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!