http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob Online Discussion and Sharing Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:08:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Because of a problem with spam, let's try a new approach to making comments and submitting questions: E-mail your comments and questions to me at arnold@4j.lane.edu. I will post the comment/question with your first name and then notify everyone with an e-mail to our new BOB listserv. Let's see if this approach ... http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob/2007/12/10/a-new-approach-to-comments/ Wonder what it would have been like to have been a Japanese teenager living in Hawaii when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on September 7, 1941?Tomi is an American teenager who loves baseball, hangs out with his friends who call themselves the “Rats,” and loves his dog Lucky. He was ... http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob/2007/10/31/under-the-blood-red-sun-by-graham-salisbury/ We're not just talking about a simple makeover here...Tally Youngblood is lonely: all of her friends have already turned 16 and had the operation to make them Pretty and have gone to Prettytown to party. As Tally amuses herself by hoverboarding (think skateboarding through the air) and doing “tricks,” the ... http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob/2007/10/31/uglies-by-scott-westerfeld/ Interested in the healing power of the wilderness, the psychology of a bully, and alternatives to the juvenile justice system? Do you just want a good cliffhanger featuring a giant white bear?Touching Spirit Bear gives us the point of view of Cole Mathews, an angry young man who blames everyone ... http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob/2007/10/31/touching-spirit-bear-by-ben-mikaelsen/ Have you ever thought that someone reminded you of Posiedon? or Hermes? or Dionysus? The Lightning ThiefBattle of the Labyrinth may explain why...The premise of demigods - the offspring of a human and a god - is captivating. Taking this premise and setting it in contemporary New York makes ... http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob/2007/10/31/the-lightning-thief-by-rick-riordan/ Ready for a 13th century China version of extreme sports? How about flying by being strapped to a very large kite?It’s the 13th century, and China has just been conquered by the Mongol, Kublai Khan. The story opens at a port, where Haoyou, a bright and serious 12-year-old boy, witnesses ... http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob/2007/10/31/the-kite-rider-by-geraldine-mccaughrean/ How would Stargirl be received at our school? Stargirl is the classic nonconformist, free spirit. When she shows up at Mica High with her long skirts and ukulele, students don’t know how to handle her. Leo Borlock, the book’s 16-year-old narrator, is fascinated by her pure, primitive approach to life and ... http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob/2007/10/31/stargirl-by-jerry-spinelli/ What if, every night, night after night, your life depended on the story that  you told? Shahrazad, the Sultan’s newest wife, is saving her own life and the lives of the kingdom’s young women. She is holding the interest of the Sultan night after night with her stories. Before Shahrazad, the ... http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob/2007/10/31/shadow-spinner-by-susan-fletcher/ Though this book is a fantasy, it has the feel of history. The setting, Mount Eskel, is viewed with disdain by the rest of the kingdom even though they mine the prize stone, linder. Mount Eskel’s prospects improve when it is chosen as the village from which the prince will ... http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob/2007/10/31/princess-academy-by-shannon-hale/ Hiaasen’s story of the ecologically-oriented family, the Underwoods, opens with the dad in jail for trying to sink the floating casino that he believes is dumping raw sewage into the ocean near their Florida Keys home. The family has their problems related to their dad’s fanaticism, but his kids, Noah ... http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/cybob/2007/10/31/flush-by-carl-hiaasen/