Author: Sumthinblue

Sabriel

I’ve always been curious about Garth Nix’s Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen) because a friend of mine from college (hello, Tintin!) has been raving about it since we were in school — I remember her sneak-reading it in class, and I remember she even bought the cassette audiobooks and we listened to it in her car!

I’ve had the set sitting in my TBR pile for ages; I’ve always thought it was a bit too high fantasy for my taste. As you might have read in past posts, I balk at fantasy with unpronounceable names, made up languages, and maps; I usually prefer fantasy with some semblance of reality in it. But I listed Garth Nix in my A-Z Challenge purposely so I would be forced to read at least the first book of the trilogy, and I’m so glad I did.

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Grotesque

A couple of years ago, I read my first Natsuo Kirino book, Out, for the Flips Flipping Pages Japanese book discussion. Natsuo Kirino is one of Japan’s top female crime/detective fiction novelists, winning both the Grand Prix for Crime Fiction, Japan’s top mystery award and the Edgar Award for Out. I enjoyed reading Out back then, and so I set out to hunt down Kirino’s other books.

Earlier this year, my cousin gave me a copy of Grotesque, another novel by Natsuo Kirino. I figured it was going to be another chilling read, so I’ve been saving it for Halloween this year.

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Halloween 2010 (Nearly Headless Nick’s 518th Deathday Party)

I just got back from a Halloween weekend spent out of town; my cousins and I had a blast at this year’s Halloween extravaganza. I have two more Halloween reads to blog about — Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino and Sabriel by Garth Nix, but I’ll save that for another post and tell you about the Superhero costume Halloween party.

It was my cousin Chickoy’s birthday celebration, and Dianne and I were eager for another party planning opportunity, so we decided to take on the Halloween party, which doubled as our celebration of Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington (aka Nearly Headless Nick)’s Deathday Party.

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Thrills and Chills at Skeleton Creek

(First published on Manila Bulletin, Students and Campuses section)

Something sinister is bubbling beneath the surface of the backwater town of Skeleton Creek, and best friends Ryan McCray and Sarah Fincher appear to have stirred it. Ryan and Sarah are convinced that Skeleton Creek is harboring secrets, and they are determined to get to the bottom of it, even though there are forces that want to stop them at all costs.

This is the premise behind Scholastic Press’ latest multimedia venture, following the phenomenal success of its interactive middle reader series 39 Clues, which had readers collecting clue cards and playing online games in the hunt for the Cahill family treasure. This time around, Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman introduces readers to a new multimedia format: video books.

“Books are having a harder time holding the attention of a wired youth culture. iPods, cell phones, movies, the Internet, video games, and television are distracting even our best young readers,” states Skeleton Creek creator Patrick Carman. “I developed Skeleton Creek for ten to sixteen year olds who have grown up with YouTube and MySpace for one reason: I want them to read. While there will always be plenty of room for traditional books for young adults, publishing has to think outside the box in order to bring back many of our young readers.”

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Read-along with Matteo Guidicelli

A few months ago, I blogged about the book parade at my brother’s school (he teaches English and Religion), Tuloy sa Don Bosco Foundation, where they had a book parade to celebrate Book Month.

Last week the Tuloy Kids had a read-along with teen actor, champion racer and commercial model Matteo Guidicelli. I promised Enzo I’d blog about this, because this is his pet project and he’s worked so hard just to make this happen for the kids.

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