Hot Off the Presses!

The Willoughbys
by Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry's newest book has arrived! Meet the Willoughbys: Jane, who wishes for a longer name, Barnaby A and Barnaby B, the twins who have to share everything, including their one sweater, Tim, the oldest brother, very bossy, and Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby, the rottenest parents ever.


Do you love Lemony Snicket and the Baudelaire orphans? Do you like old-fashioned stories with a twisted-twist? The Willoughbys might be for you!

More Babymouse, Please!

From Lower Elementary to Upper Elementary, students are clamoring for Babymouse!
And guess who else has been reading Babymouse? Dane Peters, himself! Dane borrowed Camp Babymouse the other day, to see what the fuss was about. I think he's a new fan.


I'm pleased to announce that several more Babymouse books have joined the 741.5 shelf, including #8, Puppy Love. Come to the library, and check out our new Babymouse books!

My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were the planets of our solar system....until last year.

Last year, scientists decided that Pluto doesn't count as a full-fledged planet. That means that any of our planet books that were published before mid-2006, are a bit wrong! It's a good thing that a few new planet books have come out since then.


When Is a Planet Not a Planet? -- The Story of Pluto, by Elaine Scott, is the best I've seen so far.
Here we have a remarkably in-depth account of planetary science and the history of astronomy, a clear explanation of what we know about Pluto and why scientists decided to redefine it as a dwarf planet, and beautiful photographs and images.

This promises to be a gripping read for curious Middle School and Upper Elementary minds wanting to know as much as they can about astronomy, planets, and the world beyond our stratosphere. It's very attractive and very readable. The pages are loaded with solid facts and terrific trivia.

For a much simpler account of the solar system and dwarf planets, take a look at Exploring the Planets In Our Solar System, by Rebecca Olien.

Want to know more about Pluto? Visit our databases, like Grolier Online and Kids Search, from home or school, to learn more. [Go to our library web-page, scroll down to Online Resources, and click whichever you'd like to explore. See Rebecca for passwords to access the databases from home.]

Check out NASA's Pluto page: Pluto

Anyway, it's time for a new mnemonic device!

M V E M J S U N

Leave your ideas in a comment.

Two Facts About Your Librarian

1. I'm a big fan of wordless picture books.
2. I'm also a big fan of robots.

One of my favorite new books is Robot Dreams, by Sara Varon.
It has robots and tells a wordless story! [Well, almost wordless... a few pictures have funny word details, such as titles of books, postcard messages, and shop names, but that's about it.]

A lonely dog builds himself a robot friend. When robot and dog get separated, we get to see the robot's dreams. We also get to see what the dog does to keep busy without his robot friend.
There are some moments in this story that made me really sad. But it was the kind of sad that made me want to keep reading.

I highly recommend this for Upper Elementary and Middle School students looking for a quick-to-read book, with super-appealing illustrations, that tells a sweet story about making friends and losing friends and finding friends.


Find it with the graphic novels-741.5!

Anyone checking in over Spring Vacation?

What are you reading?


I've been reading The Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives this week.

A reader from LE highly recommended it to me, and so I bumped it up to the top of my reading list! I'm about halfway through, and enjoying it quite a bit.

Sisters, Sabrina and Daphne, find themselves living with a grandmother they never knew they had...in a peculiar enchanted forest... They're not sure what to believe. Fairies, pixies, and giants aren't real, right? So, what about the teeny flying things that glow and sing and bite at night? ...And how did a giagantic footprint left at the scene of a crushed house?

There's also the matter of the grandmother... Can she be trusted? Is she really their grandmother? ...Is she just a crazy old woman? Why does she have a room that's all locked up and off limits? And what are the strange noises coming from that room? What is she hiding?

The Sisters Grimm have some detective work to do.

I have a feeling readers in LE and UE who are looking for a magic-infused tale that weaves old fairytales into present-day reality, in a wacky way, will like this book. There's a bit of a mystery, too; so readers who like figuring out mysteries might try it too.

I'll be done by Tuesday, and will have it on my desk ready for the next eager reader!

NEW BOOK ALERT!
Look forward to a bunch of new books that will be arriving when we get back from break. I'm most looking forward to Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow--a book of nature poems just in time for Poetry Month!
And there will be a whole bunch of shiny new books about Maya, Inca, and Aztec history, just in time for your new unit, UE!

See you soon.