Doggone Good Reads

My latest ALSC post features books about dogs.

'Tis a Mystery

If you've had enough of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, or Trixie Belden, try these books on for size:



Andrew Clements is a widely popular children's author; his books are centered around realistic school situations, with a great balance of humor and thought-provoking subjects. Room One: A Mystery or Two is not only an entertaining mystery, but it also addresses such issues as the decline of rural towns, including rural homelessness and rural education. Clements doesn't preach, and the issues never overtake the story. If you need a quick read, Room One is an excellent choice.



The Westing Game won the Newbery Medal in 1979. A recent reread proved that, save for a few outdated terms ("Oriental" to describe a Chinese character and "Mongoloid" to describe a mentally challenged character), the book's humor and surprising turn of events should definitely hold the interest of young mystery fans. The storyline involving a group of characters brought together in order to discover the murderer among them creates a fascinating study of characters.



M.T. Anderson is one of modern children's literature's funniest and wackiest authors. The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen is funny and fast-paced enough to appeal to most readers, but readers familiar with the old-school formulaic children's mystery series such as Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, the Boxcar Children, and Trixie Belden will definitely get the most enjoyment from the book, as this is a spoof on those characters. If you're looking for a purely fun and hilarious read, this is your book.


If you're looking for more ideas, check out the Edgar Awards, which have divisions for juvenile and young adult novels.

She Touched the World

I have been fascinated with Helen Keller since the third grade. I did a social studies fair project on her and won first place. I taught myself fingerspelling and several signs in American Sign Language (long forgotten by now, for the most part), watched The Miracle Worker, and read everything I could find about her.

In every book I read about Helen Keller, Laura Bridgman was mentioned. The authors usually only bothered to write a few sentences about Laura, and I always wanted to know more about her. How I would have welcomed She Touched the World: Laura Bridgman, Deaf-Blind Pioneer!

A devastating childhood illness left Laura blind and deaf. Initially thought to be uneducable and hopeless, Laura's story caught the attention of Dr. Howe, head of a New England blind school. Laura was sent to the residential school, where she learned knitting, geography, writing, and other subjects. Her astonishing success made her an international celebrity at the age of twelve and admired by such personalities as Charles Dickens.

Although Laura is forever overshadowed by Helen Keller, Laura's achievements paved the way for Helen Keller's astonishing achievements (Keller also benefitted from an earlier start in her education, a long-term teacher, an outgoing personality, and more real-life adventures and situations). This is an intriguing biography of a fascinating woman.

When the Black Girl Sings

Adolescence is difficult for most teens, but Lahni Schuler is in a unique situation. Lahni, who is African American, was adopted in infancy by a Caucasian couple. Lahni is the only African-American girl in her exclusive prep school. Gifted with a singing voice, but shy and self-conscious, Lahni is roped into a vocal competition at her school.

Her parents' separation throws another whirl into her life; looking for comfort and for a multicultural environment, Lahni and her mother seek out a welcoming congregation. Lahni is bedazzled by the impressive gospel choir and wins the approval of the choir director and the lead soprano. Lahni's choir debut is sensational; with her love of singing and performing growing, Lahni finds new enthusiasm (and dread) in the school competition.

When the Black Girl Sings is an engrossing read of a determined yet confused teenager who finds comfort and confidence in a positive outlet. The relationships between Lahni and the adults in her life are drawn in a realistic and positive light (save for some differences with her father, which are completely understandable given the context). While the outcome is predictable, it's a welcome and satisfying conclusion to an excellent read.

I've Got the Sun in the Morning and the Moon at Night

My latest ALSC post is about sun/moon books.

The Seer of Shadows

Authors with prolific and celebrated careers such as Avi definitely face higher stakes when their latest book is published. It's disappointing when a favorite author's latest book doesn't seem to live up to his/her earlier works. Thankfully, this is not the case with Avi's latest, The Seer of Shadows.

Brilliantly evoking late 19th century New York, Avi deftly combines the romance of early photography, the spiritualism craze of the time, the hardship of an apprenticeship, the lingering servitude faced by African Americans in post civil war America, and an eerie ghost story to create a startling and suspenseful crackling good read. This is a complex novel, and I don't want to discuss the plot at length for fear of ruining the surprise and suspense contained within this excellent read. If you're looking for a well-crafted ghost story, look no further.

Baaaaby Animals

My latest ALSC post is about baby animal books. Books that make you go "Awwww!"

Food, Glorious Food, Part Deux

I realized that the post for the latest ALSC post didn't include a link! Ooops!

National Library Week

It's National Library Week! All across this country, libraries are celebrating this week with special programs and activities (check out Fauquier County's activities here). It's a time to celebrate libraries and to think about the importance of them in our lives.



It's easy for some to take libraries for granted; many people make weekly trips to the library. However, this is an unheard of luxury for many people around the world, as you can see in My Librarian is a Camel: How Books Are Brought to Children Around the World. While the camel bookmobiles have received much attention as of late, they are just one of the various ways books are brought to isolated communities around the world. We read about truck mobiles in rural Australia, mobiles that serve refugee communities in Azerbaijan, a books-by-mail program in Canada's Nunavut region, a British bookmobile that caters to vacationers at Blackpool Beach, boat libraries in Finland and Indonesia, and mobile libraries in Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea (which, in addition to books, also brings medicine to the jungle hamlets it serves), Peru, Thailand (including a library that does outreach with street children in Bangkok), Zimbabwe, and Kenya. No matter the location or ethnicity of the people, the enormous excitement and happiness that the mobile libraries bring is evident on every page. Just consider what 12 year old Tabbassum from Pakistan feels about the Dastangou ("Storyteller") bus:

"The first time the Storyteller came, I ran to it and picked up a book of poetry. I started copying verses from it because I didn't know if it would ever come again. But then Miss Nosheen, who travels with the bus, told me not to worry. It would visit every Tuesday. That really made me happy!

My Librarian is a Camel is a fascinating and inspiring look at the inventive ways librarians serve communities not traditionally served by libraries.



The Great Depression was a difficult time for almost everyone, but for the rural poor in Kentucky (then the poorest state in the States), it made an already hard life much more difficult. Out of the social programs that were created under the Roosevelt administration, the Pack Horse Library Project of Eastern Kentucky strikes me as one of the most admirable, thoughtful, and treacherous projects.

The Pack Horse librarians delivered magazines, newsletters, children's books, manuals on homemaking and farming, childbirth and childcare, and other popular materials to families living on and around the Cumberland Mountains. It was an extremely popular and well-received project, for several reasons.

The genius behind the program was that the librarians were not do-gooders from big cities who were coming to save (and patronize) the "ignorant" people of Eastern Kentucky. Had that been so, the project would probably...definitely? have failed. No one likes being told how to improve himself/herself when it wasn't asked for, and isolated communities tend to be suspicious of outsiders, particularly when they smack of condescension.

Instead, the pack horse librarians were recruited from the very communities in which they served. These women (the vast majority were women) knew these folks as neighbors, knew the culture of the community, and knew the terrain. This last was particularly important when traversing the rocky terrain in wintry conditions.

Pictures of solemn children with tattered clothing and broken men haunt the pages of Down Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky. However, gentler scenes do accompany the text from time to time: a miner reading to his children before his night shift, a pack horse librarian sharing information on childbirth, hygiene, and childcare with a pregnant woman, and a pack horse librarian reading to an attentive family. The beginning of the book also includes pictures of other mobile libraries that were sponsored by the WPA, including the boat (the Cajuns call it a pirogue) libraries that served the Cajuns in Louisiana.

Down Shin Cut Creek is an inspiring book about a very special group of determined and hardy librarians serving a unique community.



The Inside Outside Book of Libraries is an excellent look at the many different types of libraries, with an emphasis on their many unique services. We learn about New York Public Library's Chatham Square library, which serve Manhattan's Chinatown; the tiny Ocracoke Library on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, whose one-room library is busiest during the summer season. We also read about New York Public Library's Andrew Heiskell Library for the Blind and Print Handicapped (including an example of braille), a Navy ship library, a prison library, the Library of Congress, a school library, and Berkeley Public Library's tool lending library, at which patrons may borrow ladders, wheelbarrows, a cement mixer, and other tools for three days. Cozy illustrations of patrons using and enjoying library materials add to the charm of this lovely book (the Inside Outside series by Ruth Munro is pretty cool!).

Want to know what's going on at your local Fauquier County Public Library branch? Check out our Library News and Events blog!