 Good morning, and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am Krista Burns at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the Commission's weekly online event where we cover NLC activities, any Nebraska library topics of interest to Nebraska librarians. We have NLC staff do sessions like we are today. We also bring guest speakers sometimes to make it more interesting. We do these sessions every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. central time. They are free, and they are recorded. We are recording today, so anyone who is not able to attend live on Wednesday mornings can listen to and watch our recordings afterwards. This morning, as I said, we have one of our NLC staff, Sally Snyder, who is going to talk to us about books for kids and teens. I will just pass over the end control to Sally. Oh, I have control. Good morning. I just want for all of you to know that this is going to be almost exactly like my presentation at NLANEMA. I did switch out a few things, but overall it's practically the same presentation. So if you saw that, then you'll get a repeat today, but I'm hoping that that will be okay with you. So we'll start off with picture books. And the first one, although this particular book is not an alphabetical order by author, which the rest of them will be, I thought this was a good one to start with because tomorrow's Thanksgiving. From the moment a boy wakes up and throughout the day, he gives thanks for many things in his life. Everything from the sun that wakes him up in the morning to the bees that didn't sting him that day. I think it's a really fun look at different events in a child's life and the reason he could be thankful for his family, for his aunt and uncle, and his dog, everything. This is a sequel to The Cow Who Laid an Egg, and in this sequel, the farmer's wife holds a beautiful baby contest for the cows and calves. Marjorie the Cow enters Daisy, her child, who looks a lot like a chicken, but the other cows think Daisy doesn't have a chance. Stregonona has big Anthony help her prepare the earth, plant the seeds, and nurture the plants, and she is meticulous in her methods. Big Anthony throws some seeds over the fence and lets them grow every which way, because he wanted to grow something himself, too. After the harvest, Stregonona learns that the village had a poor harvest that year, and she shares what she has with everyone. So again, kind of a thankful book for this time of year. I know Halloween's over, but this one was such fun. It's a take-off on Over in the Meadow. You children's librarians know that one. This counts through various Halloween-related creatures, and it goes from number one through number 13, which I also thought was fun for Halloween. Many of you probably already know this book, Let's Do Nothing. Friends Sal and Frankie have done everything. So now they try to do nothing. It's a big challenge for Frankie. He's the guy with the glasses, because he keeps coming up with disturbances for every scenario. Sal will say, let's just sit in our chairs like we're statues in the park, and we can't move, and they're sitting there, and you see them as statues, and then the pigeons come, and they only land on Frankie. They don't land on Sal. And it's quite fun, and you know, it's kind of hard to do nothing. Roberto walks home, is by Janice Harrington, who I consider a Nebraska author, because she wrote, oh gosh, I can't think of the name of it, but she and her family moved to Lincoln when she was in third or fourth grade, and she went to school here, and she moved away later. But in this book, Roberto is waiting for his brother to walk him home. He's sitting on the school steps, because his brother promised he would come and walk him home. But he doesn't show up, and finally Roberto walks home alone. His excitement is gone, and when he sees his brother playing basketball, he is hurt and mad. And that green jacket tossed over his shoulder, he wore proudly at the beginning of the book. His brother had given it, it's an old one of his that he had given to him. Towards the end of the book, he throws it down, because he is so mad, but they do make up. And it says, based on characters created by Ezra Jack Keats, because it is that format art-wise, and Janice Harrington was selected by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation to write this book. So that's fascinating too. Rachel Isadora, I almost said Isadora Duncan. What does that mean? Rachel Isadora has been retelling European fairy tales and setting them in Africa, which is really interesting. The artwork is beautiful, bright colors and collages that highlight each of the books, and children will enjoy hearing what I hope is a familiar tale to them with a new setting. On this list, I have Hansel and Gretel Rapunzel and The Ugly Duckling, and she has more than that, five or six more that she's done so far, and they're all beautiful. So a nice addition to your fairy tale collection if you have the funding for that. Also in the fairy tale vein, but slightly different, is this version of the Pied Piper. In this one, an elf is given a magical pipe, but no one knows what the pipe's magic is. The elf does get the rats out of town, but he does not steal the children. He finds another way to deal with the mean town leader. With the artwork by Stephen Kellogg, of course it's going to be busy and fun and colorful. This might be a little dark, it's a little dark on my screen, but it's so much fun. It's a sequel to Bats at the Beach. Here they visit the library in the middle of the night, and they enjoy all it has to offer. It's humorous, and you could also use this as a good introduction to things that you can find in a library when you have a class come in to visit. I actually have that book. My mom sent it to my sister and I are both librarians, and my mom sent it to both of us this year for Halloween gifts. She thought it caught her eye. That's great. This is about a young girl who has decided that this year, for the first time, she's going to observe Ramadan herself. Her family, of course, always does. The children are not required to until they feel they are ready. The girl is different to not be able to eat or drink during the day until the sun goes down. She's doing fine until she's invited to a classmate's birthday party. Her parents are concerned, and she wants to go, so she does go to the party, but when they serve lemonade and cake, they don't have anything, and she really begins to feel the issue. What I love about this book, besides this fact, it's a nicely told story, are that the two families come together and they work out a way to have this smoothed over. So what they do is the Muslim family comes over to the birthday party girl's house after dark, and they all have cake and ice cream and lemonade to celebrate the birthday. This is coming together of cultures and finding a way to make something work instead of being a problem. I think that's great. My family, Mi Familia, is a series by Pat Mora, who wrote our first book, The Thanks, Gracias, and she has this family that have very simple stories of things that happen in everybody's lives. In this one, the family has a new kitty and she likes to hide, and so the children, find her here and there. In the second book that came out lately, Danny, the boy, comes in to have lemonade with his family and mom notices his pockets are wiggling. He has frogs in them. Oh, the frogs get into things in the house before Danny gets them all gathered up and back outside again. A whole different slant is Cromwell-Dixon Sky Cycle, and this is based on a true boy and a true event. He did invent this sky cycle. There's a picture of him and his mother in the back, and he was a teen when he came up with this invention and brought it to the fair, and he designed it so that it's like a blimp-like thing that lifts him up and then his petals help him propel himself in turn. I thought it was very interesting and it's a fictional account of an actual event. Quite clever. This is an extremely silly book. The whole thing is about these two voices arguing whether this drawing is a duck or a rabbit. And every time this creature does something, each side uses that for an argument for their side. It goes into the grass. See, the duck is hiding in the grass. No, the rabbit is looking for something to eat. So you never do find out which it is. I'm sorry to disappoint you. I told you the end. I happen to love Skippy John Jones. I think he is hilarious. He's a little kitty boy. His ears are too big for his head and his head is too big for his body and he decides it's time to travel to Mars. He thinks he's a chihuahua because of the size of his ears and his head. So he has his chihuahua friends, most chimichangas, who are actually stuffed animals in his closet. When he goes into his closet, this is when all his imagination cuts free and he has exciting adventures. But he goes to Mars and he meets a one-eyed kitty. My friend Maria, who works here at the commission, she and her extended family love Skippy John Jones. They think he is hilarious, but there are some Hispanic people who are not fond of him who think he is inappropriate because he makes up Spanish words and Judy Shackner is not Hispanic and I can understand their point of view. I think that some people are going to be thrilled with Skippy John Jones, like I am. Then of course there is Splat, who we met in Splat the Cat. This is a story about Valentine's Day. Splat can hardly wait to give kitten the special Valentine he made for her until he finds out that Spike likes her too and he has a bigger Valentine for her. And Splat's pet mouse there on his tail, his name is Seymour and Seymour is always involved in Splat's adventures. Then there's also a Christmas one. In this one, all Splat wants for Christmas is a big present. He really doesn't care what's in there, he just wants it to be big. And that's quite fun too. This is about the third or fourth book about the group of animals that live at the One Lady's house. They've all pretty much been rescued from the storm as Duck was. And this time, Max the Duck is sympathetic when a large alligator asks for help in hiding from the zoo detective. All the other animals are afraid because they are all animals that the alligator would normally eat. But they do let him in. And then they find out why he's in trouble at the zoo. And of course, I also love Scaredy Squirrel. This is the fourth book I think about Scaredy Squirrel. And Scaredy has so many things that he's afraid of. This one deals with what he's afraid of at night. He has bad dreams about ghosts, dragons, polka dot monsters. So he has a well thought out plan to stay awake and to keep safe as usual. Great, he's a glow in the dark book too. Well, his teeth and on the cover they do glow in the dark because he is a friendly guy but always scared. Now we'll talk about a few beginning reader books that I've seen lately. I like Cork and Fuzz. Cork finds and then loses a green rock which Fuzz soon finds on the ground. Fuzz believes in finder's keepers and he doesn't want to give the rock back to Cork. It's a great friendship story as they all are so far. And also it's an issue that kids deal with in their normal lives. Who does this belong to and if I find it is finder's keepers really the right way to go. This is a little nonfiction story about basic information about the elephant life cycle including how they used their trunks and why they're now threatened. There's some all aboard science reader has several different books about different animals. I love this one. I put it on the summer reading program list too. This is by of course Gene Craighead George. So a boy finds a hatching egg by a pond and a glossling hatches out right then and imprints on him. So he's got to take care of this glossling. Well it isn't too long before a hatching duckling imprints on the goose. So now there's a trio and they are together all the time. And the boy has his hands full. There's a few life science facts that are included in an unobtrusive way and of course at the end of the summer the glossling and the duckling who've grown quite a bit are headed off to migrate. And a great summer reading program title. Meg's family has moved to a new town and she is thrilled to make a new friend Jill who happens to live on a pony farm. How could that be bad? Soon the girls include a shy classmate named Annie and they decide to form a club called the pony scouts. So of course this is book one about the pony scouts and look we have book two already and that two up there that's the level of the I can read level so you know how many words are on a page. And two, Meg and Annie are staying overnight at Jill's house and they get their first writing lesson then they stay up late and when they decide to visit the ponies at night they get quite a surprise. The new pony is having a foal. So for those boys who don't like ponies or at least not the pony scouts, they can read about monster trucks and also police cars. These are Blastoff readers number one level so they'll have a very limited number of words on a page but I think just having some nonfiction titles that attract boys of course is always a good plan. Pearl and Wagner, there are a couple three books out about them oh this is book three. Wagner the mouse does not enjoy April Fool's Day as he falls for one joke after another. It's worse when he thinks something is a joke and it's not. They really are having a test. April Fool's permeates all three stories in his collections and students will relate to Wagner's feelings and his joy in getting the last laugh. He finally joins in on the fun. And of course I'm very fond of Cal Girl, Kate and Coco. I think this is book four about them. In this book Cal Girl, Kate wakes up to a nuzzle from Coco, he's in the house and he thinks the stalls in the house are much better than the ones in the barn. One of them even has a refrigerator. So Kate has to convince him to get out of the house and back to the barn before her parents get home. And of course Coco is thinking he's not too interested in him because he's kind of his own guy. They're very fun. A few nonfiction picture books. This first one is a look at different dinosaurs giving a perspective on their sizes. And at the top of the page you can read this just with a rhyming text. Just read through and turn the pages and look at the dinosaurs and it's a very simple story. If you want to you can look at the bottom of each page and there there's a silhouette of each of the several dinosaurs that are highlighted on that page. And so you can tell this silhouette is exactly that dinosaur. And next to the silhouette is just a list of facts. The name of the dinosaur how to pronounce it, what period or age it lived in, how big it was, things like that. So it's kind of a you can also use it as just a matching. Here's the silhouette where's a dinosaur that fits that. So it's all kind of fun. It has a variety of things that you can use. You know long about Kentucky Derby Time if you wanted to you could read this book if you're reading about horse racing. This focuses on one jockey Jimmy Winkfield and it tells of the changing times in horse racing because early on in the late 1800's most jockeys were black. Jimmy, who they called Wink, won the Kentucky Derby in 1901, 1902 and came second in 1903. That's why he's the last black king of the Kentucky Derby. Because then economics and racial tension forced most black jockeys out of the business and Wink went on to race in Iraq. So you get a little bit of a sense of prejudice and segregation along with information about horse racing. This is a beautiful book. It's got excellent color photos that highlight this introduction to the life cycle of the eastern blue bird and there's about two to five sentences per page to just tell the child a little bit of what's going on. And you really don't even you can barely need those sentences because the pictures so eloquently tell the story. This is a very simplified telling of Greg Mortensen's story he told in his book for adults Three Cups of Tea. This will give readers and listeners a sense of life that are lived quite differently from their own and I like the idea of looking at somewhere else in the world where people don't live exactly like we do. And thinking of that here's this book called San Francisco. This is a look at the different time zone and the different lives led around the world. It's all anchored at six o'clock in the morning in San Francisco when it's six o'clock in San Francisco it's two o'clock in London and the boy might be playing soccer with his friends. So it's simple but it also is carrying through a story about the time zones and how it's not the same time everywhere and people live differently around the world. This is a lyrical tribute to Coretta Scott briefly telling of her childhood from Mary's to Martin Luther King Jr and their work in the church as well as for equal rights. It's certainly not anything you could write a report from but it's just a recognition of her contribution to the world. Fiction for grades two to five or so will start with Cam Jansen. I don't even know. This is number 30 on the Cam Jansen books and stories of it. So the school is having a sports day at the park and the first mystery occurs while the students are walking to the park because the bakery is robbed. And then there's two more mysteries at the park and of course with their photographic memory Cam Jansen can help solve the mysteries. This is a sequel to the puzzling world of Winston Breen. Winston loves puzzles and he and his friends spend a day solving puzzles to reveal a prize. They are one team trying to win $50,000 for their school. It's readable and compelling and there's puzzles every so many pages that readers can solve or they can look in the back of the book and find out the answer and go on with the story. It's really great fun. Will David having just turned 12 takes over his brother's newspaper route just in time to find out the newspaper will no longer be provided to his town. He is determined to fight this decision. On another note he decides to investigate a new game at the fair which promises $1,000 prize and he wonders what the catch is because he's figured out all the other games at the fair. He's a smart kid. He is being homeschooled with his mother. His brothers go to the school and he uses the library a lot and is a good researcher. I think readers will be curious about the outcome of both of these issues and Will is a character who might show up again. I wouldn't be surprised. The angel stays in a stone tower in a small town in the Swiss Alps. She claims she has no gender but I'm going to call her she because I need to do something. She also has trouble with the language and she often uses the wrong word or the wrong form of the word when she's talking or very irritating. I haven't defined it in Deering so I think this is a fun book. She's not really sure what she's supposed to be doing or what maybe any power she might have but when people in the village start to have altercations she kind of floats between them and calms the atmosphere calms them down so that they cease fighting with each other and that's really all she's done the many many years that she's been there and she's feeling like she's contributing well then Zola arrives with her father to open a school Zola can see the angel nobody else can see her and she keeps asking her to do something about the problems of the people in town she'll just climb up to the top of the tower and say angel where are you going to do about those nine kids hiding in the barn three miles up the road and the angel goes what what are you talking about it really activates not only the angel but other people in the town and the angel and Zola help remind the townspeople to do the right thing for others it's very fun and kind of a different story for sharing preach Roland and his older brother Shelby each want the chance for one of them to become a knight their wise blacksmith father must make the choice so he devises a way for them to show their true skills and beliefs in a new series sassy Simone Sanford nine is tired of being called little sister her whole family calls her that they keep forgetting to call her sassy then her family is in a tough situation and sassy is the one who comes through for everybody they're trapped in an elevator during a blackout when they're the only person who's small enough to fit through the partially open elevator door is sassy it's quite fun and this is also the beginning of a series this is a new one on my list in case you hadn't noticed Deja is so excited about her eighth birthday even if her aunt did make her invite all the girls in her class at school then she finds out that Antonia is having a just because party on the very same day maybe just to ruin Deja's party and this of course birthdays are so important to kids and having your birthday ruined would be a big catastrophe when you're turning eight this is another book by Jean Craighead George and it's about the cats who are feral cats and their lives near the Rocksville train station and the people who take it interest in them and try to help them out and even sometimes try to domesticate them and they're not always very interested in that although they do like to keep warm another new series Diamond is in third grade in downtown and she is rare on to go full of energy and a positive attitude she wonders why the other new kid whose name is Free, he's a boy she wonders why he's so grumpy Diamond is going to figure him out and I don't know if Free really wants to be figured out but you know you're not going to hold Diamond this is another one of the baseball card adventure books when Stocius hid in the head with a baseball and survives he learns how it is compared to Ray Chapman the only major league player to die after being hit by the ball Stocius goes back in time to try to save Ray and to try and convince him to wear a batting helmet which of course Ray thinks looks ridiculous but it's a very good story about a baseball major league baseball player I'd never heard of until this book came along this is a sequel to uh oh Clio and this easygoing family story tells Stocius older sister Jenna and annoying younger brother Jack the family takes a trip to Colorado to visit grandma and while they're there they climb out Baldy on the top they encounter a freak snow snowstorm to keep warm yes their mother pulls out extra pair of underpants and has them all put them on their head the most fun in this book while it's all quite fun is the photo of the author inside the back cover she's about eight years old with underwear on her head I think we know where she got this idea Crusher excuse me Crusher as named by her captor is a free roaming gopher snake until she is caught and placed in a terrarium by Goonhardt sometimes humorous and sometimes sad this book looks at captivity of wild creatures and of the neglect some receive from their easily distracted young captors and through a pulmorphic heavy the reptiles can communicate telepathically but the creative and unusual activities do not detract from the point the most fun is the hunger strike Crusher holds and her eventual affection for the live mouse that she refused to eat the live mouse is named Lunch which is what Goonhardt said when he put her in there this is book eight about Martin bridge in the first story Martin's mom is practicing the keyboard almost nonstop and Martin is sick of it because she is terrible he keeps wishing she would quit but then he learns a little something about his mom in the second story Leila a girl who sits in front of Martin in school joins the junior Badgers and she ruins everything because junior Badgers are supposed to be boys where does she I love this new series this is book one of course I love this format it's told in their usual style of new narrative just letters, newspaper articles, illustrations notes the authors tell of Ignatius B Grumpley best selling author of a children's book series who has rented the old house in Gasla Illinois in order to write one more book into this series only to find it comes complete with a boy Seymour and a ghost Mr Grumpley has writer's block which his house comes already occupied excuse me this is the sequel to Swindle and in this book the man with the plan is back and so is his crew when they learn that all aboard animals a floating zoo has stolen Savannah's cat monkey they come up with a plan to get her back and we know the man with the plan is going to be able to pull it through this is the sequel to oh gosh what was the first Theodosia anyway this is book 2 it's the early 1900's in London and Theodosia whose 11 helps her father with the work at his museum of legends and antiquities and of course her mother brings the ancient artifacts back from Egypt and Theodosia has a gift her parents don't know this but she is very good at ferreting out secrets and curses and she can look at these artifacts and know oh my this is a terrible curse I have to get rid of this before it gets anybody well in this second book Theodosia accidentally finds a staff of Osiris in the storage room and soon a number of people are after it and they are all unscrupulous this is book 4 about Gooney Bird and she decides she needs to keep her brain warm so it will work better and she begins to wear her true ponytail hat which is a pair of frilly underwear I don't know if they talked with the other author not get a theme going soon other classmates follow her example and Mrs. Pigeon is supportive and understanding she's a very good teacher the class is studying poetry learning about haiku limericks and other things and the teacher reads some poems written by her mother Mrs. X the class feels the loss when Mrs. X dies and they find the perfect tribute to her Banjo the great walloper of Bishbash is 11 and he has a wicked hitting slump while his team is working toward the baseball championship can you see that black cloud over his head yeah the slump is manifested as that dark cloud and it gets in his way sometimes his friends all have humorous names and there's some fun comments in the book such as the place was like a suitcase at the airport packed still Banjo slump is real and he knows he needs to find a way to get past it another baseball type story this is book 4 in the scraps of time series James and Peter Turner are a year apart but they look like twins they are baseball crazy during the depression and are beyond thrilled when Josh gives in rooms at their house while his team is in town and they include some information at a timeline of the Negro Leagues this is another story about simply Sarah Sarah is assigned to report on a country and she has decided to report on Mexico where her friend and neighbor Mercedes was born she brings a special surprise to school as part of her report oh I love down girl and sit they are so silly this is the third book about them down girl and sit whose names really are happy and dot continue to do their best to protect their respective properties and owners much to the owner's chagrin they really believe their names are down girl and the other dog thinks her name is sit and they think that the neighbor's cat's name is here kitty kitty and they are always doing things it's so much fun to read it from the dog's point of view and how they help their masters get up every morning and other things book three about auto line and this one auto line and Mr. Monroe Cecilie Forbes Lawrence the third at the park and soon all three of them are off to boarding school the Alice B Smith school for the differently gifted numerous bizarre and unexplained things are happening at the school and there are illustrations in black and white and blue throughout the story to add to the fun this is kind of a retort to Diary of a Wimpy Kid it's an Australian import and it will probably be popular with the same crowd Max is positive that he is not a bully after all he has never hit anyone he does however convince them to do what he wants Nerdstrom well really his name is Triffin Nordstrom is assigned to be Max's tutor for math and things may start to change this is the fifth book of this popular character and that's the first one I've read I've heard of him before there is no text used in any of this series except for little words like an action like shiver shiver the story is completely conveyed through the illustrations they're black and white throughout the stories in this you don't have to have read the earlier books to enjoy these stories they're very gentle stories and I've been told that they're popular with from elementary school all the way through high school so see if that's true in your community this one is quite fun and sometimes very silly some of the stories are humorous some of them are groaners there are numerous short stories told in manga style so you start at the back of the book they're black and white art and throughout it's just stories about dinosaurs as if they act in kind of human like except they do still eat each other and there can be blood dripping but it's only black and white art so that's not so bad and again silly and goofy and with that one on the front there I'm pretty sure there's going to be another book this is the sequel to Jellaby this is Jellaby Monster in the City Portia Bennett and Jason are taking Jellaby when the story continues they find the door Jellaby remembers and think they are on the brink of bringing him home when more trouble occurs it's a satisfying continuation of the story and this could either stop now or it could go on for more stories because they really haven't found where Jellaby belongs three vignettes give a sense of Lincoln's love for his sons especially Willie and Ted it is sympathetically told covering incidents from 1859 to 1865 just little short vignettes and because they're retold it's in the fiction section sequel to Locomotion in this book Lonnie has decided to be the rememberer for his sister he and his sister live with different foster families that sense their parents death in a fire this book is all letters with only three poems that tells her about what is happening now with both of them and also an occasional memory of before the war makes an appearance with his foster mom Miss Edna who was worried about one of her sons in Iraq it's a worthy sequel some nonfiction this is an overview of man's concepts of space highlighting the US space program good introductory information for browsers and of course it's by Buzz Aldrin and four fold out pages highlight this look at reptiles basic information is included on snakes lizards turtles crocodiles and alligators some illustrations are marked actual size others are not labeled as such so I would think that probably they're not definitely will appeal to boys this is book eight about Tommy de Paola's childhood and in this one the author talks about rationing for the duration blackouts for the duration and also everyday things like his upcoming dance recital he also has an unexpected reaction to his special choir seeing the army air court anthem his cousin blackie was shot down in the words of the song bring it all back to him he has to run out of the room to the voice bathroom so it's very heartfelt and also gives a sense of the time of the child at that time the title of this is barbarians you can't read it over there it has one chapter each on Goths, Huns, Vikings and Mongols that gives good basic information about each group and you can tell right from this illustration that you're going to get some good information about weaponry which of course is very appealing to certain boys this might look like a picture book but it's really riddles of well-known children's books and we had a fun quiz for readers and the reason I put this in the older group is because some of the books that the riddles refer to are novels some are picture books and just looking at this artwork you can pick out what probably a few of those riddles are going to be about and then I think having the kids write up riddles for one of their own favorite books would be great fun this has good basic information on the steps needed to complete a research paper it's well organized and easy to follow and it's one of the better books about this that I've seen and really emphasizes if you follow these steps you're going to be writing it in your own words and it's important to to write in your own words and not copy out of another book more books in the you wouldn't want to series this popular series tells of historic events in a humorous and gruesome way illustrations dominate the pages with snippets of information and plenty of smart aleck remarks thrown in and you got the word body snatcher up there that book is going off the shelf right now excellent photos highlight this look at very big and very little insects including a map of the world at the back of the book that points out where each insect mentioned lives again with the three cups of tea but this is a novel retelling of his story that he told in his adult book and it's geared to this age group and I think again finding out about how important school is for a group of people who haven't, the kids climb up and write in the dirt at the beginning of the story they're doing their schoolwork but they don't have a building and again I think this is good things for our children to learn about okay this is an introductory look at how different parts of the body function and interestingly there's no reference to the reproductive system that's the one that causes us trouble right and I think it's because it's about organs and how they can be replaced we haven't really come up with something about that for that part of the body it does include the urinary system with only an outline drawing of a body with an X on the place where the bladder would be just giving you information so you know what's in this book I think it does a good job of explaining the different functions of these different organs and I think it'll be a good addition to your collection this is a follow-up to his earlier book if the world were a village and of course this title shows the reader the makeup of the United States if we were just one village how many of us would have a college education and things like that a photo essay of the people of Everest their culture, the animals and the geography and climate of their world it does also mention some of the well-known climbers like Sir Edmund Hillary but this book is really about the people who live there all year round and about Everest oh yeah this is going to be popular how to make fake vomit fake dog poo and more it includes the necessary cautions regarding using the stove or using a sharp knife but yes 25 great special effects well particular Halloween's gone now I know but next year around Halloween time this is going to be popular fiction for younger teens we're doing on time 7th grader Sophie who's the narrator Margaret Rebecca and Leanne are asked to solve puzzles and math to find a ring left by the elderly neighbor's father for her daughter side story is about a possible boyfriend for Sophie these girls go to a Catholic school and the school is right next to the church and the elderly lady lives in an apartment that's kind of between the two buildings and kind of connected to both of them and the first in the series of course this is volume 3 of Vladimir Todd the ongoing saga of half vampire Vlad in and out of school he continues to learn new vampire skills and he's trying hard to survive but there is something of a conspiracy against him because he shouldn't exist and he's not sure who he can trust his uncle had to leave and there's a really rotten vampire after him wanting to get rid of him so he's got his hands full oh yeah and then there's school too Paul is 13 and he and his grandfather are Abinacchi they've been kidnapped by treasure hunters to lead them to the legendary treasure of an Abinacchi monster on a mountain near their home it's good tension and a touch of the scary so this is another in Joseph Fushach series of modern day stories based on ancient Abinacchi monsters and I think that that's always appealing to kids excuse me the story is told in free verse Matt who's now 11 was 9 when he was airlifted out of Vietnam he remembers his mother and brother and he has a secret that haunts him he has a new family in the United States that are very supportive and wonderful to him care a great deal about him but he has to get past this secret of his past before he can really embrace his family this is book one of the hunting Adam is 13 and his father has been developing a very realistic video game using Adam as his model and tester when his father disappears Adam is concerned but when the apartment building is demolished by something no one can see he is running for his life and this science fiction title a group of unscrupulous people have stolen information and forced Adam's father to create a genetically altered tyrannosaurus Rex called Z-Rex and it is intelligent Adam must try to save his father while avoiding the creature or will the Z-Rex be able to help him oh you can't see much of anything on this one the spooks tale in other words there's three shorter stories in this companion book to the last apprentice series the first tells how Tom Woods master became a spook tells of Alice's history before she met Tom and the third how Grimulkin became the witch assassin is sure to be popular with readers of the series Josh is 12 and he's hoping to help the school baseball team when his father a former minor league player pulls him off of the school team to have him try out for a traveling team hosted by the local go-getter Rocky Valentine Josh makes the team but he isn't sure about Rocky's schemes and he tells additives to his team players and they're legal but then some of the other players offer Josh steroids and he has to decide what am I going to do another book by the same author this is the sequel to football genius Troy whose 12 can predict winning place for the Atlanta Falcons because somehow he knows what the opponent's defense plans to do now the NFL is investigating him and trying to find out if and how he is cheating this is the third book in the vampire island series the title and character in this series it focuses on Lexie who's about 14 she's the oldest of the three children all of her immediate family are focusing on giving up all vampire impulses in order to try to become fully human Lexie finds herself losing ground as she completes competes for ninth grade president and does some underhanded needs to further her cause which also takes her back away from being human Prometheus Jones is 13 and he was born on the day slaves were freed though he's never been a slave but he finds himself and his younger cousin fleeing injustice and heading for Texas Jones wants to try to find his father so they both join a cattle drive to earn some money before beginning their search Cowboys did not have an easy life and there are personal loss and heartbreak in store for Prometheus he is an honest honorable young man and faces trouble head on high school junior Marcus and his mother moved to town in the middle of the summer Marcus hopes to make the football team but has no friends to practice with when he is throwing passes at a picture frame in the park and a 50 something year old man catches it he has found someone to help him get ready but Charlie sometimes acts peculiar and Marcus keeps getting blamed for Charlie's pranks what is up with this guy well it turns out he has early onset Alzheimer's from he had been a pro football player and it's from the concussions that he's had it is 1958 and Bob Barnhart 12 and his family have moved in next door to Mrs. Dowdle his father is a minister and starting a church in town trouble and surprises are in store for the new neighbors Grandma Dowdle is still in fine form 20 years after we last spent time with her both of these books are sequels to dead is the new black Daisy and her two sisters and their mom all have different psychic powers and often help the local police in book 2, dead is a state of mind a new student predicts a teacher's murder which occurs and it looks like a werewolf has done it in dead is so last year people of nightshade California have started seeing doppelgangers all over town Daisy thinks she has seen her own father who's been missing for several years what is going on? of course everybody probably knows The Last Olympian the fifth and final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series and this title maintains series quality this is a prequel to the bone series and it tells the story of Rose and her twin Briar they are to go and take their final tests to complete their training and controlling and understanding their dreams but then there is a betrayal and this is a graphic novel format and she returns in this fifth book to find her landlady's house ransacked the kitchen girl tied up and her landlady kidnapped and Nola is at a loss as to who would do such a thing and immediately sets out to find and rescue Mrs. Tupper then we have the 39 clues series continuing book 4 takes place in Egypt book 5 they go to Russia and book 6 they're in Australia they're not really following a clue this time they just wanted to reconnect with their uncle ship and repeat a trip their parents had made Amy and Dan's parents had made many years built but while they're there they stumble on a clue Billy is 12 and his older sister have joined the 1897 Klondike gold rush they're trying to find their father on the trail because their mother passed away from the fever the first thing Edna does when they hit the trail is cut her hair and they named Ed because she's not sure that Edna would be a good person to be out there on the trail with just her younger brother and they have many adventures in trying to find their father why don't you want to go on if it wants to stop there I don't know we have a little bit more time so let's go on to teen nonfiction um the authors who brought us bodies from the bog and bodies from the ash now has a photo essay of the recovery of bodies from European glaciers most of the bodies are a couple of hundred years old but one is from the copper age he's about 5300 years old and even handed biography of what is known about Babe Ruth the author notes when appropriate the different versions of specific stories and how even Babe Ruth himself was unclear on what was true it's certainly be popular with readers who love sports stories it reads like a story oh yeah there's gonna be trouble now I have read snippets of this book not the whole thing it is full of practical joke type ideas the reviews emphasize that the book constantly reminds readers that pranks should do no harm and help clean up your mess and by the way stay in school learn something and become a useful citizen of the world so while they are learning how to do mischief there also may be learning a couple of other things the stories of three different scientists is told one flies into the eyes of hurricanes to collect data one explores caves hunting microbes that live in extreme conditions and the third is the first person to climb into and research life at the top of the redwoods very different this is a sequel to the circuit and breaking through now Francisco is in college and he has a whole new set of challenges to face again an excellent book about someone who's come from a completely different culture Mexico and into the United States and of course it's set a number of years ago because now he is a college professor but interesting to hear his remembrances of this part of his life oh I should hurry this is a photo journal of the death bowl it's well organized and tells of the conditions that brought about the death bowl and about the thousands of people who became homeless during this time and it does include an index this is an encyclopedic look at many things connected with death entries include assassination body-snatching, hearse, limbo soul the author includes Christianity, Hinduism Islam and Buddhism and other religions when appropriate to the topic in alternating narratives it tells the stories of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr from Earth through school, military service careers and politics and how they ended up facing each other that early morning a look at the war interact through one young man's experience he was a member of an equipment crew which repaired craters made by IEDs moved Earth to create firms and occasionally interacted with the children of Iraq languages crude at times and one scene it's quite hard to read they are salvaging army from a vehicle in which two soldiers died a photo essay of the early 1960s and the 13 women who were tested to determine if they could become astronauts called the Mercury 13 physical endurance tests, psychological analysis even with all of this there were very few who took them seriously the book contains a letter a copy of a letter about the women across which then president Lyndon Johnson wrote let's stop this now it includes an index okay fiction for older teens we're gonna make it this is just a fun book Morgan Abbott is a senior in high school and she's the daughter of the first female president she has all the regular challenges of a teen plus the added pressure of the nosy press and a mom who is very busy there is a bit of a stretch in here when she is acts as a decoy for her mom but teen girls who go for it and also with two girls in the white house right now although she's of course a senior in high school a little older than those girls Graceland is the first book in this series by Cass Short Katza is about 15 and she lives in a it's a fantasy so she lives in one of several countries where many people are born with a grace which means they have some kind of ability that is almost supernatural they can they can't be defeated and she thinks that her grace is to kill and that really rips her apart her uncle is using her as a thug so to speak to coerce people into doing what he wants or to punish them if they don't but she finds a way out of that situation and she goes off to find out really who she is and what she can do it's a very interesting story and it's companion book because I think this one takes place before Graceland Fire is a human monster and anyone who looks at her is irresistibly drawn toward her it's very hard for humans to shield their minds from her and she also has to try not to draw people but it's difficult her father used this skill for his own gain and the gain of the king but she resists this and tries to live as humanly as possible when she is asked to help the king retain his crown and finds danger, treachery, and betrayal but also human companionship it's a very intriguing story another intriguing story is The Hunger Games and this is the first book of a projected trilogy Katniss Everdeen is 16 and she volunteers to take the place of her younger sister Prim in The Reaping each year each of the districts of Panem which is formerly the United States so this is futuristic they must send two children to participate so think gladiators they're going to be in a physical environment that is hard on them and they're fighting each other until only one is left there's some gruesome situations but um somehow you're so compelled to read this book and the sequel which just came out I think last month is Catching Fire and in this I'm not giving much away to tell you that Katniss is back in the games and so are all the other champions and this is book two can't wait for book three three excellent short stories each of which has one or two earlier creature characters in them as expected language will be an issue for libraries but very well told stories of course this is the sequel to Under a War Torn Sky which I have not read it's World War II Henry is 19 and he was in the war shot down managed to escape that happened in the first book now he feels he must return to France to find out what happened to the boy Pierre who was nine at the time who helped him escape the Germans he sees first hand the terrible conditions left behind when he first goes back to France Hitler is still in power but he's lost control of France and he is his power is waning but he sees how even though the Nazis are gone people are still starving because the railroads have been destroyed and we get things from here to there it's part of the war that I really hadn't thought about before it's very well written it is World War II Ida Mae Jones just graduated from high school and all she wants is to fly she hears about the WASP program Women Air Force Service Pilots and hope she can get in but she is black a very light black should she try to pass as white it's a novel of the segregation of the limits set on women at that time and the last book I'll talk about is response his two friends talked Noah 17 into going into the neighboring all white neighborhood to steal a car before they get one three local teens spot them and chase them Noah trips and falls and is beaten in the head with a baseball bat the book explores guilt and innocence the trial of the white boys the meaning of a hate crime and Noah's determination to do things right from now on and thank you notice I think you just click it and it'll say thank you there it goes and that's the list for today so I hope that's some I didn't even stop to give anybody a chance to ask questions does anybody have any comments about some of the titles or questions before we call it quits if you have any questions or comments if I'm unmuting anyone if you have a microphone you can feel free to use it if not you can post a question or comment in the questions section anybody have anything you want to say any questions for Sally maybe I talked about your favorite book or the worst book there's a thank you great thank you always enjoy your book talks great thank you thank you everyone it looks like we're at the end of our time here if you do have questions or anything you want to know more of course you can look at the list that's on the website oh I forgot to tell them about it well that's the email that you sent this list of all these is on email that was sent out to you on the website we'll also have that linked off of the recording too when I get that posted up for people who didn't attend the session and didn't get the email so thank you very much it was very interesting I had a lot of good ideas for Christmas presents I think good good yes absolutely so I hope you'll join us next week when we have Michael Sowers also from the library commission is going to talk about Google secrets some new features and things that Google has come out with that might be interesting to people so thank you very much and we'll see you next time bye bye