10. The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

2022 Newbery Award Winner

listened on Audible (used a credit for it)

2021

336 pgs.
Mid Grade SciFi
Finished 1/30/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 4ish
Setting: 2060 New Mexico and 2400 Planet in another galaxy

My comments: This book was awarded the Newbery Medal last Monday, which sent me in a tailspin to obtain an audio reading asap.  It was read beautifully.  The cover is gorgeous. And it was an absolutely interesting piece of storytelling.  I'm not a big fan of folk/mythology/storytelling, and there were lots of places in the book where very important stories were told, stories that needed to be listened to in order to understand messages from Petra's grandmother, and then from herself.  I had to force myself to pay attention to these parts.  There seemed to me lots of repetitive places, and sometimes the story seemed to drag a bit. Creepy in places, sad in places, clever and adventurous in others.  Some of the pondering seemed more adult than child-centered. Lots to think about.  Good story, but I wouldn't have chosen it for a Newbery....but I never really like/agree with the Newbery choices, so ....

Goodreads synopsis:  There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.

But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

Picture Book - A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris VanDusen

Illustrated by the author

2003, Chronicle Books, San Francisco

28 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.36 - 1055 ratings

My rating:  5!!!!

1^st line/s:  “Early one morning at 7:03,

     Mr. Magee and his little dog, Dee,

Packed up the camper and hitched up the load.

     Hopped in the Rambler and then hit the road.

They drove to the mountains, far from the sea,

      For two nights of camping (or possibly three).”

My comments: Perhaps I love this VanDusen as much as Circus Ship (which has been my all-time favorite for the past couple of years).  Great, funny story, rhyming BRILLIANTLY, with just the coolest illustrations ever.  SO Maine!  I couldn’t love a picture book more!  Full of adventure and humor, a bear, trying to get at the yummy marshmallows, disconnects the camping trailer from the car and down the  hill the camper plunders…into the river and towards a waterfall!

Goodreads:  Mr. Magee and his trusty dog, Dee, are enjoying a peaceful camping trip when all of a sudden they find themselves plunging down a mountain and teetering on the edge of a huge waterfall! How will they find their way out of this slippery situation? Chris Van Dusen, the creator of Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee, has filled this new adventure with charming illustrations and a playful, rhyming text. A fun read-aloud for children (and adults!) on campouts or snuggling at home!

38. The Matchstick Castle by Keir Graff

read the book from Bosler Library
2017, G. P. Putnam's Sons
277 pgs.
Middle Grades Realistic Fantasy
Finished 7-4-17
Goodreads rating: 3.59 - 138 ratings
My rating:  Probably, personally, a 2, but please read below
Setting:  Contemporary Boring, Illinois

First line/s:  "It was supposed to be the perfect summer.  I was going to camp out, build forts, have adventures, and score the championship-winning goal in the New England All-Star Under-12 Soccer Tournament.  When I wasn't doing those things, I was going to stay up late with my friends, eat as much junk food as I wanted, and pretty much do whatever I felt like until sixth grade started in September.  It was going to be epic:  the all-time, best summer ever."

My comments:  This book reminded me somewhat of the books I read and loved as a kid - Gone Away Lake and The Lemonade Trick, The Four Story Mistake and Half Magic.  I can't remember anything at all about those books except that I loved them.  This gave me the same feel.  Except....now I'm old.  And I didn't like it at all, it was just too far-fetched and ridiculous.  So I'm betting there's lots and lots of youngish kids out there that are going to love it like I loved those old titles of long ago.  So I can't rate it, really. Or I shouldn't.   I'd rate it a 2, but that's an old fogey's rating.  I'll leave this to the experts ... and the kids.

Goodreads synopsis: Brian can think of a few places he'd rather spend his summer than with his aunt and uncle in Boring, Illinois. Jail, for example. Or an earplug factory. Anything would be better than doing summer school on a computer while his scientist dad is stationed at the South Pole. 
Boring lives up to its name until Brian and his cousin Nora have a fight, get lost, and discover a huge, wooden house in the forest. With balconies, turrets, and windows seemingly stuck on at random, it looks ready to fall over in the next stiff breeze. To the madcap, eccentric family that lives inside, it's not just a home--it's a castle. 
          Suddenly, summer gets a lot more exciting. With their new friends, Brian and Nora tangle with giant wasps, sharp-tusked wild boars, and a crazed bureaucrat intent on bringing the dangerously dilapidated old house down with a wrecking ball.

MOVIE - Wild

R (1:55)

12/3/14 Limited release

Viewed 1/13/15 at Roadhouse all by my lonesome

RT Critic: 91   Audience:  82  

Cag:  5/Terrific movie

Directed by Jean -Marc Vallee

20th Century Fox

Based on the book by Cheryl Strayed

Reese Witherspoon

My comments:   I saw this on Tuesday night, tossed and turned all night thinking about it, and couldn't get it out of my head the next day.  For me, the overall theme is how powerfully the many different ways we grieve play out.  I hadn't read the book, though I was always drawn to it.  And I wonder how Cheryl Strayed is dealing with her grief....her decisions....and her life, now.  Her unbelievable determination was/is so amazing.

RT: Summary:  With the dissolution of her marriage and the death of her mother, Cheryl Strayed has lost all hope. After years of reckless, destructive behavior, she makes a rash decision. With absolutely no experience, driven only by sheer determination, Cheryl hikes more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, alone. WILD powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddens, strengthens, and ultimately heals her.

63. Cress - Marissa Meyer

#3 The Lunar Chronicles

Audio read by Rebecca Soler - who's spectacular and perfect for these voices - she really does them justice.

13 unabridged cds/ 16 hours

2014 Felwel & Friends/Macmillan Audio

550 pgs.

YA SciFi/Dystopia

Finished: 10/8/2014

Goodreads rating: 4.50

My rating:   5/Awesome, didn't want it to end....

TPPL

Setting:  All-over-the-world (which is now six countries), but mostly orbiting in space between Earth and Luna (the moon).  When?  maybe a couple hundred years from now?

1st sentence/s: "Her satellite made one full orbit around the planet earth every sixteen hours. It was a prison that came with an endlessly breathtaking view -- vast blue oceans and swirling clouds and sunrises that set half the world on fire."

My comments:  I am really enjoying this series.  I'm listening to it as I drive back and forth to work, and I think the Rebecca Soler, who does the reading, is terrific.  She adds personality to each of the characters and is able to switch instantly to individual nuances as the dialogue progresses.  I think she's added a dimension to each of the characters that I might not have done if merely reading the words. The story is part scifi, part dystopia, mystery, adventure and a tiny bit of romance.  It works really well together and I must give Marissa Meyer TWO THUMBS UP! I'm very much looking forward to the next installment.  This one ended perfectly.

Goodreads book summary:  In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. 
       Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 
       When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

Movie- Argo

R (2:00)

Released widely 10-12-12

on dvd 2-19-13

Viewed:

RT Critic: 96    Audience: 94

cag: Wonderful movie, 5/Loved it

Directed by Ben Affleck

Warner Brothers

Ben Affleck, John Goodman

MOVIE INFO

Based on true events, Argo chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis-the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades. On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, a CIA "exfiltration" specialist named Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies

Thoughts:  Superb movie, and the whole time you're watching you're marveling that this is based on a true story.  Affleck's acting and directing are impressive.

MOVIE - Avatar

Awesome!
Released Dec. 18, 2009
PG-13 (2:30)
Viewed 1-10-10 (Cool Date) at Oro Valley Marketplace
with the Weinstein family
RT: 82% cag: 96%
Director: James Cameron

I was quite taken with this movie. It was spectacular. Watching it in 3-D alone was pretty amazing. The huge, brand new theater at Oro Valley Marketplace, although packed, was roomy and ultra-comfortable. Even the 3-D glasses were not a burden. The story! The SET! The whole premise.....other than the battle scenes, which I realize had to be included, were amazing. My palms were clenched and sweaty. The two and a half hours passed in a haze of sensations. I was totally wrapped up in the story and the scenery. Whew.

Jake Sully has returned from war a broken man...literally. He has no use of his legs and is in a wheelchair. His identical twin brother, a brilliant scientist, has died. So Jake takes over the extremely tricky job that his brother had been working on for years.

It is 2154. Earth is a mess, we have to go into outer space to find more viable ways to live. So the army and some sort of conglomerate have found a far-off planet that has riches in THEIR earth that our earth needs. However, it is a very alien planet. So some scientists, headed by Sigourney Weaver, have replicated the shells of the alien population using DNA from the scientist's bodies, so that the scientist's thoughts and actions can go into this.....avatar. But it's really a showdown between the scientists who want peaceful relations with the aliens and the military who want to take over with force. And the battle begins.

My friend, Ivan, hit the nail on the head - he says it's a modern western. It is. Only this time, it takes place in 2154 on Pandora, a planet far, far away and - -yay, yay, yay (SPOILER ALERT) the "indians" win!

Avatar is playing in Chandler at the IMAX theater. I MUST go see it there! ! ! ! !

37. Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow - James Rollins

Published: April, 2009
For: Grades 5-8
404 pgs.
Rating: 4
$16.00
Harper Collins

This is a rip-roarin' adventure that will be enjoyed by many middle schoolers....I can see Ilan, Natalie, Eli. Jacob just eating this story up in one big gulp, then waiting anxiously for its sequel, Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx, to come out sometime in 2010.

I must admit, the story didn't latch onto me (or I didn't latch onto the story....) until about a third of the way in. But once we left the present and entered the world of Calypsos millions of years ago, I was hooked. I love the way Rollins wove historical and scientific facts into the telling of this mile-a-minute adventure tale. Good vs. Evil. Very evil...... And Mayans, and Romans, and Neanderthals, and prehistoric animals and special forces that allow everyone to speak their own language, but "all world" language takes over so that all can understand each other.

I'm going to include a review written by a student. He did it much better than I can:

"Jake Ransom is your (above) average boy next door. When he fits two halves of a Mayan coin into a hole in a museum exhibit, he and his sister are transported into a mixed-up ancient world of Mayans, Chinese, Romans, Neanderthals, super-cool alchemic crystals and, of course, good and evil. Even though the place may hold clues to his archeologist parents’ mysterious disappearance, Jake needs to find a way out -- unless, that is, the T-Rexes, giant scorpions, or the Skull King don’t slaughter him first. Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow is an excellent book with strong, intriguing characters, especially Jake’s sister, Kady, who helps him get out of some extreme fixes. The awesome plot and subtle humor kept me reading it until I finished it in one sitting. The downside? We’ve got to wait a whole year till the sequel, Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx.".........by Christian, age 12 (from the 6/20/09 Saturday Breakfast Book Club, PW)

And if you read the book, here are a couple of cool websites to check out: Harper Collins website with games and a quiz
and James Ransom's website with a You Tube interview about the book