 Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Christa Burns, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the Commission's weekly online event. We're a webinar, we're a webcast, we're an online show. I don't care, whatever you want to call us, the terminology is up for debate. But whatever we are, we're here live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. central time. If you are unable to join us on Wednesday mornings, that's fine. We record all of our shows and all of our shows going back to our very first one, which was, we started in January 2009. It was the very first Encompass Live. They're all available on our website. Wow, that's seven years. Yeah, so this is starting our eighth year. Wow, okay, I hadn't really thought about that. All of our recordings are there, so you'll be able to go and watch them if you're unable to join us on Wednesday mornings. We do a mixture of things here, book reviews, many training sessions, interviews, demos of products and services. Basically anything library related, we are happy to have it on the show. We do bring in guest speakers sometimes from outside of the Library Commission and outside of Nebraska. We can bring anyone in for that. We sometimes also have Nebraska Library Commission staff as we have today. Next to me, and you'll see her in just a second, we get the camera up, is Sally Snyder, who is our youth services coordinator. And so she's here with us this morning. Hi, Sally. Hi. I'm happy to be back. And those of you who may have two radios or not, I was away off vacation for the last couple weeks, and actually Sally stood in for me as host, filled in, and she did a great job. So I hope everyone had a happy holidays and a good new year. We are back. This is our first Encompass Live of the Year that we have today. And I'm happy to be just presenting today. Bringing the whole show. Yeah. So, you know, what Sally's got first two weeks ago, she was here and did a companion piece to this one. I was going to say the best new teen books for 2015. And now we've got the children's books. So different age group, same idea. So I'll just hand over to you, then Sally can go ahead and take you away with your presentation. Thank you. It might make you wonder that we're starting with the Nebraska Library Commission homepage, but that's so I can show you how to find the list of all the books that I'm going to be talking about. So if you go to the Library Commission homepage and in the search box here, just type out handouts. Click on search. And your best bet is Nebraska Library Commission handouts. And here, so far, I'm the only one using this. So what's all about me and my presentations here. But the best new children's books of 2015, this is the presentation I'm giving today. You can go to the PDF that just lists the titles, or you can go to the PDF with blurbs. And you can just follow along and see if I'm really talking about what I said I was going to talk about. Because there's all my blurbs and all the titles. So you can print this off or the other one off right now or after the presentation and look through it and double check what I said on the page and what I said in real life and see how close they are or are not. Just be a reference to where we are. And so let's get started. Best new children's books of 2015. And one of the things that people asked last time for the teen books is where do we get our titles? So I'll quickly answer that. The Library Commission receives review books, review copies of books for no charge from a number of publishers, but not everybody. So we look through those books. I say we because I have a couple of people helping me and determine what ones seem worthy. I read them for the teen books, Jill, Anas, and I both read them. And then we decide what goes on the list. I also follow several mail groups and keep track via different things on the web to see what are things I'm missing because even the people who send me the most books, Harper Collins, sends me lots of big boxes. But they don't send me everything, of course. So I get lots of opportunities to see their books, but there's still some that I don't get. So I look at the library. I look at the bookstore. Sometimes I buy a book. Usually I check it out at the library. That's where we find them. So if your favorite book is not on my list, it's probably because I haven't heard of it yet. So send me an email and let me know about it because it'll be too late for this broadcast. But still, I like to know these things. So moving on. And if throughout the show today you know of other titles that Sally doesn't mention or maybe there are similar to ones, type it into the questions section there and we can share that with everyone. Thank you. Yeah, if you have any ideas. That'd be great. As you said, she's always looking for new ones. Always. And people like to know, what's the one that's popular in your area? Okay. Okay. There we go. So we'll start with picture books. Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony. Mr. Panda offers donuts to several different animals one at a time. And then based on their replies, says he has changed his mind. With no explanation. So why? The last animal, and all of the animals have been black and white like Mr. Panda. It's kind of fun. There's a penguin, a skunk, an ostrich, a killer whale. And the last animal, the lemur says, may I have a donut? Please, Mr. Panda. And he gives him the whole box. So it's a bit didactic, yes, but it's clever and fun. It's fun to see if the kids can figure out why he keeps changing his mind. And all those animals you just mentioned, I just was thinking, and looking at the cover, is this a color thing? Are all the animals are black and white? And the donuts are all multicolored. Everything you mentioned, your animals, skunk, killer whale, even lemurs. Very fun. So yeah. That's great. Great contrast between the animals and colorful donuts. Good point. Okay. Moving forward. I went too far. I'm getting excited. Juna's jar by Jane Bock. Juna and her best friend Hector take her kimchi jar to the park every day and they find things to put in it. A caterpillar, some rocks or bugs. But one day, Hector and his family have moved away. Then she has a series of adventures with the different things she puts in her jar. You get the impression that these are dreams at night, but nothing is stated. Her older brother bought her a fish and she swam through it in the ocean that night. The one night when she rides a cricket that she caught, they stop at Hector's new house and she sees that he's doing fine and then she doesn't have to worry about him anymore. So it's a friendship, loss, and a story about something that had pulled them together that still connects them. Kind of fun. Bright colors highlight the tale of a fellow named Tom who rides his bike to work past typical things like cars and buses. And then, and one bus is the bus from my bus, his other book. You can notice a dog and cat and people on board, so that's fun. Then he rides past monkeys, acrobats, elephants, and more. After he puts on his clown uniform and his makeup, he rides his unicycle for the circus crowd. So you have your expected things and then suddenly something completely different. The girl and boy of Journey, each with their own special crayons, encounter a king who also has a special crayon. He gives them a map and some unusual items before being pulled back through a door. The children follow and they journey through this land to try and help the king. Beautiful artwork and the solving of the puzzle will appeal to the intended audience of Kindergarten through grade 3 and this is all completely wordless. It's all from the illustrations. The new small person by Lauren Child. Elmore reacts in typical fashion when a new baby joins the family. Before long, the small person, as Elmore calls them, is getting into his things and following him around. Eventually, it moves into his room. But one night, Elmore has a bad dream and the small person climbed in with him and shouted the scary away. That was nice. Elmore becomes better at sharing. It's a wonderful look at siblings and how families change. Smick by Doreen Cronin. Whimsical line art on a white background carries the story of a dog smick, a stick, and a chick. Very brief texts such as Good Smick. The stick is a photograph and the chick is a colorful leaf with some line markings. It's a good choice for story time with action and friendship. Uh-oh by Shedda Crum. Two preschoolers, a girl and a boy, go with their moms to the beach. The youngsters have several mild adventures while their moms read under the beach umbrella. I like that they each have a book they're reading. Keep an eye on the kids though. It contains plenty of uh-ohs, which is the only text in the book, as things happen, such as a bird landing on their sand sculpture and a hat being blown away. This could be a fun read-aloud with listeners telling the story of what is happening and joining in with the uh-oh. Last stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena. A boy and his grandmother ride the bus after church. The boy wonders why they don't have a car. Why do they have to wait in the rain for the bus? Why do they go to the same place every week after church? He wishes he had his own music, like an iPod or something and more. And each time, his nana answered with what they do have. It turns out that they are riding the bus to the shelter where they will help serve the meal. It's a great opportunity to look on the bright side of things to see the positive and the value of giving back to others. Gemma and Gus by Olivier Dunray. First Gemma, the big sister, explores and Gus follows. When she gets irked and she shouts, don't keep following me. But then she follows Gus as he explores. Sibling issues are explored and resolved in this small, brief book. And a companion one is called Gus. He enjoys exploring alone until he runs across three eggs. He takes care of them through rain, night and scampering mice. Once they hatch, he no longer explores on his own. Listeners will see who laid the eggs and will guess what is going to hatch. And you might guess by looking at the picture right here. It's a little foreshadowing on the cover. I love this one. Wolfie the Bunny by Ann Dykeman. The Bunny family finds a basket on their doorstep with a wolf cub in it. Mom and Dad are thrilled. Daughter Dot explains, he's going to eat us all up. But the parents continually ignore her. Finally, one day at the market, it looks like her prediction is coming true. By this time, Wolfie is wearing a pink bunny suit so he fits in better with the family, I guess. But instead it is a bear who wants to eat Wolfie. Dot to the rescue. Sibling rivalry, cleverness and courage and love are at the heart of the story. Bulldozer's Big Day by Candice Fleming. Bulldozer is so excited about his big day he zooms to the other construction machines one at a time, exclaiming, guess what today is? Each one replies that it is scooping day or lifting day and so on, depending on the type of work they each do. Bulldozer's blade gets lower and lower as no one knows what he means. But then the other machine slipped a giant birthday cake off the ground for Bulldozer's birthday party. Chew's Day at the Beach by Neil Gaiman. This is, I think, the third book about Chew. Chew's Sneeze at the Beach. And this one, he sneezes early on in the story because they're at the beach and his sneeze accidentally separates the ocean. There's just sand through there and the ocean's on each side of it. Now all the animals want him to sneeze again to fix it, but he just can't. The variety of the animals is great then in itself. Listeners may not know the pangolineral poppy, but most of them will be a familiar animal. The illustrations are fun and hilariously convey the haphazard result of Chew's first sneeze because the whale mother's on one side, the whale cat's on the other, and they really want to get back together. Well, of course, finally he's able to fix everything. Red at Crayon Story by Michael Hall. This is hilarious and fun. His wrapper is red. He is labeled red, but all the kids can see that he is not. He continuously disappoints others because, try as he might, he cannot do what they ask. His teacher thought he needed more practice. Scarlett asked him to draw a red strawberry. He tried to make an orange with yellow, but it turned out green. His self-portrait is all wrong. Finally, he meets a new friend, Barry, who asks him to make a blue ocean for his boat. Red did a great job. Waiting by Kevin Hanks. There is no impatience, just waiting. The toy dog, pig, owl, rabbit, and bear are on the windowsill, each waiting for something different. Sometimes one or another of them will be gone for a while, but then they return. It's a quiet look at the interests of toys and events during the time they wait on the window ledge. Plenty of discussion opportunities after the story is read. I don't think I can read that patiently. Baby's by Ellen Jackson. Rhyming text tells of animal parents' love for their babies, even when they are naughty. So it's just unsuiness. In Over and On, The Farm by Ethan Long. The author of the Geisel Award winner Up Tall and High gives us a new title containing three stories with a total of one lift the flap and two fold open pages demonstrating in and out, over, under, around, and on, off with the farm animals on the cover. It's another fun concept book, and I think it will be quite popular. Ready Rabbit Gets Ready by Brenna Maloney. Ready Rabbit is supposed to get up and get ready for school, but he is having a wonderful dream. Still he gets up, but then he just has to build a spaceship with his Lego blocks, and then he must decide what to wear. Oh yeah, rabbits don't wear clothes. He tries to be good, but he keeps getting distracted by other more interesting things. Photos are used for the illustrations with a white background. Ready is stitched from a sock, probably because the author has also written the books Sock Appeal and Sockology about how to do this. And his face is made from round pieces of material with expressions drawn on them. With this as an example, I'm just amazed at the expressions, how well it comes through. It's just great fun, and then maybe you can make a little animal. I think you can use the other books to make the actual, here's the little rabbit in the story. Perfect. If you plant a seed by Kedir Nelson, Bunny and Mouse wait for their garden to produce some delectable vegetables, but then a few birds want some too. Nelson starts with the seeds in the garden, but soon switches to, if you plant a seed of selfishness, that's the bunny, and oh, does he have troubles. After which the mouse plants a seed of kindness, which also grows and grows, and it grows into good things for everyone. Beautiful art and limited text make this a winner. Maple and Willow together, this is a follow up to the first book that was titled Maple. In this one, Maple and her younger sister Willow spend every day together. They explore in the yard, read books in the house, and play hide and seek. But one day they disagree and have a fight, and are sent to their rooms. It isn't long before they are missing each other. It's a quiet story of everyday life with its ups and downs, good for story time, or to share one on one. And along with that is the third book, Maple and Willow Apart by Lori Nichols. Maple starts school, and Willow has to find a way to pass the time until she returns. So, being left behind. Jerry Pinkney has written The Grasshopper and the Ants is a retelling of the Aesop label. The Grasshopper plays the spring, summer, and fall away while the ants busily prepare for the coming winter. Happily for the Grasshopper, in Pinkney's version, the Ants lean finally relents and invites the Grasshopper into their cozy home. I think it's great that Pinkney is retelling both some of Aesop's labels and fairy tales, so children today can continue to hear them there, and many children who aren't hearing nursery rhymes or fairy tales or fables. So he's done other ones that are other fables? He's done a number of more fairy tales like the Wine in the Mouse and the Rabbit in the Turtle racing. What's it mean? Oh, I should have on the hair. There, that's much better than my version. Sorry. Wait, by Antoinette Portas. Mom is trying to hurry her son down the street to catch the train, but he keeps seeing things worth stopping to take a look. Only two words are used throughout the book. Hurry and wait. Plenty of muted colors and the cartoon-like illustrations help to carry the story. One family by George Shannon. It's a fascinating look at counting and what families can be, for example. One is two. One pair of shoes. One team of horses. One family. One family with an illustration, including the items, and a mother and child. So, interesting to pull these different concepts together. It's very clever. Something good to talk about afterwards. Trotto and the Trucks by Yuri Shulovitz. Trotto, a happy green car, takes a long drive and stops in a town full of large trucks. They laugh at Trotto's size, so he challenges them to a race at high noon. The three big trucks zoom off and Trotto follows behind them. But the trucks went into problems that the smaller Trotto can avoid. The motto? Size isn't everything. Also, winning and losing with grace. It's another good storytime choice. Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood. This is great fun. It's a space-age Cinderella. She can fix most any machine, but dreams of fixing fancy rockets and spaceships. When the space parade is announced by the Prince, Cinderella is left behind. Her fairy-god robot to the rescue. Take on the tale with Cinderella telling the Prince that she is too young for marriage, but she will be his chief mechanic. So I just love that take on it. First grade dropout by Audrey Hurnick. The most horrible thing happened to the boy at school and everyone, including his best friend, laughed at him. He thinks about some ways he could fix it, but he will probably have to drop out of school. He remembers laughing when his best friend's turtle costume fell off, but his situation is different. His situation is much worse. When he goes to soccer practice, Tyler acts as if everything is normal. And maybe it is. It's a good lesson in empathy, accepting mistakes, and accepting others. Oh, the horrible thing? He called the teacher, mommy. Oh. Ask me by Bernard Wabber, a walk around the park in neighborhood full of beautiful fall colors. A father and daughter ask and answer all kinds of questions. Prompted by the daughter at the beginning, her text is in black. Her father's text is in light blue or lavender. She says, ask me what I like. It's a wonderful opening for discussion with parents and children or in story time, because it's a great example of how to have a conversation and how to ask people about things. So beautiful, wonderful story. The cow tripped over the moon, a nursery rhyme emergency by Jean Willis. Several nursery rhymes require a visit from the rescue squad, starting with, here comes the ambulance, it's on its way. Who's had an accident in story land today? Clever, fun, good for story time, but the youngsters will need to be familiar with the original nursery rhymes. We visit six rhymes including the cow, rock-a-bye baby, don't worry, he's fine, and more, and oh yes, Humpty Dumpty is included. Excuse me. I'm fighting off a cold, so a little gravelly moist. We'll make it through. Okay. Beginning readers in early chapter books. Humphries Creepy Crawley Camping Adventure by Betty G. Burney. This is book three of a new series of early chapter books. This is the first one I've seen. Humphries goes home with Heidi for the weekend and she and her friends camp out in the backyard. It's a bit scary, especially when the boys next door pull a trick on them. Humphries continues to be an astute observer of human behavior, and he is willing to admit when he is scared. The Chicken Squad, the case of the weird blue chicken by Doreen Cronin. This is book two in this new series. The chicks, dirt, sugar, poppy, and sweetie run a detective agency. When a blue jay asks for help to find his kidnapped birdhouse, the wacky group is on the case. It's silly fun with a mystery. Francine Poulet meets the ghost raccoon by Kate de Camillo. Francine is a no-nonsense, solid, afraid-of-nothing animal control officer who once stared down a bear. But when she encounters a shimmering raccoon who shrieks her name, she scurries off the roof. She changes jobs, and it isn't until a young boy who has faith in her reminds her who she is that she faces the ghost raccoon again. Brief appearances from other characters in books about Deckerwood Drive, like Mercy Watts and The Pig, will bring chuckles, along with a hankering for hot, buttered toast. Charlie the Ranch Dog Stuck in the Mud by Reed Drummond. This is at least the third I can read title about Charlie, but again, it's the first one I've seen. Charlie goes with the crew out to move the cattle. He is the first one to see the cat Abigail from the picture book Charlie and the New Baby heading off in the wrong direction. Soon they are both stuck in the mud. Still, Charlie finds a way to save the day, or at least he thinks he saved the day. Kids will love finding the chipmunk on most pages, though it is never acknowledged in the text. They'll know to look for it when they've seen a Charlie. Just following him everywhere. Flat Stanley in the Very Big Cookie by Lori Haskins-Toren. Stanley and his brother Arthur visit Mr. Pete's bakery to fight him upset. The baker in the next town had a new idea, cake pops, and now Mr. Pete's business is slow. When Stanley trips and falls on a table full of cookie dough, the baker has a great new idea just in time for the town's food fair. Silly fun and maybe a set of cookies. You can do the standard large roll of paper to draw outlines of the kids at storytime so they can make themselves a cookie. If you can find a roll of paper like that. Ling and Teen Twice is Silly by Grace Lynn. Six new stories about twins Ling and Teen who still each wear one red and one green shoe from a previous title. Upon a joke and acting silly are part of this third title in the Beginning Readers series. Detective Gordon, the First Case by Ulf Nielsen. This is Book One of a new series laid on a cold wintery evening and upset squirrel comes to the station to report a theft to Detective Gordon atone. Some of the events are missing from one of his pantries. Detective Gordon goes out to investigate, gets frozen in the snow and finds a young, homeless, nameless mouse who becomes his assistant after she rescued him from the snow. He names her Buffy and together they work to solve the crime. It includes an illustration or two on every two page spread. Monkey and Elephant and a Birthday Surprise by Carol Lexa Schrafer. This is the fourth book in this series. Monkey tells Elephant a secret. She doesn't like birthdays, especially her own. Elephant's secret is he can't keep a secret. It is Monkey's birthday and Elephant is desperate to keep it to himself. When Uncle Fawkin and his friend, Clever Rat, come on the scene, they soon are planning and it's not my birthday new hat party. What will Monkey think? This series continues to give us good friendship stories. Sneaky. Okay. What this story needs is a pig in a wig by Emma J. Virgin. Silly antricks involve adding rhyming words to tell the story. The pig in the wig is on a boat in a moat with a frog and so on. Then the pig thinks the boat is too crowded and the other animals have to leave one by one. The pig does end up getting lonely and she has to rethink this whole thing and they all end up on a bigger boat. This is great rhyming practice and you can have the listeners create their own similar rhyming story after hearing this one. Another book comes out January 26. What this story needs is a hush and a shush and in May, what this story needs is a munch and a crunch. If you have kids working on rhymes and teachers or parents want these kinds of books, you can be adding them to your collection as soon as they come out. You can't avoid them. You have to include at least one Mo Willow. I will take a nap. Elephant is tired and cranky so he decides to take a nap. Piggy makes it hard to do, not on purpose just because first she wakes him up to find out what he is doing and then she joys him but she snores so loudly he doesn't seem to be able to ever take a nap. There is a bit of a surprise at the end. Kids will love joining in with Piggy's loud snore. That's kind of how I take a nap. Picture book nonfiction. Ivan, the remarkable true story of the shopping mall Gorilla by Katherine Applegate is a nonfiction picture book that tells the story of Ivan who was the main character in the author's Newberry winning title, The One and Only Ivan. Here she tells of his capture in Africa and traveled to a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington. He was put on display at the mall for 27 years until a protest by the people of the area convinced the owner to send Ivan to Zoo Atlanta. There he once again walked on green grass and met other gorillas. A two-page spread at the back of the half of the book, back pages of the book, tell adults more about Ivan and includes a couple of photographs. I think the ones that are true stories like that they can really connect with something. And this book is included on the Golden Soar 2016 to 2017 primary list. That's the Nebraska Children's Choice Award for people who might not know that. Trapped, A Whale's Rescue by Robert Burley. This retails the true story of a humpback whale entangled in old crabbing nets and in danger of drowning. A trained rescue crew carefully frees the whale with cautions of how dangerous it is to do. Wonderful illustrations add to the story and two pages at the back of the book give more information. Steve Jenkins and Robin Page have creature features. 25 animals explain why they look the way they do. This title looks at 25 animals with unusual features and explains why they have them. For example, the leaf nose bat uses its unusual nose to direct sounds to its ears. Art dominates each page with a brief question and answer and readers will be intrigued. The art always shows the animal's head and face from the front and not much of the rest of their body so readers may be curious to go looking for complete photos or more information on the main creatures which is always a good thing. Find out more. Dinosaurs from Head to Tail by Stacy Roderick. Preschoolers will enjoy guessing which dinosaurs in the picture just from a head or a neck or a leg. Then they will learn a bit more about it, how to pronounce it if they don't already know which they usually do. After they turn the page, eight dinosaurs are highlighted with seven more included on the last two page spread. The cut paper art makes it not too scary for the audience. Woodpecker Wham by April Pooley Sayer. Rhyming Text gives a look at a variety of woodpeckers in the U.S. and their life cycle collage art by Steve Jenkins. It includes an occasional sampling of automatic P.I. kids will enjoy such as tap, tap, tap. Where? Look and see. Crack, crack. Six chicks break free. Winnie, the true story of the bear who inspired Winnie the Pooh by Sally M. Walker. This is the first book I encountered about that. There's at least one more that I haven't seen yet about Winnie. This recounts the story of a bear cub rescued by veterinarian Harry Colburn while still in Canada and brought her with him to their training camp in England during the war one. When his regiment was sent to France, Harry arranged for Winnie, named for Winnipeg, the hometown of his company, to be taken care of at the London Zoo. That is where Christopher Robin met her. Sharks have six senses by John F. Waters. This is the Let's Read and Find Out series. No big teeth or gaping jaws in this introduction to several types of sharks. The author shares the six senses of the sharks. The next one is electroreception. They sense electric fields other fish give off into the sea. Contains good information and uses cut paper collage art with pastels. They give a feel for the environment. Includes a brief glossary along with some additional information at the back of the book. One of my favorite things, more info, is. Now take a quick break here. Fiction for grades two to five or so. I didn't say earlier, but all of my age groupings, as we all know, are rough because each child is an individual and they may be in a different age group or grade group, but still be able to read older or younger books, and that's okay. So nothing is set in stone. General guidelines. Yes. Avi has written Old Wolf. Case 13 learns that real bow hunting is very different from bow hunting in a video game. An old wolf, the pack leader, has ventured closer to people so he could find food for his pack. Cage catches a glimpse of the wolf and then uses his new birthday present, a bow and arrow, to shoot at a raven. Feeling remorse when it falls from the sky. Later the arrow is found and the raven is gone. A bit of magic realism is included in this tale comparing hunting for food with hunting for points. Occasional illustrations enhance the text. Oh, I like this one. Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertram. Emily 12 is a big fan of the online game Book Scavenger invented by Garrison Griswold. When her family moves to San Francisco, she hopes she can compete in one of his local games. She finds a copy of the gold bug in the BART station where Mr. Griswold was injured during a mugging. It could be the first clue in a new game he was planning, but he is in a coma now and he may never wake up. Emily and her new friend James try to find the clues while a couple of thugs try to find them. It'll make you wish that there was a Book Scavenger game. There should be, yes. Write that up. Lost by Essay Baudin is the second book in the Shipwreck Island series. The family finds out more about the girl, Cash, who's 12. They found her on the beach at the end of Book One, but her story seems far-fetched. It isn't until the four kids, Cash, Sarah, Marco, and Nacho, go exploring that they begin to realize there is something quite unusual on the island and they may not make it back to the beach. The war that saved my life by Kimberly Brubaker-Bredbury. Ada, she's 10 at the beginning of the book and ages to 11. Her brother Jamie, who's seven at the end of the book, are evacuated from London and left with Susan, an older, somewhat irritable woman who at first says she does not want them. This is during the Blitz in World War II. Ada was abused by her mother because of her club foot, but living in the countryside is glorious. Susan soon comes to love them and when their mother shows up to take them back, Ada again feels unwanted. The slow change over Ada as she begins to realize the freedom she has and that Susan will never hit her, all is indicated by the title. For it by Cynthia de Feliz, Wyatt and his summertime friend, Augie, decide to build a fort in the nearby woods with Augie's Uncle Hindo's approval. When they come back the next day after finishing the fort, they find it trashed, likely by the slightly older boys who have been bullying them all summer. They invite Gerard, a mentally challenged team who has also been bullied, to join them at the fort. There they set a plan and Gerard helps brighten the bullies. Nothing too dangerous, but kind of by getting back. Jack and the Wildlife by Lisa Doan is book two in the Berenson Schemes series. Jack's extremely irresponsible parents have decided to go to Kenya to provide tourists with a true African experience. During the drive in a jeep, Jack's accidentally gets left behind and must survive until his parents return. Well, he hopes they'll return. Good survival information along with humor and determination. And book three is Jack at the helm. Jack's parents have decided to start their own religion and bought a house in Nepal for $500. Jack and their first disciple, 18-year-old Harry, are accidentally tossed out of the truck out of the road as they travel toward the supposed house. And they have to find their way back to town. Any town. More misadventures, but Harry appreciates Jack's calm and intelligent responses to their several dilemmas. Jack also helps Harry find his purpose in life. And maybe he has also discovered the best career for his parents. His parents are very eccentric, aren't they? Yes, they are. And this is one of those reversals where the kid is actually more the parent than the parents, but is clever in fact. Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper. Historical fiction said in 1932, North Carolina with a bold and determined main character, the Ku Klux Klan is reviving in their community, and the African-American side of town is cautious in all they do. Still, they know it is only a matter of time before something bad happens, especially after a few men, including Stella's father, go into town to register to vote. Stella often sits out on their front porch at night practicing writing journal articles to prepare for her dreamed out and freeing job until her mother brings her inside to avoid possible danger. When a neighbor's house is burned down, people pull together. But after the fact, it is not only the African-American side of town that responds with help. The island of Dr. Libri by Chris Grabbenstein, Billy 12, worries his parents may divorce. He and his mother are spending the summer in a cabin owned by Dr. Libri. Soon, Billy discovers that when he reads from a book from the locked cabinet, the characters come alive on an island in the middle of the lake. Readers will enjoy the idea of Robin Hood, Maid Marion and Hercules talking with Tom Sawyer and other book characters. But soon, things begin to get complicated. Billy and the neighbor boy Walter have to come up with a plan to rescue Billy's parents from the past and get all the characters back on track and get everybody back in their books. That goes to the Libri library. The Iron Claw by Kirsten Hamilton is booked to in the Gadgets and Gears series. This is a steampunk quick read for younger elementary school age. The evil Dr. Mesmer and his mesmerizing bird have returned. Wally Kennewick at 11 and Inventor like his parents and his docks and noodles, along with Wally's parents, Dr. Tessin and his children have returned. Wally Kennewick at 11 and Inventor like his parents and his docks and noodles, along with Wally's parents, Dr. Tessin and some of their automatons are traveling to Europe to save Wally's ant and fungal from the mesmers. Again, narrated by Newton with the dog, the frequent illustrations along the edge of pages and larger size type, along with gadgets and evil plots will appeal to re-elected readers. Hish in a tree by Linda Malali hugged. Allie is in sixth grade and she struggles to hide her shortcomings. Ends up in the principal's office far too often. A substitute teacher comes in. Her teacher is having a baby. Things begin to change. Allie believes that she is slow and stupid. She can't read it all and she must hide it, but her new teacher recognizes her intelligence and believes she has dyslexia. His comment, if you judge a fish by how well it can climb a tree, everyone will believe it is dull and stupid. Interesting characters including her older brother Travis help bring the story to life. This is a book by Jessica Lawson. Six children are invited to spend the weekend at the isolated home of the Countess Camilla de Maas as she thinks one of them might be her long lost grandchild. Tabitha Crom 11, never loved by her parents, is shocked to find that she, along with the other children, were all adopted when quite young. Things are odd and getting odder during the weekend. Children are disappearing and the Countess is getting less and less agreeable. Tabitha, in the manner of her well-loved and inspected personable pensive of novel thing, is determined to solve the mystery. Rain Rain by M. M. Martin grows in fifth grade, has Aspergers and uses some coping techniques with it, but something she has trouble letting go up. Her father is often frustrated and yells at her. Her uncle is much more understanding. The kids at school think she is weird. When her dog disappears during a thunderstorm she is relentless in trying to find him. Tender touching, a glimpse of her life may help others be more understanding. It received the 2015 Schneider Award for middle school age and her fascination with homophone, hominins, Rain and Rain and other things pop up throughout the book. Firefly Hollow by Allison McGee Firefly is too daring, curious and unorthodox. She asks questions and secretly wants to fly to the moon. Cricket does not care about the temperature. He wants to be a catcher like Yogi Berra. These two unconventional insects leave home and form a friendship with the miniature giant, a boy named Peter who is trying to find his way past the sad truth that his best friend is gone in the final sense of the word. They never use the word die, but it's pretty clear. An exploration of friendship, loss, finding your own way and becoming who you are meant to be are all in this gentle story. Ms. Rapscott's Girls by police primavera, whimsical, quirky, magical, humorous. Ms. Rapscott runs the great Rapscott School for Girls of Busy Parents in a lighthouse. Ms. Rapscott is kind, firm, reminds the girls that their parents love them very much. It's just that they're quite busy. The Corgis, Lewis and Clark are extremely helpful. They make tea, unpack the girls' suitcases. Five of her expected students arrive, but one has become lost. Still, the girls get gone with their lessons and help Ms. Rapscott look for the missing girl in failure. There's likely to be this week. Well, as we do find out, there's also a Mount Everbest Academy for boys of Busy Parents. Good camaraderie develops, working together is vital. Girl readers will wish they attended this school. As did I. Yeah. Bayou Magik by Jewel Parker Rogues. Maddie, almost 10, the youngest of five sisters, finally gets her chance to spend the summer with her grandmother in the Louisiana Bayou. Her sisters all tell her she will hate it. She'll be bored. No TV, no shops, no cell phone access, nothing to do, and Grandma is scary. A witch! But Maddie loves it. She explores the swamp especially after the neighbor boy, called Bear 11, starts coming by to show her the wonders of the Bayou. This includes magic and legend. Maddie sees a mermaid in the water. She can call fireflies to her and there are poor tens that Maddie will be the one to save the Bayou from. Something bad that's coming. Grandmaire encourages her but also leaves Maddie alone to find her own way and her special strength. It's a wonderful blend of magic and current events. The Tale of Rescue by Michael J. Rosen. This short fictional story tells a family lost in a blizzard and the determined cattle dog who found them. You can engage the children in a discussion. While this is fiction, it is not based on a true story which I really wish it was. It sounds like it would have been, yeah. Could a dog really figure it all out? It's a great story and a determined dog by Louis Sacher. Third person narrative interspersed with transcriptions from US State Senate hearings tells of the environmental disaster that first threatened children attending a private school. The first time the kids saw it they were cutting through the forest which they shouldn't have been doing and they encountered this stuff that looked to them like by Louis Sacher. This is also based on a true story then. But Louis Sacher you know it's going to be good. Guys read Terrifying Tales by John Cheska. Well, they're collected by John Cheska. The sixth collection of stories designed to tempt boys to read. Girls are welcome to. It contains tense, scary stories by well-known authors such as Dave Pilke, Peter Williams Garcia, R.L. Stein. I read a couple of these but you know terrifying tales are not my thing. So I was strong. They're great. Return to Augie Hobble by Lane Smith. Augie Hobble who's in middle school is spending the summer working at his father's rather run-down amusement park fairy tale place. He is dealing with bullies, a summer school class, and the belief that he is turning into awareness. Things are off-kilter and readers who enjoyed that will love Lane Smith's first novel which he also illustrated with cartoon-like drawings. I love Ursula Vernon. This is wonderful. Castle Hangnail. Castle Hangnail has been without a master for far too long and the main caretaker is worried it will be decommissioned. Then Miss Molly, a 12-year-old witch arrives to claim the castle. She does have an invitation one of many sent out but she seems so unorthodox. She's nice usually and considerate but she can do some magic. She has four tasks to complete in order to claim the castle. Maybe everything will work out. Then the sorceress who was the actual recipient of the invitation appears at the door and she is nasty. Just what they need. Honey by Sarah Weeks. Melody 10 loves her dad and hopes someday he will marry again. Her mom died soon after she was born. She is hopeful when he hears her dad quietly call someone honey on the phone and she begins to investigate who it could be. However she is shocked to discover her dad is secretly getting ready to marry her grumpy teacher Miss Ogan. How could he possibly love her? Interesting characters with some back stories of their own including a dog named Moe. Readers will feel Melody's concern about her future stepmother and wonder about a couple of other mysteries presented here. Some non-fiction for grades two to five or so. Ira's Shakespeare dream by Glenda Harmon. Ira always dreamed about being a Shakespearean actor but the reality was that he was colored the language of the time. After acting in the African Girl Playhouse in 1824 he left for London at the age of 17. But there was still some prejudice to overcome. He eventually became a distinguished Shakespearean actor in Europe. It includes an afterword with more details of his life. Boy were we wrong about the weather by Kathleen V. Kudlinski. She has several books about and I remember Boy were we wrong about dinosaurs and I think there's a couple of other ones. A quick look at beliefs about the weather starting with early Sumerians beginning dancing with a piece of their weather god Enlil to ancient Chinese beliefs and others interspersed with what we know today and how we know it. A final acknowledgement is given that what we know now may also be wrong. It includes a short timeline at the back of the book. Egg by Robin Page and Steve Jenkins. Another great look at one aspect of animals lives. Here we catch a glimpse of the vast variety of eggs laid by animals. How the adults care for them and how they develop. Two pages of comparison show the tiny size of the tiny stink bug egg versus several others including an ostrich egg. Two pages at the back of the book give some brief information on each animal included in the book. It's fascinating. You know you can always count on Warren's Pringle. Octopus is strange and wonderful. It's a good introduction to the life cycle of the octopus and to their many incredible abilities. It's changing color, dropping an arm, releasing egg, or addressed as escape mechanisms. A few species and their relative size to each other are also shown on pages 10 to 11. It's good for reports or for browsers. Mesmerized how Ben Franklin solved a mystery that baffled all of France by Mara Rocklet. upbeat text, dominant illustrations and playful type faces show Ben Franklin's astute approach to debunking the claims of Franz Mesmer and Austrian curing the wealthy of Paris through questionable means. Ben uses the scientific method which is explained here in an entertaining way to prove Mesmera fake. I think this is, if you're trying to teach the scientific method just use this book as it is straightforward clear and understandable. It's a great stem or steam or stream title, whichever version of those you want to go with. The House that Jane Built A Story About Jane Anna by Tanya Lee Stone Jane Adams was given a large home she named at Hull House in a run down neighborhood in Chicago and she opened it up to all who live nearby. She began classes to teach children and adults as well as providing the first playground in the city. Jane Adams was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. This picture book biography gives an overview of who she was and what she accomplished. And authors noted the back of the book provides some more information and includes four photographs of her life. My name is Truth, The Life of Sojourner Truth by Anne Warren Turner. This is a brief look at her life as a slave as a free woman and as a voice telling the truth about slavery and hardship. It includes an author's note at the back of the book again providing more information about her life. You wouldn't want to live without fire and you wouldn't want to live without money are two more in this popular series that really gives along with some snide comments and some hilarious photos do give you good basic information about the topics in a short text so it's great fun. And since we have a little bit of time I'm going to go on past my thank you and just talk about a few new titles in popular series. We have plenty of time. We started a little after 10 so absolutely. I'm just talking too fast. Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Planet Girl by Tommy Greenwald this is book five in this series Charlie Joe Jackson discovers he is apparently the only boy in East Park middle school without a girlfriend this must change. He happens to find a guidebook in the library which at first he uses to help his friends but it gets him into trouble with almost everyone to router some tips from characters in the book to hopefully get Charlie on the right track. The Loch Ness Punter is 43 Old Cemetery Road book seven and the final book in the series by Kate Cleese following the format of earlier books in the series using only letters, newspaper articles, notes and drawings to tell the story this title maintains the quality of the series Ignatius B. Grumpley children's book author Olive C. Spence, a ghost and Seymour Hope, their adopted son learn of the death of Iggy's uncle and the inheritance of his castle on Loch Ness. Seymour and Holland travel to Scotland to claim the property Iggy stays home to write and as soon as his uncle is communicating with him on paper it's a clever end to the popular series and I just have always loved their books they do together in this format. Some people love them some people don't like it. Gordon Corman has written Unleashed this is book seven in the Swindle series Griffin Bing is caught off guard and ends up in a bet with Darren over which of them will win the Invent of Pelusa Griffin wasn't planning on entering but now he's determined Luther is maniacally chasing the exterminator's old red backfiring truck and Melissa Invent's machine has stopped him which is quickly stolen by somebody Griffin comes up with plan after plan for each but none of them are working Combs this is the magic book four and probably the final book in the series by Sarah Prineus five years after the third book the two magics and well-met haven't settled and magic is no longer predictable or dependable Conn is preparing to work with the magic but first has to help with the theft of the magician's locus magic Alice soon other magician's stones are missing something is going on and Conn returns as a gutter boy in the Twilight section of the city to discover who is behind everything the Order of the Unicorn which is book four in the imaginary Veterinarian series by Suzanne Selfers Ben and Pearl both 10 are spending the summer as apprentices to Dr. Wu at her worm hospital Dr. Wu is actually a Veterinarian for fantastic beasts such as dragons and others this time they accompanied her to a magical land to try to find a missing unicorn and the Griffin's riddle which is book five in the series Dr. Wu and several others are sick with pearl tonsillitis and the only cure comes from a Griffin feather Ben Pearl and Mr. Tabby must go to the imaginary world and hope to convince the king of the imaginary world a Griffin to give them the needed feather too bad things don't go so well as you can see on the cover it's not looking good stick dog dreams of ice cream book four in the stick dog series by Tom Watson it's a hot day and the dogs are looking for water they find some kind of and then discover the colorful little puddles on the street are delicious it is ice cream the children have been eating from their ice cream truck now stick dog and his friends need a plan to get more than a few dribbles stick animal stick figures very clever lots of of art throughout the book this is the kind of art I could actually even well the dogs I could I couldn't draw the ice cream truck so just what rectangles it looks like rectangles with the ears but great fun stick dog has a hard time keeping his friends all on track but but they do end up getting some ice cream so thank you again that's my list I hope that you found some titles that you would like to add to your collection or purchase for a friend and I don't know if anybody sent in any titles or if they were too busy listening not during the show no if anybody does have any ideas or titles or other books you've heard of go ahead and type them in and we can share them with everyone and as you said I usually do find from your shows I wasn't here for your teen one because I was white I always find ideas for books to buy for relatives kids or friends kids for Christmas and birthdays I'm always writing little notes to look for that one I know it's a good little shopping tips kind of thing so send me an email if you don't aren't thinking of one now and you think of one later and think oh Sally should know about this one I'd be glad to hear from you and all of this will be on the PowerPoint and where to find the list of books the handouts will be in the recording afterwards thank you that's what I'm trying to say oh we do have one suggestion an idea of a book called George by Alex Gino that just came in oh okay that's a review book I haven't had a chance to read it yet but thank you for so if that just came in now would that potentially be on like a 2016 list it could this was actually these are presentations that Sally does at our state annual state library conference which is in October so it's books that she's gotten up to then so anything since then would not be this year's there might be a few titles on this list that were actually late 2014 and I didn't happen to mention that so yes we kind of look at it as starting the second half of October whenever the conference is passed that through the rest of the year and then into the next year up until conference comes again have you read that one yet the one that just given George you said it's about a transgender child so Alex Gino G-I-N-O if anyone's interested in checking out that one and look for it next year maybe on Sally's list as she says she gets lots and you should see the we should get pictures sometime of all the shelves full and full of children's books and having to narrow that down to just this you know ourish long list I'm sure is not easy and I should mention that yes I do read all the books and I read more than these books because I read some that I don't put on the list and sometimes I don't read the whole book before I go no this one isn't going to make it picture books yes should read the whole thing but non-fiction ok that's technically yes I did read all those non-fiction when I get to the teen ones I don't always read all of the non-fiction books it's all about calculus I'm just not going to read it and it's probably not going to go on the list because what do I do about calculus anyway alright well it doesn't look anything else just come in thank you very much Sally thank you everyone for attending as Sally mentioned this the powerpoint with all the book covers and your handouts will be available with the recording afterwards so you'll be able to grab that yourself after the show that this has been recorded will be posted probably later this afternoon depends on how long it takes it to get processed if you need to get it up there for you you all get an email when it is available and it will be posted on to our website which is actually if you just type in encompass live try this a little bit later how about that one now back at it I was going to say good as two words ok yeah if you just search online for encompass live we're the only one nobody's called anything so it's great do your searching for that in any browser of your choice since you're changing your choice you can go to our website this is where we will have our archives are right here right underneath our list of upcoming shows so you can go right there and this is where we'll post today's recording and Sally's handouts will be there and there's the team one yeah if you didn't see our team one you can go here and see that that was two weeks ago the recordings here the slides they said and this is actually linked right to that handouts page so that you can get both the team one the children's and any of the previous list that she's done over the years we're all up here as well so that'll be posted up there I'll let you know when it's ready hopefully you'll join us next week when our topic is also about books writing the range from your arm share we're doing this infrequent series I guess we'll say it doesn't have a regular time where library commission staff are sharing books that they read certain topics and we've done one on romance we've done one on sci-fi and now we're doing a topic guys read so all some of our men staff here but next week we are doing westerns so if you are into westerns have Aurea patrons that are looking for books that are westerns that would be a good one to take a look at we're going to have a few of our staff here to get together and talk about some of the books they've read recently or even older ones you know just anything they think that would be interesting for people on that in that genre so hope you'll join us next week for that show and any of our other upcoming shows that are listed on here also end compass live is on facebook so if you are a big facebook user please do click on our link there and pop over to facebook and like our page I post announcements of when the shows are ready to start here's our reminder for today's show to log in for it when our recordings are available there we go I post on here as well to remind people so if you are big on facebook please do go over there and like our page other than that we are good to go for today thank you very much Sally thank you Chris being in charge of everything and thank you for holding on the 4th of last two weeks did great got all the shows done and she'll be our host for future ones probably anytime when I need someone to fill in that will wrap it up for today thank you everyone for attending and we'll see you next time you're able to join us on end compass live bye bye