Staff Picks Archives

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters

by Natalie Standiford

Someone has offended 'Almighty' (Grandmother & holder of the family fortune) and now everyone will be cut out of her will unless that person confesses & apologizes.

All 3 Sullivan girls decide that it must have been one of them. They each set out to prepare a confession.

Told in parts by each girl, this is a poignant but fun story of a family (that even though they obviously love one another) are keeping secrets that could be hurtful. 

Half Brother

by Kenneth Oppel

What happens when an only child gets a new baby brother? What happens when it is a baby chimp? Ben's parents have decided to study the social and language learning of primates by inviting one to live with them as family.  Ben comes to love his new brother Zan. He helps him learn to sign useful words. He gives him his bath in the evening and reads him his bedtime stories .He backs him up when neighborhood bullies torment Zan. Eventually they even walk to school together.

Everything is going on as well as could be expected when funding runs out for the research project. What will happen to Zan now?

Funny, authentic, heart-rending & compelling--I couldn't put it down.

Marcus Jordan loves football. Practicing his passes in the park, he meets ex-NFL player, Charlie Popovich and the two begin an unlikely friendship based on grueling football drills and childish pranks.

Before long, Marcus realizes that Charlie doesn't just act like a teenager --- he thinks he still is one and that Marcus is his old friend Mac.

Alsheimer's disease -- possibly brought on by the multiple injuries he suffered as a football player, has disrupted Charlie's memory. Korman has created believable characters and a powerful story.

 Also, YES, this is a book about football but it is NOT just for boys.

A lunch lady super hero?

Kalman has combined her very personal art with a text of artful prose. Part personal narrative, part documentary, part travelog, part chapbook - but all Kalman. She tackles the huge questions: death, love, war, identity, happiness, coffee, and dancing.

The classic Wolf of the fairy tale world leads us through this oversized, jam-packed picture book.

The five stories are told in a colorful comic book style that is well suited to these fun stories. Every page has illustrations that are detailed enough to keep you looking through the multiple re-readings that this book is sure to inspire.

You'll never think of That Wolf in quite the same way!

This is a book that was published for adults but young adults may enjoy it as well. 

Title: Something Missing

By: Matthew Dicks

Martin is a thief -- a thief with a shopping list.  He calls his victims clients and he keeps the same victims for years at a time.  He never takes anything that will be missed. He takes that second roll of tin foil you bought forgetting that you already have a full roll. He takes one of the pair of diamond & pearl earrings from your jewelry box. He assumes you will think you lost the missing one. Six months later, he returns to take the other half of the pair. His clients/victims never know they've been robbed.  Everything was going very well until the day he dropped Cindy Clayton's electric toothbrush in the toilet.  Being a thief with a conscience he couldn't just fish it out and put it back on the shelf. He had to go to the store and find a new one for her. There was a very good reason he never visited his clients twice in one day.

Don't have any interest in learning Chinese? No? You'll still want this book!

Colorful & iconic wood cut print illustrations provide a visual nmemonic for the caligraphy.

There is even a guide to pronunciation for each word.

If you or the child in your life are beginning a study of Chinese language there is no better book than this one!

Mei is an artist whose life has been disrupted by the Vietnam war. Her parents reluctantly send her away to what they hope will be a safer world. She joins the exodus of Vietnamese refugess know as the Boat People. Her parents are also counting on her to protect and care for her two younger siblings as they travel the oceans.

In Mei's own words we learn about the dangers she faces. Surviving hunger, thirst and the ravages of the sea, Mei and her little family eventually arrive in New York City -- still on her own. When Hannah and Mei meet, neither understands the language or the culture of the other but they both find in the other exactly what they need.

This is a powerful book about a time not so far distant in American history; it speaks to the teenagers of today about the power of love and the spirit of volunteerism; affirming that doing for others does so much for one's self.

Laugh out loud fun! Pages & pages of vibrant illustrations & instructions for life. You'll learn why not to invite an ant to a picnic (they invite all their friends) and other important lessons.

The text is simple (a 3-year-old will get most of the jokes) but still thought-provoking.

Why should you never take araccoon to the bank? You will have to read it to find out.

Ginny's Aunt Pet was never the sort to follow the rules, but when she sends the first of 13 little blue envelopes, her instructions say, "this letter is full of rules I've written and that I need you to follow."

Following the instructions to buy a one-way ticket to London, Ginny begins an adventure that changes forever her outlook on life AND her opinion of her Aunt Peg!

Read this book & join Ginny as she travels to places she's never been; places in geography, in empathy, in memory and in love!

At the end you will want to create your own envelopes (or wish someone would for YOU!)

Assigned to keep journal & told that many people address their entries to someone, three friends document a year--A Most Excellent Year!

T.C. writes to his dead mother, Ale writes to Jackie Kennedy & Augie Kwan can't quite decide between Liza Minelli and her sister, Judy Garland.

This great cast of characters are involved in a school musical, mentoring a six-year-old deaf boy (who is waiting for Mary Poppins to come adopt him), petitioning to government to include a ballfield in the plans to honor the Japanese who were interred during WWII, to say nothing of surviving the year as friends & with their families.

Well written, funny, authentic & oignent!

Title: The Black Book of Secrets

By: F.E. Higgins

In some long-ago time and some un-named city, we first meet Ludlo Fitch as he is running to escape the dentist. The dentist has been hired by his parents to pull out all of his teeth. The dentist will pay his parents for the teeth.  He escapes the dentist, hops onto the back of a carriage going he knows not where -- just away!

Upon arriving in what he discovers to be Pagus-Pagus, he meets a fellow newcomer, Joe Zabidou, a pawn broker, who has set up shop in the town. Ludlo soon realizes that while the townsfolk are too poor to have much to pawn, Joe will pay good money for their deepest darkest secrets.

This is a book that was published for adults but young adults may enjoy it as well.

In an Adirondack Club, not unlike the venerable Ausable Club, a cadre of wealthy NY 'summer people' clash with the townspeople and the guides.

The protagonist is a barking-mad heiress with the troubled past and lack of integrity so often found serving as mistress to inappropriate men. One such is the popular artist who struggles to span the socio-economic divide.

Questions of honor, love, loneliness, and lust feature large. A thought-provoking provocative tale.