Everett Public Library has a great Summer Reading Program for kids. To promote summer reading, librarians visit the surrounding elementary and middle schools. Prior to these school visits, we read stacks of new fiction, picture books and nonfiction to select titles that we think will appeal to kids. During school visits, we find that some books are consistently popular while others that we thought would be popular turn out to be duds!

Here is a list of the hits so far:

We’ve found that the more gross a book is, the more kids like it.  100% Pure Fake has recipes for rotting skin, snot and vomit so it fits the bill!  In the same vein is 100 Most Disgusting Things on the Planet.

Books about animals are also popular. Dewey the Library Cat, Panda Kindergarten, and Winter’s Tail are three true-life stories that will enchant younger readers. Some of the fiction titles about animals are:  Cat Diaries:  secret writings of the MEOW Society (short stories written by individual cats); The Fast and the Furriest about a couch potato dog that decides to become the best agility dog around; and, The Best Horse Ever about a young girl who longs for a horse of her own and what happens when her wish comes true. 

Mysteries always fill a niche and Mary Downing Hahn and Peg Kehret never fail to deliver. Closed for the Season tells the story of Logan and his family who have moved into an old house. Logan discovers that a woman was murdered in his house and decides, with the help of his neighbor, Arthur, to investigate. Runaway Twin is the story of Sunny, who decides to cross the country in order to find her twin sister from whom she’s been separated for over ten years.

Fantasy fans will enjoy Cosmic. Liam, who is only twelve but is often mistaken for an adult, decides to take advantage of this fact and ends up with an out of this world experience. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, is the story of Minli, whose parents are so desperately poor they can barely eke out a living. Minli’s father brightens each evening with stories and these stories inspire Minli to go on an exciting but dangerous adventure in order to help her family. Interweaving this enchanting tale are short stories based on Chinese folktales that make this beautifully illustrated book a delight to read.

Other titles that my co-workers recommend are Shark Vs Train an imaginative and funny picture book where a shark and a train compete in a series of contests. Finally, a sequel to 11 Birthdays, is a story about Rory who has a list of things to do when she turns 12 but sometimes things don’t go as planned. Last but not least, Big Nate, the first book in a series, uses both prose and cartoons to tell about a middle school student and a day in his disorganized life.

These are just some of the many and varied titles our library owns, so bring your school age readers and pre-readers to the library and let them join in the fun of summer reading!

Suzanne

While little coverage is given to World Cup games in the U.S. media, the Everett Public Library has a few resources:  The ESPN World Cup Companion and World Cup 2010 for adults and World Cup for kids. The recognized international governing body of football, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), has the most current information.

Ten stadia in or near 10 different cities will host these games. One is Ellis Park, located in the center of Johannesburg and originally built as a rugby union stadium.  If you’ve seen the movie Invictus, you’ll know that this is where the South African rugby team won the 1995 Rugby World Cup over New Zealand.

And, what would be a sporting event without a theme song?   Somalian-born, Canadian-based hip-hop artist K’Naan is currently touring the world on his way to South Africa, video-blogging and promoting his song “Wavin’ flag.”

While, there is much anticipation for this sporting event, one shouldn’t forget the FIFA Women’s World Cup, recognized as the most important International competition in women’s football. Held every four years, the first Women’s World Cup tournament, called the Women’s World Championship, was held in 1991, 61 years after the men’s first FIFA World Cup tournament in 1930. The current format has 16 teams competing every four years for the winner’s trophy. The next FIFA Women’s World Cup will take place in nine cities in Germany  from June 26 to July 17, 2011.

Suzanne

Because of today’s economy, many people are deciding to grow their own vegetables. If you only have a small garden space you might peruse A Little Piece of Earth: How to Grow Your Own Food in Small Spaces.  This paperback size book with hand drawn illustrations is an eco-friendly guide with fun and easy projects for all levels. It doesn’t matter whether you have a yard, a terrace, a rooftop, or just a windowsill—you’ll find plenty of ideas and inspirations, as well as recipes and a complete resources section. One Magic Square: The Easy, Organic Way to Grow Your Own Food on a 3-Foot Square is another good book if you only have a little space. The author claims that one square yard of garden will provide a tenth of a person’s food needs, and she encourages everyone to start a magic square or two.

For those with a little more space, there’s Small-Plot, High-Yield Gardening. The most impressive thing about this book is the array of garden plans for different garden sizes. The author presents plans for a 750, 1,500 and 3,000 square foot gardens drawn to scale with succession plantings dates for mid-summer and fall crops, as well as plans for many other types of vegetable gardens.

If you are overwhelmed at just the thought of starting a garden, there’s Starter Vegetable Gardens: 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens. This book offers a  foolproof approach that will appeal to both new and experienced gardeners. Each garden plan is laid out with a precise list of materials and plants based on detailed landscape plans suitable for small city gardens as well as larger suburban backyards. 

 Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces teaches you how to choose a location and make the most of your soil (even if it’s less than perfect), build a raised bed, compost bin, and self-watering container using recycled materials, and many more useful tricks. The author’s website is another excellent source of gardening information. 

The library also has many excellent magazines, such as Fine Gardening, GardenWise, and Gardens Illustrated, in the Home & Garden section.  So, after deciding what to grow, it’s time get out your gloves, spade and a kneeling pad and start digging!

Suzanne

The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team by Wayne Coffey, tells the story of the “Miracle on Ice” when the amateur U.S. hockey team beat the highly favored Russians. Going for the Gold: Apolo Anto Ohno, Skating on the Edge by Thomas Lang is a biography of the Seattle short track speed skater who will be skating in his third Winter Olympics this year.

Freeze Frame : A Photographic History of the Winter Olympics by Sue Macy highlights the history of the Winter Olympics from their inception in 1924 to today, and includes profiles of Olympic athletes and information on the lesser known winter sports. One of these lesser known sports is curling, and so to remedy that we have on our shelves Curling for Dummies by Bob Weeks.

We also have some general guides to the Vancouver games. The Winter Olympics: An Insider’s Guide to the Legends, the Lore, and the Games: Vancouver edition by Ron C. Judd and The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics: 2010 Edition by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky will keep you well informed about all the events and participants. 

If surfing the web is more your style, there are plenty of web sites to keep you up to date on the games.  You may want to check out the coverage of the games from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as well as NBC here in the states.  The Offical Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics site and the U.S. Olympic Committee are good sources of information as well. 

So, settle in for two weeks of nonstop thrills and spills as the city of Vancouver along with mascots Quatchi, Miga, Sumi and Mukmuk welcome the world “with glowing hearts” (Vancouver Olympic motto).

Suzanne

After visiting Alexandria and Cairo, we took an overnight train to Luxor, where we boarded a boat and set sail to Aswan. While floating down the Nile on a felucca in Aswan, we could see the Cataract hotel (currently undergoing renovations) where Agatha Christie stayed while writing Death on the Nile  in the mid 1930s. Christie had married an archeologist by this time and her knowledge of Egypt and the Middle East is obvious in her descriptions of the ancient sites.

Before traveling to Egypt I read Dreamers of the Day by Maria Doria Russell which is about a 40 year old single woman who, after the death of her family members from influenza, decides to travel with her beloved dachshund to the Middle East just as the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference convenes. There she meets, among others, T.E. Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, and Winston Churchill who include her on several of their outings.

After entering Jordan through Aquaba (captured by Lawrence during WWI) we spent a night with the Bedouin in Wadi Rum where there is a rock formation also called The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. On the way to this breathtakingly beautiful nature reserve, which Lawrence visited several times, we crossed the railway tracks several sections of which had been destroyed by him with the aid of the local Bedouin in 1917 & 1918.  For a complete description of Lawrence’s time in the Middle East, I recommend reading Seven Pillars of Wisdom.   

I found several children’s books helpful while preparing for my travels for their descriptions of Egypt past and present including: Egyptian Diary : The journal of Nakht and Egyptology. For older readers, 1988 Nobel Literature Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz’s The Cairo Trilogy and Larence Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet describe these cities and their peoples’ recent past. There are many more titles that cover this interesting part of the world in Everett Public Library’s collection. And remember, if we don’t own the title you want, you can always request an Inter-Library Loan. Ask a librarian!

Sue