Fast Five Fiction: Lighthouses

It's Friday and time for Fast Five Fiction! Each week I share five fiction books: new books, notable books, books around a common theme. Our summer reading theme this year is Oceans of Possibilities and we've got an ocean of great books for readers of all ages. This we've been talking about water safety and lighthouses are a huge part of helping keep boats safe so today I'm sharing books about lighthouses. 

Click the title to be directed to the book in our catalog. Book descriptions are from Goodreads.

The Lighthouse Family by Cynthia Rylant

Life with just the sea can be lonely. Just ask Pandora or Seabold. They've lived most of their lives with the sea, and they're quite used to being alone. Or they were. But one extraordinary day, the same sea that brought Pandora and Seabold together gives them the ingredients for an adventure that neither of them had considered before--an adventure called "family.

The Puffin Keeper by Michael Morpurgo

As a child, Allen is saved from a nautical disaster by Benjamin Postlethwaite, a solitary lighthouse keeper. Years later, Allen returns to the lighthouse, and the two nurse an injured young puffin back to health. When Allen is called up to fight in World War Two, he's not sure he'll see his mother or Benjamin again, but his fond memories of his time at the lighthouse keep him going, even through prison camp.

Allen and Ben's enduring friendship over the years is the basis for this story about friendship, art, war and an incredibly adorable puffin.

The Boxcar Children: Lighthouse Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner

The Aldens take a trip to the New England coast and get to stay in a lighthouse! But strange things happen after it gets dark--an unknown woman is seen walking around, and Watch wakes up growling late at night. Can the Boxcar Children shed light on a seaside mystery?

Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall

Watch the days and seasons pass as the wind blows, the fog rolls in, and icebergs drift by. Outside, there is water all around. Inside, the daily life of a lighthouse keeper and his family unfolds as the keeper boils water for tea, lights the lamp's wick, and writes every detail in his logbook.

Step back in time and through the door of this iconic lighthouse into a cozy dollhouse-like interior with the extraordinary award-winning artist Sophie Blackall.

Of Salt and Shore by Annet Schaap

Every evening Lampie, the lighthouse keeper's daughter, must light a lantern to warn ships away from the rocks, but one stormy night disaster strikes. The lantern is not lit, a ship is wrecked, and someone must pay.

To work off her debt, Lampie is banished to the Admiral's lonely house, where a monster is rumored to live. The terrors inside the house aren't quite what she thought they would be--they are even stranger. After Lampie saves the life of the neglected, deformed son of the admiral, a boy she calls Fish, they form a close bond. Soon they are pulled into a fairytale adventure swimming with mermaids, pirates, and misfits. Lampie will discover the courage to fight for friendship, knowledge, and the freedom to be different.

Fast Five Fiction: Oceans

 

It's Friday and time for Fast Five Fiction! Each week I share five fiction books: new books, notable books, books around a common theme. Our summer reading theme this year is Oceans of Possibilities and we've got an ocean of great books for readers of all ages. 

Click the title to be directed to the book in our catalog. Book descriptions are from Goodreads.

Consider the Octopus by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Jeremy "JB" Barnes is looking forward to spending the summer before seventh grade hanging on the beach. But his mother, a scientist, has called for him to join her aboard a research ship where, instead, he'll spend his summer seasick and bored as he stares out at the endless plastic, microbeads, and other floating debris, both visible and not, that make up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Miles and miles away, twelve-year-old Sidney Miller is trying to come up with an alternate activity worthy of convincing her overprotective parents that she can skip summer camp.

When Jeremy is asked to find the contact information for a list of important international scientists and invite them to attend a last-minute Emergency Global Summit, he's excited to have a chance to actually do something that matters to the mission. How could he know that the Sidney Miller he messages is not the famous marine biologist he has been tasked with contacting, but rather a girl making podcasts from her bedroom--let alone that she would want to sneak aboard the ship?

Consider the Octopus is a comedy of errors, mistaken identity, and synchronicity. Above all, it is a heartfelt story about friendship and an empowering call to environmental protection, especially to our young people who are already stepping up to help save our oceans and our Earth.

Super Sidekicks: Ocean's Revenge

JJ, Flygirl, Dinomite, and Goo are settling into their fancy new headquarters and living the sweet life of superheroes. The Mother of the Seas, on the other hand, is NOT happy. She's sick of land dwellers using the ocean as a dumping ground . . . and she's seeking revenge! Can the Sidekicks step up and save humanity from the ocean's rage?

The Fog Diver by Joel N. Ross

A deadly white mist has cloaked the earth for hundreds of years. Humanity clings to the highest mountain peaks, where the wealthy Five Families rule over the teeming lower slopes and rambling junkyards. As the ruthless Lord Kodoc patrols the skies to enforce order, thirteen-year-old Chess and his crew scavenge in the Fog-shrouded ruins for anything they can sell to survive.

Hazel is the captain of their salvage raft: bold and daring. Swedish is the pilot: suspicious and strong. Bea is the mechanic: cheerful and brilliant. And Chess is the tetherboy: quiet and quick…and tougher than he looks. But Chess has a secret, one he’s kept hidden his whole life. One that Lord Kodoc is desperate to exploit for his own evil plans. And even as Chess unearths the crew’s biggest treasure ever, they are running out of time...

Knife's Edge by Hope Larson

Twelve-year-old twin adventurers Cleopatra and Alexandra Dodge are reunited with their father and realize that two family heirlooms reveal the location of a treasure that is their birthright. When they set sail with Captain Tarboro on the Almira, they know they're heading into danger --the ocean is filled with new and old enemies, including their nemesis, the infamous pirate Felix Worley. But like a coral reef that lurks below the surface of the waves, trouble is brewing between the siblings. Alex is determined to become a sailor and is happy with his role aboard the Almira, but Cleo--the only girl on the ship--is tired of washing dishes in the galley. In an effort to find her own purpose, she begins studying sword fighting with Tarboro, but neither Alex nor her father approves. Can the twins remain close as they pursue different goals and dreams, or will their growing differences tear the family apart before the treasure can be found?

Ocean Fairies series by Daisy Meadows

The Ocean Fairies keep all the sea creatures safe and happy-until their magic goes missing! The enchanted conch shell has been split into seven pieces and scattered throughout the oceans. King Oberon and Queen Titania have sent seven magical sea creatures to guard the shells. Now it's up to the Ocean Fairies to find them, with Rachel and Kirsty's help!

Happy reading!

New AWE Early Learning Computers!

The children's department is pleased to announce the arrival of two new AWE Early Learning computers. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the Indiana State Library.

AWE computers offer hand-selected, preloaded content for children and students to learn through play with no internet access. One computer is a bilingual English/Spanish Early Literacy Station and the other is a combined Early Literacy station and After-School Edge Station.

With hundreds of games on a variety of topics like literacy skills, math, problem-solving, the human body, and U.S. Geography there’s something that will appeal to every child

Fast Five Fiction: Oceans of Possibilities

It's Friday and time for Fast Five Fiction! Each week I share five fiction books: new books, notable books, books around a common theme. Our summer reading theme this year is Oceans of Possibilities and we've got an ocean of great books for readers of all ages. This week has been boat weeks so we're sharing books that take place in boats, including some on the most famous shipwreck in history, the Titanic.

Click the title to be directed to the book in our catalog. Book descriptions are from Goodreads.

The Titanic Trilogy by Gordon Korman

The Titanic is meant to be unsinkable, but as it begins its maiden voyage, there's plenty of danger waiting for four of its young passengers. Paddy is a stowaway, escaping a deadly past. Sophie's mother is delivered to the ship by police - after she and Sophie have been arrested. Juliana's father is an eccentric whose riches can barely hide his madness. And Alfie is hiding a secret that could get him kicked off the ship immediately. The lives of these four passengers will be forever linked with the fate of Titanic. And the farther they get from shore, the more the danger looms. . . .

Treasure Hunters series by James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein

The Kidd siblings have grown up diving down to shipwrecks and traveling the world, helping their famous parents recover everything from swords to gold doubloons from the bottom of the ocean. But after their parents disappear on the job, the kids are suddenly thrust into the biggest treasure hunt of their lives. They'll have to work together to defeat dangerous pirates and dodge the hot pursuit of an evil treasure hunting rival, all while following cryptic clues to unravel the mystery of what really happened to their parents-and find out if they're still alive.

I Survived: The Sinking of the Titanic by Lauren Tarshis

Ten-year-old George Calder can't believe his luck- he and his little sister, Phoebe, are on the famous Titanic, crossing the ocean with their Aunt Daisy. The ship is full of exciting places to explore, but when George ventures into the first class storage cabin, a terrible boom shakes the entire boat. Suddenly, water is everywhere, and George's life changes forever.

Deadly Seas: You Decide How to Survive by David Borgenicht

"On an expedition around the world by sea, the reader chooses between alternatives throughout the book. Only one series of choices will lead safely around the world. Illustrated in comic book style and based on real, true-life facts about sailing the oceans.

Tonight on the Titanic by Mary Pope Osborne

Jack and Annie are in for an exciting, scary, and sad adventure when the Magic Tree House whisks them back to the decks of the "Titanic." Is there anything they can do to help the ill-fated ship? Will they be able to save anyone? Will they be able to save themselves?