Time for the Sequel

I hope many of you have had the opportunity to read Ben Mikaelsen's Touching Spirit Bear, the amazing story of an anger-filled boy who learns to deal with his anger on a deserted Alaskan island and finally is able to apologize to his badly-beaten victim. Well, now there is a sequel -- Ghost of Spirit Bear. In this book Cole, the anger-filled boy, and Peter, the victim, have returned from the island and begin to face life in high school again. Cole tries to keep the best of the island rites and ceremonies that the boys created to help him control his anger now. Peter, whose parents are overly protective, also tries to keep the island image. But now there are bullies in the school who torment Peter causing Cole to feed his anger and makes controling his anger more difficult. Is the magic of the island gone? Or can the decisions made on the island give each boy a chance to make a new life for himself?

For books in series or with sequels, check out the bulletin board behiind my desk. Mrs. Wilson and I have displayed our favorite series. After all, one good book deserves another.

Newest Books in the IMC

It's been so busy in the IMC these last few weeks that I have had very little time to work on new books. There are a number of new nofiction (information) books so why don't I just list them. Then next week you can come to the New Books section and take a look for yourself.

For our 6th grade social students (anad any other interested history students) we have new books on the Middle Ages -

Medieval Society

Science and Technology in the Middle Ages

Places of Worship in the Middle Ages

The Life of a Knight

Life in a Medieval Monastery
Medieval Projects You Can Do!

For 7th grade and other career minded students, we have Career Ideas fo Kids Who Like Art. \This book includes many art-related careers that you may not have considered like Actor, Chef, Interior Designer, Museum Curator, and Photojournalist.

For the persuasive speech topics that 8th grade researches, we now have Standardized Testing in Schools and Drunk Driving. The Drunk Driving book is particularly interesting because if actually assists with writing a critical esaay on this subject. The book contains lot of research and several examples of of the written essays.

For biography fans, we have new this week: Julius Caesar, Vladimir Lenin, rule of Russia in the 952and Alex Haley, the author of Roots,

For the fiction fans, we have 2 new historical books: Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons, by Ann Rinaldi, about being the first Black women, AND Worlds Afire, by Paul B. Janeczko, a noted poet who tells the story of a circus fire told in verse. Gordon Korman's new book Schooled is about what happens when a boy who is home-schooled by his hippie grandmother all his life has to deal with public school for the firsr time. Finally a donation from Mrs. Foellmers's boys, This Side of Paradise - part scifi, part horror where moving to a perfectly controlled town leads to danger for members of the Barrett family and possible cloning.

That's it for this week. More new books next week.

How to Find New Books

While we are on spring break, you can still find the new books in the IMC by using our online catalog called I.P.A.C. On the Lakeview Library webpage, you use the Outside Lakeview link to the I.P.A.C. As long as there are no power breaks or failures and the network is working, you can search for new books.

The easiest way tp search for new books is to click on the New Items tab above the search window. That method will list the most recently posted books.

If that isn't enough for you, click on Advanced Search and set up the following search:

Click on Mark.

Type the initial of the current month (or any past month within a year) in the first blue box using a capital letter.

Click the button at the bottom of the screen that says Search.

The list that appears is all the books that were posted within that particular month. There are 35 new books posted in March, 2009.

Have fun! Keep reading! See you after spring break!

Scifi in the Distant Future

PJ Haarsma' s book The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1, takes us into the distance future where humans have a very minor role in the galaxy. When a human sleeper ship arrives at the Rings of Orbis, only the children survive and are forced to work as knud-niks (slaves) to pay for their passage. Soon Johnny Turnbull discovers that he is a softwire, a special gift that allows him to enter any computer system with his mind. Softwires are rare in the galaxy so now Citizens of the Rings are bidding/arresting/kidnapping to get Johnny's ability. Meanwhile Johnny discovers a virus destroying the computer system at Orbis. Can he alert the authorities to this danger before they dissect him to study his power? Can he better the situation for the human orphans with his ability and avoid being kidnapped by a rival business group? And best news of all, there is a sequel coming soon to this library.

A Mystery Within a Mystery

So says the subtitle of the new book The Postcard, by Tony Abbott. Just like the hypnotic cover picture, you are drawn into this story. Jason's family is falling apart. His mom and dad hardly speak to each other. Then Jason's dad leaves for Florida because the grandmother he has never known has died. Now Jason is being sent to Florida to help his dad bury his grandmother and pack and fix up the house for selling. While sweating in the Florida heat, Jason gets a strange phone call telling him to look in the desk. A search of the desk reveals an old postcard stuck in one of the drawers. Now the mystery begins. The postcard was blank except for a typed address. The picture was an old hotel, one that had been owned by Jason's great-grandfather.

With this simple start Jason follows a trail of old postcards and magazine stories over time which lead him to learn about his father's family and to uncover many family secrets.

Freddy the Pig

Freddy is the invention of Walter R. Brooks. Freddy lives on Mr. Bean's farm with his other animal friends -- Jinx the cat, Mrs. Wiggins the cow, Henrietta the hen, and Charles the rooster. What is unusual about Freddy is that he thinks he is human. In his first adventure, Freddy Goes to Florida, Freddy organizes a travel agency for animals so that he and his friends can escape the cold of winter by vacationing in Florida.


The IMC has several other books about Freddy including the newest addition Freddy the Pied Piper. But my personal favorite has always been Freddy the Detective. After reading a book about Sherlock Holmes the famous London detective, Freddy is sure he can solve mysteries, too. He dresses up like Sherlock Holmes and bothers all the animals on the farm looking for a mystery. I couldn't stop laughing at Freddy's crazy ideas. If you haven't yet read one of Freddy's stories, now os a great time. Then watch that smile curl up as you follow Freddy's adventures.

BOOM!

It is the summer of 1949 in Nigel Hinton's book, Time Bomb. For Andy and his friends their world seems to be falling apart except when they are together. Eddie's stepfather beats him; Manny is the target of anti-Semitic comments; Bob has a stutter that his dad considers a weakness; and Andy finds out that his fathers is cheating on his mother. As they travel about the town exploring that summer, the boys find an unexploded World War II bomb. Keeping the bomb's existence a secret, the boys feel they now have power. What happens with the bomb and their friendship will cause the boys to grow up and take another look at their lives.