5 days until Gordon Korman is at the library!

Submitted by QB on Sat, 02/27/2016 - 11:12am

Short story from website: “Wimp of Sparta” and was part of compilation, This Family Is Driving Me Crazy. You can read it here:

http://gordonkorman.com/wimp-of-sparta

This short story is a rollicking ride about taking risks and adrenaline rushes. In the end, however, the nugget of truth is about being true to one’s self. Sometimes we need to resist the expectations of others even if/when we are capable of meeting them. It is just not who we are!

Did you know? Swindle was adapted into a movie that aired on "Nickelodeon" in 2013.

6 days until Gordon Korman is at the library!

Submitted by QB on Fri, 02/26/2016 - 9:18am

Capricorn Anderson has been raised on a commune called Garland Farm. When his caregiver, Rain, needs to be hospitalized, Capricorn is taken under the wing of social services and suddenly thrust into middle school. How Capricorn assimilates (or not) makes for an intriguing story. Also, how the other students react to and treat Capricorn as they joust for positions in the social pecking order creates an interesting plot. The fact that the social worker who fosters him had also been raised on Garland Farm gives her the ability to be empathetic and helpful. The fact that Capricorn has been self-reliant, self-sufficient, and resilient for so long almost creates a bubble around him that the usual middle school ridicule and testing cannot penetrate. The book moves along fast with a twist at the end that is perhaps realistic and perhaps a little sad.

This book is available in Infosoup: http://search.infosoup.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1652949?lang=eng

Did you know? Gordon Korman is a Beatles fan.

7 days until Gordon Korman is at the library!

Submitted by QB on Thu, 02/25/2016 - 9:39am

Wow, this was a really sophisticated story of intrigue, global threat and hypnotic ability used as a weapon. This is the third in a series and even though I felt that the story could stand alone I would recommend that folks start with Book #1 which is THE HYPNOTISTS and Book #2 which is MEMORY MAZE. I listened to this book. (The reader was Ramon de Ocampo.) It was fast-paced, dramatic , and suspenseful. Jax is a 12 year old boy with the ability to hypnotize/mindbend. The government and military attempt to harness his powers for leverage and world wide domination! This campaign is called Operation Aurora. But "dragonfly" is the word that can break the spell. I enjoyed Jax's reality which included a pledge to avoid the temptation to use his power but "Oops!"he might have to at the end of the book!

This book is available in Infosoup: http://search.infosoup.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb2055246?lang=eng

Did you know? Gordon Korman has never been hypnotized.

8 days until Gordon Korman is at the library!

Submitted by QB on Wed, 02/24/2016 - 8:34am

Bruno and Boots are roommates at a boarding school until they are separated as a punishment for getting into too much trouble TOGETHER. Each of them moves into a new dorm room with a new roommate. They find this challenging because A) their new roommates are weird and B) they just want to room together again. They hatch a series of hilarious plans to be able to move back in with each other. It turns out that they are surprising heroes toward the end of the book (surprising even themselves) and their wish to be back in Room 306 ("home sweet home") is granted.

Here is a book to tickle your funny bone. Bruno and Boots are back again and this time their aim is a new recreation room at MacDonald Hall. If they can assemble a winning football team they have a donor who will pay for the rec room. Henry (Hank the Tank) Carson is an alum and former Green Bay Packer (!) who has made his fortune selling zucchini sticks. So he underwrites the football team and treats everyone to free zucchini sticks all the time. Unfortunately, no one likes them. Crazy ways emerge to off-load them! Many other eccentric and hilarious characters sprout in this book. Elmer Drimsdale is the school genius and science experimenter who is posing as the quarterback. Suddenly, his personality changes to fit his "star status". Kevin Klapper is the school inspector who never leaves because his addiction to football is ignited. Turns out, he is a very handy coach. Calvin Fihzgart fancies himself "the Beast" in football and where will that get him? Blankenship/"The Blabbermouth" cannot restrain himself from sharing trivia about everyone TO everyone. But the best nonsense of all, that I love (!), is that the real quarterback is Cathy Burton from Mrs. Scrimmage's School for Girls, across the street! (Read the book to find out what role bush hamsters play, yikes!)

These books are available in Infosoup: http://search.infosoup.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1826812?lang=eng; http://search.infosoup.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1272303?lang=eng

Did you know the three reasons Gordon Korman wrote Zucchini Warriors? a) He wanted to write another Bruno and Boots book; b) He loves football; c) He hates zucchini sticks!

9 days until Gordon Korman is at the library!

Submitted by QB on Tue, 02/23/2016 - 9:01am

(This book is out of print and hard to come by.) Hilarious! Poor Jeremy Bloom, the "pottery" elective that he signs up for turns out to be "poetry"! At the beginning of each section of poems in this book, Jeremy has some kind of bad (humorous) encounter (his fault) with the teacher of the class named Ms. Terranova. Each set of poems receives a "D-" and it is up to us, the readers, to decide whether the poems deserved the D- grade or perhaps the grade was so low as a kind of "payback" from the instructor. The poems are pretty clever (and personal) and emblematic of a kid just trying to make it through a class!
Part I Pterodactyl Period
Part II The Stinko-Smokescreen-Whizbanger Period
Part III The Wrong Box Period
Part IV The Fender-Bender Period
Part V The Tarzan Period
Each part is named for the unfortunate event that happens between Jeremy Bloom and Ms. Terranova.

(This book is out of print and hard to come by.) This is the companion book for "The D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom". This book is also hilarious! The roles are reversed! In "D-" the poetry teacher, Ms. Terranova, was the victim of Jeremy's blunders. In this book, Ms. Terranova got married and is now Mrs. Stegowitz. She convinces Jeremy to try another class of poetry with her to give him another chance. The deal is sweetened by the fact that if he improves she will give him a good grade AND increase the D- grade from the previous school year. In each of the six sections of this book Jeremy is participating in a sport and writing his poems about it: Football, Soccer, Hockey, Basketball, Baseball, and Last-Resort Sports/Epilogue. The role reversal comes as a result of Jeremy being the victim as he participates in each sport and Mrs. Stegowitz is the unwitting perpetrator. Without spoiling it, the blunder for soccer includes her hat which so happens to resemble a soccer ball. Laugh out loud funny! Even in the epilogue, she manages to create some serious havoc! The poems are again fun and there is a happier ending for Jeremy Bloom in this book. *The best part is that Jeremy discovers that he is talented at writing poetry AND that it is therapeutic for him.

Did you know? Gordon Korman was born in Montreal, Canada.