Timeless Reads from Children’s Literature

“And yet I cannot pretend that the reading I have done in my adult years matches in its impact on my soul the reading I did as a child… When I was a child, books were everything.  And so there is in me, always, a yearning for the lost pleasure of books.”
From The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

 

Try these timeless reads from the children’s collection to bring back “the lost pleasures of books”.

The Penderwicks : a summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy
By Jeanne Birdsall
Join the four Penderwick sisters for a summer filled with good old fashioned fun, as they vacation at the amazing Arudel Estate.

Tangerine
By Edward Bloor
Tangerine, Florida sounds idyllic but Paul finds his new home town filled with ominous things such as lightning, underground fires and his brother.

While No One Was Watching
By Jane Conly
When Fat Frankie takes a pet rabbit from the backyard in a wealthy neighborhood, he starts a collision between the two adjacent but very different worlds.

Getting Near to Baby
By Audrey Couloumbis
Willa Jo hopes to find the answers to life but Aunt Patty doesn’t think her roof is the place to find them.

Walk Two Moons
By Sharon Creech
Hubba, hubba ! Salamanca and her grandparents are off on a car trip across country to
look for Sal’s mom.

Ordinary Jack
By Helen Cresswell
Meet Jack, the only ordinary child in a household of zany Bagthorpes.  Can he and his dog, Zero, survive living in with a pyromaniac, a selective hearing grandfather and an overly dramatic father?

The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963
By Christopher Paul Curtis
What do you do with a JD son?  The Watson’s head south in the Brown Bomber to take Byron to spend the summer with his grandma.

Catherine Called Birdy
By Karen Cushman
Being a teenager in the Middle Ages is not so different than being a teenager nowadays. You’re not allowed to go places, choose your friends or run your own life!

Bandit’s Moon
By Sid Fleischman
New to California, 12 year old Annyrose meets “Wakeen” Murietta and joins his band of outlaws to search for her brother in the gold fields.

The Thief Lord
By Cornelia Funke
Runaways Prosper and Bo meet a mysterious 13 year old on the streets of Venice who calls himself the “Thief Lord.”  In order to survive, they join his gang and find themselves in a world they never could have imagined.

Out of the Dust
By Karen Hesse
A series of prose poems tell Billie Jo’s story of living on an Oklahoma farm in the during the dust bowl years of the Depression. 

Boston Jane: An Adventure
By Jennifer Holm
Miss Hepplewhite’s Young Ladies Academy in Philadelphia did little to prepare Jane for her relocation to the Pacific Northwest in 1840’s.
 
A Matter of Spunk
By Adrienne Jones
Join Margery and her family as they move to 1920’s Hollywood and a new life among movie stars and the bohemian inhabitants of a theosophical colony.

Dog Friday
By Hilary McKay
When Robin Brogan and his mum move to one half of an old Victorian house on the Yorkshire coast to start a bed & breakfast, they didn’t count on the Robinson clan who live in the other half.   The Robinson children, Perry, Ant, Beany and Sun Dance, create cheerful mayhem in everything they do.

Bloody Jack: being an account of the curious adventures of
Mary “Jacky” Faber, ship’s boy
By L.A. Meyer
Street urchin Mary Faber is holding her own in eighteenth-century London until her gang leader is murdered.  Needing to get away, Mary transforms herself into a boy and is chosen as a ships boy because of the one skill no other boy on the dock has – she can read!

The Ornament Tree
By Jean Thesman
Orphaned 14 year old Bonnie Shafter finds herself living at her Cousin Audra’s boarding house in Seattle, Washington. In the side yard there is an ornament tree with its branches covered with slips of papers that hold the wishes, worries and hopes of the assorted boarders.
 
Forestwife
By Theresa Tomlinson
Have you ever wondered how Marian came to live in Sherwood Forest? Join Mary in her flight from an arranged marriage to the forest and its folk.

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief
By Wendelin Van Draanen
Have you read the Kinsey Millhone mysteries from A-T?  Ever wonder what Kinsey might have been like as a kid?  Meet Sammy Keyes – smart mouth, fast talking and fearless and able to solve mysteries.

Suggestions for Summer Reads on NPR

National Public Radio’s Summer Books 2008 is a great source for ideas on what to read and, certainly, some suggested books will be Timeless Reads. Check it out!

Books to Film: Dune

Dune by Frank Herbert is the definition of a Timeless Read. It is so popular that it has been made into a film twice, and is currently in the process of making the transiton to film once again. To celebrate this book, I offer you the trailer for the infamous David Lynch version of the film.

Dune (1984):

Place a hold on:
Dune by Frank Herbert
Dune (1984)
Dune (2000)

Review: Crocodile on the Sandbank

(I’m a huge fan of mysteries, so I thought that I’d contribute a review of one of my “Timeless Reads” Choices. At this point I’m not even sure how many times I’ve read this book.)

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters is the first book in the Amelia Peabody mystery series. Miss Peabody is a 32 year-old English spinster of independent means and forceful personality, who has decided to go forth and see some of the world. She makes it as far as Egypt, where she falls in love with everything Egyptian. Except, of course, for the mysterious mummy who seems intent on causing mayhem, and is a bit too interested in Miss Peabody’s companion, Evelyn. The series is currently eighteen books long. So, fear not, you don’t have to worry about just getting interested in the series and then having to wait impatiently for the next book to come out. You have a bit of reading ahead of you before you get to that point.

Crocodile on the Sandbank takes place during the Victorian Age and is quite plainly a love letter to Egyptology. In view of this, it should not come as any great surprise to learn that “Elizabeth Peters” is a pseudomym for Barbara Mertz, Egyptologist and author of Red Land, Black Land and Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs (she is also Barbara Michaels, by the way).

This mystery is full of information about Egyptian archeology and Victorian social mores. This makes me particularly happy, as I love fiction that is informative as well as entertaining. The book doesn’t stop there, however. Oh, no. It also contains romance and comedy. Miss Peabody’s unique viewpoint alone is worth the price of admission. I feel that I should also point out that this is one of my default books to listen to on tape. If nothing in the audio books section is looking good to me, I just listen to Crocodile on the Sandbank again. Barbara Rosenblat does an excellent job with all of the different voices. So, whichever way you choose to follow Amelia Peabody on her first trip to Egypt, you are sure to enjoy yourself while you are there.

For more information about Elizabeth Peters, check out her website: http://www.mpmbooks.com.

Want to learn more? Check out these books:
Crocodile on the Sandbank
Red Land, Black Land
Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs

Fremont is Reading

TIMELESS READS

At the Fremont Library

The 2nd annual Adult Summer Reading Game here in Fremont is starting its third week and off to a terrific start with 87 entries.

The weekly winners, their book title and comments are as follows:

• Dawn N., reading The Secret Hour. “Book 1 of The Midnighters- Better if you are a teen!”

• Sitalakshmi R., reading The Diary of Anne Frank. “Very touching and moving. A Must Read!”

• Sarah K., reading A Year of Living Biblically. “Simultaneously hilarious and profound. A.J. Jacobs, a secular Jew, spends a year following the Bible’s commandments, literally.”

All four libraries in Fremont, including our Centerville, Irvington and Niles branches invite you to come in and play our adult summer reading game. Good luck and happy reading.

“Timeless Reads” Program at Newark Library

Newark Library has awarded two awards already to participants in the “Timeless Reads” Adult Summer Game.   Congratulations to Sandra, who is a fan of Agatha Christie mysteries, and to Laura, who is a fan of Daphne Du Maurier.  They both won gift certificates to be used at Starbucks. 

Suggested books are displayed next to the Circulation Desk, though any book you think is worth a second read can qualify for the adult summer reading game.  The game is open to any patrons aged 18 or older. 

Come on down to the Newark Library at 6300 Civic Terrace Avenue, Newark, CA.  We’ll be glad to assist you in locating some good books for the summer, and with any other information needs you might have.