Blog Post
Al's Book Club for Kids: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
by darla
On Friday morning Al Roker, the beloved weather man of NBC's The Today Show, announced his latest pick for Al's Book Club for Kids: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin.
"In the valley of Fruitless Mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life's questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask him how she can change her family's fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest."
Not only is this story a beautiful blend of traditional Chinese folklore themes and characters (keep an eye out for the fabulous talking fish!), it is also a physically beautiful book. Grace Lin's full-color illustrations throughout this tale are intricate and dazzling, and the use of multiple type faces make this journey all the more enchanting. Adult readers will appreciate Lin's author note at the end of the book, where she explains her Asian-American roots and the folktales from her childhood that continue to resonate with her today.
Blog Post
An assassins live for me...
by RiponGood
Vlad is an assassin. He's one of the few human citizens of the Empire, ruled and populated mainly by the Dragaerans. Dragaerans are humanoid, with extended life-spans and averaging seven feet in height. They view themselves as "human", while the human minority sometimes call them "elfs". Vlad's talents have earned him a number of important Dragaerans friends, placing him in many important Empire events. You can follow Vlad's adventures in the Dragaerans series written by Steven Brust. Start with the Book of Jhereg followed by Book of Taltos and Book of Athyra along with he other books in the series.
Blog Post
The Magicians
by sarahc
Have you ever wished that you could attend Hogwarts? Or walk through a dusty old wardrobe and find yourself in Narnia? If so, then Lev Grossman has written a new novel just for you! It’s called The Magicians, and it’s being advertised as the latest “Harry Potter for grownups.” The hero of the story, Quentin Coldwater, is a bright high school senior from Brooklyn who is still secretly obsessed with a series of fantasy books he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. (Fillory is essentially the same as Narnia, and Grossman admits as much in an interview for NPR last month.) Quentin, while preparing for a Princeton interview, suddenly finds himself admitted to a secret college of magic in upstate New York, where he learns that magic is real – and so is Fillory.
The Magicians was published in August in the US (May in the UK), and AADL has several copies on order. Get on the hold list now, it’s only getting longer! Lev Grossman is the book critic for Time Magazine, as well as one of the magazine’s lead technology writers. He has published two other books, Warp and Codex; The Magicians is his first fantasy novel.
Blog Post
August Book to Film, Part 2 (A Fabulous Fiction First)
by muffy
(Already in theaters - Sorry, I am allowed a vacation, right?) The Time Traveler's Wife is based on Audrey Niffenegger’s phenomenal debut novel. (My goodness, 223 holds!)
A literary sensation and perpetual bestseller since its publication in 2003, Time is a “soaring love story” of Clare (an artist) and Henry - a rather dashing librarian at the famous Newberry Library in Chicago, who is one of the first people diagnosed with
Chrono-Displacement Disorder. Periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, disappearing spontaneously for experiences alternately harrowing and amusing.
Segments of the novel is set in South Haven, Michigan - Niffenegger’s (interview) birthplace and Chicago, where she now lives.
August also brings us her much anticipated new novel in 6 years - Her Fearful Symmetry - a most captivating story about two sets of twins, a rather determined ghost, and some very interesting happenings around London's Highgate Cemetery, where the novel is largely set. You could expect nothing less than the fabulous storytelling that made The Time Traveler's Wife a must-read. Another all-nighter, seriously. I am sure I won't have to remind you to GET ON THAT WAITING LIST NOW.
Blog Post
It happened in cyberspace…
by RiponGood
In the mid to late 21st century, going online has become an adventure in virtual reality. For some mysterious reason, young people all over the world are falling into deep comas after spending time on the Net. In book 1 of the Otherland series, the City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams, Irene "Renie" Sulaweyo goes online to try and find the cause of the mysterious illness which has claimed her brother. While on the Net she sees a city of gold. She enters the city and finds others also trying to solve the mystery. The story continues in the River of Blue Fire, Mountain of Black Glass, and Sea of Silver Light.
Blog Post
Has it really been that long?
by RiponGood
I was amazed to find R. A. Salvatore is still writting about Drizzt, the Drow. The character has been round for more than 20 years! That's longer than my kids have been alive. Stories based on games have been around for a long time. Anyone still remember the Gord the Rogue series written by Gary Gygax? Anyway, back to Drizzt. In this series, we follow two story lines, one 100 years in the future of the other. War is brewing between the orcs and dwarves. Can it be prevented? Read on in The Orc King & The Pirate King. Book three in the series, The Ghost King will be out later this year.
Blog Post
New Fantasy Novels for Youth
by elijah
Do your children devour books of magic and fantasy? Never fear--the library has plenty more for their consumption! Check out some of our new novels:
Lost, the sequel to the Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas. Conn is a wizard's apprentice. The only problem is he cannot perform magic anymore because his magic locus was destroyed. While Conn desperately searches for another way to perform magic, he uncovers a terrible plot by an evil sorceror-king, and he is the only one who can stop it!
Or:
Also try Stargazer by Patrick Carman. In this, the fourth book in the Land of Elyon series, young adventurer Alexa Daley sails with her companions to the Five Pillars, a strange land far from the dangers she had defeated in her homeland. Or so she thinks--a dangerous evil follows her from Elyon. Can Alexa and her companions save this innocent land from evil that followed them?
Or even:
Tom Trueheart is from the famous adventuring family of Truehearts. In Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories, sequel to The Secret History of Tom Trueheart by Ian Beck, Tom's six brothers are marrying princesses-but their nuptials are interrupted when the brothers and the princesses are kidnapped and taken to the Land of Dark Stories! Now Tom must venture into that terrible land to rescue them all and save the day.
Blog Post
A Great Adventure
by RiponGood
Have you ever gone on an adventure? I don't mean a vacation, I mean a real cross country trip, an odyssey. Follow the story of young Katook, a lemur on the island of Bo-hibba in The Katurran Odyssey by Terryl Whitlatch and David Michael Wieger. His island home is threatened by the Long Winter, a time of great suffering and death. Katook is banished from his village and must search for a new home. Along the way, he is put through many trials and tests. Ultimately, he learns the secret of the Long Winter. To over come it and save his family, he must face his deepest fears.
Blog Post
King Arthur
by jaegerla
Plenty of folklore and mythology has seeped into popular culture and our daily lives, but few legends have spurred as much fascination as the story of King Arthur. Ever since his name made its first appearances in early Welsh poetry, the story has grown in increasing complexity and detail. In the late 12th century Chretien de Troyes combined scraps of knowledge from oral history as well as the encyclopedias of the time (such as Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain) to form a firm collection of stories based on Arthur's rise and fall, including the introduction of Lancelot, Gawain and Perceval as knights of the round table. King Arthur reached a height of celebrity in 1470 after the publication of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. From that point forward the story has been reinterpreted and retold throughout each generation through literature, films, and plays, but regardless of shifts in representation, the framework for King Arthur's life remains true to the basics of the early legend.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction First #161
by muffy
The Chathrand Voyages Trilogy opens with The Red Wolf Conspiracy* and marks the debut of fantasy author Robert V.S. Redick.
The I.M.S. Chathrand, a floating city carrying a reluctant princess bride sets sail on a peacemaking mission. Among the passengers and crew is a young sailor bearing a family curse, a tribe of miniature warriors, a magic rat, assassins, treacherous mermaids and monstrous slavers, all desperate to unlock the mystery and conspiracy of the Red Wolf, a powerful ancient artifact.
This epic fantasy of maritime adventures, bloody diplomacy is vibrant, fresh and exciting. It won over this reluctant fantasy fan from the very first page. Trust me on this one.
* = Starred reviews