Let's BookTalk: Sweep by Jonathan Auxier

from Goodreads.com

“She and her Sweep had both gone to bed as they always had, nestled against a chimney stack beneath the starry sky. But when the girl woke the next morning, her Sweep was gone” (p. 13).

Nan is an 11 year-old girl in the late 1800s. She is in contracted servitude to work as a chimney sweep, along with four other children ages 7 to 12. Food is scarce, work is dangerous, and there is very little for her to be hopeful for, except that someday her Sweep, original master, may one-day return. All she has left of him is his hat and a piece of char that still feels warm somehow.

The “Devil’s Nudge,” a dangerous method used by master chimney sweeps to get their chimney climbers (child laborers) unstuck from a chimney stack. They light a fire under the stuck child and they either scramble their way to freedom or burn.

One day while cleaning chimneys, Nan got stuck…

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A Note from Ms. Stimpson: I don’t often give my opinion on a book, as I prefer the reader to discover their own preferences in reading. However, there are not many stories often written as this one. Nor do all stories touch your soul. Sweep is one of those stories, because even in the darkness and despair, hope can make the darkness more grey than it had been before.

Let's BookTalk: Jennifer Donnelly's Lost in a Book

from Goodreads.com

So, we all know the story of Beauty and the Beast. Belle, a strong and intelligent young woman from a French village, takes her father’s place as a prisoner at the castle of the Beast, a vapid prince who was cursed by an enchantress. They fall in love, go through conflict, overcome the conflict, and then live happily ever after.

Jennifer Donnelly’s Lost in a Book, tells the story of what happened while Belle was a “prisoner” of the Beast, as well as gives us a glimpse of why the enchantress cursed the peace and who she really is.

“Reading became my sanctuary,” Belle continued. “I found so much in those books. I found histories that inspired me. Poems that delighted me. Novels that challenged me…” Belle paused, suddenly self-conscious. She looked down at her hands, and in a wistful voice, said, “What I really found, though, was myself.” (p. 19)

After the Beast gives Belle the library and all its collection, Belle discovers a book within the library that shows her a world of adventure, knowledge, and freedom. However, the enchantress who created the book, Madame …, is more than she seems.

Love and Death are in a competition that has gone on since the beginning of time. Love, believes the Beast can be saved and that Belle will be the one who saves him, through love. Death, knows she is all powerful, because sooner or later, everyone journeys with death. And so, Belle and Beast are caught in the middle of the ongoing game of Love versus Death.

“Love is not for cowards.” (p. 111)

“Something There" from Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Let's Booktalk: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Book cover taken from Goodreads.com

Beautiful Creatures is about a sixteen year old boy that has always thought he was different from others, but he still has a decent amount of friends.

Ethan Wate is from Gatin, South Carolina. He really dislikes the town and wants to move away. Lately he has been having dreams about this creature, well more like human, but he dreams of her like someone who is different from any other person in the world.

Lena Duchannes is also a very different girl. She has different traits, or let's just say she is unique. Lena also dreams about a guy who is different. Well, Lena had to move to Gatin with her uncle. After she moved and started school, she observed everyone. And, BOOM! She saw the guy she's been seeing in her dreams, his name was Ethan Wate. Yes! The boy that also has been dreaming about a girl, Lena.

Well they met in a class, but Lena had people talking about her because of her family. They were saying her family were freaks or devil worshipers. What they didn't know is that what they were saying was half true. They were just starting to gossip and being jerks. But, Lena's family weren't devil worshipers or freaks, they were so much more.

Ethan and Lena finally met in a road where her car broke down and Ethan saw her there, offering her a ride home. When they got to her house, Lena's uncle came out and kicked Ethan off of the property without so much as touching him. Lena was told to get into the house. Her uncle said she was not aloud to ever see or talk to Ethan again, but she didn't understand why. Ethan, who had never done anything to the uncle didn't understand why. He never did anything bad and he was a really good kid. It wasn't until their live's changed and their paths united that they without knowing...

Well, let's just say without each other, the world itself could be ruled by darkness.

Booktalk written by Alexis Cano

Let’s Booktalk: The Edge of Reason by Melinda Snodgrass

“In her misery Rhiana Davinovitch decided she wanted to die.” She has been haunted by visions, hears voices, and has the power to destroy people and the world around her. How can Rhiana cope with the blood of a god coursing through her veins?

“…Richard found himself thumbing up the holster guard and loosening the Browning high-power pistol where it rested at his side.” Officer Richard Oort, has been a part of the Albuquerque Police Department with little experience in the field. He will become the protector of Rhiana in a battle between superstition and science. He will face demons and humans to protect the world from the end of days—and it will push him to “The Edge of Reason”.






Get your nerd on!!! Want to know something about the Religion vs. Science debate, here is just one article on the subject. God vs. Science

Let's Booktalk: Bad Unicorn by Platte F. Clark

Courtesy of Goodreads

Unicorns are beautiful, majestic, graceful, and pure. Princess is anything but that kind of unicorn. Princess, also known as the Destroyer, is a cruel and fearsome unicorn with a carnivorous appetite. Bored with the everyday diet of frobbits and hunting in the land of Magrus. She has enlisted her wizard Magar to help her reach the realm of Techrus where she can feast on human flesh and bones to her heart's delight.

Meanwhile, in Techrus, Max Spencer is trying to survive middle school. Unbeknownst to him he is in possession of a powerful book from Magrus called The Codex of Infinite Knowability. The book is being searched for by the wizards of Magrus, and they will send Princess to Techrus for this book in exchange for an all you can eat buffet of human.

Max along with his friends Dirkster and Sarah will learn there is more to being a teenager than just avoiding bullies and bad grades. They will enter a world where unicorns eat meat, dragons transform into cowboys, and one of them will learn they are the Codex.
lost descendent of the wizard who wrote the

Let's Booktalk: Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Courtesy of Goodreads

Eragon lives in Palancar Valley of Alagaesia. Daily life for Eragon is helping his family to run the farm and haggling with traders for a good price. Yet, fate will intervene when Eragon is given a strange blue stone.

"Suddenly a crack appeared on the stone. Then another and another. Transfixed, Eragon leaned forward...Standing in front of him, licking off the membrane that encased it, was a dragon."

Saphira is a beautiful blue dragon. She and her dragon rider Eragon will grow, learn, and fight together in the coming battle against the evil Galbatorix. Galbatorix is proclaimed king of Alegaesia, and the reason dragon riders and dragons had become all but extinct.

Is the age of the dragon rider returning? Will Eragon and Saphira be able to do what must in order to defeat Galbatorix? All that is known for sure is that Eragon's story is only the beginning of the Inheritance Cycle.

Let's Booktalk--The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Courtesy of Goodreads
Follow Riordan on Twitter, HERE. 

For Jason waking up on bus not knowing who he was, or who the people calling him friend were, would be the beginning of a string of strange events. Soon he would find himself on a journey to a camp for demi-gods, and find that he is not only the son of Zeus, but is the son of Zeus’ Roman persona, Jupiter. This makes Jason a formidable foe against the powers that seek to destroy Hera, queen of the gods, and rise the army of giants that lived before the Greek gods existed.

It is tough enough being a teenage girl, but throw into the mix that your boyfriend doesn’t remember who you are and your mom is the goddess of love, Aphrodite, and it just makes our awkward teen years unbearable. Piper is smart, strong, independent, and has been in just about as much trouble as she can take right now. But, to save her father she must go on a quest with Jason and Leo to fight through ice, fire, air, and a whole lot more.

Leo, likes to build and he likes to fidget with gizmos and clockworks of all kinds. So flying a dragon with his best friend Jason and Piper is all too natural for him. Yet, can he trust himself, when he could save them or be the cause of their destruction. He is the first demi-god, in many years, born with the ability to control fire as his father, Hephaestus, Craftsman of Olympus and god of fire.

Now the trio must get past their problems, work together, and take the first steps in a quest that will lead them to fulfill their destiny.