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.