I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: TEGAN AND SARA-“Alligator” on CDC Kids’ Mamma Yamma (2010).

Tegan and Sara take a slightly different approach than the other artists on Mamma Yamma.  Rather than creating a new song, they took their hit “Alligator” and made new words for it (much like many artists have done on Sesame Street).

The melody is exactly the same (which is good, as it’s a really catchy song). But rather than being about a failed relationship, it’s about alligators.

Old lyrics: Run around on me, I’d sooner die without

New lyrics: Run around a tree, skip and jump about

It’s a cute version and the band sounds very good.

I really enjoy these introductions to interesting musicians on kids shows.  I wonder if kids actually like seeing grown up musicians like this.

You can watch it here:

[READ: April 20, 2012] Vespers Rising

I finished The 39 Clues series last year. Or so I thought!  After completing books 1-10, I found out that they were planning a whole new series.  And they began with this transitional book, which they called #11 and which was co-written by four of the prominent authors.

Vespers Rising is actually four short stories that trace the history of the Cahill family and their feud with the Vesper family.  The Vespers were not a part of the first series at all.  In the first series, the 39 Clues were a kind of Amazing Race for Cahill family members.  (I’ll get to some details about the family in a moment).  It was a kind of private race for the prize–which was a life-enhancing serum.  But this book introduces a new villain to the story and explains that the villain has been there all along, just lurking.

Rick Riordan wrote the first story in this book takes us back to the beginning.  In 1507, off the coast of Ireland, Gideon Cahill invented this serum.  He was and alchemist, seeking an antidote for the Black Death which was ravaging Europe.  He was working for Lord Damien Vesper, a man bent on power.  Vesper wasn’t interested in helping people with the Black Death–he had no real value for life–however, he was interested in the results that Gideon might discover.

There is some important, but slightly confusing information about the island they are on.  The Cahills own the land, but Lord Vesper has a castle there and rules the peasants (again, whom he doesn’t really care about).  This comes into play by the end of the story.

Gideon develops a powerful serum, and while he sees the benefits he is well aware of the dangers from it.  When Lord Vesper gets word of the serum, he threatens Gideon and his family if they do not turn it over.  This is when Gideon tells him to get off his land.  Of course, as we know, Vesper thinks nothing of people’s lives, so he exacts swift revenge.

Gideon had four children with his wife Olivia.  They were: Luke, Thomas, Katherine and Jane.  When their father tells them of the danger that Vesper intends for them, he also gives them each a portion of the serum.  If all four work together it will be complete, but each individual portion will only provide a small part of it–with bad side effects.  After the final showdown, the children fight over the whose fault the crisis was until all four go their separate ways, never to speak again.  This was the creation of the four branches of the family: Lucian, Tomas, Ekaterina and Janus (each of which was explored fully in books 1-10).

This story also introduces a ring.  The ring holds a lot of secrets.  It was Gideon’s.  There are strange markings on it and Gideon told Olivia that it was vitally important that the Vespers never get the ring (we don’t know many details about it).  This new series is going to be all about this ring.

Olivia manages to keep the ring hidden from Lord Vesper.  She also manages to keep hidden the fact that she was pregnant with Gideon’s fifth child, a young girl who would be named Madeleine.

Peter Lerangis picks up the story of Madeleine Cahill in 1526.

Madeleine is hiding out under a false name.  Her mother runs a bakery (with a secret alchemist’s shop inside), but they must not be detected by Lord Vesper.  Madeleine is also a young alchemist, and as the story opens, she is in an alchemical class and has just created a sleeping potion.  Unfortunately, when the dosage is incorrect, it makes you tell the truth while you are sleeping.  And after she tried it on herself, her secret is out.

When Vesper smashes down her mother’s bakery, she must run off.  And she has one destination in mind–the castle of King Henry VIII where Luke Cahill is the master at arms.

Luke has a son, Winthrop, who is a troublemaker.  He goes through governesses quite quickly (and humorously).  When a position opens, Madeleine applies, hoping to eventually get through to her brother.  For even though she doesn’t know her siblings, she has three duties that she has pledged to do for her family:

1. Keep the ring safe
2. Never let anyone abuse the power of the 39 Clues
3. Unite the Cahills when the time is right

She gets the job and even wins over Winthrop for a bit, but once Luke sees his father’s ring on Madeleine, he believes she is a thief and she puts her in jail.  Her escape from the jail (which involves a suit of armor and an awesome joust sequence) is one of the most exciting sequences in the book.

The story ends with a showdown over the ring between Lord Vesper (who has followed Madeleine) and Madeleine herself.  It’s a very exciting conclusion with a cryptic (to them but not to us) message: beware the madrigal.  And with that Madeleine has created the Madrigal branch of the Cahill family.

Gordon Korman writes the third short story which is all about Grace Cahill and is set in 1942.  Grace was Dan and Amy’s grandmother, the woman who set the whole 39 Clues race into effect when she died.  We learned a lot about her in the first series of books, but we never heard about this story.

Grace had a sister and a baby brother (named Fiske).  When Fiske was born, their mother was killed in childbirth.  When their mother died, their father, James, left them with no forwarding information.  And so Grace took it upon herself to care for baby Fiske, while her sister grew more bitter.

One night Grace sees a message in morse code that is clearly meant for her father.  It takes Grace a short amount of time to figure out the message, but once she does, she sets out on a mission to do her Cahill duty (her sister wants nothing to do with the Cahill line).

1942 puts this story right in the heart of World War II, and Grace must somehow get a message to General Patton (who is a Cahill) about the ring and how the Vesper family is aware of its secret location.  Korman creates a very exiting sequence of events in which Grace is able to get from Monaco to Casablanca during the war.

And when she finally gets to Patton, everything is upended in her life.  This story was absolutely outstanding–exciting, dangerous and really satisfying.  It also really puts into perspective the kind of family that Dan and Amy are in.

Jude Watson gets section four which is all about Dan and Amy and is set in the present.

It starts out a little unsatisfying because it picks up more or less right after Book Ten.  The kids have found all of the clues and are back at school, trying to get their lives back in order.   Their new guardians are Nellie (yaa!–although she plays a virtually nonexistent role in this short story) and baby Fiske, who is now in his sixties or seventies.

The story opens with the revelation that the Vespers (whom the kids don’t now about yet) are aware of the location where Grace hid the ring (which they also didn’t know about).

Watson takes us on a very exciting modern day hunt, into a high-security bank in Switzerland (which reminded me of Chuck) and then an exciting chase down the Swiss Alps on skis.

This short piece has all of the excitement of the previous series, but the stakes are even higher.  In books 1-10, the other Cahill family members would stop at nothing to get the clues, but in retrospect it seems like they were never in mortal danger.  But the Vespers have been established as ruthless killers.  Not only that–the Vespers are not even a family, they are simply hired thugs whose mission is to get the ring no matter what the cost.  The danger is far greater this time.

I can’t quite imagine how they can stretch this out for so many books this time.  There are six books in the series.  Book 3 has just come out (this book, is Book 11 of series one).  The final book is due to be published in March of 2013, so I have a year to read the other five books.  I’ll pace myself.