Saturday, January 25, 2014

Nick and Tesla's Robot Army Rampage

 
This tween book is fun for the whole family a five star book!!! 
 
This is a mystery as to who is robbing the stores of Half Moon Bay in California, including Nick and Tesla's friend Silas' dads comic store of a very rare and expensive comic.  Silas knows with the towns budget problems and the police cut backs there is no way the one police officer left (Sgt. Feiffer) is ever going to catch the thief on his own, so Silas enlists the help of the best detectives he knows, 11 year old twins Nick and Tesla.  With their Uncle gaga over the new owner of the Wonder Hut (the local hobby shop) and former robotics expert Hiroko Sakurai, and spending all of his time with her, that leaves Nick and Tesla all the time they need to investigate and find the robber.  Can Nick and Tesla catch the robber before it is to late and foil the rampaging robot army? What are Nick and Tesla's parents really up to, are they really in Uzbekistan studying soybean irrigation or are they on the run? What was the real reason Nick and Tesla's parents sent them to Uncle Newt's? And where does the pigeon poop come into the story?
 
This book also comes with some really awesome plans you can use to make your own hoverbots, bristlebots, robots, and blasters, out of fairly common things you can find at home or buy cheaply.
 
Authors,  "Science Bob" Pflugfelder teaches elementary school science in Newton, Mass, and
Steve Hockensmith writes mysteries in California.  
 
 
Don't forget to look up Book 1 in the series   Nick And Tesla's High Voltage Danger Lab
 
And coming in May 2014     Nick and Tesla's Secret Agent Gadget Battle
 
For more fun check out www.nickandtesla.com 

Friday, January 17, 2014

Multicultural Children's Book Day: Celebrating Diversity in Children's Literature



the-fantastic-adventures-of-krishna

The Fantastic Adventures Of Krishna by Demi, is a wonderful book of a old tale.  It's the old story of Krishna and is the major part of Hinduism, the worlds oldest living and one of the largest religions today.
Krishna is the reborn entity of the Lord Vishnu, the greatest of all Gods, and he has come to earth to destroy all the evil demon kings and bring peace once again to all the earth and this is the story of how this is done.  It is the birth of Hinduism.
This is a great picture book, wonderful for the little ones with not to many words on each page, so it will be easy to keep their attention especially with the amazing illustrations, they are just out of this world.  The colors and action in each illustration makes it no wonder the author has won accolades for other books. 
This is a awesome book for teaching young ones early about different cultures and beliefs in a fun and very colorful way, this should definitely be on every school library shelf and as many public library shelves as possible.

This book was part of the Multicultural Children's Book Day: Celebrating Diversity in Children's Literature ( www.jumpintoabook.com/multicultural-childrens-book-day/ ) created by Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom ( www.pragmaticmom.com ) and Valerie Budayr from Jump into a Book/Audrey Press ( www.jumpintoabook.com ).

Despite the fact that the US population is now about 37% people of color only about 10% of children's books published have content that deal with diversity.  Mia and Valerie are on a mission with Multicultural Children's Book Day to change that.  Their mission is to not only raise awareness for children's books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these books into classrooms and libraries.  Another goal is to get together a list of books and favorite reads that will help teachers, libraries, and families find and expose children to these wonderful books not just during the winter but all year.

Wonderful Sponsors for this event are:

Wisdom Tales Press  www.wisdomtalespress.com who supplied me with my book and
Lee & Low Books www.leeandlow.com
Chronicle Books www.chroniclebooks.com
Susan Daniel Fayad: Author of My Grandfather's Masbaha  (@grandadmasbaha)

If tweeting please use the hashtag #MCKlitDay  We would love to hear from you. :)

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

out for blood r barri flower

Count Dracula's Teenage Daughter is the first of Mr. Flower's Transylvanica High series, and what a refreshing take on the whole vampire world this is compare to what we have been given thus far.  Vampires have just come out of the closet and everyone in Transylvanica are ready to make a go of full integration, including Transylvanica's two newest citizens, Kula and her adopted mother.  But it seems not everyone in town is happy with this new arrangement and Kula is in the vampire killers sights.  Why you ask? Because on Kula's sixteenth birthday she not only gets her drivers license but finds out that she is also half vampire, and if that isn't bad enough, her real father is only one of the most powerful and oldest clan leaders there is, Dracula, yep that Dracula.  Kula has her Mom, friends, and boyfriend on her side so good luck vampire hunter!!! 
I really liked this book every time I thought I had it all figured out there was another twist and it changed everything around and I had to start thinking and trying to figure out who was the vampire hunter again.  I was a very different take on a theme that has been in the spotlight a lot lately and I found it spellbinding I could not put it down, I just had to find out what happened and who did it.  I would give it a 4 1/2 stars out of 5.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read such a wonderful book.