NERDS: The Villain Virus by Michael Buckley

NERDS lovers will enjoy this fourth installment in the continuing adventures of the kids whose weaknesses have become their superpowers.  This story focuses on Flinch, whose superpower is his hyperactivity. When Flinch consumes sugar, his hyperactivity gives him super speed and strength, but is also makes it hard for him to think straight. As a result he is rarely put in charge of a mission.  When he finally gets to be the head of a mission, he ends up destroying Paris.  When a nanobot virus starts turning ordinary people and even the NERDS team of scientists into super villains, it is Flinch's unpredictability that saves the day. 

In the final sequence of the story Flinch is shrunken down to nanobot size and enters a human brain to try to defeat the virus.  Buckley uses quite a lot medical terminology  while describing Flinch's journey, so readers end up getting a pretty good lesson in brain anatomy. The story ends with some major changes in the NERDS team, so it will be interesting to see where Buckley goes with the next installment. (259 p)

The Taglewood Terror by Kurtis Scalleta

Eric is something of a bully.  He picks on his younger brother and is rough with his teammates in football.  One day he finds a strange glowing mushroom patch in the forest near his home.  Over the next few weeks the mushrooms spread and start to overrun the town.  At first no one seems to be concerned except him and a runaway girl he meets.  As he tries to discover the origin and meaning of the florescent fungi, he also learns to be a nicer person.

Sound hokey?  Yep.  I think it is supposed to be a RL Stine style kitty horror book.  It never really got scary or even really creepy.  The town's response to the impending doom was pretty unrealistic. The mushrooms were impregnating peoples homes, growing up through the floorboards, and what does the town do?  Throw a benefit concert.  The pacing of the book was also a little bit slow.  The middle of the book got mired in relationships, without really advancing the action.  It is a difficult balance. One good thing about the book that it told the story from the point of view of the bully.  I have often wanted to see a book done this way, explaining how a kid justifies being a bully to himself.  This one does an OK job of this.  Eric doesn't really understand that his actions are as intimidating as they are.  He just thinks he is having fun. Still, not a great book and I am glad it is over and I can move on to something else. (264 p)

The Mystery of Beethoven's Hair by Russell Martin

As the legendary composer, Beethoven, lay in repose after his death, a young admirer cut a lock of his hair.  The young music student had the lock put into a locket necklace.  This interesting nonfiction traces the journey of the locket from the 1800's to the present.  It is an interesting story.  The lock was passed from father to son, but then was lost in Denmark as its owner fled the Nazi occupation. The new owner passed it to his daughter who eventually sold it at Sotherby's to some Beethoven collectors in America.  The new owners decided to do a chemical analysis of the hair to try to discover clues to Beethoven's frequent illnesses and deafness.  What they found was stunning and changed the way people look at Beethoven. 

This was a well written and interesting nonfiction.  It wasn't quite as engrossing as Written in Bone, but almost. That is perhaps because this book was only dealing with one historical mystery, while the other had several different mysteries to unravel. The book is based on a longer book written by the authors for adults.  It is a good nonfiction choice for either boys or girls, especially ones with a special interest in Beethoven. (270 p)

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Ha can here the bombs exploding from her home in Vietnam.  As the fighting heats up, Ha's family gets the opportunity to leave on a refugee ship.  This honest narrative follows Ha's journey from the refugee ship to a refugee camp in Florida, to a home in Georgia.  She tells of her struggles to learn English and the teasing from the other children at her school.  The story is written in fluid free verse.  I listened to the recorded version of the book, and the reader did a good job making the story sound natural, not like a group of poems.  A note at the end explains that many of the experiences recounted in the book are autobiographical.  Ms. Lai, herself came to America as a refugee in the 1970's.  This book is very well written, and because it is written in verse, it is a fast read.  I am not surprised that it won a bunch of awards in 2012, including a Newbery Honor and a National Book Award. This would be a great book for a mother/daughter book club, or a school reading circle. (262 p)

13 Gifts by Wendy Mass

Tara hasn't really every had any good friends because her family has moved frequently.  In an attempt to fit in with the popular girls, she pulls a prank at school and is expelled.  Her parents decide that she should spend the summer with her cousins in the small town where her parents grew up while they go and do research abroad.  As soon as Tara arrives in Willow Falls, she is quickly accepted in a group a good kids, and for the first time starts to learn what is means to have friends. But things are not what they seem in the small, close-knit town.  Tara falls afoul of the local mysterious eccentric.  The woman gives Tara a list of things she must find, but as she and her new friends throw themselves into the task, Tara begins to discover things about her past, and her parents, that she never expected.

I must admit that I almost gave up on this one half way through this book.  There were so many odd and random things.  It just seemed strange that two characters, who were best friends, could only communicate by writing on chalk boards, and another was randomly the girl friend of a movie star.  Then, when I went to write this review, I looked at the catalog entry for the book to find out how many pages it had, and realized this is the third in a series. The first is about the two kids who didn't talk to each other, and the second is about the girl who falls for the movie star.  At least this is the first book about Tara, so it kind of stands alone.  There were things I liked about the book.  I liked that the kids were all really nice to each other.  There were no mean girls or bullies.  That was refreshing. Now I get to decide if I am going to go back and read the first two.   (341 p)

Spirit Animals: Hunted by Maggie Stiefvater

In this second adventure in the "Spirit Animal" series, the four children and their spirit animals go in search of a second talisman.  This one belongs to a wild boar but finding the boar is the least of the children's problems.  Political tensions are heating up in Erdas, and some towns have gone over to the side of those who want to rebel against the green cloaks.  Sometimes the children are welcomed as heroes, and other times they are detained as captives.  The pressures from without only exacerbate their own personal struggles with their past and future.

The Spirit Animals series is written by a group of authors. I was afraid that the characterizations in this second book would be different than the first because it was written by a younger woman instead of a middle aged man.  But Stiefvater does a good job of continuing the voice of each of the children established in the first book.  It will be interesting to read Garth Nix's continuation of the story. (185 p)

 

 

Selfie of me at the Spirit Animal

 author event at my library.

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

I mentioned to someone that I had enjoyed Edenbrooke and they recommended this book  and author. This, like Edenbrooke, is a squeaky clean period romance. The quiet home of Lady Ombersley is turned upside down when her niece comes to stay.  Sophy has been raised abroad by her widower father, and lacks some of the social restraint of her reserved aristocratic cousins. Soon Sophy (who is also amazingly rich) is arranging huge balls, buying fast carriages, and threatening to upset both her male and female cousins' wedding plans.  But it is all in good fun and Sophy has everyone's best interests at heart.

This was quick and delightful read.  Sophy is a charming character, and the other characters are varied and well drawn. There are several very funny scenes where Sophy gets away with all manner of improprieties just by force of charisma. Heyer's language and use of 19th century British slang is fun and feels more authentic than in the other series. I will certainly be open to reading more books by this author. (372 p)