Rest in Peace, Barbara Park.

I was browsing our  library Facebook page to see if there was anything about Sunday's storm ( I just had some tree branches down) and saw that Barbara Park, author of the Junie B Jones series, passed away over the weekend at age 66. ( Please see this link for her obit).

I actually got into the series about 6 yrs ago when I started work here at the library ( this and Magic Tree House were constantly being asked about.) For those not familiar with who or what Junie B Jones is, it is a chapter book series for ages 8 and up, focusing on a 5-year old (  later 6-years-old in books 18-28) girl named Junie B Jones and her many adventures at home and school. Her first  book, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly School Bus, was published in 1992 and focused on the first  day of kindergarten. Over 28 books, Jones has dealt with a new baby sibling, cut her own hair, graduated kindergarten and entered first grade ( with glasses.)  Her last book, Turkeys We have Loved and Eaten ( and Other Thankful Stuff) came out last year, and takes places doing a Thanksgiving classroom decorating contest. ( And it is the one Jones book I have not read, may have to wait till December.) Kids loved and laughed at the antics of  the spunky, Ramona-like girl with catch phases  like "Wowie wow wow!" and " The "B" stands for Beatrice. Except, I don't like Beatrice.". Parents....not so much (in fact, she's number 71 on American Library Association's Top 100 Banned Books 2000-2009 due to her bratty attitude and poor grammar. I didn't have a problem. In fact, I really enjoyed Junie B Jones is Party Animal, Junie B Jones is A Beauty Shop Guy, and Jingle Bells, Batman Smells (PS So Does May).)

We have most of the Jones books on display, in the same area as Magic Tree House ( which, coincidentally, also came out in 1992 and is by the same publisher, Stepping Stones/Random House). Park also picture books and other chapter books including(check library catalog to see if and where the book(s) is)-

• Kid in the Red Jacket
• Mick Hart was Here
•  Skinnybones

Junie also has a website at http://juniebjones.com/

 Rest in Peace, Barbara Park.

Bookworm List: Going for the Gold

Once again, a big thanks to all that took part in this year's summer reading program. We hope everyone had a good time ( even amidst the renovations, which will be continuing well on to perhaps the next year or so) and will continue to come to the library.

Last Friday, about 200 or so  countries came to London, England for the Opening Ceremonies of 2012 Summer Games . ( The best parts were the 50  Mary Poppins fighting Voldermort and the Skyfall trailer.) The games will continue from now to August 12th. For information, including scheduling of events ( which are  airing on NBC and all NBC-owned stations), please see the official site. 

To celebrate, the Children's Dept has a display of books on the different sports of the Summer Games, like swimming and gynamstics, and the host country, London, England, ( plus some biographies on athletes and British personalities) for checking out. ( The Cedar Lake Library will be offering a program on Saturday,  August 4th, from 10-11:30 am for all ages. Please contact the Cedar Lake Library at 374-7121 or http://www.lcplin.org/calendar.htm to register.)

Here are some titles to check out:

• The Olympics-Jane Duden
• The Story of the Olympics-Dave Anderson
• Track and Field-Shane Frederick ( part of the Summer Olympic Legend series)
• Look What Came from England-Kevin Davis

 By the way-
2014- Winter Games ( Sochi, Russia)
2016- Summer Games ( Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Keep reading!!

Rest in Peace Maurice Sendak

With yesterday's pasting of  author/ illustrator Maurice Sendak, I felt like re-posting a review I did in October of last year  on Sendak's final book ( according to some obituaries, he was writing more book, release date unknown.) To be honest, I didn't really become of fan of his work until I got older ( although  as a kid, I did  enjoy seeing the cartoon Really Rosie, which is really an adaption of  the Nutshell Library series and The Sign on Rosie's Door). His work is a bit dark and strange, but it sort of grows on you. So enjoy the review and may the wild rumpuses continue.

Review-Bumble-Ardy-Maurice Sendak ( originally posted on October 4, 2011)

A few  weeks ago, I read Maurice Sendak's new picture book for our Cool Kids program ( and they enjoyed it, but said it was a little weird.Of course,  not all of Sendak's stuff is  cute and cuddly). What I did discovered via some of the book reviews is that the story  is based off a old Sesame Street cartoon ( and oh I remember it, especially the mom counting  nine until the pigs and her son left, then welcoming him back in and kissing him "nine times over nine.")

Here is the You tube link for those that want a trip down memory lane- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2TVYdQU3-I&noredirect=1 

In the story, Bumble-Ardy the pig ( in the cartoon, a boy) has never had a birthday party until at age eight his parents " gorged and gained weighted/ And got ate."  He is then adopted by his sweet aunt Adeline, who gives him a party for turning nine. But she has to work, so Bumble throws the party himself... and a wild rumpus is had by all. But what will Aunt Adeline think when she gets home?

Fans of Sendak will most likely treasure Bumble as much as  the author's past works, Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen . Some readers might it a little bit weird and dark, but it has the author's familiar visual style and rhymes and ends on a very sweet note

Bumble-Ardy-Maurice Sendak

Age Range: 5-7

**** ( 4 stars)

Winnie the Pooh returns to the big screen

This Friday, two big movies are being released. One, which most of us have been waiting for, is the final Harry Potter film. The other is ...Winnie the Pooh. Yes, Pooh, Piglet and everyone in the Hundred Acre Woods are back in a new Disney film, with new adventures for children young and old.


 Pooh first appeared in 1926 in A. A. Milne's short story collection,  Winnie the Pooh, with illustrations by E. H. Shepard. The character got his name from a stuffed bear that was owned by Milne's son, Christopher Robin (who was the basis for the Christopher Robin character. In fact, most of the toys featured in the tales were owned by Milne's son.) A second collection of stories, The House of Pooh Corner, was released in 1928. In the 60's, Disney acquire the rights to characters and since 1966, when Winnie the Pooh and the Honey was released,  they have produced countless products, including animated films, TV shows, stuffed animals and so on. ( By the way, I'm a Piglet fan with a hint of Eeyore and Roo.)  In 2009,  an authorized sequel, Return to the House of Pooh Corner by David Benedictus with illustrations by Mark Burgess, was released. ( I'd read this book, and both Benedictus and Burgess do a great job of capturing Milne's writing and Shepard's artwork.)

One more side of everyone's favorite silly old bear is the musical side. Besides the music of the Disney films and TV shows ( which, over the years,  has been done by Richard and Robert Sherman, Carly Simon, and for this new film, Robert Lopez, the songwriter of the Tony-winning musical ,The Book of Mormon), singer/ songwriter Kenny Loggins wrote a song called " The House of Pooh Corner" in 1970. In 1994, he not only rewrote the song, but also decided to put out children's album called Return to Pooh Corner. ( A sequel was released in 1998, featuring the song " Your Heart Will Lead You Home" which Loggins co-wrote with the Sherman brothers for The Tigger Movie. Both albums are great for bedtime, whether you have children or not.)

Most of the books and music items that I have mentioned are available at the library for you to check out. Please use the library catalog or an librarian to see which branch (or branches) have theses items ( especially the Disney-related Pooh books, which are by various authors).


And now to close with a quote from the 1977 film, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh:

Tigger: T-T-F-N: ta-ta for now!

Review-Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins

 So I was very hesitant  about reading the first book of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games series because I'm not really a huge science fiction fan. But it has sort of become the Harry Potter of this century and with  the film adaptation of the book coming to the big screen next spring, I decided to give it a try.

The Hunger Games is  set the future, in a place called Panem ( one of the many cool names in this book), consisting of a gleaming city known as the Capitol and twelve pleasant-like districts. ( Actually there was a district 13, but it was wiped out during an uprising against the Capitol.) To keep  the districts in line ( and as punishment for this uprising), the Capitol selects one boy and one girl from each district to compete in the Hunger Games, a life-or-death competition broadcast for all to see. When Katniss Everdeen  (see the names are getting cooler) hears her little sister's name selected, she volunteers to take her place. Once in the Games, Katniss learns she will have to do more than outlive her competitors ( and possibly falling in love with Peeta
Mellark, her co-tribute from distract 12 who's had a crush on her since age 5) to survive the Games.

Two words: Awesome.  It's a page turner with a lot of adventure, romance, humor, sadness, and violence ( and pretty vivid violence, so not really for the squeamish). Collins creates a world that is wonderful and wicked at the same, full of strong characters with great names. I really love that the story is told from Katniss, who is both strong and girly from beginning to end. I also love Haymitch Abernathy ( his name may be better than Kat), former Hunger Games victor of long ago and Katniss and Peeta's wise but drunken mentor. Foolish and arrogant, he knows the secrets of surviving the Games, plus adds humor to this gruesome and page- turning adventure.  And now that I have finished book 1, I so plan to request the other two books in the series as soon as I can.

Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins ( we have it  in children's and young adult)
Ages 14 and up
Lexile: 810
***** ( 5 stars)

I mentioned at the beginning of this post  that a film version of this book will be coming out next spring. Since the movie's announcement, fans have created their own wish list of the cast ( and some have even created music videos and posted on Youtube. The choices for Haymitch are very interesting, including big franchise actors.) The main three characters have already been cast. Jennifer Lawrence of Winter's Bone will be Katniss, and yesterday, it was announced that Josh Hutcherson of Journey of the Center of the Earth will be Peeta, Katniss's love interest and fellow contender, and Liam Hemsworth of The Last Song  will be  Gale, Katniss's best friend. Being a budding fan of the series, I'm going to throw in my dream choices for some of the other characters ( Note- these are my choices, not who will be actually in the movie) .

Effie - the chaperone of district 12, she's perky but a strict cookie with pink hair. Sounds a bit like Elle Woods of Legally Blonde, so the best choice would be Reese Witherspoon ( and I think she has the coloring for pink hair).

Haymitch-. In picturing Haymitch as a ruggedly handsome space cowboy, Nathan Fillion of the sci-fi western Firefly  came to mind.  But, thinking that a big name might be needed  in some form( and  perhaps someone who's been in kid movies but  would not overshadowed the main young actors), Jack Black would be perfect because Haymitch is similar to the character he played  in the King Kong remake of 2005.

Rest in Peace Little Eisbarbaby

 

So yesterday, while reading an article on Hunger Games's star Jennifer Lawrence, I saw one of the side headlines was that Knut the polar bear had died (  see http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20475069,00.html  for more information).  To honor the memory of German's  beloved Eisbarbaby  ( German for " polar bear cub"), I felt like mentioning a book I used about two year ago for a program on the animals of the North and South Poles.


 Knut: How One Little Bear Captivated the World introduces to the beginning of Knut. Born Dec 5, 2006 at Zoo Berlin, he and an unnamed twin were raised by  zoo keeper Thomas Dorflein ( October 13, 1963 –  September 22,2008) after being abandon by their mother.  Sadly, the twin died a few day later due to an infection, so Thomas took to raise the bear that the world would know as "Knut" ( and Thomas selected that name thirty-two days after his birth because he felt the bear fit that name).

Written by Craig Hatkoff and his daughters Juliana and Isabella ( who wrote the books about Owen the hippo and Mzee the tortoise), Knut features lovable pictures of the cub and "dad", from exchaging a kiss to  learning to swim, along with facts about polars bears, prounuciation of German words and terms,  and how to keep their environment safe from global warming.  If you love animals, especially polar bears, you'll love this
 book.


Knut: How One Little Bear Captivated the World
Ages: 6 and up
Lexile: 950
***** ( 5 stars)

 On a personal note, when I read parts of this book for a program on animals of the North and South Poles ( and a few school visits for the library's Read-a-thon program), the kids love it. They even thought he was still cute when I showed them what he looked like as a grown bear.  RIP Knut.