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.

Black HIstory - Part 3

In the last section of my Black History Month bibliography, I focus on African Americans of the twentieth century and beyond. For the students this is the most recognizable section for the biographies and stories are the ones they know, some even from their lifetime. Among the nonfiction I especially like our book on the Harlem Globetrotters which covers their history and several famous players. I was likely enough to see the Globetrotters in person in college and thoroughly enjoyed the show. Since baseball is my favorite sport, I enjoyed the book Baseball at War; World War II and the Fall of the Color Line. Here you can learn about baseall in the 1940s including Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak, the famous world series between the Yankes and the Dodgers, the career of Jackie Robinson, as well as the effect of World War II on the sport.

In the biography section we have books on famous African Americans from all walks of life - from the political to the entertainment world, from musicians to athletes. In particular I remember the book A Strong Right Arm, the Story of Mamie "Peanut" Johnson. This book was a Caudill nominee a few years ago, but it created a lasting impression with me. Mamie was determined to be a professional baseball player and tried out for every all-male, all-white team until she realized her dream as one of only three women to play in the Negro Leagues. What courage for such a petite lady!

Among the fiction there is no doubt that my favorite book is Willie Bea and the Time the Martians Landed, by Virginia Hamilton. The story takes place in October, 1938, on an Ohio farm. It centers on the eventful radio broadcast of the "War of the Worlds" led by Orson Welles. I have always been fascinated by the panic that resulted from this broadcast and over the years have read and researched a lot. Hamilton in her book shows that the panic was not restricted to the east coast. Even in the midwest people were frightened by the thought that Martians had invaded the earth!

I hope over these last few weeks you have read about some Black History book that sounded interesting and have come to the IMC to check it out. Next week I will return to highlighting our new books.