Hey Guys,
Lissy here to announce a new book in the CIA series. Operation Dude Ranch is coming out this week and Sam will be signing copies of both Operation Dude Ranch and Operation Pharaoh’s Curse at the Westbank Community Library next Sunday at 1pm. If you are in the Austin area please stop by.
Check out the fabulous new artwork by new cover artist, Claire O’Brien. I just love that we’re pieces of art! Although I hear that Cagney was less thrilled!
Hello friends, Lissy here. Such happy news as the fourth book in the CIA series, Operation Pharaoh’s Curse, is released into the world, revealing our latest adventure in Egypt and the Valley of the Kings.
Already two wonderful five star reviews on Amazon which I know have made my aunt very happy. It’s always fun to know that children are reading the CIA series and loving our adventures.
Here is what readers have to say:
“Laugh Out Loud Funny! – My daughter will be thrilled with the release of the fourth book in the Cousins in Action Series. She is a voracious reader and has read the other books in this series over and over again. She says they are full of suspense, action, and danger (“in a fun way”). She likes the characters’ different personalities and says the books are “laugh out loud” funny. She’s gotten a bunch of her friends hooked on the series as well.”
“Adventure, Humour, Mystery and Fun! -My daughter is eleven, and has been hooked on this series for years. She cherishes the books and reads them over and over. So we are thrilled with the publication of Operation Pharaoh’s Curse, which offers up the same wonderful mix of adventure, humour, mystery and fun! The characters are beautifully drawn, and opening up chapter one feels like falling back in to the company of old friends. Highly, highly recommended!”
Happy reading, everyone!
Hi Guys, Aidan here with a new book recommendation.
I was at Lissy’s house when I saw this book. She had just finished reading it and although it has a picture of two girls on the front she said I should read it and that I’d enjoy it. She was right.
The book is about an eleven-year-old Chinese girl named Wen who is adopted by an American family. Before leaving the orphanage Wen promises her best friend, Shu Ling, she will find her a home in America too. Of course, that’s not as easy as Wen might think.
One of the most heartbreaking parts of the book is Wen believing if she’s not well behaved her parents will send her back to her orphanage. When her father loses his job and they have to cut back on extras, Wen thinks the of herself as an extra and prepares to return to China.
Wen also finds it hard to attach to her new family, especially her mother. The guilt she feels over leaving Shu Ling behind makes it difficult to even make new friends.
Having two cousins who were adopted from China made this book even more special to me. The book really made me think about a lot of things I take for granted. From major things like knowing my parents love me and would never give me up, to more minor things like knowing presents I get are mine and won’t be given to other people. Seeing American culture through the eyes of someone new to our shores is also really interesting.
I highly recommend this book by Carol Antoinette Peacock to anyone interested in learning more about orphanages and China, but also those who enjoy books about friendship, love and trust.
Hi Guys, Aidan here!
Do you remember how much I raved about Echo earlier this year? Well, I just found out it made the Texas Bluebonnet list for 2016-2017. Congratulations to Pam Munoz Ryan and also to Austin writer, Chris Barton and illustrator, Don Tate, for their picture book, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch, a fabulous book for younger readers.
As most of you probably know, the third book in the Cousins In Action series takes place in England! Today my aunt got the cover art for CIA – Operation Jewel Thief (drawn by her friend Han Randhawa who I interviewed a few months back), so I wanted to share it with you. I just love it – the fire, the corgis, the expression on Cagney’s face! Check back soon for details of the release date. Lissy Puddleton.
Hey, guys! Aidan here. Lissy asked me to write a book review for a story I recently read: Echo By Pam Muñoz Ryan. I’ve read it – and it’s really cool! Sure, it’s a big book, but it has vivid characters and nice classical pieces, like Rhapsody in Blue (my aunt loves that piece). Set in World War II in Germany and America, the book follows Frederick, Mike, Ivy and a harmonica through different and difficult periods of history. I read it for my summer reading project, and it was perfect! I recommend it to those that have those kind of projects, once you start reading this- you can’t stop! Well, that’s all from me. Bye!
Hi guys, Aidan here with the first of my summer reading recommendations.
Chained, sounds like it might be sad, especially when you see the picture of a young Indian boy standing by a small elephant on the cover, but it is a book about friendship, courage, kindness and not giving up.
We are introduced to ten-year-old Hastin when his sister is sick and his mother is forced to work for a family that is unkind to her. To free his mother Hastin takes a job far from his family as an elephant keeper.
I felt the author did a good job of bringing both the marketplace and the jungle to life and really liked the way she gave descriptions an Indian twist, like “it feels like a python is squeezing my chest” and “she grows smaller and smaller, her face just a dot of cinnamon.”
I also liked that the author gives you lots of interesting information about elephants. While we were in India we learned a lot about elephants, including their teeth wearing down and also, of course, all about the tiger trade. I think it’s great that there are books like Ms. Kelly’s who help bring these issues to the attention of children and do so in an entertaining way.
There are some chapters that are hard to read, but the relationship between Hastin and Nandita and Hastin and Ne Min made me want to keep reading. In fact, I read the entire book in one day, it was that good.
If I had any criticism, it would be that I kept wondering if this was set now or in the past as it was hard to tell. I also wish I knew what part of India Hastin came from originally – a part that had desert and camels. However, I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in India, or anyone who enjoys a story about a boy and his elephant.
Hey guys, Aidan here with my latest review on one of the many books I read over the summer.
So, if you’d like to be able to tell your alvarezsaur from your crested hadrosaur, pick up this book – and don’t put it down, as you realize early on that author, Mr. Greg Leitich-Smith totally knows his stuff and by stuff I mean dinosaurs.
For me, I had no idea there were so many different types of dinosaurs. Sure, I knew my T-Rex from my brontosaurus, but my hadrosaur from my microraptor? Not so much. But the book is not a reference book by any means. What it is, is a rip-roaring adventure through the cretaceous period and all the danger you can imagine that entails.
When Max and his older twin siblings, Kyle and Emma, get dumped at their reclusive grandpa’s house (I’m feeling a connection here) while their mother heads to a remote corner of Mongolia to dig for feathered dinosaurs (even more of a connection), the three Austin siblings are not exactly pleased. Yes there’s a legendary creek bed on the ranch property, containing fossilized dinosaur tracks that Max, a keen amateur paleontologist, is dying to see, but for his older siblings the summer is looking bleak.
Things start to look up when they meet Petra, their Grandfather’s house-keeper’s daughter, but quickly take a turn for the bizarre when their grandfather predicts his own heart-attack, leaving the four with a parting message – go to the creek bed before 8am the following day.
Go they do, becoming instantly plunged into a plot of kidnapping and intrigue as they follow the kidnapper back to the cretaceous period in, of all things, a VW bug using their great-great-grandfather’s time machine.
If you enjoyed Jurassic Park then pick up Chronal Engine for some late summer reading – you won’t be disappointed. Grrrrr!
5 Cousins Adventures 