Dahlmanac

Recommended grades 3-5.  Fans of Roald Dahl will be pleased with this ridiculous collection of Roald Dahl-related facts.  Compiled by Ky Woodward, the Dahlmanac 2 (Puffin, 2007) features rare Dahl material (including a missing chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as interesting biographical tidbits) and a gaggle of silly, Dahl related facts.  This odd assortment of trivia forms tangentially to Dahl's personality - his dislike for beards spawns a whole chapter on hairy world records, a discussion of excellent disguises, and explanation of the British Secret Service, and finally, a discussion of animal disguises.  The book is filled with funny facts fit for the Guinness Book of World Records; students who love sharing trivia will adore this book.  Woodward borrows the squiggly black and white illustrations of Quentin Blake, who illustrated the vast majority of Dahl's major work.  One word of warning - the Dahlmanac was originally printed in the United Kingdom, so all measurements and currency is written using British standards.  This might be fun for American readers to work out, but they may need a little extra assistance to make sense.  Overall a fun and entertaining collection of oddities.  Recommended, ***.

Guys Lit Wire

Review Blog.  Guys Lit Wire pulls together books for boys, a notoriously hard group to find material for.  In near-daily posts, the group of bloggers behind Guys Lit Wire review books that will get guys excited about reading.  Most of the books reviewed are targeted at a middle school to high school range, though a few lower level books slip in here and there.  Most reviews are long and include passages, critiques, and the personal reflections of the bloggers.  Many of the writers include a short excerpt on the main page with a link for more material, so that readers can decide if they want to go through the full review or not.  The bloggers employ a system of tagging, though navigation is not always clear to the reader, with categories including, "Flying Cars and Lost Cities," and "So You Want to Rule the World."  Guys Lit Wire reviews a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction, contemporary and classic.  They push the edges of what boys would be interested in; they don't settle for flashy action books, but encourage the adults who influence boy readers to get into the classics too.  Definitely recommended for book lovers who work with teenage boys.  Recommended, ****

The Phantom Tollbooth

Recommended Grades 5-8.  The Phantom Tollbooth (Yearling, 1969), is an established classic, for good reason!  After fifty years, it remains as fresh, brilliant and relevant as ever.  Author Norton Juster takes us on a brilliant quest through a magical world with our hero Milo.  Milo starts as a boy quite jaded to the world around him.  He doesn't care for school, he doesn't care for play, he doesn't much care for anything.  One day he comes home from another humdrum day at school to find a magic Tollbooth beckoning him to Dictionopolis, a faraway land where thoughts and ideas literally come to life.  He must save the Princesses Rhyme and Reason to bring balance to the kingdom!  Milo himself is not the true hero, it is the embodiment of his curiosity and intelligence that overcome the greatest odds, freeing him to explore the world around him with passion and enthusiasm.  With humorous and descriptive pen-drawn illustrations by Jules Feiffer, Milo's quest becomes our own.  The reader gains a new appreciation for the worlds of thoughts, words, ideas, and equations that we have built around us.  This book is filled with countless jokes and plays-on-words, so it could pose a challenge for some but these young readers, with aid, can cherish the book all the more for overcoming the challenges, just as Milo did!  Highly recommended, *****

Eoin Colfer's Legend

Recommended Grades 3-5.  Eoin Colfer, best-selling author of the Artemis Fowl series, reaches out to younger readers with his series of transitional chapter books about the "legendary" Woodman brothers.  In The Legend of the Worst Boy in the World (Hyperion, 2007), younger brother, Will Woodman is feeling neglected by his parents.  With four brothers much louder and whinier than himself, Will rarely gets his parents attention.  Will decides that he needs his own adult to complain to, and is lucky to have weekends alone with his grandfather in the lighthouse he takes care of.  Will and his grandfather swap and compare their worst stories.  Colfer gives Will a funny and smart voice that is enjoyable for both kids and adults.  Though his audience may not be as sophisticated as his YA fan base, Colfer does not hold back or dumb down the narration.  The text is high quality, and the characters are fully developed, empathetic even with their personal flaws.  Will's stories are complemented by hilarious black and white illustrations by cartoonist Glenn McCoy.  Colfer and McCoy collaborate to make the reader giggle along with Will and his grandfather, and empathize for all of the trouble his older brother, Marty, gets him in.  Ultimately, this is an enjoyable read with a heart-warming lesson.  Highly recommended, ****.