Mundie Moms

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A Wrinkle in Time: 50 Years, 50 Days, 50 Blogs Celebration


I am thrilled to be apart of this week's A Wrinkle In Time: 50 Years, 50 Days, 50 Blogs Celebration tour.

For me when I think of "a classic childhood book", I think of books that made an impact on me as a young reader, and I'm just talking about books that were popular at the time like the Baby Sitter's Club, Sweet Valley High or the Choose Your Own Adventure books, all of which I loved. I think of books that made an impact on me like Charlotte's Web, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, The Little Prince, and many more. I think it takes a curtain kind of author to create a story that's not just popular when the book is first published, but it becomes a book that's love and cherished for generations after that, which all of these book are. I think A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle is also one of those books.

First published in 1962, this book 50 years later is still a beloved classic for so many of us. I still remember the first I read this book and the impact it left on me. When I was growing up we didn't have YA or Middle Grade sections, which makes me sound really old. We had a library that had everything from the books I've listed above to Stephen King and more. Aside from The Chronicles of Narnia, this was one of my first books I read and loved that had that epic battle of good vs evil. I love that years later it's still making an impact of readers world wide. This year marks the 50th year of it's publication! What an awesome achievement to celebrate. With that, I highly recommend picking up the newly released 50th Anniversary Commemorative edition (shown below) by MacMillan. This edition includes:

* A letter from the 1963 Caldecott winner, Ezra Jack Keats
* An introduction by Katherine Paterson, US National Ambassador for Young People's Literature
* A new afterword by Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughter, with some never before seen photos.
* A Murry-O'Keefe Family Tree complete with artwork
* Madeleine L'Engle's Newberry acceptance speech
* Fronispiece photo
* Photo scrapbook with approximately 10 photos
* Manuscript pages



Purchase the 50th Anniversary edition of A Wrinkle in Time from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

How did A Wrinkle in Time impact you as a young reader?

Book Review: Untraceable by S.R. Johannes


Published by: Coleman & Stott
Released on: November 23rd, 2011
Source: book from author to review
4 stars: I Really Enjoyed It
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

16-year-old Grace has lived in the Smokies all her life, patrolling with her forest ranger father who taught her about wildlife, tracking, and wilderness survival.

When her dad goes missing on a routine patrol, Grace refuses to believe he’s dead and fights the town authorities, tribal officials, and nature to find him.

One day, while out tracking clues, Grace is rescued from danger by Mo, a hot guy with an intoxicating accent and a secret. As her feelings between him and her ex-boyfriend get muddled, Grace travels deep into the wilderness to escape and find her father.

Along the way, Grace learns terrible secrets that sever relationships and lives. Soon she’s enmeshed in a web of conspiracy, deception, and murder. And it’s going to take a lot more than a compass and a motorcycle (named Lucifer) for this kick-butting heroine to save everything she loves

A thrilling murder mystery set deep in the heart of North Carolina's Smoky Mountain's, Untraceable is a suspenseful page turner loaded with plot twists, action, and a swoon worthy romance. Not everything is as it seems in this story, and that element of wanting to uncover the mystery kept me hooked the entire time I sat reading Grace's story. It's a story about survival, corruption, love, the outdoors and so much more. I completely fell in love with this story's beautiful setting. The outdoors/woods of the Smoky Mountains plays such a huge part in the book that it felt like it was a character in itself. It really set the tone for a lot of the action scenes and some of the sigh worthy moments between Grace and Mo that take place there.

Grace is a strong willed, courageous teenager who will stop at nothing to uncover the mystery behind her father's supposed death and the corruption that's happening in her own back yard. Her independence and quest for the truth is the driving factor in her uncovering what's really going on in her town's woods, and what happened to her father on her own. Her quest for the truth is something I really admired about her. When everyone else has all but given up on him, she's his only hope and WOW does she uncover one heck of a complicated conspiracy that's going on. Growing up with a forest ranger father they often roamed the back woods, and her father taught Grace all she knows about the survival skills she relies on through out her story. On a side note I really liked each chapter of the book is titled with some form of survival skill, which also clues readers into what they can except to happen each chapter. I loved Mo and Grace together. These two have a fabulous chemistry together. They have those sweet sigh worthy moments, and other moments they had me laughing out loud with the things they say or do to each other.

S.R. Johannes's writing is engaging. She does such a great job at throwing readers into what's going on, and she definitely pulls out all the stops through the story. The end is full of one twist after the other and I was totally shocked at some of the revelations. I didn't see those ones coming. That ending makes me want to go take my own notes to try and solve the big mystery, because just as I thought I had it figured out who was behind all that happens, S.R. threw in another twist. While I thought she did a great job wrapping up this story, I need more answers! I can't wait for the sequel to be released. This is one thrilling read that I highly recommend picking up. There's plenty of heart bounding action, swoon worthy romance, and plenty of twists that will keep readers glued to the pages. There is very mild language, and a some realistic action scenes that may not be suitable to younger readers. I'd definitely recommend this to fans of YA.

Waiting on Wednesday: Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger


Published by: Aladdin
To Be Released on: October 2nd, 2012
Pre-Order from: Amazon | iTunes

Twelve-year-old Sophie has always been different -- she's years ahead of the other kids in school and can read minds. She's always assumed there's some kind of logical explanation for her talents, but when she meets an adorable and mysterious boy, she finds out the shocking truth. She's never felt at home because she, well, ... isn't.

There are secrets buried deep in her memory, secrets about her true identity and why she was hidden among humans, that others desperately want and would even kill for. And she must figure out why she is the key to her brand-new world, before the wrong person finds the answer first -quoted from Goodreads

I know I rarely featured MG (middle grade) books for my WOWs, but there's some fabulous MG's releases this year that I want to feature on here and this is one of them. Check out this awesome cover! I would seriously pick this book up based on the cover alone. I'm really looking forward to reading Shannon's debut. This is one book I'm looking forward to featuring both on Mundie Kids and here on MM's. What book are you waiting on?

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