Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Librarian's Pick of the Week: The Westing Game
Title: The Westing Game
Author: Ellen Raskin
Genre: Mystery
Published: 2003
Age: 10+
A murder mystery for a lazy summer day.
Synopsis: For twenty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery Medal-winning The Westing Game has been an enduring favorite. This highly inventive mystery involves sixteen people who are invited to the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. They could become millionaires, depending on how they play the tricky and dangerous Westing game, which involves blizzards, burglaries, and bombings. Ellen Raskin has entangled a remarkable cast of characters in a puzzle-knotted, word-twisting plot filled with humor, intrigue, and suspense.
If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!
Labels:
Librarian's Pick of the Week
Saturday, June 25, 2011
How lovely!
Allow me to get a little girlie on you all by posting this while trying to jump up and down. This place actually exists. How wonderful!
Photo by GethinThomas.
Labels:
Just for Fun,
Travel
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Librarian's Pick of the Week: Leviathan
Title: Leviathan
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Steampunk, Science Fiction
Published: 2009
Age: 13+
Oh, how I love Science Fiction!
Synopsis: On the eve of World War I, the machine-loving Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their big steam-powered Clankers. Inspired by Darwin, the British have fabricated animals into warships. Their mothership, "Leviathan," is a marvelous whale-dirigible, in this new trilogy by the bestselling author of the Uglies series. Illustrations.
Review: "This is World War I as never seen before. The story begins the same: on June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated, triggering a sequence of alliances that plunges the world into war. But that is where the similarity ends. This global conflict is between the Clankers, who put their faith in machines, and the Darwinists, whose technology is based on the development of new species. After the assassination of his parents, Prince Aleksandar's people turn on him. Accompanied by a small group of loyal servants, the young Clanker flees Austria in a Cyklop Stormwalker, a war machine that walks on two legs. Meanwhile, as Deryn Sharp trains to be an airman with the British Air Service, she prays that no one will discover that she is a girl. She serves on the Leviathan, a massive biological airship that resembles an enormous flying whale and functions as a self-contained ecosystem. When it crashes in Switzerland, the two teens cross paths, and suddenly the line between enemy and ally is no longer clearly defined. The ending leaves plenty of room for a sequel, and that's a good thing because readers will be begging for more. Enhanced by Thompson's intricate black-and-white illustrations, Westerfeld's brilliantly constructed imaginary world will capture readers from the first page. Full of nonstop action, this steampunk adventure is sure to become a classic." - School Library Journal
If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!
Labels:
Librarian's Pick of the Week
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Librarian's Pick of the Week: After the Wreck...
Title: After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Drama
Published: 2006
Age: 14+
Beautiful, compelling, and terribly sad. Not recommended for the faint of heart.
Synopsis: Jenna Abbott separates her life into two categories: before the wreck and after the wreck. Before the wreck, she was leading a normal life with her mom in suburban New York. After the wreck, Jenna i alone, trying desperately to forget what happened that day on the bridge. She's determined not to let anyone get close to her she never wants to feel so broken and fragile again. Then Jenna meets Crow. He is an enigma, and Jenna is instantly drawn to him. Crow is able to break down the wall that Jenna has built around her emotions, and she surprises herself by telling him things she hasn't told anyone else. Can Jenna bring herself to face the memories she's tried so hard to erase?
Review: "Jenna Abbott, 15, is struggling to come to terms with the car accident that killed her mother and nearly took her own life as well. Formerly athletic and smart, she suddenly finds herself unable to concentrate or communicate with anyone. She is broken in both body and spirit and desperate to escape "into the blue," which is how she remembers the drug-induced haze immediately after the accident. Not wanting anything to do with her father and his new family in California, she moves to New Hampshire to live with her aunt and uncle, and begins looking for ways to escape. It takes two near-disasters for Jenna to tentatively open up to her classmate Crow and face her fears and grief. Oates is at her best telling the stories of teenage girls dealing with internal trauma and outside pressures. Jenna's pain at losing the only person truly close to her and the isolation she creates for herself are poignantly drawn. Her understanding that her choices are not what her mother would want for her is especially telling and may speak to teens in comparable situations. Similar in topic to E. R. Frank's Wrecked (S & S, 2005), this powerful novel is well worth reading." - School Library Journal
If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!
Labels:
Librarian's Pick of the Week
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Poll Results are In!
{screenshot from Back to the Future, pt. 1}
So looks like the results of the "If You Could Have One Superpower, What Would It Be?" poll were unanimously in favor of Time Travel. Do you guys wish you could be present at world-altering historic events? Or do you really just need more time to finish that paper you've been procrastinating on? ; ) I was rooting for Teleportation myself. (Instantaneous world travel? Yes, please!)
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Polls
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Librarian's Pick of the Week: Freak the Mighty
Title: Freak the Mighty
Author: Rodman Philbrick
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Published: 1993
Age: 12+
We're going 90's this week!
Synopsis: The heartwrenching story of two "special ed" boys who pair up to form a unique and empowering friendship. Two boys, a slow learner stuck in the body of a teenage giant and a tiny Einstein in leg braces, forge a unique friendship when they pair up to create one formidable human force.
Review: "Maxwell towers over other kids in the eighth grade. He lives with his grandparents, Grim and Gram since his dad was imprisoned for the murder of his mom. Everyone, including him, thinks he is stupid. Kevin is a dwarf. Plagued by a short stature, but no lack of self esteem. His wild imagination paints the world into an image that is full of adventure. They join forces and forge a friendship. Together they are not the crippled kid and Killer Kane's son. Together they are Freak the Mighty. Their deficiencies as individuals are negated by the fused being they become. On Maxwell's shoulder Freak, aka Kevin, is nine feet tall and Max is intelligent. Max is portrayed realistically as an awkward and self conscious kid. "Freak" is full of confidence. Philbrick shapes a funny and thoughtful tale kids will relate to and enjoy. For a story of friendship and a lesson in self confidence and using your imagination. I recommend this book."- J. Kennedy
If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!
Labels:
Librarian's Pick of the Week
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Book Trailer: Across the Universe
Science Fiction Love Story!!! I thought I'd recommend something a little different for you.
Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Published: 2011
Age: 13+
Synopsis: A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules. Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next. Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.
If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!
Labels:
Book Preview