Eleanor and Park

             

       Rainbow Rowell's book is a love story told from the alternating perspectives of the main characters, Eleanor and Park.  Eleanor has just moved back home with her mom and abusive stepfather after being kicked out of their home for almost a year when she meets Park on the bus on her first day of school. Although Eleanor is outcasted immediately for looking different, her and Park begin to develop a friendship. When it becomes clear that they have very strong feelings for one another, they have to figure out any way possible to spend time together, because Eleanor's stepfather is adamant that she can't have relationships with boys.
        Eleanor and Park is the kind of book you finish and cannot wait to recommend.  This book is so wonderful.  The relationship between the main characters develops slowly and in such a sweet way and hearing the voices of the alternating narrators makes this book so effective.  Highly recommended!!

I am back! And with a REALLY great book recommendation!

     I am feeling very bad about not blogging for months.  It won't happen again.  This semester I began working on my doctorate at the University of Iowa and it has kept me pretty busy in my time outside of Northwest.  However, I simply cannot let it interfere with my very favorite thing in the whole world: enjoying a good book. So, I am back at blogging and I just finished a book I am very excited to tell you about it.  It is called The Wall by William Sutcliffe.

     This is the story of Joshua, a boy living in the isolated city of Amarias.  This community is enclosed by a wall and guarded by soldiers and checkpoints that Joshua has never questioned until one day he discovers a tunnel to the other side of the wall.  There he meets Leila and her father and sees that life on the other side of the wall is incredibly harsh compared to his life in Amarias.  He feels guilty and agrees to help Leila's father water his orchard in Amarias to keep it from drying up.  However, this gets him in to a lot of trouble with his controlling stepfather, a member of the Amarias army.

     What is most interesting about this book is that the author intends it to be a fictional representation of life living in Israel's West Bank.  For me, the book feels sort of like other dystopian fiction I have read, but when I think about the factual elements and what the author is trying to do, it becomes a whole different book.  If you do not know much about the Israel and Palestine conflict or the wall being built to separate the two, you should check out this short informational video (and the book!).

First "not so light" Summer Read: Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

This is my first summer, since I was your age, that I have had hours of free time during the day to relax, be outside, and read books.  Let me tell you, it is wonderful.  So, for my first book I wanted to pick something light, summery and carefree.  When I saw Morgan Matson's book in last book order at the end of the year, with is peach cover featuring a girl sitting on a dock at sunset, I thought I had found the perfect book.  It turns out, I had picked a perfect and wonderful first read, but not for the reasons I expected.


FAIR WARNING:  do not read the last 100 pages of this book without a box of Kleenexes and some personal space, it is a tear-jerker.  

Taylor is about to be a senior in high school and has just found out her dad has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.  There is no cure for this type of cancer and the doctor has told her family that he will only live for a few more short months.  He decides he wants to spend the summer with her family at their lake home that they had not returned do since Taylor was 12.  It turns out then when she was 12 she left abruptly after a fight with her best friend and her first boyfriend and had never returned.  The summer for Taylor turns out to be incredibly meaningful as she mends her relationships there and really gets to know her father while she still has a chance.  Needless to say, this book is extremely sad.  It is also a very lovely book and you will not be able to put it down.  I cried at the end of this book like a big library baby, and I am not talking about just a couple of tears people.  However, if a book can make you cry like that, it is a real testament to the writing!

I highly recommend this book and if you can't find it at the public library this summer it will be on the new book shelf during the 2 days we are open and at the beginning of next year!

Dear Students...

Dear Northwest Junior High Students,

      I want to thank you for a wonderful first year here at Northwest.  I have enjoyed every minute of my time spent with you this year in the library and in your classes.  I am convinced that being a librarian is the best job in the world, and you are responsible for that!

      As you leave for the summer, I want to give you some advice:

1. Read as many books as you can, and always ask your librarian for help.
2. Be nice to one another.  Especially remember this when you are posting on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc.  
3. Wear sunscreen.

8th graders: I wish you luck and success in high school! 7th graders: see you next year!

Sincerely,

Ms. Spiering

Dancing in the Dark by Robyn Bavati

      I wanted to give you one last, great book recommendation before summer!  I just finished Dancing in the Dark by Robyn Bavati and absolutely loved it.  This is the story of Ditty Cohen, an Orthodox Jewish teenager, who discovers that she loves ballet.  However, her family and religion do not believe dance is a suitable activity for women.  She begins to secretly takes lessons and manages to keep it from her family for 5 years.  As she becomes a wonderful and very talented dancer, she begins to wonder why her love of dance and her family's religion have to be exclusive of each other.
      This book has a wonderful plot that kept me from putting the book down, but I also loved it for the information about Haredi Jews (who lead a very unique lifestyle) and the inner dialogue Ditty has with herself as she questions the religion that is all she has ever known.

The Reluctant Journal of Kenry K. Larsen

       The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielsen is the story of a boy and his family overcoming tragedy.  The main character, Henry, has just moved to a new town to escape the horror that his brother inflicted on his family when he took a gun to school and shot a classmate and himself. This book is written like a journal so we get a clear picture of what is going on inside Henry's head.  He is sad about losing his brother, angry at him, anxious about starting a new school and confused about how to lead a normal life all at the same time.  Sometimes, we even get glimpses of his sense of humor as he makes new friends and we meet some very interesting characters.  

      We eventually learn that Henry's brother, Jesse, had been the victim of some very serious bullying.  I think that this is an important book given the school shooting tragedies we have seen in the news.  It is interesting and valuable to think about what happens to families when their loved ones commit serious crimes.  I highly recommend this book!

Snow Day Reading

          Snow days are perfect for cuddling up with a good book, and that is just what I did last week when class was cancelled (after shoveling snow for AN HOUR).  I decided to read two of our new books that had been very well reviewed and I had been meaning to read for a while.  What I did not know, is that I would find so many similarities between these wonderful books.

                The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano is the story of Puerto Rican teenager living in New York City in the late 1960s. Evelyn becomes wrapped up in her neighborhood’s Puerto Rican activist group the Young Lords, and their struggle for equality.  I loved the characters in this book and although Evelyn was constantly struggling with her mother’s desire to keep their Puerto Rican heritage alive, I enjoyed reading about the food and hearing the language.

                The second book I read was My Name is Parvana.  This book is actually the final book in a series that follows a young girl who, in the midst of the Taliban’s harsh control over Afghanistan,  stands up for what she believes.  This book alternates back and forth between Parvana’s memories of starting a school for girls with her family, and her current silence and imprisonment by American soldiers.  Reading this book is humbling and you will not believe the experiences that Parvana endures.  Although this book is part of a series, it stands alone.  Having not read the others, I did not feel like I could not put the pieces together. 

                Both of these books feature strong teenage characters, who like many of you, are beginning to feel connected to politics and your community.  Forming your own opinions and having a stake in what goes on around you is one of the most important things about growing up, and these characters are inspirational.  If you like these books, or are interested in similar titles, check out Fire in the Streets, One Crazy Summer, or Kids of Kabul. 

Author Visit February 15

      Do you love to write? Do you have aspirations to be a famous author one day?  If so, you may be interested in hearing from an Iowa native who is a published author working in New York City.  Kevin Kelleher will be in the NWJH Library on Febrary 15th talking about his book Chronicles of Gilderam. For more information, or to sign up to hear him speak, talk to Mr. Loots.  We also have 3 copies of his book in the library if you want to get a preview of his work!

Origin by Jessica Khoury

       Like a lot of you, I am really into all of the dystopian fiction novels that have been published recently.  It seems like teenagers really enjoy these frightening future societies.  Have you noticed that most are trilogies, like The Hunger Games?  What I like most about Khoury's Origin is that this novel stands alone - no sequel necessary.
      The main character has grown up in a  community of scientists that are hoping to find the secret to immortality.  Their laboratories are hidden deep in the Amazon jungle where they believe a chemical extracted from a particular plant is the key to this immortality.  Pia is their first success.  She is unable to sustain any injuries and she doesn't seem to age at the rate of those around her.  However, she is curious about what goes on outside the walls of their community and when she finds out, she questions her commitment to the project.  There is something for everyone in this story: science, romance, and mystery.
      You will find this book on the 'New Books' shelf!

Take Care of Your Books!

I am not going to mention any names, but one of our staff members returned this library book...

Everybody makes mistakes, but this one serves as an excellent reminder not to store library books in your back pack with messy food and drink!!

Ms. Spiering's Favorite Thing About Winter Break...

...is getting a chance to read a bunch of great books!!

         Luckily for me, we got a cart full of new books a week before winter break so I had many interesting new titles to choose from.  The first book I read was Red Thread Sisters.  This is a book about two friends, who are more like sisters, that have grown up in a Chinese orphanage.  They are both getting older and the chance of adoption is getting smaller.  However, when Wen gets adopted by a wonderful family she promises Shu Ling that she will find a family for her in America.  This is an interesting book about adoption and assimilation into American culture, but it is most importantly a beautiful book about friendship.

         
        The next book I read was The Raft by S.A. Bodeen (author of one of my favorites, The Compound).  I don't want to give too much of this one away but this was a thrilling book about a girl who finds herself in a yellow inflatable raft after her plane crashes somewhere outside of the Pacific islands.  Ms. Spiering, an already very nervous flyer, made the mistake of reading this one on a plane on her way to Denver.  However, I loved this story and the ending will surprise you!




         
          The last book I read was Fire in the Streets by Kekla Magoon.  This book features Maxie, a passionate teenager who is fiercely loyal to the Civil Rights Movement.  She desperately wants to be accepted by the Black Panthers that she has begun to work with, in the same way that her older brother has been.  Her friends don't understand why it is so important to her and why she doesn't want to go to school and be a normal kid.  This is excellent historical fiction and it really made me want to read Magoon's prior novel The Rock and the River (winner of the Coretta Scott King Award) that takes place during the same period.



           Needless to say, I read three really great books over break.  (I read some that were not so great too, but it is my personal blog policy not to be too hard on books--they are not always for everyone!)  You can find these books on the New Books shelf.