Giveaways

Sciency Fiction — and a Giveaway

By on October 22, 2012   /   Book Lists, Giveaways  

What’s that, Mr. Spell-Checker? You say I’ve misspelled science?

I’m afraid you’re mistaken, Mr. Spell-Checker. My letter choice was entirely intentional.

I’m on a crusade. A sciency fiction crusade.

Sciency fiction is not science fiction. Sciency fiction is not at all speculative. It is not set in the future. Sciency fiction depicts actual current (or current for the time if historical) science. Although the characters and situations can be fictional, the science is not.

I made up the term, I admit, and Google is on my spell-checker’s team, misdirecting my searches every time. I have an ally across the pond in Tom Webb, who independently proposed the term for grown-up books.

Who reads sciency fiction? Kurtis Scaletta does. Back in August of 2011, he wrote a post on this blog about science fiction.

“To me, science fiction is fiction infused with science. … I quite like fiction that conveys some understanding about the workings of the universe.”

Kurtis is a fiction lover to whom science is an added bonus. He gains an appreciation of science through novels.

Then there are those who start out loving science. You know the kids—obsessed with dinosaurs, or rocks, or rockets. They love nonfiction. They eat up books like Guinness World Records or Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Novels are not their thing, and they only read them when assigned in school–and then grudgingly.

One day, one of these kids—my son, actually–got a look at The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages. It’s a novel set at Los Alamos during the development of the atomic bomb. The book is populated by scientists. Dewey, the young protagonist is smart and inquisitive, with a definite sciency sensibility. My son gobbled up this book and its sequel, White Sands, Red Menace, in five days. But he told me it got boring near the end. Why? Because the science aspect was downplayed and the focus was on Dewey’s emotional journey.



That observation was a revelation for me. While the emotional journey of the protagonist was compelling, it wasn’t enough for him. He needed more than emotion to hold his interest.  I stocked our bookshelves with more sciency novels, and then steampunk and science fiction and fantasy. Now he asks me to get novels for him from the library.

My son is a science lover who learned to appreciate narrative fiction through sciency fiction.

Good sciency fiction combines a compelling story with interesting science, and it can serve is a bridge between science and fiction. Got a student who only reads nonfiction about science? Got a student who doesn’t care for science class, but loves a good story?

Give them both some sciency fiction.

Where to start? Here’s a list.

Kurtis included some great titles in his post, including

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker by Cynthia DeFelice

Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass

He also included some more speculative titles in his list and mentions Isaac Asimov several times.

“The paragon for me will always be Isaac Asimov, a knowledgeable science-minded author. Asimov made his work true to science the way a historical novelist would be true to history… Science was my worst subject in school, but authors like Asimov made science lucid and compelling while telling a good story.”

Some people like their science real, so I’m limiting my list to those titles where the science is not speculative at all.

101 Ways to Bug Your Teacher by Lee Wardlaw

Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It by Sundee T. Frazier

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

Nerd Camp by Elissa Brent Weissman

Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo by Greg Leitich Smith

Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Erupts! By Frances O’Roark Dowell

Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head by Nancy Viau

Back in April, I wrote a post for this blog about sciency novels that address environmental sciences—Eco-fiction if you will. That list is here.

I like to call my debut novel, The Reinvention of Edison Thomas, sciency fiction. It just came out in paperback, and to celebrate, I’m giving away the remainder of my Advance Reader Copies in one big giveaway. If you would like your school or library to have a teaching set of up to 15 ARCs, leave the name of the library or school in the comments, along with the title of your favorite sciency novel (it can be one I’ve listed, or something else) and the number of copies you’ll need. Enter by 11:59 CDT Saturday October 27. Winner will be announced October 28.

 

Jacqueline Houtman spent 27 years in school so she could be a scientist. Now she’s a freelance science writer and middle-grade novelist–living proof that biology (or chemistry or physics) is not destiny. Find out more at www.jhoutman.com.

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Vote For the Great Library Giveaway of 2012

By on October 20, 2012   /   Giveaways  

Many of the books donated for our Great Library Giveaway of 2012.  Photo Copyright Laurie Schneider 2012. All rights reserved.

We’ve enjoyed reading the 196 nominations that came in for our Great Library Giveaway.  We wish we could supply each library with a stack of books, but since we can’t, we are grateful to our readers for helping us choose who should receive our middle-grade collection.

And today is the day you can help.  Today you can vote for which library you think needs these books the most.  But first, we’d like to introduce the finalists, chosen at random by our random generator, and share a little about each school with you.  Here they are in random order.

Nipomo Elementary School Library in Nipomo, California!

Photo property of Cathe Olson and Nipomo Elementary School. Used by permission.

Cathe Olson nominated this library.  Also the school librarian, she says of the school:

“Nipomo Elementary School is made up of almost 500 kindergarten through sixth grade students, many are low income or English learners, but all are bright, talented, and wonderful kids. Because of school budget cuts, we are not getting any funds to purchase library materials. Many of our books are old and falling apart.

“Our students love the library and love books. We need new books that will appeal to the kids and help them become lifelong readers. Reading is essential for students to be successful in school and in life. The library is where they can find that one book that will turn them on to books and help them to become lifelong readers. ”

Discovery Middle School Library in Granger, Indiana!

Photo property of Discovery Middle School. Used by permission.

This library was nominated by The Brain Lair, who is also the school’s librarian.  She says:

“Why should Discovery Middle School receive 100 middle grade books? Because we. LOVE. TO. READ! Every Friday morning we stop everything for Friday Reads. Each person; student or staff reads for 30 minutes and then spend time talking about and sharing our reads.  We also have Book Talk Tuesday – where in I entice the students with book talks on our morning news show. We also do One Book, One School – last year we read the Hunger Games then over 100 students participated in our Battle of the Book! We even had weekly trivia game shows!! We can’t get enough of reading! So, what do we need at our school? More BOOKS! Please help us get them so we can keep doing what we love!”

Gateway College Preparatory School Library in Georgetown, Texas!

Photo property of Gateway College Prep. Used by permission.

This library was nominated by a parent, Shelly.  We talked with the school’s librarian, Kara Angell, and she had this to say:

“Gateway College Preparatory is a K-12 charter school in central Texas. Although Gateway College Prep is in its fourth year of existence, the library has only been operational since February of this year. Our collection consists of donated resources, many of which were gently used and several years old when given to the school. Although these books are loved by our 820 students, they are beginning to fall apart from overuse.

“The children at Gateway are avid readers. The parents and teachers do a fantastic job of instilling a love of reading in these students. Our goal as a library program is to nurture that passion by expanding our current collection and providing them with as many opportunities as possible to make a connection to story or a character. Through this contest, our students will have the opportunity to get their hands on brand new books- something many of them have not done before while visiting the school library. One hundred books may not seem like a lot to some of the bigger, public school libraries but at Gateway it would mean the world. I can only imagine how excited the students would be to know that new books were coming, and all because people took their time to vote for the little charter school out in the cornfields. :-)”

 

***

 

Now it’s your turn to decide. You can find the poll at the top of our left sidebar.  If you have trouble voting, please send us an email at librarygiveaway at fromthemixedupfiles dot com and we’ll manually add your vote to the tally. Please feel free to leave comments as well, but these will not be counted in the official tally.  For the official list of rules, please view our Great Library Giveaway FAQ. Polls close at 11:59pm on October 30, 2012.

 

Good luck to all three finalists, and our voters as well!

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The Great Library Giveaway Nominations Due Today (and Spotlight #8)!

By on October 16, 2012   /   Book Lists, Giveaways  

The nomination period for our Great Library Giveaway ends tonight at 11:59pm Pacific.  If you haven’t nominated a library yet, please do so before the deadline.  For more information about our Great Library Giveaway and how to nominate a library, please click here and follow the instructions.  We will announce our three finalists and open our voting period on Saturday, October 20th.

During the last few weeks, we’ve been spotlighting the titles in our collection, and today is no exception.  Thanks to all the authors, publishers, readers, and our own Mixed-Up contributors who have donated books for this giveaway.  We are only six books short of our 100-book goal, so if you have a title you would like to donate, please do!  More information on our donation process can be found on our Great Library Donations page.

Here are ten more titles that have been donated for this giveaway.  All descriptions are by Indiebound unless otherwise noted:

Deadwood by Kell Andrews

Description from Goodreads: There’s something evil in Deadwood Park.

Twelve-year-old Army brat Martin Cruz hates his rotten new town. Then he gets a message from a tree telling him it’s cursed — and so is he. It’s not just any tree. It’s the Spirit Tree, the ancient beech the high school football team carves to commemorate the home opener. And every year they lose.

But the curse is no game, and it gets worse. Businesses fail. Trees topple like dominos. Sinkholes open up in the streets, swallowing cars and buildings. Even people begin to fade, drained of life.

Martin teams up with know-it-all soccer star Hannah Vaughan. Together they must heal the tree, or be stuck in Deadwood Park at the mercy of the psycho who cursed it.

Double Vision by F.T. Bradley

Description from www.doublevisionbooks.com: One’s a secret agent, one’s not.

Twelve year-old Linc is a troublemaker with a dilemma. His antics on a recent field trip went way overboard, landing his already poor family with a serious lawsuit. So when two secret agents show up at his house, Linc is eager to take them up on their offer to make the lawsuit disappear. They just need one tiny favor…

Turns out Linc looks just like one of their top kid agents–an agent who’s gone missing during a vitally important mission. But no briefing can prepare Linc for how dangerous the mission really is. It’s too bad he isn’t a black belt, a math genius, or a distance runner like his agent double. He’ll need all those skills and more if he hopes to make it out of this mission alive…

The Farwalker’s Quest by Joni Sensel

Description: Ariel has always been curious, but when she and her best friend Zeke stumble upon a mysterious old telling dart she feels an unexplained pull toward the dart, and to figuring out what it means. Magically flying great distances and only revealing their messages to the intended recipient, telling darts haven’t been used for years, and no one knows how they work. So when two strangers show up looking for the dart, Ariel and Zeke realize that their discovery is not only interesting, but very dangerous. The telling dart, and the strangers, leads them to a journey more perilous and encompassing than either can imagine, and in the process both Zeke and Ariel find their true calling.

The Jaguar Stones, Book One Middleworld by J+P Voelkel

Description: Fourteen-year-old Max Murphy is looking forward to a family vacation. But his parents, both archaeologists and Maya experts, announce a change in plan. They must leave immediately for a dig in the tiny Central American country of San Xavier. Max will go to summer camp. Max is furious. When he’s mysteriously summoned to San Xavier, he thinks they’ve had a change of heart.

Upon his arrival, Max’s wild adventure in the tropical rainforests of San Xavier begins. During his journey, he will unlock ancient secrets and meet strangers who are connected to him in ways he could never have imagined. For fate has delivered a challenge of epic proportions to this pampered teenager. Can Max rescue his parents from the Maya Underworld and save the world from the Lords of Death, who now control the power of the Jaguar Stones in their villainous hands? The scene is set for a roller-coaster ride of suspense and terror, as the good guys and the bad guys face off against a background of haunted temples, zombie armies, and even human sacrifice!

Jungle Crossing by Sydney Salter

Description:  On a summer vaction to Mexico, popularity-obsessed Kat ends up on a teen adventure tour where she meets Nando, a young Mayan guide (who happens to be quite a cutie). As they travel to different Mayan ruins each day, Nando tells Kat his original legend of Muluc, a girl who lived in the time of the ancient Maya. The dangerous, dramatic world in which Muluc lived is as full of rivalry, betrayal, and sacrifice as Kat’s world at middle school. And as she makes new friends and discovers treasures in Mexico, Kat begins to question her values and those of her friends back at home.

The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz

Description: What would happen to a fairy if she lost her wings and could no longer fly? Flory, a young night fairy no taller than an acorn and still becoming accustomed to her wings — wings as beautiful as those of a luna moth — is about to find out. What she discovers is that the world is very big and very dangerous. But Flory is fierce and willing to do whatever it takes to survive. If that means telling others what to do — like Skuggle, a squirrel ruled by his stomach — so be it. Not every creature, however, is as willing
to bend to Flory’s demands. Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz and world-renowned illustrator and miniaturist Angela Barrett venture into the realm of the illustrated classic — a classic entirely and exquisitely of their making, and a magnificent adventure.

The Other Felix by Keir Graff

Description: Felix has nightmares. Every night when he falls asleep he goes to the land of monsters, and when he wakes up he’s back in his bed with mud on his feet and torn pajamas. One night Felix meets a boy who knows how to fight the monsters, a boy who looks just like him and is also named Felix.

The Other Felix is a fantastical, psychological story of growing up for kids who have graduated from Where the Wild Things Are but are still fascinated by the world of dreams.

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

Description: In this funny, uncannily wise portrait of the dynamics of a sixth-grade class and of the greatness that sometimes comes in unlikely packages, Dwight, a loser, talks to his classmates via an origami finger puppet of Yoda. If that weren’t strange enough, the puppet is uncannily wise and prescient. Origami Yoda predicts the date of a pop quiz, guesses who stole the classroom Shakespeare bust, and saves a classmate from popularity-crushing embarrassment with some well-timed advice. Dwight’s classmate Tommy wonders how Yoda can be so smart when Dwight himself is so clueless. With contributions from his puzzled classmates, he assembles the case file that forms this novel.

The Winter Pony by Iain Lawrence

Description: In the forests of Siberia, in the first years of the 20th century, a white pony runs free with his herd. But his life changes forever when he’s captured by men. Years of hard work and cruelty wear him out. When he’s chosen to be one of 20 ponies to accompany the Englishman Robert Falcon Scott on his quest to become the first to reach the South Pole, he doesn’t know what to expect. But the men of Scott’s expedition show him kindness, something he’s never known before. They also give him a name—James Pigg. As Scott’s team hunkers down in Antarctica, James Pigg finds himself caught up in one of the greatest races of all time. The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen has suddenly announced that he too means to be first to the Pole. But only one team can triumph, and not everyone can survive—not even the animals.

With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo

Description: When Ollie’s daddy, the Reverend Everlasting Love, pulls their travel trailer into Binder to lead a three-day revival, Ollie knows that this town will be like all the others they visit— it is exactly the kind of nothing Ollie has come to expect. But on their first day in town, Ollie meets Jimmy Koppel, whose mother is in jail for murdering his father. Jimmy insists that his mother is innocent, and Ollie believes him. Still, even if Ollie convinces her daddy to stay in town, how can two kids free a grown woman who has signed a confession?  Ollie’s longing for a friend and her daddy’s penchant for searching out lost souls prove to be a formidable force in this tiny town where everyone seems bent on judging and jailing without a trial.

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