FernFolio » legends

Hide and Sneak by Michael Kusugak and Vladyana Krykorka

fernfolio — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:12:24 +0000

When Allashua announces that she is going out to play hide and seek with her friends, her mother warns her not to go too far away because an Ijiraq might hide her and, that if an Ijiraq hides her, no one will ever be able to find her again. Allashua goes to play hid and seek, but she isn’t very good at it. She keeps getting distracted by what is going on around her, and forgetting to hide. She chases butterflies, watches the loons, explores bugs in a small pond, and chirps at the nestlings in a nest she that she discovers.
When she meets a tiny little man all covered in fur the colour of a ptarmigan’s feathers, she knows he is an Ijiraq but he is so funny and clumsy and playful, she dismisses her mother’s warning about him being dangerous and lets him hide her in a cave she has never seen before. After several hours waiting in the cave for her friends to find her, Allashua grows tired and hungry and says she wants to leave, but the Ijiraq says that she can’t because they haven’t been found yet. Allashua realizes that, unless she comes up with fast with a good plan to get herself out of the Ijirak’s clutches, she will never see her family again.
Hide and Sneak is the story of a heedless but resourceful girl who finds herself in desperate trouble when she ignores her mother’s warnings and wanders away in the company of a little creature of Inuit legend. It continues the adventures of Allashua, whom we first met in A Promise is a Promise by Robert Munsch and Michael Kusugak.
FernFolio Editor

The Spoon in the Bathroom Wall by Tony Johnston

fernfolio — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:37:00 +0000

Martha Snapdragon has problems. She and her father, Luther, live in the hot and noisy boiler room of the Horace E. Bloggins, the school she attends and where her father is caretaker, and, because her father’s job pays very little, they never quite have enough to eat.
Although Martha works hard at her lessons, and is generally at the head of her class, she is the favourite target of Rufus, the school bully. Since the school principal, Dr. Klunk, is a twisted opportunist himself, he eggs on Rufus and his gang rather than putting an end to bullying at Bloggins.
Martha’s father, a gentle, dreamy man, has taught his daughter the importance of looking at the positive, and encourages her to hold fast to her dreams. Martha has two dreams. The first concerns eating large plates of sizzling hot bacon, her favourite food. The second is to become a teacher. When she finally works up enough courage to share her dream with her science teacher, Mrs. Ferlin (rhymes with Merlin) offers to teach her to be a teacher.
Martha should be over the moon with joy, but Rufus proves, once again, to be the fly in the ointment. He hits upon the idea of calling her Marthur (rhymes with Arthur) and the new nickname quickly catches on, even among Martha’s friends and teachers. Then he learns of Ferlin’s magical dancing eggs, and threatens to have Martha’s father fired unless she steals the eggs for him.
What is Martha to do? She cannot bear the idea of stealing, especially from someone as wonderful as Ferlin, but she must safeguard her father’s job. When a mysterious new sign appears in a school hallway, announcing that The King is Coming, Martha hopes that he will arrive in time to put a stop to the bullying at Bloggins.
FernFolio Editor

Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick

fernfolio — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 19:02:07 +0000

Twelve year-old Maxwell Kane’s life is transformed when he meets Kevin. Despite the odds, the hulking giant who’s “never had a brain” and the fierce, mouthy genius locked in a crippled two-foot body become friends, and then more than friends. When they discover that, together they are more than the sum of their parts, Max and Freak become Freak the Mighty. Together they slay dragons and rescue damsels in distress. When Max’s killer father gets paroled from prison, and when Freak’s body begins to fail him, those dragons become all too real. Yet Freak the Mighty, and the boys’ friendship makes it possible for them to confront, and slay, even the most fearsome of dragons – fear and death.
Freak the Mighty was chosen by the Girls’ Book Club to be their second novel, along with Bridge to Terabithia. What an extraordinary piece of luck it is that these two novels both examine the power of friendship, the triumph over adversity, and the importance of remembering.
Rodman Philbrick’s novel is a must read!
FernFolio Editor

The Devil, the Banshee and Me by L. M. Falcone

fernfolio — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 17:54:14 +0000

Young Will Trenom is used to crazy. He lives with his rather less-than-normal parents in a bed and breakfast run by Mrs. D and her game-show addicted husband. But even Will cannot understand why someone would want to move into a run-down old cottage that stands in the middle of a cemetery, particularly an attractive otherwise normal-looking woman such as Mrs MacGregor. And he isn’t happy when Noah Proffet, a self-proclaimed magician, shows up at the B and B because he recognises the man from a wild chase around the cemetery by an egg-juggling sumo wrestler. Noah has told Will that he is the Devil’s nephew, come to enjoy the antics of humans which he appears to find endlessly entertaining.
Things get more complicated for Will when he sees what he thinks is a ghost flying around and shrieking near the entrance to the cemetery, and then discover that the ghost is actually a banshee who is determined to take Mrs. MacGregor’s soon-to-be thirteen year-old daughter, Megan. As Will learns more about the curse that Megan lives under, he realises that he is destined to help her. But can he figure out the riddle of an incomplete wish in time to save Megan from a fate worse than death?
The Devil, the Banshee and Me is a fast-paced adventure full of moments of side-splitting humour and hair-raising terror. It will keep you breathless and reading to the very last page!
FernFolio Editor

The Kingdom of the Golden Dragon by Isabel Allende

fernfolio — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:03:46 +0000

Commissioned by International Geographic to write an article about the Kingdom of the Golden Dragon, writer Kate Cold decides to invite her 15-year-old grandson, Alex, and his Brazilian friend, 13-year-old Nadia, to accompany her to the fabled and inaccessible kingdom nestled high in the Himalayas. Alex and Nadia are delighted to be reunited after a year’s separation, and eager to set off on a new adventure, their first since voyaging together deep into the heart of the Amazon to meet the People of the Mist, a lost Indian tribe. They are struck by the beauty and civility of the Kingdom of the Golden Dragon, and by the tenets of Buddhism, which shape the every action of its people, from the king down to the poorest nun or monk begging for food along the roads.
But danger lurks in the form of the Specialist, a criminal genius who specialises in acquiring items for very wealthy and discerning clients. And the Collector, irritated by the fact that there is one man in the world who is wealthier than he, is determined to acquire the statue of the golden dragon which, legend says, confers absolute knowledge to its possessor.
Alex and Nadia are rapidly drawn into the plot to steal the golden dragon from the Kingdom which bears its name, and must rely on their totemic animals, the jaguar and the eagle, as well as on the lessons they learned in the Amazon to help Tenzing, a Buddhist lama, and his young student, Dil Bahadur, who is heir to the throne, to foil the Specialist’s plot.
The Kingdom of the Golden Dragon, the second book in Allende’s trilogy, is a sequel to the splendid City of the Beasts. This exciting and beautifully written fantasy seizes the reader from the first chapter, and will have you reading straight through to the last page. Readers of Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn series will very much enjoy this book!
FernFolio Editor

The Dragon Prince by Vicki Blum

fernfolio — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:48:45 +0000

Young Ember is shocked to find a small human child standing in front of her when she wakes one morning. All she knows about humans is that long ago they had stolen the dragons’ magic, and that her kind and humans have been mortal enemies ever since. When the Herd Father discovers the boy, and orders that he be held until he can be killed, Ember feels a stir of pity for the tiny, squalling little being. She defies her herd, and sets out to rescue the child, but is caught by Brand, another young dragon, and almost despairs before realizing that he, too, plans to save the boy.
Together, Brand and Ember flee with the child to a cave high in the mountains of Callore where they meet Cidrok, an ancient and wise dragon, who tells them that the child is none other than Prince Shadrel, son of King Briais who has promised that, someday soon, dragons will once again rule alongside humans.
Ember and Brand, and their human companions, must face many challenges, and dangers, if they hope to win out against the forces of ignorance and evil that threaten them at every turn.
FernFolio Editor