Skip to main content

Beka Cooper: Bloodhound


A few years ago I happened upon the Alana the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce. With a strong female heroine who overcomes prejudice to become the King's Champion and greatest knight in her realm, I was instantly drawn in. Since discovering that series, I've devoured all of Pierce's books set in Tortall including the Copper Isles, Protector of the Small and Wildmage series. I was very excited to learn that she was writing a new series based on the life of an ancestor of George Cooper (Tortall's spymaster and husband to Alana the Lioness).

I recently downloaded the unabridged audio book for the latest in this series, called Beka Cooper: Bloodhound, from audible.com and listened to it on my long commute into work. Once again, Tamora Pierce manages to pull me into Tortall and the cities of Corus and Port Caynn. Beka is a young dog (police officer) who works the roughest part of the capital city of Corus, Lower City. When a large number of false coin is discovered circulating through the realm's currency, Beka and her temporary senior partner, Goodwin, are sent to Port Caynn to discover its roots. Beka's scenthound, Achoo, some pigeons and a few dust spinners round out the cast of detectives. The story is engaging and the final hunt for the counterfeiters is tense and exciting.

However, this book (and the series) are NOT for young children. There is canoodling (sexual activities) spoken of without detail, as is homosexuality. If those things offend you, I'd recommend you read it anyway, because the storytelling is fantastic and Pierce is never preachy. The story chronicles the lives of her characters, and you may not like some of them. I personally love them all. Except some of the stinkin' rats!

You may get the idea that these books are for female readers only, since most of Pierce's books revolve around a strong central woman lead. However, my husband has become completely hooked on her writing, and reads them as voraciously as I.

To buy this book go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Bloodhound-Legend-Beka-Cooper-Book/dp/0375814698/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246713463&sr=8-1

or
http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0375814698

or listen to it the way I did by downloading it from
http://www.audible.com/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

El Deafo

Summary:  When 4 year old Cece gets meningitis, her parents are scared. But she recovers and everything seems like it is going to be just fine, until they discover that Cece has suffered permanent hearing loss. Told through a graphic novel, Cece Bell's somewhat autobiographical story stars a world of bunnies where Cece navigates her first grade year while dealing with her deafness, wearing a hearing aid and making friends. She copes by creating an alter ego for herself, "El Deafo", the hearing aid wearing superhero. In the end, Cece gains confidence and learns to be more assertive with other people who just don't understand how their interactions with her can have an effect. Strengths: This graphic novel is geared towards a younger set of readers than most of the books I will be reviewing this fall in this blog, but it still has some value and strengths for the young adult reader. The theme of dealing with being different will resonate with young adult readers,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bloom's Taxonomy for a Digital Age

Bloom's Taxonomy. One of the things we are constantly hearing in our school is the push for increased rigor in our classroom, as a result of the STAAR tests and others like it becoming more rigorous. We are told to push for higher order thinking and questioning from our students. One of the tools we use to look at how we can increase rigor is Bloom's Taxonomy. But some things about Bloom's don't translate exactly when we are talking about the digital age and the classroom or library. For example, remembering is the lowest piece of the triangle for Bloom's, but remembering looks different when you have instant access to a powerful computer that can use essentially limitless online resources to find answers. I've mentioned to my husband just how much more this and future generations will know about the world around them simply because they no longer have to remember everything they're interested in knowing. If I pass a historical marker for a place I haven...
7 comments
Read more

The Clark-Kozma Debate in the 21st Century

In the 1980s and 1990s, as educational technology was first becoming a budding field, Richard Clark published an analysis of data where he determined that the media that delivers instruction is no more than a delivery tool. He used an analogy of a truck carrying the information to the learner. He concluded that the media chosen has no effect on the learning taking place - that the instruction in the only thing that influences the learning.  In 1994, Kozma responded and prompted the current debate. Kozma states that some media have specific characteristics that do effect learning as more than a vehicle. While there is little research to support Kozma's claim, he suggests that the way the media helps shape the learning does have impact and that evaluating this impact requires more than raw data as the media and the way we use it has become more complex and nuanced. Clark has stood by his original conclusions and has even subsequently released articles further supporting his stanc...
2 comments
Read more