Electron Boy takes off
With the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a Seattle-area boy battling a rare form of cancer saved the Pacific Northwest from evil last spring. (Personally, I was very grateful--I'm a huge Seat...
The Cardturner, by Louis Sachar
Seventeen-year-old Alton Richards, the protagonist of Louis Sachar's novel The Cardturner, is furious when his parents insist he spend the summer working for his wealthy great-uncle Lester. Lester is blind, testy, and a master bridge player, so Alton foresees a long, dull summer spent driving his uncle to his club and helping him play the world's most boring card game...
Big Clay Pot, by Scott Mills
Scott Mills's delicately illustrated graphic novel Big Clay Pot is the story of Sun Kim, a preadolescent Korean orphan who ends up in a small fishing community in ancient Japan. Sun Kim's klutziness gets her kicked out of camp after camp, until she meets Kokoro...
Welcome to Temptation, by Jennifer Crusie
St. Martin's Press has recently re-released Jennifer Crusie's Welcome To Temptation, giving Crusie fans a second chance to enjoy this ridiculously fun, sexy blend of small-town pol...
Oscar bait
The movie trailer for Sara Gruen's Water For Elephants is out. Behold:Wow, middlebrow angst, cute animals, period costumes, and Edward Cullen? It's like they're trying to smash every successful ...
Books, bells, and whistles
NPR's Morning Edition recently aired a story about "multi-platform" children's books, focusing largely on our beloved 39 Clues series. Personally, we think the literary gimmick is tough to get ri...
Linger, by Maggie Stiefvater
Writing the middle novel in a trilogy must be tough. Authors need to sustain their momentum and provide at least a little plot resolution, but they also have to leave enough loose...
Cartoon Cute Animals, by Christopher Hart
Christopher Hart, author of the hugely popular book Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics, has written a number of bestselling illustrated art instruction manuals. His latest effort is...
Figure-skating... WITH THE GODS!
The official trailer for Marvel's Thor movie is out, and it left me with two burning questions. Is that dark-haired dude all in black meant to be Loki, and, if so, is he supposed to look just lik...
How Rocket Learned to Read, written and illustrated by Tad Hills
How Rocket Learned to Read, the latest picture book from bestselling author and illustrator Tad Hills, is an engaging, attractively illustrated story about a small dog who transform...
Travel in style to fictional locations
Okay, I'm adding an addendum to our Holiday Gift List. Check out these "Comic Travel Location" posters from artist Justin Van Genderen:Are they not awesome? There are more on Mr. Van Genderen's ...
Code: Breaker Vol. 1, by Akimine Kamijyo
Volume one of Akimine Kamijyo's series Code: Breaker is not for the faint of heart. And as the first few pages indicated the story was going to be an all-ages-friendly shounen mang...
The Flappers: Vixen, by Jillian Larkin
Vixen, the first book in Jillian Larkin's new Gossip Girl-meets-Thoroughly Modern Millie young adult series, has a lot going for it. The cover looks great, Larkin has a wonderful time with period slang, music, and clothing, and flappers are totally hot right now...
$30 of pure cuteness
Well, I've decided what I want for Christmas:In addition to being totally adorable, 15% of the gross sale of this "Alice" print by artist Katie Kirk goes to benefit the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation.
Real award, (thankfully) fictional sex
The 18th annual Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award was announced a few days ago, and the dubious honor was given to Irish author Rowan Somerville for The Shape of Her, which apparently inclu...
I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore
Before we begin, a small disclaimer: I have never read James Frey's notorious “memoir” A Million Little Pieces, but any man who compares writing a falsified autobiography to Picasso...
Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher, by Wendelin Van Draanen
We adore Wendelin Van Draanen's books, but we understand why the director of the recent film adaptation of her novel Flipped re-set the plot in the 1950s—Ms. Van Draanen's unif...
Plus after plus
Finally, some e-book news I'm genuinely excited about: Google has launched an online e-book retail store. Their e-books aren't fancy (no 3-D pictures or dictionary definitions on demand), but the...
Odd Is On Our Side, by Dean Koontz and Fred Van Lente
Odd Is On Our Side is the second graphic novel to feature Odd Thomas, a twenty-year-old fry cook living in the fictional Californian town of Pico Mundo. Odd—a character first intro...
Stone Rabbit #5: Ninja Slice, by Eric Craddock
Eric Craddock's Stone Rabbit #5: Ninja Slice is a boisterous, colorful read aimed squarely at reluctant male readers ages 7-10. The plot (what little there is of it) is simple: whe...
Zen Ghosts, by Jon J. Muth
Unlike the book we featured yesterday, Jon J. Muth's Zen Ghosts is an example of kid-friendly surrealism done absolutely right. It's short on words, but overflows with thought-prov...
Dry your tears, Buffy fans.
I've only been keeping half an eye out for news about the proposed Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, but I did see an article on the MTV Movies Blog that (gently) chided series creator Joss Whedon—...
The Memory Bank, by Carolyn Coman and Rob Shepperson
The Memory Bank (text by Carolyn Coman, illustrations by Rob Shepperson) is the story of two sisters. When Hope's evil parents banish her baby sister Honey for breaking the family'...
Major (by our standards, anyway) announcement:
Well, dear readers, after nearly six years of our current layout, Wordcandy.net is finally getting a full site redesign, and we're building up for the changeover by having a month-long book giveaw...
Wordcandy's Holiday Gift List: 2010 Edition
It's that time of year again, dear readers—time for our annual list of Wordcandy-friendly gift suggestions! Behold ten of our favorite book-related goods ranging in price from $10 to $100:1.Jonat...
One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding, by Rebecca Mead
Do not give Rebecca Mead's 2007 book One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding to anyone who has recently had a wedding*. Trust me, it will only depress them, and who wants to embark o...
Happily Ever After, by Nora Roberts
Earlier this month, Nora Roberts released Happy Ever After, the final novel in her Bride Quartet. I've grown fonder of this series with each book, so I trotted out to my local bookstore—this ti...
One-stop holiday shopping
Well, this should make Megan happy (she loves these editions): for a limited time, Powell's Books is selling Penguin's "Hardcover Classics" line—designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith and featuring "g...