Tuesday 15 June 2010 at 4:34 pm
NPR's Car Talk named The Yugo "the worst car of the millennium." It's considered by many to be a lemon. It was ugly and slow, and, compared to the rest of the market, not many were sold in the United States. Yet it has earned itself a place in the American Zeitgeist. For better or worse The Yugo has become synonymous with failure. However, author Jason Vuic paints a clearer picture of The Yugo in his book. It's a story of communism, cars, 80's excess, and more.
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Thursday 29 April 2010 at 1:37 pm
Another Xtranormal Episode! This time Megan and Emma discuss E. Lockhart's Printz honor book,
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.
Tuesday 16 March 2010 at 12:36 pm
This is possibly my favorite title of any book of all time. It's a little misleading, although less so than the pink cover. But the pink cover led to some design quirks inside the book that I loved (DESIGN SPOLER ALERT: There are some pink pages.) To be fair, I love any book that is a little quirky, uneven pages, brown font, blue font, etc.
Anyway, the title is sort of misleading. It makes perfect sense, and it is a perfect title for the book. However, if a reader were to be expecting, say, robots, they'd be a little disappointed. Instead, this is a beautiful, restrained (a word key to its success) story of a friendship.
Beatrice bounces from town to town; her father is always looking for better or different jobs as a professor. She doesn't really know how to relate to other kids her age. She also has trouble processing how she is "supposed" to feel in certain situations. For instance, in the beginning a hamster she hasn't owned for very long dies. She isn't particularly attached to the hamster, so she isn't really sad. This leads her mother to call her a robot. And that disconnect with her emotions and other people plays throughout the story. It's a story of identity. On the other side of the story is Jonah, who after his mother and twin brother died in a car wreck officially checked out from a social life. He's earned himself the nickname Ghost Boy. And so it goes. Two outsiders who bond over a quirky radio program and quickly begin spending most of their time together.
This book is nice. It's main pro, it isn't a romance. These two share deep feelings for each other, possibly love, but no more than friends, very good friends. There is a great line where Beatrice is trying to describe their relationship and she says, "He's just my Jonah." Their friendship isn't easy either. Most of the characters are well-drawn, especially Bea and Jonah. They are complicated, so it should make sense that their friendship is complex and even frustrating. And it leads to an emotionally devastating ending, phrased well in the language of a robot and a ghost. I nearly cried.
It is flawed, however. Standiford takes some bizarre, unbelievable twists through this book. The focus should be the friendship, but at times it veers into a totally strange mystery (without saying too much: someone who was thought to be dead, may not be. And there may or may not be a cover-up.) It's a curveball, and one I wasn't really willing to follow, but Standiford makes it work. Sort of. It is still bananas and I still have a problem with that plot thread, but her best quality, restraint, saves her. She keeps it tasteful, and does keep the friendship as the focus. Still, their friendship would have been more believable if she hadn't steered off the road for a bit.
Thursday 04 March 2010 at 6:50 pm
By: Taylor
Good:
- See Fotage from Past WWE Matches
- Arcade Syle Gameplay
- Able to Transfer wwe superstars from Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 to Legends of Wrestlemania
- Features A combo style in matches
- Impresive Commetary
- Great Manager Features
- Three interesting Gamemodes: Relive, Rewrite and Redefine
- Awsome Match Types Like Ladder matches, Steel Cage matches, Royal Rumber match, and my personal favorite Hell in a Cell.
Negative:
- Needs the Wrestlemanias for 2000 to 2009
- I want to see some enviromental hotspots
- Needs full match clips
- I would like to see a PS2 version of the Game.
Thursday 04 March 2010 at 6:42 pm
By Taylor
Good:
- Great List of Playable Characters from Superman and Shao Kahn to Batman and Lu Kang
- The ability to fight in mid-air
- Very interesting Story for Single Player
- Awesome Arenas from Gotham City and the Wu Shi Academy to Merged Arenas like the Bat Cave merged with a different location
- The ability to do a mix of Mortal Kombat and DC Characters when in arcade mode
- A cool test-your-might mini game
- The ability to show visual damage to a character like cuts, bruising, and torn clothing.
Bad:
- Lack of unlockable features
- No fatalities from the DC hero Characters
- No downloadable content
- No Finishing moves for Darkside and Shao Kahn
- Needs to be in the Mature Rating
- Not enough female characters
- No alternative costumes for Characters like the zombie costume for Lu Kang or The Super Boy Prime Armor for Superman
Wednesday 24 February 2010 at 10:35 pm
The New Apple iPad.
Ingenious Plan? Or The Next Newton?
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Thursday 18 February 2010 at 6:48 pm
Aiden's sister Meg is kidnapped and held for a hefty ransom, and he believes it is his job to rescue you her. The reason Meg was kidnapped is unknown, but are the kidnappers coming back for Aiden? While being held captive Meg, is able to hold her own against her captors and is even able to make a few attempts at escaping. With the help of the FBI, his parents, and a few friends, Aiden is determined to rescue his little sister in order to reunite his loving family.
Book one: The Abduction of the kidnapped series, written by Gordon Korman was a very exciting and thrilling book. The story was not at all what I expected, however it was action packed and kept me on the edge of my seat. I enjoyed how the main characters in the story had such a strong family bond. I am looking forward to the second book in the series!
Friday 12 February 2010 at 2:08 pm
David Small, a renowned and respected illustrator, grew up in silence, literally and figuratively. In his new graphic memoir he recalls his childhood, from being zapped with radiation to cure health problems to losing a vocal cord from cancer. His mother speaks in slamming cupboards and rattling plates. His father, a radiologist, speaks in punching bags, medical jargon, and the soft puff of his pipe. Small's older brother, Ted, bangs on drums. And David colors pictures on the living room floor. They don't say what needs to be said. They avoid each other, or more likely, ignore each other. A growth noticed on Small's throat at age 11 isn't operated on until age 14, and his family doesn't even directly tell him it's cancer until he inadvertently finds out and asks them about it. This is a book about familial communication at its worst.
However, as dark and depressing as it sounds, David Small's Stitches searches for meaning beyond a pity party. It often finds humor, both dark and absurd, in Small's chilling childhood (alliteration accidental.) A good amount of the praise for this book compares it to a silent movie. It's an easy comparison; this family hardly ever has direct dialogue with each other. It is also a fair comparison. It isn't hard to see the text as title cards in between scenes. They also help with the humor of the book, giving it the kind of absurd cutaway humor fans of Scrubs or Better Off Ted might enjoy. In particular, David's mother tells the story of how his grandfather died by driving off a cliff. The text is put on the opposite page of a fairly hilarious panel of an upside-down car. Dark. But funny.
Then there is the not so funny. The sad. The terrifying. The sickening. This family doesn't know how to communicate. Sometimes they choose not to communicate. There is a reoccurring theme of Small's family pounding on things. Panels are filled with sound-effects. But no words. Ideas and feelings are being conveyed. They are, however, guesses. Small doesn't know how his family actually felt. And neither does the reader. Small is only showing us how he felt in his dysfunctional home. And even admits in a short epilogue that he wishes he'd known more about his mother, who seems villainous much of the book. The most haunting image though comes during a trip to Small's grandmothers. He breaks an unspoken rule, and she drags him by the arm to punish him. Small captures the anger and terror of that action with a single panel: his grandmother's hand firmly around his skinny wrist.
Monday 08 February 2010 at 12:06 pm
Gordon Korman is coming! Check below or to your left for the official countdown!
Wait! What? You don't know who Gordon Korman is? Well, alright. Quick introduction. Korman is an author (this is a library after all.) He's written books for young adults and children, including,
No More Dead Dogs,
Son of Interflux,
Sixth Grade Nickname Game,
Jake, Reinvented, and
Pop. That's only a handful of his, like, million books. His biography on his website says he has 55 books to his credit, but that was before his
On The Run series, which I am talking about today. So let's say, he has written close to 70 books by now. Maybe as many as 74 by now. He was born in Canada in 1963, and will be nearing his birthday when he visits. To learn more visit his
website.
Alright . . . do you feel properly introduced?
Good! Then let's get to why we are really here.
On the Run!
On the Run is an adventure story that begins in a prison work camp for juveniles. Two kids, Aiden and Meg Falconer have been put there to protect them after their parents have been found guilty of treason. Of course, their parents are innocent. They, the Falconer parents, were working for the government when their information fell into the wrong hands. However, their handler, the only person who knows of their work for the government, has disappeared. Thus, there is no evidence to prove their innocence. So the kids decide to escape from the prison camp, break a few laws, follow the clues, and exonerate their parents.
Whew. Action and adventure is the name of the game in this first installment of On the Run, Chasing the Falconers. Aiden and Meg are both smart and strong-willed, but when they team up with one of the camp's more violent felons, they struggle with ethical choices that may keep them one step ahead of the law. Korman keeps the pace quick, piling chase sequence after chase sequence. The quick pace and action should keep younger, more reluctant readers flipping the pages, but it is the characters and dilemmas that will keep older readers involved too.
Thursday 04 February 2010 at 10:24 am
Dear Hype Train,
I am glad you occasionally pick up a passenger that belongs there.
Sincerely,
Scott Rader (and probably other Beautiful Creatures fans.)
Lena Duchannes is the new girl in Gatlin County, South Carolina, a place that hasn't changed much, and doesn't see many "new girls." Gatlin residents are still a little broken up about the Civil War. They don't care much for progressiveness. It's the kind of backwater town people want to leave, or that get trapped in and hacked to pieces by a lunatic. Ethan Wate is one of Gatlin's residents who would rather leave. His mother recently died, and since then him and his father barely speak. He reads to escape, something not many of his friends do. He does what is expected of him, although not with great pleasure. He's one of the basketball teams stand-out stars, but readers get the feeling he's only there out of obligation. He's even dated cheerleaders. But he wants more. And if you can't see where this is going . . . well, I'll tell you. Obviously, Lena and Ethan are meant to be together. Right? Well, as the back of the book says, "Some loves are meant to be . . . others are cursed."
This is the kind of book I never really saw myself getting into. I mean, it seemed awful Twilight-y from what I read. It is, indeed, a supernatural romance between a mortal and, because I don't want to ruin things, a not-mortal. It isn't, however, as girly or cheesesauce as that may sound. Part of that comes from the awesome decision to make Ethan the narrator. Sure, he's sensitive and falling head over heels in Nicholas Sparksian love, but he's also a guy and he isn't fawning, primping, gushing, and laughing in whispers over Lena. There's also a deeper mystery that shoots through the story, so 500+ pages aren't spent on how much these two love each other. There's danger, hatred, a wonderful cast of characters, which are real instead of quirky. Look at the slightly evil Uncle Macon, who looks like Cary Grant, but may be the most dangerous person in the book, except they spend time giving him more dimensionality. He isn't just written off as pure evil or as it turns out, pure good. He, even in his good moments, always seems like he may snap and kill the entire cast, giving his character an uneasy edge every time he appears in a scene. Also, the supernatural element in Beautiful Creatures is made more human. That is more human than a vampire. Vampires can die, but they don't seem real. It makes them hard, or creepy, to be attracted or connected to. Here, however, the supernatural character (it seems like that is supposed to be a surprise to I am bobbing and weaving from saying who or what) isn't ageless or immortal. So it isn't creepy. Also, they are always in just as much danger as the "mortal" character, making their power necessary to keep both characters safe. Ok. This is tricky.
What made me fall in love with this book was 1.)the believable, 3-dimensional (no relation to Avatar) characters and 2.)the beautiful writing. Stohl and Garcia have a way of intoxicating the reader with their prose. They take some of the girly away from the romance, and gave us an intense, epic thriller to grab on to.
