Sesame Street: Cookie Monster in the Library

Poor Cookie Monster. All he's ever wanted was cookies! As the 2013-14 school year begins and I retire from my most fulfilling profession, that of a school teacher and librarian, here's hoping you always find what YOU want in your school media center or public library. Happy Reading!

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

27 Things Your Teacher Librarian Does by Mia MacMeekin

Teacher Librarian | School Librarian | Media Specialist | School Library Media Specialist

We have many names but we all LOVE our profession and working with YOU! Others may not realize all that we do - this infograhic will help. Whether while in high school or college, seek out the librarians around you. They will help you. And if they don't, speak up! YOU deserve better!

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

23 Signs You Are Hermione Granger by BuzzFeed

23 Signs You Are Hermione Granger. Some summer fun! Using short video clips of the character Hermione Granger taken from Harry Potter movies, BuzzFeed has created 23 signs to know that you're like Hermione. How many of the 23 match you? :-)

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Her first novel. Tell the Wolves I'm Home is Carol Rifka Brunt's first novel. I've written before how I'm drawn to debut novels. I'm stunned by the quality of this one. It is simply THAT good!

Love - between sisters, siblings, niece and uncle, and gay men. Rivalries that occur when we wrongly perceive each other's lives. Secrets kept to protect others. So many intertwined themes that continually keep you, the reader, enthralled by Ms. Brunt's novel.

My heart strings were continually pulled as I read of the meanness between Greta and June, the two teen sisters. Yet there were glimpses of love wanting to be renewed between them. A diminished love was also present in the relationship between adult siblings Finn, a gay man and renowned artist, and his sister Danielle, the girls' mother. June and Finn, niece and uncle, shared a most special love intensified by the knowledge that he was dying of AIDS.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home takes place in 1987 as AIDS was beginning to be understood yet feared. Once contracted, there were no cures. People were blamed for infecting others because of the certain death. That scenario is the backdrop which the author uses to show the power of love to forgive and transform lives.

It is one of the 10 titles chosen for the 2013 Alex Award - books originally written for adult readers but suited for teens as well. I highly recommend that you set aside some of your summertime reading time for this debut novel. Beach reading? Yes it is!

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

Scientists are brilliant. They are geniuses. The scientists who mess around with atoms and radioactive material are also risk takers. Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin is a thriller and based entirely on fact. It is the story of the atomic bomb.

Considering that the world still lives under the threat of an atomic bomb in the hands of terrorist nations, you'll find it amazing that it was in 1938 Germany, that scientists happened upon the discovery that a Uranium atom would split in two when placed near radioactive material. That brilliant German scientist knew his discovery had international implications - for good or evil.

The events unfold with all the intrigue of a James Bond, Agent 007, spy thriller as World War II was beginning. In the United States, a team of the best minds across multiple disciplines of science were assembled to secretly develop an atomic bomb. They gathered in a quickly assembled laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. They were acutely aware that the bomb they created could be used against our enemies. There were also keenly concerned that those same enemies could be developing a similar bomb.

The author, Sheinkin, does a masterful job writing this book so it is easily understood yet full of intrigue. It's worth noting that Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon has won him several awards including the coveted 2013 YALSA Award for Excellence in Non-fiction for Young Adults. Kudos to Steve Sheinkin!

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Food Cures: Fight Disease with Your Fork! edited by Readers Digest

The Reader's Digest book Food Cures: Fight Disease with Your Fork! is not a cookbook. It has only a few recipes. It enlightens the reader with information about the best foods for certain illnesses, foods that provide needed vitamins and natural remedies for health. Published by Reader's Digest, you can trust the information to be well researched and indexed.

Looking for a natural remedy for acne? Pages 86-87 suggest carrots, almonds, and oranges offer nutrition that will help. Suffer from asthma? Eating onions may reduce the number of asthma attacks. (p. 102) Sufferers of ADHD will benefit from foods high in protein and complex carbs. (p. 107) Rather than a chapter full of recipes, that chapter is titled Healing Recipes which indeed they are.

If you're longing to improve your health in a natural way, borrow this book from your school library media center or public library and start reading.

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Every Day by David Levithan

Imagine waking up EVERY DAY in the body of a new person! EVERY day! Every DAY! You may wake up a boy, you may wake up a girl, rich, poor, troubled, homeless, gay, straight, a bully or being bullied. That is A's life. He doesn't even have a name; he simply chose A as his name because it was the first letter.

In David Levithan's bestselling novel, Every Day, A has grown used to his ever changing life. If he finds himself in a bad situation, he takes comfort knowing he'll be in another life the next day. Of course, he knows no parents or best friends. He's never felt love. Then one day he awakes as Justin and falls in love with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. They cleverly develop a friendship then relationship working around A's changing life, every day finding a way to get together.

If you're looking for a quirky read that is very romantic, this will suit you. You'll be drawn into the insights about love and human nature as seen through A's eyes - a beautiful reminder of the power of love.

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm