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Seven Wonders. Four friends. One mission. The Colossus Rises by Peter Lerangis

Seven Wonders. The Colossus rises

Seven Wonders. One - The Colossus rises
Peter Lerangis

Jack McKinley is an ordinary boy with an extraordinary problem. In a few months, he's going to die. Jack needs to find seven magic orbs that, when combined, have the power to cure him. The orbs are the relics of a lost civilization and haven't been seen in thousands of years... because they're hidden in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The thrills begin in THE COLOSSUS RISES, the first book in the epic Seven Wonders Series. => http://bit.ly/13zoCCX

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Award winner – Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray
Winner - Fiction - 2012 Golden Kite Awards for Children's Books


Ruta Sepetys
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl, in 1941. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Between Shades of Gray is a riveting novel that steals your breath, captures your heart, and reveals the miraculous nature of the human spirit.
Includes discussion questions and a free excerpt ... => http://bit.ly/S31j0u

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The untold story of the Sandakan Death Marches of the Second World War – Sandakan by Paul Ham

Sandakan

Paul Ham

The untold story of the Sandakan Death Marches of the Second World War.

This is the story of the three-year ordeal of the Sandakan prisoners of war – a barely known episode of unimaginable horror. This important and harrowing book narrates the full story of Sandakan, as told through the experiences of many of the participants. Paul Ham has interviewed the families of survivors and the deceased, in Australia, Britain and Borneo, and consulted thousands of court documents in an effort to piece together exactly what happened to the people who suffered and died in British North Borneo, and who was responsible.

Includes a link to the letter from the author to the Emperor of Japan and an interview with the author  =>  http://bit.ly/S35i7o

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Recently released – the author says this is “far and away the greatest story in Australia’s history, if not the world’s.”

Batavia

Peter FitzSimons

The shipwreck of the Batavia combines in just the one tale the birth of the world's first corporation, the brutality of colonisation, the battle of good versus evil, the derring-do of sea-faring adventure, mutiny, love, lust, blood-lust, petty fascist dictatorship, criminality, a reign of terror, murders most foul, sexual slavery, natural nobility, survival, retribution, rescue, first contact with native peoples and so much more. => http://bit.ly/m5iXQl

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Extension reading – The Help

Kathryn Stockett's The Help is wonderful extension reading for students who love To Kill a Mockingbird and are interested in the American Civil Rights movement. The trailer for the movie has just been released

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NewSouth ‘Huck Finn’ Eliminates the ‘N’ Word

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic by most any measure—T.S. Eliot called it a masterpiece, and Ernest Hemingway pronounced it the source of "all modern American literature." Yet, for decades, it has been disappearing from grade school curricula across the country, relegated to optional reading lists, or banned outright, appearing again and again on lists of the nation's most challenged books, and all for its repeated use of a single, singularly offensive word: "nigger."

Twain himself defined a "classic" as "a book which people praise and don't read." Rather than see Twain's most important work succumb to that fate, Twain scholar Alan Gribben and NewSouth Books plan to release a version of Huckleberry Finn, in a single volume with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, that does away with the "n" word (as well as the "in" word, "Injun") by replacing it with the word "slave."

more...http://bit.ly/gwFqBG

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Sixth book of Christmas – The Polar Express (with lesson plans)

The Polar Express
by Chris Van Alsburg

One couldn't select a more delightful and exciting premise for a children's book than the tale of a young boy lying awake on Christmas Eve only to have Santa Claus sweep by and take him on a trip with other children to the North Pole. And one couldn't ask for a more talented artist and writer to tell the story than Chris Van Allsburg. Allsburg, a sculptor who entered the genre nonchalantly when he created a children's book as a diversion from his sculpting, won the 1986 Caldecott Medal for this book, one of several award winners he's produced. The Polar Express rings with vitality and wonder.

Watch the trailer

Ideas, lessons, printables, games, party fun, and much more

Lesson plans and activities

Lessons, resources and integrated units

Scholastic Lesson plan

Ideas, guides, activities and integrated units

Buy the book

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Today’s must-read “The Pacific” was made into a miniseries for television


The Pacific

Hugh Ambrose

In The Pacific, Hugh Ambrose focuses on the real-life stories of the five men who put their lives on the line for our country. To deepen the story revealed in the miniseries and go beyond it, the book dares to chart a great ocean of enmity known as The Pacific and the brave men who fought. Some considered war a profession, others enlisted as citizen soldiers. Each man served in a different part of the war, but their respective duties required every ounce of their courage and their strength to defeat an enemy who preferred suicide to surrender. The medals for valor which were pinned on three of them came at a shocking

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New for Young Adults – The Midnight Zoo

by Sonja Hartnett

Her muzzle wrinkled, and Andrej saw a glimpse of teeth and pale tongue. 'They smell the same, ' the lioness murmured. 'My cubs smelt as she does. Like pollen.' She breathed deeply again, and Andrej saw the missing cubs returning to her on the wings of the baby's perfume. 'All young ones must come from the same place,' she said: then sat down on her haunches, seemingly satisfied.
Under cover of darkness, two brothers cross a war-ravaged countryside carrying a secret bundle. One night they stumble across a deserted town reduced to smouldering ruins. But at the end of a blackened street they find a small green miracle: a zoo filled with animals in need of hope.
A moving and ageless fable about war, and freedom.

Read an extract here
Get more details or buy the book here

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Children’s Books – This week’s bargain – The Battle for Skandia

This is Book Four in the Ranger's Apprentice Series by John Flanagan.

The Review in Booklist:
Following Will and Evanlyn’s escape from slavery in The Icebound Land (2007), Halt determines that the Temujai mean to attack Araluen and decides to help the Skandians defend their land. Rejoining Halt, Will and Evanlyn become warriors in the stronghold where they had recently been captives and use their wits and skills to fight the common enemy. The story plunges forward with irresistible narrative drive toward the climactic battle scene. Even readers drawn to the series for its deftly drawn characters and setting may find themselves caught up in the action. A fine entry in the increasingly popular Ranger’s Apprentice series.

Amazon has identified copies as "Bargain books" books that are new but could include a small mark from the publisher and an Amazon.com price sticker identifying them as such. They are selling the paperback for $3.20.