LAST CHANCE

With school starting summer is coming to an end. All paperbacks that were checked out for the summer are due on Tuesday, September 4th. Also due September 4th are completed Summer Reading Logs. Since you get a prizes just for turning in a Reading Log, it's not too late to do so. The Reading Log form is linked to the Lakeview Library webpage. Soooo print a copy, think back to the books and magazines you read this summer, and bring a completed form to the IMC on Tuesday. I will meet with students who have handed in Reading Logs over the next few weeks to award prizes and raffle tickets for our Grand Prizes.

IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!

I have been offline for the last two months as I recovered from knee replacement surgery. It has been an interesting experience which has taken a great deal of energy out of me. As I prepare to start the new school year I have one more group of books to present to you -- books I have read during my recovery.

From our current collection comes Saving Sky by Jane Stanley. This "What If" story presents an United States that went to war after 9/11. Many shortages of food and energy exist because of the war and enemy bombings targeting energy facilities. But worse, as shortages increase, prejudice against Arabs and Muslims becomes more violent and the government begins to round up and imprison Arab-looking men and boys. Sky and her family are quite self-sufficient and believe in living with the land and nature. When a new friend, Kareem, is attacked at school and then wanted by the government, Sky's family tries to help. This is a strong story of courage in a world going crazy.

From the new books coming soon to our collection are the following four titles. First from John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series comes The Lost Stories, a group of short stories that fill in some of the adventures missing in the book series. This book will be placed in the Fiction section with the other Ranger's Apprentice books, not in the short collection section.

Book Two of the Clone Codes by Patricia McKissack and her family is called Cyborg. This scifi adventure continues to story of Clone Codes but now from the point-of-view of a cyborg, part human, part machine. The society of the series restricts clones and cyborgs from full citizen rights, but Leanna, a clone, Houston Ye, a cyborg, RUBy, an artificial intelligence, and their friends try to fight back using the peaceful demonstration methods of the 1960s civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr.

A new series, Tomorrow Girls by Eva Gray, begins with Behind the Gates. In a future world again torn apart by war, Louisa and her best friend Maddie, posing as her twin, join a lucky few other girls who are taken to a safe location, a boarding school where they learn survival skills. But the school is hiding a terrible secret that the girls must uncover to save themselves.

Ending with a humorous twist is the second book in Wendy Mass's Twice Upon a Time series. In this series the author looks at classic fairy tales and retells them with a twist. This new book is Sleeping Beauty; The One Who Took the Really Long Nap. In alternating chapters Princess Rose and Prince Charming tell their life stories leading up to and continuing after the famous "true love's first kiss." Since each book in this series stands alone, you can read this one or look for the previous book Rapunzel; The One with All the Hair in the paperback rack.

The new school year is right around the corner. I look forward to seeking many of you next week at the Friday Open House. Please stop by with your Summer Reading Logs and tell me about all the great adventures you have had this summer both in and out of books. See you soon.

MORE SCIFI AND SOME REALISTIC FICTION

This past week I've dipped into the science fiction world twice more. First from the Caudill 2013 nominee list is Dark Life by Kat Falls. In a future when ice pack melting has flooded much of the land area, people are beginning to live under the sea. So it is for Ty and his family. Ty's parents helped develop the underwater dwellings and sea farming techniques used in their colony. Now Ty is looking forward to getting his own place until the government steps in and removes its support of underwater colonies unless the notorious pirate Seablite Gang can be brought to justice. Ty meets feisty Topsider Gemma who is searching for her older brother. Together the teens battle pirates, government agents, and underwater monsters until the truth is revealed.

A different future world is in Time Riders by Alex Scarrow. Three teens snatched out of time before they could die in disasters become the newest team of time travelers commissioned to keep time on its course. Liam, Maddy, and Sal with their android bodyguard Bob soon find themselves in a frightening new world where Germany won World War II and the Nazis have annexed the United States. The teens must find the point of origin where time went off course and return everything back to normal. Before the teens can act, the future becomes a nuclear wasteland making their mission even harder. This thrilling time adventure will be available for checkout in the fall.

Ending on a realistic fiction note is Laurie Halse Anderson's Catalyst. Kate's only problem should be finding out if she is accepted into MIT, but problems seem to snowball for her. She has boyfriend issues, her minister father takes in a destitute, dysfunctional family after their home is destroyed by fire which includes Kate's nemesis, foul-mouthed Teri Litch, and MIT refuses her and she has no backup plans. Kate's reliance on science appears in the chapter titles which are all science terminology reflecting the action of the chapter. When death touches the story, Kate begins to find solutions to her problems in unlikely ways. 

ON THE OTHER SIDE

This week I switched over to the world of science fiction and fantasy. First, I read 100 Cupboards by N. D. Wilson. This was a weird and frightening book since it starts off in a boy's bedroom. Henry goes to stay with his Aunt Dotty, Uncle Frank, and their three girls. He has a room in the attic where he starts to hear bumps in the wall. As he peels away the plaster he finds a wall covered with cupboards -- big one, small ones, light ones, dark ones. Henry and his cousin Henrietta begin to explore the cupboards and learn how to get through them to different worlds. Unfortunately something dark comes through to Henry's side. The whole family battles the dark force in an exciting battle. This book is quite a change from Wilson's other book Leepike Ridge, a straight adventure story that I really liked.

Next I went to a future world in XVI by Julia Karr. In this story teens look forward to their sixteenth birthday when they are considered adults, all except Nina who doesn't like the choices facing her. In addition her mother is killed and the father she thought was dead may be alive and in hiding. With her life in turmoil Nina becomes part of the rebellion against the oppressive government forces everyone to live in certain social/economic groups with little hope of moving up into a better group. This is a strange and frightening look at what could become our future. Both of the above books will be new to the collection in the fall.

Finally I came across a book at my public library with the title Alcatraz verses the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson that I couldn't resist. In this hilarious scifi/fantasy, the orphan Alcatraz who has been bounced from foster home to foster home learns that he is a member of a superpowerful family that fights the lies and ambitions of the Librarians who secretly ruled the world we know. If that wasn't enough, Alcatraz's superpower is the ability to break things and his grandfather's power is to arrive later. Not your usual super powers! With that much of a teaser, I was hooked. And I chuckled through the entire book. This series will be on my first book order of the new school year.

WELCOME

Welcome to my summer blog. This is the place where I will talk about the books I'm reading this summer. Please let me know if you have read any of these books or tell what you're reading on these hot summer days.

I started off the summer with three great fiction titles. First is The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. This is the story of Ivan, a silverback gorilla, who is caged in a rundown mall circus. Ivan tells his own story about his life, his artwork, and his friends - Stella, an elephant, Bob, a stray dog, Julia, a human child, and Ruby, a baby elephant. Stella, Ruby, and Ivan as caged animals long for freedom from their cages. When Stella dies, Ivan promises to free Ruby. His plan also frees himself.

Next I finished one of the Caudill nominees for 2013, How to Survive Middle School by Donna Gephart. I predict that this book will be one of the most popular nominees. In it, David Greenberg is looking forward to summer vacation before he enters middle school, but his best friend, Elliot, ruins it by going girl-crazy. David has certain fears about middle school that he talks about in his YouTube video show TalkTime styled in the fashion of Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. When school finally starts, it's TalkTime that brings David worldwide fame. But David still has to deal with middle school and its problems.

Lastly, I just finished Brooklyn Nine, A Novel in Nine Innings by Alan Gratz. As a long-time Cub fan, I really enjoyed this look at the history of baseball through the eyes of nine generations of a Brooklyn family. With guest appearances by Alexander Cartwright, Abner Doubleday, the Spalding Company, the All-American Girls Baseball League, and several famous players of the game, baseball history comes right up to the year 2002. A must for every baseball fan, this book will be new to the Lakeview collection in the fall.