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Apr 1, 2015

Wolfie the bunny - Anne Dyckman

Wolfie the bunny - Dyckman, Anne

Summary: When her parents find a baby wolf on their doorstep and decide to raise him as their own, Dot is certain he will eat them all up until a surprising encounter with a bear brings them closer together.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* When the Bunny family find an adorable baby wolf on their doorstep, Mama and Papa are thrilled. Voice-of-reason Dot says, "He's going to eat us all up!" And she keeps saying it as Wolfie gets bigger. And bigger! When he eats all the carrots, his parents send him (dressed in a large pink bunny suit) and Dot down to the store, and for a moment, it looks as if her prediction is about to come true—at least where she is concerned. But it's not Dot Wolfie is staring at. It's Bear, who, as it turns out, is very hungry and ready to eat Wolfie, pink suit and all. Dot to the rescue! She gets the drop on Bear, who hightails it out of there. Then—oh my goodness!—Wolfie pounces on Dot. Was she right after all? Nope, it's only to give her a hug. This gets all the elements of the successful picture book just right: a familiar scenario (sibling rivalry), a scary adversary, a display of courage, and a happy ending. And then there's the art! OHora's unique acrylic illustrations have the look and feel of woodcuts. Big and bold, with strong yet simple shapes, the pictures are also intimate enough to capture Wolfie's goofy smile when he gets his pink bunny outfit, and the frightened but fierce expression on Dot's face. A crowd-pleaser for crowds big and small. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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Chasers of light - Tyler Knott Gregson

Chasers of light: poems from the typewriter series - Gregson, Tyler Knott

Summary: One day while browsing an antique store in Helena, Montana, photographer Tyler Knott Gregson stumbled upon a vintage Remington typewriter. Standing up and using a page from a broken book he was buying for $2, he typed a poem without thinking, without planning, and without the ability to revise anything. He fell in love. This book collects some of his most insightful and beautifully-worded pieces of work, typed onto found scraps of paper, or created by blacking out the words on the page of a book.

The epic made simple. The miracle in the mundane.

He fell in love.

Three years and almost one thousand poems later, Tyler is now known as the creator of the Typewriter Series: a striking collection of poems typed onto found scraps of paper or created via blackout method.Chasers of the Light features some of his most insightful and beautifully worded pieces of work poems that illuminate grand gestures and small glimpses, poems that celebrate the beauty of a life spent chasing the light.
- (Penguin Putnam)

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Man's search for meaning - Frankl

Man's search for meaning - Frankl, Victor

Summary: Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey for the Library of Congress that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.

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The short and tragic life of Robert Peace - Jeff Hobbs

The short and tragic life of Robert Peace : a brilliant young man who left Newark for the Ivy League - Hobbs, Jeff

Summary: Examines "the short life of a talented young African-American man who escapes the slums of Newark for Yale University only to succumb to the dangers of the streets--and of one's own nature--when he returns home"--Amazon.com.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Rob Peace's father was a very bright drug dealer who served time for murder, leaving Rob in the care of a hardworking mother who wanted more for him than the tough streets of Orange, New Jersey, could provide. Peace started private school in fourth grade, just as his father's trial was beginning, and developed elaborate emotional and psychological strategies to navigate the neighborhood and "Newark-proof" himself. In high school, he undertook ponderous research to prove his father's innocence and eventually won a temporary reprieve on a technicality. His brilliance attracted the attention of a benefactor who made it possible for Peace to go to Yale, where he met and roomed with Hobbs. Peace majored in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, worked in the dining hall and biology lab, and sold drugs on the side. In a whirlwind of travel, philosophizing, and caretaking of others, Peace navigated the clashing cultures of urban poverty and Ivy League privilege, never quite finding a place where his particular brand of nerdiness and cool could coexist. His dreams and his reality collided when he was killed at 30 years of age in a drug dispute. Attending Peace's funeral, Hobbs was struck by the dichotomies of his old roommate's life and set out to offer a full picture of a very complicated individual. Writing with the intimacy of a close friend, Hobbs slowly reveals Peace as far more than a cliché of amazing potential squandered. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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Silver screen fiend - Patton Oswalt

Silver screen fiend: Learning about life from an addiction to film - Oswalt, Patton

Summary: "Between 1995 and 1999, Patton Oswalt lived with an unshakable addiction. It wasn't drugs, alcohol or sex: it was film. After moving to L.A., Oswalt became a huge film buff (or as he calls it, a sprocket fiend), absorbing classics, cult hits, and new releases at the New Beverly Cinema. Silver screen celluloid became Patton's life schoolbook, informing his notion of acting, writing, comedy, and relationships. Set in the nascent days of L.A.'s alternative comedy scene, Oswalt's memoir chronicles his journey from fledgling stand-up comedian to self-assured sitcom actor, with the colorful New Beverly collective and a cast of now-notable young comedians supporting him all along the way"-- Provided by publisher.

Booklist Reviews
Readers who know Oswalt only for his supporting role on the television sitcom The King of Queens might be surprised to learn that he was one of the early proponents of alternative comedy, a style of stand-up comedy that rejects the traditional setup-and-punch-line structure in favor of a more free-form, unpredictable approach. Some readers might also be surprised at how accomplished a writer he is; this fine book, set during his early years in Los Angeles (the mid- to late-1990s), is downright impossible to put down. When the author, then a young stand-up comedian, first moved to L.A., his goal was to become a film director; the best way to accomplish that, he thought, was to immerse himself in movies, old and new, classic and unknown. At the same time, needing to pay his bills, he developed his "performance comedy" and—even as he still dreamed of making his own movies—found himself building a career on the big and small screens. Fans of Oswalt's earlier memoir, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland (2011), are pretty much guaranteed to enjoy this one; but, because it's set at a different stage in the author's life, and because it deals with the L.A. comedy scene, it could find itself a whole new set of readers. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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Elenisima -Michael Karl Schuessler

Elenísima : ingenio y figura de Elena Poniatowska - Schuessler, Michael Karl

Summary: Éste es un libro de esos que se dán en un largo periodo de tiempo, y aún más cuando se tratan de biografías. Verdaderamente una obra maestra que nos relata de una manera sencilla pero concreta la vida de Elena Poniatowska contada por las personas que mejor la conocen como su madre, su nana y sus amigos; la verdad es que la recopilación de datos y anécdotas nos acercan aún más a la Elena detrás de las cámaras, la pluma y el papel; y empezamos a conocer que pasa cuando se encuentra fuera de su mundo de trabajo y realmente quedas encantado con la persona que al final conoces. - (Planeta Pub Corp)

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A touch of Frost (DVD)

A touch of Frost (DVD)

Summary: An old-fashioned, gritty detective show based in England. This brash policeman follows his moral compass, shows compassion for the common man and always solves the case. Starring David Jason, who is regarded as the most popular actor on British TV.

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Into the woods (DVD)

Into the woods (DVD)

Summary: "From the director of Chicago and the producer of Wicked comes a modern twist on the beloved fairy tales you thought you knew. Meryl Streep stars in this epic musical saga about daring to venture Into The Woods. Iconic characters, such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel, find their fates intertwined with a humble baker and his wife, whose longing to have a child sends them on a quest to reverse a witch’s (Streep) curse. With an all-star cast, this spellbinding adventure is everything you could ever wish for! Also starring: Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick and Chris Pine." - (Alert)

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The secret rescue - Cate Lineberry

The secret rescue: an untold story of American nurses and medics behind Nazi lines- Lineberry, Cate

Summary: Recounts how the passengers and crew of an American medical evacuation plane, including thirteen nurses and thirteen medics, survived after it crashed in Nazi-controlled Albania in November, 1943, until they could be rescued.

Booklist Reviews
In 1943, the 807th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron crash-landed during a storm in Nazi-occupied Albania. They were part of a new army program to transport sick and wounded soldiers to hospitals near the front lines in Italy. The 13 female nurses and 17 men who survived the crash were faced with ensuring their own survival in hostile territory, brutal weather, and mountainous terrain, under the constant threat of Nazi capture. With the help of villagers, Albanian resisters, and British officers, 27 of the survivors trekked more than 600 miles for 62 days before they were rescued. Three nurses who'd been separated from the group were also eventually rescued after spending 135 harrowing days in Albania. Lineberry draws on interviews, diaries, and archival material to recount an amazing WWII survival-and-rescue story that had remained untold by the military and the survivors themselves, who were fearful of the cost to those who helped them. Their secret was kept until the fall of communism in Albania in 1990, when their story of courage and endurance could finally be revealed. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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So we read on - Maureen Corrigan

So we read on: how the Great Gatsby came to be and why it endures - Maureen Corrigan

Summary: "The "Fresh Air" book critic investigates the enduring power of The Great Gatsby -- "The Great American Novel we all think we've read, but really haven't." Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power. Offering a fresh perspective on what makes Gatsby great-and utterly unusual-So We Read On takes us into archives, high school classrooms, and even out onto the Long Island Sound to explore the novel's hidden depths, a journey whose revelations include Gatsby's surprising debt to hard-boiled crime fiction, its rocky path to recognition as a "classic," and its profound commentaries on the national themes of race, class, and gender. With rigor, wit, and infectious enthusiasm, Corrigan inspires us to re-experience the greatness of Gatsby and cuts to the heart of why we are, as a culture, "borne back ceaselessly" into its thrall. Along the way, she spins a new and fascinating story of her own"-- Provided by publisher.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* In So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures (a take on the novel's last line: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past"), Maureen Corrigan—book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, critic-in-residence and lecturer at Georgetown University, and author of Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading (2005)—attempts to fathom the perpetual fascination of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "inexhaustible" 1925 masterpiece. A slim yet saturated and gorgeously written book in which every element resonates, it is "our Greatest American Novel" and a book Corrigan unabashedly loves. Corrigan's immersion in Fitzgerald's novel inspires a dazzling literary appraisal of his assiduously polished, innovatively "modern and urban" language with its "hard-boiled" tone. And the word immersion is apt, given all the water imagery Corrigan highlights. She also quotes a letter from Fitzgerald to his daughter with the line: "All good writing is swimming underwater and holding your breath." Like Nafisi, Corrigan pinpoints restlessness as a quintessential American quality, one she perceives in Fitzgerald's knowing depiction of New York City, the great mecca for dreamers with its promise of freedom, new identities, success, and "unsentimental sex." She explains why she considers The Great Gatsby to be "America's greatest novel about class" as well as the vanquishing of God and the worship of idols in the aftermath of WWI, the fantasy that one can truly reinvent one's self, the grandeur of longing, and the spell of illusion. Fitzgerald, Corrigan writes, appreciated the "doomed beauty of trying" and roamed his own "inner geography of yearning." Biographical currents run strongly throughout Corrigan's many-branched, stimulating, and beautifully crafted inquiry. Corrigan marvels over the almost eerie "predictive quality" of The Great Gatsby and makes sure we appreciate its overlooked humor, intricate patterns, and density of symbols, at every turn replenishing our amazement over its flow, sparkle, and shadow. She glides gracefully from the glimmering depths of the novel to the harsh light on land, where it was forgotten soon after it was published until it was gradually reclaimed, resurrected, and acclaimed, the subject for ongoing discussions both private and in classrooms and book groups, cinematic variations, and even merchandising. Corrigan's research was as intrepid as her analysis is ardent and expert, and she brings fact, thought, feelings, and personal experiences together in a buoyant, illuminating, and affecting narrative about one depthless novel, the transforming art of reading, and the endless tides that tumble together life and literature. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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All the light we cannot see - Anthony Doerr

All the light we cannot see - Anthony Doerr

Summary: "From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall. In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. Doerr's gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work"-- Provided by publisher.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* A novel to live in, learn from, and feel bereft over when the last page is turned, Doerr's magnificently drawn story seems at once spacious and tightly composed. It rests, historically, during the occupation of France during WWII, but brief chapters told in alternating voices give the overall—and long—­narrative a swift movement through time and events. We have two main characters, each one on opposite sides in the conflagration that is destroying Europe. Marie-Louise is a sightless girl who lived with her father in Paris before the occupation; he was a master locksmith for the Museum of Natural History. When German forces necessitate abandonment of the city, Marie-Louise's father, taking with him the museum's greatest treasure, removes himself and his daughter and eventually arrives at his uncle's house in the coastal city of Saint-Malo. Young German soldier Werner is sent to Saint-Malo to track Resistance activity there, and eventually, and inevitably, Marie-Louise's and Werner's paths cross. It is through their individual and intertwined tales that Doerr masterfully and knowledgeably re-creates the deprived civilian conditions of war-torn France and the strictly controlled lives of the military occupiers.High-Demand Backstory: A multipronged marketing campaign will make the author's many fans aware of his newest book, and extensive review coverage is bound to enlist many new fans. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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The unspeakable - Meghan Daum

The unspeakable: and other subjects of discussion - Daum, Meghan

Summary: "A master of the personal essay candidly explores love, death, and the counterfeit rituals of American life In her celebrated 2001 collection, My Misspent Youth, Meghan Daum offered a bold, witty, defining account of the artistic ambitions, financial anxieties, and mixed emotions of her generation. The Unspeakable is an equally bold and witty, but also a sadder and wiser, report from early middle age. It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide," Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital. Elsewhere, she writes searchingly about cultural nostalgia, Joni Mitchell, and the alternating heartbreak and liberation of choosing not to have children. Combining the piercing insight of Joan Didion with a warm humor reminiscent of Nora Ephron, Daum dissects our culture's most dangerous illusions, blind spots, and sentimentalities while retaining her own joy and compassion. Through it all, she dramatizes the search for an authentic self in a world where achieving an identity is never simple and never complete"-- Provided by publisher.

Library Journal Reviews
Daum (My Misspent Youth) opens this collection of personal essays with the scene at her mother's deathbed and confesses that she wishes her mother would hurry up and die, setting the honest tone for the pieces that follow. The author proceeds to examine her attitudes about children, dogs, food, lesbianism, Joni Mitchell, etc., often expressing offbeat views counter to those of her friends—she prefers animals to children and devotes one essay to over-the-top love for her dog, Rex, while feeling relieved after having a miscarriage. Daum's fearlessness is to be admired, as is her writing ability. She's a skilled stylist who leavens serious topics with a smidgen of humor, such as attributing her dislike of food preparation to an overall laziness that arises from deep insecurities about not being able to master math, Middle English, and team sports. In the closing essay, the author recounts her close brush with death from a flea-borne bacterial infection with amazing detail and insight, bookending her memoir with her mother's and her medical experiences. VERDICT This book will appeal to memoir enthusiasts seeking an insightful reading experience that will entertain as well as challenge.—Nancy R. Ives, State Univ. of New York at Geneseo

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When you reach me - Rebecca Stead

When you reach me - Stead, Rebecca

Summary: As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1970s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* If this book makes your head hurt, you're not alone. Sixth-grader Miranda admits that the events she relates make her head hurt, too. Time travel will do that to you. The story takes place in 1979, though time frames, as readers learn, are relative. Miranda and Sal have been best friends since way before that. They both live in a tired Manhattan apartment building and walk home together from school. One day everything changes. Sal is kicked and punched by a schoolmate and afterward barely acknowledges Miranda. Which leaves her to make new friends, even as she continues to reread her ratty copy of A Wrinkle in Time and tutor her mother for a chance to compete on The $20,000 Pyramid. She also ponders a puzzling, even alarming series of events that begins with a note: "I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own . . . you must write me a letter." Miranda's first-person narrative is the letter she is sending to the future. Or is it the past? It's hard to know if the key events ultimately make sense (head hurting!), and it seems the whys, if not the hows, of a pivotal character's actions are not truly explained. Yet everything else is quite wonderful. The '70s New York setting is an honest reverberation of the era; the mental gymnastics required of readers are invigorating; and the characters, children and adults, are honest bits of humanity no matter in what place or time their souls rest. Just as Miranda rereads L'Engle, children will return to this. Copyright 2009 Booklist Reviews.

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Hooray for hat - Brian Won

Hooray for hat - Won, Brian

Summary: Elephant wakes up in a grumpy mood, but a present on his doorstep--a hat--cheers him and he sets out to greet his neighbors who all, it seems, need hats of their own.

Booklist Reviews
As everyone well knows, there's nothing so cheering as a good fashion accessory. Here Won takes the idea a step further: Elephant wakes up grumpy, but the mood doesn't survive the discovery of a gift box on the porch with a fabulous multilayered hat inside. Off Elephant rushes to show—and cleverly share with—grouchy Zebra. Soon there's an entire parade of formerly grumpy friends marching along beneath new hats and chanting the titular exclamation. Ultimately the original headpiece is reassembled as a gift for Giraffe, who isn't feeling well, and all gather for a final shout: HOORAY FOR FRIENDS! Won's expressively posed animal figures and the spare narrative are placed on white backgrounds that both brighten the colors and give each scene a clean, spacious look. Moreover, the repeated chorus endows the episode with storytime-friendly rhythm and predictability. A tip of the hat to this buoyant debut. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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Cereal sweets & treats - Jessica Segarra

Cereal sweets & treats - Segarra, Jessica

Summary: Creative desserts and snacks for cereal lovers

Everybody loves cereal, whether is it floating in a big bowl of milk or straight out of the box. In Cereal Sweets & Treats, Jessica Segarra takes her passion for cereal one step further to satisfy both young and old sweet-tooth cravings by turning these sugary little bits of crunchy heaven into, dare we say, guilt-free desserts and snacks featuring bars, cakes, muffins, candies, cookies, and frozen treats. So open up a box of your favorite cereal, mix in a few ingredients and then sink your teeth into a Fruit Loops Cupcake, Lucky Charms Macaroon, or pour yourself a Cap‘n Crunch Milkshake.

Jessica Segarra has loved cereal ever since she was a little girl. Even now, as an adult, she would prefer to eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. She is a trial and error, self-taught, sugar addict who relies on her natural instinct in the kitchen. When she’s not filling her grocery cart full of cereal boxes, Jessica is also the author, baker, cook, and photographer behind The Novice Chef Blog (thenovicechefblog.com). Jessica currently resides in Jacksonville, Florida.

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Sometimes you barf - Nancy L . Carlson

Sometimes you barf - Carlson, Nancy L. 

Summary: A sick girl who throws up at school learns that vomiting is sometimes unavoidable and that the sickness--and the embarrassment--will pass. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
Readers need but glance at the endpapers, crammed with green-faced, bulgy-cheeked critters, to know what to expect here: vomit, and lots of it. Though fictional, Carlson's book acts as a practical what-to-expect guide for losing your lunch. A straight-talking young lass gets us off to a good start: a two-page spread of spewing animals. Everyone, you see, engages in the ol' Technicolor yawn. For a dog, explains the girl, hurling is no biggie, "but barfing is scary to a kid!" She recounts how an "icky flu bug" (from a school lunch, natch) makes her queasy and how she tries to resist horking, but, ultimately, upchuck will not be denied. "When you barf at school," she adds, "be prepared, because everyone will go nuts!" Yes, schooltime cookie tossings are traumatic—no one likes to see the janitor and his "special barf cleanup machine"—but Carlson's message is that it's normal, temporary, and you'll even be welcomed back. Giddily illustrated with glorious cartoon grossness, this is a great normalizing device for all those reluctant regurgitators out there. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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Dory Fantasmagory - Abby Hanlon

Dory Fantasmagory - Hanlon, Abby

Summary: Dory, the youngest in her family, is a girl with a very active imagination, and she spends the summer playing with her imaginary friend, pretending to be a dog, battling monsters, and generally driving her family nuts.

Booklist Reviews
A little sister causes all kinds of trouble in Hanlon's debut chapter book. Aimed at beginning readers, it is narrated by six-year-old Dory, whose chief goal in life is to be invited to play with her older brother and sister. Of course, they don't want to play with her because she acts "like such a baby," asks constant questions, and plays with imaginary creatures. Indeed Dory has such a vivid imagination that the black-and-white illustrations often picture what Dory believes is happening, not what the rest of the family is experiencing. Young readers may or may not identify with Dory, whose antics annoy even her mother (like when Dory persists in pretending to be a puppy at the doctor's office), but they will better understand another child's intense need for attention. In both words and pictures, Hanlon succeeds in getting inside Dory's head—and it's pretty lively in there. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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City dog, country frog - Mo Willems

City dog, country frog - Willems, Mo

Summary: Through the seasons, whenever City Dog visits the country he runs straight for Country Frog's rock to play games with him, but during the winter things change for them both.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* The book begins in spring. City Dog comes to the country, thrilled to run without a leash. Something stops him—Country Frog. Frog's waiting for a friend: "But you'll do." After that the duo plays together, and Frog teaches Dog about splashing and croaking. In the summer, City Dog returns and runs to see Frog. Now it's his turn to teach Frog games, replete with sniffing, fetching, and barking. In the fall, Country Frog is tired. "Maybe we can play remembering games." And that's what they do, remembering jumping and splashing, sniffing and barking. In the winter, snow is everywhere, but Frog is gone. When spring returns, a chipmunk comes across City Dog. "What are you doing?" she asks. City Dog replies sadly, "Waiting for a friend." Then he smiles a "froggy" smile and adds, "But you'll do." It's hard to imagine a picture book that more consistently (and touchingly) hits all the right notes. Willems, never one to overwrite, is gracefully spare here, making every word count. That leaves room for Muth's watercolors, richly seasonal, which fill each page. The pictures are imbued with hope and happiness, leaving and longing. This wonderful collaboration makes a significant impact with subtlety and wit. Adults and children will each take away something of their own.

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Brave new world - Aldous Huxley

Brave new world - Huxley, Aldous

Summary: Huxley's vision of the future comes to life in his astonishing 1931 novel Brave New World--a world of tomorrow in which capitalist civilization has been reconstituted through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering--and its sequel, written thirty years after his classic novel of the future, in which Huxley describes the shocking scientific devices and techniques available to any group in a position to manipulate society.
Huxley's classic prophetic novel describes the socialized horrors of a futuristic utopia devoid of individual freedom.

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1984 - George Orwell

1984 - George Orwell

Summary: In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.
- (Houghton)

"1984 is a profound, terrifying, and wholly fascinating book. It is a fantasy of the political future, and like any such fantasy, serves its author as a magnifying device for an examination of the present." -- Lionel Trilling 1949

"The most solid, the most brilliant, thing George Orwell has done." -- V.S. Pritchett

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