Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt

Sorry about how long it has been since I last posted, but my computor has been acting up.

Amazon Description
Readers still lamenting the conclusion of Meg Cabot's "Princess Diaries" (HarperCollins) will eagerly embrace this first volume in the adventures of Desi Bascomb. The 15-year-old is stuck in Sproutsville, ID, where she is tormented by her ex-best friend, Celeste, and is working a miserable job at Pets Charming, where she is forced to dress up as a groundhog. Then she spies an ad for a princess sub and meets agent Meredith, who informs Desi that she has a rare magical gift that will allow her to apply royal rouge and stand in for any princess in need of a break. Desi is sent on three missions for three very different young women, and though she is told not to interfere, at last she sees her chance to make an impact. Though the plot is predictable and concepts such as royal rouge and getting from job to job in a bubble are silly and contrived, overall the novel is frothy fun. Desi is constantly comparing herself to seemingly perfect Celeste, and it is only through her new job that she begins to discover her own worth. This is a fast-paced and humorous read with a dash of romance. It's sure to leave readers longing for the next installment.

Desi hates her job.  So when she finds an add in the newspaper, for becoming a princess replacement, that says to just 'Call Meredith', she does.  And ends up flying in a bubble, and a magical replacement for princesses,

This is a really good series.  It takes the kind of over used idea of a girl finding out she is a princess, or that she looks just like a princess, and takes it to a differant level.  Now normal Desi is a magical stand-in for real princesses.  But through a slip-up, she just might loose her job.

Market: Ya
Sensuality: None/Mild
Violence: None
Language: None

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!!!

Happy Fourth of July, also known as Independence Day!  And now, for some history on the American Flag.

FLAG TIMELINE:
In May of 1776, Betsy Ross sewed the first American Flag, which had thirteen stripes and thirteen stars.
1795: fifteen stripes and fifteen stars.
1818: thirteen stripes and one star for each state.
June 24, 1912 - established proportions of the flag and provided for arrangement of the stars in six horizontal rows of eight each, a single point of each star to be upward.
January 3, 1959 - provided for the arrangement of the stars in seven rows of seven stars each, staggered horizontally and vertically.
August 21, 1959 - provided for the arrangement of the stars in nine rows of stars staggered horizontally and eleven rows of stars staggered vertically.

And now history on the Fourth of July.

1776:  the Declaration of Independence is signed.
56 people signed it!  To find out who, click here.
And then to find out ALL the official facts, click here.



the declaration of Independence



Enjoy the fireworks! 

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Amazon Description
This is World War I as never seen before. The story begins the same: on June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated, triggering a sequence of alliances that plunges the world into war. But that is where the similarity ends. This global conflict is between the Clankers, who put their faith in machines, and the Darwinists, whose technology is based on the development of new species. After the assassination of his parents, Prince Aleksandar's people turn on him. Accompanied by a small group of loyal servants, the young Clanker flees Austria in a Cyklop Stormwalker, a war machine that walks on two legs. Meanwhile, as Deryn Sharp trains to be an airman with the British Air Service, she prays that no one will discover that she is a girl. She serves on the Leviathan, a massive biological airship that resembles an enormous flying whale and functions as a self-contained ecosystem. When it crashes in Switzerland, the two teens cross paths, and suddenly the line between enemy and ally is no longer clearly defined. The ending leaves plenty of room for a sequel, and that's a good thing because readers will be begging for more. Enhanced by Thompson's intricate black-and-white illustrations, Westerfeld's brilliantly constructed imaginary world will capture readers from the first page. Full of nonstop action, this steampunk adventure is sure to become a classic.

I had heard about this book long before I read it.  It sounded interesting, but not interesting enough to get.  And then my book club was reading it, so I got it...and loved it!

Prince Aleksander is on the run from the Germans. With his parents dead, he flees to a secret safe house in Switzerland. Deryn Sharp is disguised as a boy named Dylan, so she can fly. When the ship she works on crashes on a Switzerland glacier, things don't look good. Until she meets a mysterious boy named Alek... Alek is a clanker; Deryn is a darwinist. But when they work together, they might just be able to find a way off of the glacier. A steam punk fantasy about World War one that never was...

Besides the amazing plot, this novel is also beautifully written.  The second novel in the series, 'Behemoth,' is just as good, and the third and final book in the series, 'Goliath', comes out September 20, 2011!

Market: YA
Sensuality: None/Mild
Violence: Mild/Moderate
Language: None
Adult Themes: Death, War

Video Friday: Schnauzer Moonwalk

I LOVE THIS VIDEO!!!!!!!  SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Sir Hans!