Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements

Reading Level: Juvenile
(4 out of 5)

Bobby Phillips is a normal teenager until one day he steps out of the shower and he can't see himself. What's a boy to do? He tells his parents, who take a little convincing and then they all agree they can't tell anyone else because Bobby would most likely be carted off and experimented on. So that means no school and no contact with the outside world. Which brings trouble from the school and from Bobby when he doesn't listen and decides to go out and explore. This was a fun read. I would only want to be invisible if I had the power to become visible again but in Bobby's case as the days go by it doesn't seem like that's going to happen.

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Reading Level: Juvenile
(4 out of 5)

The ballad "Scarborough Fair" was the inspiration behind this book. Lucy Scarborough is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child's birth (taken from the book jacket).

When Lucy was a baby she was taken in by Leo and Soledad. Her birth mother, Miranda, was the crazy homeless lady that walked around with a shopping cart shouting at people. At seventeen Lucy becomes pregnant and she finds out that the women in her family are cursed. Every woman at seventeen has become pregnant and after giving birth all have gone crazy. The only way to save themselves is to complete three impossible tasks. The women before Lucy haven't succeeded but Lucy has a great support system: Leo, Soledad, and Zach. Can Lucy complete the impossible tasks before it's too late?

This book really sucked me in. I really enjoyed it.

Stash by David Klein

Reading Level: Adult
Haven't read it yet so no rating

As you can see from above I haven't had a chance to read this book yet but it looked good. The main character Gwen has it all. She is an attractive, thirtyish stay at home mom living in a very nice neighborhood. Gwen's perfect world is about to get turned upside down. After buying a small bag of marijuana from an old boyfriend she is in a car accident that leaves her bruised but the other driver dead. When the pot is found in her car they throw the book at her. With all the drug problems at the schools the police want to set an example. This book is told from multiple perspectives and is driven by psychological suspense and an escalating plot.

My read pile is pretty large at the moment so I'm going to tuck this one away for when my read pile is smaller.

Reference Book Review: A to Zoo by Carolyn Lima and Rebecca Thomas

How did I not know about this resource when I was a Children's librarian? Awesome resource for finding picture books. In the early 80's John and Carolyn Lima had a vision to create a reference book to provide better subject access to picture books for children. A to Zoo was created. A to Zoo has 13,755 titles cataloged under 1,215 subjects. Start with your ABC's and and end with Zoo's.

Animal books-check
Growing up-check
Flowers-check
Weather-check

and so much more.

There is also a bibliographic guide, title index, and an illustrator index.

Great resource for librarian, teachers, and parents.

Reference Book Review: American Eras

American Eras Early American Civilizations and Exploration to 1600 is a very interesting book. This book consists of eleven chapters. Each chapter is broken down into the following categories: Chronology, Overview, Topics in the News, Headline Makers, and Publications.

Chronology is a time line of important events to 1600, Overview gives you information about the topic, Topics in the News breaks it down by year, Headline Makers highlights a couple prominent people of that era, and then Publications lists related reading material.

Reference Book Review: Encyclopedia of the American Civil War

Encyclopedia of the American Civil War is a five volume set. It consists of more than 1,600 essays that describe and explain a myriad of aspects that cover the coming of the war, its conduct, and its consequences in a political, military, and social context. It also provides biographical essays on major and minor military, political, diplomatic, and cultural figures. These essays describe more than sixty major engagements as well as important skirmishes. They have also tried to cover broad areas such as strategy and tactics, social trends, and technological innovations. Articles are in alphabetical order.

Volume I A-C
Volume II D-I
Volume III J-Q
Volume IV R-Z
Volume V List of Documents, Source Documents, Appendices, Chronology of the American Civil War, Glossary, Bibliography, and Index

You can find a list of entries at the beginning of the book.

Civil War buffs should check this encyclopedia out.

Reference Book Review: The Encyclopedia of the Ancient World

The Encyclopedia of the Ancient World is a three volume set that presents a survey of the cultures and civilizations of the world from prehistory through about 700 C.E. It predominately provides coverage of the ancient Greeks and Romans but also examines the civilizations, cultures, traditions, monuments and artifacts, significant wars and battles, and important personages of Europe (outside Greece and Rome), Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. This three volume set also provides descriptions of important documents of antiquity, definitions, and overviews of general topics that provide cross-cultural views of the ancient world. There are 1, 195 articles that consist of 26 overviews and 1, 169 alphabetically arranged encyclopedic articles that range from 250-word biographies of important figures such as Marc Antony and Xunzi to 2,500 word essays on major subjects such as Imperial Rome and Classical Greece.

The time span covered ranges from prehistory to 700 C. E. There is a Contents, Publisher's Note, list of Contributors, a Key to Pronunciation, Maps index, and a Complete List of Contents for all three volumes. If you are studying ancient civilizations or needing to do a report you might want to take a look at these.