KSSreads

authors insight- CBC thehour-Gaiman, Hill, Hanson..

George Strombo interviews 2 bestseller authors and canadian icon, Rick Hanson. June 10,2009.

Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes, discusses his motivations for the bestseller story of a young girls journey from the slave trade.
Strombo chats with Rick Hanson about his recent insights in the world of disabilities and Wheels in Motion. 
Neil Gaiman, author and media artist, talks about graphic novels and the internet.

Graphic Classroom- comics and more

graphicclassroom.blogspot.com

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The Graphic Classroom is a resource for teachers and librarians to help them stock high quality, educational-worthy, graphic novels and comics in their classroom or school library. I read and review every graphic novel or comic on this blog and give it a rating as to appropriateness for the classroom.

The Best Comics for Your Classroom

CLICK HERE to see the best comics recommended for every grade. We have it categorized by recommendation and age level.

Keeping Comics Safe in the Classroom

CLICK HERE to read more about keeping your comics stored safely in your classroom. We make specific recommendations of products that we find work best.

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By Nate Stearns
Staff Writer

....I teach, among other things, 10th grade English and part of our curriculum is a career unit – a 3-4 week exploration of the work world and the skills needed to be successful there. Practically, this means that students pretend to interview each other (Why should I hire you?), job shadow their moms at the Century 21 office, try to imagine what life would be like as an adult, and whether they should run screaming to the hills and live off moss and grubs in the Olympic National Forest.....

.....Daniel Pink’s THE ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY BUNKO is a radical and fascinating attempt at career advice. Eschewing WHO MOVED MY CHEESE pablum, Pink couches his guide in a manga comic book that tells the story of Johnny Bunko: a blander than bland salaryman stuck in a dead-end job at Boggs Corporation. Through a series of implausible (but very manga-rific) events, Bunko comes into possession of magic chopsticks that summon a magic sprite who leads him through the six most important career laws. These laws range from 1) There is no plan to 6) Leave an Imprint and Diana, the manga sprite, illustrates each one by whisking Bunko and his friends away to various places so he can experience her wisdom firsthand......

Stardust- Gaiman

Stardust (Paperback)
  by Neil Gaiman (Author)

        Book Description
What happens when you make a promise to bring back a fallen star? Teenager Tristran Thorn is about to find out, as he ventures beyond the wall of his English countryside town. After falling in love with the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester, he sets out on a quest to fulfill his promise to his beloved—and stumbles into the magical realm that lies beyond.

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins Canada; Reissue edition (Jun 14 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061240486

Fairy tales tend to lose their sparkle when they're made into books for adults.
But Neil Gaiman creates his own sparkling fairy tale in "Stardust," an entrancing fantasy tale that never loses its magic. With beautiful prose, likable characters, and a mesh of the grotesque and the ethereal, this is Gaiman's reworking of fairy tales -- with a slight wink to the readers.
Years ago, Dunstan Thorn fell in love with a beautiful slave from across the Wall. Nine months later, he got a baby boy on his doorstep. His son Tristan grows up unaware of his heritage, and longs for the beautiful, frosty Victoria Forester. When she rejects him, he makes a rash promise -- he'll pursue a fallen star over the Wall and bring it back to her, if she gives him her hand.
But when he finds the star, he learns that it is a beautiful young girl, a daughter of the moon named Yvaine. The dying Lord of Stormheld threw a gem to the distance and accidently knocked her from the sky. Now his sons are trying to get the gem back, since the one who gets the gem will be the next Lord. What is more, an ancient witch is pursuing the star, determined to cut out her heart so she and her sisters can be young again. To protect the lovely star, Tristan is called on to be a hero, and to learn who he really is...
Few fantasy stories are as well-done as "Stardust." Gaiman mixes humor, romance, grisly realism and airy-fairiness in a tight little plot. It only really picks up two-thirds of the way into the book, but what a trip it is. It slides rather than explodes to a conclusion, where everything slips into place and all the loose ends are neatly tied together, in a way that makes perfect sense. (Amazon customer)

Another bestseller from Neil Gaiman.
more

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His Dark Materials Omnibus-Pullman

His Dark Materials Omnibus (Paperback)
  by Philip Pullman (Author)
Book Description
FOR THE FIRST time, all three books of Philip Pullman's award-winning His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) will be published in their entirety in one volume. Perfect for both new and established Pullman fans who want to read (or reread) the whole trilogy before The Golden Compass movie debuts on December 7, 2007, this handsome 6 x 9 omnibus will feature every word of the trilogy as well as Philip Pullman's chapter opening art. Also, new and exclusive to this edition: Philip Pullman has written two pages of new vignettes for each book in the trilogy. Readers will be delighted to discover these intriguing new passages at the end of each book's section in the omnibus.

About the Author
Philip Pullman won the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in honor of the body of his work. He lives in Oxford, England.      

• Paperback: 944 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (April 10 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375847227
  
      Might also like Paolini- eragon series