets can stop it. Enter Clay, Tsunami, Starflight, Sunny, and Glory: the dragonets of destiny. Only they can save the land... but not every dragon wants a destiny. As the dragonets explore the land, are captured by various rulers, and are manipulated by different powers, the dragonets realize they have a choice between fighting a war and saving the world their own way. I've loved these books and I hope you do too!

A.Story

Click here to visit the website.

The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann

First off, I'd just like to say: I loved this book!

In the land of Quill, there is a system. The intelligent, athletic children are chosen as Wanteds and given glorious futures. Average children are selected as Necessaries, given menial tasks that are undesirable to anyone, but necessary in the running of a successful government. Finally, any creative children are sent to their graves at the age of twelve... or maybe not? It turns out that there's a hidden world- Artimé- where creativity is a gift... and maybe, even, a weapon.

Read this book! I hope you like it as much as I did.
           :)
A Story

Savvy by Ingrid Law

Everyone in Mibs's family has a special power: their "Savvy". Her brothers create hurricanes and electricity, her grandpa moves mountains, and her aunt can get people to do what she says. At first Mibs hopes for a powerful savvy like the rest of her family, but when her poppa gets in a terrible accident, all she wants is something to save him. She goes on a trip to save her poppa, along with her brothers and the preacher's kids. One thing is for sure: none of the people who left on the trip will ever be the same.
Ingrid Law has also written a sequel, Scumble.Click here to visit the author's website.

~A.Story

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Once there was a boy... an orphan named Reynie with a gift for thinking outside the box. He took a test out of curiosity, and was thrust into a world of mystery, riddles and intrigue. Nothing is as it seems in this crazy world... so pick up a copy of The Mysterious Benedict Society today! Click here to visit the author's website.

~A.Story

Sammy Keyes by Wendelin Van Draanen

Sammy Keyes is a girl detective, but don't confuse her with Nancy Drew... Sammy has way more fun! Sammy Keyes lives illegally with her Grams in a senior living facility since her mom ditched her there to pursue her hollywood dream. As she sneaks in through the fire escape one day in August of 1998, Sammy sees a robbery take place... and since then, more than 12 years later, Sammy's still going strong.
Visit Wendelin Van Draanen at her website.

The Lion Boy trilogy by Zizou Corder

In the Lion Boy trilogy, there is a boy- Charlie Ashanti- who can speak Cat. His life is fairly normal until his parents are abducted by the government and cats are the only ones he can trust. Throughout this trilogy, Charlie will discover who he is, why his parents were taken, and what destroyed his world.
Visit Zizou Corder at her website.

Erin Hunter

Hello again!

On March 5, 2013, I met Erin Hunter, author of the Warriors books, to celebrate the launch of her new series. She has just released the first book! Did you know "Erin Hunter" is actually 4 people? She consists of a "dreamer", who comes up with the ideas, and three writers, who bring the stories to life. I met the dreamer, Victoria Holmes. She signed 4 of my books. She's really inspired me! I hope we'll see a lot more of Erin Hunter in the near future.

Signing off, 

A.Story

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl,the classic child genius /criminal mastermind /fantasy story. In it, Artemis (yes he's a boy) kidnaps a leprechaun and gets a little more than he bargained for. It's a spellbinding tale of magic and mystery for all ages. Reach the author at Artemis's website.

xo!
~A.S

Sorry:( (Fragenmier Mystery 2)

My dear friends...

oops.

ummm...There's no EZ way to say this, but... there won't be a part 2.


my computer crashed, taking with it my her story. Basically, the Butler did it. 
I had a nice second half, but... Ai Yi Yi!

soreeeeeeeeeeeee.

~A.Story

H.I.V.E

beeep bop boop 
welcome to H.I.V.E.,
the Higher Institute for Villainous Education--
this series follows extremely talented young villains in their education... inside a volcano! meet otto, shelby, lucy, wing, franz, laura and friends as they meet various challenges and opponents in the mad rush for criminal superiority.
A.S. out.
----

Fragenmier mystery

Hi, I’m Tobias, and I’m the lawyer of the two finest detectives in this age: Chloe Fennel and Ivy Skadd. They had just gotten a call from the Baroness Fragernmier at Pine Tree Estates… and C&I Detectives were all ready to go.  

It all  started with the phone call. Chloe had gotten a call from the Baroness. “Hello?...Calm down! … Look, lady… Hey! Can’t under… HEY! If you don’t stop hyperventilating, I’m hanging—oh man oh man. Not cool.…Who’d even do that?!...Yes I’m coming right over! What?! Shoot…” and Chloe hung up.

“Friend of yours?” Ivy asked dryly.

“Nope! Client of ours.”

“Mmm”, grunted Ivy. Chloe counted down. One, two… “CLIENT?! Why didn’t you say so?!” Ivy jumped up and zoomed off in one of her inventions: the cheese-powered motorscooter. She was back within a few seconds. “Uh, where is this place again?” Chloe rolled her eyes.

              •••

At the mansion, Ivy was waiting for Chloe to arrive on her horse, Zepplinna. “Where were you?!” yelled Ivy when Chloe finally pulled up. “Never mind. Here comes our client with the funny name!”

A woman came running up out of the house, saying, “Oh thank goodness you’re here! I’m the Baroness Fragenmier, Sue Salí… but you can call me ‘Sue Lee’.” She explained, “Last Saturday night, William, my son, got an upset tummy from our maid, Dorthea,’s cooking. Dora felt terrible and called her doctor, Dr.Rattón, to treat Will. She took care of him all the time. Poor dear is like my daughter… she’s illiterate, you know. Can’t read or write…. but the next morning, Willie was gone!!!!” Here the woman broke down, sobbing, and was unable to offer any further information.                 The detectives hurried down the lane to the door. Chloe said, “Let’s interview the maid first.” Ivy nodded, rummaged around in her briefcase and pulled out…“White out?! How is fixing our mistakes supposed to help us find Dorothea?!” She paused. “Ivy?”

Ivy tapped Chloe on the shoulder. “Boo.”  Chloe screamed and spun around. “Like it? It’s my new line of inventions—Undercover Weapons: the Office.” Ivy shrugged. “I’m still working on the name. But this”—she held up the white-out.—“With just one stripe on my hand, I can ‘white out’ and turn invisible! I can even walk through walls!”

“No need! Here’s your own,” said Ivy, passing Chloe a briefcase leather briefcase with “C.F.” monogrammed at the top. Chloe grinned.

                 •••

The girls found Miss Dorothea dusting a model of the Loch Ness Monster and weeping softly. “Hello? Are you Miss Dorothea?” whispered the (now visible) Chloe. The maid nodded fearfully, backing away. “What do you know about Will Fragenmier’s disappearance?” demanded Chloe in a slightly more aggressive tone. Miss Dorothea shook with fright. “TELL ME NOW!” shouted Chloe, pulling out a pencil that turned into a machete. She threw it to the ground, screaming, “Vee! I just wanted to take notes!!”

Ivy grinned wickedly. “ Didn’t I tell you? Nothing in those briefcases is normal. But if you want to take notes…” She tossed Chloe a vocal recorder. “Here.”

Chloe accepted the recorder, saying, “ But a machete! Really! How… primitive!” She turned to Miss Dorothea. “Now.” That was all she needed to say.

“Okay, okay, I’ll ’fess up!”  blurted the maid. Chloe turned on the recorder. “So, Willie was sick. Doctor Rattón came to treat him. I’d say 1 ½ hours later, Butler Raymond Anthony came to me with a packet, saying the Doctor prribed it to Will. I was surprised, since Will and Ray hate each other, but gave it to Willie in his tea. He was soon fast asleep, bless him, and must have been healing.” The girls exchanged looks. Finally a clue. “Less than half an hour later, Willie was k-k-kidnapped!” She was unable to continue through her tears.

“Poor thing”, comforted Ivy. “May I have a sample of the Doctor’s medicine?” The maid nodded and led the way to the kitchen, sniffling. Ivy pulled out a highlighter and used it as a flashlight.

“Here you go,” squeaked Dorthea as she handed Chloe a tea bag:

The detective stared. “You killed Willie?” gasped Ivy at last. “Killed Willie?” Dorthea looked confused, “but he was sleeping.”

“Yeah”, said Chloe as she examined the poison clodely.  “ In a coma, which he died in after…half an hour. The body was removed in the kidnapping.”

Dorthea gasped a gasp that drained all of the air from the room and fainted. Chloe sighed “I’ll take her to the police station for further questioning.”

“Well, I’m staying,” said Ivy, something is fishy here. Besides, didn’t Baroness Sue Sally Fragernmier say Dorthea couldn’t read? I’m going to investigate the dude who gave this poor girl the poison: the butler.” She pulled out her phone and pu shed a few buttons. “Dunn-dunn-DUNN” played her phone. Ivy grinned, “See ya.”

With Chloe at the station, Ivy was mildly terrified. What if a mad axe-murderer jumped out and – Ivy took a deep breath. Don’t think about that. Besides…what’s the laser pointer for? She slipped it into her hand. She saw a door that read “Butler’s Room” and entered.

“Oh…my…gosh.” Squeaked Ivy. This room wa huge. If this was for a butler, where did the master bedroom go? It must be 200 square feet. Ivy felt around the walls.  “C’mon. C’mon.” she muttered as she felt the walls. She felt a strange knot in the wood. “yes.” Ivy pressed the knot and an incredible change took place. All of the walls, covered with plush hangings turned around. On the other side were loads of torture devices, dangerous weapons and forged bank notes.

This is part one of 2, by my friend... I'll tell you who *she* is soon. Till next time! 

-A.S.

Bookplate 3

Here it is!!

The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh

    The Night Tourist by Catherine Marsh is a great paranormal read.When Jack Perdu is hit by a car, it leaves him with some…unusual…abilities. He can now see spirits! He meets a ghost (named Euri) with a dark past who quickly befriends him and shows him the New York Underworld. However, Jack quickly becomes trapped and lost. He soon discovers that after three days & nights, the Underworld becomes too much of a strain on the living body and any mortal would die, even with a ghost (Hi, Euri!) leading him.
    This is a fantastic book. If you enjoy it, take out the sequel, The Twilight Prisoner, from your local library.


 Click here to visit the author's website.


--A.S. :)

Bookplate #2

Here's the second bookplate:

The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonerstruck by Brian Selsznik

Hello again! Sorry for the lack of posts, but what with the holidays, I haven't had time to go online.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik is an award-winning book about a young boy named Hugo Cabret.  His father, who died in a fire, was working on an automoton. Ever since, Hugo has been trying to fix the mechanical man, while keeping up with his duties of winding the clocks in the train station where he lives above Paris. Hugo's days are fairly uneventful, until he is caught stealing mechanical parts from a toy shop...and neither his nor his friend's lives will ever be the same again. 

Hugo's story was made into a movie last year (2011). I saw it on New Years Eve in 3D. Hugo's official website is www.theinventionofhugocabret.com. 

Wonderstruck is a completely unrelated book by the same author. It tells the story of Ben and Rose. While their stories are set 50 years apart, they intertwine in a way that no-one could have imagined. Deaf, daring Rose and orphan, hard-of-hearing Ben are about to have the adventure of their lives in New York City. 

Rose's story is set in 1927 and Ben's in 1977. Hugo's story is set in 1931. A unique thing about these book is that they are told in both beautifully illustrated pictures and words. The pages that have pictures don't have text and the pages with text are lacking artwork. When I started these stories I found this format difficult to comprehend but as I went on I realized it helped me appreciate the lovely black and white illustrations.

Wonderstruck's official website is www.wonderstruckthebook.com.

Enjoy!

-A.Story

Introducing... Book Plates!!

Everyone enjoy their Friday the 13th?:) I did.
Anyways, for Christmas I got four cool bookplates.Here's the first one:

Book Videos

I was surfing the web and I found two fun book videos on You Tube.


Have fun!


Book Video 1

Book Video 2

above center: 
from "Orginizing the Bookshelf"


above left and right: 
from "The Joy of Books"

Bookplate numero cuatro

This is the last one.

I hope you've enjoyed these plates!


-A.Story

Warriors by Erin Hunter

This is a wonderful series. Set in the wild, feral cats set in groups called clans fight and make homes far away from the interfering  twolegs(or upwalkers) and their wimpy kittypets. With every series within this world,there is a new generation of cats and a new generation of stories.


-A.S.


  Click here to visit the official website.