While traveling on vacation I downloaded Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick on my Kindle Touch.  It was an incredible...sad, harsh and real story about a young boy caught right in the middle of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.  This powerful story of the will to live and what might have to be done, to make that a reality.  What would you do?  Hopefully, none of us will ever have to find that out!  Someone asked me why this book about this subject was written for teens.  My response was, "because kids need to know about the awful, real things that happen, so that maybe we can try to prevent them from happening again.  Being aware and knowing is part of that.

Read the book Winterling by Sarah Prineas...author of The Magic Thief series.  A little girl lives on the edge in the woods.  She accidentally helps someone and discovers he is from another realm.  Something is wrong there, and she can feel that she needs to help.  She is connected to the earth and can feel and sense things.  Good and evil, a little bit of magic and herbs.  An easy read that kids will enjoy. 

Divergent by Veronica Roth is a book reccommended to my by my 13 year old son, who got it from one of his friends.  This distopian novel, set in Chicago in the not so distant future, had me hooked.  This was a book I could not put down!  I stayed up until 2:00am just to finish it!  The characters, the setting, it could so happen to us!  Highly reccommended for those who liked the Hunger Games or The Maze Runner trilogies.  You don't have to wait for the sequel...it has just been released and is called INSURGENT!  Yet more choices for Tris and Four. 


An adventure set in Africa when the main character and his sister are kidnapped!  Their father is the an ambassador and there is a lot of corruption involved.  The outlaw accused is not at all what he seems, in fact, he is so much more and Jake is doing his best, just to survive and keep his little sister alive.  This is non-stop, action and intrigue, and just when you think you have it all figured out, you don't!

I just finished a creepy, weird book that was impossible to put down. I highly recommend

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. His grandfather has told him fantastical stories all his life growing up, but it is not until his gramp dies, and everyone thinks he's lost his marbles that he begins to investigate what just might be real. He travels to an island to discover his grandfather's past and his possible future.

Banned Books Week is Sept. 25th-Oct 1st.

Celebrate your freedom to read whatever you want! Read a book that has been banned or challenged for one reason or another in the United States in the last 10 years.

Here are just a few...

Harry Potter (series)

The Chocolate War

Twilight

To Kill a Mockingbird

Gossip Girl

Captain Underpants (series)

Fallen Angels

His Dark Materials ( series)

The Giver

In the Night Kitchen

A Day No Pigs Would Die

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

A Wrinkle in Time

Julie of the Wolves

Goosebumps (series)

Roll of Thunder, Here My Cry

Junie B. Jones (series)

Summer Reading...some interesting books!

This has been a busy summer at the library. I have read some great books and am still reading.
Here are a few of my favorites from this summer...

The Betrayal of Maggie Blair by Elizabeth Laird...17th century Scotland...witch hunts...God Save the King. great characters.
How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg...oodles of gross true tales of how some really famous people died, from Henry VIII turning to ooze and King Tut being autopsied the most times.
Young Fredle by Cynthia Voigt...adventure abound for this kitchen mouse...a little bit of Poppy, a little Terrible Trins.
The Friendship Doll by Kirby Lawson...a great story of a Japanese frienship doll given to the U.S. and how it affected 4 little girls lives over time.
The Silver Bowl by Diane Stanley... Molly is a seer(witch) like her mother...is it a gift? or a curse? In the service of the castle Dethmere, she is in for the adventure she never expected.
Beyonders by Brandon Mull...Jason is a modern kid who falls into another realm...can he do what is truly right and find a way home? The first in a series.