Spooky Selections for Middle Grade Readers

October 12, 2015September 14, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Do you have a middle grade reader that lovers anything spooky? This age group often loves to be scared, but not terrified, by their scary stories. Finding books that make parents and readers happy is sometimes hard, but here are some books that might just hit the mark.

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
Unhappy about moving into a converted church in the country with her mother and new stepfather, Molly must put aside her dislike of her little stepsister, Heather, when the child is possessed by a malevolent ghost.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Raised since he was a baby by ghosts, werewolves, and other residents of the cemetery in which he has always resided, Bod wonders how he will manage to survive amongst the living with only the lessons he has learned from the dead.

Doll Bones by Holly Black
Zach, Alice, and Poppy, friends from a Pennsylvania middle school who have long enjoyed acting out imaginary adventures with dolls and action figures, embark on a real-life quest to Ohio to bury a doll made from the ashes of a dead girl.

A Tale Dark & Grimm (A Tale Dark & Grimm, #1) by Adam Gidwitz
Follows Hansel and Gretel as they walk out of their own story and into eight more tales, encountering witches, devils, warlocks, kindly strangers, and other helpful folk as they take charge of their own happily ever after.

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand
Practically-perfect twelve-year-old Victoria Wright must lie, sneak, and break the rules when her investigation of the disappearance of her best–and only–friend, Lawrence, reveals dark secrets about her town and the orphanage run by the reclusive Mrs. Cavendish.

Skulduggery Pleasant (Skulduggery Pleasant, #1) by Derek Landy
When a not-so-innocent twelve-year-old girl named Stephanie inherits her eccentric uncle’s estate, she must join forces with Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton mage, to save the world from an ancient evil.

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Looking for more spooky mayhem that will please a middle grade (or older) reader? Here are a few more of the many avalible options: Coraline by Neil Gaiman, The Old Willis Place by Mary Downing Hahn, The Nightmarys by Dan Poblocki, The Doll in the Garden by Mary Downing Hahn, The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, The House with a Clock in Its Walls (Lewis Barnavelt, #1) by John Bellairs, School Spirit (Suddenly Supernatural #1) by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac, The Ghost Comes Calling by Betty Ren Wright, Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver, Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck, and The Ghost’s Grave by Peg Kehret.

October 4th-10th is Fire Prevention Week!

October 5, 2015September 14, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson issued the first National Fire Prevention Day proclamation to commemorate the Great Chicago Fire. This tragic 1871 event killed more than 250 people, left 100,000 homeless, destroyed more than 17,400 structures and burned more than 2,000 acres. The fire began on October 8, but continued into and did most of its damage on October 9, 1871. Despite the tragedy of that fire, it was not the biggest that year, or even that week. That sad distinction goes to the Peshtigo Fire, the most devastating forest fire in American history. This fire also started on October 8th, 1871, and roared through Northeast Wisconsin, burning down 16 towns, killing 1,152 people, and scorching 1.2 million acres before it ended. firesafety

Since 1922, Fire Prevention Week has been observed on the Sunday through Saturday period in which October 9 falls. According to the National Archives and Records Administration’s Library Information Center, Fire Prevention Week is the longest running public health and safety observance on record. The President of the United States has signed a proclamation proclaiming a national observance during that week every year since 1925. Each year has had a special fire safety theme, this years is; Hear The Beep Where You Sleep. Every Bedroom Needs a Working Smoke Alarm! For more information on the history of this week of awareness please visit the National Fire Prevention Association website. There is a great deal of helpful information and resources throughout the site, including printable activity sheets for children.

Fire safety is an important topic to share with children, often the younger the better, so they know how to react during a fire drill or an emergency. Here is a selection of books you might want to share with your children to educate and prepare them, while entertaining them.

A Kid’s Guide to Staying Safe Around Fire by Maribeth Boelts, Fireboy to the Rescue!: A Fire Safety Book by Edward Miler, Stop Drop and Roll by Margery Cuyler, Fire Safety by Lisa M. Herrington, No Dragons for Tea: Fire Safety for Kids (and Dragons) by Jean Pendziwol, Fire Safety by Dana Meachen Rau, Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill by Jamie Harper, Fire Safety in Action by Mari Schuh, Firefighters!: Speeding! Spraying! Saving! by Patricia Hubbell,If There is a Fire by Wil Mara, Staying Safe around Fire by Lucia Raatma,Fire Drill by Paul DuBois Jacobs and Jennifer Swender, andThe Firefighters by Sue Whiting.

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Celebrate the Freedom to Read with Challenged Children’s and Young Adult Titles

September 25, 2015September 15, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read anything and everything that catches our fancy. This usually happens during the last week of September, and this year it runs from September 27 through October 3 2015. For more information on banned books weeks and challenged books in general, you might want to check out the American Library Association’s dedicated pages on the subject here.

Banned Books Week brings together everyone who loves books, reading, and readers. This includes librarians, book sellers, teachers, and readers of all ages who support the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those that might be uncomfortable or unpopular. To celebrate banned books this year, I am going to read as many of the children’s and young adult books that have faced challenges that I can. This will mean rereading some of my favorites, and reading some books for the first time. I have noted after each book whether it is a young adult book (YA), children’s chapter or poetry book (CB), or picture book (PB). How many of these challenged books have you read and are you surprised by the number of books many consider classics or favorites are on the list?

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (YA)

The Witches by Roald Dahl (CB)

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell (PB)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (YA)

Blubber by Judy Blume (CB)

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (PB)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (YA)

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein (CB)

1984 by George Orwell (YA)

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (YA)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (and the rest of the series) by J.K. Rowling (CB)

For even more reading you might want to check out other challenged titles: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (YA), The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (CB), Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (YA), Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (CB), Deenie by Judy Blume (YA), Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (YA), James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (CB), Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (CB), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (CB), Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA), Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause (YA), Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher (YA), and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (YA). This is just the tip of the iceberg! For further lists of challenged books, and why they have been challenged visit the ALA’s page of Frequently Challenged Books.

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Test Preparation Resources

September 16, 2015September 14, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

School at all levels is rife with testing, as are some career paths. There are the GED, PSAT‘s, SAT’s ACT‘s, LSAT‘s, GRE‘s, TOEFL‘s, PRAXIS, and so many more tests that can set anyone into a flurry of practice tests and preparation work. I remember preparing for the SAT’s (more years ago than I care to share) and hunkering down in a store with a test preparation book to see if it was worth the price.

Thankfully, these days there are a number of online resources and classes interested test takers can participate in. There are also study guides and preparation books that you can check out or use here in the library. There are so many tests and corresponding guides available that I will only list a sampling of the helpful volumes here. If you do not see a test you need to prepare for, or want more options, please check out out catalog or ask our reference librarians for further assistance.

GED test 2015: Strategies, Practice & Review by Caren Van Slyke and Kaplan
How to Prepare for the GED Test by Christopher M. Sharpe, Joseph S. Reddy
PSAT/NMSQT: Strategies, Practice & Review by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions
Barron’s SAT by Sharon Weiner Green, Ira K
Kaplan 2016 5 Strategies for the New SAT by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions
Cracking the ACT by Geoff Martz, Kim Magloire, and Theodore Silver
LSAT Logic games Bible: a Comprehensive System for Attacking the Logic Games Section of the LSAT by David M. Killoran
GRE Graduate Record Examination Premier 2016 by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions
Cracking the TOEFL iBT by Douglas Pierce and Sean Kinsell
Praxis Core: Reading (5712), Writing (5722), mathematics (5732) by Sandra Rush, Julie O’Connell
Barron’s ASVAB: Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery by Terry L. Duran
Police Officer Exam: Power Practice
Correction Officer Exam by Donald J. Schroeder, Frank A. Lombardo
CLEP Official Study Guide 2015: College-level Examination Program by CollegeBoard
Barron’s EMT: Emergency Medical Technician Exam by Will Chapleau, Peter T. Pons

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Movies or Television Shows and the Books You Did Not Know They Were Based On

September 9, 2015August 19, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

We know that many television shows and movies are based on books. Love them or hate them hits like Twilight, Harry Potter, Gone Girl, True Blood, Game of Thrones, and many more were based on (or inspired by) the written word. However, there are so many more movies and television series that you have already seen, or could be currently binge watching, that are also based on books and you just do not know it. Here are some of the titles that I thought were the most interesting or surprising.

Pitch Perfect the film may have been based on Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory by Mickey Rapkin, a non-fiction book about a capella competitions, but I have to imagine that the movie version is much more audibly entertaining.

The movie Die Hard is based on Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. The book was published in the late ’70s, and went out of print before the movie adaptation was released almost a decade later.

Shrek! by William Steig is a picturebook about an ogre who falls in love with an “ugly” princess, so part of the concept remained when the animated version of Shrek was made.

Forrest Gump by Winston Groom might have been changed a great deal in the film adaptation of Forrest Gump. However, the award-winning film certainly helped book sales.

Gordon Buford wrote Car, Boy, Girl in 1961, seven years before the first Herbie the Love Bug adaptation.

The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas M. Disch was a critically acclaimed science fiction novella long before it was turned into a beloved children’s movie, also named The Brave Little Toaster, it was nominated for both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award.

The self-help book Queen Bees & Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman might not seem like the typical book to inspire a movie. However, it is what Mean Girls is based on.

Ted Hughes, former poet laureate of England, wrote a children’s book called The Iron Giant in 1968. The animated movie, also titled The Iron Giant, was released in 1999.

Jack Bickham wrote The Apple Dumpling Gang, a novel about orphans during the California gold rush. Disney adapted it into the classic The Apple Dumpling Gang with Don Knotts in 1975.

I know of a few more that were surprising, either because I did not know the book existed or because the adaptation so barely resembled the book that I could not recognize it. Are there any here that surprised you, and do you know of any more book to movie or television series adaptations that might be surprising? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments.