Lisa Harkrader

Here I was wishing for just a regular old vampire story and up turns Nocturne. Nocturne leans more towards high fantasy than vampire though. Mostly it is about a world where magic is common and everyday and all the magic creatures of legend exist, werewolves, brownies, vampires and the like. The vampires just are, they are not the point so that was refreshing for a change. It was also refreshing to have a head strong, capable heroine who doesn't immediately fall in love and get all stupid. show more Flannery is very powerful and knows it. She just been caged in by her uncle's worries and his need to keep her safe. But when she decides to take ownership of her powers, then the story really kicks in. Nocturne is a quick, fun read that borrows more from Diana Wynne Jones than Stephanie Meyer and her ilk.

The Little Bookworm show less

Airball is a story about a very brave boy who conquers his fears. The whole book he is trying to find clues to find his father. His basketball team is so bad that they haven't won a game all season. His coach develops a strategy to make the boys play in their underwear. It works and the boys improve at basketball and beat every team. He thinks that he has enough clues to find out that his father is the #1 Basketball player of kansas. His basketball team gets the opportunity to meet the show more jayhawk team. The boy shows the player the evidence and finds out that his real dad is his own basketball coach.

I loved this series because it showed that people are creative. The book showed that a child would do almost anything to find his dad. It also showed that it takes a lot of courage to be a leader. The coach stripped basketball all the way down to the basics. Making sure the kids had nothing to lose. This is not the normal type of book I read but i think I might start reading it. show less

I thought this was a cute, charming, quick read. I had not read or heard of this series. I picked this book up because I thought my nephews would enjoy reading this book and the idea of progressing from just books to graphic novels I liked. Right now it is kind of hard to find the perfect combination of books for them. They are 9 and 10. So right at that stage where children's books are too easy for them but the teen/young adult books might be too much. Well some of the teen/young adult show more books. So this book was a good choice. It had a good storyline, fun characters, nice graphic pictures that did not have a bunch of stuff going on but helped to tell the story, and easy to understand words. My nephews can read this book by themselves. show less

The Adventures of Beanboy by Lisa Harkrader
Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780547550787
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date: 2/14/2012
Pages: 240
Age range: 9 – 12 Years

Summary: Tucker MacBean is in middle school. He’s not unpopular, but he’s not popular either. Honestly, he does all that he can to just be invisible, especially from the school bully Sam. Tucker rushes home everyday to make sure he takes care of his special needs brother because his mother works and goes to show more school. Tucker mentions that it’s almost like she is a ghost. Tucker and his brother love comic books. In the latest issue of his favorite comic, he notices an advertisement for a contest to develop a new sidekick for the superhero. The prize is a full college scholarship. Tucker immediately decides to enter to get his mom the scholarship so she would be home and not have to work so much, but he knows that he can not work on his sidekick drawings at home while also babysitting his brother. To solve this issue, Tucker asks to join the after school art club. His mom sets up a babysitter for his little brother, and Tucker begins art club. Then the worst thing Tucker can think of happens, he comes home and Sam is in his house watching his brother. This leads to a change in Tucker and Sam. He starts to notice the softer sides of Sam and the heroic side of himself. He saves Sam in several situations and finds his heroic heart in the process. All the while, he develops a sidekick based off of beans. The sidekick’s story takes shape alongside Tucker, and at the deadline, he decides to submit the entry under his own name.

My thoughts:

This was a good book. It touched on some difficult subjects, but didn’t go into depth on anything. The transformation of Tucker and Sam is really the best part of the story. Both characters have dramatic changes that bring the story alive. They are characters that you can easily relate to and they are enduring as well. Both characters you can root for. My favorite parts of the book are the little comic drawings that pop up through the novel. They are not necessary for you to understand the book, but they are fun and add another dimension. This is the kind of book that I would happily hand over to a student that is used to reading graphic novels and is uncomfortable reading novels without images. This is a good in between novel that will help ease readers into something else. I would easily pass a student that enjoyed this The Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl by Barry Lyga. That would pull them into a full novel, but it would allow a student to see connections between the two novels. I’m always looking forward to ties that I can make between an easier book and a more difficult one. As a teacher, it allows me an easy view of progression through novels. All in all, I would encourage young readers, or low readers, to give this book a try.

(4 stars) show less