Remembering Children’s Author Barbara Park (1947-2013)

November 18, 2013July 11, 2014 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Children’s author Barbara Park died at the age of 66 on Friday November 15th after a long battle with ovarian cancer. She was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago. Since then she and her husband, Richard, founded Sisters in Survival (“SIS”), a non-profit, all-volunteer organization that offers financial assistance to ovarian cancer patients. Random House said contributions can be made to www.sistersinsurvival.org.

Barbara Park was the author of the well-known and much-loved Junie B. Jones series. Starting in 1992, Park wrote more than 30 illustrated chapter books about the smart-mouthed girl with an ungrammatical opinion of everybody. The first book in the series is Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. The Junie B. Jones character is well loved by many children and families, but not everyone approved of this trouble-prone character. Some parents and educators have been troubled by Jones’ language and cheeky ways, worrying that she was a bad example and might negatively influence her readers. The series has found itself on the American Library Association’s list of “challenged” books. Despite the trouble, according to Random House, Park’s books have sold more than 55 million copies in North America alone. The series has also been adapted into a popular musical theater production.

Parks was also the author of other award-winning novels and some bestselling picture books. These titles include: Dear God, help! Love, Earl, The Graduation of Jake Moon, Mick Harte Was Here, The Kid in the Red Jacket, Skinnybones, MA! There’s Nothing to Do Here!, and Psst! It’s me—the Bogeyman.

To find out more about this author’s life, and read some of her answers to children’s questions, check out her webpage at Random House here.

Food for Thought: For Book Clubs

November 16, 2013June 5, 2014 / Linda / Leave a comment

Is your book club looking for a new theme to read? Everyone loves food! Below is a list of titles that will stimulate your brain and your appetite!

1. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

2. My Life in France by Julia Child

3. Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford

4. The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine by Benjamin Wallace

5. I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris

6. Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck

7. The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones

8. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking Schoolby Kathleen Flinn

Counting, Measuring, and More: Children’s Books About Math

November 14, 2013July 11, 2014 / Sharon Tyler / 1 Comment

Are you or your child a math whiz, or are you like me and dread the very idea of sitting down and tacking the related homework? Well, here are some books for children that get your youngest children on the right track, and help school age children stave off the fear of math or feed their math love. I have broken down my recommended books into three sections; Preschool and Kindergarten, First through Third Graders, and Above and Beyond.

For Preschool and Kindergarten Aged Children:
1. Help Me Learn Subtraction written by Jean Marzollo, Illustrated by Chad Phillips.

2. Janice VanCleave’s Play and Find Out About Math: Easy Activities for Young Children by Janice Pratt VanCleave.

3. Millions, Billions, and Trillions: Understanding Big Numbers written by David Adler, Illustrated by Edward Miller.

4. Musk Ox Counts written by Erin Cabatingan, Illustrated by Matthew Myers.

5. Tyrannosaurus Math written by Michelle Markel; illustrated by Doug Cushman.

For First through Third Graders:
1. A Dollar, a Penny, How Much and How Many? written by Brian P. Cleary , illustrated by Brian Gable.

2. The Wing Wing Brothers: Math Spectacular! by Ethan Long.

3. Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Tales by Theoni Pappas.

4. Dazzling Division : Games and Activities that Make Math Easy and Fun by Lynette Long.

5. Sir Cumference and All the King’s Tens : A Math Adventure written by Cindy Neuschwander ; illustrated by Wayne Geehan.
But do not stop there, because this is a series, simply look here for more.

Too simple for your math whiz? Then try these math related books that go Above and Beyond.
1. One Minute Mysteries : 65 Short Stories You Solve With Math! by Eric Yoder and Natalie Yoder.

2. Math created by Basher; written by Dan Green.

3. Math Games for Middle School: Challenges and Skill-Builders for Students at Every Level by Mario Salvadori and Joseph P. Wright.

4. Timekeeping: Explore the History and Science of Telling Time with 15 Projects by Linda Formichelli & W. Eric Martin; illustrated by Sam Carbaugh.

5. How Math Works by Carol Vorderman.

Still want more? Then you can also check out: Mummy Math: an Adventure in Geometry by Cindy Neuschwander; illustrated by Bryan Langdo, Measurement Mania: Games and Activities that Make Math Easy and Fun by Lynette Long, Mystery Math: A First Book of Algebra written by David A. Adler ; illustrated by Edward Miller, Math on Call: a Mathematics Handbook by Andrew Kaplan; edited by Carol DeBold, Susan Rogalski, and Pat Boudreau, or Number Sense and Nonsense : Building Math Creativity and Confidence Through Number Play by Claudia Zaslavsky.

On Our Shelves: New Romance

November 13, 2013June 5, 2014 / Linda / Leave a comment

Here’s a selection of Romance paperbacks added to our collection this month.

The House On Main Street by Shirlee McCoy – Interior designer Tessa McKenzie has built a good lifefar from her Washington hometown. She intends to get back to it – as soon as she sells the cluttered Victorian house and antiques shop she inherited from her sister, Emily. But leaving Apple Valley a second time won’t be so easy. There’s her grieving nephew, Alex, to consider. And there’s Sheriff Cade Cunningham, the adolescent crush who could easily break her heart again if she let him.

Barefoot By The Seaby Roxanne St. Claire – Tessa Galloway is a gifted nurturer-her verdant garden at Barefoot Bay’s new resort is living proof. If only the woman who can grow anything could grow what she wants most: a baby. Her friends think the right guy will come along, but Tessa doesn’t want to wait. All she needs is the perfect donor to make her dream come true. Then John Brown is hired at the resort. If anyone could make beautiful babies, it’s this gorgeous, mysterious man. So why does Tessa suddenly find herself wanting so much more?

If You Were Mineby Andre Bella – The last thing Zach Sullivan wants is to take care of his brother’s new puppy for two weeks. That is, until he meets the dog trainer. Heather is bright, beautiful…and she just might be the only woman on earth who wants nothing to do with him.

Heather Linsey can’t believe she agreed to train Zach’s new pup, especially since his focus seems to be more on winning her heart than training his dog. Having sworn off love, she has vowed never to fall for a charming man. But Heather’s determination to push Zach away only fuels his determination to get closer—and the sensual and emotional connection between them grows more undeniable.

Wild Child by Molly O’Keefe – Monica Appleby is a woman with a reputation. Once she was America’s teenage “Wild Child,” with her own reality TV show. Now she’s a successful author coming home to Bishop, Arkansas, to pen the juicy follow-up to her tell-all autobiography. Problem is, the hottest man in town wants her gone.

Take Me Home For Christmas by Brenda Novak – Everyone in Whiskey Creek remembers Sophia DeBussi as the town’s Mean Girl. Especially Ted Dixon, whose love she once scorned.

But Sophia has paid the price for her youthful transgressions. The man she did marry was rich and powerful but abusive. So when he goes missing, she secretly hopes he’ll never come back—until she learns that he died running from an FBI probe of his investment firm. Not only has he left Sophia penniless, he’s left her to face all the townspeople he cheated.…

Sophia is reduced to looking for any kind of work to pay the bills and support her daughter. With no other options, she becomes housekeeper for none other than Ted, now a successful suspense writer. He can’t bring himself to turn his back on her, not at Christmas, but he refuses to get emotionally involved.

Will the season of love and forgiveness give them both another chance at happiness?

Susan reads: The Queen of Katwe

November 12, 2013October 25, 2013 / Susan O. / Leave a comment

Wow – two books on chess in the same year? Odd, yes, but this book fed my brain AND my sense of social welfare at the same time. In The Queen of Katwe, Phiona Mutesi is the poorest of the poor – poorer than the Indian children of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, poor as only the poor of war-torn Uganda can be, yet through her own uneducated analytical mind, she rises above everything as a sort of chess savant, traveling to Siberia to compete on a world level – at the age of 15, a girl who has never even seen a flush toilet, who does not even know when her birthday is.

Much of the book is taken up not with Phiona – how I wish more of the book focused on her, her thoughts, etc. – but with everyone around her, and just how the circumstances formed for her to shoot her star so incredibly high. Throughout, Phiona is a shadowy figure, almost a mentally disabled girl who for a few brief moments is able to see and understand clearly, and then is sent back down to the depths of her dull & hopeless life. Is it crueler to leave her mindless in the mud of the streets or to show her the glory of the rest of the world, and then send her back to nothing? I’m not sure. It’s a real “Flowers for Algernon” conundrum.

And I can’t help but wonder what the author could/did do for some of these people – you see them trying to teach chess with boards missing pieces, so crudely carved you can’t always tell a knight from a rook – did you buy them a few chess sets, when what to us is $10 and to them is a year’s salary? Did you donate so the club could continue to feed the starving children who come there to learn? I myself could not look upon such conditions without trying to help, but the author is silent as to how he himself was moved by the situation. A good book, an incredible story, but I wanted so much more, both for me and for Phiona.