Mrs. Brown's Book Review Cinder by Marissa Meyer

https://vimeo.com/41243370



Accelerated Reader 5.8
14 points
Science Fiction

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

2016 Winner California Young Reader Medal Winner (Young Adult category)

This is a different Cinderella story.  Cinder is a cyborg and she is a strong character who will surprise you.  Cinder is the first book of the Lunar Chronicles Series by Marissa Meyer.   Science Fiction isn't my first genre selection, but I really liked this one. Try it!

From Follett

Cinder, a gifted mechanic and a cyborg with a mysterious past, is blamed by her stepmother for her stepsister's illness while a deadly plague decimates the population of New Beijing, but when Cinder's life gets intertwined with Prince Kai's, she finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle.

From Marissa Meyer on Cinder, writing, and leading men

Which of your characters is most like you?
 I wish I could say that I'm clever and mechanically-minded like Cinder, but no—I can't fix anything. I'm much more like Cress, who makes a brief cameo in Cinder and then takes a more starring role in the third book. She's a romantic and a daydreamer and maybe a little on the naïve side—things that could be said about me too—although she does find courage when it's needed most. I think we'd all like to believe we'd have that same inner strength if we ever needed it.

Where do you write?

 I have a home office that I've decorated with vintage fairy tale treasures that I've collected (my favorite is a Cinderella cookie jar from the forties) and NaNoWriMo posters, but sometimes writing there starts to feel too much like work. On those days I'll write in bed or take my laptop out for coffee or lunch.

If you were stranded on a desert island, which character from Cinder would you want with you?

 Cinder, definitely! She has an internet connection in her brain, complete with the ability to send and receive comms (which are similar to e-mails). We'd just have enough time to enjoy some fresh coconut before we were rescued.

The next book in the Lunar Chronicles is called Scarlet, and is about Little Red Riding Hood. What is appealing to you most about this character as you work on the book?

 Scarlet is awesome—she's very independent, a bit temperamental, and has an outspokenness that tends to get her in trouble sometimes. She was raised by her grandmother, an ex-military pilot who now owns a small farm in southern France, who not only taught Scarlet how to fly a spaceship and shoot a gun, but also to have a healthy respect and appreciation for nature. I guess that's a lot of things that appeal to me about her, but she's been a really fun character to write! (The two leading men in Scarlet, Wolf and Captain Thorne, aren't half bad either.)

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Barbara's Summer Reading Reviews - Dogtag Summer (Historical Fiction and excellent story that is perfect for summer reading)

Title: Dogtag Summer

Award-Winning Author Elizabeth Partridge  2016 California Young Reader Medal Winner   (Middle School/Junior High Category)

Accelerated Reader Level: 4.5, 6pts.
Historical Fiction

Summary: Tells the story of the Vietnam conflict from the viewpoint of a tween during summer vacation before starting middle school.  Dogtag Summer guides the reader on a mesmerizing journey through the events of this controversial war. It is an amazing story told from this young person's perspective. There are discussion questions at the end of the story that students and parents can discuss.  This story is historically accurate and interesting if you are into war, family relationships, friendships, and special bonds that keep us united. Perfect selection for summertime reading!  Themes: Consequences of war, adoption, and friendship.

CYRM Review:  2015-2016 Winner - Middle School/Junior High

Synopsis

Twelve-year-old Tracy--or Tuyet--has always felt different. The villagers in Vietnam called her con-lai, or "half-breed," because her father was an American GI. And she doesn't fit in with her adoptive family in California, either. But when Tracy and a friend discover a soldier's dogtag hidden among her father's things, it sets her past and her present on a collision course. Where should her broken heart come to rest? In a time and place she remembers only in her dreams? Or among the people she now calls family? Partridge's sensitive portrayal of a girl and her family grappling with the complicated legacy of war is as timely today as the events were decades ago.

Award Winning Author Pam Munoz Ryan at SDCOE Professional Growth Day 4/21st!

Picture with acclaimed author Pam Munoz Ryan at the San Diego Office of Education Professional Growth Day for Library Media Educators  ( Theme: Equity & Access) on April 21st.  Awesome!

Pam Munoz Ryan is an amazingly gifted writer and speaker.  I was hanging onto her every word.  Our students would be in awe of her storyboarding and writing techniques.  I was personally envious of her white board!  What extraordinary talent right here in San Diego, California.  I am hoping that Ms. Ryan will visit our school when she has some free time.  What a treat that would be for our students, teachers, and staff!

Newbery Silver Award 2016 for her book titled Echo.  It is a fantasy with aspects of fact and historical fiction.  This story will capture the music lovers, fantasy, and historical fiction readers!  There are three stories in one with a witch, a kiss, and prophecy.  Echo is available for library check out with many other great titles by Pam Munoz Ryan.   See additional titles below.

Echo Review from Follett School Solutions:    Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.






Esperanza Rising Review from Follett School Solutions: Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.  This story touched my heart. It is a story of courage and never giving up even when things are bad.








Paint the Wind from Follett School Solutions: After her overprotective grandmother has a stroke, eleven-year-old Maya, an orphan, leaves her extremely restricted life in California to stay with her mother's family on a remote Wyoming ranch, where she discovers a love of horses and encounters Artemisia, a wild mare that her mother once rode.







Amelia and Eleanor Go for A Ride from Follett School Solutions: "Based on a true story."  A fictionalized account of the night Amelia Earhart flew Eleanor Roosevelt over Washington, D.C. in an airplane. These ladies were friends and what fun they must have had that night!






When Marian sang: the true recital of Marian Anderson the voice of a century. From Follett School Solutions:  An introduction to the life of Marian Anderson, extraordinary singer and civil rights activist, who was the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, whose life and career encouraged social change.  Marian had a voice that transcends race. 








The Dreamer from Follett School Solutions: A fictionalized biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who grew up a painfully shy child, ridiculed by his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in the world.








Becoming Naomi Leon from Follett School Solutions:  When Naomi's absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother and younger brother in search of her father




Submitted by Mrs. Brown, Teacher Librarian