Al Capone Does My Shirts (and Shines My Shoes...!)

This I guarantee: If you've read Al Capone Does My Shirts, you'll want to read Al Capone Shines My Shoes.

I love these books! (Can you tell??)

Just in case you don't already know - it's 1935, and 12 year old Moose Flanagan is living on Alcatraz Island with his father (a prison guard), his sister Natalie (autistic before autism was named or understood) and his mother (entirely and desperately focused on helping her daughter)...and, of course - Al Capone (who, yes, does his shirts...) The books deal with typical teen troubles - girls, baseball, girls, friendship, girls... not to mention, in book 2, an attempted prison break! Choldenko aims for, and hits, both the heart and the funnybone. By turns touching, heroic, and hilarious, these books are winners!

The Uprising

Many of you may know Margaret Peterson Haddix through her suspense series (Shadow Children). In The Uprising, she focuses on something very different - the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Her flair for suspense is evident, and there are some surprising twists, but this book is most notable for the way in which the author brings to life this crucial moment in American history. You will hope, cry, dream and despair with Bella and Yetta and Jane - the three voices through which Ms. Haddix tells her tale. A moving and involving story.

Born on a Blue Day

To: book club people - Hi! Time to start. Read 20-30 pages, and post your impressions of Daniel. Do you think you could like him as a friend? Why or why not? Let me know by the beginning of the week. Mrs. M.

If I Stay

If I Stay - just read this novel by Gayle Forman.

Sometimes, life changes suddenly.
Sometimes, your worst nightmare comes true.
17 year old Mia goes for an ordinary early morning drive with her parents and her little brother.
Now Mia is in a coma. And she has to make a choice -
to go - with Mom, with Dad, with Teddy -
or to stay...

Yell-Oh Girls - this is for my Book Club people!

Hi - your assignment, should you choose to accept it, (of course you do!) is to skim the table of contents and tell me which section you'd like to focus on. We won't all be reading all the same sections, but there will be some overlap. Let me know within a few days - I hope we'll have a full group by then.
Happy skimming!

A Few New Books...

A few new books are in the library today - quite a spectrum, actually. Are you into animals or photography, or fascinated by the strangeness of the natural world? Take a look at Animals Up Close. My personal favorite - the ageless axolotl! (Although the hermit crabs come in a cute close second...)
For history buffs, we've got Laurie H. Anderson's novel Chains. This is a powerful story of slavery in the Revolutionary War period. In non-fiction, there is the true story of John Wilkes Booth - Chasing Lincoln's Killer.
In the suspense category, take a look at Murder at Midnight, (a new Avi) and Chris Wooding's Malice, which is part traditional novel, part graphic novel.

We're Back

Well, summer is really over.

As you probably know, we are renovating the library, and hope that it will be completed sometime in November. In the meantime, we're making do with a mini-library (I do mean mini...) in room 245.

I've been checking out some of the good books published over the summer. Read Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins? If you haven't, it is a must read - suspenseful and captivating. The sequel, Catching Fire, is already in the Sage library. If you like E. Lockhart (The Boyfriend List, The Boy Book) her latest, The Treasure Map of Boys, is available as well. Lockhart is chick lit at its very best. Soon to come but not yet published: the prequel to Graceling. Ask me about it in a month!

In a few weeks we'll be starting our non-fiction book clubs again - Yell-Oh Girls and Born on a Blue Day. The books were provided by a grant called New Yorkers Read - soon you'll be seeing promotional materials around the school. Look for it!