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Summary
Summary
Dr. Kate Kinsellae(tm)s NEW Academic Vocabulary Toolkit is designed for long-term middle and high school English learners who are under-prepared and struggling to progress. Students are provided the opportunity to not only learn high-use academic words, but also correctly employ these words in speaking and writing exercises. Using Dr. Kate Kinsellae(tm)s unique vocabulary teaching process, students will receive the tools needed to master key academic vocabulary, re-engage in school settings, and increase scores on state assessments.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Kara Harper, 16, is on her way to having the most exciting experience of her life. Her father has been accepted as a guest professor at an exclusive high school in Japan, and she is fluent in the language. However, she knows that despite the fact that she is the daughter of an honored teacher, things will not be easy for her, since she is a gaijin, or outsider. The few classmates brave enough to seek out her friendship are outcasts themselves. Quiet Miho is obsessed with American boys, while rebellious Sakura is grieving the murder of her sister just six months earlier. Then Kara starts to have nightmares of faceless girls, puddles of blood, and feral cats. She soon discovers that others are having dreams of the dead as well, and some begin to die horrific deaths. The girls must delve deeply into Japanese myth and legend to solve the murders and save the school. Reading this story is akin to reading a manga but without the illustrations. Randall describes the scenery, the culture, the characters, even their clothing, with heartfelt details. The story has suspense, mystery, and horror. It will be a great hit with fans of manga, anime, or Japanese culture.-Melyssa Malinowski, Kenwood High School, Baltimore, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Two years after her mother dies in a car wreck, 16-year-old Kara Harper and her father move from America to Japan because of a love of the country and to start a new life. But death is all around them at Kara's new school: a student named Akane was murdered there several months earlier, and as Kara befriends Akane's sister, Sakura, other students begin dying under mysterious circumstances. Sakura is sure that Akane has risen from the grave to avenge herself, while Kara and their friend Miho guess that a demonic entity from Japanese legend is responsible. Randall fills the story, first in the Waking series, with details about Japanese culture and evocative descriptions ("Miyazu Bay reflected back the blue sky with a purity that made her breath catch.... leaving an American suburb behind for natural beauty such as this was like waking up in some magical kingdom"), while slowly building tension and winding the plot ever tighter, weaving together current threats and age-old mysteries. Regardless of readers' level of familiarity with Japan, the horror-tinged story should fascinate and thrill. Ages 12-up. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Newly transplanted to Japan, 16-year-old blond-haired, blue-eyed Kara Foster is a gaijin, or outsider. Excited to start a new life in an unfamiliar country, Kara is eager to assimilate into Japanese culture, although when she is bullied by a group of popular girls she quickly learns that her new school has the same clique issues as its American counterparts. When mysterious, supernaturally tinged deaths start to occur, it becomes very clear to Kara how different this school really is, however, and soon the young gaijin finds herself embroiled in terrifying circumstances of madness and murder. Drawing upon Japanese mythology and Noh plays, Randall (a pseudonym of Christopher Golden) delivers many elements typical to teen horror movies, including such tropes as sleep-deprived students plagued by horrible nightmares, teetering on the brink of madness. While a rather mediocre horror offering that tends to rely too heavily on plot to drive its action forward, it does incorporate many elements of contemporary Japanese culture and thus may appeal to those with an interest in it, especially manga fans. (Horror. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Randall is a pseudonym for Christopher Golden, whose mysteries (including the Body of Evidence series) have a large teen following. Here, he fuses his trademark of suspenseful, creepy deaths with Japanese culture as 16-year-old Kara Foster and her professor father move to Kyoto to start over after the death of Kara's mother. Both father and daughter are fluent in Japanese and obsessed with Japanese culture. Kara's new school (where Mr. Foster teaches) is still reeling from the recent unsolved murder of a student, and even as Kara settles in and makes new friends, she suffers from debilitating nightmares that preview tragedies to come. The manga craze has hooked many a teen on Japanese culture, and Randall weaves much Japanese language, mythology, mores, and etiquette into this fast-paced opener to the Waking series. A somewhat clumsy epilogue baldly states what happened, but the thrill of nightmares, demons, and murders throughout counteract this weak ending.--Carton, Debbie Copyright 2009 Booklist