Book of the Week for September 27-October 4

Hot Lunch by Alex Bradley

Molly Ollinger can't stand perky Cassie Birchmeyer. When they are forced to collaborate on a school project, their bickering escalates into a food fight in the Sunshine Day School cafeteria. But because Sunshine Day isn't your average high school, the girls' punishment isn't detention—it's to work in the cafeteria as lunch ladies. Ewww. They'll have to cook up a way to get along in order to get themselves out of the kitchen. Seasoned with hilarious original songs, slams on traditional school-lunch menus, not to mention downright tasty recipes, Hot Lunch is the best thing to hit school lunch since Tater Tots.

Book of the Week for September 19-September 26

Right Behind You by Gail Giles

When he was nine, Kip set another child on fire. Now, after years in a juvenile ward, he is ready for a fresh start. But the ghosts of his past soon demand justice, and he must reveal his painful secret. How can Kip tell anyone that he really is--or was--a murderer?

By the author of What Happened to Cass McBride?

Banned Books Week

Every year, libraries all over the country celebrate Banned Books Week, which is really a celebration of our freedom to read whatever we want. Us librarians care a lot about that sort of thing--and we work really hard to make sure YOU have the chance to read whatever your heart desires, which means not banning books!

Books get banned when someone thinks that book shouldn't be in a library for any number of reasons. Sometimes people think it is offensive, inappropriate, or simply bad literature. Some interesting examples of books that have been banned over the years are:

1984
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Animal Farm
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Beloved
Brave New World
Catcher in the Rye
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Color Purple
The Egypt Game
Fahrenheit 451
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Gone with the Wind
James and the Giant Peach
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Little House on the Prairie
To Kill a Mockingbird
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Where's Waldo?
A Wrinkle in Time

In our library, we'll have some of these books on display, as well as some cool photos up of your teachers holding their favorite banned books.

If you have any questions about Banned Book Week, please come ask me!

Book of the Week for September 11-September 18

The Spell Book of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty

The Zing family lives in a world of misguided spell books, singular poetry, and state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. They use these things to protect the Zing Family Secret -- one so huge it draws the family to the garden shed for meetings every Friday night. Into their world comes socially isolated middle grader Listen Taylor, whose father is dating a Zing. Enter Cath Murphy, a young teacher at the elementary school that Cassie Zing attends, suffering from a broken heart. How will the worlds of these two young woman connect? Only the reader can know!

By the author of The Murder of Bindy MacKenzie, The Year of Secret Assignments, and Feeling Sorry for Celia.

Welcome back!

We've been back in classes for a week! I hope all of you are settling in well and catching up with your friends and making new ones.

There's a lot of new stuff happening here this year. You should definitely come visit and see our new carpet and layout. Make yourself comfortable in The Nook, the new reading area which was designed with the help of two of your classmates, Ariel Landers and Kim Marker. Be sure to tell them how nice it looks.

If you have any questions about where things are now that we've moved things around, please do not be afraid to ask me for help!

As usual, we have tons of new books in, including all the brand-new YA titles. I also bought a bunch of new DVDs that you can borrow whenever you want. And don't forget about our ginormous game library, which you can use here or take home if you're a boarder.

We've got a bunch of free books in our paperback exchange box at the front of the library. Take one and donate one of yours that you've already read. (Faculty and staff, this goes for you, too.)

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Upper School Book Group, please email me. Our first book is going to be The Book Thief. We'll try to meet at least once a trimester, and we'll have lots of snacks. I hope you'll consider joining!

Okay, that's it for now. Have an amazing start to the school year, and remember that you are always welcome in the library!

Book of the Week for September 3-September 10

The first BOTW for the 2007-08 school year is....



Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks!


Cadel Piggott has a genius IQ and a fascination with systems of all kinds. At seven, he was illegally hacking into computers. Now he’s fourteen and studying for his World Domination degree, taking classes like embezzlement, misinformation, forgery, and infiltration at the institute founded by criminal mastermind Dr. Phineas Darkkon. Although Cadel may be advanced beyond his years, at heart he’s a lonely kid. When he falls for the mysterious and brilliant Kay-Lee, he begins to question the moral implications of his studies for the first time. But is it too late to stop Dr. Darkkon from carrying out his evil plot?

Reviews are coming soon!

Please consider writing reviews of the movies, books, CDs, TV shows, or video games you've watched/played/read/listened to this summer. Submit them to me and I will post them on the library website AND put your name in a raffle to win a $10 spa gift card (there will be one winner each trimester).

The reviews should be anywhere from 50-200 words. Please include your name and as much info as you can about the thing you're reviewing.

I would especially like reviews of:

-Harry Potter 7 (the book)
-Harry Potter 5 (the movie)
-High School Musical 2
-Hairspray
-Eclipse (the new book in the Twilight series)
-Any of the super good reality TV shows that come out over the summer (Hell's Kitchen, So You Think You Can Dance, -America's Got Talent, etc...)

Ms. Ludwig