Saturday, May 30, 2009


FINISHED:

Jacques, Brian. (2003). Loamhedge. New York: Firebird/Penguin.


[.]

STARTED:
Lerangis, Peter. (2009). The 39 clues: The sword thief. New York: Scholastic.

[I really couldn't tell you what's been happening in this series, but I just may be in it for the long haul. I'm curious. Does anyone else really care about these anymore? Have they taken off, or bombed?]

*

Thursday, May 21, 2009


FINISHED:

Buzbee, Lewis. (2008). Steinbeck's ghost. New York: Feiwel and Friends/MacMillan.


[Travis moves to a new subdivision outside Salinas, California, where Steinbeck lived and wrote some of his early works. He finds out that the local library, named after Steinbeck, is going to be shut down due to budgetary issues, so he and a friendly librarian form a group to try to raise money get the word out about the closing. Along the way, Travis, an AVID Steinbeck reader, begins to see characters from Steinbeck's books in real life around town, as well as young Steinbeck himself writing in the upstairs window of his childhood home. Throw in an old author with a link to Steinbeck, a hilarious best friend, and parents who were cool to hang out with until they both went back to school and now have high-power jobs, and you've got a well-rounded story with wide appeal. I really enjoyed this one - it kept me interested throughout and I found myself WANTING to pick it up and read it. Certainly, it's a LIBRARIAN'S DREAM book - what with Travis rallying to keep the town library open, and professing his love for books - especially their ability to transform the reader and bring them into a shared experience with everyone else who has read the book and will ever read it. Here's a great quote - words that, as a Children's librarian, I would love to get across to all young people:

"When you read, the world really did change. He understood this now. You saw parts of the world you never knew existed. Books were in the world; the world was in books." (p. 89).

Brilliant.]

STARTED:
Jacques, Brian. (2003). Loamhedge. New York: Firebird/Penguin.

[I'm WAY overdue for another Redwall tale. This is #16 - whew! It's an amazing testament to Jacques, however, that I NEVER TIRE OF THESE THINGS...]

*

Monday, May 18, 2009


FINISHED:

King, Stephen. (1991). Four past midnight: The Langoliers. New York: Signet/Penguin.


[.]

STARTED:
Buzbee, Lewis. (2008). Steinbeck's ghost. New York: Feiwel and Friends/MacMillan.

[Heard great things, plus I believe that it won an award - maybe something to do with Northern California authors?]

*

Wednesday, May 13, 2009


FINISHED:

Henkes, Kevin. (2003). Olive's ocean. New York: Greenwillow/HarperTrophy/HarperCollins.


[.]

STARTED:
King, Stephen. (1991). Four past midnight: The Langoliers. New York: Signet/Penguin.

[Was at the reference desk the other day and a teenager asked if we had the Stephen King book "The Shawshank Redemption" and, from my high school days, I remembered that it had a longer title and was a novella in a collection. A fellow librarian, after also remembering her high school years, recommended the story "The Langoliers".]

*

Sunday, May 10, 2009


FINISHED:

Hiaasen, Carl. (2009). Scat. New York: Knopf.


[.]

STARTED:
Henkes, Kevin. (2003). Olive's ocean. New York: Greenwillow/HarperTrophy/HarperCollins.

[Read just about all of his picture books and have been curious about his fiction...]

*

Tuesday, May 5, 2009


FINISHED:

DiTerlizzi, Tony, and Black, Holly. (2008). Beyond the Spiderwick chronicles: A giant problem. New York: Simon & Schuster.


[Finished this one in no time at all. Certainly not at all as compelling as the original series, this second installment in this trilogy deals with the kids trying to keep the giants that they have woken up from destroying their town. In the end, they record some mermaid songs and lure the giants out to sea. Something tells me that this won't keep them down... and it looks like the kids from the original series are back in town...]

STARTED:
Hiaasen, Carl. (2009). Scat. New York: Knopf.

[Believe it or not, I've not read any of his other books... though I did WATCH the movie version of Hoot... This one I'm reading to see if I think that it should be included on the ACL Distinguished Books list for 2009.]

*

Sunday, May 3, 2009


FINISHED:

Lowry, Lois. (1979). Anastasia Krupnik. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.


[.]

STARTED:
DiTerlizzi, Tony, and Black, Holly. (2008). Beyond the Spiderwick chronicles: A giant problem. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Have had this one on my bookshelf for WAY too long. It makes me feel guilty that I'm keeping a bunch of kids from reading it by having it checked out SO LONG.]

*

Friday, May 1, 2009


FINISHED:

Collins, Suzanne. (2008). The hunger games. New York: Scholastic.


[.]

STARTED:
Lowry, Lois. (1979). Anastasia Krupnik. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

[Does one ever need a reason to read Lois Lowry? I've only read her more recent works and have always been curious about this series.]

*