Blogs

In Beat the Reaper, we meet Peter Brown, an intern at a bad New York hospital. He came to his medical career via a different path than most doctors. Peter's path took him through the Witness Relocation Program. So he works saving lives, to make up for all the lives he took when he was a mafia hitman.

WORD AFTER WORD AFTER WORD by Patricia MacLachlan is a gem of a book about.......you guessed it! Words, glorious, wonderful, wacky, weird, wild W O R D S! Five friends have found fourth grade a bit dull and boring-----until----in walks Ms.

News Worthy!

Ever wonder how to deliver news to your children in digestible bits that are developmentally appropriate?  Common Sense Media just reviewed a few sites, so take a look!

www.kidult.com is for kids 13 years and up.  It features news, entertainment, sports, blogs, and how-to articles. 

Are werewolves the new vampires?  Many recently published young adult novels feature werewolves as one of the main characters.  The plotlines of several of them involve tortured romances between a human and a werewolf.  That got me to wondering - could werewolves be replacing vampires as the new mythical object of desire?  Is Shiver's Sam hotter than Twilight's Edward?  What do you think?  If you haven't read any werewolf stories, here's a few of the latest titles to get you started.  (All of the books' synopses come from catalog descriptions). 

I've written about Facebook privacy a couple of times, here, and here. Facebook's privacy policy has grown from 1,004 words in 2005 to nearly 6,000 words in 2010, and has become harder to figure out.

Real People in Fictional Mysteries

I currently have some mysteries on display that feature real people as characters in the books.  These people are not necessarily the sleuths, but they are all involved in murder.  Coincidentally, the May 3 issue of Publishers Weekly has an article on the same topic.  Their main focus was on historical mysteries and highlighted many of the authors and characters I am showcasing.  Here are the series I have included in my display.

The Children's Department is getting excited to visit the local schools to promote our summer reading program. We have been browsing new fiction/nonfiction books and creating flyers and booklists. This year's summer reading theme is Dive In! Our school visits begin the week of May 10th so be sure to look for us at your school!
Let's dive in and take a look at some new picture books:

Snag a Summer Job!

We've all been admonished at least once in our lives not to judge a book by its cover, but we know we do. In an attempt to widen my reading horizons, I have, for the past month or two, allowed the much maligned book cover to be my compass. The following books were chosen because of their cheery yellow/orange covers:

Last week I saw the movie "The Runaways" starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart.  The movie tells the story of a band called The Runaways.  Formed in 1975, The Runaways were an all girl rock band that launched the musical ca