Fast Five Fiction: New Series

It's FRIDAY! Which means it's time for Fast Five Fiction. Each week I'll be sharing 5 fiction books: new books, notable books, books around a common theme. This week I've got 5 series new to our shelves. Click the title to be directed to the books in the library's catalog.

Jasmine Green Rescues by Helen Peters

Jasmine's dad is a farmer, and her mum is a large-animal vet, so Jasmine spends a lot of time caring for animals and keeping them out of trouble. Unfortunately, this often means she gets into hot water herself...

In the first in the series, A Piglet Called Truffle, Jasmine rescues a tiny little piglet from certain death. But Jasmine’s parents don’t believe in farm animals being pets and insist that Truffle must be sold as soon as she’s big enough. Jasmine is desperate to give Truffle a home for life. Perhaps a heroic rescue on a freezing, stormy night will show that Truffle is truly part of the family?

In A Duckling Called button, when a nesting duck is killed in a terrible accident, Jasmine and her best friend Tom rescue the eggs and try to hatch them in an incubator. It's a risky business but soon Button is running around, getting into scrapes. Until the day he gets into a scrape with no escape.

These books are perfect for any animal lover!

Unwritten Duology by Tara Gilboy

Twelve-year-old Gracie Freeman is living a normal life, but she is haunted by the fact that she is actually a character from a story, an unpublished fairy tale she's never read. When she was a baby, her parents learned that she was supposed to die in the story, and with the help of a magic book, took her out of the story, and into the outside world, where she could be safe.

But Gracie longs to know what the story says about her. Despite her mother's warnings, Gracie seeks out the story's author, setting in motion a chain of events that draw herself, her mother, and other former storybook characters back into the forgotten tale.

Inside the story, Gracie struggles to navigate the blurred boundary between who she really is and the surprising things the author wrote about her. As the story moves toward its deadly climax, Gracie realizes she'll have to face a dark truth and figure out her own fairy-tale ending.

Action Presidents Graphic Novels by Fred Van Lente

U.S. history comes to life like never before in these full-color graphic novels! We all know that George Washington was our first President and a hero of the American Revolution. But did you also know that he didn’t want to be president, never thought he would fight in a war, and had teeth so bad that he hated to smile?

Wimpy Kid meets the Who Was... series in these hilarious new graphic novels—where the history is real and the jokes are fake—from New York Times bestselling comic book author Fred Van Lente and award-winning cartoonist Ryan Dunlavey.

Historically accurate and highly entertaining, Action Presidents’ bold and hilarious comic-style illustration is perfect for curious minds, filled with timelines, maps, charts, and more, readers will keep learning until the last page.

Land of Roar by Jenny McLachlan

When Arthur and Rose were little, they were heroes in the Land of Roar, an imaginary world that they found by climbing through the folding bed in their grandad’s attic. Roar was filled with things they loved – dragons, mermaids, ninja wizards and adventure – as well as things that scared them (including a very creepy scarecrow. . .)

Now the twins are eleven, Roar is just a memory. But when they help Grandad clean out the attic, Arthur is horrified as Grandad is pulled into the folding bed and vanishes. Is he playing a joke? Or is Roar . . . real?

The Land of Roar is reminiscent of Peter Pan, The Neverending Story and Jumanji – perfect for readers of Nevermoor and Wizards of Once.

Royal Rescues by Paula Harrison

Fans of Harrison's Rescue Princess series will want to read this new series. 

Princess Bea loves animals, and wants a pet of her own more than anything. But her father, the king, says that the Ruby Palace is no place for pets. Still, if Princess Bea finds animals in trouble, she's not going to let a little thing like royal rules stop her from helping. 

 Newly independent readers will learn valuable lessons about responsibility and the realities of taking care of pets in the Royal Rescues series. 

Happy Friday, and Happy Reading!

Fast Five Fiction: Back to School Chapter books

 It's FRIDAY! Which means it's time for Fast Five Fiction. Each week I'll be sharing 5 fiction books: new books, notable books, books around a common theme. Last week I shared 5 of my favorite back to school picture books. This week I'm featuring 5 favorite chapter book series with a school setting. Click the title to be directed to the books in the library's catalog.

The School for Good and Evil series by Soman Chainani

The New York Times bestselling School for Good and Evil series is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one. Start here to follow Sophie, Agatha, and everyone at school from the beginning!

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she'll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed—Sophie's dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.

But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are?

Mrs. Smith's Spy School for Girls series by Beth McMullan

A girl discovers her boarding school is actually an elite spy-training program, and she must learn the skills of the trade in order to find her mother in this action-packed middle grade debut.

After a botched escape plan from her boarding school, Abigail is stunned to discover the school is actually a cover for an elite spy ring called The Center, along with being training grounds for future spies. Even more shocking? Abigail’s mother is a top agent for The Center and she has gone MIA, with valuable information that many people would like to have—at any cost. Along with a former nemesis and charming boy from her grade, Abigail goes through a crash course in Spy Training 101, often with hilarious—and sometimes painful—results. But Abigail realizes she might be a better spy-in-training than she thought—and the answers to her mother’s whereabouts are a lot closer than she thinks…

Mr. Terupt series by Rob Buyea

Seven students are about to have their lives changed by one amazing teacher in this series filled with unique characters every reader can relate to.

It’s the start of a new year at Snow Hill School, and seven students find themselves thrown together in Mr. Terupt’s fifth grade class. There’s . . . Jessica, the new girl, smart and perceptive, who’s having a hard time fitting in; Alexia, a bully, your friend one second, your enemy the next; Peter, class prankster and troublemaker; Luke, the brain; Danielle, who never stands up for herself; shy Anna, whose home situation makes her an outcast; and Jeffrey, who hates school.
 
They don’t have much in common, and they’ve never gotten along. Not until a certain new teacher arrives and helps them to find strength inside themselves—and in each other. But when Mr. Terupt suffers a terrible accident, will his students be able to remember the lessons he taught them? Or will their lives go back to the way they were before—before fifth grade and before Mr. Terupt?

The Worst Witch series by Jill Murphy

The Worst Witch is a series of children's books written and illustrated by Jill Murphy. The books focus on Mildred Hubble, a young witch who attends Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, a school of magic. Although well-intentioned, Mildred's clumsy personality leads the girl to disastrous situations, and she is thus considered the worst student in the school. The benevolent headmistress, Miss Cackle, is generally understanding, whereas Mildred's form teacher Miss Hardbroom thinks she just isn't trying hard enough. Mildred's friends include Maud Spellbody, a rotund, sensible girl who is always trying to avoid confusion, and Enid Nightshade, a practical joker who is more likely than Mildred to get them all into trouble. The three girls have a strong rivalry with Ethel Hallow, a high-born, snobbish and vindictive classmate.

Secret Hero Society by Derek Fridolfs

DC Comics takes readers to the halls of Ducard Academy in Gotham City, where a young Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman start their very own Junior Detective Agency!

Young Bruce Wayne is the new kid at Ducard Academy, a prep school for gifted middle school students. Bruce finds out pretty quickly that he doesn't fit in: the faculty seems to not just encourage villainous behavior from its students, but reward it. He makes friends with two other outsiders, farm boy Clark Kent and the regal Diana Prince. The three band together to form a detective squad to find out why all of these extraordinary kids have been brought together at Ducard Academy, and to see just what the faculty is plotting.

Happy Friday, and happy reading!

Fast Five Fiction: Back to School

It's FRIDAY! Which means it's time for Fast Five Fiction. Each week I'll be sharing 5 fiction books: new books, notable books, books around a common theme. This week I'm featuring 5 of my favorite back to school picture books recently added to our shelves. Click the title to be directed to the books in the library's catalog.

With so many new books it was REALLY hard to narrow it down to my five favorite.  Check out our New Shelf for even more great school related picture books!

All Welcome Here by James Preller

A picture book collection of haiku poems celebrates the first day of school and all of its excitement, challenges, and anxieties, while multimedia paintings and collages by the Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator of The Noisy Paintbox depict diverse characters navigating relatable first day experiences.

Choo-choo School by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

"No racing in the haul-ways! Take a look at seven adorable train cars on their first day of school. All aboard the train-car pool! A new lineup of students is off and rolling to Choo-Choo School. After reciting their classroom rules -- Work hard, play fair, be kind -- it's time for some math to get the wheels turning. Then everyone's ready to climb a hill in gym (it's good to blow off steam), sing songs in music (Flat Car is a bit off-key), and learn the whole alphabet, especially the letter R. Lighthearted verse portrays a world where train stations are classrooms, the conductor doubles as the teacher, and Boxcar is happy to hand out tissues to anyone who ah-choo-choos. 

Cookie & Broccoli: Ready for School by Bob McMahon

New best friends Cookie and Broccoli are as different as peanut butter and cheese, but that doesn't stop them from taking on the first grade! Together they navigate the first day of school: finding the classroom, making new friends (all various fruits, veggies, and desserts), and silly secret greetings. When Broccoli discovers that Cookie also has shy moments, the two of them come up with the perfect solution--inviting all their classmates to join their Shy Friends Club.

First Day Critter Jitters by Jory John

It's almost the first day of school, and the animals are nervous. Sloth worries about getting there on time, snake can't seem to get his backpack fastened onto his body, and bunny is afraid she'll want to hop around instead of sitting still. When they all arrive at their classroom, though, they're in for a surprise: Somebody else is nervous too. It's their teacher, the armadillo! He has rolled in as a ball, and it takes him a while to relax and unfurl. But by the next day, the animals have all figured out how to help one another through their jitters. School isn't so scary after all.

I'm Afraid your Teddy is in the Principal's Office by Jancee Dunn

What would happen if your teddy bear stowed away in your backpack and followed you to school? And what if your teddy convinced all your friends' stuffed animals to come along for the party? Would you believe they might sneak into the cafeteria to play Pizza Disc, head to the band room to put bubbles in the wind instruments, make a clever glue trap for the art teacher, and roll around in finger paint as well? Luckily, the principal remembers what it was like to be young and may let the rambunctious teddy bear and crew off just this once. 

Homeschool Help: We've got a resource for that!

2020 has been a stressful year for everyone.  As the start of a new school year approaches, your library is here to support you. Whatever the start of the school year looks like for you and your family, we've got a book (or an app, or a database) for you, all available for FREE with your library card!

Books

Homeschool Bravely by Jamie Erickson

Homeschool Bravely was written by "The Unlikely Homeschool" blogger Jamie Erickson and draws upon the lessons she's learned in the decades she's been homeschooling. Encouraging readers to see their children as works in progress (don't be discouraged - they're not done yet!) and to take advantage of the time homeschooling affords, she'll encourage you to see homeschooling as a calling, help you overthrow the tyranny of impossible expectations, and guide you through the common bumps in the road, including how to:

• juggle school and parenting with toddlers at home

• teach a struggling learner
• plan with the end in mind
• accept your own limitations without feeling guilty
• stay the course even in the face of criticism

The Call of the Wild and Free: Reclaiming Wonder in your Child's Education by Ainsley Arment

Speaking to the growing national trend, The Call of the Wild and Free equips families to provide quality homeschool education, and encourages all parents and caregivers to raise kids to experience the adventure, freedom, and wonder of childhood

The Brave Learner by Julie Bogart

When exhausted parents are living the day-to-day grind, it can seem impossible to muster enough energy to make learning fun or interesting. In this book, Julie Bogart distills decades of experience--homeschooling her five now grown children, developing curricula, and training homeschooling families around the world--to show parents how to make education an exciting, even enchanting, experience for their kids. Bogart shows parents how to make room for surprise, mystery, risk, and adventure in their family's routine, so they can create an environment that naturally moves learning forward. Bogart gently invites parents to model brave learning for their kids so they, too, can approach life with curiosity, joy, and the courage to take learning risks.

Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp

Rebecca Rupp presents a structured plan to ensure that your children will learn what they need to know when they need to know it, from preschool through high school. Based on the traditional pre-K through 12th-grade structure, Home Learning Year by Year features:

• The integral subjects to be covered within each grade
• Standards for knowledge that should be acquired by your child at each level
• Recommended books to use as texts for every subject
• Guidelines for the importance of each topic: which knowledge is essential and which is best for more expansive study based on your child's personal interests

Databases 

Lynda.com

Lynda.com is an online learning platform that helps anyone learn business, software, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. For 20 years, Lynda.com has helped students, leaders, IT and design pros, project managers—anyone in any role—develop software, creative, and business skills.

Novelist K-8 Plus

NoveList K-8 Plus is an online database of reading recommendations which encourages reader success. Created especially for people who love books, they've been helping readers find their next favorite book for more than 20 years.

TumbleBook Library

The TumbleBook Library is an online collection of electronic children's books accessible through the library's website. Animation, sound, music and narration are added to existing picture books to produce an electronic book which you can read, or have read to you.

Apps

OverDrive/Libby

Both OverDrive and Libby allow you to borrow and read free ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines from your library using your phone or tablet. Both apps allow you to borrow and read the same digital content from your library, they just look and feel different.

Hoopla 

Hoopla just came out with some new features: the highlights & notes features are perfect for students to take notes or highlight important passages as they read. They've expanded formatting options to include more text styling, fonts, page colors, and page formatting options than ever and have added a quick-changing landscape view to make the eBook reading experience even easier on a larger screen.

Websites & Resources

Indiana Department of Education Homeschool Help

Information about state standards and registering your homeschool

Khan Academy

This famous (and free) academic resource has resources for parents and mentors. Parents can monitor a student’s progress and choose objectives for their children.

Discovery K-12

Free online homeschooling curriculum and exercises.  

Rose-Hulman's Homework Helpline

1-877-ASK-ROSE (1-877-275-7673)

Indiana Associaton of Home Eductors

This non-proft Christian organization offers lots of tips and how-to.  You can also subscribe to their free quarterly magazine. 

Fast Five Fiction: Time & Inter-dimensional Travel

It's FRIDAY! Which means it's time for Fast Five Fiction. Each week I'll be sharing 5 fiction books: new books, notable books, books around a common theme. Last week I shared 5 books that involved traveling physicaly. This week I'm featuring 5 book series featuring time or interdimensional travel! Through the pages of a book you can travel to so many interesting places! Click the title to be directed to the books in the library's catalog.

Story Thieves series by James Riley

Life is boring when you live in the real world, instead of starring in your own book series. Owen knows that better than anyone, what with the real world’s homework and chores.

But everything changes the day Owen sees the impossible happen—his classmate Bethany climb out of a book in the library. It turns out Bethany’s half-fictional and has been searching every book she can find for her missing father, a fictional character.

Bethany can’t let anyone else learn her secret, so Owen makes her a deal: All she has to do is take him into a book in Owen’s favorite Kiel Gnomenfoot series, and he’ll never say a word. Besides, visiting the book might help Bethany find her father…

…Or it might just destroy the Kiel Gnomenfoot series, reveal Bethany’s secret to the entire world, and force Owen to live out Kiel Gnomenfoot’s final (very final) adventure.

Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle

Many readers have read  Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, but Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace's adventures didn't end there. Read the other books in this series to find out what happens.  

A Wrinkle in Time—This Newberry Award winner is one of the most significant novels of our time. This fabulous, ground-breaking science-fiction and fantasy story is the first of five in the Time Quintet series about the Murry family.

A Wind in the Door—When Charles Wallace falls ill, Meg, Calvin, and their teacher, Mr. Jenkins, must travel inside Charles Wallace to make him well, and save the universe from the evil Echthros.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet—The Murry and O'Keefe Families enlist the help of the unicorn, Gaudior, to save the world from imminent nuclear war.

Many Waters—Meg Murry, now in college, time travels with her twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys, to a desert oasis that is embroiled in war.

An Acceptable Time—While spending time with her grandparents, Alex and Kate Murry, Polly O'Keefe (Meg and Calvin's daughter) wanders into a time 3,000 years before her own.

Ranger in Time series by Kate Messner

Meet Ranger! He's a time-traveling golden retriever who has a nose for trouble . . . and always saves the day!

Ranger has been trained as a search-and-rescue dog, but can't officially pass the test because he's always getting distracted by squirrels during exercises. One day, he finds a mysterious first aid kit in the garden and is transported to the year 1850, where he meets a young boy named Sam Abbott. Sam's family is migrating west on the Oregon Trail, and soon after Ranger arrives he helps the boy save his little sister. Ranger thinks his job is done, but the Oregon Trail can be dangerous, and the Abbotts need Ranger's help more than they realize!

The Map to Everywhere series by Carrie Ryan

To Master Thief Fin, an orphan from the murky pirate world of the Khaznot Quay, the Map is the key to finding his mother. To suburban schoolgirl Marrill, it's her only way home after getting stranded on the Pirate Stream, the magical waterway that connects every world in creation. With the help of a bumbling wizard and his crew, they must scour the many worlds of the Pirate Stream to gather the pieces of the Map to Everywhere--but they aren't the only ones looking. A sinister figure is hot on their tail, and if they can't beat his ghostly ship to find the Map, it could mean the destruction of everything they hold dear!

Train to Impossible Places series by P.G. Bell

A train that travels through impossible places. A boy trapped in a snow globe. And a girl who’s about to go on the adventure of a lifetime.

The Impossible Postal Express is no ordinary train. It’s a troll-operated delivery service that runs everywhere from ocean-bottom shipwrecks, to Trollville, to space.

But when this impossible train comes roaring through Suzy’s living room, her world turns upside down. After sneaking on board, Suzy suddenly finds herself Deputy Post Master aboard the train, and faced with her first delivery―to the evil Lady Crepuscula.

Then, the package itself begs Suzy not to deliver him. A talking snow globe, Frederick has information Crepuscula could use to take over the entire Union of Impossible Places. But when protecting Frederick means putting her friends in danger, Suzy has to make a difficult choice―with the fate of the entire Union at stake.

Happy Friday, and happy reading!