Staff Picks: Books
Staff-recommended reading from the
KPL catalog.
It’s amazing how many hot topics Paula Danziger brings up in It’s an Aardvark-eat-turtle World! This 132 paged easy-to-read teen book is full of social issues such as divorce, remarriage, step-sisterhood/step-parenting, interracial marriage and more. Rosie tells the story of how her mother married her best friend’s dad. Exciting, huh? Well, no! From then on Rosie’s and Phoebe’s life is never the same. The two best friends could no longer stand each other. What was cute before becomes a big pain. Rosie sees now when she finally has her “real family” that it’s not her “dream family”. She and Phoebe went from “best friends, best sisters and best roommates” to thinking family and friendship takes too much work. But they later decide that it’s all worth it.
Some of Paula Danziger’s other books at KPL are The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, The Divorce Express, and This Place Has No Atmosphere.
It’s an Aardvark-eat-turtle World
0440940281
book
Congratulations and good luck to National Book Award finalists Bonnie Jo Campbell and David Small, both of whom spoke at the library about their newest works, American Salvage (fiction) and Stitches (Young People’s Literature). Award winners will be announced on November 18th.
Book
American Salvage
9780814334126
Norman Ollestad's memoir Crazy For the Storm was the perfect book for my long plane ride over Labor Day weekend, which included seven layover hours. Ollestad tells the story of how a small charter plane with his dad, his dad's girlfriend, the pilot, and him crashed into the Sierra mountains during a blizzard when he was 11 years old. He is the only one who survives. The book alternates between chapters about his harrowing descent of the snow and ice covered mountain and his adventurous life up until that fateful day. The book is definitely a page-turning thriller, but it is also full of psychological meat, as Ollestad tries to cope with his parents' divorce, his mom's new, sometimes abusive boyfriend, his dad's expectations for him, and being a boy very much thrust into an adult world at an early age. Now come to think of it, maybe reading a book about a plane crash wasn't the perfect thing for a plane ride, but it did keep my interest hour after hour and left me wanting to tell everyone about the book.
Book
Crazy for the Storm
9780061766725
Fahrenheit 451 has to be one my all time favorite books. The concepts and theories proposed in this novel first published in 1953 are fascinating in that they take on a different twist with each new technological advance that happens in our society. Take the seashell or thimble radios presented in the novel, for instance. Who, in the 1950s or even 1960s, would have imagined that MP3 players would have people listening to music, podcasts, and news constantly through earbuds today?! From the irony of Montag’s job to the realities that have come to fruition out of Ray Bradbury’s fiction to Clarisse’s character: I love this story!
That being said, I thought I’d try the graphic novel version of this story. Never having tried reading a novel presented this way, I figured that trying a story I loved would help me overcome any resistence I had to stories shown as strips of images that resemble comic books. Nope. Didn’t work. Couldn’t make it through the first 10 pages. I flipped through it a few times but couldn’t manage it. Maybe it was that I chose a story I loved. Or, maybe I just discovered I prefer my own imagination to pre-created pictures instead.
Book
Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation
9780809051014
Learning to Swim: a memoir pulled at my heart strings! All of us would prefer not to have to talk about child abuse. But it is something that is eating away at our society and we can not ignore it.
The reality is that child abuse is a prevailing monster that grows with silence. Ann Turner does an excellent job of conveying a child’s anxiety of wanting to tell and the fear of telling.
This memoir might help a child speak the unspoken words.
Find more info at the Child Molestation Research & Prevention Institute and Childhelp.
Book
Learning to Swim: a memoir
0439153093
Inspired by P.G. Wodehouse's love of wordplay and her Cities, Art, and Protest class (where she learned the importance of the concept of a panopticon), Frankie shakes the foundation on which her boarding school, Alabaster, is set.
Frankie Landau-Banks is the 15-year old main character in a very fun teen novel entitled The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Her family calls her Bunny Rabbit which is one of the reasons for her insistence that she can make her own decisions and that she is NOT to be underestimated! The other is her boyfriend, Matthew Livingston and his friends: The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds.
Frankie's desire to be one of the "boys"--not in a tomboy sort of way, but in a girls-are-equal-to-boys-and-clubs-should-have-no-exclusionary-rules way--is what gets her mind reeling and her adrenaline flowing. She's definitely not a glass ceiling type of girl! But, despite her creativity and determination in breaking the good ol' boy barrier, her teenage emotions for her boyfriend surface. What results is a wild ride with Frankie and her schemes!
I'm not sure whether I ended up really, really liking Frankie or being irritated by her. Admire, maybe? Envy? I'm not sure. Of course, I'm judging her with the eyes of an adult rather than a teenager. Having read this book 25 years ago would definitely have changed my perspective of her fiesty personality. But, maybe its a good thing I read it now; I can't imagine the trouble I might have found for myself with Frankie as a role model!
Book
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
0786838183
Lately, I seem to discover poetry and other commentaries about literature and/or books and how important each is to us. The April 2009 issue of Bookbird, a magazine published by the IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) folks, contains a short poem by J. Patrick Lewis, a poet from Westerville OH. Here it is:
| | Books are thieves of hours.
They kidnap the mind;
The body is left behind.
But books are always
Caught read-handed
And released
After serving many
Arresting sentences. |
What a tribute to books! And, to literature. Imagine yourself on a journey, taken vicariously through a favorite book. See yourself caught up in the moment, and forgetting such everyday things as eating and showering. See yourself in a far-away place, returning home after a glorious journey that would not have been possible without the trip taken with a book!
The Library has many books by J. Patrick Lewis, including The Bookworm’s Feast: a Potluck of Poems and Please Bury Me in the Library. These may be found in the Children’s collection, along with Mr. Lewis’ other titles.
Drop by soon and enjoy your feast or journey with these and other delectable choices from the poetry collections in Children’s, Teen, and Adult areas.
Book
The Bookworm's Feast: a Potluck of Poems
0803716923
My latest read from the Teen collection is the new arrival, The Rock and the River, by debut author Kekla Magoon. This fast-paced story of 13-year-old Sam Childs' experience living in Chicago at the height of the Civil Rights Movement is one that can inspire all of us and perhaps even teach us a thing or two about our nation's history. And while the setting is historical, I can't help but be moved by the fact that it takes place in the city that, until a month ago, was the home of our new president.
Sam's father, Roland Childs, is a prominent lawyer and Civil Rights activist who is helping to spread the peaceful message of his friend, Dr. King, in public speeches and demonstrations around the country. At the same time, Sam's older brother, Stick, in response to the injustices that he sees going on in the world around him, becomes involved with The Black Panthers. In between is Sam, trying to figure out what is right and true, without disappointing those who love him the most.
If the story leaves me with lingering questions--What would I do? How would I feel? Could I do what Sam did?--I can only imagine the feelings and questions young readers, male and female alike, will have when they get their hands on this compelling book.
The Rock and the River
9781416975823
Book
Why, when they are Remarkable Foon's Sizzling Hot Pebbles, that's when! In Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook: recipes inspired by Dr. Seuss! the foods that many of us have tried take a new spin of whimsy when accompanied by a verse from one of Dr. Seuss's many books. For example, simple strawberries with yogurt dip becomes Brown Bar-ba-loots' Truffula Fruits and goes along with The Lorax. Nupboards' Nuggets are a lot like granola and can be discovered in the book There's a Wocket in My Pocket! From main dishes to sweets, this book is a must for all ages (not just for the fun, but for the tastiness, too! The recipes are delicious!)
The author, Georgeanne Brennan, is also repsonsible for other books of food and fun ranging from a Williams-Sonoma cookbook to one called A Pig in Provence: good food and simple pleasures in the south of France. I think I'm going to try her book entitled Salad next.
Book
Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook: recipes inspired by Dr. Seuss
0679884408
Ever wonder who designed the cover of your favorite novel? Odds are it was Chip Kidd. If you've ever read David Sedaris, Michael Crichton, or Dean Koontz — then you've seen Chip's work. He designs book jackets, posters, album art, and magazine covers.
Not only is Chip a design genius — he's a writer. The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters is a hilarious coming of age story of a guy going through art school in the 1950's. It is full of funny tales about becoming a graphic designer. The exacto knife incident is one of my favorite parts!
Book
The Cheese Monkeys
0743214927