TEASER TUESDAY

The Teaser Tuesdays meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. It's easy and fun. Open your current read at a random page and share two sentences from somewhere between lines 7 and 12. There's one important rule - no spoilers!

I was secretly please when Letters to Leonardo fell open at one of Matt's letters to his long dead hero. It was so appropriate. Not just because of the title. But because of the story. Matt's letters are the heart of this gripping, emotional telling. Yes, I've read it now but that doesn't stop me teasing. Here goes - except it's just a little more than two sentences *grin*:

Dear Leonardo,
My life is layers of paint. Things keep getting peeled back and it's hard to know what's going to be revealed next.

Lies, lies and more lies?

Not sure where this journey's going to end but I have a bad feeling about what happens next.

Still, you and me, Leo, we have to know the truth - it's who we are.

Not sure Mrs D is going to get this letter either.

Matt

TEASER TUESDAY

The Teaser Tuesdays meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. It's easy and fun. Open your current read at a random page and share two sentences from somewhere between lines 7 and 12. There's one important rule - no spoilers!

I love beautiful language and a haunting story. A Certain Music by Celeste Walter is all this and so much more. I love it. Every single word of it. The illustrations by Anne Spudvilas add to the magic.

The days yawn, the nights stretch sleepless, one after the other... And a child counts the hours and the minutes and dreams of tomorrow.

And now the day before tomorrow had come.

In the kitchen in her silk dress with blue lace and blue ribbons, the child practised walking.

TEASER TUESDAY

The Teaser Tuesdays meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. It's easy and fun. Open your current read at a random page and share two sentences from somewhere between lines 7 and 12. There's one important rule - no spoilers!

I'm really excited about this book. The Secret Ministry of Frost by Nick Lake. How's this for a by-line? Snow lies. Frost Bites.

And just look at the cover. If only you could see how it sparkles with holgraphic pieces - like sun on ice.

Without further adieu:

She stopped screaming.

The darkness lifted, coalescing beside her bed into the ghostlyform of a girl, barely a teenager, standing in an attitude of proud defiance. The girl was made entirely of shadows - a shifting grey darkness, with eyes of the blackest night. "I hope you are not going to scream again," the girl said. "It would be a shame to have to kill you already."

TEASER TUESDAY

The Teaser Tuesdays meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. It's easy and fun. Open your current read at a random page and share two sentences from somewhere between lines 7 and 12. There's one important rule - no spoilers!

Introducing Pearl versus the World by Sally Murphy, illustrated by Heather Potter

She nudges me and hisses
That's for stealing my boyfriend.
Does Prudence have boyfriend?
And how could I steal him when I don't know who he is?
And would he let himself be stolen?

Now I am going to break the Teaser Tuesday rules. This was such an engrossing story I read it in one sitting. So I already know that to do it justice requires more than the above extract. While the book is a thoughtful glimpse into the life of Pearl - her problems with school, friends, the teacher and poetry - it is also much more than that. It is the heart stirring story of a young person coping with grief and loss. So if I just turn one page:

Where is the book
About a girl
Whose poems don't rhyme
And whose Granny is fading?
Pearl, says Mrs Rose
The bell has gone.

I go back to class
Empty-handed
Empty-headed
Empty-hearted.

Beautiful cover, beautiful words. A beautiful book.

TEASER TUESDAY

The Teaser Tuesdays meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. It's easy and fun. Open your current read at a random page and share two sentences from somewhere between lines 7 and 12. There's one important rule - no spoilers!

At every training session, hundreds of crawlers gazed up through the hair canopy in awe as their extended family members leapt into the nitosphere. Today was no different.

'One hundred,' called Keith. 'Good. Excellent. Take a drink. Keep your exoskeletons warm. Five minutes until launch. I repeat, five minutes until launch.'

The Jumpers jammed their thirsty muzzles into Lewis' skin and slurped vigorously.

Lift Off, the first book in the Nit Boy series is loads of fun. Educational even. And guaranteed to reassure any kid with nits that there is nothing to be embarrassed about. That last fact alone is enough to justify recommending this book.

Nit Boy author Tristan Bancks will be this weekend's Oz Lit Profile. Drop back in to see what he has to say.

* TEASER TUESDAY

The Teaser Tuesdays meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. It's easy and fun. Open your current read at a random page and share two sentences from somewhere between lines 7 and 12. There's one important rule - no spoilers!

I slumped on my throne. So many lives depended on ME. If I failed, I'd be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of kids. Some not even born yet (or more accurately, emptied out of their jars yet). No matter how bad the problem, a little guilt always makes things worse.

Erasmus James, King of Kids Paradise is the second book in D C Green's Erasmus James series. It's zany, funny and very off-the-wall. It should have a warning sticker on the front! And I'm going to break the Teaser Tuesday rules with one more line to give the above extract some balance:

The rat screamed, 'Gyaaaaah'.

If you're interested or intrigued, the first book, Erasmus James and the Galactic Zapp Machine is now available as a free downlaod from http://www.barrelbooks.com/index.html

TEASER TUESDAY

The Teaser Tuesdays is meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. It's easy and fun. Open your current read at a random page and share two sentences from somewhere between lines 7 and 12. There's one important rule - no spoilers!

No window.
Only grey walls and the smell of burning, dust and sweat...
...They drag him out - they throw him back.
Now he's staring at the air conditioner again.
Breathing in the smell of his own flesh.

Guantanamo Boy is the story of 15-year-old Khalid who goes with his parents to visit family in Pakistan and wakes into a nightmare. Guantanamo Bay.

TEASER TUESDAY

This Teaser is from Mo Johnson's Something More which is Book of the Day here at Stories Are Light:

They were Sam's. They took my breath away. They were beautiful, haunting portrait shots, all of the same subject, all in black-and-white, and all taken from a variety of angles without the person's knowledge.

Of this last fact I ould be absolutely certain, becuase they were all of me.

TEASER TUESDAY

The Teaser Tuesdays is meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. It's easy and fun. Open your current read at a random page and share two sentences from somewhere between lines 7 and 12. There's one important rule - no spoilers!

Clack! It was too late. The lid was on the container again.
Dark eyes looked down at me.
Freaky had returned.

Sting by Raymon Huber is the story of an Oddbee, Ziggy, who doesn't fit in at the hive. I am half way through reading this book. It is a clever blend of adventure, animal fantasy and snippets of information about bees abnd wasps. All uniquely told from Ziggy's point of view. Suited for readers 8 to 12 years.

TEASER TUESDAY

I almost forgot Teaser Tuesday. First I had to find my book. I take my current read with me everywhere. I searched the office, the kitchen, the car - even started to think I must have left it on the school steps this afternoon. I found it eventually - in my bag - you would think I would look there first!

So introducing When the HipChicks Went to War by Pamela Rushby... drum roll...

Even when the helicopters stopped coming, the urgency and action continued. Hospital staff ran to and fro, carrying equipment, boxes, pushing empty stretchers. And the noise! Shouts from staff, commands, questions. Worst of all, groans. Screams. Wails. Howls.

We left. We were in the way.