Take & Make Crafts and a Santa Visit

Come in and get some Take-and-Make Christmas and winter crafts for kids! We currently have four different kinds to choose from: a wreath ornament with jewels, a beaded star ornament, a candy cane ornament, and a large CD snowman decoration. Most just require glue and time, but they do have small parts so they're generally not recommended for children under 3 years.

Santa will be visiting the library on Monday, December 10 at 11 a.m. Kids will also hear Christmas stories and get candy canes to eat. No need to register - just come!

New in Teen, Plus a Contest

I recently read two great new books from our teen section: Ask the Passengers and Code Name Verity. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, I'll just put my Goodreads reviews here:

For Ask the Passengers: There's so much that teens can take away from this book! A.S. King's deceptively simple writing style disguises this fact, because reading her prose is a breeze, but it leaves the reader with a lot to think about as well. Teens who like stories about family, friendships, and relationships in general will find a great read. Teens who are questioning their sexuality or have discovered that they fall somewhere that's not hetero will find comfort and will relate to Astrid's confusion and struggles. Teens who like Big Questions and who like to discuss issues and philosophical ideas will love Astrid's humanities class and will be eager to chime in. Highly recommended for most teen readers, but especially for fans of John Green, David Levithan, John Barnes, Sarah Dessen, or Francesca Lia Block.

For Code Name Verity: This was an incredible World War II story and a great choice to read on Veteran's Day. It's about a young female British spy who has been captured, tortured and interrogated by the Gestapo in France and has cut a deal with them: they will give her two weeks, and she will write down everything she knows about the British war effort. The reader is on the edge of his/her seat the whole time (what will they do to her? what will she give away?), and some of the plot twists are just. staggering. The whole thing really brings home the extraordinary bravery of all the people who fought the Nazis during the war. It's a tough read, but I will recommend it to older teens and adults who want a good historical fiction story that packs an emotional wallop. Fans of The Book Thief will want to read this, immediately.

Also, there's a contest out there for kids who enjoy reading and writing! It's called Letters About Literature and it's open to kids in grades 4-10. Kids who win will get money for themselves plus money for their schools! You must enter before January 11, 2013. For more details, go to the website here. 

Getting Crafty (And Hungry!)

I have been very busy cutting out snowman parts and paper wreaths to get everything ready for Take 'N Make Craft Day on Saturday, November 24. It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and I know all you crafty people out there will be thinking about Christmas and winter decorations! We will have three or four different crafts that will be great for families with kids to do together. All you'll need for most of them will be glue.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, it's only two weeks away! Be sure to stop by and check out some of our Thanksgiving books... or, if those are all gone (they're going fast!) some books with food. Some of my favorites are Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Muncha Muncha Muncha by Candace Fleming, Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann, Bean Thirteen by Matthew McElligott, and Wild Boars Cook by Meg Rosoff.

What are some of your favorite books for Thanksgiving?

They're Here!

Remember how I posted a while back on all the cool books that were coming out this fall? Well, now lots of them are here and my to-read pile is as huge as ever! I did read the two books pictured in that post, The Mark of Athena and Let's Go for a Drive!. I also finished The Diviners, This Is Not My Hat, and Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs. I liked all of them, even though I felt a little so-so on The Diviners because it has a slow-moving plot. I also want to warn Riordan fans that The Mark of Athena is really, really good... but there is an excruciating cliffhanger at the end of it.

Right now my to-read pile includes Variant by Robison Wells, Ask the Passengers by A.S. King, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, Ruins by Orson Scott Card (yay! it's finally here!), and Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin. I also have Linwood Barclay's book The Accident and Lauren Kate's Fallen on my Kindle waiting to be read after I finish Across the Universe. Phew! And I CANNOT WAIT for Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor. I loved the first book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, so much, and I've been looking forward to this sequel since last year around this time.