The all-girl filling station's last reunion - Fannie Flagg

The all-girl filling station's last reunion - Flagg, Fannie

Summary: "Spanning decades, generations, and America in the 1940s and today, The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion is a fun-loving mystery about an Alabama woman today, and five women who in 1943 worked in a Phillips 66 gas station, during the WWII years. Like Fannie Flagg's classic Fried Green Tomatoes, this is a riveting, fun story of two families, set in present day America and during World War II, filled to the brim with Flagg's trademark funny voice and storytelling magic"-- Provided by publisher.

Kirkus Reviews
Flagg highlights a little-known group in U.S. history and generations of families in an appealing story about two women who gather their courage, spread their wings and learn, each in her own way, to fly (I Still Dream About You, 2010, etc.). After marrying off all three of her daughters (one of them twice to the same man), Sookie Poole is looking forward to kicking back and spending time with her husband and her beloved birds. She's worked hard throughout life to be a good mother to her four children and a perfect daughter to her octogenarian mother. Lenore Simmons Krackenberry's a legend in Point Clear, Ala., and has always been narcissistic, active in all the "right" organizations, and extremely demanding. She's also become increasingly bonkers, a disorder that seems to run in the Simmons family. Throughout much of her life, Sookie's never felt as if she's measured up to Lenore's exacting standards, and she's terrified she, too, might lose her marbles. Then, Sookie receives an envelope filled with old documents that turn her world and her beliefs about herself and her family topsy-turvy. Her emotional quest for answers leads Sookie down a winding yet humorous path, as she meets with a young psychiatrist at the local Waffle House and tracks down descendants of a Polish immigrant who opened a Phillips 66 filling station in Pulaski, Wis., in 1928. What she discovers about the remarkable Jurdabralinski siblings inspires her: Fritzi, the eldest daughter, developed a unique idea to keep her father's business operating during difficult times, but her true passion involved loftier goals. During World War II, she used her exceptional skills to serve her country in an elite program, and two of her sisters followed suit. Finding inspiration in their professional and personal sacrifices, Sookie discovers her own courage to make certain decisions about her life and to accept and take pride in the person she is. This is a charming story written with wit and empathy. The author forms a comfortable bond with readers and offers just the right blend of history and fiction. Flagg flies high, and her fans will enjoy the ride. Copyright Kirkus 2013 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

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Dad is fat - Jim Gaffigan

Dad is fat - Gaffigan, Jim

Summary: "In Dad is Fat, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who's best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald's, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children--everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to toddlers' communication skills ("they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news"), to the eating habits of four year olds ("there is no difference between a four year old eating a taco and throwing a taco on the floor"). Reminiscent of Bill Cosby's Fatherhood, Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home"--Provided by publisher.

Publishers Weekly Reviews
Clean-mouthed comedian Gaffigan—best known for his riffs on Hot Pockets, McDonald's, and bacon—lived by himself for more than 13 years before getting married and fathering five children who now reside with him and his wife, Jeannie, in a two-bedroom New York City apartment. What began as a series of tweets about the everyday chaos of this self-professed loner's life has now become Gaffigan's hilarious first book. In 60 short chapters that read like stand-up bits, the comedian shares his insights on being the youngest of six kids in a Catholic family and explains why adults are really just "giant toddlers." He covers everything actual toddlers love, from candy to cousins, mocks preschool and nut allergies in three swift paragraphs, and explains why he and Jeannie opted for five home births as well as how they are raising so many kids in a such a tiny living space. Occasionally, Gaffigan feels the need to explain his jokes, but he needn't worry, as this laugh-out-loud collection also is one of the most honest and endearing portrayals of fatherhood penned by a contemporary comedian. The inclusion of dozens of photographs featuring Gaffigan's adorable family furthers the personal touch. 50 b&w photos. (May)

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Antigoddess - Kendare Blake

Antigoddess - Blake, Kendare

Summary: Athena and Hermes' search for the cause of their unexpected, life-threatening illnesses leads them to Cassandra, a former prophetess, who may be key to a war started by Hera and other Olympians who have become corrupt anti-gods determined to destroy their rivals.


Booklist Reviews
"We are more monsters than gods now, but some are worse than others," Demeter whispers, describing the chaos in the contemporary world as god after god begins dying horrifically. Athena's body is being overwhelmed by white and brown feathers invading her organs; Hermes is becoming weaker and gaunter. Both know another war is coming, this time with the two of them aligned against Poseidon and Hera, and other gods choosing sides in a battle to their deaths. But Demeter has told Athena that 18-year-old Cassandra (who lives in Kincaid, New York, and was once the prophetess Cassandra of Troy) will "change everything." In alternating chapters, Blake gradually weaves the gods' painful journey to garner allies and understand their diseases with Cassandra's typical teenage life of good friends, supportive family, and a handsome, loving boyfriend. The gods' world, while contemporary, is violent and laced with bizarre circumstances and powers, but Cassandra's is a normal adolescence in spite of her clairvoyance. It is Cassandra's visions that align their two worlds, creating the series debut's ultimate drama and tension, which promises to play out in subsequent Goddess War adventures. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

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Winger - Andrew Smith

Winger - Smith, Andrew

Summary: Two years younger than his classmates at a prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new dorm-mates.


Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* After he opened a vein in YA lit with The Marbury Lens (2010) and then went completely nutso in Passenger (2012), about the only thing that Smith could do to surprise would be a hornball boarding-school romantic romp. Surprise! Well, sort of. At 14, Ryan Dean West is a couple years younger (and scrawnier) than the rest of the juniors at Pine Mountain. He is a plucky kid—despite a tendency to punctuate his every thought with "I am such a loser"—who stars in the rugby team due to his speed and tenacity. The rail ties of his single-track mind, though, are his exploits (or lack thereof) with the opposite sex, particularly his best friend Annie, who thinks he is "adorable." In short, Ryan Dean is a slightly pervy but likable teen. He rates the hotness of every female in sight but also drops surprising bombs of personal depth on a friend's homosexuality, the poisonous rivalries that can ruin friendships, and his own highly unstable mix of insecurity and evolving self-confidence. Much of the story seems preoccupied with the base-level joys and torments of being a teenager, content to float along with occasional bursts of levity from some nonessential but fun minicomics by Bosma. But at its heart, it is more in line with Dead Poets Society, and by the end this deceptively lightweight novel packs an unexpectedly ferocious punch. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl - Rowell, Rainbow

Summary: Cath struggles to survive on her own in her first year of college while avoiding a surly roommate, bonding with a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words, and worrying about her fragile father.



Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Much of the literary fandoms we see are dominated by bookish girls writing and posting online fan fiction, often romantic in nature and frequently featuring gay, nontraditional relationships. But this is Cath's world. Her fandom is the Simon Snow series. Simon is a Harry Potter–like figure who battles vampires and the Humdrum, a creature bent on ridding the world of magic. Devotees by the thousands read Cath's two-year-long opus "Carry On," a piece she's determined to complete before the release of the final installment of the series. However, life has intervened: she's starting college with her twin sister, Wren, who has demanded separate dorm rooms so they could both "meet new people." An awakening unfolds, as Cath battles loneliness, her father's mental illness, a new writing class, and feelings for her dorm mate's friendly part-time boyfriend. This is an epic writ small; the magic here is cast not with wands but with Rowell's incredible ability to build complex, vivid, troubling, and triumphant relationships. The internal lives of the characters are so well developed that it is almost surprising to remember that Rowell is writing in third person. Fans of Eleanor & Park (2013) and other novels about, nerdy types will thrill at finding such a fantastic and lasting depiction of one of their own. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

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The Rosie project - Graeme Simsion

The Rosie project - Simsion, Graeme

Summary: Don Tillman, a professor of genetics, sets up a project designed to find him the perfect wife, starting with a questionnaire that has to be adjusted a little as he goes along. Then he meets Rosie, who is everything he's not looking for in a wife, but she ends up his friend as he helps her try and find her biological father.


Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Genetics professor Don Tillman's ordered, predictable life is thrown into chaos when love enters the equation in this immensely enjoyable novel. Never good with social cues, Don explains his difficulty empathizing with others, which he forthrightly says is a defining symptom of the autism spectrum, as a result of his brain simply being wired differently. Diagnosis is not the issue here, as the reader is rooting for Don as he searches for ways to fit in. With his fortieth birthday approaching, he designs a questionnaire to find a compatible female life partner using his overriding devotion to logic. But he finds his quest competing with the request of a woman to discover the identity of her biological father. The protagonist is passingly similar to that of Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003), but Simsion's first novel is not as dark, focusing instead on the humor and significance of what makes us human. Don is used to causing amusement or consternation in others, but as his self-awareness and understanding grow, so do his efforts to behave more appropriately. Determined and unintentionally sweet, Don embarks on an optimistic and redemptive journey. Funny, touching, and hard to put down, The Rosie Project is certain to entertain even as readers delve into deep themes. For a book about a logic-based quest for love, it has a lot of heart. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

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Miles away - Miles Morland

Miles away: a walk across France - Morland, Miles

Summary: At the age of forty-five, Miles Morland resigned from his highly paid job (spent largely "shouting down a phone") as head of the London office of a leading Wall Street firm, and took a walk across France with his wife, Guislaine. Neither of them was accustomed to strolling more than the distance between a restaurant and a waiting taxi, but in France they walked 350 miles through the foothills of the Pyrenees, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
The planning of the route, Miles's mania for maps and guidebooks, Guislaine's practice walks around the Serpentine and the purchasing of what they thought was the right equipment set the tone for what develops into a highly entertaining account of the pleasures and agonies of walking the best part of twenty miles a day in the heat of a southern summer.
Along the way Miles frequently looks back with relief, and often with hilarity, on the life from which he has escaped. Their leisurely progress past farmyards and along riverbanks, when their only deadline is to reach the next village in time for a long lunch in the shade of a plane tree, is in telling contrast to the extraordinary pressures of life in the City in the 1980s, pressures that had led Miles and Guislaine to get divorced - and then to remarry each other.
Miles Away is the story of a walk, a relationship and an abrupt change of lifestyle: accepting a lower standard of living in return for an improvement in the quality of life. Many people dream of doing what Miles Morland did. This book shows not only that it is possible, but that the rewards can be immeasurable. - (Blackwell North Amer)

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The voice of the sparrow - Edith Piaf (CD)

The voice of the sparrow - Edith Piaf (CD)

Summary: The voice of Edith Piaf carries with it perhaps more national identity than that of any other recorded artist in the world. Tiny, frail, and tragic in her life, Piaf brought French identity to the rest of the world in a way that was understandable to all. Known as "the Little Sparrow" in her country, her voice was strong, bold, and passionate, even as she grew more infirm. The archetypical torch singer, she had massive popular success with songs like "Milord," "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien," and "La Vie, L'Amour," included here with 18 other classics. While this is a great compilation of some of her best material, the complete lack of enclosed notes or biographical material may frustrate those not familiar with her fascinating career. However, the work of one of the most original songbirds of all time speaks loud and clear for itself. --Derek Rath

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The little Paris kitchen - Rachel Khoo

The little Paris kitchen: 120 simple but classic French recipes - Khoo, Rachel

Summary: Khoo takes a modern approach to Cordon Bleu cookery. Discover a new spin on much loved classics, and join her as she lives out the edible adventure that is Paris.

Library Journal Reviews
With her first English-language cookbook, Khoo (Pâtes à Tartiner) joins the ranks of design-minded women who have turned business savvy and culinary passion into a creative career. A former fashion publicist who left London to study patisserie in Paris, she is now a globetrotting "food creative" with a BBC television show filmed in her tiny apartment kitchen. Here portrayed as an effortlessly fashionable girl about town, she shares bistro favorites like Moules Marinières, Rillettes au Porc, and Crème Caramel. VERDICT This cookbook offers plenty of visual inspiration for Francophiles who like rustic, honest foods. Already popular abroad, it's a nice introduction to French home cooking.

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The Paris wife - Paula McLain

The Paris wife - McLain, Paula

Summary: Meeting through mutual friends in Chicago, Hadley is intrigued by brash "beautiful boy" Ernest Hemingway, and after a brief courtship and small wedding, they take off for Paris, where Hadley makes a convincing transformation from an overprotected child to a game and brave young woman who puts up with impoverished living conditions and shattering loneliness to prop up her husband's career.


Booklist Reviews
History is sadly neglectful of the supporting players in the lives of great artists. Fortunately, fiction provides ample opportunity to bring these often fascinating personalities out into the limelight. Gaynor Arnold successfully resurrected the much-maligned Mrs. Charles Dickens in Girl in a Blue Dress (2009), now Paula McLain brings Hadley Richardson Hemingway out from the formidable shadow cast by her famous husband. Though doomed, the Hemingway marriage had its giddy high points, including a whirlwind courtship and a few fast and furious years of the expatriate lifestyle in 1920s Paris. Hadley and Ernest traveled in heady company during this gin-soaked and jazz-infused time, and readers are treated to intimate glimpses of many of the literary giants of the era, including Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. But the real star of the story is Hadley, as this time around, Ernest is firmly relegated to the background as he almost never was during their years together. Though eventually a woman scorned, Hadley is able to acknowledge without rancor or bitterness that "Hem" had "helped me to see what I really was and what I could do." Much more than a "woman-behind-the-man" homage, this beautifully crafted tale is an unsentimental tribute to a woman who acted with grace and strength as her marriage crumbled. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

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Cave of forgotten dreams (DVD)

Cave of forgotten dreams (DVD)

Summary: A new documentary from Werner Herzog follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by man. An unforgettable cinematic experience that provides an unique glimpse of pristine artwork dating back to human hands over 30,000 years ago, almost twice as old as any previous discovery.

Video Librarian Reviews
In this hypnotic documentary, filmmaker Werner Herzog visits a cavern in the remote French countryside containing the oldest prehistoric wall paintings yet discovered. Given permission for a brief photo shoot in the Chauvet Cave—uncovered in 1994—Herzog and his team follow stringent rules designed to protect the site from contamination. Clad in space-age suits, the crew follow a narrow walkway, focusing their lenses on the artwork, using the play of light and shade to reveal the almost cinematic charcoal depictions of bears, rhinos, lions, and horses. Periodically they pause to note the radiant stalactites and preserved remnants of ancient human and animal habitation, including skulls of cave bears and skeletal remains of other creatures. Interspersed throughout are Herzog's observations, some delightfully wry but most meditating on what the images convey about the singularity of human nature, the seemingly innate impulse to express one's self, and the fragility of man's creations. Herzog also interviews scientists who've been investigating Chauvet, as well as art historians, and "cave finders" who use various skills to locate potential new sites. As always, the filmmaker manages to draw out his subjects' eccentricities as their remarks take a poetic or spiritual turn. Cave of Forgotten Dreams is an evocative work that raises fundamental questions about the human condition and modern man's links with—and differences from—distant ancestors. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek) Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2011.

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Kel Gilligan's daredevil stunt show - Michael Buckley

Kel Gilligan's daredevil stunt show - Buckley, Michael

Summary: Invites the reader to join the adoring fans who watch a preschooler performs such daring stunts as eating broccoli, dressing himself, and going to bed without checking for monsters.


Booklist Reviews
Kel Gilligan is one tough little dude. They call him "the boy without fear." His "super scary stunts" include everything from eating broccoli to using the potty, dressing himself, taking a bath, not interrupting his mother while she talks on the phone, and going to bed without first checking the room for monsters. This last "stunt" doesn't go well and Kel ends up in bed with his parents, but saves face by declaring that he is there to protect them. Santat's lively comic illustrations depict Kel outfitted in a crash helmet and caped daredevil costume narrating each of his death-defying acts for a spellbound audience (i.e., his family). The author and illustrator roll out all the stops to keep things crazed. For example,a video-camera display to capture the endurance test of the potty. Some illustrations simulate a video-camera display to heighten the dramatics, while the family gasps in awe: "He knows no fear!" A fantasy romp destined to please preschoolers and parents alike who are faced with getting through the day-to-day tasks that at times feel insurmountable. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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How to - Julie Morstad

How to - Morstad, Julie

Summary: Explores whimsical and imaginative ways of completing a host of activities, from "how to wonder" and "how to see the breeze" to "how to be brave."



Library Media Connection
Stunning yet simple, this book entices its readers to ponder its delicate illustrations with simple text such as "how to go fast" and "how to see the wind." The simplicity of the text generates a dialogue between the book and its readers. More of a meditation than a story, the author's intent in creating a peaceful, thoughtful book for young readers is aptly accomplished through the use of endearing illustrations and, when appropriate, creative text features. Although other titles exist in this genre, this title is superior in its ability to capture the creative outlook of childhood while still providing accessibility to its young audience. The straightforward approach to the subject matter avoids sentimentalizing yet provides a platform for both child and adult readers to wonder and reflect. Its multidimensional nature allows it to serve several functions including use as a read-aloud, discussion/activity starter, and bedtime book. Leticia Kalweit, School Library Media Specialist, R chard Mann Elementary School, Walworth, New York. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Copyright 2012 Linworth Publishing, Inc.

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Off we go - Will Hillenbrand

Off we go - Hillenbrand, Will

Summary: "Bear teaches his friend, Mole, how to ride his bike with no training wheels. After many bumps along the road, they make it to their final destination: the Storymobile"-- Provided by publisher.

Booklist Reviews
Bear and Mole (Kite Day, 2012) are back. This time Mole is ready to take the training wheels off of his bicycle, but he needs some help. And Bear comes through, not just with his brawn but, more important, with encouragement. When Mole is ready to give up, Bear tells him he can do it, and he follows along behind, witnessing chaos turn to success. Hillenbrand's evocative words summarize the arc of the story, from hoisted, wobble, crash, and sobbed, to encouraged, whooped, whoa, exhaled, hollered, and smile. His large mixed-media illustrations further enhance the drama. Bear and Mole, charming in their simplicity, are the focus of most pages, and their facial expressions highlight their emotional journey. Lots of things go flying—leaves, ducks, even Mole. But Bear is constant in his attendance, and in the end, they all arrive at a happy destination: the Storymobile. A satisfying ending for a very satisfying book. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

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Perfect ruin - Lauren DeStefano

Perfect ruin - DeStefano, Lauren

Summary: "Sixteen-year-old Morgan Stockhour lives in Internment, a floating city utopia. But when a murder occurs, everything she knows starts to unravel"-- Provided by publisher.


Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Morgan Stockhour, along with her family and friends, lives in Internment, a city that floats in the sky. It's surrounded by a train line; go beyond the trains and you come to the edge. Below is "the ground," almost imperceptible to the Internment residents, who were banished from there generations ago, supposedly for their demands and curiosity. Morgan's brother, Lex, is one of the currently curious, an edge "jumper," who became blinded in the process—and put his family under the king's suspicion. Morgan and Lex's relationship has become strained, but she does have a strong support system in her sister-in-law; her betrothed, Basil; and her best friend, Pen. When a young girl turns up murdered, the myth of a safe, serene community is extinguished. A chance encounter with the escaped murderer makes Morgan question all that she's been taught to believe and leads her down a rabbit hole of surprise, suspicion, and conspiracy. DeStefano has created a perfect storm—intertwining plot, characters, and setting beautifully. From the first page, readers will be enticed by Morgan's voice, precise in its descriptions yet filled with curiosity. Internment becomes practically a character in itself, and what at first seems an almost magical place, surrounded by stars, will eventually stifle readers, as it does Morgan. The story's framework is expandable enough to encompass tenderness, tension, and surprise. This is a page-turner, and waiting for the next book will be hard, hard, hard. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: DeStefano, author of the New York Times best-selling Chemical Garden series, has a boatload of fans. The promotion for this will garner more. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

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The boy in the wooden box - Leon Leyson

The boy in the wooden box - Leyson, Leon

Summary: The biography of Leon Leyson, the only memoir published by a former Schindler's List child.

Kirkus Reviews
A posthumous Holocaust memoir from the youngest person on Oskar Schindler's list. Completed before his death in January 2013, Leyson's narrative opens with glowing but not falsely idyllic childhood memories of growing up surrounded by friends and relatives in the Polish village of Narewka and then the less intimate but still, to him, marvelous city of Kraków. The Nazi occupation brought waves of persecution and forced removals to first a ghetto and then a labor camp--but since his father, a machinist, worked at the enamelware factory that Schindler opportunistically bought, 14-year-old "Leib" (who was so short he had to stand on the titular box to work), his mother and two of his four older siblings were eventually brought into the fold. Along with harrowing but not lurid accounts of extreme privation and casual brutality, the author recalls encounters with the quietly kind and heroic Schindler on the way to the war's end, years spent at a displaced-persons facility in Germany and, at last, emigration to the United States. Leyson tacks just a quick sketch of his adult life and career onto the end and closes by explaining how he came to break his long silence about his experiences. Family photos (and a picture of the famous list with the author's name highlighted) add further personal touches to this vivid, dramatic account. Significant historical acts and events are here put into unique perspective by a participant. (Memoir. 11-14)

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Monster on the hill - Rob Harrell

Monster on the hill - Harrell, Rob

Summary: In a fantastical England where each small town has a monster, the people of Stoker-on-Avon have to help their own, a depressed creature named Rayburn, become the monster he was born to be.



Booklist Reviews
Stoker-on-Avon's town monster, Rayburn, is down in the dumps. Rayburn hasn't given a good scare in years, instead spending his days moping and sighing in his cave on the hill. It's an embarrassment to the people of Stoker-on-Avon, and they send Dr. Wilkie, a disgraced, slightly mad scientist, to shape Rayburn up. Timmy, the precocious town crier, tags along and together they help Rayburn try to overcome his gloomies so he can start monstering again. First, they take Rayburn to visit his old friend Noodles, who is now the revered and terrifying Tentaculor (and who turns out to be a bit of a group-hugging softy), for some lessons in basic monster behavior. But while they're gone, the Murk, a lurking creature who feeds on fear, stalks toward Stoker-on-Avon and wreaks havoc in Rayburn's absence. Rayburn, Noodles, Wilkie, and Timmy have to band together to save the town, and, in the process, they restore Rayburn's confidence and help him understand the importance of friendship. Younger readers will be delighted by Harrell's silly story and cartoony characters. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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Legend series - Marie Lu

Legend series - Lu, Marie

Summary: In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-old Day--a famous criminal, and prodigy June--the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* All right, it has a plague. And, yes, it's set in some semblance of America in the not-so-distant future. Yet even with all the hordes of dystopian novels out there, this one still manages to keep readers on the edge of their seats. But even the nonstop action would mean little without Lu's well-toned ability to write characters to care about. One is June, a daughter of the Republic. Her perfect scores at the Trial have insured a great future for her. Then there is Day. A hero to the street people, he fights injustice and keeps an eye on his brothers and mothers as they try to survive. Their narratives, told in alternating and distinctively voiced chapters, describe how circumstances bring them together. Day kills June's beloved soldier brother as he tries to get medicine for his own. With cold precision, June makes it her mission to exact revenge. What happens next, in macro terms, probably won't surprise, yet the delicious details keep pages turning to learn how it's all going to play out. Combine star-crossed lovers with the need to take down the Republic, and you've got the makings for a potent sequel. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.



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Much ado about nothing (DVD)

Much ado about nothing (DVD)

Summary: Joss Whedon's sexy and contemporary spin on Shakespeare's classic comedy about the story of sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick offers a sensual, tragic and occasionally absurd view of the intricate game that is love.


Video Librarian Reviews
When writer-director-producer Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) makes a home movie, it's much ado about something, given the filmmaker's high profile. Filmed in black-and-white at Whedon's sprawling Santa Monica home, this is a frothy, low-budget adaptation of Shakespeare's ribald, robust comedy about love and arranged marriages. While the setting has been moved from 16th-century Sicily to 21st-century SoCal, Whedon draws on the original Elizabethan text (somewhat trimmed and tailored), albeit in modern dress and eschewing iambic pentameter. Filled with lies, deception, and betrayal, the screwball plot revolves around the visit of Prince Don Pedro (Reed Diamond) and his villainous brother, Don John (Sean Maher), to the home of Messina's Governor Leonato (Clark Gregg) for a garden party weekend that is full of charming romantic intrigue. Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker play ex-lovers—marriage-averse Benedick and tart-tongued Beatrice—while Fran Kranz and Jillian Morgese costar as troubled younger couple Count Claudio and virtuous Hero. Nathan Fillion and Tom Lenk bring comic relief as the dimwit neighborhood constable Dogberry and his sidekick Verges. While Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company needn't consider this competition, it's an enjoyably amusing homespun effort that should appeal to fans of the Bard. Recommended. (S. Granger)Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2011.

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