Friday, September 26, 2008

Orphan Trains

There are many books about the orphan trains that transported young orphans out of the big cities of the East to the frontier areas of the West. But Rodzina, by Karen Cushman, is the first one that features a Polish American. My family is of Polish descent so I couldn't wait to read Rodzina. Rodzina is gathered in a group of orphans for an orphan train trip but since she is twelve, her main job is to watch and take care of the youngest ones on the train. When the train makes its first stop, Rodzina anxiously waits for a family to claim her. One farmer does chose her but she soon learns that all he wants is someone to replace his dying wife and be a mother for his many children. Rodzina returns to the orphan train and continues on her journey. Will she ever find a home and a family of her own? Join Rodzina on her trip west and get an inside look at what orphan trains were like.

Friday, September 19, 2008

CSI for Teens

High school senior Cameryn Mahoney, a forensic pathologist in the making, assists her father, the county coroner for Silverton, Colorado, on his cases in a new series of murder mysteries by Alane Ferguson. I haven't had a chance to read the first book in the series, The Christopher Killer, but I have read the second book, The Angel of Death. In this book Cameryn not only has to deal with the mysterious death of her English teacher, but also with the possibility of meeting with her long-missing mother and her attraction to Kyle, the most popular boy in school. Just like the CSI television programs, we follow Cameryn through all the forensic steps -- autopsy, interviewing witnesses, and the struggle to make sense of the evidence. This series is written for the upper junior high and high school and does include some grisly details. It doesn't seem to matter what order you read the books since each book is a separate case. I was able to understand what the characters were doing without having read the first book. The IMC will soon be adding the first book and a brand-new third book. Watch for all of them in the New Books section of the wall shelves.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Redwall Series

A number of years ago Miss Smith who was then assistant principal here at Lakeview asked me if I knew anything about a book whose title was red something and was about mice. I wasn't familiar with the book, but I promised I would find out about it. The book she was referring to was Redwall, the incredible book by Brian Jacques that told the story of how a group of peaceful mice defended Redwall Abbey against the evil rat Cluny and his villainous hordes of rats and weasels. When I read this book I was fascinated by the perspective - everything took place at a level that was mouse-high. This high action, dazzling adventure book soon sprouted into a series of books that now number at least 19 with several spin-offs. All the books involve Redwall Abbey or animals that have lived there or defended it.

Thanks to a generous donation from last year's P.T.O., the IMC was able to increase our Redwall collection to 17 titles with all be 2 of them include in the Accelerated Reader program. If you like animal stories where the various creatures sword-fight, sneak into buildings, and perform dangerous rescues, this is the series for you. Check these books out from the Fiction section under JAC or in the New Book section for the most recent additions. For a complete list of titles use the I.P.A.C. online catalog that's linked to the Lakeview IMC webpage.

Friday, September 5, 2008

New Biographies

To continue in a trend I started at the end of last school year, I'd like to introduce you to some brand-new biographies. One of my favorite publishers of young adult books has started a series entitled Authors Teens Love. Besides presenting the life story of each author, these books include a chronology of the author's life, a glossary, a list of selected works, and a bibliography of books and Internet sites. We have added three new books over the summer for the authors Ray Bradbury, Philip Pullman, and Robert Cormier. This brings the total number of this series at Lakeview to 8. You can search our IPAC (online catalog) to learn what others we have in the collection. The new titles are currently displayed in the New Book Section.

Welcome Back

I hope you all had a fantastic summer reading all kinds of exciting books. I know I did. Now those books will be processed and ready for check-out soon. While we focus on getting these books ready, take a look at the summer reading blogs that Mrs. Warkentien and I created - our Reading Bug Blogs. We had lots of fun talking about books and picking new ones, old ones, award winners, and some 2009 Rebeca Caudil webpage even after the Summer Reading Materials are take down.
NOTE: This post accidentally ended up on the What's Happening blog last week, so I moved it to its correct spot this week.