Death by Chocolate

Being a YA Librarian can definitely have its perks, and this summer I have had no shortage of incredible moments and programs. RPL had a tasty summer following the Reading is So Delicious theme. Even though, our program was over on August 4th, I just couldn't resist doing one more delectable event.

Welcome to the Death by Chocolate Party!

I wanted to have multiple kinds and ended up deciding on a white, a milk, two darks and then two flavored chocolates. I bought one large bar of each. To prepare them for the party I cut them each in half and then used those squares. One square was left whole and the rest were cut into tasting sized pieces.

Each attendee was able to use the square to smell the chocolate before they tasted a separate piece. We started the tasting with the 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate (Valor Chocolates), then moved down to the 51% Cocoa Dark Chocolate (Perugina). Now it was time for the milk chocolate and after looking around the store I learned that most milk chocolates are 31% Cocoa. For variety, I chose the Godiva bar. Then it was the White Chocolate (also Perugina), which contains vanilla flavor and cocoa butter.

Then it was time for the two flavored chocolates. There were so many different flavors in the store to chose from, but everyone loved the two that I did pick. Because it was creamier, and more like the milk chocolate, the next one sampled was the Ghirardelli Intense Dark Cabernet Matinee. Everyone tasted the fruit, but only one boy guessed correctly that it was blackberry. As in the name, it also contains the flavor of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. The last one (and my personal favorite) was a 50% Dark Chocolate with Pear and Almonds (Heidi Grand'Or).

It was a great program, and everyone was able to taste the differences between the bars and note the texture as the level of cocoa decreased. We all learned something today. Of the 10 attendees, I took an informal poll and the Cabernet Matinee was the favorite with a three way second place tie for the 70% dark, milk and white chocolate.

I am so thankful for having a store like For the Love of Chocolate close by! I could have spent hours in there picking out different kinds of chocolate to taste. It was hard enough to decide on the 6 bars that I did. Maybe next time I will be brave enough to get the Chili flavored one.

Here Lies Bridget

                                                
Here Lies Bridget by Paige Harbison

Publication Date: 1-18-2011

Young Adult, Ages 13+
ISBN-13: 978-1-373-21028-2 used for review.
Personal Ranking 3/3.5 out of 5

"What do you do when the five people you meet
in limbo all want you to go to hell?"

Bridget Duke has it all; a famous father, loyal followers and the rule of the school. Then the new girl threatens to destroy the balance of her power. The whole school seems caught in Anna’s spell, which seems to zap all of Bridget’s control. Now that everything seems to be going wrong for Bridget, and being expelled from school seems like an all too possible reality, in a desperate moment she ditches school and ends up crashing her car into a tree. But could this situation possible get any worse? If waking up dead wasn’t bad enough, Bridget wakes up to face the five people she has hurt that mean the most to her. But will her last chance at redemption be enough?

It has been a while since I’ve written a review of an already published book. But about halfway through reading here lies Bridget, I knew that I had to. As soon as I saw the title on the Richmond Public Schools High School summer reading list, I was curious. Then a few weeks later when I was creating the “What do I read?” chart, I knew that I would have to read it!

Bridget is the queen bee that every school has and everyone hates. Kinda like Regina George in Mean Girls, she is completely aware of her power and rules by fear of both the teachers and fellow students. As you get to know Bridget in the days leading up to her death, you realize that she has lost her true friends, her boyfriend and has caused untold amounts of trauma to those around her. While you don’t find yourself wishing she would die, you do want her to learn from her mistakes and make things right. In the end, I do believe that she got what she deserved. She learned a valuable lesson that many teenagers today would greatly benefit from. Your actions have consequences, even indirectly. All too often, this lesson is learned the hard way, just like how Bridget learned it in the end.

This is one of those books that you wish every bully and queen bee would read. I would love to use it as a teen book club selection. Over the past few years I have been lucky enough to participate in some really great book discussions at some of our neighborhood high schools. Based on all the themes in this book, I would love to hear what they would have to say about Bridget, her actions and the resulting punishment.  

The Infinity Ring

The Infinity Ring: a Mutiny in Time by James Dashner

Expected Publication Date: August 28, 2012

Childrens'/Tween, Ages 8-12

ARC copy used for review.

Personal Ranking 3 out of 5

"History is broken...."

Best friends Dak Smyth and Sera  Froste could each be considered a genius in their own right, even though they are still only in the 5th grade. Dak loves history, and cheese, but mostly history. His parents are research scientists, and Sera shares their love of science and quantum physics. So when Dak's parents go out of town and Sera figures out how to get their new invention to work, it causes consequences the likes of which they could never have imagined. Now with his parents missing, Dak and Sera have been recruited by a mysterious group called the Hystorians to go back in time and fix history. Before its too late.

Yes, I am a huge fan of The 39 Clues, and was actually reading Book 3 of the Cahills vs. Vespers when this ARC arrived on my desk. So I was very excited, but a little hesitant to jump on board a new series that was so similar. To give it a fair chance I put it aside, actually read some published books and tried to get Dan and Amy Cahill out of my head. Now here we are, and 24 hours after I started, its finished and I loved it!

The overall concept for this series is that Aristotle predicted that one day time travel was going to be possible, and that there were "breaks" in history. Or rather, things that happened, that were never supposed to. The Hystorians know that the world in which they have grown up in seems off, but its the only life they know. Yet they believe Aristotle and his plan to fix time when it becomes possible. When the book starts, Dak and Sera attend Benedict Arnold Middle School and are on a school field trip to the Smithsonian Museum in the nation's capital of Philadelphia.

America was discovered by the famous Amancio brothers, but the story often leaves out the tale of their heroic mutiny over the cruel Christopher Columbus.  So, when Dak's parents get lost in time and Dak and Sera are recruited by the Hystorians they are told that they will just be providing the transportation to teams that have been training for these opportunities for years. But when the SQ raids the facility, Dak and Sera escape with Riq, a sixteen year old language expert, and their only option is to begin fixing the breaks in time themselves. So when the first break tells them to go to Palos de la Frontera, Spain on August 3, 1492 they know that they have to do something with the voyage to America. But are they supposed to help the Amancio brothers or rescue Christopher Columbus? All they know is that they have to get on that boat!

One thing that is a common theme for me is my love of "altered" history. The ability authors have to take the reality that we know, tweek a few things, and show us one of the many "what if" realities is really fun and impressive to me. Even though they call it "broken history" in the Infinity Ring, seeing how they put it back together is what is going to keep me glued to this new series. Thankfully, they included the publication schedule in the back of the ARC, so here are the dates to keep a look out for. Book 1: 8/28/12, Book 2: 11/6/12, Book 3: 2/5/13, Book 4: 6/4/13, Book 5: 9/3/13, Book 6: 12/3/13, and Book 7: 3/4/14. So just like The 39 Clues, keep an eye on the Infinity Ring website. Right now its just an except of the first book, but once it goes live it will include the online component of the games. Thankfully, Scholastic seems to know what it is doing in using all avenues to keep children engaged in reading!