Book Review - The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey

Title: The 5^th Wave

Author: Rick Yancey

Genre: Sci-Fi

Age Range: 14+

TV Guide Snippet: Any human that is left is just waiting for the other shoe to drop, but Cassie finds the strength to keep fighting for the one thing the Others didn’t destroy, family.

Plot Summary: Sixteen year old Cassie travels light these days: food, water Luger, M-16, ammo, and Bear. She is one of a few humans left after the aliens, the Others, attacked. First knocking out all electronics, second causing tsunamis, and third causing a pestilent spread of disease. Losing her mother in that third wave and her father in the fourth, the Silencers, her little brother may still be alive. With the impending and unknown fifth wave, Cassie tries to will her way through the kill or be killed world.

The aliens are never described physically, but they are a ruthless race of beings willing to do anything to clear the planet of the humans. Children and teens that once lived in a world where their parents took care of them, electronics kept them in a warm glow, and no one was allowed to hit anyone in school is yanked away from them. Readers navigate from alternating perspectives their now brutal and violent world.

Anything Critical: I think that this book was written excellently as a teen aged narrative. There are a lot of different things that teens filter through their emotions. Being a cool and calm reader, I can see the different truths that are being presented. The characters go through a range of emotions like self-denial, self-hatred, guilt, as they make decisions and interact. There is a lot of self-conflict in the book that shows the internal struggles that these teens, and teens in general, experience. It is a hard age to get right, and I think Rick Yancey gets them.

Curriculum Ties: History – Colonization, Psychology, Sociology

Challenge Issues: Language, Violence

Program Ideas: Basic survival tips – Offer a teen program that gives basic survival skills. Red Cross Class – Offer a Red Cross 1^st Aid class in conjunction with a short book talk. 

A Merry Christmas!

"Merry Christmas to all!"

From a very dapper Mr. Rexington and all of us here at Black Cat Librarian.

 May you get all the books at the top of your Christmas lists and all the fun stuff that accompanies it!

Book Review - Inkheart - Cornelia Funke

Title: Inkheart

Author: Cornelia Funke

Genre: Fantasy

Age Range: 10+

TV Guide Snippet: Some storytellers bring characters to life within the bounds of their world, but what if a storyteller could bring the characters into our world?

Plot Summary: Maggie lives surrounded by books, old books, new books, and well loved books. Her father Mortimer, who she calls Mo, is a bookbinder and an accomplished one at that. One night she notices a man staring outside their house. Instead of shooing him away, her father invites him in. On the advice of this man named Dustfinger, they head south to great aunt Elinor's estate, a great collector of books.

While there, the whole lot are abducted to Capricorn's village where Maggie learns the reason that Mo has never read to her aloud. Mo can read characters, creatures, and objects out of books. But, it is an equal exchange. That is the reason her mother disappeared. An unequal exchange for the villainous Capricorn, the coward Dustfinger, and a few other unpleasant characters. Can they be read back into the book to get Maggie's mother back out?

Anything Critical: The writing of this book uses some beautiful language. Cornelia Funke really puts detail into the smallest things to create a sense of wonder about them. For her, a house is not always just the house as it is, but a house of what it was and what it could be. Teachers can appreciate her style of storytelling in use of the into, through, and beyond steps of literacy.
Because of the dynamic range of emotions the characters go through, readers can experience the feelings of loss, guilt, cowardice, surprise, relief, etc. from a variety of the characters. Going through these ranges of motion from a book makes one more empathetic to others who have been through these emotions.  

Curriculum Ties: English, European history

Challenge Issues: Magic, Mild Violence

Program Ideas: Storyteller hour - hire a storyteller or a dramatic group to really bring a story to life. 

 

Book Review - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Title: The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Genre: Fantasy
Age Range: 14+

TV Guide Snippet: Two magicians have pitted their wards against each other in a magical competition where the mysterious Le Cirque des Rêves is the stage.

Plot Summary: Le Cirque des Rêves shows up unannounced yet always anticipated. Shaded only in black and white, the various tents hold wonders beyond imagination and belief. These flawless wonders that can only be viewed from sundown to sunrise.
While the facade of Le Cirque is as pure as porcelain, behind the scenes exposes the fierce competition between Celia and Marco to create the wonders patrons view in the tents. Bonded to each other, Celia and Marco fall tragically in love. Problems arise at Le Cirque des Rêves after their love is announced, lives are lost. Who else will fall into the wreckage of the competition?

Anything Critical: There is no wonder that this book is being made into a movie. The descriptions are just as magical as the plot. The visuals are well crafted pieces of prose that really open up the mind's eye to the world that these two magicians inhabit. With that said, the love story and plot beyond the magical competition is lacking. I found myself feeling the middle of the book slowdown. It's like the author threw a few deaths into the fire to rekindle the plot for its conclusion. 

Curriculum Ties: English, Creative Writing (Examples of the visuals as inspiration)

Challenge Issues: Magic

Program Ideas: Le Cirque des Rêves- hire a magician for an evening performance for the 13+ to adult audience. Theme it as a black tie event with formal invitations and a few of the refreshments mentioned in the book like caramel popcorn.

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

Today was one of those days where you feel all dressed up and nowhere to go.

The planets had aligned for me to teach the kiddos about the Wright Flyer and a bit about airplanes. Today is the anniversary of the first powered flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright on December 17th, 1903 making this the 111th year since. I got the right books and an easy craft set up. The craft was a diorama of a biplane flying across a blue sky with clouds, quite picturesque. Also very easy to put on a refrigerator, since I love giving children an abundance of things to clutter every surface of their homes. The parents are going to love me when they have a big box of this stuff to hold onto FOREVER. The thought reminds me of my own 30+ year old box at my parent's house that they so desperately want me to go through "one of these days."

To my dismay, there were only two children and one parent who showed up to my perfect aerospace story time. I got everything together and made a perfect combination for two children? Yes. Disappointed? A little. But, I made the choice not to take it to heart. It's almost Christmas and parents are doing last minute errands. Shopping for presents, writing cards, sending packages, and making swine selections. A dark, red smoked hickory or light and fizzy honey baked?

I was given the opportunity to sit down on the rug that I usually lord over to have a personal storytelling session with the two boys. It was close. It was intimate. It was fun. It was like reading to a couple of nephews. And, the carpet was a lot cleaner than I thought it was.

Since there were a craft kits a' plenty, I decided to make my own and draw, color, and glue with them. Mr. John gets to know them better, and they get to know Mr. John better too.

Failure is only measured by how much you neglected to learn, fail to act, and are unwilling to change your expectations.

Rex

     This is Rex. Rex is my cat-child. He is also my constant buddy whenever I'm in front of anything electronic: computer, tablet, Kindle, phone, etc. If it runs on juice, he's on you.  Now that I've gotten back to reading paper books, he likes to join me. Right in front of the print so that he's nice and comfortable. Meanwhile, I'm contorted into weird poses desperately trying to read. It's okay. I have begun Pilates and yoga now that my MLIS is complete and I have "the time." That's what audiobooks are for, right? He warms my lap during the cool nights and makes me sweat when it's hot. He snores sometimes when he sleeps, climbs all over me when I get to the good parts, and drools when I pet him to appease his fits of fidgeting. He has already left droplets of DNA on a few of the library's pages (Clariel by Garth Nix and The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey to name a couple). I always think that there should be a cat in every librarian's family. It's like there are two universal rules: 

Rule 1. You must love stories. (Since libraries offer so much more than books, it is important to love stories. And don't forget, non-fiction is a story written in facts.) 

Rule 2. You must have a cat living within your home. (Unless there is an allergy, then you must be extremely fond of cats.)

"These are the rules... I have just made up!" - Eddie Izzard, Dressed to Kill (1998)

 Much like his little, fat belly that just begs to be squished, he is my soft spot. He is my little black kitty.He curled up on me and decided mine would be his home. And sometimes, he makes me believe he loves me as much as I love him.