A Villain You'll Love to Hate (Review of FIRST FLIGHT | Sean Hayden & Connor Hayden)

TITLE: First Flight (The Magnificent Steam Carnival of Professor Pelusian Minus)
AUTHOR: Sean Hayden and Connor Hayden
PUBLISHER: Echelon Press
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2011
PAGES: 141 KB (e-book only)
GRADE LEVEL(S): 4-6
RELEVANT CURRICULA: English Language Arts
CLASSROOM USES: Summer/Independent reading, Literature Circles, Read-Aloud

NB: This is the first book in a 6-book series. At time of writing, 2 of the 6 books are available to the public. [UPDATE: The third book is now available.]

Professor Pelusian Minus is more slave driver than carnival proprietor. He loves money and meanness, and not much else. As a reader, I loved to hate him. Minus's actions all contain some amount of venom. He doesn't get up from chairs; he slams them against walls. He calls his minions--er, employees--idiots and morons, and he terrorizes and denigrates the best performers in his carnival.

Minus is a car-wreck of a character: you can hardly stand to look at him, but at the same time, you won't want to miss a single one of his evil words or deeds.

Conversely, brother Dade and sister Paige are just the kind of heroes for whom any reader will want to root. They are kind and protective toward one another, while at the same time sly operators against Professor Minus. On top of that, they're blessed with considerable ingenuity. The irony, of course, is that their inventors' spirits are not only their only hope for escaping Minus's carnival, but also the carnival's only hope of making minus rich. As such, he'll do all in his power to keep them there.

First Flight, well, flies. The story is fast-paced, and the pages are few. It's the perfect book to use for a read-aloud in the last few minutes of class, or to give to a reluctant reader who is wary of a too-long story. Written by author Sean Hayden and his son, Connor, the language strikes a perfect balance: there's an economy of language that demonstrates Sean Hayden's finely honed craft as a writer, paired perfectly with the kind of exuberance that only a student writing for other students could produce.

I could go on, but suffice it to say, First Flight is well worth both your time and your money. At $0.99, it may even be worth the price of that e-reader you've been eyeing. (Note: you can get the Kindle app for almost any mobile device or personal computer for free.) Once you've read First Flight, I'd recommend saving your allowance and putting another five dollars aside. You'll want to move on to Second Chance right away, and you'll be drooling to get your hands on the last four installments.



FTC Disclosure: This review is based on a copy of the book we received from the authors.

Review: LEVIATHAN | Scott Westerfeld

Title: Leviathan

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Illustrator: Keith Thompson

Publisher: Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon and Schuster

Date of Publication: 2009

Pages: 440

Grade Levels: 6-9

Relevant curricula: English language arts, social studies

Bridge texts: WWI history, other World War literature, texts about Darwin and/or genetic engineering, other steampunk

Aleksandar (Alek) Ferdinand is the prince of Austria-Hungary, on the run after the assassination of his father, a peace-loving archduke, and his mother in Sarajevo. Because Alek’s mother was a commoner, Alek isn’t supposed to inherit anything from his family, especially his grandfather’s throne. Alek’s adversaries aren’t taking any chances and hunt him across Austria. His teacher-protectors have given up everything in order to protect Alek and get him to a secret hideout in Switzerland.

Deryn (a.k.a Dylan) Sharp is a British girl disguising herself as a boy to earn a position as a midshipman on one of his majesty’s airships. She has lost her father in a fiery accident. Deryn earns her spot on an airship, a Leviathan-class ship that gives this novel its name, but worries every day that her crewmates will discover her secret.

Europe is divided and on the brink of war. The year is 1914, but not the 1914 that you know from the history books.

Scott Westerfeld has created a steampunk, alternative WWI history in a world where Darwin discovered DNA (the threads of life) and gene splicing. Europe is divided among Darwinist countries, which employ genetic engineering to create incredible creatures to take place of their machines, and Clanker countries, which reject what they see as godless genetic tinkering in favor of engineering elaborate, diesel-driven machines.

Other elements: a heavy pile of gold bullion, a lady scientist with a mysterious cargo bound for Constantinople, flying jellyfish, talking lizards, walking tanks, a tasmanian tiger, and a lot of clart.

The story is fast-paced and exciting, cutting back and forth between the two main characters until they eventually run into each other on a glacier in Switzerland. The audience is privvy to just enough secrets to make us feel involved in the story, but not so many to ruin the excitement and suspense. I love that we don’t know which adults are trustworthy—if any. And I love the afterword, in which Westerfeld sorts out the real history leading up to WWI from his own inventions.

A great middle-grade to young-adult book and the first in a trilogy, followed by Behemoth, released in October 2010, and Goliath, scheduled for release in the fall of 2011.

FTC disclosure: I received this book in a Twitter contest from Simon & Schuster last summer and I’m passing it on to my ten year old. 

Reviewed by Dani Smith