Reminder: See Mo Willems at Anderson's this Saturday!

Just a quick reminder for Mo Willems fans out there, big and small - Mo will be at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville Saturday, May 3rd at 11AM giving a presentation and autographing copies of his newest pigion book, The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! (reviewed here). Numbers for a place in the book signing line are available if you purchase one of Mo's books. Check out the Anderson's website for more information. See you there!

Ghost of Spirit Bear

By Ben Mikaelsen

Review copy from the publisher

*Note* This book is NOT available in the Zion library. It will be published in June.

Fans of 'Touching Spirit Bear' will look forward to the continuation of Cole's story in 'Ghost of Spirit Bear'. Sent to an island to survive by himself for a year after viciously beating a classmate, Cole is now home and struggling to get back into everyday life in high school. He and Peter, the student Cole attacked and who spent part of the year rehabbing with Cole on the island, face ridicule and taunts from tough-guy Keith and his gang of bullies. Cole and Peter try to use the coping techniques they learned on the island to deal with Keith but it becomes increasingly difficult, especially in the hostile environment they find at school. Many of the teachers are indifferent to the drugs and gangs that abound. A symbol of this disregard is the bulldog statue in the front of the school. The statue of the school's mascot, once so proud, is now a regular target of graffiti. Cole realizes that if he is to survive in this environment, he is not the only one that has to change; the school has to change, too. He and Peter set out to bring the lessons they learned from their island life to a city school.

I enjoyed 'Ghost of Spirit Bear', although those looking for more of Cole's adventures in the wild will not find them here. Cole's world is now a city world but his need to control his anger and learn to work with others has not changed. Totems, carrying ancestor rocks, and chilling in the pond all have to be adapted to concrete and glass. 'Ghost of Spirit Bear' gives readers a sense that big things can be accomplished through small steps, even just from one person.

If you'd like to read this review copy of 'Ghost of Spirit Bear', let me know in the comments section. The book comes out in June so we won't have it on the Zion bookshelves until school resumes in the fall. If you can't wait until then, let me know and I'll share my copy with you!

An Egg is Quiet

By Dianna Aston

Illustrated by Sylvia Long

Most enjoyed by Preschoolers through 2rd grade

Our kindergartners and sixth graders are sharing a science unit about baby chicks. While the sixth graders tend the eggs in their classroom, the kindergartners get to stop in occasionally and see how the eggs are coming along. Excitement builds until the day the chicks hatch, fluff up and are ready to be held. It's a highlight of the school year for both grades.

The kindergartners and I shared 'An Egg is Quiet' during story time the other day. An egg is quiet but it's a lot more than just quiet. Eggs come is all shapes and sizes, colors and textures. Different creatures lay their eggs in different places but the eggs themselves are designed to help their survival. Eggs stay quiet only so long until their residents hatch and announce their arrival to the world.

Lots of facts about eggs are included here. The first two-page spread shows bird eggs, each labeled with the name of its species. The last two-page spread in the back of the book shows the birds and animals that created the eggs so that readers can match the bird or animal with it's colorful egg.

The illustrations are what make this book so spectacular. Illustrator Sylvia Long has depicted the wide variety of eggs in such beautiful colors and with such incredible detail. The illustration showing an egg hidden among rocks is so effective at getting across the idea that eggs are often camouflaged to look like their surroundings. The eggs stand out on the pages in their beauty because of all the white space used as background. This is truly a beautiful book.

Grab this book when you find a bird's nest in the back yard and you want to identify the creator of the eggs inside. See if you can find it in 'An Egg is Quiet' before the egg gets noisy!

The Dumpster Diver

By Janet S. Wong

Illustrated by David Roberts

Most enjoyed by Preschoolers through 3rd grade

Happy Earth Day! In honor of this special day set aside to take care of our earth home, we have a title called 'The Dumpster Diver'. Steve is the neighborhood dumpster diver. Once a month he dons a yellow scuba diver's jacket, a face mask and a snorkle to dive into the dumpster behind the appartment building. He finds interesting stuff but it's what he does with the stuff that's so cool. A pair of broken skis, some nuts, bolts, wheels and a torn umbrella become a paraskater. An old blender becomes a lamp, a lamp becomes a table and so on. Steve is an expert at turning junk into treasure and the kids learn fast. When Steve has an accident while diving one day, the kids put their learning to work and create something perfect just for Steve.

Recycling trash into treasure is one way to keep garbage out of a garbage dump. Since this week is TV Turn-Off week, you've got some time on your hands so why not raid the recyling bin and see what you can find? Can you turn what you were going to throw away into something useable? Dumpster Diver Steve would be proud!

Fever 1793

By Laurie Halse Anderson

Most enjoyed by 5th through 8th graders

Mattie is fourteen years old and convinced she is made for a life of business. Helping her mother run the family coffeehouse has given her a good eye for what sells and how to please a customer. Now if she could only get herself out of bed on time. Up early one day, she learns the startling news that her best friend Polly has died suddenly of some kind of fever. And Polly isn't the only one dead. More and more people each day are dying and word in the market place is to leave Philadelphia if you want to live. Mattie's mother wants her to leave, to head for the country to a friend's farm. But Mattie, backed by her grandfather, wants no part of it, until Mattie's mother falls victim to the fever. Mattie flees the city with her grandfather only to be dumped at the side of the road when the old man gets sick. Mattie grows up quickly as she tries to survive and get back home where nothing is the same. Will life ever get back to normal?

'Fever 1793' is a fictional account of the yellow fever epidemic that hit Philadelphia in 1793. It wasn't the only time fever struck the city, but one in which thousands died. The book is fast-paced and gripping, leaving you wondering as you turn each page if Mattie will survive. Would you, could you, scrape and scrabble like Mattie did, simply to live?

A good companion book that gives you more information about the yellow fever epidemic in 'An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793' by Jim Murphy. This non-fiction title adds facts and details about the epidemic that flesh out the story in 'Fever 1793'. It also tells how Philadelphia changed after the epidemic. Read all or part of 'An American Plague' to learn more about this fascinating event in history.

Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains

By Ed Emberley

Great for all ages

Looking for something to do next week during TV Turn-Off week? Grab some paper, a pencil or two and your favorite markers. Then pick up this book and start drawing! Ed Emberley is well known for creating books that show us how to draw. Here, he focuses on how to draw trucks and trains of all sorts. The amazing thing about any of Ed's books, and we have two of them in the library, is that after following his directions for a few drawings, you begin to be able to draw things pretty well on your own. It may be that your eye gets trained to see things differently; what once was something that looked too hard to draw now becomes easier because we see it as shapes and angles and lines. Or perhaps Ed's easy-to-follow directions give us more confidence to tackle other pictures on our own. Whatever the reason, 'Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains' is great for the motor vehicle lover in your household.

Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku
By Paul B. Jaceczko and J. Patrick Lewis
Illustrated by Tricia Tusa

Most enjoyed by poets in 3rd through 8th grade
April is Poetry Month and we haven't reviewed any poetry here on the blog so today we'll fix that. Here's a fun book to read on your own or to inspire you to write your own poem. 'Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku' is a book filled with senryu, a cousin of haiku. Senryu are poems 'of snickers and laughter. Short, punchy, and punny, they take every imaginable subject and make the reader look at life through a circus mirror' (quote from the inside dust jacket blurb). And funny they are. How about this one:

High school band minus
its tuba player - looking
for a substi-toot!

or this one:

My older sister
gets a complete makeover -
very mascary!

See what I mean? These are great read alouds as well as just plain fun to read. The illustrations add almost a comic book fun to the poems. 'Wing Nuts' is screwy in the best way!