The Idea Box

Stolen from another librarian: a mailbox in my library with a picture of a lightbulb and the word IDEAS on it. Little kids might not know the word suggestion, but they all have ideas. Here is a sampling of some (spelling intact):

I LOVE the libae.
let the kis hat a ie con. (ice cream cone?)
Get mor cat boks.
Harry Potter and the deathly of the rabbittt
Make more Elephant and Piggie. Thak you.
You shod make more dum bunnies
I like natale a lot
ples can you get dog zilla maddux
mabiy you shuld be cold as me
Go librare
get more ferensic files

Here is this week's animation, "I Reserved a Book!" If the embed doesn't work, click here:

GoAnimate.com: I Reserved a Book%21 by PithyPython



And indulge me: here are a few things I read this summer:

For Kids:

Beyonders: A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull. Mull, author of the hugely popular Fablehaven series, has begun another fantasy series. Jason, an ordinary teenager who enjoys baseball, is swallowed by a hippopotamus and emerges in another world, one full of giant attack crabs, lethal bullfrogs the size of horses, and displacers, people who can detach their heads or limbs for assorted purposes, often in a creepy way. The author's greatest regret: that he has but one life to give for Gondor.

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens. A tad confusing but an action-packed fantasy with a magic book that transports three children from an orphanage to a world of dwarves, giants and an evil queen. Kind of derivative but will fill a need. It's a NYT bestseller -- any chance the author's Gossip Girl tv career helped launch it?


Philippa Fisher's Fairy Godsister by Liz Kessler, author of the favorite Emily Windsnap series. Philippa is surprised when Daisy, the new girl at school, says she is her fairy godmother--or godsister-- and Philippa struggles to wish for something that will improve her life instead of making it more difficult. I like the notion of the fairy as a snotty and begrudging middle-schooler who would rather hang with the cool crowd than be kind and supportive to her charge.

King Matt the First by Janucz Korczak. Wow. First published in 1923 by a Polish doctor who directed orphanges, this allegorial fairy tale of a boy who becomes king was written with the hope of preparing young readers for the dillemas of adult life. The book is by turns funny, startling and disturbing with some racial stereotypes that the introduction, by the esteemed Esme Cordell, tackles with care. Korczak refused santuary and accompanied his young charges to the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942. On their last march through the city of Warsaw, one of the children carried the green flag of King Matt.


For grownups:

I got caught up on back issues of The New Yorker and The Atlantic. Amazing articles about brain science, global warming, education and more.

In the Garden of Beasts by Eric Larsen. I couldn't put it down -- nonfiction that reads like a thriller. In fact, I read it on my iPad while on trains, in movie theaters and on sidewalks in Italy. The American ambassador to Berlin in the 1930s recorded the early years of Hitler's reign and the shocking obliviousness of the U.S. State Department. Meanwhile, his wild 23 year old daughter was having liaisons with Nazis and Communists. Even more compelling than the author's previous book, The Devil in the White City.

Room by Emma Donoghue. Creep me out even more. A novel about a young woman, abducted and held captive for years in a backyard shed by a sexual predator. The story is told from the point of view of her little boy, born in the room, who has never seen the outside world. The ingenuity of the young mother , determined to give Jack have a creative, loving childhood is boundless.



Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks. Thanks to Kelly & Paul for the rec. Historical fiction about the first Native American, a Wampanoag from what is now Martha's Vineyard, to graduate from Harvard.




Also:
The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. There's hope for my aging brain. But I MUST learn a new language.

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing To Our Brains by Nicholas Carr.
Ow. Our capacity for deep immersion in reading is diminishing as we scan and click.

The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman. LOL if you've ever chased grants and research topics in grad school or worked to assist eccentric academics.

No Bike Riding in the House Without a Helmet by Melissa Faye Greene. Giving this one as gifts to friends here and abroad. Mothering at its finest.

and finally,

Jane Austen's Emma. It's been 28 years. Why did I wait so long? It is perfection.




Let me know what you read -- click the comments button below!