Just a "heads up" to all the fans of the Spiderwick Chronicles...a movie will be in theaters February 2008!

Also, there is a new series (just arrived to our library, currently being cataloged) that takes place in the Spiderwick world: The Nixie's Song (#1 in Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles.)

I was sad to learn that Madeline L'Engle, author of one of my favorite books, A Wrinkle in Time, died on September 6, 2007, at the age of 88.

To read more about her life and tributes to a lifetime as a writer, click on this Publisher's Weekly link:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6478067.html?nid=2788

If you would like to enjoy L'Engle's most famous classic Newbery-award-winning book, come to the library and check out A Wrinkle in Time as a print book, an audiobook listen to it, or even watch a movie adaptation we have available on DVD.

The new magazine Wondertime (a Family Fun publication for parents of toddlers and preschoolers) has named the book Actual Size by Steven Jenkins as  "must have" on their recommended toy and book list. You can check this great book out from the library...it is a great way for kids (and adults!) to visualize the "actual size" and weights of a variety of animals as the unique collage-style artwork shows the animals (or just parts of them) at their real sizes. For example, giant squids can be up to 59 feet long (counting their tentacles) and the book shows just one giant eye (up to 12 inches across!) on the page.

If you like this title, you might also enjoy Prehistoric Actual Size (also  by Jenkins) and the books in the Life-Size series by Daniel Gilpin including Life-size sharks and other underwater creatures and Life-size killer creatures.

Gigantic!: How Big Were the Dinosaurs? by Patrick O'Brien is another favorite title that helps people (especially spatially challenged people like me!) understand the enormity of dinosaurs by comparing them to familiar objects, structures, or machines.

I just re-read Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume, which was a favorite book of mine, by my favorite elementary through middle school author, Judy Blume. I probably read it 50 times as a kid. I still really enjoyed it and would really recommend it, especially to a girl who is going through some of the same kinds of "growing up" things that Margaret deals with.

There are details that seem a little old-fashioned, but the same kinds of feelings will always be experienced by "tweens"  (older kids who are not quite "children" but not quite teen-agers..they are in be-"tween")...things like worrying if you are normal or if you are growing up (or growing in the right places!) faster or slower than other kids your age, worrying about getting along with friends, etc. Also Margaret's parents were different religions when they were married...Jewish and Christian...and she doesn't know where she fits into all that....whether she's one or the other, both or none.  

For a book about the same kinds of things, but from a boy's perspective...try Then Again, Maybe I Won't (another favorite of mine by Judy Blume.)