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Showing posts from February, 2010

Northward to the Moon by Polly Horvath, 256 pp, RL 5

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Northward to the Moon , Polly Horvath's sequel to the amazing My 100 Adventures , finds main character Jane Fielding one summer later, one year older and one parent richer. The cover illustration by Matt Mahurin , who also created the cover art for Allison Croggon's YA fantasy quartet, The Books of Pellinor perfectly captures the movement of the book and the unifying metaphor of the book. When Northward to the Moon begins, thirteen year old Jane and her siblings Maya, Max and Herschel, all of whom have different, unnamed fathers, have spent a year living in Saskatchewan, seemingly a world away from their house on the beach in Massachusetts. Their mother, Pulitzer-prize winning poet, Felicity Fielding, has married Ned and moved her family across the continent and to another country because he has found a job teaching French in an elementary school. It is May and Ned has just been fired from his job because he doesn't know how to speak French and he and Jane are

My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath, 160 pp RL 5

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I am so excited that this book is finally in paperback! Please read it and share it! It is an amazing book and the sequel, Northward to the Moon , is just on the shelves and will be reviewed here on Friday! Reading My 100 Adventures is sometimes like reading a poem, which is appropriate since the narrator, twelve year old Jane is the daughter of the Pulitzer award winning poet, Felicity Fielding. As she did with the Newbery Honor winner Everything on a Waffle , Polly Horvath creates a beautiful, sometimes cozy, sometimes dangerous, but nevertheless complete world populated with eccentric, self-absorbed adults who aren't always doing their best to look out for the children in their care. Whereas Primrose Squarp, narrator in Everything on a Waffle is unwavering in her belief that her parents are not lost at sea forever, resigned to her merry-go-round foster care in their absence and frequently humorous, intentionally or otherwise, Jane Fielding is more mature in her tone a

Richard Hutchins' Diary, 100 Cupboards Bonus Content

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Now that ND Wilson's blog tour for The Chestnut King is over, I thought it would be ideal to collect all of Richard's Hutchins' diary entries in one place. What follows are five entries with visits to Cupboards #31, #44, #72, #63 and #23 , as well as links to the blogs where they first appeared. Enjoy! (First published entry, posted at Mundie Moms on 2/8/2010) This notebook belongs to Richard Hutchins. If you find it, please return to Richard Hutchins (currently living in the seaport of Hylfing). Even though it is old and belonged to someone else first, I discovered it beneath some floorboards, and it is mine now. Do not read it. If you took it out of my pocket because you found a dead boy and you were wondering who he was; now you know that my name was Richard Hutchins. I am the dead boy. Please notify Anastasia Willis, daughter of Francis and Dorothy Willis, (currently living in the seaport of Hylfing) that I have died. And give her this notebook. Especially plea

ND Wilson Reveals the Contents of an Unexplored Cupboard and Answers a Couple of Questions!

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This is so exciting! I checked out ND Wilson's post at Mundie Moms yesterday and am thrilled to see that there seems to be a theme to the exploration of the cupboards, which is being done by one of my favorite minor characters from the 100 Cupboards Trilogy who I was really hoping to hear more from! It seems that, in an effort to impress Anastasia, his true love (you have to read The Chestnut King , review here Friday, to know the details...) Richard has decided to explore the cupboards and keep a diary of his exploits. So, peruse this wonderful map and then read Richard's entry. I do suggest you start at the blog Mundie Moms From the Diary of Richard Hutchins, post: Survival. Ha! I, Richard Hutchins, have done it. The compass knobs are a mess, and the door is half off its hinges, but the combination still had its effect. I crawled through the downstairs cupboard (not forgetting the rope!), and I didn’t die. At first, I thought I had crawled into dark emptiness, but no, not