Blue Avenger and the Theory of Everything
List Price: $17.95
Price: $21.16
List Price:
Price: $21.16
|
Howe Norma
Blue Avenger Cracks the Code
 List Price: Price: $8.48 DescriptionWhat do an amorous Shih Tzu, a computer game, and the complete works of Shakespeare have in common?Maybe nothing. Or maybe everything. It's a mystery...some would say a code. A code that only an adept code-cracker like Blue Avenger (aka David Schumacher), secret champion of the underdog, modest seeker of truth, and fearless innovator of the unknown, would even think about trying to decipher. And it couldn't come at a better time. Having accomplished several seemingly impossible missions, Blue is now a superhero without a cause, directionless and nearly girlfriendless. When he is offered a chance to visit Venice, it seems the forces of nature have aligned, and like all good and noble superheroes, Blue must choose to accept his mission. Who can crack complicated ciphers faster than a speeding bullet? Or leap tall gondolas in a single bound? It's a supercomputer, it's an Olympic athlete, no, it's Blue Avenger, a.k.a. David Schumacher, Norma Howe's 16-year-old self-made superhero. Blue is back for another round of everyday miracle making in Howe's deliciously clever sequel to The Adventures of Blue Avenger. This time our hero is on the hunt for the true author of Shakespeare's plays--was it really William Shakespeare? Or could it have been the obscure 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward De Vere? While he searches for clues to the history mystery, Blue also manages to score a trip to Venice, foil the foul dog-napping of his grammy's beloved Shih Tzu, and discover a sure-fire way of securing the copyright of his friend Louie's stolen video game idea. But even as he saves the world bit by bit, Blue can't help but wonder what it will take to finally win the trust and love of his friend and crush, the fair Omaha Nebraska Brown. Cracking the code of her heart may end up becoming Blue's biggest challenge. Like its predecessor, Blue Avenger Cracks the Code is full of engaging, interlocking plot lines that Howe juggles nimbly and matches up neatly by book's end. Has learning through fiction ever been so fun? Full of facts and factoids, Code will have teens running out to research the 17th Earl of Oxford and trying their hands at Francis Bacon's Bi-Lateral Cipher. As always, the Avenger's adventures are true Blue, and very cool. Stay tuned for the next installment! (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert
The Adventures of Blue Avenger
 List Price: Price: $10.88 You Save: $6.07 (36%) DescriptionThese are big questions to discuss in a young-adult novel, but they are only a small part of what Norma Howe tackles in The Adventures of Blue Avenger. How did a normal sixteen-year-old boy become the hero of his own comic strip, fall in love with a girl named Omaha Nebraska Brown, and invent a recipe for perfect dripless lemon meringue pie? What does this have to do with the sixteenth-century heretic Giordano Bruno? How can we end the plague of handgun violence in America?
A thought-provoking combination of humor, philosophy, and romance, The Adventures of Blue Avenger has something for every teenage reader (and even for a few smart adults). Irony, silliness, and the deepest questions of the human soul blend together delightfully in this funny, original novel by Norma Howe. The day David Schumacher turns 16, he decides to ease the pain of his father's death by legally changing his name to "Blue Avenger," after a comic book hero he created when he was 13. Armed with his new nom de plume, David hopes to abolish handguns, win the love of Omaha Nebraska Brown (the new girl at school), and create the first guaranteed weepless lemon meringue pie. He also wouldn't mind discovering the answer to the mystery of all mysteries: "Are we truly the masters of our fate or merely actors on a stage, playing our parts in a predetermined cosmic drama over which we have no control?" Through a crazy course of coincidences (or perhaps predestined circumstances) Blue Avenger ends up accomplishing almost all of the monumental tasks he has set for himself. Yet he never quite answers that question of free will, a conundrum that Howe leaves the reader to wrestle with until the very last page. The text is peppered with "facts," such as the detailed death of a particular sow bug and the prediction of an earthquake in a certain California subdivision, which seemingly have no bearing on the story. But Howe ties all of these factoids and statistics together in the finale with a flourish reminiscent of Louis Sachar's Newbery award-winning Holes. Teens who enjoyed the mental jigsaw puzzles in Sachar's excellent novel will no doubt also dig The Adventures of Blue Avenger. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert
In With the Out Crowd
List Price: $2.95 DescriptionDuring her junior year in high school, sixteen-year-old Robin begins to question her values and friendships as she finds herself being ousted from the most popular group in school.
Game of Life
List Price: $3.95 DescriptionCiaro and her sister Mercedes are involved in an hilarious struggle with the big questions of life. Is it caring or meddling if she tries to stop her sister from marrying a jerk? If she succeeds does this mean she's in control or just a pawn in the hands of fate?
Angel in Vegas: The Chronicles of Noah Sark
 List Price: Price: $0.01 You Save: $16.98 (100%) DescriptionGood heavens! A teen angel drops into Sin City in this wickedly funny YA novel from the author of the Blue Avenger trilogy.Who is Noah Sark, really? And what is he doing in the men’s room at Angelo’s Donut Shop in Las Vegas, Nevada? No use asking him; he doesn’t know. But he’s gambling that an assignment from above will shed some light — after all, a life depends on it! Only master satirist Norma Howe could craft a provocative meditation on free will from blending one (or maybe two) budding teen romances, a psychic fair, a dead frog, a headful of blond curls, and Las Vegas in all its glitz and kitsch (hello, Elvis!) with the dramatic backstory of Princess Diana in Paris. The jackpot? A wild and witty portrait of an unlikely guardian angel on a desperate mission to save a certain unknown girl from a certain unknown disaster. Howe Norma News
|
|