The Loopy Librarian

My thirteen-year-old son is devouring The Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, and my seventeen-year-old daughter just finished the entire

Having conversations with children is one of the best aspects of this job. The following conversation is a terrific example of why this is so. A child I recognized as one I had helped select picture books about police officers was back again, so I asked him how he liked the books. Referring to Sherman [...]

If you are a fan of the Adams Family, then you may appreciate the darker humor of this series of books by Charles Ogden. The twins, Edgar and Ellen, are deplorable in their behavior and devise naughty schemes with which to trouble their neighbors. In Rare Beasts, the twins decide to steal the neighborhood pets [...]

Twisted is a coming of age story about a boy of nearly eighteen who is facing many challenges in his life. He is no angel, but he is not the bad boy everyone seems to believe he is. His home life is troubled, and his future is uncertain. When he is falsely accused of a [...]

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key is about an elementary school student with attention-deficit disorder. Joey tries very, very hard to follow the rules, but between his disorder and his vivid imagination, he finds staying out of trouble to be quite difficult (often with humorous results). The author of the Joey Pigza books, Jack Gantos, does [...]

Perhaps it’s the spring weather that has sprouted the Shakespeare phenomenon at my house, or perhaps it is mere coincidence, but Shakespeare is everywhere I turn lately. First a friend of mine invited me to see a Shakespeare play at the Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta. Then, my sixth grade son began spouting lines from the [...]

It’s gross! Giant ants collect nasal drippings and stinky-foot odor to feed their ant larvae. It’s absurd! For example, a professor is married to a giant spider. It’s hilarious! The children are orphaned in part because of an unfortunate port-a-potty incident. And sometimes it’s a bit

Recently, an adult came in to the children’s department and selected a number of juvenile non-fiction titles. Before she left, I asked her if she had found everything she needed. She replied that she had found what she was looking for and added, “I like to read about a lot of subjects, and I prefer [...]

One of my assistants has spent the better part of a week digging around in her basement, rummaging through boxes of flotsam and jetsam in search of a missing set of dentures. Why? Because I mentioned that I was doing a story-time about teeth and would be reading a story about a grandfather who awakens [...]

The Trap by John Smelcergrabbed my attention because of it’s cover.  Drops of blood on the snow near an animal trap led me to want to learn more about the story.  Survival stories can be quite riveting, and I was in the mood for a fast-paced and gripping read.  The story, set in Alaska among a Native [...]