Thursday 25 May 2017

The Darkest Dark

The Darkest Dark
The Darkest Dark
By Chris Hadfield



Have you ever been afraid of the dark?  

Chris Hadfield has.



Lying in the dark, Chris thinks of all kinds of scary things, especially aliens.  He has many sleepless night in his family’s cottage on Stag Island in Ontario.  He keeps his parents awake too, and they are getting pretty frustrated.


But everything changes on the evening of July 20, 1969.  That’s the night that Chris goes to a neighbour’s house to crowd around the only TV on the whole island.  And that’s the night that he sees the first human being land on the moon.


The dark of space is really dark.  But space is beautiful too.  Seeing the deep dark that surrounds the moon changes something inside Chris.  And the dark doesn’t seem so scary anymore.


Of course, Chris Hadfield would go on to become one of the most well-known Canadian astronauts in history.  At the back of the book there is a little biography and some pictures of a real-life Chris.


Illustrated by the Fan brothers, The Darkest Dark will take you into Where-The-Wild-Things-Are darkness and rocket you all the way to the moon!  

 A great read aloud for 4-8-year-olds.

Monday 15 May 2017

Masterminds

Masterminds
Masterminds 
By Gordon Korman



Growing up in a town like Serenity has its perks: there’s no crime, no poverty, and honesty is valued above all.  Kids like Eli, Randy, Tori, Amber, Malik and Hector are 13 years old and have known each other their entire lives.  In their small town of 185 people, they pretty much know everybody.

People in Serenity like the town so much that they never leave.  No one ever goes away on vacation, or even for a shopping trip to a bigger town.  And strangely, this tiny town has its own security force called the Surety (known by children as the Purple People Eaters).  Theoretically, they are the security guards at the big Plastics Works that employs practically everyone in town.  But they also act as a police force.

It’s hard to imagine that “America’s Ideal Community” would need a police force…

Eli and Randy, eager for fun, decide to take a bike ride out of town.  As soon as they leave the limits of Serenity, Eli is completely debilitated by overwhelming pain.  His blinding headache and terrible cramps make him unable to continue, and he falls off the bike.  Before Randy can even think about what to do, the Surety descends out of the sky in a helicopter, scoops the boys up and returns them to the safety of home.

Soon Randy is whisked away to live with his grandparents in another town.  Something strange is going on in Serenity. And Eli, Tori, Amber, Malik and Hector are going to figure out what it is.

As they begin to investigate, much is revealed about their origins.  In fact, they discover that their parents have been keeping secrets from them since the beginning.  Secrets – in a town where everyone is always honest.  Or so they thought.

The kids of Serenity are determined not to be fooled anymore.  So without telling their parents, they decide to matters into their own hands and embark on a thrilling adventure… 

Fast-paced and suspenseful, Masterminds is a book that can’t be put down!  The first in a trilogy, Masterminds will keep kids reading, no matter what kinds of books they normally enjoy.