Books In Brief: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

 Reviewer: Kassel

The name of the book being recommended: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

Please give us five reasons why this book is awesome: 

1. Timelessness. Even though the story is based in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in real-life 1967, the book remains timeless despite the many changes that have taken place over the years (for instance, the museum is no longer free).

2. Likeable characters. Claudia and her brother Jamie are characters you root for. Even stodgy Mrs. Frankweiler is sympathetic.

3. Great plot. The story becomes a mystery in a way, as Claudia tries to discover the sculptor of a new work of art recently revealed at the museum.

4. A 360-degree ending. The story comes full circle with Mrs. Frankweiler's letter to her lawyer, Saxonberg.

5. Adventure. What kid (or adult) can't relate to wanting to run away from home at one time or another?

Where can I find this book in the library? It can be found in the Children's Department under the call number j KON.

Free (or really cheap) eBooks for Kids

The following sites carry some children's as well as adult titles.

Amazon The free Kindle books aren't always easy to find. One way to find them is to sort the eBooks by price (low to high) in the preference box, which will put the $0.00 and $0.99 ones at the top.

Barnes and Noble Go to NookBooks, then to Customer Favorites to find a great selection of free eBooks. The free Nook app is also available for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

BookYards A web portal in which all books, education materials, information, and content are free.

DigitalBookIndex Offers an extensive list of nonfiction titles in PDF, ePub, and Kindle formats, mixed with web books. Search by title or author, or browse by subject. Contains a special American Studies section.

eBooks Directory Has over 4,000 PDF titles divided into over 400 categories. Includes many new titles.

FreeBookSpot Search and download free eBooks in various categories. No registration is required.

Globusz Books can be read online or downloaded in TXT format. Access older eBooks via the categories and authors on the center of the page. Access newer eBooks via the list of featured authors on the left. They also provide an excellent Star Rating Showcase for new and evolving authors.

Inkmesh A search engine and browser for free and cheap eBooks. Links on the front page list free books compatible with different devices. Search by title, author, or subject. Clicking "Find free eBooks" will do just that.

Internet Archive* Offers simple and advanced searching of thousands of titles, but no browsing capabilities. Each title has a unique page offering complete title, author, and publisher information. a description of the content, and links to the various formats available for the title.

ManyBooks.net* Click on "Young Readers," then browse the A-Z titles list (which includes thumbnails of the book covers) or search Library of Congress Categories.

MemoWare Browse dozens of categories and choose from thousands of free documents and  eBooks for your Kindle or Nook.

Munseys The proper choices for various devices are explicitly identified. Search by title, author, tag, or category. When downloading a particular title, first click "Select One" to choose the desired format, then click "Download."

Project Gutenberg* Looking for that obscure, out-of-print book you remember reading at your grandmother's house when you were a kid? Look no further. These titles are free because their copyrights have expired, which means that many of them are fairly old. But a good classic is often hard to beat. PG supports Kindle, Nook, Sony, Apple products, PCs, and most smart phones. 

Smashwords Allows you to peruse titles, giving search options such as "highest reviews" and "most popular." The reviews are also available for reading, which you won't find on all of the free eBook sites. 

*voted one of the Top 7 Free eBook Sites by TopTenReviews 

And if you don't find what you want on any of those sites, did you know that you can also borrow eBooks (and audiobooks) FOR FREE if you have a valid Chester County Library System library card? eBooks that would normally carry a fee? eBooks that are compatible with Kindles, Nooks, Sony Readers, iPads, smart phones, and more? It's true! Find out the details here.

Books in Brief: The Humming Room

The Secret Garden is one of my favorite books of all time. So, when I heard about The Humming Room, by Ellen Potter, a retelling of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic story about growth and renewal, I had to check it out.

Similarities:

1. A young orphan girl is sent to live with her reclusive uncle at his large and creepy estate

2. The girl brings a secret and nearly dead garden back to life

3. Everyone grows a little by the end

Differences:

1. The changes that Potter makes bring the story squarely into a present day setting, and I think some of those changes cause The Humming Room to seem darker than The Secret Garden.

2. Pace. The Humming Room moves a lot faster than The Secret Garden.

3. Salt potatoes! Since the story is set in upstate New York, some details made reading the story especially fun for me, since I'm from there.

Overall, I liked The Humming Room. It's close enough to The Secret Garden for fans of that story to enjoy it, but it's far enough away to be able to stand on its own. I'd recommend this to readers 9 and older who aren't afraid of a little eeriness.

Books In Brief: Meanwhile...

Reviewer: Travis

The name of the book being recommended: Meanwhile... by Jason Shiga

Please give us five reasons why this book is awesome:

1. This is actually a Choose Your Own Adventure-style book, but in a graphic novel format.

2. That means that you can win or lose!

3. A poor choice in ice cream leads to your encounter with a mad scientist, and you'll hold the fate of humanity in your hands.

4. It's silly AND apocalyptic.

5. Once you win, you can go back and find the secret extras that the author hid in the book.

How can I find this book in the library? It can be found in the Children's Department, in graphics, under the call number j GRA SHIGA.

Books in Brief: Zombie Tag

Zombie Tag by Hannah Moskowitz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the most amazing book I've read all year. Granted, it is only the beginning of February, but still. Uh-Mazing.

The plot, in super-brief: 12-year-old zombie-obsessed Wil finds a way to bring his older brother Graham back from the dead. But will Graham be the same awesome big brother Wil remembers, or will he instead eat Wil's brains? Perhaps more importantly, has Wil just triggered the zombie apocalypse?

This book has everything (suspense, fun, heartbreak) and it goes way beyond its action-packed premise to tackle issues of loss, identity, friendship and responsibility head-on.

(And if that weren't enough, the author includes instructions at the end of the book on how to actually play zombie tag, spatulas and all! Bonus!)

Bottom line: I'm not here to tell you how to live your life. But if I were, I would tell you to wrangle yourself up a copy of Zombie Tag.

And maybe also to hug your brother.

(Assuming he's not looking to eat your brains.)


View all my reviews

Books In Brief: Crogan's Vengeance

Reviewer: Travis

The name of the book being recommended: Crogan's Vengeance by Chris Schweizer (first in the Crogan Adventures series)

Please give us five reasons why this book is awesome:

1. Hand-drawn historical adventure on the high seas.

2. Gripping story.

3. Authentic setting and style of speech ("Loads of truthiness" according to graphic novelist Jeff Smith).

4. Has a great moral, which is actually just an excuse to tell a good story.

5. Appeals to children of all ages.

How can I find this book in the library? It can be found in the Children's Department, in graphics, under the call number j GRA SCHWEIZER.

Books in Brief: Breadcrumbs

Reviewer: Angela

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I cannot recommend this book highly enough. A retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen, this book incorporates both fairy tales and modern fantasy (I mean, it even works in Han Solo in carbon freeze!) into a unique and emotionally true story of friendship, identity, and growing up.



View all my reviews

Books In Brief: Thornspell

Reviewer: Michele

The name of the book being recommended: Thornspell by Helen Lowe

Please give us five reasons why this book is awesome:
1. A retelling of the Sleeping Beauty folktale from the prince's point of view, combined with the Parsifal story from the King Arthur legends? Yes, please!
2. Strong characters, including the women and girls (which is as it should be).
3. The hero, Prince Sigismund, has a super-cool magical sword named Quickthorn.
4. Through their own experience, and also through the wisdom of the trusted mentors in their lives, the characters grow and change during the course of the story. Wisdom sample: his trainer Balisan tells Sigismund, "Frustration, anger, fear--they are all distractions that will kill you if you hold onto them, more deadly by far than any enemy."
5. This book has it all: adventure, fantasy, shape-shifting, evil faeries, visions, dragons, battles, romance, complex and colorful language, great storytelling.

How can I find this book in the library? It can be found in juvenile fiction under j LOW. Recommended for grades 5+ as a read-alone, grades 3+ as a read-aloud.

KTB = Kids Talk Books

We're into our second week of KTB and already the recommendations are pouring in! Our panel today consisted of: Hari (entering grade 7); Arshad, Sai, Yerin (entering grade 6); Mayaank (entering grade 5); Jeevan, Neha, Shiva, Uday (entering grade 4).

Today's discussion topic was, "What makes a good series?" Readers of all ages love the comfort, ease, and predictability of series fiction. Once we discover an author we like, it's exciting to find out that he or she has written more books about our favorite characters.

Here are the series our panelists recommend, along with the genres they fall into, how our panelists discovered the series and/or why they like it, and suggested reading levels.

The 39 Clues series by various authors
mystery
grades 3-5
"I like that the same characters appear in all of them, but they're all a little bit different." ~ Jeevan

The Cabin Creek Mysteries by Kristiana Gregory
mystery, suspense
grades 3-5
"My teacher read the first one aloud to my class and I got hooked." ~ Uday

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
family & friends, humor, school stories
grades 3-6
"I just found the book on the shelf at the library. The cover and the title looked good, so I checked it out." ~ Hari

The Dragon Slayers' Academy by Kate McMullen
fantasy, school stories
grades 2-4
"The author came to my school and got me interested in the books." ~ Uday

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
adventure, fantasy, school stories
grades 4+ (later titles in the series grades 7+)
"I like all of the action and how the characters sometimes break the rules." ~ Shiva

The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan
adventure, fantasy, mythology
grades 4-7
"I really liked the Percy Jackson books, and this series is by the same author. It's also about mythology, but this time it's Egypt instead of Greece." ~ Arshad

The Lost Hero series by Rick Riordan
adventure, family & friends, fantasy, mythology
grades 4-7
"It's a Percy Jackson spinoff, and I had read and liked the first series." ~ Sai

The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne
fantasy, mystery
grades 1-3
"This series was a reading challenge in second grade. Our teacher challenged us to read books 1-18, but we liked it so much we kept going!" ~ Uday

The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
adventure, family & friends, fantasy, mythology
grades 4-7
"A friend of mine read it and recommended it to me." ~ Arshad

The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch
humor, mystery, suspense
grades 4-7
"I liked A Series of Unfortunate Events and this one is a lot like it." ~ Shiva

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
adventure, humor, mystery, suspense
grades 4-6
"My school librarian thought I might like it, and I did!" ~ Mayaank

The TinTin series by Herge
adventure, graphics, humor
grades 5+
"We liked that they were exotic and had lots of travel and adventure." ~ Arshad, Hari, Sai

The Wayside School series by Louis Sachar
family & friends, humor, school stories
grades 3-5
"My teacher read the first one to our class and I really liked it." ~ Neha

Other series mentioned in brief:
A-Z Mysteries and Capital Mysteries, both by Ron Roy (mystery; grades 1-3)
The Boxcar Children Mysteries by Gertrude Chandler Warner (mystery; grades 3-5)
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson (graphics, humor; grades 4-7)
Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey (humor; grades 1-3)
My Weird School by Dan Gutman (family & friends, humor; grades 1-3)
The Warriors series by Erin Hunter (adventure, animals, fantasy, graphics; grades 4-7)