The Storm Makers

First off, I want to congratulate Jennifer E. Smith, for her wonderful book, The Storm Makers.
Here's what it's about: Simon and Ruby McDuff are twins of which used to always do things together. But since their family moved to a dusty, dry, absolutely hot farm, Ruby notices that she and Simon haven't been as close. But that's not it. Ruby has seen someone in their barn... that wasn't invited. But later, on a dusty road, all by herself, she meets him again.
         "Nice weather we're having," he says. But before Ruby can disagree, he twirls his hat in the air, looks up at the sky, and it begins to rain, right in the middle of that blazing hot Wisconsin drought. This strange man says he's here to help her brother, and that Simon needs her. Who is this strange man, and how does he know Simon's name? When Ruby gets home, Simon has a bad fever... and there's a lightning storm, full of rain. Simon ends up at the hospital, and when Ruby comes to see him, she meets the strange man again. He says his name is Otis Gray, and that Simon is a Storm Maker. Ruby refuses to believe him... but what if he's right?
This wonderfully imagined book is full of fun, and I absolutely loved it.

Second, I'm sorry to say that I will not be finishing Slathbog's Gold; I was in the middle of the book and nothing at all was happening. Maybe when I'm older.

But guess what? I have lots of books that I want to try, all of which I have written down, so that I will not forget them. I'm willing to try them.

Oh, but one more thing. I have just finished Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret, the second book in the series (I'm just going to call this series the Leven Thumps series. That's my nickname for it), and Choke, the second book in the trilogy called Pillagy, and I loved both.

You know, I think I might have to add a couple school or nonfiction books in here. I really hope that's the case, mostly because I only read fictional things; fantasy, pretend, fantasy, pretend, fantasy, pretend, and so on (except, of course, my school books. All of those are nonfiction... except for two or three [but hey, they're historic fiction, those two or three books. Like... Old Yeller, or By the Great Horn Spoon]). So, hopefully this blog won't be full of fantasy, pretend, fantasy, pretend, fantasy, pretend....

- Maria