Wonder...THE MOVIE!

I am very excited for the movie version of the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio to come out next November!  Watch the trailer below and if you haven't yet read Wonder or the companion novels, find them in our library.

REALISTIC F PAL

REALISTIC F PAL

808.88 PAL

*Images from Amazon.com

Movie Trailer: 

 

Summer Reading List

 (Newport News Public Schools, 2017)

Need something to read this summer?  Find ideas at these websites:

2017 ALSC Summer Reading Lists - The Association for Library Service to Children publishes recommended summer reading lists for children from Birth-Grade 8.  Find a printed copy of the Grade 6-8 list in our library!

YALSA Book Finder- Need a new YA book?  The Young Adult Library Services Association is designed for teens from 12-18 and can suggest some great summer reading!

Here is what is on my summer reading list so far:

(Amazon.com)

(Amazon.com)

(Amazon.com)

Works Cited:
Summer Reading. Digital image. Newport News Public Schools. Newport News Public Schools, 2017. Web. 24 May 2017. <http://sbo.nn.k12.va.us/summer/>.

New Board

Found this idea on Pinterest and modified a bit for our library.  Others always comes up with the best bulletin board ideas!  Thanks Mr. Shoyab for taking on this project.

Works Cited:
B, Mrs. "Back to School: Ideas & Resources." Pinterest. N.p., 20 July 2015. Web. 24 May 2017. <https://www.pinterest.com/pin/74872412532270181/>.

Embassy Row Series by Ally Carter

(Image from: Amazon.com)

Image from: (Amazon.com)

Image from: (Amazon.com)

Embassy Row is Ally Carter's newest series.  I was drawn to the first book, All Fall Down, while living in Moscow.  Two embassy kids (one Russian, one American) in a fictional European town; the setting sounded a bit like the lives of our students, minus the murder mystery!

Grace lives with her Grandfather, a US Ambassador, on Embassy Row.  She is convinced her mother was murdered.  Her family is trying to convince her she's crazy.  Grace is convinced she will find her mother's killer and make him pay.

The first two books in this series follow Grace as she uncovers secret after secret.  The plot kept me guessing and is full of unexpected twists and turns. The third book?  I can't wait to read the conclusion to the Embassy Row series when it arrives to our library in August. This series will appeal to lovers of mystery and suspense with a little bit of glamour and social politics thrown into the mix.  Embassy Row makes for great summer reading!

Find the first two books, All Fall Down and See How They Run,  in our library: MYSTERY F CAR

Look for Book 3, Take the Key and Lock Her Up in August!

The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam

 

(Image from: Amazon.com)

 

I recently read The Good Muslim for my book club.  Tahmima Anam is a Bangladeshi writer and I was excited to read something about Bangladesh.
The Good Muslim takes place immediately after the Bangladesh War for Independence.  It explores the rise of religious fundamentalism after the war through the eyes of family members.  I found this story very good, but also very upsetting and sad.  
In fact, I can't really put my thoughts on this book into words just yet, so here's what Amazon (2017) says about The Good Muslim:  

In the dying days of a brutal civil war, Sohail Haque stumbles upon an abandoned building. Inside he finds a young woman whose story will haunt him for a lifetime to come. . . . Almost a decade later, Sohail's sister, Maya, returns home after a long absence to find her beloved brother transformed. While Maya has stuck to her revolutionary ideals, Sohail has shunned his old life to become a charismatic religious leader. And when Sohail decides to send his son to a madrasa, the conflict between brother and sister comes to a devastating climax. Set in Bangladesh at a time when religious fundamentalism is on the rise, The Good Muslim is an epic story about faith, family, and the long shadow of war.

 I recommend this book to anyone interested in the culture/history of Bangladesh and anyone who likes sad stories!
Find The Good Muslim in the Bangladesh Collection of our library: BC F ANA 
 

What to do with old library books?

Book Art!

In collaboration with our middle school art teacher (99.9% of the credit goes to him- I just donated the books) we have new art displays in our library!
When I arrived this year, I found our non-fiction section to be very outdated.  The massive book weed resulted in several big, thick books that were perfect for recycled book art.  The MS students worked very hard to create these masterpieces:

The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

(Amazon.com)

The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle has been on my "to read" list since I ordered it for the library I used to work at in Moscow.  But, I sort of forgot about it and happened to pass it while shelving the other day.  I was intrigued by the fact it was compared to We Were Liars, which I liked.

This mystery is set in Ireland and is about a family who experiences an accident season every October.  Each year, people get hurt, people die, and this accident season is predicted to be the worst yet by Cara's friend Bea.  So, why not throw an epic Halloween Party at a haunted house?  The book does a good job at blurring the line between fantasy and reality and exploring the secrets people keep.

The Accident Season was a good, slightly creepy, mystery.  In the end, I enjoyed this book, but I felt there were a few unanswered questions in the end.  There's more I still want to know (or didn't figure out) and as this not a series, I guess I will be left wondering.

See if you can figure out all the answers! 

Find The Accident Season in our library: MYSTERY FOW