• Royally Crushed by Nikki Burnham (F Bur)
• Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn (PB Fli)
• Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt (F Lea)
• Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith (PB Smi)
• Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (F Spi)
• Beauty by Robin McKinley (F McK)
• Flavor of the Week by Tucker Shaw (F Sha)
• Wisdom’s Kiss by Catherine Murdock (F Mur)
• Cupidity by Caroline Goode (PB Goo)

That’s not even all of them!  For more, take a look at the “Isn’t it Romantic?” booklist in the library, or just scan some of our shelves — there’s some great reading there!

Our library has lots of great books by Walter Dean Myers, including two of his newest publications, Cruisers and Checkmate, and some of his classics like Monster and Scorpions and Sunrise Over Fallujah.  He has published more than 85 books and started writing when he was a student because he had a speech impediment that made it difficult to speak — so he started writing poetry and short stories.  He went to the library often and carried his books home in a paper bag.  He used to feel ashamed to have books, and even dropped out of high school — but he knows the importance of reading having spent his life with books and his mission statement is “Reading is Not Optional.”

Find out more about Walter Dean Myers by visiting the School Library Journal informational page.

The two previous ambassadors were John Scieszka and Katherine Paterson.

These ebooks include classics like Treasure Island, Black Beauty, and Grimm’s Fairy Tales; they also include newer books like the Alex Rider series, A to Z Mysteries, Percy Jackson, and more!  With so many great selections for free, you’ll be able to read from your ereader for hours and hours, days and days, weeks and weeks!

Check out the library page for free ebooks here.  If you know of other good places to get free ebooks, please comment below.

– and this is just a sample!  There are many great new books to be picked up (including some new recipe books).  The library also a new selection of audiobooks, which are just perfect for those long car trips.  I know I’ll be taking a few with me for my long driving journey.

Have a wonderful winter vacation!  See you after the new year begins!

The book Resisters is about a boy named Ethan.  He won a soccer game and he had a party.  After the party was over, Emma (his sister) and Ethan were cleaning up and Emma had to go inside.

So while Ethan was by himself cleaning up, a milk truck came, and the people inside it kidnapped Ethan.  One was a boy, big and buff, and the other was a girl, with antennae hair.

Their names were Felix and Madison.  While they were in the truck, Madison told Ethan about why they took him and they told him about this thing called the Cha’zar.  The Cha’zar is a collective where when you hit puberty they start collecting what you know in your life.

When they got to a cave they had Ethan put on a mosquito suit to fight robots.  When they were fighting, Ethan left Felix and Madison and went back to Santa Blanca….

In the morning Ethan woke up in his bed.  He thought last night was a dream, but he took his shirt off and then he saw all the bruises he got from fighting.  He went downstairs for breakfast.  His parents asked about last night because they knew about the collective.

A couple minutes later, some cops came in and took Ethan.  They took him to his coach’s office.  His coach was part of the collective, so Ethan had to be careful that he didn’t give away any information, ’cause it would go right to the Cha’zar.  His coach asked him questions.  Ethan didn’t answer them.  Since he didn’t they took him and sent him to a school for mental kids.

Ethan got on a bus. … Ethan remembered that Madison said that the windows [of the bus] make you see good things but the outside was bad.  And that they have sleeping gases in the vents.

Ethan broke the window and saw the outside; then the gases came out.  Ethan was lucky that he jumped out the window.  Then Felix and Madison came when some robots did.  They defeated all the robots, then got Ethan’s [mosquito] suit.

Then they went to a secret sanctuary underground….

I was excited to get this great summary; I love it when students find books they can really get into, and this is definitely a fun book.  As I said before, it reads like a video game and is some pretty cool science fiction.  I hope this description entices others (maybe even you) to read the book, too.

The sequel to The Resisters, Sterling Squadron, is coming out in April — be on the lookout for it!

The first short eStory will be titled Legacy:

Time is running out for Grace Cahill as she struggles to make the most important choice of her life—a decision that will shape the future of the Cahill family . . . and the world at large. After spending centuries lurking in the shadows, the Cahills’ enemies—the Vespers—are planning an attack that sends Amy and Dan on a dangerous hunt for The 39 Clues.

Coming December 25, 2011

For more information (and to read more summaries of the upcoming stories), visit the 39 Clues website.

Turkey:
Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater (in which a 260-pound chicken is supposed to be a substitute for the turkey — really)

Beans:
Clarice Bean Spells Trouble by Lauren Child

Potatoes:
Ghosts Don’t Eat Potato Chips by Debbie Dadey

Mashed rootabaga with the mashed potatoes:
Rootabaga Stories by Carl Sandberg

Stuffing:
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Cranberry sauce:
The Legend of the Cranberry by Ellin Greene

Salad:
The Celery Stalks at Midnight by James Howe

Rolls:
Bread and Roses, too by Katherine Paterson

Baked apples / applesauce / apple pie:
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan

Pie:
Pie by Sarah Weeks

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I hope you think of many many things to be thankful for.

If you haven’t read the book yet, you should — the movie’s going to be a smash!
And after you’ve read that — and Catching Fire and Mockingjay — then you should try Divergent and Unwind.

And if you’re looking for more, there’s some behind-the-scenes interviews and video at EarlyWord.