ALA & ARC Reviews: Amulet

Yesterday, my friend Jen (on extended maternity leave from Howard County library), her 13-year-old daughter and I headed to the American Librarians Association conference in Washington, DC.

In the name of literature, we braved crowds on the Metro headed for DC's Caribbean Festival. It was totally worth it.

For $25 we bought floor passes for the ALA exhibit hall. The publishers are incredibly generous -- giving out ARCs (Advanced Readers Copies), posters and other swag to librarians and attendees. The giveaways help build advance press and sales for soon-to-be-published books.

One editor staffing the Random House booth even took the time to explain my friend's daughter exactly what an ARC is. And many editors helped point out novels-in-verse (for me to share with schools I visit) or books they fell in love with themselves.

The kids and I have our summer reading cut out for us. But I'm making them (and me) earn these books. My 13-year-old son, 10-year-old daughter and I will be reviewing the ARCs I brought home.

Here's our Summer Reading scoring system:

Empty Cone – Didn’t like it.

One Scoop – It was okay.

Two Scoops – Pretty good.

Three Scoops – Great book.

Ice Cream Sundae – I want to read the whole series. Now.




My son, a rising 8th grader, is up first with his review of a graphic novel.

Amulet Book Three: The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi.
(Uncorrected Proof provided by Graphix, Scholastic, pub date 9/2010)

Overall: Interesting, since it was the third book, I really had no clue what was going on, but as I kept reading I basically got the picture. I liked the magicky part of it and the whole future era/otherworld airship thing, with animals (pets in our world) that talk and help you along in the story or try to destroy you. The magic part makes it fun.

Story in one: This group --  a human family, a fox, a robot, two elves and two cats -- tries to get to a flying city, hoping to find people who can help them save their world from being destroyed by evil elves.

Fave characters: The human girl because I can relate to her most, because I have a younger sister (and she has a younger brother).

Fave part of story: I liked the part when the bad elves were chasing them out of the city because it was exciting. There was action and stuff.

Graphics: They looked real.

Recommend it to a friend?: The whole graphic novel thing is pretty cool and most of my friends like graphic novels.

SCORE: I call it a Sundae!

 More ARC reviews -- and hopefully, more sundaes -- to come.