From BooklistWhen Bean's teacher introduces The Amazing Book of World Records, everyone in the second grade vows to set new records. Bean tries stuffing her mouth full of straws, speed washing dishes, and screaming (with predictably disastrous results); finally, Ivy involves her friend in digging for dinosaur bones so they can become the world's youngest paleontologists. Barrows' dynamic duo is as appealing here as in the first two books, and emergent readers will identify with their outrageous antics. Also intriguing are Bean's sister, Nancy (who never misses an opportunity to put down her sibling), and her ever-supportive dad, whose banana bread fixes almost any problem. Weisman, Kay ReviewBest friends Ivy and Bean return for a very welcome third outing. When Bean's desperate boredom forces her to the pages of The Amazing Book of World Records, she determines to break one herself, no matter what. But after her attempt to stuff 257 straws in her mouth falls short by some 217 straws, and her loudest scream fails to shatter her sister's glass octopus, she combines her newfound interest in one-of-a-kind stunts with Ivy's fascination with paleontology to purse dreams of fame in her backyard. Barrows balances the two girls' personalities perfectly, Ivy's quiet studiousness the steady counterpoint to Bean's restless ebullience. The odd happy piece of information "It took [Mary Anning] a whole year to get the whole [ichthyosaur] out. . . . Chip, chip, chip, a tiny bit at a time" is conveyed effortlessly without impinging on the terrifically childlike voice "Lookit! I got one." Blackall's black-and-white spot illustrations share equal billing with the text, punctuating the written narrative with wry, spiky visuals that capture the kids' personalities beautifully. The resolution deflates Ivy and Bean's ambitions but leaves both dignity and enthusiasm intact other record attempts can wait till tomorrow. Just right. -Kirkus Reviews When Bean's teacher introduces The Amazing Book of World Records, everyone in the second grade vows to set new records. Bean tries stuffing her mouth full of straws, speed washing dishes, and screaming (with predictably disastrous results); finally, Ivy involves her friend in digging for dinosaur bones so they can become the world's youngest paleontologists. Barrows' dynamic duo is as appealing here as in the first two books, and emergent readers willidentify with their outrageous antics. Also intriguing are Bean's sister, Nancy (who never misses an opportunity to put down her sibling), and her ever-supportive dad, whose banana bread fixes almost any problem. -Booklist Rambunctious second-grader Bean and her more conservative friend, Ivy, are back for another easy-chapter-book adventure. This time, a book of world records gets the class thinking of feats they can accomplish. Bean unsuccessfully (and hilariously) tries to break some records, then decides to be the youngest person to discover dinosaur bones and starts digging in the backyard. Ivy has read a book about Mary Anning, who found a dinosaur skeleton at the age of 12. Anning is held up as a model of patience and perseverance, two qualities from which Bean would benefit. Her father is home during the day, and readers see their wonderful, positive relationship. He supports their efforts and agrees that the bones they ve discovered are mysterious. It's not a terribly original story idea, but Barrows has a fine touch. Blackall's humorous drawings add to the fun. This is a great chapter book for students who have recently crossed the independent reader bridge. -School Library Journal Views: 117
A stone wall divides the property line between two farms circa 1920, it has been there for generations, and is falling down. No one remembers who owns it and both think the other should fix it. Hate runs deep between the two farms. A young woman of the family comes to live on one side, and begins to melt the tension, or so she thinks. Excerpt from The Wall Between, the Howe and Webster farms adjoined, lying on a sun-flooded, gently sloping New Hampshire hillside. Between them loomed the wall. It was not a high wall. On the contrary, it is formidable as the result of tradition rather than of fact. For more than a century it had been an estranging harrier to neighborliness, to courtesy, to broad-mindedness; a barrier to friendship, to Christian charity, to peace. The builder of the rambling line of gray stone had long since passed away, and had he not acquired a warped importance with the years, his memory would doubtless have perished with him. All unwittingly, alas, lie had become a celebrity. Views: 116
Embrace possibility in this luminous novel about a girl in search of her past who discovers a secret rooftop world in Paris.Everyone thinks that Sophie is an orphan. True, there were no other recorded female survivors from the shipwreck that left baby Sophie floating in the English Channel in a cello case, but Sophie remembers seeing her mother wave for help. Her guardian tells her it is almost impossible that her mother is still alive?but ?almost impossible? means ?still possible.? And you should never ignore a possible. So when the Welfare Agency writes to her guardian, threatening to send Sophie to an orphanage, she takes matters into her own hands and flees to Paris to look for her mother, starting with the only clue she has? the address of the cello maker. Evading the French authorities, she meets Matteo and his network of rooftoppers?urchins who live in the hidden spaces above the city. Together they scour the city in a search for... Views: 116
Blissfully unaware that Atlantica Flight 1945 from Atlanta to Amsterdam is about to make aviation history, First Officer Danny McSweeney focuses his energies on navigating the turbulent personalities of an eccentric female captain, a co-pilot with a talent for tactless comments and conspiracy theories, and a lead flight attendant with an outsized attitude that definitely exceeds the limits for carry-on baggage.On the other side of the cockpit door, the unscheduled in-flight entertainment includes a potbellied pig, a jittery diamond courier, and the recently jilted Lucy Meredith, whose personal mantra of "What Would Oprah Do?" will be challenged by the sudden appearance of her ex and his new traveling partner. On her left sits Hank Hazard, whose unusually polite but constant requests--prompted by his covert role as a spy for the airline--test the limits of the crew's customer service. But as Lucy and the rest of the crew discover, Hank's odd behavior is linked to... Views: 116
A Vic and Matt novel. When Vic stops an armed robbery, his picture appears in the paper and Matt gets a phone call from Jordan, who was his first, in every way -- it was through him Matt discovered his ability to transfer superpowers to his lovers. Jordan had a taste of those powers, and after reading about Vic's role in the hold up, he's decided he wants them back. Views: 115
In the conclusion to the Undertaken trilogy that Publishers Weekly called "a thought-provoking gothic fantasy," Silas must master his powers and confront a past that is anything but dead.Silas Umber has returned from Arvale, his family's ancestral home. Frantic to retrieve the shade of his beloved Beatrice, he turns his back on the spectral chaos he has left behind, unaware that the malevolence he unleashed has followed him back to Lichport. As his family and friends suffer and fall at the hands of the vengeful Huntsman from Arvale's sunken mansions, Silas must reach deep into his complicated bloodline to summon powers and wisdom beyond those required of a simple Lichport Undertaker. But the dark and painful secrets of his birth threaten to overwhelm him, and if he can't lay the ghosts of his own past to rest, Silas may lose everything and everyone he has grown to love and worked to protect. Views: 115
A field guide to the twenty-first century, written by one of its most celebrated observersWe all sense it—something big is going on. You feel it in your workplace. You feel it when you talk to your kids. You can't miss it when you read the newspapers or watch the news. Our lives are being transformed in so many realms all at once—and it is dizzying. In Thank You for Being Late, a work unlike anything he has attempted before, Thomas L. Friedman exposes the tectonic movements that are reshaping the world today and explains how to get the most out of them and cushion their worst impacts. You will never look at the world the same way again after you read this book: how you understand the news, the work you do, the education your kids need, the investments your employer has to make, and the moral and geopolitical choices our country has to navigate will all be refashioned by Friedman's original analysis. Friedman begins by... Views: 114
Randall Garrett used to be one of the most appreciated science fiction writers of the 1960\'s, but his oeuvre is mostly and unjustly forgotten by now, even though most of his works, including this short story, are ingeniously written, extremely well-plotted and intriguing. A Spaceship Named McGuire tackles one of the problems most frequently discussed in science fiction: can a machine become endowed with personality and reason? Can it have a will of its own? Garrett\'s answer is apparently yes - the "title character" of the story is a state-of-the-art robot spaceship that goes crazy before even being properly put to work. The manufacturer hires an ingenious private detective, Daniel Oak to investigate and to find out whether it was sabotage that made the attempts to create a functional robot spaceship fail. What he finds out eventually is surprising for everyone, but the discovery comes only after lots of adventures and dangerous situations that Oak manages to solve marvelously. A Spaceship Named McGuire is an example of Garrett\'s writing at its best. Though many have criticized the story for ending in an abrupt manner, stopping right where it should begin, no critic can deny the merits of the novella in terms of character development, writing style and the succession of events. Humor at the level of words just as delicious as at the level of story weaving - puns and other types of word play are also at home in Garrett\'s universe. Randall Garret was a larger-than-life figure, a womanizer never afraid to engage in a fight and some of his characters, including detective Oak resemble him a lot, especially when it comes to conquering women, fights and bravado. The novella was written in the 1960\'s, a period of political turmoil and important scientific achievements, and the story grasps the spirit of the times in every aspect. Views: 114
The first book in a scary new trilogy contributing to a series with more than 8.5 million copies in print. Here begins the terrifying story of a family who moves into the house that even their neighbors on Fear Street are afraid to enter. Twin sisters must learn the secret of the evil or be the next victims. Views: 114
Myrtle Reed (September 27, 1874 – August 17, 1911) was an American author, poet, journalist, and philanthropist, the daughter of author Elizabeth Armstrong Reed and the preacher Hiram von Reed. She wrote a number of bestsellers and even published a series of cookbooks under the pseudonym Olive Green. -Wikipedia Views: 114
