Great new juvenile books have
arrived at Litchfield Public Library, and these would make a great read to
finish a summer of reading. Speaking of summer reading, remember that reading
records can be turned in until August 31.
After Michael Buckley finished his
series, The Sisters Grimm, he embarked on a new series, NERDS:
National Espionage, Rescue and Defense Society. If you can imagine a group
of unpopular fifth graders running a spy network from inside the school,
complete with cutting edge technology and James Bondesque villains and plots,
you have a picture of this off quirky series. We have the first four books, NERDS,
M is for Mama’s Boy, The Cheerleaders of Doom, and The Villain
Virus in the library collection. The fifth book, Attack of the BULLIES,
will be published in September.
Rick Riordan is another extremely
popular writer. His new book, The Mark of Athena, is the third book of
the Heroes of Olympus series. I’ve noticed more young readers asking for
books about Greek myths, and I attribute this directly to Mr. Riordan’s
influence.
Lian Tanner is an Australian author
who is new to me. Lian Tanner is a children's author and playwright. She has
worked as a teacher in Australia and Papua New Guinea, a tourist bus driver, a
freelance journalist, a juggler, a community arts worker, an editor and a
professional actor. It took her a while to realise that all of these jobs were
really just preparation for being a writer. Nowadays she lives by the beach in
southern Tasmania, with a small tabby cat and lots of friendly neighborhood
dogs. Her series, The Keepers, includes the three titles, Museum of
Thieves, City of Lies, and Path of Beasts. Ms. Tanner’s
website gives this description of the first book, Museum of Thieves.
“Goldie Roth lives in the city of Jewel, where impatience is a sin and boldness
is a crime. But Goldie is both bold and impatient. She runs away to the mysterious
Museum of Dunt, where she meets a boy named Toadspit and discovers dangerous
secrets. A monstrous brizzlehound stalks the museum's corridors, and only a
thief can find the way through its strange, shifting rooms.” I don’t know what
a brizzlehound is, but this series looks like it’s full of adventure.
Andrea Cheng is the daughter
of Hungarian immigrants. Her husband, Jim, is the son of Chinese immigrants.
She used their experiences as second generation Americans to write The Year
of the Book and The Year of the Baby, a pair of sweet books for
elementary readers. Anna Wang finds it difficult to make friends, so she takes
refuge in the world of books in The Year of the Book. In the second
title, The Yearof the Baby, her parents adopt a baby from China who
isn’t thriving. Anna and her friends discover that music helps baby Kaylee eat,
and this becomes the basis for the girls’ science project.
The Cheshire Cheese Cat: a Dickens
of a Tale, by Carmen Agra Deedy, is the very
funny story of a cat named Skilley who would rather eat cheese than mice. He is
a mouser at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub that actually was famous as a
gathering place for writers in London. Mr. Charles Dickens keeps an eye on
Skilley and the other animal characters who include Pip, a mouse that can read
and write, Oliver, a cruel and wicked rival tom cat, and Maldwyn, a wounded raven from the Tower of
London.
These
books, and many more, are waiting for you at the Litchfield Public Library.
