Thank you, first of all and once again, to Sally Nicoll for the new children’s library table in the Town Library. It’s perfect with the donated chairs and just the right size for little people.
Not only do kids emerge from the woodwork in early September, but they also burst through the library doors at my school with a multitude of requests:
“Can I keep my summer reading book one more week, please?”
“Didja’ get the new James Patterson in yet?”
“Have you heard about the latest Graceling?”
A junior boy: “I read this really good book about immigration, The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson. If you don’t have it yet you should order it soon.”
“I brought in my bag of books and left it downstairs and can’t find it now–help!”
“Have you got the new book by Eric Flint? He’s a lot like Terry Pratchett.”
New seventh-grader: “I know I checked out four books yesterday, but I just finished one [The Odyssey, graphic novel] and I’ll bring it right down, and can I check out this one, too?”
Same seventh-grader: “Can you put Hunger Games on the iPod shuffle for me, please Ms. Moore?”
Junior girl: “Do I have to give up all those books on piracy yet?”
“Has The Rising come on the ILL van yet?”
“What else can I read?!!”
What indeed is next? When kids are stumped, I toss them the latest National Geographic or Discovery. Or I pass them a new non-fiction, something like The Nature of New Hampshire, which I use to demonstrate the non-fiction browsing method: let book fall open and pages settle until a picture or familiar word catches our eyes, and off we go into information land. It’s a beautifully photographed book organized by growing communities, carefully detailing plant and animal life in the Granite State.
Coyotes keeping you up at night? Wild turkeys slowing your speedy progress on the back roads? Try an Audubon Guide for identification and information about the critters that share your living space. Interested in why music captivates your soul and stirs up so many memories? Do as author Louise Penny did: explore This Is Your Brain on Music, by Canadian Professor Daniel J. Levitin, to peek into the neuroscience of music.
Peeking into the new books reviewed lately, I offer these to tickle your brain: You and Me by Padgett Powell; Where’d You go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple; Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz; Gone Girl by Gillan Flynn, which keeps appearing on lists everywhere; The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving: A Novel by Jonathan Evison; The Double Game by Dan Fesperman (yes, more spies); Pryme Knumber by Matthew J. Flynn (“a funny tale and a fast read”); The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows by Brian Castner; Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye; The Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart (light and entertaining); Goodbye for Now by Laurie Frankel; This Is How It Ends by Kathleen Macmahon; Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani.
Finally, Ian McEwan and Michael Chabon have each published a new novel: in order, Sweet Youth (MI5 recruitment in the 1970s); and Telegraph Avenue, (“the great American novel we’ve been waiting for”). And for the military historians: The Generals: American Military Command from WWII to Today, and The Terrible Swift Sword: The Life of General Philip H. Sheridan.
Support your local libraries!