Fun Nonfiction

As a kid, I was never too interested in reading nonfiction, because I thought it was only something you did when you had to do a report for school. However, since I left school, I have discovered that learning can actually be fun. Who knew?

Nonfiction for kids has gotten much better in the past 15 years, too. Take David McLimans's new book, Gone Fishing, for example. The artwork is great, and the book can be interesting for both older kids and younger kids. The younger kids will like the fact that it's a counting book, and the older ones will just like the cool facts about fish.

Another fun book I came across recently is called How to Get Rich in the California Gold Rush, by Tod Olson. Fans of the You Wouldn't Want to... series would really like this one. It's an amusing story about a guy from Massachusetts who goes to California right after gold was discovered there, in 1849. Besides the story, there are lots of great old-style pictures and side notes about the different things you would experience on a trip like that.

The kids in my Teen Book Club mentioned The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook as something they'd want to read, so I bought the junior edition for the library. This book made me smile a lot, because it has great cartoon illustrations, interesting subjects, and a breezy style. Here's the first paragraph from the section titled "How to Survive Falling Through the Ice":

"Let's say you're walking on ice. (Which you shouldn't do.) Then let's say you walk onto very thin ice. (Which clearly you shouldn't do. Dude, what the heck is wrong with you?!) It's too late now. You've fallen in--but the good news is, you can get out."

My point is, you don't have to go to the fiction section to find a good read at the library. The nonfiction section has plenty to offer, too. Come in and take a look!

2009 Awards

It's award season, and not just for movies and TV. Today, the American Library Association announced the 2009 winners for the Newbery, Caldecott, and other awards. This year's Newbery winner is Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. I am pleased with their choice, because the story is very interesting and gets the reader hooked in right away. I think a lot more kids will be reading The Graveyard Book than last year's winner, which was Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!.

The Caldecott winner this year was The House in the Night, which was illustrated by Beth Krommes and written by Susan Swanson. This picture book has very detailed illustrations in black, white, and yellow and a simple story similar to the classic Goodnight Moon. It's ideal for bedtime.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

As many of you know, we will be having a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory party on Saturday, Feb. 7th for kids of all ages here at the library. It's in conjunction with Monticello Chocolate Fantasy and yes, there will be lots of chocolate! We will have a Candy Walk game with full-sized candy bar prizes, a chocolate tasting/guessing game, an M&Ms guessing jar (the winner takes the whole jar home!), design your own candy bar wrapper, coloring pages, readings from the novel, and a raffle to win copies of the novel. It will go from 10-4 with a break in most activities from 12-1.

I would also like to encourage everyone to take some time to discover (or come back to) Roald Dahl's books. I loved them as a kid, especially the story of Matilda, the bookworm who turned out to have special powers. As an adult I still enjoy them. Dahl has that rare gift of writing stories that appeal to audiences of all ages.

So pick up one (or three) of his books here at the library, and I hope to see everyone at the party on the 7th!

Twilight and Teens

Recently, ALA put out its yearly Teens' Top Ten list for 2008. The list is a good indicator of what teenagers are reading, since teens themselves nominate and choose the books on the list, without much adult influence (or interference, as the teens might say).

The number one pick on the list was Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer, which is the third book in the Twilight series. This series has been featured on the list for the past 2 years and its popularity is so strong that it even beat out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which has the #2 spot.

People who have heard of the Twilight series's popularity but don't know what it's about are often surprised to hear that it's essentially a vampire romance story. Many adults who hear this get an identical look of mingled surprise and dismay on their faces, especially if they are not fans of horror fiction. Having read and enjoyed all the books in the series, I tell them that the emphasis in the books is on the star-crossed lover theme, rather than violence and blood-sucking and such (although you will find some of that, too). It's also difficult to describe Meyer's writing style, which I found very absorbing despite the leisurely pace of the plot.

Anyway, my point is, if you haven't yet heard of Twilight, you may want to give it a try, even if it's outside of your reading comfort zone. You might like it. Just make sure you don't wait until the day before you want to read it, because the books in the series are never on the library shelves--yes, they're that popular. The only way to get a copy is to reserve it or buy it at the bookstore.

The Illustration Party

On Saturday, Jan. 24th we will be having an Illustration Party for kids here at the library. In addition to giving kids all sorts of opportunities to be artsy (we will have picture painting, coloring, collage making, and other stuff) I wanted to give kids a chance to see the work of award-winning illustrators. So, with lots of help from my wonderful co-workers, we have re-drawn some images from books that won Caldecott awards or Caldecott honors in past years, so we can hang them up in the library and downstairs where the party will be. (The Caldecott list can be viewed here, if you are interested.)

One illustrator/author named David Wiesner has won the Caldecott medal or honor numerous times for his wordless picture books. His art is just wonderful, but it's also extremely hard to imitate. I've been trying to color the frog images from his book Tuesday for about a month now, and I'm finally starting to end up with something I'm satisfied with.

Other books I have chosen images from include Olivia by Ian Falconer,

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes,

and, one of my all-time favorites, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems.

I hope everyone can come out and be artsy with us on the 24th!