One Choice Can Destroy You...Insurgent by Veronica Roth book trailer

http://www.facebook.com/DivergentSeries

Coming May 1, 2012!!!

The Meerkat Wars - juvenile fiction review

The Meerkat Wars

Author:  H.S. Toshack

Publisher:  PakaMdogo Press

Published:  2012

Pages:  250

ISBN 9780956323620

Juvenile Fiction

Source:  a complimentary copy was provided by the author and The Cadence Group in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Sheena is a clever and cheeky little black-and-white cat who secretly stows away (again) in the Allen Family’s Land Rover when they set off on safari to Baragandiri National Park.

Her adventures begin when she helps to rescue Pebble, a young meerkat who has been stung by a scorpion. She befriends Pebble’s tribe, the Duwara, then finds they are fighting a vicious war with the Utongo, who hold the territory on the other side of The Gorge – a deep and terrifying valley cutting this part of Baragandiri in two.

Each tribe believes it lives under The One True Sun, the sun they see on their own side of The Gorge. Sheena decides that the only way to help them is to prove that there is only one sun, and that both tribes share a common belief and a common future. To do that she must persuade the tribes’ leaders, Tuft and Slash, to come with her on a dangerous journey around the end of The Gorge. (from the author)

My Review:

"this is only one of (so far) three stories about Sheenas' secret safaris to Baragandiri.  .....  The previous two take place in The Main Park [you can find the map image at the beginning of the book].  If you haven't already read them, you may want to do so in order to learn more about Paka Mdogo, our little cat heroine...and about Mpole, the Gradual Elephant, and about baboons and lions and warthogs and vultures and vervet monkeys and another monitor lizard and two eagles and a python and a cobra and..."

As you can see from the author's note above and the description of The Meerkat Wars, adventure abounds in this children's series.  It is not necessary to begin with the first book to understand the storyline.  Each can be a stand alone novel, but if you enjoy the adventure in The Meerkat Wars, as I am sure any animal lover will, you will want to get yourself a copy of the previous two novels in this series (Paka Mdogo and The Gradual Elephant).  See http://www.litworks.com/childrens.php for more information.  

The Meerkat Wars takes us to Africa with little Sheena, an adventurous housecat, as she follows her human family into the brush only to find herself an integral part of a plan to protect a meerkat family from an enemy meerkat clan.  She comes in contact with numerous creatures of the wild, including porcupine and scorpion to name only a couple, as she helps plan a defence and strategies to assist them in their battle.  She's quite a clever cat, in over her head in the African wilderness.  Sheena's story will teach children the value of friendship and loyalty and the importance of helping others in need.  

The Meerkat Wars is a warm adventurous tale that children will be sure to enjoy and learn from too.  Charming!!

Note:  "A set of free, downloadable teaching resources (structured in line with the UK National Literacy Strategies but designed to help all 7-12 year old readers explore the text fully, and deepen their enjoyment of it) is available in the Paka Mdogo section of the LitWorks.com website. Go to http://www.litworks.com/childrens.php."  (personally, I think The Meerkat Wars is more on an age 9-12 reading level)

BookSeer: a terrific tool to build your TBR wish lists

Some online stores, such as Indigo.ca, offer an "if you like this, you should read this too" service, usually by email.  I just discovered Book Seer thanks to Lisa is Busy Nerding.

So, out of curiosity I entered Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, a favourite of my 2011 reads, and it suggested the following books:

Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth
The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman
The Kitchen House:  A Novel by Kathleen Grissom
Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova (I plan to purchase this one soon!  I loved Still Alice by the same author!)
Sister of My Heart:  A Novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakuruni
A Good Indian Wife:  A Novel by Anne Cherion
Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
The Story of a Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
Mudbound by Hilary Jordan

Note:  This is a service offered by Amazon.  What I want to know is why LibraryThing isn't being asked to make recommendations (as per the notation on the site).  What's with that?

Go ahead, give it a try and let me know the results.  I'm curious to know your opinion.

http://bookseer.com/

Phantom Book Trailer: Jo Nesbo's new mystery novel

If you are a fan of Stieg Larsson and would like to read something similar, check out Jo Nesbo's new novel, Phantom, now available in stores near you.  Watch the trailer for Phantom here:

New from the author of We Need To Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver, comes The New Republic.

Book Description

A former fat boy, Edgar Kellogg has always yearned to be popular. When he’s offered the post of foreign correspondent in a Portuguese backwater that has sprouted a homegrown terrorist movement, he recognizes the disappeared larger-than-life reporter he’s been sent to replace, Barrington Saddler, as exactly the outsized character he longs to emulate. Infuriatingly, all his fellow journalists cannot stop talking about the beloved “Bear” no longer lighting up their work lives. But all is not as it appears. Why, with Barrington vanished, do terrorist incidents claimed by 

the “SOB” suddenly dry up?

A droll, playful novel set in an alternative past on a fictional peninsula called Barba,The New Republic is a fast-paced, plot-driven thriller. Addressing weighty issues like terrorism with a deft, tongue-in-cheek touch, Shriver presses the more intimate issue: what makes particular people so infuriatingly magnetic, when the rest of us inspire barely a shrug? What’s their secret? And who really has the better life—the admired, or the admirer?

Browse Inside The New Republic by Lionel Shriver

Book Sculpture Pours Out of Building in Spain

5000 books make up this sculpture pouring out of this building in Spain

Strombo | Finally, All That Reading Can Pay Off! Play The CBC Books National Trivia Game | CBC Television

Strombo | Finally, All That Reading Can Pay Off! Play The CBC Books National Trivia Game | CBC Television

Hunger Games Canada Movie Premiere

Watch live streaming video from alliancefilms at livestream.com

The Making of a Print Book: a video

This is so cool!!  For the lover of the physical books, I have a link to a video showing the making of a book from beginning to end: http://vimeo.com/38681202 (Made by Glen Milner for the Daily Telegraph) Enjoy!!

Cover Reveal: The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore

Hitting shelves this summer, The Rise of Nine is Pittacus Lore's third book following I Am Number Four and The Power of Six.  If you loved the movie, I Am Number Four (as I did), you are probably already a fan of Pittacus Lore.

Look for it August 21, 2012!!!!!