Signed by Zelda

Title: Signed by Zelda
Author: Kate Feiffer
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-3331-1

A lot happens everyday in New York City.  In fact there is so much going on that this entire story takes place in just one apartment building!  Lucy, Nicky, Pigeon and Zelda all live in the same building on different floors.  Pigeon (who really is a bird) technically lives outside but he spends so much time on everyone's windowsills he is an honorary resident.

When Nicky's grandmother Zelda turns up missing he doesn't know what to do.  Even stranger, his father doesn't seem to care at all that Zelda is missing.  It takes a new girl from Savannah (Lucy) who has no friends and only one hobby (handwriting analysis) to crack the case. 

Read this book to see what really happened to Zelda, plus learn some interesting facts about decoding your friends handwriting to reveal their true intentions!  Plus Pigeon talks, what could be better than that.

Summer at Forsaken Lake

Title: Summer at Forsaken Lake
Author: Michael D. Beil
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 978-0-375-86742-2

I admit to knowing absolutely nothing about sailing.  In fact I never meant to pick up a book about sailing, it was a complete accident.  I saw that the library had a new book by Michael D. Beil author of "The Red Blazer Girls" and I decided that I had to read it. In reality the only thing that "Summer at Forsaken Lake" has in common with "The Red Blazer Girls" is that the main characters are both originally from New York City. 

When twelve year old Nicholas finds out that instead of spending the summer in New York City  that he is being sent to Ohio to stay with his dad's uncle he is devastated.  An entire summer with no TV, no computer, and no friends what could possibly be worse? 

Little did Nicholas know he would walk into a mystery that is over 30 years old and involves his father, a girl, a sailboat and some other local characters.  Nicholas also learns that there is more to life than the city and that there is a lot to learn about surviving in the country.  The story culminates with the surprise arrival of a very special person. 

No Ordinary Day

Title: No Ordinary Day
Author: Deborah Ellis
Copyright: 2011
ISBN: 978-0-55498-134-2

Life in Jharia, India is dirty.  Everything is covered in coal dust.  Valli's clothes are never clean, her family doesn't like her, and she never picks up as much coal as the other kids.  Valli is lucky (or so she thinks) she has magical feet that feel no pain.  Life is perfect until she discovers that it isn't

"I'm family too."
Elmma didn't say anything for a moment.
The she said, "No, you're not."
"My mother was the sister of your mother," I said.  "That makes us family."
"Your mother was a sickly woman who died bringing you into the world," she said. "Your grandparents gave my parents money to take you off their hands.  The were neighbors.  Even after they got rid of you they had to move away."
"Why?"
"Your mother shamed her family," Elamma said.  "You have no father."

That was the moment Valli's life became anything but ordinary, the day that she ran away to Kolkata.  There Valli meets a doctor who changes her life by treating her leprosy and curing her magical feet. 

Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School

Title: Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School: We the Children
Author: Andrew Clements
Copyright: 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4169-3907-8

Have you ever wished that your school would be torn down and replaced by an amusement park?  If so you probably aren't alone.  In fact I am sure that thousands of kids would be absolutely giddy at the prospect.  

Benjamin Pratt is not one of them.  In fact he is devastated that his school is being torn down.  It doesn't help that the school janitor made him promise to fight to stop the construction on his dying breath. 

Can Ben fight Lyman the evil janitor, the school board, the town, and just about everyone else who stands in his way.  Can Ben save the school alone or will he need to enlist the help of a few other special kids?

Find out more by coming to our Novel Read Aloud program on Monday afternoons!

Bluefish

Title: Bluefish
Author: Pat Schmatz
Copyright: 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5334-7

Travis:
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  Travis has always been the Bluefish, ever since first grade when all the students were assigned leveled reading groups.  While all the kids around him moved forward Travis remained the stupid Blue Fish. 

Velveeta:
When Calvin, the only person who ever helped Velveeta succeed, dies of a heart attack she is left alone with a drunk mother just trying to get by.  It's the first day of school and her mom forgot to buy her any school supplies. In fact her mother forgets everything except to buy more alcohol, she always remembers that. 

Then Velveeta meets Travis all because of a flying shoe, and their lives will never be the same.  Travis meets a teacher who doesn't make him feel stupid because he can't read, and Velveeta makes a friend who cares about her and doesn't say anything about her home situation.  Travis even shares half his dessert with her everyday what could be a better friend then that. 

Both Travis and Velveeta have a lot of pain and regret to work through, but maybe, just maybe together they'll make it alright. 

No Castles Here

Title: No Castles Here
Author: A.C.E. Bauer
Copyright: 2007
ISBN: 978-0-375-83921-4

This book is for all the kids who truly believe that their parents are trying to ruin their life.  Augie Boretski does not fit in.  He just happens to be a scrawny white kid living in Camden, New Jersey.  All Augie wants is to survive Camden so that he can go somewhere better. 

Everything starts to fall apart in Augie's life when he accidentally steals a magical fairy tale book.  Yes, he accidentally stole the book.  That's the sort of kid Augie is. He lies to his mother and the neighbor, takes the train from Camden to Philadelphia, hides out in a bookstore, then runs out still holding a book.  He doesn't even like books, Augie was only holding it as a prop so that no one would bug him. 

Just to make his life worse at the age of twelve Augies mother decides that he needs a "male role model" and signs him up to participate in the Big Brothers program.  Augie is getting beat up every day, having his lunch stolen, and hiding from drug dealers, an ice storm wrecks his school the only place he feels safe.

Augie decides that for the first time in his life he will stand up for something.  Now read the book to find out what he stands for. 

The Last Song

Title: The Last Song
Author: Eva Wiseman
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 978-0-88776-979-5

I am always on the lookout for accessible historical fiction that is written during a time period that children typically don't know much about.  When I picked up "The Last Song" I was deceived by the cover!  I was shocked when I started reading to discover that it was not a holocaust book like a expected by instead was set in Toledo, Spain during the Spanish Inquisition 1491! 

Well at that point I was committed, I had bought the book, I had started reading the book and I was hooked.  For the record I knew absolutely nothing about the Spanish Inquisition when I started reading.  In fact I couldn't even quite rationalize when 1491 would have been.  None of that stopped me, and in fact the story line is so compelling, none of my concerns even mattered. 

This is the story of Isabel an almost fifteen year old girl who discovers in chapter 1 that she must marry a boy she despises in order to keep her safe from the inquisition.  No matter how many questions she asks no one will tell Isabel why she would ever have to be kept safe her family is full of good Christians what could the problem be?

Isabel soon learns that her family is hiding a dark past and in her time of need people she thought she could trust will desert her.  However, when she meets a young Jewish boy named Yonah she also learns to accept her background and her family for what it is.  Follow the emotional journey of Isabel as she learns what it means to be Jewish during a time of persecution.