The Library Pages

Title: The Library Pages
Author: Carlene Morton

Imaged copied from www.Amazon.com

Illustrator: Valeria Docampo
Copyright: 2010

Mrs. Heath is the librarian at Happyland Elementary School. While she is on maternity leave the students in Mrs. Tulane's class become library helpers, aka library pages.

The library pages make Mrs. Heath a video to show her how they have been taking care of the library books and patrons. Bert shelves all of the skinny books together because he likes skinny books better than thick books. Carlos shelves the non-fiction books by color instead of by their Dewey Decimal numbers. By the middle of the video Mrs. Heath is scared to continue watching, but she does. As the video continues Mrs. Heath becomes angry as she watches the library pages do unthinkable things to the library books. In the last scene of the video Mrs. Heath finds a big surprise from her new library pages.

The children represented in the illustrations reflect a variety of ethnicities. This book provides an opportunity to talk with children about the proper way to treat a library book.

Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy

Title: Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy
Author: Sonya Sones

Image copied from www.amazon.com

Copyright: 1999

Sonya Sones found inspiration for this verse novel in the actual events that happened in her life around the age of thirteen when her older sister had a nervous breakdown on Christmas Eve.

Every member of Cookie's family is affected by her sister's mental illness. Cookie finds that her parents ignore her and are unwilling to talk about what has happened to their family. She is afraid to talk to her friends about what is happening because she is afraid of how they will react and what they will say about her and her family.

How do you deal with the emotions your feeling and the changes in your family when you are afraid to talk about it with most people and your family won't talk about it all?

Check out Sonya Sones' website to find out more about this title and other books by the author.

Torchlight

Title: Torchlight
Author: Carol Otis Hurst

Image copied from www.barnesandnoble.com

Copyright: 2006

Charlotte and Maggie are friends living in the same town in New England during the 1850s, but their friendship is not accepted by most people in Westfield. These two girls are not supposed to be friends because Charlotte is a Yankee while Maggie is Irish. It seems that most of the Yankees in Westfield want the Irish to leave town.

The children of Westfield share their parents dislike of the town's Irish citizens. Charlotte is punished by her Yankee classmates for choosing to be friends with Maggie. The teacher refuses to listen to Charlotte's side of the story and warns her that she needs to change her behavior in order to properly represent her family.

The Yankee dislike of the Irish comes to a head the night of the bonfires when the Yankee citizens of Westfield threaten to burn the church the Irish have been building.

Will Charlotte and Maggie's friendship survive or will the girls be split apart by their families and neighbors?