Kidzworld's Official Blog

This week was all about snarling, drooling, howling, prowling wolves! And I’ll bet you’ll be surprised to hear that neither one was a story of werewolves, especially with the whole “Jacob Black” craze going on. Instead, these two books took a different approach. Wolven by Di Toft is about a whole new brand of superpowered wolves called, you guessed it, Wolven! Whereas Wolves of the Beyond: Lone Wolf by Kathryn Lasky is about wolves in the traditional sense of the word.

Wolven follows Nat Carver and his new “dog” Woody. Only Woody isn’t exactly the dog that Nat was expecting. He’s huge, mangy, and Nat was sure Woody sent him a telepathic message. There’s something different about that dog. Nat and Woody develop a close friendship and Nat discovers Woody’s secret: he’s a wolven–a.k.a the opposite of a werewolf. He is a wolf that transforms into a human instead of the other way around. If that isn’t troublesome enough, there is a top secret government organization who is experimenting on wolven…and they’re after Woody.

Wolves of the Beyond: Lone Wolf, a new series by the author of Guardians of Ga’Hoole,  follows Faolan, a wolf pup who is abandoned by his pack because of a slight deformity in his paw. A grizzly bear finds him and decides to raise him as her own. But the grizzly doesn’t know the ways of wolves. And come winter she’ll have to hibernate. And Faolan will be left on his own.

Both books target young adults, ages 9-13. If you like books with a little bit of magic and a whole lot of fast-paced excitement, then definitely check out Wolven. If you’re more into realistic stories about how animals live in the wild, then Wolves of the Beyond is the one for you!

New Moon, the highly anticipated sequel to Twilight, hit theatres yesterday, and the turn out was record breaking. This film built on Twilight, offering more dynamic and intense relationships, more humor and more exposed skin.

Several new boys joins the cast of New Moon, acting as the ever-shirtless Quileute tribe of werewolves. But most of all, New Moon shows Taylor Lautner, a.k.a Jacob, in a whole new light. He’s stronger, faster and so much more than a 16 year old boy should be. In the book, Jacob’s character was a little more pathetic, causing a drastic lead for Team Edward. But since Taylor Lautner’s physical transformation, I wouldn’t doubt if the lead shifted to Team Jacob.

Overall, the film had it’s slow moments, along with countless laugh-out-loud scenes. The audience’s response seemed to be a good one, so I’d say it’s well worth the ten dollar ticket.

Maggie Stiefvator, the author of The Books of Faerie (Lament and Ballad) delivers another novel for teens. But unlike the others, this story is about a star-crossed romance between a human and a werewolf.

Shiver is very well written with strong emotions and dynamic characters. But the novel lacked a little something; it just needed a little bit more. But no problem! Stiefvater has a sequel in the works called Linger, which is expected to hit bookstores in the fall of 2010.