And the Answer Is...

This week's Question of the Week was...

In which book are characters tasked with bringing water from the Butterfly Pool without a bucket?

And the Answer Is...

The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare


Here are the schools who correctly answered this week's question

Hixson Middle

Cross Keys

Hazelwood Northwest

Hazelwood West

Hazel wood North

Parkway West

Laud Middle

The Fulton School 

Brittany Woods

Hillsboro Jr. High

St Gabriel the Archangel

Rocked South

Congratulations to all the school who participated in this week's question.  Check back on Monday for the next Question of the Week!

Feature Book of the Week: Jackaby by William Ritter

Feature Book of the Week

Jackaby

by 

William Ritter

Newly arrived in New Fiddleham, New England, 1892, and in need of a job, Abigail Rook meets R. F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with a keen eye for the extraordinary--including the ability to see supernatural beings. Abigail has a gift for noticing ordinary but important details, which makes her perfect for the position of Jackaby’s assistant. On her first day, Abigail finds herself in the midst of a thrilling case: A serial killer is on the loose. The police are convinced it’s an ordinary villain, but Jackaby is certain the foul deeds are the work of the kind of creature whose very existence the local authorities--with the exception of a handsome young detective named Charlie Cane--seem adamant to deny.

About the Author

William Ritter began writing Jackaby in the middle of the Night when his son was still an infant. After getting up to care for him, Will would lie awake, his mind creating rich worlds and fantasies such as the one in New Fiddleham. Will lives and teaches in Springfield, Oregon. Jacob was his first novel. (author bio retrieved from Algonquion Young Readers Press)

began writing Jackaby in the middle of the night when his son was still an infant. After getting up to care for him, Will would lie awake, his mind creating rich worlds and fantasies—such as the one in New Fiddleham. Will lives and teaches in Springfield, Oregon. Jackaby is his first novel. - See more at: http://algonquinyoungreaders.com/book/jackaby/#sthash.Ano6phrC.dpuf

William Ritter began writing Jackaby in the middle of the night when his son was still an infant. After getting up to care for him, Will would lie awake, his mind creating rich worlds and fantasies—such as the one in New Fiddleham. Will lives and teaches in Springfield, Oregon. Jackaby is his first novel. - See more at: http://algonquinyoungreaders.com/book/jackaby/#sthash.Ano6phrC.dpuf

William Ritter began writing Jackaby in the middle of the night when his son was still an infant. After getting up to care for him, Will would lie awake, his mind creating rich worlds and fantasies—such as the one in New Fiddleham. Will lives and teaches in Springfield, Oregon. Jackaby is his first novel. - See more at: http://algonquinyoungreaders.com/book/jackaby/#sthash.Ano6phrC.dpuf

William Ritter began writing Jackaby in the middle of the night when his son was still an infant. After getting up to care for him, Will would lie awake, his mind creating rich worlds and fantasies—such as the one in New Fiddleham. Will lives and teaches in Springfield, Oregon. Jackaby is his first novel. - See more at: http://algonquinyoungreaders.com/book/jackaby/#sthash.Ano6phrC.dpuf

Question of the Week #1

Welcome to the Question of the Week.  Every Monday I will post a question from one of the books on this year's Book Battle List.  In the comment section post one answer per team  Remember to include in your answer

• The title of the book as it appears on the list
• The author of the book
• Your school's name

All answers must be submit by Thursday midnight. The correct answer will be posted on Friday along with the names of the schools who correctly answered the question.  

Here is this week's Question of the Week.


In which book are characters tasked with bringing water from the Butterfly Pool without a bucket?

Feature Book of the Week: The Darkest Path by Jeff Hirsch

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

The Darkest Path

by

Jeff Hirsch

A civil war rages between the Glorious Path--a militant religion based on the teachings of a former US soldier--and what's left of the US government. Fifteen-year-old Callum Roe and his younger brother, James, were captured and forced to convert six years ago. Cal has been working in the Path's dog kennels, and is very close to becoming one of the Path's deadliest secret agents. Then Cal befriends a stray dog named Bear and kills a commander who wants to train him to be a vicious attack dog. This sends Cal and Bear on the run, and sets in motion a series of incredible events that will test Cal's loyalties and end in a fierce battle that the fate of the entire country rests on.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Here are a few potentially interesting things about me: 

• I'm originally from the suburbs just south of Richmond, VA. I currently live in a small town in New York. I've also lived in Greenville, NC, New York City and San Diego, CA.
• I started writing because of a 7th grade homework assignment. My teacher Denise Stewart  (A towering woman with incredible diction and a mass of curls who, in my memory, looks exactly like Lynn Redgrave)  told me my story was good and that I should consider continuing to write. I've been taking her advice for roughly the last 27 years.
• Towards the end of Junior High I attended the University of VA's Young Writers Workshop, which is basically writers' camp. It was exactly as nerdy and as utterly fantastic as you might imagine. If you're a teen into writing, definitely check it out.
• During High School, when not writing, I was pretty wrapped up in the process of becoming a big ol' theater nerd. I wrote stuff and directed plays and performed in shows like Indians, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Taming of the Shrew, The Man of La Mancha and various others.
• After HS I went to study acting at East Carolina University then moved to New York right after that to ply my new trade. A few years later writing reared it's head again and I left NY and headed out to UC San Diego where I got an MFA in playwriting.
• A year or so after grad school I started reading books from writers like M.T. Anderson, KL Going, and David Almond and was blown away by the quality of writing that was going on for teen audiences. I was hooked.
• The first book I wrote was an adaptation of my play The Real Names of Rock Stars. It was about a teenage girl who runs away from home to become a rockstar with the guidance of a 6-foot-tall drag queen named Veronica Tresbien. It was, um, a learning experience. Basically what it taught me is that I really, really loved writing books for teens but shouldn't necessarily be writing books about teenage girls who become rockstars while under the tutelage of statuesque drag performers. Luckily that's a lesson you only need to learn once. I stuck that book in the drawer (where it shall remain until the end of time) and six months later I had the first draft of what eventually became The Eleventh Plague.

Bonus Random Facts:

• I know how to escape from a straitjacket while suspended from the ceiling by my ankles. I can also eat fire, walk on broken glass and hammer a nail all the way up into my nose.
• My favorite movie is either The Outsiders or Harold and Maude. I can never decide which. Oh, or maybe it's My Dinner with Andre. Have you seen My Dinner with Andre? You totally should. Team Wally!
• I can't honestly point to one favorite book (I've just read way too many) but the most formative book for me, the book that made me a reader and eventually a writer, was The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.
• I'm torn as to whether the coolest living human is A) Tom Waits or B) Prince.
• I bake to relax. My triple chocolate espresso cookies will renew your faith that there is something good and holy in this barbaric world.
• I've known three of my current best friends since I was 15.
• Apparently I like writing about our animals. Hopkins the cat in Magisterium is based on our cat Henry. Bear the dog in The Darkest Path is based on our dog Rosie. I also just finished the first draft of a book called In the Fall which includes our cat Pip. (Obtained from Jeff's Website)

Comment Contest and Question of the Week News

Attention All Book Battles Teams

The Feature Book of the Week 

is moving to Tuesday

and

The Comment Contest 

which was suppose to end December 22 is going to be extended until March 22

So keep those comments coming!

ALSO

Starting January 25 

the Area Wide Book Battle 

will begin 

The Question of the Week Contest

All schools are invited to participate, and the school who answers the most questions correctly will receive a prize that will be announced at the Book Battle.

Here's How It Works!

Each Monday a new question pertaining to one of the books on the 2015/2016 Book Battle List will be posted. Schools wanting to participate will leave a comment with their answer. On Friday, the correct answer to Monday's question will be posted along with the names of each school who correctly answered that week's question. The school with the most correct answers will win.

When leaving a comment please make sure you...

• Identify your school's complete name
• Identify both the title of the book and the author's name
• Only one answer per team per week please.

The Winning Team will be announced at the 2016 Book Battle
Good Luck! 

Feature Book of the Week The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

by

Varian Johnson

Jackson Greene swears he's given up scheming. Then school bully Keith Sinclair announces he's running for Student Council president, against Jackson's former friend Gaby de la Cruz. Gaby wants Jackson to stay out of it -- but he knows Keith has "connections" to the principal, which could win him the presidency no matter the vote count.

So Jackson assembles a crack team: Hashemi Larijani, tech genius. Victor Cho, bankroll. Megan Feldman, science goddess. Charlie de la Cruz, reporter. Together they devise a plan that will take down Keith, win Gaby's respect, and make sure the election is done right. If they can pull it off, it will be remembered as the school's greatest con ever -- one worthy of the name THE GREAT GREENE HEIST.

About the Author

Varian Johnson is the author of four novels, including The Great Greene Heist, a Publishers Weekly Best Summer Book of 2014. His novels for older readers include My Life as a Rhombus, named to the Texas Library Association Tayshas High School Reading List and the New York Public Library “Stuff for the Teen Age” list, and Saving Maddie, a Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book.

Varian was born in Florence, South Carolina, and attended the University of Oklahoma, where he received a BS in Civil Engineering. He later received an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Varian now lives outside of Austin, TX with his family. (Check out Varian Johnson's other book at his website).

Feature Book of the Week The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

THE CROSSOVER

by

Kwame Alexander

"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I’m delivering," announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell. He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his family's story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood from Kwame Alexander (He Said, She Said 2013).

   Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.

About the Author

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times Bestselling author of 21 books, including THE CROSSOVER, which received: the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, The NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the Passaic Poetry Prize. His other works include the award-winning children’s picture book "Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band," recently optioned as a children’s television show, and the Junior Library Selection, "He Said She Said," a YA novel. Alexander believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his Book-in-a-Day literacy program which has created more than 3,000 student authors at 69 schools across the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. A regular speaker and workshop presenter at conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love (Brazil, Italy, France, and Turkey). Recently, Alexander led a delegation of 20 writers and activists to Ghana, where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional development to 300 teachers, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an International literacy program he co-founded. In 2015, Kwame served as Bank Street College of Education’s first writer-in-residence. The Kwame Alexander Papers, a collection of his writings, correspondence, and other professional and personal documents is held at the George Washington University Gelman Library.  Visit him at KwameAlexander.com.

Featured Book of the Week: Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Featured Book of the Week
Iron Trial

by 

 Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.

Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.

All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him.

So he tries his best to do his worst -- and fails at failing.

Now the Magisterium awaits him. It's a place that's both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.

The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come . . .

From the remarkable imaginations of bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare comes a heart-stopping, mind-blowing, pulse-pounding plunge into the magical unknown.

About the Authors

Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of her titles include The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), The Modern Faerie Tale series, the Curse Workers series, Doll Bones, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, the Magisterium series (with Cassandra Clare) and The Darkest Part of the Forest. She has been a a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Award and a Newbery Honor. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret door. 

To find out more about Holly Black check out her web site.

Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old.

Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called “The Beautiful Cassandra” based on a Jane Austen short story of the same name (and  which later inspired her current pen name).
After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina’s world travels and Britney Spears’ wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again.


Cassie’s first professional writing sale was a short story called “The Girl’s Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord” in a Baen anthology of humor fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her two cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.

To find out more about Cassandra Clare and her books check out her web site.

Surrounded by Sharks by Michael Northrop

SURROUNDED BY SHARKS

by

Michael Northrop

When Davey wakes, just as the sun is rising, he can't wait to slip out of the crammed hotel room he's sharing with his family. Leave it to his parents and kid brother to waste an entire day of vacation sleeping in! Davey heads straight for the beach, book and glasses in hand, not bothering to leave a note. As the sparkling ocean entices him, he decides to test the water, never mind that "No Swimming" sign. But as the waves pull him farther from shore, Davey finds himself surrounded by water -- and something else, too. Something circling below the surface, watching, waiting. It's just a matter of time.

Author Post

From Start to Fin: How I Wrote Surrounded By Sharks

By Michael Northrop 

I’ve always been fascinated by sharks—fascinated and, OK, more than a little scared. But I faced a few big obstacles when I set out to write a gripping survival story about sharks. The first obstacle: Shark attacks are seriously rare. In fact, you are more likely to get killed by a vending machine falling on you than by a shark attack. But vending machines are nowhere near as cool or scary as sharks. There’s a reason my book isn’t called Squashed By Snickers!

The second obstacle: I was determined to write about realistic sharks, not malicious movie monsters. In real life, sharks are cautious hunters. They rarely encounter people, so when they do, they are usually more curious than aggressive. They aren’t sure what we are, much less if we’re on the menu.

But in order for the book to work, the danger from the sharks had to seem both very likely and very serious. I accomplished that by putting the main character, Davey Tsering, right in the middle of the sharks' world. A powerful riptide pulls him far out into the ocean—and pulled me past both obstacles.

Out there in the open ocean, so far from land (and vending machines), a shark attack isn’t unrealistic at all. In fact, it’s just a matter of time… 

About the Author

My name is Michael Northrop, and I am a writer living in New York City. I am the author of Scholastic’s new multi-platform series, TombQuest. Book 1: Book of the Dead was published on January 27, 2015, and spent three weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. I am also the author of four young adult novels: Gentlemen (2009), which earned a Publishers Weekly Flying Start citation; Trapped (2011), an Indie Next List selection; Rotten (2013), one of the Bank Street College of Education’s Best Books of the Year; and Surrounded By Sharks (2014), one of E! Online’s Best Summer Reads. My first middle grade novel, Plunked, was named one of the best children’s books of the year by both the New York Public Library and Bank Street and was selected by NPR for its Backseat Book Club.

I am originally from Salisbury, Connecticut, a small town in the foothills of the Berkshire mountains. It was a great place to grow up (to the extent that I did), falling out of trees, shooting BB guns at soda cans (and my brother), and kicking field goals for my high school football team.

Since moving to New York to attend NYU, I have worked at The World Almanac and Sports Illustrated Kids, where I was a senior editor from 2000 to 2008. I have moonlighted as a standup comedian, earned a black belt, and taken up running. I’ve been to the Olympics, the Super Bowl, and spring training. And my writing has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated Kids, People Online, The New York Times Upfront, Notre Dame Review, McSweeney’s, Weird Tales, and many other places.

Three random facts about me:
1) I am dyslexic and had to repeat second grade.
2) I once stepped on a yellowjacket nest and was stung approx. 75 times.
3) According to family lore, I am distantly related to Jonathan Swift, who wrote Gulliver’s Travels.

Three of my favorite things:
1) Watership Down (book)
2) Jaws (movie)
3) Spicy tuna hand rolls (food)

If you would like more information about Michael Northrop check out his website

Featured Book of the Week: Tesla's Attic by Neal Schusterman & Eric Elfman

Tesla's Attic 

by 

Neal Schusterman & Eric Elfman

After their home burns down, fourteen-year-old Nick, his younger brother, and their father move into a ramshackle Victorian house they've inherited. When Nick opens the door to his attic room, he's hit in the head by a toaster. That's just the beginning of his weird experiences with the old junk stored up there. After getting rid of the odd antiques in a garage sale, Nick befriends some local kids-Mitch, Caitlin, and Vincent-and they discover that all of the objects have extraordinary properties. What's more, Nick figures out that the attic is a strange magnetic vortex, which attracts all sorts of trouble. It's as if the attic itself has an intelligence . . . and a purpose.

Ultimately Nick learns that the genius Nikola Tesla placed the items-his last inventions-in the attic as part of a larger plan that he mathematically predicted. Nick and his new friends must retrieve everything that was sold at the garage sale and keep it safe. But the task is fraught with peril-in addition to the dangers inherent in Tesla's mysterious and powerful creations, a secret society of physicists, the Accelerati, is determined to stop Nick and alter destiny to achieve its own devious ends. It's a lot for a guy to handle, especially when he'd much rather fly under the radar as the new kid in town.

About the Authors'

Neal Shusterman is the author of many novels for young adults, including Unwind, which was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers, Everlost, and Downsiders, which was nominated for twelve state reading awards. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows such as Animorphs and Goosebumps. The father of four children, Neal lives in southern California.

Eric Elfman is an American writer interested in Science Fiction, Fantasy, UFOs and paranormal events. He is the author of 12 books for middle-grade and young adult readers, including the first book of the Accelerati Trilogy, Tesla’s Attic (Disney-Hyperion Books, 2014, Publisher’s Weekly review here), which he co-wrote with Neal Shusterman. Among Elfman's other books are Almanac of Alien Encounters (Random House, 2001), Almanac of the Gross, Disgusting, and Totally Repulsive (Random House, 1994, an ALA Recommended Book for Reluctant Readers), and Very Scary Almanac (Random House, 1993). He is also author of several The X-Files novelizations.

Edison's Alley, which Elfman also co-wrote with Shusterman (the sequel to Tesla's Attic, and the second book in the Accelerati Trilogy), will be released by Disney-Hyperion Books in February 2015.