BOOK CLUBS START IN MARCH!

I'm joining forces with Laurel Bieber, the YA librarian at the Mission Public Library, to start a series of book clubs. We'll begin with interested grade 11 and 12 students in March, move to grade 9 and 10 students in April, and finish with grade 7 and 8 students in May.

"What is a book club?" you ask. Well, it's when a dozen or so readers read and discuss the same book. It's an informative, argumentative, amusing and entertaining way to spend time.

In March, we'll read and discuss the modern classic, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, a little book that has sparked some interesting controversy. We'll meet twice during lunch, on Thursday, March 15th and Thursday, March 29th, in the seminar room at the front of the library. You can bring your lunch for the first session, but food will be provided for the second session.

As each book club will have no more than 15 members, it's important to let Ms. Schmor know that you are interested in participating in order to secure a place. Copies of Catcher in the Rye will be available to borrow during the last week of February.

Happy Valentine's Day!

In honour of this special day, I'd like to share a few new books that celebrate romance. The first is Shatter Me, a new paranormal romance. Here's the synopsis:

Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1)  by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the pop...more

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Doesn't sound like a love story? Trust me, there's ALWAYS a love story.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young mag...moreThe circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

Pure by Julianna Baggot

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters. We will, one day, emerge from the Dome to join you in peace. For now, we watch from afar.

Pressia Belze has lived outside of the Dome ever since the detonations. Struggling for survival she dreams of life inside the safety of the Dome with the ‘Pure’.

Partridge, himself a Pure, knows that life inside the Dome, under the strict control of the leaders’ regime, isn’t as perfect as others think.

Bound by a history that neither can clearly remember, Pressia and Partridge are destined to forge a new world.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The winner of the signed first edition will be announced tomorrow afternoon, but we now have a copy of this unusual romance available to borrow from the library.

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

What are your favorite romantic reads? Add your suggestions by commenting on this post.

I hope you find a book to love this week, and every week. Please think about sharing the love with a book review. Send it to me at Christine.Schmor@mpsd.ca and I'll publish it on the review page.

WE'RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD...

I'd like to invite you to the library to see our fabulous new display, a tribute to the amazing Wizard of Oz books by Frank L. Baum. Baum was a magical, prolific storyteller; many readers don't know that there are several Oz books, each featuring enchantingly quirky characters: The Scarecrow of Oz, Glinda of Oz, Ozma of Oz, The Pumpkinhead of Oz. When I was a child, the Oz books were my Harry Potter series; I loved them. Over the years, I've built a collection and they are now in the display. Let me know if you'd like to read them.

OZ ISN'T JUST FOR KIDS ANYMORE!

Gregory Maguire, a talented YA author, has written his own Oz series, a much darker, edgier version of the stories. The first in the series is Wicked, a book which inspired a hit musical which was featured in an episode of Glee.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (Book One in the Wicked series)

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?


Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

The three other books in the series are Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz. We have them all in the library.

Thank you, Emily and Felicia, for both inspiring and creating the display.