Creepy, Crawly, and Scary New Books

By Jan Pease

Some of these new books are scary, some are creepy, and one is downright crawly.

 “Shutter” is a paranormal story with an unusual twist.  Michelin is a descendant of the line of Van Helsing, who is famous in books and movies as a vampire hunter.  She can see the auras of the undead, and kills their physical forms with a bullet, but their spiritual essence is taken care of by her special camera.  “A paranormal ghost-hunting story that is a standout in the genre . . . Frightening from the first page, this is sure to please horror fans, particularly those familiar with ghost and vampire legends (School Library Journal).  The “Ghost Busters”  had a special vacuum cleaner,  and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” used all kinds of martial arts moves and weapons, but a special camera that freezes spirits is a new one.

 

 Violence and fear often go together.  “Thirteen,” by Tom Hoyle, is a book filled with both, and it’s a little too gruesome for me.  From School Library Journal:  “Grade 7 Up - In this dark thriller by a first-time British author, a sadistic self-appointed messiah leads his brainwashed cult in murdering boys born on New Year's Day of 2000. Now 2013, only a few remain, including protagonist Adam, who runs, fights, and kills for his life, aided by his love interest and neighbor, Megan.”

If you loved “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,”   try the “Dorothy Must Die” series.  Danielle Paige’s biography on Epic Reads states, “Danielle Paige is a graduate of Columbia University and currently lives in New York City. Before turning to young adult literature, she worked in the television industry, where she received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. 

“Dorothy Must Die” is her first novel.”  The prequels to "Dorothy Must Die" were digital novellas, “The Witch Must Burn,” “The Wizard Returns,” and “No Place Like Oz,”  each available for Nook or Kindle.  Now all of the novellas have been published in one volume, “The Dorothy Must Die Stories.”  The first full-length book in the series is “Dorothy Must Die,” The other book in the series is “The Wicked Will Rise.”  The story is told from the point of view of the other inhabitants of Oz.  Dorothy is one of the villains, and the familiar characters are not at all what we’re used to. 

    

This one is creepy crawly.  “The Spider Ring,” by Andrew Harwell, is a book for readers in grades 3-7.  This book might make you think there’s something crawling on your neck.  This is the story of Maria, whose grandmother gave her the special ring that she always wore, a spider ring.  When Maria puts the ring on, she discovers she can understand and command spiders.  Of course, the first things she does are selfish and childish, but then she meets the really bad spider, a woman named the Black Widow.  “The Spider Ring” is a fun, slightly scary read.  My advice is, “Don’t read these alone in the dark!”

Did you "Book Your Winter Getaway"?

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Our adult winter reading program, “Book Your Winter Getaway,” is done for this year.  We had 46 people participate this year.  Those who brought in three book reviews got to choose a small prize.  Participants who brought back six book reviews were entered in a drawing for small gift certificates to local restaurants, sponsored by the Friends of the Litchfield Public Library. 

The book reviews are interesting to read.  They involve just a very short written description of the book, plus a rating of one to five stars and the question, “Would you recommend it?”  I looked through the reviews at Litchfield to see if we had some popular authors reviewed by multiple people, and there were several. 

Two people reviewed two different Sandra Brown books, Mean Streak and Mirror Image.  Both gave the books five out of five stars and recommended them.  Mean Streak was described as “nail biting suspense” and Mirror Image as “a twisty tale.”

Two of Jennifer Chiaverini’s books were reviewed by two different people.  Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival was given three stars, and the reviewer did not recommend it, saying it was only fair and involved long political descriptions.   The reviewer of The Spymistress forgot to give it a numbered rating, but they recommended this story of the adventures of Elizabeth Van Lew, who worked for the U.S. government as a spy during the Civil War.

Two of our participants reviewed The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, and one reviewed Galbraith’s The Cuckoo’s Calling.  These books are the beginning of a new series by J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, writing under a pseudonym.  Our adult book club read The Cuckoo’s Calling last month, and it was a hit.  This reviewer gave it four stars, mentioning that the audiobook has a good reader.  The two people who reviewed the sequel, The Silkworm, gave it four and five stars.  One wrote, “Wow, can she write – we want more!”

Three William Kent Krueger books were reviewed by two or three different reviewers.  I’m analyzing handwriting to decide if I have reviews from multiple people, so there’s some guesswork involved!  Tamarack County got five stars from its reviewer.  Thunder Bay got four, with the description saying it was suspenseful and “not as violent as some and that’s good.”  Vermilion Drift got only two stars from its reviewer, and they did not recommend it.  Taste in books is very individual.

It’s not surprising that six reviews were turned in for James Patterson books.  He comes out with a book about once a month now, one bestseller after another.  The six reviews were for six different titles.  Gone received five out of five stars and was described as a “fast-moving adventure” but predictable.  Kill Alex Cross got four stars, as did Merry Christmas, Alex Cross, Private Down Under, and Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas.  A reviewer gave You've Been Warned only two stars and said they would not recommend it, describing it as a “chaotic read.”

Stuart Woods had two books reviewed by our participants, and both received four stars.  D.C. Dead was described as “enjoyable enough” and Insatiable Appetites as “action packed as usual.”

149 book reviews were turned in overall, so you will find a much wider variety of authors and books if you stop in and look through the reviews, which you are welcome to do.  You won’t know who in our community wrote them, but you can get some ideas about what people are reading and what they think of the books.  I hope you find some four- and five-star books to read this spring!

Book-to-movie club today

Book-to-movie club meets today, 4/13, 3:15-5, to discuss Stuart Little and watch the movie.  Anyone in grades 4-8 is welcome.  Younger kids may attend if accompanied by an adult.

Back by popular demand

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: Makey-Makey kits! These open-ended, creative kits work with computers and are a BLAST. The teens who have used them in Grove City and Litchfield in the past month have not wanted to stop. Use any conductive material to create joysticks, controllers, keyboards... the sky's the limit. Anyone ages 12-18 is welcome to come tomorrow at 1:30 and play around. Bring friends -- it will be a good time!

National Library Week

by Jeanette Stottrup, President of Friends of the Litchfield Public Library

The Friends of the Litchfield Public Library would like to call attention to National Library Week which will be observed April 12-18, 2015, with the theme, Unlimited possibilities @ your library®. First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country, generally the second week each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation's libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries - school, public, academic and special libraries - participate.

Celebrations during National Library Week include National Library Workers Day, celebrated the Tuesday of National Library Week, a day to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers. The Friends of the Library will have an open house in honor of the library staff from 1-4 pm on the 14th in the library meeting room.  We invite the public to become acquainted with our staff, whose pictures and short bios will be available. Friends members will be on hand to serve refreshments. Information on joining the Friends group will also be available.

It takes a team effort and many hands to keep the library materials organized and available for checkout. Other hands are working to bring together programs to promote information and recreation for different segments of our community. There are others who help individuals locate materials and information. This team effort is expanded as all the libraries in the Pioneerland Library System work together to share their collections across our nine counties. Added to that is an electronic network of catalogs that tap the library resources of the whole state through MnLink.  Truly many dedicated and diverse workers are involved in providing our community with library services.

To close out National Library Week, the Litchfield Library and Friends will have a table at the Business and Community Showcase being held at the Civic Arena on Saturday, April 18^th, from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. What better way to celebrate National Library Week than to represent our library at this community event?  Stop by our table, pick up some informational material, and register for a door prize.

This third Saturday of the month, April 18^th, is also a book sale day from the library’s opening at 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. This sale is sponsored by the Friends of the Library with the able help of the Litchfield Women’s Study Club who have been manning the cashier table for a good number of years now. We appreciate their service and dedication. Sale items are organized by author for fiction items and subject area for nonfiction items for easy access.

The Friends of the Litchfield Library support its efforts in making recreational and informational materials and programming available. Our Litchfield library staff is committed to serving our community. An American Library Association report states that 90 percent of the respondents in an independent national survey said that libraries are important to the community. I’m sure that our community will agree with that assessment.  The Friends are looking forward to seeing you at our open house the afternoon of the 14^th.

Saturday Movie Matinee

What Will You Make Today?

By Margaret Weigelt

Teen Programming at Litchfield and Grove City

Encourage TEENS to TAKE this library SURVEY!   https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DL8F665

If you’re of a certain age you may have noticed the public library isn’t quite like it used to be.  It’s still the place to find book titles on every topic under the sun, but some of the activities happening may surprise you.  People around the country and around the world are utilizing libraries for animated interactions together “discovering, making and doing” stuff like inventing, building and creating new content. Maybe you’ve noticed Lego creations on display? What’s that all about?  For a number of years now libraries have been building into their programming a new capacity to host and facilitate the creative genius of their communities.

In the future libraries may be the favorite place to go for community interaction, support, mentoring and to access a wide variety of tools and resources (other than books) cooperatively shared by community members to research and experiment, take apart or put together, and create or experience new content in both the real and the digital world. Instead of simply consuming someone else’s creative content we might be lending, submitting our own ideas, creations, compositions, coding, animations, inventions and discoveries to the community and library for input, feedback and review.

 In the future our resources will likely expand far beyond books and computers. In the future we might be coming to the public library to do a little research and then tackle a DIY/DIT or scientific project with tools and supplies available at the library! We might come to make a prototype with a 3D printer or work on a new invention or enterprise, investigate various technologies, try out new hobbies, get involved in service learning, learn to sew, cook, or make furniture. Who knows? It’s really up to you!

 

Here at the library we’ve taken baby steps toward a “Maker” kind of mindset for all ages.  In particular we’ve tried to make adjustments to our attitudes and are working to create library spaces where tweens and teens feel comfortable, especially for use of digital devices and social interaction. The teen programming at the Grove City and Litchfield libraries is set up to encourage and facilitate the creative, social and intellectual development of young people. The first step in achieving that has been to greet and get to know the teens that visit our libraries, find out about their interests, invite them to share their thoughts, advice, ideas and visions of what would make their experience at the library outstanding! We create programming around those interests.


One of our newest programs makes use of a tiny box of stuff called a Makey Makey.  It contains a whole lot of fun in the guise of a small circuit board powered by USB connected to conductive materials with alligator clip wires. Everyone’s eyes light up with ideas when they see the myriad possibilities of interacting with a computer’s apps, games and software via banana, play dough, spoons, or through a chain of conductive objects including three of your friends!

There will be a MAKEY MAKEY invention session for teens at the Litchfield Public Library Saturday April 11 starting 1:30 pm in the big meeting room! Another session will be offered at the Grove City Public Library on Monday April 20 at 3:30 pm. All young people ages 12-18 welcome. Refreshments will be served. No registration required. For more information call 320-693-2483 (Litchfield) or 320-857-2550 (Grove City).