Welcome to the 2012-2013 School Year!!
Divergent!
Addie on the Inside & Totally Joe by James Howe
Totally Joe follows the same group of kids from the misfits, but this time takes a special look at Joe's life. When asked to write a alphabiography (biography with letters A-Z), he struggles between truth and fiction. When some rumors start spreading about his sexuality by a bully Kevin, Joe has to decide whether to fight for the truth, or hide his identity.
Addie on the inside is a book about a quite obnoxious girl who struggles with who she really is. Written in free form poetry, this book is about Addie coming to discovery abilities and personality traits she carries; her first boyfriend, gossip and cliques at school, and what it means to be happy with your true self.
Goodbye school year 2011-2012!
Fever 1793
During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. Mattie spends her days avoiding chores and making plans to turn the family business into the finest Philadelphia has ever seen. But then the fever breaks out.
Disease sweeps the streets, destroying everything in its path and turning Mattie's world upside down. At her feverish mother's insistence, Mattie flees the city with her grandfather. But she soon discovers that the sickness is everywhere, and Mattie must learn quickly how to survive in a city turned frantic with disease.
Scholastic Book Fair April 16-20th!
Author Talk
Mary Downing Hahn
1937-
Book Genre: ghost stories, mysteries
These are some of Ms. Richardson's favorite books by this author!
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CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF THE HUNGER GAMES!!!!!!
42 students and staff wil be going to see the Hunger Games on Saturday.
We will see you at the games!!
Book Talk: March 12-16th
Graduation Reading Bucket List
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Book Talk: March 5-9th
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Grace, 17, loves the peace and tranquility of the woods behind her home. It is here during the cold winter months that she gets to see her wolf—the one with the yellow eyes. Grace is sure that he saved her from an attack by other wolves when she was nine. Over the ensuing years he has returned each season, watching her with those haunting eyes as if longing for something to happen. When a teen is killed by wolves, a hunting party decides to retaliate. Grace races through the woods and discovers a wounded boy shivering on her back porch. One look at his yellow eyes and she knows that this is her wolf in human form. Fate has finally brought Sam and Grace together, and as their love grows and intensifies, so does the reality of what awaits them. It is only a matter of time before the winter cold changes him back into a wolf, and this time he might stay that way forever.
Book Talk: February 6th-10th
To Celebrate Black History Month, we are going to look at two different African American Authors who had made an impact on young adult fiction works.
Walter Dean Myers
Sharon Draper
Book Talk: January 2-6
Anything but Typical
Wild River
Review from Amazon- It’s Ryan versus the river in a race against time to save his brother’s life.
When twelve-year-old Ryan reluctantly agrees to join his experienced older brother Tanner on a camping trip, he could never have dreamed this would turn into the most frightening day of his life.
Ryan’s no good at sports or outdoor stuff. He’d rather be home playing video games. But Tanner says it’s an easy trip. They’ll kayak down the Boulder River, catch fish, and roast marshmallows.
But the river is higher than usual, and the kayaking is scary. Tanner isn’t worried. But soon after, he’s badly hurt in a kayaking accident, leaving Ryan alone and afraid he can’t save his brother’s life. He’s only faced danger in video games. What good are games now when Ryan faces a real-life battle?
Heart of a Samurai
Review from Amazon- In 1841, a Japanese fishing vessel sinks. Its crew is forced to swim to a small, unknown island, where they are rescued by a passing American ship. Japan’s borders remain closed to all Western nations, so the crew sets off to America, learning English on the way.
Manjiro, a fourteen-year-old boy, is curious and eager to learn everything he can about this new culture. Eventually the captain adopts Manjiro and takes him to his home in New England. The boy lives for some time in New England, and then heads to San Francisco to pan for gold. After many years, he makes it back to Japan, only to be imprisoned as an outsider. With his hard-won knowledge of the West, Manjiro is in a unique position to persuade the shogun to ease open the boundaries around Japan; he may even achieve his unlikely dream of becoming a samurai.
The Dreamer
Review from Amazon-From the time he is a young boy, Neftalí hears the call of a mysterious voice. Even when the neighborhood children taunt him, and when his harsh, authoritarian father ridicules him, and when he doubts himself, Neftalí knows he cannot ignore the call. Under the canopy of the lush rain forest, into the fearsome sea, and through the persistent Chilean rain, he listens and he follows. . . Combining elements of magical realism with biography, poetry, literary fiction, the authors take readers on a rare journey of the heart and imagination.
Book Talk: December 12-16
Moon Over Manifest
Review from Amazon- After a life of riding the rails with her father, 12-year-old Abilene can’t understand why he has sent her away to stay with Pastor Shady Howard in Manifest, Missouri. Abilene quickly finds friends and uncovers a local mystery. Their summerlong “spy hunt” reveals deep-seated secrets and helps restore residents’ faith in the bright future once promised on the town’s sign.
After Ever After
Review rom Amazon- After Ever After tells the story of eighth-grader Steven Alper, whose five-year-old brother, Jeffrey, is diagnosed with leukemia. Here, Jeffrey is in the eighth grade himself and takes the limelight. His cancer has gone into remission, but that’s not the end of it. “Treatment is nothing compared to what happens after you’ve been ‘cured.’ . . . Being a cancer survivor can be a life sentence all its own.” Jeffrey, as well as his best friend, fellow survivor, and devilishly dark humorist, Tad, have all kinds of brain and nerve damage from the intense chemotherapy and radiation, leaving Tad in a wheelchair and Jeffrey with serious concentration problems. Most of all, he recognizes that humor and heart aren’t ways to lighten a story—they’re there to deliver it.
Princess of the Midnight Ball
Review from Amazon- Galen, a soldier (and knitter) returning home from war, encounters an old woman who gives him an invisibility cloak and yarn possessing magical powers. While working as a gardener at the palace, he encounters the princess, Rose, and her 11 younger sisters. Because of a secret bargain their mother made with the evil King Under Stone, the princesses are cursed to dance each night till their shoes are worn ragged. Aided by the good magic held in his yarn, Galen solves the puzzle that has stumped many a prince and earns Rose’s love and hand in marriage.
Book Talk: December 5th-December 9th
8th Grade Book Talk: We are looking at Sharon Draper's Website to read her biography as well as get synopsis' for her other books.
http://sharondraper.com/books.asp
Next set of Battle Books!
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
As the only girl in an uppercrust Texas family of seven children, Calpurnia, 11, is expected to enter young womanhood with all its trappings of tight corsets, cookery, and handiwork. Unlike other girls her age, Callie is most content when observing and collecting scientific specimens with her grandfather. Callie's mother, believing that a diet of Darwin, Dickens, and her grandfather's influence will make Callie dissatisfied with life, sets her on a path of cooking lessons, handiwork improvement, and an eventual debut into society.
11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
Review from School Library Journal:
Amanda and Leo, born on the same day, have celebrated their birthdays together for 10 years. Still feeling hurt from an unkind remark Leo made at last year’s party, Amanda spends her eleventh birthday without her now-estranged friend to share the fun. In the days that follow, both Amanda and Leo discover that they are caught in a time loop, waking up each morning to find themselves repeating their eleventh birthdays. Emboldened by the idea of daily do-overs, she discovers that small changes in her attitude and actions result in sometimes-subtle, sometimes-monumental shifts in results for herself, her family, and her friends.
Scat by Carl Hiaasen
Review from School Library Journal: Hiaasen starts off this story—a hybrid madcap swamp adventure and cast-driven environmental whodunit—with the disappearance of a biology teacher after a fire breaks out during a field trip in the Everglades. A generous cast of characters—each imbued with a few unexpected traits—flits about and provides most of the impetus to keep things rolling. Adding some emotional heft is the subplot involving Nick’s father; he returns home from Iraq minus his right arm, and Nick binds his own arm so that they can learn to become lefties together.
Book Talk: November 28th- December 2nd:
Lochburn Library would like to announce the
2011-2012 Battle of the Books!
We have been working hard to get these books ready to present as Battle books! Here are the first three books to discuss:
Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise
Synopsis: When I.B. Grumply moves into a Victorian mansion to write the latest installment in his "Ghost Tamer" series, he is overwhelmed by writer's block. Unfortunately he finds the house is already occupied by a 11-year-old boy named Seymous Hope, his cat, and the previous owner who is now a ghost Olive C. Spence. However, the problem is- I.B. Grumply doesn't believe in ghosts!
Review summarized from- Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Here is a video book talk from the Publisher:
Synopsis: 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 when it crashes in Switzerland, the two teens cross paths, and suddenly the line between enemy and ally is no longer clearly defined.
—Review summarizes from Heather M. Campbell
Librarian's #1 Pick!!- Ms. Daniels' favorite book on the Battle List!
The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks
Synopsis: Nina Harrison has been 15 years old since 1973. That's because she is a vampire. Here are other members of the Reformed Vampire Support Group are not beautiful, strong, powerful, rich, or in control. Instead they are sickly, struggling just to stay alive, living on the blood of the guinea pigs they keep, and making the best of their affliction. They have vowed not to drink human blood or be responsible for the creation of another vampire. Nina hates her boring, uneventful life, which changes drastically when Casimir is staked and the group, realizing that the killer knows who and where they are, all move in with Nina and her mother, a nonvampire. With only a silver bullet as a clue to track the vampire slayer, Nina, Dave, and Father Ramon, who sponsors the group, set out on a dangerous journey.
Review summarized from- Donna Rosenblum, Floral Park Memorial High School, NY
Book Talk October 31-November 4th:
Everest by Gordon Korman!
The height of Danger. The height of competition. The height of the world.
Everest by Gordon Korman!
Book Talk October 3-8th:
This week instead of having to hear me give a book talk, I thought we could watch a book talk instead:
Book Talk September 25-30th:
This week is a special week for the library, as it is National Banned Book Week! Stay tuned for a discussion on banned books, but enjoy this link that shows the top ten most banned books of the year:
Book Talk September 19-23rd:
Title: Room One
Author: Andrew Clements
Pages: 160
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis: In a one-room school in a small Nebraska town, Ted is the lone sixth-grader sandwiched between four fourth-graders and four eighth-graders. Besides doing his chores on the family farm, he delivers newspapers, attends 4-H Club meetings, and enjoys reading mystery books. Riding his paper route one morning, Ted spies a girl's face in the window of an abandoned farmhouse. He puts his detective skills to the test as he tries to discover who she is, why she is there, and how he can help her. When she entrusts him with a secret, he must decide how best to honor that trust while helping solve her family's dilemma.
Librarian's Opinion: This book is an easy-read, and one to draw your attention to Andrew Clements! Clements is an excellent reader, and this main character Ted is easy to like and read his story!
EXTRA BONUS: Andrew Clements has written TONS of books; check out his website at:
http://www.andrewclements.com/http://www.andrewclements.com/
Book Talk: September 12-17th:
Title: Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Pages: 374
Genre: Thriller/Adventure
Synopsis: The Hunger Games take place in the nation of Panem, which is located on the North American continent, long after the United Stated and other nations in the area have fallen. Panem is ruled by a capitol with 12 outlying districts spanning the continent. As punishment for previous uprisings against the Capitol, each year, each district must send 1 boy and 1 girl to fight to the death in an arena for the Capitol's entertainment. Katniss Everdeen's younger sister is chosen as District 12's girl, and Katniss steps forward to take her place, realizing that it is a death sentence.
Librarian Opinion: I couldn't put this book down! I normally do not read adventure books for fun, but this book has had lots of talk so I figured I would read it. It was amazing! Katniss, the main character, is a strong woman who cares about her family and sister. I found the book SUPER easy to read, and I couldn't wait to strart the second one! (The series is 3 books)
EXTRA BONUS: The movie of " The Hunger Games" comes out March 23, 2012 so make sure you read it soon!