New Arrival! The Prisoner of Cell 25

In The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Vey, Michael has special electrical powers. Michael is going to need them because something is hunting him down! Destiny summarizes:

"Fourteen-year-old Michael discovers he has special electrical powers and, with the help of his best friends, becomes aware that there are other teens with similar powers, but something or someone is hunting them and, after Michael's mother is kidnapped, he will need to rely on his powers and his friends to rescue his mom, protect himself, and save the others."

Check out The Prisoner of Cell 25 today!

New Arrival! The Poisoned House

Teenagers love a good ghost story which makes The Poisoned House by Michael Ford a potentially popular book here at Smith! Here's what Destiny says:

"As the widowed master of an elegant house in Victorian-era London slips slowly into madness and his tyrannical housekeeper takes on more power, a ghostly presence distracts a teenaged maidservant with clues to a deadly secret."

Are you ready to be scared? Stop by the library and check out The Poisoned House today!

All library books due May 4th!

Wow! Did that school year fly-by or what! April is a busy month here at Smith. Students take the STAAR test April 25th-28th. If you need a library book to read after you finish testing, be sure to stop by the library the week before the test. The library will be closed that week of testing so don't wait until the last minute to get your book!

Finally, all library books will be due May 4th and the library will stop checking out books that day as well. If you've been hanging on to an overdue book, please get it turned in today!

New Arrival! Scorpia Rising

Anthony Horowitz is back with Scorpia Rising, the latest book in his long-running Alex Rider series. If you're new to the series, here's what Destiny says:

"Alex Rider must once again do battle against the terrorist organization responsible for the death of his parents--Scorpia--when their plot in the Middle East poses a threat to humanity, but this time around the risks are bigger and Alex will not walk away so easily."

Check out Scorpia Rising today!

New Arrival! Crossed

Crossed by Ally Condie is the sequel to the 2011 Lonestar book Matched and one of the library's most popular books. Destiny says:


"Cassia, having arrived in the Outer Provinces in search of Ky, learns he has escaped from the Society and follows a series of clues he left, which result in rebellion, betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander."


Keep up with the series and check out Crossed today!

New Arrival! The Gift and The Fire

Have you read James Patterson's Witch and Wizard? If you have, you'll likely be chomping at the bit to read the next two books in the series, The Gift and The Fire! Here's the Destiny summary for The Gift:

"After escaping imprisonment by the totalitarian regime known as the New Order, siblings Wisty and Whit Allgood, who possess magical powers, establish themselves as leaders of the Resistance, a hidden community of teenagers like themselves, hunted by the state and determined to defy its ban on the arts, magic, and all other forms of creativity."

And here's what Destiny says about The Fire:

"Whisty Allgood and her brother Whit must come up with a better plan after her efforts to use her fight and fire to defeat The One Who is the One--the evil leader who killed their family and banned everything they hold dear in the world--only adds to his power."

Stop by and get caught up with the Witch and Wizard series today!

New Arrival! The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Not long ago, I shared with Smith 6th-graders Tom Angleberger's Darth Paper Strikes Back. Turns out Tom wrote a book before this titled  The Strange Case of Origami Yoda  and we've got it here in the library! Destiny says:

"Sixth-grader Tommy and his friends describe their interactions with a paper finger puppet of Yoda, worn by their weird classmate Dwight, as they try to figure out whether or not the puppet can really predict the future. Includes instructions for making Origami Yoda."

Stop by the library, check out The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and make your very own Origami Yoda!

New Arrival! Lie

Although serious in content, Lie by Caroline Bock seems to be an age-appropriate treatment of racism in the United States. Destiny says:

"Seventeen-year-old Skylar is the prime witness when her boyfriend, Jimmy, is accused of brutally assaulting two El Salvadoran immigrants from a neighboring town, but Skylar is refusing to talk to the police, until one of the victims steps up to demand justice and Skylar begins to have second thoughts about protecting Jimmy."

You can check out or hold Lie today!

BoTW: Bruiser

Bruiser by Neal Shusterman is a 2011 Lone Star book, the very first highlighted on this blog! I've read the first third of the book and I can reliably report that it's a steep departure from Unwind, though it contains some of the teenage angst found in Ansty Does Time. The book's overall theme seems to revolve around child abuse and neglect, and how children persevere against the starkest of family life.

From the beginning, Shusterman introduces some of the most unique characters in recent young adult literature. Bronte and Tennyson are twin siblings named by their literature professor parents after the famed novelist and poet. Bronte has begun dating an infamous boy at school, Brewster "The Bruiser" Rawlins. "The Bruiser" is a hulking teenager, voted by his class as "Most Likely to Get the Death Penalty." And now he's dating Tennyson's sister.

Tennyson will have none of it. He stalks Bronte and Brewster during their mini-golf date, corners Brewster, and threatens Brewster to stay away from his sister. The two nearly come to blows. Later Tennyson accidentally stumbles upon Brewster in the boy's locker room with his shirt off, his back covered with unbelievable scarring and bruising which Tennyson likens to the cratering on the moon. Curious about Brewster's bewildering disfigurement, Tennyson secretly follows him home after school. Hiding behind a nearby dumpster, he witnesses Brewster's uncle brandish a belt, threatening to beat Brewster and his little brother Cody!

Is that where Brewster's scars come from? Tennyson suspects yes. But then something strange happens. After hanging out with Brewster at his house, Tennyson notices that his scraped knuckles have inexplicably healed?

What could have caused such miraculous healing? And who (or what) is causing the scars and bruises on Brewster Rawlin's back? Read Bruiser and find out!

New Arrival! Pie

Sarah Weeks writes lots of books, including Regular Guy and So B. It. She's got a new book out, called simply Pie. Destiny summarizes it as:

"Alice's Aunt Polly passes away and entrusts the recipe for her world-famous pie crust to her cat, which she leaves in Alice's care, and as everyone, including Alice, tries to discover the secret ingredients, Alice learns some important lessons about faith, love, and family."

Check out Pie today!

BoTW: How Not to be Popular

This week's Book of the Week is How Not to Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler, a 2009 Lone Star Award winner.

Maggie has a couple of hippies for parents. She loves them dearly, but Maggie has grown tired of constantly moving from town to town, leaving behind friends and boyfriends. The latest move to Austin, Texas is the last straw. Pained at the thought of making new friends and finding a new boyfriend, Maggie decides to do everything she can at this new school to NOT be popular, to be a loner right up until the point her parents move again. The results are as predictable as they are funny.

BoTW: The Black Book of Secrets

The Black Book of Secrets by F. E. Higgins (no relation to our esteemed principal, Mrs. Higgins) is set in a 19th century village not far from a city similar to London, England. It tells the story of a young boy, Ludlow Fitch, who becomes the assistant to a strange pawnbroker. Ludlow soon begins performing the strangest of tasks: transcribing people's deepest, darkest secrets into The Black Book of Secrets.

Not all is as it seems, however. As more and more villagers pay the pawnbroker to relieve them of their burdening secrets, a web of intrigue emerges involving everyone including Ludlow himself. This 2009 Lonestar title is the perfect book for those who love a good mystery.

New Arrival! Monster High

Lisi Harrison is likely best known for her Clique series, so Monster High is quite the change for her. Destiny summarizes Monster High:

"Frankie Stein, created in a laboratory, enters Mount Hood High School camouflaged as a "normi," and all she wants is to fit in, but it takes the help of another new student who believes that everyone should be treated equally before Frankie even has a chance."

Check out Monster High today!

Darth Paper Strikes Back

Check out how you can make your very own Darth Paper!

Library Tip of the Week

You can now delete your own holds! Here's how:

1. Log in to Destiny with your Novell login.
2. Click on the "My Info" tab.
3. Look down at the Holds sections. Click the garbage can of any hold you don't want.
4. Log out of Destiny.

You're done!

BoTW: The Red Blazer Girls

The Red Blazer Girls by Michael D. Beil is a throwback to the young adult mystery books from a few decades ago. It centers around the investigative antics of three teenage girls, all of the them the best of friends. The girls attend a private Catholic high school for girls. They wear red blazers as part of their school uniform, hence their namesake. Sophie narrates the story and is the glue that holds the friends together. Margaret is the brains of the trio, an intellectual powerhouse who deduces with the best of them. Rebecca is the artist and the group's comic relief.

The three have the most active of imaginations, Sophie especially. The story begins when Sophie screams out loud in class when she sees a face peering out the window of the church across from her school. Undaunted by the scare, the three quickly agree to investigate the face and sneak into the church. Instead of a ghost or murderer, the girls discover an old lady and a decades-old mystery. The mysterious old lady tasks them with solving the whereabouts of a ring that according to legend grants wishes.

The Red Blazer Girls enthusiastically take the case and proceed to sneak into a church, hide under an alter table, and use Decartes' Cartesian coordinate system to track down the ring, among other detective activities. The girls employ a healthy dose of basic algebra and geometry to solve their case and Beil unfolds the puzzles in such a way that the reader can attempt to solve the equations right alongside the young sleuths.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Red Blazer Girls. As a kid, I read every The Hardy Boys mystery I could get my hands on. Beil's Red Blazer Girls are very much in the light-hearted, investigative spirit of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. If you enjoy a good mystery and solving math problems, pick up The Red Blazer Girls today!

New Arrival! The Magnificent 12: The Call

If you're looking for a humorous, lighthearted book to read, Michael Grant's The Call may be exactly fit the bill. The first book of The Magnificent 12 series, The Call is about a thoroughly average boy thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Destiny says:

"A seemingly average 12-year-old learns he is destined to gather a team of similarly gifted children to try to save the world from the Pale Queen and her daughter."

Gordon Korman, author of Pop and Zoobreak says The Call is "Monty Python meets The Lord of the Rings, so if you want a little humor in your high fantasy, pick it up today!

And you hang them up to dry!

Book of the Week: Leviathan

With Goliath wrapping up his superb steam punk trilogy, I feel it's important to highlight Scott Westerfeld's frequently updated blog, called simply scottwesterfeld.com. He puts some great content on there, including fan art and designs. Lately, he's been discussing his new book, Uglies: Shay's Stories which looks to be a graphic novel sort of endeavor.

Here's a great trailer for Leviathan, the first book in the series:



And here's a trailer that highlights Goliath's illustrations and hints at the book's intriguing plot:

New Arrival! Wonderstruck

Did you enjoy Brian Selznick's revolutionary novel-in-pictures, The Invention of Hugo Cabret? Wonderstruck isn't necessarily a sequel but a new story told in the same format of narrative prose intermixed with movie-like black and white still pictures. Check out the Destiny summary:

"Relates the stories of twelve-year-old Ben, who loses his mother and his hearing in a short time frame and decides to leave his Minnesota home in 1977 to seek the father he has never known in New York City; and Rose, who lives with her father but feels compelled to search for what is missing in her life. Ben's story is told in words; Rose's in pictures."

Wonderstruck is available now!

Can you park your bike with this much zing?

New Arrival! First Kill

Vampire books are a dime a dozen these days, but Heather Brewer's The Slayer Chronicles seems to have "staked" out its own niche in the crowded, bloodsucker genre. First Kill is the latest in the series and arrives with a major shift in the narrative: the story is now told from Vlad's former friend turned mortal enemy, Joss McMillan. Here's what Destiny says about First Kill:

"The summer before ninth grade, when Joss sets off to meet his uncle and hunt down the beast that murdered his younger sister three years earlier, he learns he is destined to join the Slayer Society."

Swing by the library and check out First Kill today!