Best Books of 2010

It's that time again when Mrs. Wilson and Miss Hagensee select the best books they have read during the year. There have been so many great books that we both had a hard time limiting ourselves to just ten. We invite you all to send us your top ten list or at least tell us how your list compares to ours. Have a great holiday time and see you in the new year.

Mrs. Wilson's Favorite Books Read in 2010

1. Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

2. Gone from These Woods, by Donny Seagraves

3. After Ever After, by Jordan Sonnenblick

4. 11 Birthdays, by Wendy Mass

5. When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

6. The Willoughbys, by Lois Lowry

7. Trouble, by Gary D. Schmidt

8. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

9. Waiting for Normal, by Leslie Connor

10. Notes from the Dog, by Gary Paulsen


Miss Hagensee's Favorite Books Read in 2010

1. Trouble, by Gary D. Schmidt

2. Ten Things I Hate about Me, by Randa Abdel-Fattah

3. Cracker, the Best Dog in Vietnam, by Cynthia Kadohata

4. After, by Francine Prose

5. Flygirl, by Sherri L. Smith

6. Greetings from Nowhere, by Barbara O'Connor

7. Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson

8. Woods Runner, by Gary Paulsen

9. Skullduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy

10. Mergers, by Steven L. Layne

Hottest New Addition

Now that the 6th graders are busy reading the nominees for the 2011 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award, we find that the nominees we have in audiobook form are in great demand. We currently have 6 of the 20 nominees in audiobook format and 3 more are coming. (I had to order special plastic cases to protect the CDs since they only came in cardboard boxes.)
While the IMC has some older audiobooks in audio cassette form, the new Caudill nominees are either in CD format or Playaway format. Playaways are a small box that is a complete audio book. The packaging includes earbuds, an extra battery, a lanyard, and a print copy of the book. I have seen several students walking around school listening to a Playaway between classes or in the IMC.

Greetings from Nowhere

This book by Barbara O'Connor caught my eye on the Anderson's Mock Newbery list for 2009. I finally found time to read it this week during lunch. The story takes place in a motel off the main highway tucked in the hills of North Carolina. Aggie who has run the motel for many years with her husband Harold now deceased is facing having to sell the motel and move in with her sister in Raleigh. Willow and her dad buy the motel but Willow hates moving there now that her mom has left the family. Kirby and his mom are now their way to a school for problem children when their car breaks down and they stay at the motel. Loretta and her parents arrive at the motel on a search for the places Loretta's birth mother may have visited in the area. These unlikely and unhappy people find new meaning for their lives at the motel. The story is told in alternating chapters by each of the four main characters so the reader has the opportunity to see the changes in each life as they occur. I hope you will have a chance to stop at the Sleepy Time Motel and meet Aggie, Willow, Kirby, and Loretta, too.

More New Books

I have some great new books for you that were added to the IMC collection this week.
First, if you liked the Richard Peck books A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder, you would probably agree that Grandma Dowdel really makes those stories funny. Now Peck has a new Grandma Dowdel story called A Season of Gifts. In this story Grandma Dowdel has new neighbors, a preacher's family, who are having a hard time adjusting to their new home, especially with Grandma Dowdel's spooky house next door.
A new addition by Andrew Clements is called No Talking. The boys and girls in Mrs. Overby's class just don't get along. AND the boys are always LOUD! Friction between the boys and girls leads to a bet to see who can be silent the longest. What will school be like with No Talking.
Competition is fierce in Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's new book Science Fair. Add in a $5,000 prize, a plot to destroy the United States, a pair of bumbling spies, and a very nervous frog and you have a hilarious book with danger and suspense.
Two books that I blogged this summer are now ready for checkout - Shannon Hale's Book of a Thousand Days about two girls walled up in a tower who have to rescue themselves and Ridley Pearson's The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark where holographic images of five teens have to defend Disney World and the whole world against Disney villains and witches come to life.
All these new books are available in the New Book Section by the windows.

I'm Hooked

I have been reluctant to try audio books (books read on cassette, CD, or Playaway) because I was afraid they would be too distracting, especially in the car when I'm driving. Then I realized that I listen to old-time radio in the car and have no problems with distraction. Using money from our State Grant for School Libraries last year, I purchased nearly half the Rebecca Caudill nominees for 2011 in audio book format. As time is getting short to complete my reading of all 20 nominees, I needed to do something to speed up my list. I started with the audio book version of The Alchemyst by Michael Scott. This audio book, read/performed by Denis P. O'Hare, is a fantastic listening experience. Mr. O'Hare manages to create individual voices for each character. And there are a lot of characters. The voices are distinct enough to recognize which character is speaking before they are identified. Now I'm hooked on audio books! They make my drive home much more enjoyable. And should I need to concentrate on traffic, I can always press the skip back button to repeat a section. I was worried that I would not retain enough of the story to effectively booktalk later so I tried taking the Accelerated Reader quiz and I scored 100%! Even now I find myself remembering the story as vividly as if I held the book in my hands and read it. All of the Caudill 2011 books will be ready for checkout over the month of November including the audio book versions. For those of you who can't wait, the IMC already has a blossoming audio book collection ready for checkout. Take a look at the rack on top of the Reference shelves by the windows and begin listening to some great stories.

New Book Bonanza

Due the MAP testing taking place in the IMC this week, Mrs. Wilson and I have had a great opportunity to work on new books. Monday the IMC will be open for regular business because no testing has been scheduled due to the Red Ribbon Week assembly. Please come and look at the new book display by the windows. It is packed full of new books including the following.

Many of you have read and enjoyed Jordan Sonnenblick's book Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. Now he has written a sequel called After Ever After. Jeffrey has beat his cancer (but is still worried it might return) and is now facing middle school and all that goes with it. Even in his own family there are changes as older brother Steven has gone off to Africa to "find himself."

If you like Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, try his Newbery winning book The Graveyard Book. Image a boy who lives in a cemetery and is cared for by ghosts! Having crawled into the cemetery as a baby when his family is murdered by a vicious killer, Nobody Owens is raised by ghosts and other inhabitants of the graveyard. He cannot leave the cemetery because the killer is still after him. This magical, terrifying, suspenseful book is perfect for the Halloween season.

IN SHORT: Other new books include Bucking the Sarge, by Christopher Paul Curtis, where Luther defies his mother, the Sarge, as she tries to milk the system to build an empire of slum housing and group homes. -- Z.Rex, by Steve Cole, is a heart-pounding action-adventure story about a dinosaur brought to life who is on the trail of Adam, the teenage son of the scientist who created the monster. -- One of the Survivors, by Susan Shaw, follows the story of Joey Campbell who escaped a deadly school fire and is now accused of having set the fire. This is such a powerful story that I want to nominate it for the Rebecca Caudill Award.

Do You Find History Boring?

Is History only a bunch of dates to memorize? Then you need to take a look at The Wicked History of the World, by Terry Dreary and Martin Brown. The subtitle -- "History with the Nasty Bits Left in!" -- tells us that this view of history will be very different from any history textbook. There are cartoons, word plays, fake letters, fake news articles, puzzles, and Did You Know... frames to catch your eyes and give you a chuckle. This is also probably the bloodiest history book I have ever seen. The book is packed full of history but it doesn't feel at all like a textbook. You will find the book in the New Book display by the windows (if I can get it away from Mrs. Maass!).
Please note: At the very beginning there is a note that explains that this book was originally published in Great Britain and that the American editors decided not to change "what's already brilliant (translation = really great)." That means that some words may be unfamiliar British words. Fortunately there is a handy glossary in the back to help you.

September in Review

With the IMC staff focusing on the new laptop computer and getting them ready for classroom use during September, it's amazing we had any time to prepare new books. However, 42 new books have been added to the IMC collection. In non-fiction we have added books covering such topics as volcanoes and man-made disasters, fortune telling, and the Hoover Dam and Jerusalem to biographies of Jimmy Carter, Tom Cruise, Jeff Gordon, Gregor Mendel, Stephanie Meyer, Alfred Nobel, and Louis Pasteur.

The 28 new fiction books cover all genres from adventure to mystery, sports to suspense, historical to humorous. I especially enjoyed Patricia and Frederick McKissack's new book The Clone Codes. These authors are know for their historical fiction featuring many aspects of Black history, but this new book is science fiction. Set in the world of 2170 where clones are used as slaves, the story parallels the civil rights movement of our recent history. On the run from bounty hunters who arrested her mother for supporting the freedom of clones, Leanna learns some surprising truths about herself. Leanna also learns what freedom is from several famous historical people who appear as holograms and who predict an amazing future for Leanna -- if she can survive. This first book in a new series has plenty of action and I am looking forward to the next installment.

Caudill Nominees 2011

I have started to read the 2011 Rebecca Caudill nominees and what a great year this will be! While I still predict that The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, and Found, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, will battle it out for the award, there are a number of other great books on the list. For a full list of the nominees, use this link: http://www.rebeccacaudill.org/nominees/2011.htm

The IMC will have multiple copies of all 20 nominated books since the 6th grade will participate in this award program through their LA book reports. Copies are on order and should be shelf-ready in October. This year we will also feature a number of audiobook copies of the nominees in CD and Playaway formats.

Mystery at the Art Institute

In the Art Institute of Chicago there is a special area called the Throne Rooms. Here miniature rooms furnished for different periods of history are displayed, Until Ruthie's class goes to the Art Institute for a field trip, she believes that nothing special will ever happen in her life. Ruthie is fascinated by the Throne Rooms and it is there that her life suddenly becomes very exciting. She and her best friend Jack find a magic key that shrinks them to just the right size to fit in the miniature rooms. When they enter a room the room expands to include a whole world based on the time period of the room. They meet people of those times and they learn of a mystery that can only be solved within the miniature worlds. Marianne Malone, an Illinois author, has created an amazing world full of mystery and adventure in her book The Sixty-Eight Rooms. It is currently available in the New Book Display area.

Finally New Books!

This week Mrs. Wilson and I finally got a chance to finish processing some of the new books that I catalogued over the summer. Among these new items now on display in the New Book Section up front by the windows is Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers. Reese, a young teen in a juvenile corrections facility (prison), is trying to turn his life around and win an early release. His crime was stealing a doctor's prescription drug pad and selling it to a drug dealer. The only bright spot in his home life is his much younger sister who is smart and aiming for strong future. With anger issues of his own, Reese gets help from an unlikely source, a cranky old man at his work release program. Like Monster, Myers's prison story from a few years ago, Myers is able to tell a young man's story as though the teen was talking directly to the reader. You will root for Reese as he tries to prove he has a chance at a normal life.

Also now available is Book 6 of the Ranger's Apprentice series - The Siege of Macindaw and Book 5 of The 39 Clues series - The Black Circle. More books in both of these series will soon be available.

Extraordinary Schools

Among the books I read this summer were two books about very unusual boarding schools. In Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty, Gemma Doyle is sent to the Spence Academy in Londona after a tragedy strikes her family in India. While at the Spence Gemma has a hard time making friends until the most powerful girls at the school learn of her power to attract the supernatural. The four girls soon find themselves in a fantasy world where their deepest wishes come true. What starts as a way to avoid the boredom of school soon turns into a danger that threatens all of them

Claudia Gray's book Evernight tells the story of Bianca and her parents who move to Evernight Academy where her parents are hired as teachers. Bianca feels that she doesn't fit in with the other students until she meets handsome, brooding Lucas who warns of danger at the Academy. There is a twist to this story that will throw you off guard. What seems to be an ordinary school turns out to something very frightening. And the characters that you think are "normal" are no what they seem.

These new books will soon be available for check out. If you want to be first on the list to read them, see Miss Hagensee.

The End and The Beginning

The school year will soon end and this blog will go on hiatus for the summer. I have enjoyed telling you about new books in our library collection throughout the school year. Now we are putting all the books back on the shelves so they will be ready for the new school year in August.

For those of you who still want to hear about new great books -- fear not! Over the summer I will start a new blog in the Summer Reading Program section of the Lakeview Library webpage. The link will be in a table right above this one. This summer I have decided to talk about what I am reading -- the brand new books which will be added to the collection in the fall -- the books I didn't have time to read during the school year -- Oprah's Kids List which I have been waiting to get to -- and any more that I can find. My summer plan is to sit out on my patio during the warm summer afternoons (it's shaded) with a tall cool drink and a great book. You are all invited to share your thoughts about the books I am reading or make suggestions of books I should read. Maybe we can start a dialogue -- reader to reader.

Dive into Summer Reading

The Lakeview Summer Reading Program begins on June 2nd. Students are challenged to keep a reading log of all the books they read over the summer. Copies of the Summer Reading Log are available in the IMC starting next week and online at the Lakeview Library webpage beginning June 2nd. All completed book logs must be turned in by August 27th to be eligible for prizes. After an individual discussion of their summer reading with me, students will receive prizes. Information about the summer reading program will be posted on the Lakeview Library webpage.

Looking for ideas of summer reading, then participate in the Lakeview IMC Summer Paperback Check-out OR read my summer reading blog where I talk about the books I am reading this summer and you can make suggestions for me. Details about the Paperback Check-out are available in the What's Happening in the IMC blog. I plan to spend my afternoons on my patio with a cool drink and a great book. I hope you will, too.

Outer Space Silliness

When I was growing up, there was a class of movies in the science fiction genre called B movies. These were silly, often cheaply made movies that usually featured BEMs (bug-eyed monsters) who terrorize humans, but the humas always won in the end. The Doom Machine, by Mark Teague, reminded me of those B movies. It starts in a small town where Jack Creedle and his Uncle Bud live. Uncle Bud is developing a gadget (a space traveling machine) that will make him millions of dollars. Jack is a mechanical wiz who soup up any moving vehicle, spaceships included. Into their town come serious-minded Isadora Shumway and her mother, a brilliant scientist, just at the time an alien spaceship lands near the town. The aliens, known as the Skreeps, look like giant spiders with multiple eyes and have come to Earth looking for treasure that will allow their captain Xaafuun to become the leader of their home planet. The aliens capture the four humans and Uncle Bud's gadget and take them into outer space where all kinds of weird and crazy adventures happen. This silly story will keep you chuckling throughout all the strange events. Oh yes, and the humans win in the end.

We Need Your Help!

Petitions for series to complete or continue are now available on the center bookcase in the IMC. Each series that I could identify in the IMC collection has a sheet listing the books in the series in order, along with the author's name, a list of genres, and a summary of the first book. Attached to this cover page are a couple of petition pages where you can sign your name if you want the IMC to keep that series going. The series have been grouped in brightly colored folders by the main genre of the series. So if you really like mysteries and adventure books for example, you can go to those folders and indicate your choices. The petitions will be available till the end of school in June. Then I will take them home and analyze your choices over the summer. In the fall I will begin purchasing missing or new additions to the series you have selected. Other series will be ignored. This is your chance to make your voice heard and show me what you want in the IMC collection.

There will be a form for new series that the IMC does not have where you and your friends can make new suggestions for me to look at. Please help!

Al Capone Returns

As the IMC begins asking students for their help in picking series to follow in the collection, I wanted to tell you about a new sequel to Al Capone Does My Shirts. Jennifer Choldenko has written Al Capone Shines My Shoes which continues the story of Moose and his family on Alcatraz Island in 1935 during the time when Al Capone was an inmate. While his father is a prison guard, Moose has to deal with friendship issues with Jimmy, Scout, Annie, and Piper. Now that his sister Natalie is attending a boarding school for "kids who have their wires crossed" possibly through Capone's influence, Moose finds that it is payback time. Capone wants Moose to do him a favor when Capone's wife comes to visit. Moose is challenged on how to accomplish this task without anyone knowing what's going on. Other inmates are introduced in this book like Willy One Arm and Buddy Boy who work at the warden's house and Seven Fingers who does repairs at the prison guards' houses. There are laughter and fear, schemes and chills for Moose and his friends. And there seems to be a third book coming. At a conference this year, the author indicated that she is working on another book. Since the third job that Capone had on Alcatraz was in the prison library, Choldenko suggests her next book may have a library theme.

Mission Accomplished

Before spring break I set myself the goal of finishing the 3 newest books I have purchased -- Fang, by James Patterson, This World We Live In, by Susan Beth Pfeffer, and Lockdown, by Walter Dean Myers. I finished those and they are all great. I will be donating them to Lakeview. I also finished what I call my purse book because I like to carry a book in my purse so I have something to read if I get stuck in a line or have to wait. I have been carrying with me The Mayor of Central Park, by Avi all through March. It is a fun book. Set in the year 1900, Oscar Westerwit, a squirrel, considers himself the mayor of all the animals in Central Park in New York City. He also considers himself an excellent baseball player and a wannabe actor in musical theater. Oscar's problems begin with the disappearance of his team's pitcher (and the best player on the team). Problems explode when Big Daddy Duds and his gun-toting rat thugs decide to move into Central Park and take it over. Baseball, romance, and war fill the pages of this delightful comedy. Sometimes it hard to remember that the characters are all animals. They walk , talk, and think like humans!

Spring Break and Reading

I can't wait for spring break to begin because I have several new books set aside to read over the break. There is the new James Patterson book in the Maximum Ride series called Fang AND the new Susan Beth Pfeffer book, The World We Live in, which picks up the story of Miranda and her family from Life as We Knew It AND a new book by Walter Dean Myers called Lockdown. I hope that you have also picked out a couple of great books to enjoy over your spring break. See you in April.

My Favorite Genre

This past week I had the opportunity to book talk my favorite genre - science fiction - for Mrs. Hayes/Georges's advanced Language Arts class. I had a most difficult time keeping the number of books I talked about low because there are so many really good science fiction books in our library. The one book that I didn't talk about (because I hadn't finished reading it yet) was Janet McNaughton's The Secret Under My Skin. Now that I have finished it, I would like to share this book with you.

The story centers around a young girl who was orphaned when she was two or three years old. For a number of years she lived on the streets until the Commission picked her up and put her in a work camp. So far this story could have taken place any time in history, but it really takes place in the future -- a future where human destruction of the environment has gotten so bad that the society as we know today fell apart and a military society and a religious society are now struggling for power. Blay, who later finds that her real name is Blake, sees both sides of this struggle when she lives in the work camp and when she is chosen as a servant for the bio-indicator who is preparing for investiture. Blake worries about her future and learns to be concerned about the future of her world as she searches for clues to help her regain her past. This story may present our future if we are not more aware of our environment and takes steps to preserve it.

Meet Author Roland Smith

Roland Smith's book Elephant Run is nominated for the 2010 Rebecca Caudill Young readers Book Award. This is an exciting adventure which takes place in Burma during World War II. Young Nick is sent to his father's planatation from England to escape the Blitz, the German air bombing. Unfortunately he is no safer with his father because the planatation is captured by Japanese soldiers. Nick and Mya, a native girl, are able to escape and want to rescue his father and her brother. With help from a very old, wise man and a rogue elephant they may have a chance to complete the rescue.

My first meeting with a Roland Smith book was a previous Caudill nominee called Zach's Lie. In this story Zach's father agrees to testify against his boss, a drug czar. The family is put into the Witness Protection Program, moved to the other side of the country, and given new names and identities to try to protect them from the revenge of the drug lord. But Zach has a problem remembering his new identity and makes a slip. If the drug lord finds out about his mistake his whole family is in terrible danger. This book is followed by Jack's Run, a thrilling sequel as the drug lord's trial draws near.

The IMC has a third Roland Smith book, Peak, a mountain climbing attempt on Mount Everest, but I haven't read this one yet. If you have, I would loved to hear what you think of it. I have been checking other books by Roland Smith and he seems to favor writing exciting adventures. If you have read any of his books, I would like to know if you think the IMC should get more. You can contact me by commenting on this blog.

Do the Math

This is a new series by Wendy Lichtman. In the first book, Secrets, Lies, and Algebra, we meet Tess who has always loved math! She even sees applications of mathematics in her everyday life which help her through the difficult time of 8th grade. In the second book, The Writing on the Wall, Tess is faced with puzzling patterns -- of graffiti, scary pranks, and Damien waiting for her after school. Tess searches for formulas to solve these puzzles, but perhaps life isn't that neat. Sometimes you just have to risk it!

The chapter titles in both books captured my attention because they are math concepts and I was a math teacher. I hope this author will continue writing about Tess and her unique perspective on life.

Lakeview Choices for Caudill Award

The Lakeview results are in for the 2010 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award. If any of you have missed the 2010 nominees, here is a short description of the top three at Lakeview.

In third place -- Someone Named Eva, by Joan M. Wolf. In 1942 during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German soldiers would round up residents of a town and search through the children for those who met the Arryan ideal - blond hair, blue eyes, etc. These children, like Milada in the book, were sent to special schools where they were brainwashed to forget their families and were trained to become good German children who were then adopted by Nazi families and raised as their own. Milada struggles to remember her real family and heritage and resist the branwashing, hoping to be rescued and return to her Czech family.

In second place -- All the Lovely Bad Ones, by Mary Downing Hahn. This is a ghost story that takes place in a Vermont inn run by Travis and Corey's grandmother. There is a legend that the inn is haunted. Travis and Corey decide to bring the haunting to life by faking sightings of ghosts. Unfortunately there really are ghosts and they don't like being faked. This book really scared me as it explains the story behind the ghosts and why they never found eternal peace.

In first place -- Shark Girl, by Kelly L. Bingham. This story is taken from the headlines of sharks attacking people. Jane loses her right arm in a shark attack and has to learn to live her life with only one arm. She tells her story in poetry form as she is frustrated, angry, and feed up with people telling her that she will adjust to her new life.

In about 2 weeks we will hear which of the 20 nominated books is the official statewide winner. As you can see from these short descriptions of only 3 of the twenty nominated books, there are some great reads in this year's list. The 2010 Caudill nominees will remain on display on top of the bookcase by my desk for the rest of the school year. Please stop by and read as many as you can.

Caudill Nominees 2011

While students are deciding which book is their choice for the 2010 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award, the IMC already has the nominee list for 2011. The IMC has 5 of the 20 nominated books and 2 more are in processing. I just today ordered a complete set of all 20 nominees. We will get the books shelf-ready as soon as they arrive so students who want a head start can do so before the end of this school year.

The 2011 list looks to be another great list of books to read. I have already read 6 of these new nominees and I am looking forward to reading the rest this summer. The following is the link to the Award website where you can view the 2011 list.

http://www.rcyrba.org/

Mysteries Galore

Many of our new books during 2009 were mysteries - some in series and some individual. Blood Trail, by Nancy Springer, stirred a lot of interest today when I read the first paragraph from in the inside front cover. That paragraph included the words "last words" and "murder."

The 39 Clues series follows the adventures of a brother and sister who are trying to collect all the clues to a family treasure before other teams of family members. Since each book is written by a diferent young adult author, I have decided to give this series a generic call number FIC THI so all the books will be in the same place on the shelf.

The Samaurai Mysteries by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler show how Seikei realizes his life's dream to become a samurai warrior by helping solve mysteries with his adopted father.

The Enola Holmes Mysteries by Nancy Springer, propose a younger sister to the famous detective Sherlock Holmes who wants to make a name for herself as a detective.

There are psychic mysteries in the Gilda Joyce books by Jennifer Allison as Gilda tries to contact the spirits of dead people.

And my favorite is the Mysteries in the National Parks series by Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson. Each book takes place in a different national park. We currently have four of the series - Rage of Fire set in Hawaii, Cliff-Hanger set in Mesa Verde (and my personal favorite because I was there), Deadly Waters set in the Everglades, and Escape from Fear set in the Virgin Islands.

Remember Love That Dog

I hope many of you have read Sharon Creech's book Love That Dog. In it Jack is a high school student whose English class is studying poetry. At the beginning he claims he wants nothing to do with poetry, but over the course of the story he realizes that poetry is an interesting way to communicate. He studies various famous poems and is then able to write his own poetry based on his dog. What was unique about that book is that it is written in a series of poems, some taking the specific form of famous poems.

Now there is a sequel - Hate That Cat. A year has passed and Jack's English class is again studying poetry. He decides to write poems about his hatred of cats only to find out that his teacher loves cats. Once again famous poems appear in the story and a variety of poetry styles are used to tell Jack's story.

If you haven't read the first book, Hate That Cat may be a bit confusing. Both books are short and quick to read, so be sure to enjoy both of them. Hate That Cat is currently in the New Book section in the wall bookshelves.

January New Books.

Over 70 new books were added to the IMC collection in January. Besides a number of new nonfiction books about the 1960s, I recommend Rap Music, by Jennifer Keeley which gives not only the history of rap music but some of the issues that have developed over its lyrics. Also new is Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, by Michael Woods. Here you get a tour of the ancient world of the Mediterranean Sea and visit such wonders as the Colossus of Rhodes, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Great Pyramid at Giza.

For those of you who prefer fiction there is my favorite book of 2009 - The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. She combines gladitorial combat and survival with reality TV in a future time when North America is made up of 12 districts. For sports fans we have added Beanball, by Gene Fehler, Football Hero, by Tim Green, and Cover-up: Mystery at the Super Bowl, by John Feinstein. We have finally replaced the missing book 2 of the Percy Jackson series, The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan, just in time for the movie opening of the first book, The Lightning Thief on February 12th. And, yes, we have the first three books in the Twilight series - Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. Be sure to take a look at the new book section in the wall book shelves for these and other new titles in the IMC.

Fiction About the 1960s

After a week of researching the 1960s, it might be fun to read a fiction book set in the 1960s. The IMC maintains a bibliography of fiction books covering the decades of the 20th century. Use the phrase Twentieth Century in Fiction - 1960s in the I.P.A.C. if you would like to see the complete list. A couple of outstanding choices would be these:

The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt. Currently on the Caudill nominee list, this story focuses on a clash between teacher and student. At a time when religious education moved public school children to their churches on Wednesday afternoons, Holling and Mrs. Baker find themselves unwilling partners because Holling doesn't have a religious affilliation. Mrs. Baker was looking forward to quiet Wednesday afternoons and now she is stuck with Holling.

Yankee Girl, by Mary Ann Rodman, focuses on the outbreak of violent caused by the civil rights movement. Alice's FBI father moves the family to Jackson, Mississippi for his job. Alice wants to be popular at her new school, but that would involve being mean to the black girl in her newly-integrated school.

Paul, in Full Service by Will Weaver, finds a whole new world of people and ideas when he takes a job at a gas station near his Minnesota farm. And finally another current Caudill nominee, Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell, shows the effect of the Vietnam War on a military family when Jamie's older brother is shipped out to Vietnam. He sends her pictures that he takes of the jungle, his camp and comrades, and the moon that express his feelings.

These and other stories about life in the 1960s are available in the Lakeview IMC.