A Matter of Days

When the BluStar pandemic kills 98% of the world's population, Nadia must travel from Seattle to West Virginia with her little brother, Rabbit.  The siblings secretly received vaccines from their uncle before the disease spread across the globe.

Now they will journey across a wasteland of looted homes and businesses and the remains of the dead who had no one left to bury them.  They will battle disease, hunger, wild animals, and survivors in a world without rules where only the strongest can survive.

Along the way, they will pick up a ragtag group of companions.  They will have to use everything their military father taught them to survive and discover strength they never knew they had in a world where none of the old rules and preconceived notions apply.

Read Amber Kizer's thrilling new novel about pandemic survival.  I could not put this book down.  It's a fast-paced thriller from beginning to end!

CFTV Book Festival Piece Featuring Your Favorite Librarian! (I am your favorite librarian, right?) ;)

High School Summer Reading List

Here is the recommended list for high school students provided by the district.  There are a lot of books on this list, so if you want a suggestion, come by and talk to me in the library.

Middle School Summer Reading List

This is the recommended list from the district for summer reading.  There are some great books on the list, so dive in!  If you have any questions, come by the library.

Dementor Wasp?

Yes, it's true!  A new species of wasp has been named after the dementors in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter stories!  The wasp injects it's victims with a toxin that makes them compliant.  Read this article to learn more!  The image below is from the same article.

Colin Fischer

Colin Fischer has Asberger's Syndrome.  That means social interactions are sometimes difficult for him, so starting his first year in high school will be interesting.  This will be the first time he's gone to school without his aid to help him decode situations, so he'll have to really on his homework facial expression cheat sheet.

Things are not off to a great start, but they go from bad to crazy when a gun goes off in the cafeteria.  Everyone else panics and flees, but Colin's analytic mind is drawn to the situation, and he quickly begins trying to figure out the complex social web of his high school in order to identify the culprit.

Everyone assumes it the school's biggest bully and miscreant, Wayne, but Colin isn't concerned with Wayne's reputation or even his past cruelty to Colin.  Colin is only interested in the truth.

Read this new mystery by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz to meet a different kind of detective.

Sasquatch in the Paint

Theo's sudden growth spurt has left him feeling awkward and clumsy, but his middle school basketball coach sees potential.  For a kid whose best friend is a chubby Jewish dude from the Brain Train team, this is a big adjustment.  He may be tall, but he's never played basketball or even talked to the guys from the team before.  Plus, all that time spent on basketball is jeopardizing his place on Brain Train!

There's a new girl in school named Rain who is driving him crazy, but he's not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.  When he sees some guy on a motorcycle hit her at the park, Theo knows he has to do something.

Don't forget about his crazy cousin Gavin who'd rather put Theo in a headlock than look at him.

To make matters worse, he's pretty sure his dad has started online dating!  What?!

Things are getting pretty complicated for Theo.  Will he be able to figure out what he really wants and make it happen?  Read the book by former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to find out!

Rump

Did you ever wonder why Rumplestiltskin wanted that girl's baby or how he managed to spin straw into gold?  If so, you should read Leisl Shurtliff's book to find out the truth!

Rump was born into a land and time where your name is your destiny.  Too bad for him since his mother died before she could finish saying his.  "Rump" seems like a terrible destiny to him.  He lives on the mountain with his gran where he joins the other mountain people mining for gold to give to their gold-obsessed king.  But the gold in the mountain is running out, and the miller never makes a fair trade when the people bring in their gold to exchange for food.

Everything changes one night when a desperate Rump discovers if he puts straw through a spinning wheel it turns into gold!  Sounds like a dream come true, right?  Wrong!  This is only the beginning of a journey that will get Rump into more and more trouble.

Rump decides to go on a journey that is part hiding from his abilities and part quest to find out who he really is.  Will he find a way to free himself from the curse?


Here is a video of a lady using a spinning wheel to make yarn.

Free Audio Books All Summer!

Do you want to download two free audiobooks every week all summer long?  Of course you do!  Go to the SYNC website for more information and to sign up for text reminders when new titles become available.  Once you download a title, it is your to keep, but each book is only available to download for a one week window.  Here is the schedule:

SYNC Schedule

SUMMER 2014 SYNC TITLE LINEUP

May 15 – May 21

WARP: THE RELUCTANT ASSASSIN by Eoin Colfer, Narrated by Maxwell Caulfield (Listening Library)

THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells, Narrated by Derek Jacobi (Listening Library)

May 22 – May 28

CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge, Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden (Harper Audio)

OEDIPUS THE KING by Sophocles, Performed by Michael Sheen and a full cast (Naxos AudioBooks)

May 29 – June 4

CONFESSIONS OF A MURDER SUSPECT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, Narrated by Emma Galvin (Hachette Audio)

THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE by Agatha Christie, Narrated by Richard E. Grant (Harper Audio)

June 5 – June 11

ALL OUR YESTERDAYS by Cristin Terrill, Narrated by Meredith Mitchell (Tantor Audio)

JULIUS CAESAR by William Shakespeare, Performed by Richard Dreyfuss, JoBeth Williams, Stacy Keach, Kelsey Grammer, and a full cast (L.A. Theatre Works)

June 12 – June 18

CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein, Narrated by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell (Bolinda Audio)

THE HIDING PLACE by Corrie Ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill, Narrated by Bernadette Dunne (christianaudio)

June 19 – June 25

I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU by Ally Carter, Narrated by Renée Raudman (Brilliance Audio)

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery, Narrated by Colleen Winton (Post Hypnotic Press)

June 26 – July 2

FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK by Matthew Quick, Narrated by Noah Galvin (Hachette Audio)

OCTOBER MOURNING: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman, Narrated by Emily Beresford, Luke Daniels, Tom Parks, Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, Christina Traister (Brilliance Audio)

July 3 – July 9

TORN FROM TROY by Patrick Bowman, Narrated by Gerard Doyle (Post Hypnotic Press)

PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Narrated by Jim Dale (Brilliance Audio)

July 10 – July 16

CLAUDETTE COLVIN: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose, Narrated by Channie Waites (Brilliance Audio)

WHILE THE WORLD WATCHED by Carolyn Maull McKinstry with Denise George, Narrated by Felicia Bullock (Oasis Audio)

July 17 – July 23

THE CASE OF THE CRYPTIC CRINOLINE by Nancy Springer, Narrated by Katherine Kellgren (Recorded Books)

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES II by Arthur Conan Doyle, Narrated by David Timson (Naxos AudioBooks)

July 24 – July 30

HEADSTRONG by Patrick Link, Performed by Deidrie Henry, Ernie Hudson, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine and Scott Wolf (L.A. Theatre Works)

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson, Narrated by Scott Brick (Tantor Audio)

July 31 – August 6

DIVIDED WE FALL by Trent Reedy, Narrated by Andrew Eiden (Scholastic Audio)

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane, Narrated by Frank Muller (Recorded Books)

August 7 – August 13

LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS by Ben Lesser, Narrated by Jonathan Silverman and Ben Lesser (Remembrance Publishing)

THE SHAWL by Cynthia Ozick, Narrated by Yelena Shmulenson (HighBridge Audio)

Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel

Erica has a pretty normal life--a group of crazy friends, an annoying little sister (who happens to be a genius), and a cute but loud baby brother.  Everything changes the day her mom comes home from the store with nine bikini tops.  That's the day Erica learns her mom has breast cancer, and in nine days she's having surgery.

The whole family is nervous and on edge about the cancer, and they all make promesas, promises to God about things they will do if God will help their mother.  Erica's promesa is to collect 500 sponsors for the race for the cure.  At first she thought this would be easy, but it doesn't take long to realize most people don't even want to listen let alone contribute to the cause.

To make matters worse, her genius little sister has skipped a grade and will be in middle school with Erica this year, but she's also taking 8th grade math which makes Erica feel like the biggest dummy in school.  Plus, Erica is picking up the slack at home by keeping the house clean, the laundry washed, and her baby brother occupied.  With everything going on, there isn't much time left for homework.

Read Diana Lopez's new book about a girls who wishes her friends and family could understand her as well as her mood ring does!