Badass Bookie

THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET A Novel in Words and Pictures. By Brian Selznick. Illustrated. 533 pages. Scholastic Press. £12.99. (Ages 9 and up). ISBN 9781407103488 Rating: 5 Stars       This book tells you of the adventures Hugo Cabret had while trying to fix the automaton without being caught.       It is about a 12 year old boy called Hugo Cabret whose father died in a fire in the museum where he had worked and had found an automaton. After the fire went out, Hugo lived with his uncle in a train station where he was trying to live by stealing food. His uncle went missing, but he continued to work on his uncle's clocks so no one would know. Meanwhile, he was fixing the automaton which he recovered from the wreckage of the museum fire. Hugo only has one problem, the train station toy shop owner has stolen his notebook. What happens when the toy shop owner says that his notebook is burned? Should Hugo believe the toy sho...

MY STORY: VIKING BLOOD By Andrew Donkin 176 pages. Scholastic. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up). ISBN 9781407104812 Rating: 4.5 Stars MY STORY: ROMAN INVASION By Jim Eldridge 144 pages. Scholastic. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up). ISBN 9781407107370 Rating: 4.5 Stars MY ROYAL STORY: ANASTASIA By Carolyn Meyer 224 pages. Scholastic. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up). ISBN 9781407116198 Rating: 4.5 Stars MY ROYAL STORY: ANNE BOLEYN AND ME By Alison Prince 224 pages. Scholastic. £6.99. (Ages 9 and up). ISBN 9781407114774 Rating: 4.5 Stars       This report is about four books, one's called "Viking Blood", another's called "Roman Invasion", another's called "Anastasia" and the last is called "Anne Boleyn and Me". The similarity between these four novels is that they are all historical.       First I will tell you about the book called "Anne Boleyn and Me". It is about a Tudor girl named Elinor who is one of the ladies in waiting for Queen Catherine of Arag...

Welcome to week four of Fall Into YA. Sandy of Scribing Shadows is helping me celebrate, and this week we are definitely challenging you all. To a YA quiz! Congrats to Em who won our last contest. Check your email! Here is her entry! And our runner-ups! The prize for week 4 is, you guessed it, a fall YA release. Here are the rules: 1. You must follow both blogs. 2. You must be 13 or over. 3. It's open internationally but please be sure The Book Depository ships to you. 4. Take this quiz ! You may leave comments on the blog asking clarifying questions. I spent a bit of time in the YA section to put this quiz together. None of the questions are spoilers. Most answers can be found by scouring Goodreads. Not every book on the quiz released this year. Most did. But there's nothing more than three years old. And all books are YA. Not adult; not MG; just YA. This giveaway is open until Wednesday, November 30. The winner will be the person with the highest number of correct answers. I...

I'm almost finished reading Breaking Dawn and since I saw the previous 3 Twilight movies on opening weekend, I had to stick with tradition. And I was far enough past the middle of the book to know I had read enough to see part one. The good... The acting was far superior in this film. I've been a long-time fan of Kristen Stewart. I think she was wonderful in Speak and Panic Room, so I was disappointed with her acting in Twilight. I'm not sure if it was script or directing or something else entirely, but scenes I was looking forward to laughing at weren't cheesy enough to laugh at. *shock* Not only was her acting better, but R-Patt and Taylor Lautner stepped up their game as well. Charlie. This guy always gets the best lines. "I know Edward will be a good husband. I know this... because I'm a cop." Actually, out of all the wedding reception speeches, he was the only one that didn't make me cringe. That scene was so uncomfortable and awkward. It only rei...

MY ROYAL STORY: MARIE ANTOINETTE By Kathryn Lasky 224 pages. Scholastic. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up). ISBN 9781407116181 Rating: 5 Stars       This book tells you of the adventures Marie Antoinette had on her way to becoming a French queen. It is about a young princess called Marie Antoinette who is learning how to be a French queen. Although she hates being away from her family she knows it can't be to bad. On her way to becoming Queen many sad and funny things happen. It is sad when her dance teacher dies, however it is funny when she has to run naked in front of five thousand people! Marie Antoinette is not very happy when she meets her husband because she finds he has pimples, is really fat, and droops a lot. Later on she finds she might be able to make a friend of him. Marie Antoinette hates her main lady in waiting who wears thick red lip gloss, likes to be very proper, and makes the king do what ever she wants him to. However when Queen Marie Ant...

I'm sure you all know how much I love going to book signings. I've been lucky enough to meet dozens of authors. And I've met my top five favorite authors on more than one occasion: Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong, Charles de Lint, Holly Black, and Maggie Stiefvater. So when I found out that Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, was going to be in DC to promote his new book, Cabin Fever, I knew I had to take my boy. Like me when I was his age, he doesn't much care for reading. It's not that either of us were bad with reading or reading comprehension; the problem lies in poor self confidence. I've gotten past that. But not John. However, John loves the Wimpy Kid books, and he was thrilled when I invited him to go with me to DC. Book six is entitled Cabin Fever. It involves poor Greg being stuck inside while a blizzard rages outside. So to celebrate that, they created a fake snow storm. Look... fake snow! Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of...

Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What - or who - will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin? For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it isn't by Lena - and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself - forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask. Som...