Baseball mania! Everything from Ole Miss and Southern playing in regional finals to our Little League parks filled with eager youngsters and cheering family members.

So here is a great read recommended by someone who grew up cheering for the Brooklyn Dodgers. It is the Brooklyn Nine, Alan Gratz’ third novel for young readers and a great read for baseball fans of all ages. It is a story in “nine innings” full of engaging characters and an amazing depth of historical data.

Beginning in 1845, Felix Schneider, a ten-year-old immigrant from Germany, cheers for the New York Knickerbockers. The book then goes on to span nine generations of the same family as baseball emerges as a national pastime.

The final inning takes place in 2002 as Snider Flint tracks down the strange story of a bat that belonged to one of Brooklyn’s greatest players.

In between is quite a wonderful read, full of great baseball and a slice of American history, as well.

-Yvonne

I might be the biggest nerd alive, but I used to love summer reading. I was one of the kids who never had enough to read (probably because my mom deprived me of television all summer) and summer reading was a good excuse to sit in the air conditioning and relax for hours.

Most summer reading books are straight off the shelves of the young adult section, though, and as a result they get a bad rap for being simplistic and cheesy. Oftentimes, however, the books on summer reading lists are the top of the line.

I was talking to a customer today who is a retired schoolteacher. She pointed out that many young adult books have a lot to offer readers of all ages. One such classic “summer reading book” is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. L’Engle is a prolific writer of young adult novels and Wrinkle is one of her most famous. Rarely does one book touch on so many topics; L’Engle somehow incorporates familial love and metaphysics into the same chapter. The book is on many middle school reading lists (and remains one of my favorites to this day). A few other classics include The Giver and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, Bridge to Terebithia and Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and My Dog Skip and Good Old Boy by Willie Morris, The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

If you have covered all the typical summer reading books, a newer one that I enjoyed reading this spring is The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. It is on the St. Andrew’s summer reading list for rising sixth graders and I absolutely loved it. I frequently read children’s books with a critical approach but I found myself sucked into this story. Mr. Benedict is the hero of this tale intent on putting together a team of children whose goal is to infiltrate a boarding school run by an evil genius. The evil genius uses children to accomplish his diabolical schemes and must be overthrown before he destroys humankind through telepathy. The book teaches about more than teamwork and strength- it is a story about overcoming a difficult past and moving forward as a person. This is at the top of my list for emerging children’s classics. 

So that’s it. Come to Oz and check out our entire summer reading shelf!

-Nell

The Graphic Novel
Jack and the Beanstalk
Retold by Blake A. Hoena
Illustrated by Ricardo Tercio

This blog is for the boys out there who perhaps need some more enticement when it comes to reading.  Well, I’ve got a good story for ya today that’ll knock your socks off!  The Graphic Novel Jack and the Beanstalk has got all those elements of a classic page-turner: a magic beanstalk that reaches up to a castle in the sky, a talking, gold harp for the taking, tough young hero Jack about to be mincemeat, and a ferociously angry boy-eating giant out to get wily Jack.  At 33 pages, its length favors a 2nd to 3rd grade reading level, while the illustrations are funkier and a bit edgier than your typical rendition of this well-known tale.

For the older crowd, young men and women alike, Lemuria Bookstore has just gotten in the graphic novel version of Newbery Award winner Neil Gaiman‘s eerily awesome story Coraline.  Read about how Coraline’s parents live in an alternate universe with black buttons for eyes and you’ll be hooked!

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And finally, back to an old favorite, for the rambunctious and adventurous girls out there, there is the graphic novel Rapunzel’s Revenge. Click here for my earlier blog on Rapunzel’s Revenge.

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman is a wonderful fairy tale–it reminds me somewhat of Narnia. He received this year’s Newbery Award for The Graveyard Book–if you haven’t read it, do so–a must for all ages. This book is quite different from ones he has written recently but it is every bit as good. Actually, it’s quite wonderful.

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Can there be a book as fantastic as The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane? Absolutely. The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo is written for all ages–a magical, beautifully worked book with oh-so-many “take home” points. It could easily serve as an adult reading group offering. An aging magician intends to conjure up a bouquet of flowers and gets an elephant instead. Then the journey begins and what a journey it is. I have read it once, passed it around, and plan to read it again this time with a magic marker in hand to highlight all the wonderful thoughts to ponder over and over.

Kate has a neat website with an interesting bio on her, her thoughts on writing and photos. Click here to read an excerpt from The Magician’s Elephant.

-Yvonne

Kate Dicamillo is the author of numerous books including Tale of Despereaux, which received the Newbery Medal; Because of Winn-Dixie, which received a Newbery Honor; The Tiger Rising which was named a National Book Award Finalist; The Mercy Watson stories; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, winner of the Christopher Award; Great Joy, a children’s Christmas picture book; and Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken, a delightful picture book for children.

Kate DiCamillo is a wonderful and talented writer of books for children and young adults. Actually, one of her books, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is loved and cherished by individuals of both genders and people of all ages. This wonderful chapter book has short chapters, and charming illustrations by Bozgram Ibatoulline. Edward Tulane is a china bunny who is owned and loved by a girl named Abilene. They go on a cruise; Edward is tossed overboard; he is caught in a fisherman’s net and thus begins his miraculous journey of about 20 years. Edward takes us on a journey of life lessons-loving, losing, and loving again. You, too, will become a victim of the adventurous Edward. Enjoy the adventure.