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.