And Another Thing
Eoin Colfer
(FIC COL in the MSL)

If you loved the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, rejoice! Though its author, Douglas Adams, died several years ago, the series has been resurrected.
"In a continuation of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" saga, Arthur Dent returns to Earth from his galactic adventures and discovers that the planet is about to be blown up yet again." (NoveList)

Stubborn Twig Tie-Ins in the Middle School Library

On Thursday, October 22, author Lauren Kessler visited OES to talk with parents, faculty, and some Upper School students about her book Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family. In this work of literary non-fiction, Kessler writes about the troubles and prejudices that a Japanese-American family living in Oregon experience in the early to mid 20th century. Below is a short list of titles in the Middle School library that connect in one way or another with the theme of Stubborn Twig.

Baseball Saved Us
by Ken Mochizuki (FIC MOC in the MSL)

A Japanese American boy learns to play baseball when he and his family are forced to live in an internment camp during World War II, and his ability to play helps him after the war is over. (Follett)

*****

Bat 6
by Virginia Euwer Wolff
(FIC WOL in the MSL)

In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface.
*****
A Boy No More
by Harry Mazer
(FIC MAZ in the MSL)
After his father is killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adam, his mother, and sister are evacuated from Hawaii to California, where he must deal with his feelings about the war, Japanese internment camps, his father, and his own identity. (NoveList)
*****
Dear Miss Breed
by Elizabeth Kikuchi Yamada
(940.53 OPP in the MSL)

[This is a collection of] true stories of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II and a librarian who made a difference. (Follett TitleWave)
*****
Farewell to Manzanar
by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston & James D. Houston
(940.54 HOU in the MSL)

In this biography of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, she relates her experiences of living at the Manzanar internment camp during World War II and how it has influenced her life.
*****
House of the Red Fish
by Graham Salisbury
(FIC SAL in the MSL)

Over a year after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the arrest of Tomi's father and grandfather, Tomi and his friends, battling anti-Japanese-American sentiment in Hawaii, try to find a way to salvage his father's sunken fishing boat. (NoveList)
*****

The Invisible Thread
by Joshiko Uchida
(921 Uchida in the MSL)

Children's author Uchida, who grew up in California as a second-generation Japanese American, describes her childhood and her family's internment in a Nevada concentration camp during World War II. (TitleWave)
*****
Korematsu v. United States: Japanese-American Internment Camps
by Karen Alonso
(323.1 ALO in the MSL)

Profiles the case of Fred Korematsu, who sought compensation from the American government for his time spent in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II. (TitleWave)
*****
Thin Wood Walls
by David Patneaude
(FIC PAT in the MSL)

When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Joe Hamada and his family face growing prejudice, eventually being torn away from their home and sent to a relocation camp in California, even as his older brother joins the United States Army to fight in the war. (NoveList)
*****
Under the Blood-Red Sun
by Graham Salisbury
(FIC SAL in the MSL)

Tomikazu Nakaji's biggest concerns are baseball, homework, and a local bully, until life with his Japanese family in Hawaii changes drastically after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. (NoveList)
*****
Weedflower
by Cynthia Kadohata
(FIC KAD in the MSL)
After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors, becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream of owning a flower shop.

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want To Be Your Class President
by Josh Lieb
(FIC LIE in the MSL)

Twelve-year-old evil genius, Oliver, uses his great brain to become the third richest person in the world, and finds that overthrowing foreign dictators is easier than getting the kids in his middle school to vote him class president. (Follett TitleWave)

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid
by Jeff Kinney
(FIC KIN in the MSL)

In the latest diary of middle-schooler Greg Heffley, he records his attempts to spend his summer vacation sensibly indoors playing video games and watching television, despite his mother's other ideas. (NoveList)

Leviathan
by Scott Westerfeld
(FIC WES in the MSL)

In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts. (NoveList)

Summer Reading Challenge Celebration titles, Part 2

Here are some more of the titles given to Middle School library in honor of the students and faculty who met the Summer Reading Challenge.

The Cuckoo's Haiku and Other Birding Poems
by Michael J. Rosen; illustrated by Stan Fellows
(811 ROS in the MSL)

"The pond's still airstrip / far-off trumpets grow louder-- / one splash! two... hushed... glides..." Lyrical language, realistic watercolor and pencil illustrations, and thoughtful design capture the quiet thrills of bird watching. Facts about each bird's appearance, habits, and calls (finches: "potato-chips, potato-chips") are unobtrusively included on the spreads and in appended notes, making this an informative as well as artistic work. (Horn Book)

The Magician's Elephant
by Kate DiCamillo
(FIC DIC in the MSL)
When ten-year-old orphan Peter Augustus Duchene encounters a fortune teller in the marketplace one day and she tells him that his sister, who is presumed dead, is in fact alive, he embarks on a remarkable series of adventures as he desperately tries to find her. (NoveList)

Tentacles
by Roland Smith
(FIC SMI in the MSL)

After the mysterious disappearance of their parents, Marty and Grace go to live with their scientist uncle and accompany him on, what soon becomes, an increasingly dangerous expedition to New Zealand to track a giant squid. (Scholastic Press)

Summer Reading Challenge Celebration titles

Here are three of the titles that will be given to the library in honor of those who met the Summer Reading Challenge in 2009.
The Great and Only Barnum
by Candace Fleming
(921 BARNUM)

Chronicles the life of showman P. T. Barnum, discussing how he created his legendary circus, the people and events that shaped his life, and the impact Barnum had on the entertainment industry. (TitleWave)

The Sweetheart of Prosper County
by Jill S. Alexander
(FIC ALE)

In a small East Texas town largely ruled by prejudices and bullies, fourteen-year-old Austin sets out to win a ride in the next parade and, in the process, grows in her understanding of friendship and helps her widowed mother through her mourning.

Syren
(Septimus Heap; Book # Five)
by Angie Sage
(FIC SAG)

Wolf Boy is sent on a Task by Aunt Zelda, while Septimus and the dragon, Spit Fyre, fly off to bring their friends home, but they all wind up on an island whose secrets are as dangerous as its inhabitants. (NoveList)