BOOKMARK CONTEST!!!!

This time around, the Bookmark Contest was more successful than ever before. More students participated with an impressive display of artistic skills and imaginative content. As it was too difficult to choose just six entries, we chose nine to be made into bookmarks. The following students will soon see their bookmarks on the library counter:
Abi Seeley
Rebecca Sichon
Hunter Donohue
Joshua Williamson
Chelsea Banman
Kelan Williamson
Joshua Boonstra
Macy Arnold
Aaron Williamson

The overall winner and recipient of the $20.00 gift card to Black Bond Books is Aaron Williamson.
Thanks to all for your terrific work. Look for the bookmarks when we return to school in January.

NOVEMBER BOOK CLUBS

The discussions were awesome! Hopefully, this month's reads will spark so many ideas. Senior Book Club will read the immensely popular The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Junior  students will read and talk about a steampunk adventure story, The Hunchback Assignments, by Arthur Slade.

Newcomers are always welcome! See Ms. Schmor in the library to pick up your copy of the book and the 2 meeting dates.

BOOK CLUBS!

Laurel Bieber, the teen librarian at the Mission Public library, visits HPSS twice a month to co-host two book clubs with me. Junior Book Club is open to students in grades 7 to 9. They meet twice a month at lunch hour to discuss a book that everyone is reading. For October, the book is an exciting action story that explores the issues around anger and violence. It is called Touching Spirit Bear and you can pick up a copy in the library.

Senior Book Club is open to students in grades 10 to 12. They meet Friday after school. The first meeting is to discuss the first half of the chosen book. The last meeting explores the whole book. The October book is an amazing read, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

The first meeting for both groups will be Friday, October 17th. The last meeting falls on Friday, October 31st. We'll decide as a group whether to move the last meeting to a new date or have a mini Halloween party as part of the book discussions.

It'll be fun, energizing, enlightening and surprising! See you in the library for your copy of the book.

Fall into an Amazing Sequel

Which is better - to begin reading a series in which all the books have been published so you can read one and then immediately start the next OR begin a series when only the first book is out and have to wait several years to finish it?

While it is fun to gobble up a series in a few months, I prefer the second choice. Why? Because I love the anticipation, that building of excitement until you finally get the freshly published book in your hands. I was lucky to begin my journey with Harry Potter when only the first three volumes were available. I had to wait, with the rest of the world, a year or more for each magical instalment. Do you remember the midnight sales in bookstores full of Gryffindor robes and wizard hats? The military-like secrecy about each book and the endless speculation about what would happen? The experience brought millions of people together in their love of great stories. It warms a librarian's heart.

This fall, a number of terrific series have sequels. Here are a few to look for in our library.

HEROES OF OLYMPUS series by Rick Riordan
Blood of Olympus #5

Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.

The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it "might" be able to stop a war between the two camps.

The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3)

by Sarah J. Maas 

Lost and broken, Celaena Sardothien’s only thought is to avenge the savage death of her dearest friend: as the King of Adarlan’s Assassin, she is bound to serve this tyrant, but he will pay for what he did. Any hope Celaena has of destroying the king lies in answers to be found in Wendlyn. Sacrificing his future, Chaol, the Captain of the King’s Guard, has sent Celaena there to protect her, but her darkest demons lay in that same place. If she can overcome them, she will be Adarlan’s biggest threat – and his own toughest enemy.

While Celaena learns of her true destiny, and the eyes of Erilea are on Wendlyn, a brutal and beastly force is preparing to take to the skies. Will Celaena find the strength not only to win her own battles, but to fight a war that could pit her loyalties to her own people against those she has grown to love?

The Revenge of Seven (Lorien Legacies #5)

by Pittacus Lore

The worst was supposed to be over. We were reunited after a decade apart. We were discovering the truth of our past. We were training and getting stronger every day. We were even happy...

We never imagined the Mogodorians could turn one of our own against us. We were fools for trusting Five. And now Eight is lost forever. I would do anything to bring him back, but that's impossible. Instead, I will do whatever it takes to destroy every last one of them.

I've spent my entire life hiding from them, and they've stolen everything away from me. But that stops now. We're going to take the battle to them. We have a new ally who knows their weaknesses. And I finally have the power to fight back.

They caught Number One in Malaysia.

Number Two in England.

Number Three in Kenya.

And Number Eight in Florida.

They killed them all.

I am Number Seven.

I will make them pay.

Island of Legends (Unwanteds #4)

by Lisa McMann (Goodreads Author)

Uncover adventure and dangerous secrets in book four of the New York Times bestselling Unwanteds series, which Kirkus Reviews called The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter.

As Alex grows more confident in his role as the mage of Artim, he expands his skills and brings his first creature to life;with results that are both painful and wonderful. A team from Artim heads out to rescue Sky and Crow's mother from underwater Pirate Island and discovers there are more creatures than they ever imagined in the ocean surrounding the islands and not all of them are friendly.

Meanwhile in Quill, Aaron faces threats to his leadership as Gondoleery hones her rediscovered magical abilities and Eva and Liam form a secret alliance against him. But Aaron's distracted with a discovery of his own, a hidden jungle that holds a dangerous secret. His time there yields a startling truth about himself, and a potential opportunity to increase his power.

A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories #3)

by Chris Colfer

4.5\
Conner Bailey thinks his fairy-tale adventures are behind him--until he discovers a mysterious clue left by the famous Brothers Grimm. With help from his classmate Bree and the outlandish Mother Goose, Conner sets off on a mission across Europe to crack a two-hundred-year-old code.

Meanwhile, Alex Bailey is training to become the next Fairy Godmother...but her attempts at granting wishes never go as planned. Will she ever be truly ready to lead the Fairy Council?

When all signs point to disaster for the Land of Stories, Conner and Alex must join forces with their friends and enemies to save the day. But nothing can prepare them for the coming battle...or for the secret that will change the twins' lives forever.

The third book in the bestselling Land of Stories series puts the twins to the test as they must bring two worlds together!

The Infinite Sea (The Fifth Wave #2)

by Rick Yancey

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

New School Year?????

I regret my silence on this blog all summer, but my old computer would no longer allow me to add new posts. Now I have a shiny new machine that makes me feel like I can do anything, except  solve the labor dispute affecting schools. Here's hoping that in the next few days, a deal will be hammered out that benefits everyone, especially students.

I have long lists of amazing new books to purchase once I'm back in the library. I'll treat you to an exciting preview next week!

Ahhh time... where does it go?

As spring break careens at a breakneck pace towards back-to-school Monday, I find myself pondering the mysteries of time. Why does time pass so much more quickly as one ages? In my youth, I remember time could weigh quite heavily; there was nothing quite so frustrating as boredom. Now I can't remember the last time I was bored; instead, there always seems more to do than time to do it in, despite the fact that my days are now made up of fewer events. As a child, I felt that Christmas would never arrive; as an adult, each Christmas seems to arrive on the heels of the last. With the contrary nature of time, it's little wonder that  many authors seek to manupulate the hourglass, often with surprising results.. Here are a few time-bending stories that you might like:

TimeRiders (TimeRiders #1)

by Alex Scarrow

Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912.
Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.
Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026.

Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, ‘Take my hand ...’

But Liam, Maddy and Sal aren’t rescued. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose—to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That’s why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us. To stop time travel from destroying the world....

The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare (Alex Wayfare #1)

by M.G. Buehrlen 

For as long as 17-year-old Alex Wayfare can remember, she has had visions of the past. Visions that make her feel like she’s really on a ship bound for America, living in Jamestown during the Starving Time, or riding the original Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair.

But these brushes with history pull her from her daily life without warning, sometimes leaving her with strange lasting effects and wounds she can’t explain. Trying to excuse away the aftereffects has booked her more time in the principal’s office than in any of her classes and a permanent place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Alex is desperate to find out what her visions mean and get rid of them.

It isn’t until she meets Porter, a stranger who knows more than should be possible about her, that she learns the truth: Her visions aren’t really visions. Alex is a Descender – capable of traveling back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is one soul with fifty-six past lives, fifty-six histories.

Fifty-six lifetimes to explore: the prospect is irresistible to Alex, especially when the same mysterious boy with soulful blue eyes keeps showing up in each of them. But the more she descends, the more it becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want Alex to travel again. Ever.

And will stop at nothing to make this life her last.

Elsewhere

by Gabrielle Zevin

Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere’s museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatric practice.

     Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?

     This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

Ruby Red (The Ruby Red Trilogy #1)

by Kerstin Gier

Gwyneth Shepherd's sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era!

Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon--the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust.

The Time Traveler's Wife

by Audrey Niffenegger 

Audrey Niffenegger's dazzling debut is the story of Clare, a beautiful, strong-minded art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: his genetic clock randomly resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous and unpredictable, and lend a spectacular urgency to Clare and Henry's unconventional love story. That their attempt to live normal lives together is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control makes their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

11/22/63

by Stephen King

If you had the chance to change the course of history, would you? Would the consequences be what you hoped?

Jake Epping, 35, teaches high-school English in Lisbon Falls, Maine, and cries reading the brain-damaged janitor's story of childhood Halloween massacre by their drunken father. On his deathbed, pal Al divulges a secret portal to 1958 in his diner back pantry, and enlists Jake to prevent the 11/22/1963 Dallas assassination of American President John F. Kennedy. Under the alias George Amberson, our hero joins the cigarette-hazed full-flavored world of Elvis rock'n'roll, Negro discrimination, and freeway gas-guzzlers without seat belts. Will Jake lurk in impoverished immigrant slums beside troubled loner Lee Harvey Oswald, or share small-town friendliness with beautiful high school librarian Sadie Dunhill, the love of his life?

There you have it - time travel tales for every type of reader. You'll find them all in your library.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's been too long since my last post, but the weeks since Christmas have flown by in our busy library. There are dozens of great new titles being released and I'm trying to keep up. If you have a recommendation for a book for our collection, please let me know, here or in person. This seems to be the year for finishing trilogies; I've just received the final books for each of the following series:

Enclave by Ann Aguirre  (Horde)
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi (Into the Still Blue)
Pure by Julianna Baggott (Burn)
Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick (Monsters)
Tempest by Julie Cross (Timestorm)
Shatter Me by Tehera Mafi (Ignite Me)


In the next few months, we'll see the third books for these popular series:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Ashfall by Mike Mullen
Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

This is just a taste of the new books. Come in and see them all.

The new bookmarks are here and are proving to be just as popular as the last batch. We'll have one more contest for the artists in the school to design bookmarks in the last term.

Melanie Ray, a professional story-teller, visited the library yesterday to share some tales of the Middle Ages with a particular emphasis on the stories found in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. As always, her audience of senior students was whisked away to other times and lands for an enchanting hour.