Boys Rule Boys Read!: Who Let the Dog Days Out?

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Who Let the Dog Days Out?

Trivia question: Why is this time of year called the "dog days of summer"? (You might be surprised to know the answer has a connection with the first name of a Harry Potter character!)

Here are two books to enjoy during these hot summer days or any time of year. The first is

another mystery (can't get that Summer Reading theme out of my head!) It's Coffin on a Case by Eve Bunting. Twelve-year-old Henry Coffin's dad is a real detective and Henry would like to be one too. Then one day, while his dad is out of the office, a gorgeous high school girl walks in and says she's lost her mother--for the fourth time! Henry says he will help and is glad to be working as a real detective. But it turns out that the girl's mother has been kidnapped and Henry learns that being a real detective can lead to real danger! He finds that he's in over his head---I mean, literally over his head when he has to hide from the bad guys in the bottom of a slimy old swimming pool! Will they find him or will he drown in there? I couldn't stop turning the pages and neither will you.

The other book is the one I talked about last week, The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel In Words and Pictures by Brian Selznick. Did you ever read something that made you sit back and say "Wow" when you're done? I just finished this book and that's what I did! It's awesome. There's so much that happens and it's all so exciting that I can't tell you about it briefly but I will say that it's about a notebook with plans for a mechanical man, the very first movies, an old man with a mysterious past, and a boy living in a train staton, hiding from the police. Brian Selznick does a great job with bleanding the words and pictures to make a really thrilling book. Go get it!

One more thing for all you Percy Jackson fans: Rick Riordan has written his first Percy Jackson short story! It's on the author's blog and it's called "The Stolen Chariot". Click here to read it. (Scroll down until you see "The Stolen Chariot" in Previous Posts)
Carl

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