Booktalks – Page 34 – Booktalking #kidlit

Tempest: A Novel

Tempest: A Novel
by Julie Cross (Author)
352 pages

Booktalk: The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps– it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future. Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him.

Snippet:
The first time I jumped was about eight months ago, during my first semester of college. I was sitting in the middle of a French poetry class. I nodded off for a few minutes and woke up to a cold breeze and a door slamming me in the face. I was standing in front of my dorm. Before I even had a chance to panic, I was right back in class again.

Attack of the Shark-Headed Zombie

Attack of the Shark-Headed Zombie
by Bill Doyle (Author) and Scott Altman (Illustrator)
112 pages

Booktalk: After Keats and Henry lose their bikes, they need money—fast. So the help-wanted ad at the supermarket seems ideal for them. All they have to do is weed Hallway House’s garden, find some lightbulbs in the attic, sweep the garage . . . and battle a shark-headed zombie. That last job is a joke…isn’t it?

Snippet: “Shark-headed zombie?” Henry said.

“Extra wand?” said Keats.

Henry laughed, and then Keats did, too.

BONUS! See the video!

Mia: The Easter Egg Chase

Mia: The Easter Egg Chase
by Robin Farley (Author) and Olga and Aleksey Ivanov (Illustrators)

Booktalk: It’s an Easter Eggstravaganza, and Mia can’t wait for the festivities to begin!

Snippet: Tomorrow was Easter and Mia and her dad were coloring eggs to get ready for the big family hunt the next day.

Marley and the Great Easter Egg Hunt

Marley and the Great Easter Egg Hunt
by John Grogan (Author) and Richard Cowdrey (Illustrator)

Booktalk: The day of the annual town Easter Egg Hunt has arrived, and Marley and his family are ready to find the biggest, most eggstravagant egg!

Snippet: “Slow down, Marley!” ordered Cassie as she chased after her dog. But Marley wasn’t slowing down. His tongue hung out of his mouth and his ears flapped wildly as he flew down the street. He wasn’t sure what an Easter egg hunt was, but he knew he wanted to be in the middle of it.

5 Great Books About Spring

Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Spring Babies
by Erica Silverman (Author) and Betsy Lewin (Illustrator)
New babies are born on the ranch. (See the video!) Easy reader with 5 chapters

How Do You Know It’s Spring?
by Allan Fowler
Learn the facts in this Rookie Read About Science easy reader.

Poppleton In Spring
by Cynthia Rylant (Author) and Mark Teague (Illustrator)
See how Poppleton welcomes spring. Easy reader with 3 chapters

Spring Is Here!: A Story About Seeds
by Joan Holub (Author) and Will Terry (Illustrator)
The Ant Hill kids plant their own garden. Pre-Level 1 easy reader

Spring Showers
by Samantha Brooke (Adapter) and Mike Giles (Illustrator)
It’s spring in Gabba Land, and that means spring showers. Pre-Level 1 easy reader

Tails of Spring Break

Tails of Spring Break
by Anne Warren Smith (Author)
128 pages

Booktalk: Everyone, it seems, is going somewhere fun for spring break-everyone except Katie Jordan and her family. Even her best friend, Sierra, is going to Hawaii! But then Katie realizes she’s not the only one being left behind-what about all those poor lonely pets? And so Katie sets out to save her spring break with a pet-sitting business. But Katie hadn’t bargained on having a business partner-especially not someone as awful as Claire Plummer!

Snippet: On the last day of school before spring vacation, it sounded like almost every kid in my fourth grade class was getting away from Oregon. They were going places where the sun was shining. Places like Disneyland and San Diego. Even Hawaii!

Bright Baby Touch & Feel Colors

Bright Baby Touch & Feel Colors
by Roger Priddy (Author, Illustrator)

Booktalk: Each page in this board book has a new color and a new object to touch and feel.

Snippet:
yellow
banana

Hush Little Turtle

Hush Little Turtle
By Maranke Rinck (Author) and Martijn Van Der Linden (Illustrator)

Booktalk: In this board book, Turtle has a problem. He can’t go to sleep! His friends try to help him out…

Snippet:
“Ahem, I have an idea,” announces Bird.
And he picks up a stick.

TURN THE PAGE

“Hush little Turtle,” the others sing.
Very soft. And very slow.

Monkey Colors

Monkey Colors
by Darrin Lunde (Author) and Patricia J. Wynne (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Did you know that monkeys come in red, orange, yellow and even blue? (See 12 of them in this book and find out how and where they live.)

Snippet: Monkeys come in many colors.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Decoding Our DNA: Craig Venter Vs the Human Genome Project

Decoding Our DNA: Craig Venter Vs the Human Genome Project (Scientific Rivalries and Scandals)
by Karen Gunnison Ballen (Author)

Booktalk: The Human Genome Project launched in 1990, with scientists around the world collaborating on the research. They worked slowly and methodically, trying to produce the most accurate information possible. By 1991 one of these scientists, Craig Venter, became fed up with the HGP’s slow pace. He challenged the HGP to move faster and started his own company to compete with the HGP.

Racing neck and neck, the two organizations reached their goal years ahead of schedule. But the challenge also led to a bitter public argument, especially over who could use the sequence and how. This book reveals how ambition, persistence, ego, greed, and principle combined–often with explosive results–in the quest to decode our DNA.

Snippet: Rosalind Franklin was a British biophysicist. In the early 1950s, she produced extremely high-quality X-ray images of DNA crystals. Her work was key to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!