Monday, August 15, 2016

The Dog Days of Summer

We are officially in the dog days of summer. Make it through these hot August days with a story about man's best friend.

For Beginner Readers
A Ball for Daisy by Chris Rashka
Circle Dogs by Kevin Henkes
Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd
Dogs by Emily Gravett
Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
Tuesday Tucks Me In by Luis Carols Montalvan
Charlie the Ranch Dog series by Ree Drummond
Carl series by Alexandra Day
Clifford series by Norman Bridwell
Martha Speaks series by Susan Meddaugh


For Middle Grade Readers
Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
One Boy and His Dog by Eva Ibbotson
Togo by Kate Klimo
Unleashed by Gordon Korman
Honey by Sarah Weeks
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Love that Dog by Sharon Creech
Sounder by William Howard Armstrong

Monday, August 8, 2016

Pool Party Time!

On Saturday, August 13th of all the kids in Evansville who have turned in at least 10 hours on a reading log to the library will enjoy a Summer Reading Pool Party! There's still time to earn your invitation to the party, as long as you turn in a reading log before the 13th. Here are some fun, swimming related stories to get you excited for the party!


For Beginning Readers (Grades Kindergarten-2)
Cork & Fuzz: The Swimming Lesson by Dori Chconas
Sergio Makes a Splash by Edel Rodriquez
Katie Catz Makes a Splash by Anne Rockwell
Froggy Learns to Swim by Jonathan London
Dino-Swimming by Lisa Wheeler
Animal Swimming and Diving by Isabel Thomas
There's a Whale in My Swimming Pool by Joyce Wan
Just Keep Swimming by Melissa Lagonegro
For Older Readers (Grades 3-5)
Babymouse Goes for the Gold by Jennifer Holm
Stink and the Freaky Frog Freakout by Megan McDonald
The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith
The Winning Stroke by Matt Christopher
Samantha the Swimming Fairy by Daisy Meadows
Swimming with Hammerhead Sharks by Kenneth Mallory

Monday, August 1, 2016

Road Trip Stories for Young Adults

Summer vacation might be winding down, but the open road is still waiting for you! Whether you're planning a road trip yourself or not, you can enjoy the adventures of these characters as they take their own journeys out on the road.

Mosquitoland by David Arnold
Mim discovers that her estranged mother is sick and sets out on a thousand-mile bus trip from Mississippi to Ohio to see her. Along the way she meets strangers who are kind, and some who are not. She learns about herself and discovers how to cope with her relationships with her family.

Paper Towns by John Green
One night in the spring of senior year Quentin Jacobsen goes on the adventure of a lifetime in his boring Central Florida town with the enchanting Margo Roth Spiegelman. When Margo disappears afterward, Q and his friends are left trying to solve the mystery of what happened to her.


The Disenchantments by Ninca LaCour
Just after graduating high school Colby heads out on the road with his best friend Bev and her bandas they travel through the Pacific Northwest playing shows in small bars and clubs. The plan has always been that after the tour he and Bev will take off and explore the world, but when Bev reveals that she's planning on heading to college in the fall Colby must face the realities of growing up, leaving home, and saying goodbye head on.

Let's Get Lost by Alsaid Adi
Seventeen-year-old Leila is on a road trip to Alaska in her crazy red car. She has with high hopes of seeing the Northern Lights. On her journey she encounters Hudson, Bree, Elliot, and Sonia who are all dealing with life's big questions in their own ways. Their stories intertwine in an interesting narrative that examines life, love, and loss.

In Real Life by Jessica Love
Hannah Cho impulsively decides to hit the road to Las Vegas to visit her online crush, Nick, and reveal her true feelings to him. Her older sister and best friend are along for the ride and for the surprises that await Hannah in Las Vegas.

The Haters by Jesse Andrews
The latest from the author of  Me, Earl and the Dying Girl is a road trip story about three friends and musicians who escape from jazz camp and hit the road to learn about real music and real life. The Haters Summer of Hate Tour, as they call it, takes them on an amazing adventure.


Kissing in America by Margo Rabb
This highly acclaimed book tells the story of Eva and her cross country road trip she takes with her best friend Annie. Eva has finally fallen madly and truly in love with a boy named Will. Shortly after Eva falls for him, Will picks up and moves to California. Eva decides she can't lose him and must see him again, and so Annie and Eva set our on their journey.

The Way Back to You by Michelle Andreani
When Ashlyn Montiel dies in a bike accident the worlds of her best friend, Cloudy, and her boyfriend, Kyle, come crashing down around them. After learning that Ashlyn's organs were donated after her death, Cloudy convinces Kyle to go on a road trip through the US Southwest to meet the recipients of Ashlyn's organ donations in hopes that the trip will help them heal and rebuilt their world.


Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith
Joy is devastated when her boyfriend Zan leaves for college a year early without even officially breaking up with her. Needing to know where her relationship stands, Zan and her best friend Noah head from Utah to Zan's college in California to confront him.

Reunited by Hilary Weisman Graham
Alice, Summer, and Tiernan were best friends as kids, but there friendship fell apart by high school. At they same time they broke up, so did their favorite band, Level3. When Level3 announces a reunion tour the summer before the girls are leaving for college, they decide to come back together and road trip from Massachusetts to Austin for the band's show.


Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Cameron Smith is just trying to get though high school when he is diagnosed with "mad cow"disease. Cameron sets off on a road trip in search of a cure with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital as his travelling companion.

Monday, July 25, 2016

OLYMPICS

The Olympic Games are just around the corner!  This year's games will take place in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).  The modern Olympics consists of thousands of athletes from around the world participating in a variety of competitions.  The games are held every four years, with the Summer and Winter games alternating by occurring every four years, but two years apart from one another.  Some of the events of the Summer Olympics include: soccer, gymnastics, track and field, and beach volleyball.

The creation of the modern games was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games held in Olympia, Greece.  Over the years, the games have evolved to include the creation of the Winter Olympics, the Paralympic Games, and the Youth Olympic Games.

For more information, visit https://www.olympic.org/



Looking for some Olympic entertainment? 

Adult Books:
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown
Dream Team by Jack McCallum
Gold by Chris Cleave (Fiction)
Unbroken by Laura Hilderbrand
The Boys of Winter by Wayne R. Coffey
Private Games by James Patterson (Fiction)

Children's Books:
Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne (Fiction)
You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete by Michael Ford
Ancient Greece and the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne

DVDs:
The Real Olympics
Race
Eddie the Eagle
Jesse Owens
Marion Jones, Press Pause
Munich
Chariots of Fire

Picture from http://syndetics.com/index.php?isbn=9781451672725/lc.jpg&client=arrowheadlbs&type=rn12


Monday, July 18, 2016

MEMOIRS


Next month's book club selection is The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez.  This is a memoir about a high school student who pretends to be pregnant.  She details how she was able to fake her pregnancy as well as all she learned from the experience.  This story later served as the inspiration of a Lifetime movie.

Looking for more memoirs?  Give one of these popular memoirs a try!

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Night by Elie Wiesel
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
The Color of Water by James McBride
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Picture from http://syndetics.com/index.php?isbn=9781442446229/lc.jpg&client=arrowheadlbs&type=rn12

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: KATE ATKINSON

Kate Atkinson is the author of 10 novels.  She won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize for Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and Life After Life won the Costa Novel Award and South Bank Sky Arts Literature prize.  Kate was born in York; she now lives in Edinburgh.  For more information about Kate and her work, visit her website at http://www.kateatkinson.co.uk/index.php

Kate Atkinson's novels:
A God in Ruins
Life After Life
Started Early, Took My Dog
When Will There Be Good News?
One Good Turn
Case Histories
Not the End of the World
Emotionally Weird
Human Croquet
Behind the Scenes at the Museum

For work similar to Kate Atkinson, try one of these today!

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Picture from http://syndetics.com/index.php?isbn=9780316176484/lc.jpg&client=arrowheadlbs&type=rn12

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

GOODBYE DOWNTON ABBEY


Now that Downton Abbey has come to an end, you may be wondering how you will get your fix on the upstairs/downstairs dynamic or the great period details.  Well, you are in luck!  We have many options of books to keep you going.

Check out one of these books today.  For a summary, click on the hyperlink below.

Park Lane by Frances Osborne
Longbourn by Jo Baker
Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey by Fiona Carnarvon
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by Fiona Carnarvon
Below Stairs by Margaret Powell
The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
Summerset Abbey by T.J. Brown
Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
Howard's End by E.M. Forster
A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith
Habits of the House by Fay Weldon

And, if all else fails, you can always watch the series again.  The whole series is available through the Arrowhead Library System! 

Picture from http://syndetics.com/index.php?isbn=9780345803283/lc.jpg&client=arrowheadlbs&type=rn12