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Book Review: Water Balloon
This coming of age novel by Audrey Vernick is a great summer read for middle school girls! When Marley’s parents decide to get separated, she finds herself spending the summer with her dad in a new house, a summer babysitting job she doesn’t want, and friends who seem too busy for…
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Middle School Book Discussion
Part of my library’s summer reading program involves 2 different middle school (grades 5 – 8) book discussions. The first is called “Literary Lunch” and is an hour long book discussion once a week for five weeks during lunch time. The students bring their lunch and the library provides some…
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Book Review: Fallen
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this young adult book. This is a fun, summer reader for kids (especially girls) in 7th grade and up. It’s a romantic story about a girl named Luce Price who is sent to Sword & Cross boarding school for a history that…
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Summer Reading is just around the corner…
I don’t believe the general public knows just how much time and effort is put into planning and executing the summer reading program each year. At my library, we begin planning in November, which means by May, I’m very tired of thinking about summer! Our library provides entertainers and shows…
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Sensory-Friendly Storytime: Monsters
I visit the local intermediate unit in my county once a month to present story time to two different classes of toddlers and preschoolers who are on the autism spectrum and/or have other possible learning disabilities. The classes are usually between 5 – 12 kids and are the majority are…
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Robot Zombie Frankenstein
I have found the cutest, most fun book to share with boys (and girls!) in preschool through first and even second grade. The book’s title is Robot Zombie Frankenstein and it is written by Annette Simon. This book uses a child’s imagination and sense of play as two robots who…
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It’s Never Too Early to Think About the Newbery Award
In recent years, I’ve begun following the Newbery Award more closely. It’s extremely interesting because the Newbery Committee does not provide the public with a short list of books that they are looking at for receiving the award, but there are plenty of blogs circling the blogosphere that offer their own opinions…
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The False Prince
The False Prince written by Jennifer A. Neilsen is an exciting new book, the first in a trilogy ( The Ascendance Trilogy), that stars characters so well written, it feels like you know them in real-life. The book is described by Booklist as a action-oriented fantasy, but it’s less fantasy and…
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May B.
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose is a sparsely written story in verse that conjures pictures of the rolling prairies and the vast emptiness that they used to be. May B. is a 12-year old girl sent to a neighboring homestead 15 miles away “just until Christmas” as her Pa…
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The Lions of Little Rock
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine is a story about two young girls growing up in the late 1950s during the time of the Little Rock Nine. Marlee, a white girl, meets Liz on the first day of school and they become friends almost right away. Liz is the…