Dig Into READING

The Joplin Public Library’s annual Summer Reading Club kicks off on Tuesday, May 28, so in preparation for a great summer of reading, I have been “digging” for titles that fit with this year’s “Dig Into Reading” theme. The following is a list of chapter books—appropriate for most children in fourth through eighth grade—with short descriptions that showcase our earthy theme.

“Gregor the Overlander” (Underland Chronicles: Book 1) by Suzanne Collins—Eleven-year-old Gregor’s mind is constantly filled with thoughts of his missing father, so when his 2-year-old sister, Boots, crawls into an air vent in the laundry room, he barely notices. He immediately goes in after her, and the two are dropped into Underland, a fantastical world of translucent-skinned humans, giant cockroaches, bats and rats. Upon arrival in Underland, Gregor is terrified, but soon he is transformed into a warrior who is charged with leading a battle against an invading army of rats.

“The Tale of Despereaux” by Kate DiCamillo—Four stories combine to make one in this fairy tale of love and unlikely heroes. First, there is Despereaux, a tiny mouse with huge ears who is an embarrassment to his entire family; secondly, Princess Pea, whom Despereaux is madly in love with; then Roscuro, a rat that craves light and soup; and lastly, Miggery Sow, whose heart’s desire is to be a princess.

“City of Ember” (Books of Ember: Book 1) by Jeanne DuPrau—Ember is an underground city, one that was built to ensure the survival of the human race; however, the instructions for getting out of the 241-year-old city have been lost.  Not such a big deal, except now the power is starting to fail. Nothing like flickering lights and lengthy power outages to inspire 12-year-olds Doon and Lina to embark on mission to find a way out of the doomed city.

“Hoot” by Carl Hiaasen—In his debut novel for kids, Carl Hiaasen pens an ecological mystery that centers on tiny burrowing owls and the loss of their habitat. A mission to save these endangered owls brings together three unlikely friends and leads them on the journey of a lifetime.

“Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH” by Robert O’Brien—This winner of the 1972 Newbery Medal is a timeless story of a widowed mouse’s mission to save her son.  Mrs. Frisby’s son has pneumonia and, despite needing to move him to a safe location, she has been told that he must not be moved. In order to find a way to save him, she braves a visit to the rats of NIMH—a brilliant group of creatures that are also her enemies. Her visit provides a workable solution, but it also endebts Mrs. Frisby to the rats and thus begins her journey to help save them.

“Holes” by Louis Sachar—Stanley Yelnats is cursed. This curse started with his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather” and has now landed Stanley in a boys’ detention center at Camp Green Lake, where boys spend all day, every day, digging holes 5 feet wide and 5 feet deep.  Almost immediately, Stanley realizes that not all is what it seems at Camp Green Lake and he begins “digging” for the truth.

Taken by Robert Crais Review by Patty Crane

Elvis Cole has been kidnapped, and Joe Pike is hunting the man who took him. Elvis is Joe’s best friend, and Joe will do whatever it takes to find him. Joe was Force Recon in the Marines and worked as a mercenary, so whatever really means “whatever.”

In the novel “Taken” by Robert Crais, a bajadores is a predator that kidnaps people being smuggled into the country. The bajadores, the Syrian, demands ransom from the families of the people he kidnaps. His ransom demands are low, and as long as the families pay, the demands continue. But no matter how much is paid, no one ever goes home, and now he has Elvis.

Nita Morales saw a magazine article dubbing Elvis Cole the world’s greatest detective. She hires him to find her daughter, Krista. Nita received a ransom demand for $500. She thinks this may be an attempt by Krista and her boyfriend, Jack, to get money to marry. Krista is ready to graduate summa cum laude from college, and Nita wants Elvis to find her before she can ruin her future.

As Cole retraces Krista’s steps, he finds himself in the desert at the sight of an old plane wreck. The wreck has long been a drop site for illegal immigrants being brought into the country.  Nita herself was brought to the United States through this area when she was 7.

As Cole searches the area, he finds some disturbing evidence and calls in Joe Pike to get his read on what took place. Pike, through training and experience, is very good at reading and interpreting clues and physical evidence. He finds lots of tracks and footprints — multiple vehicles, many people — and blood; someone died there.

Cole’s investigation points to Krista and Jack being taken and that the ransom demand is real. Now Cole has to find who took them and where and figure out how to get them back.

Crais lets us know in the first few chapters that Krista and Jack are in trouble and that Pike is hunting for Cole.  He then steps back and lets Elvis take us through the events that lead to him being taken. Building the suspense, Crais ties the events with a count of the days since Krista and Jack were taken and a countdown to Cole’s abduction. The last third of the book is Pike’s hunt for Elvis, and you feel his urgency and the push to make things happen.

Crais has a long-running series with Cole and Pike, with Elvis as the central character. A fellow reader, John, told me a long time ago I needed to read Crais. John and I like the same authors, so I should have listened.

Elvis Cole is a likeable guy with a sense of humor. Joe Pike is a yoga-practicing vegetarian who runs miles a day, sometimes with a 40-pound pack, and owns a gun shop. He is also a part-time mercenary and owns the detective agency with Elvis.  Elvis is a talker. Joe sees no need for unnecessary words, and conversations are short, usually with one-word sentences.

When I decided to give Crais a try last month, I started with the more recent Pike novels. “The Watchman” is the first in that series and my introduction to Joe Pike – who is a read-alike for all you Lee Child Reacher fans. I was hooked. “Taken” is not the Pike series but actually number 14 in the Cole novels. Whatever the series, this suspenseful, intense novel is not to be missed.

Drunk Tank Pink: and other unexpected forces that shape how we think, feel, and behave

I’m always a sucker for books on what makes people tick, so I grabbed Drunk Tank Pink: and other unexpected forces that shape how we think, feel, and behaveby Adam Alter as soon as I saw it. Alter holds a PhD in applied psychology from Princeton and is an assistant professor at NYU.

The book discusses a number of studies, both controlled and anecdotal, that show how we are affected by our environment in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways. It’s divided into three sections according to the location of the “source.” That is, the world within us, between us, and around us.

Part one concerns “The World Within Us,” consisting of those things that are internalized, like our names and our cultural identities. Studies have shown, for example, that we tend to favor the letters contained in our own names. Indeed, to such an extent that people whose names begin with a “K” gave more heavily to Hurricane Katrina relief than those whose names didn’t. The pattern was verified more than once, on the occasion of other hurricanes. And be careful naming your children. “Disfluent” names (those with hard consonants or that don’t trip off the tongue) make it less likely that a person will be successful in the work world. Simple and smooth is the best rule for naming your offspring, it seems.

I had never imagined how important “labeling” is in our perceptions of the world. An example given here is the color “blue.” In English, the word refers to all shades of blue, but in Russian there are separate words for “darker” and “lighter” blue. The fact that Russian brains label those two ranges of the color allows them to much more quickly sort “Which color does the third one match” when given three samples of blue—two matching and the other different—on a computer screen. They were able to sort them as quickly as English speakers were able to sort between blue and green. In fact, the sorting times for blue and green were the same for both groups and both groups have different names (labels) for blue and green. Freaky.

In a darker vein, Alter reminds us of the old “Blue vs. Brown Eyes” experiment that an elementary school teacher conducted in 1968 with her third-graders. In case you’re not familiar with it, she told her class that blue-eyed children were superior and treated the brown-eyed children as second-class citizens. The next day, she told them she was mistaken—it was the other way around and switched the roles. In less than a day’s time, most of the children fully embraced the concept and began behaving accordingly.  It made quite a hullabaloo at the time. This was not the first such experiment, however. A larger controlled study of labeling was conducted in 1964. In that study, researchers told teachers that certain of their students (randomly selected) were “academic bloomers.” They were, in fact, just like everybody else from all measures. So, they should have shown the same progress, individually and as a group, as their peers. However, the “bloomers” scored 10-15 points higher on IQ tests the following year. They hadn’t had different teachers or curriculum. The results were apparently the simple result of having teachers who thought the “bloomers” were special. So, imagine how children throughout the years have been affected by teachers’ expectations both positive and negative. Yikes! Don’t expect much of shy children? Well, you won’t get much then. Children with high activity levels? Lower socioeconomic backgrounds? Insert given prejudice here and let your imagination fill in the blanks.

I could go on, but I’m running short on space. So, wondering about drunk tank pink? In 1979, a study was conducted with colored cardboard. One group of young men looked at a dark blue sheet, the other half looked at a bright pink one. Lo and behold, the ones looking at the pink sheet demonstrated less strength afterward. A couple of naval officers heard about it and painted their holding cells pink and reported that inmates were calmer even fifteen minutes after being placed in the special cell. The results ran through the world, and various and sundry other organizations started making use of what was called Baker-Miller Pink (after the two officers), but of course it soon devolved to being called drunk tank pink. Football coaches at Colorado State and the University of Iowa painted the visitors’ lockers pink, too. That is, until the athletic conferences ruled that visitors’ spaces must be identical to the home team’s. Ah, well, can’t win ‘em all!

Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks

It’s Maggie’s first day of high school… of public school… of traditional school learning… (Before ninth grade, her mom homeschooled Maggie and her three brothers.)  Her older brothers have been in high school for a while, and now it’s Maggie’s turn. “Friends with Boys” is the story of Maggie adjusting to high school, navigating the complex social arena of public school and making her first non-boy/non-brother friend.

Oh, and Maggie might be haunted by a 19th - century widow. And she and her new friends might rob a museum to try to help the ghost. No big deal.

I knew I would like “Friends with Boys” because I have been religiously following Hick’s “Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong” online (and you should  too at nothingcanpossiblygowrong.com), but I didn’t know I would love it this much!

Hicks’s story and writing are spot on. I remember what it was like being the new girl, and while I wasn’t homeschooled, I was going from an almost rural school to a big-city school with So Many People! My reactions were almost identical to Maggie’s.  Luckily for Maggie, she has the security of three older brothers attending the same school.

The relationships between Maggie and her family members are sweet and genuine. Daniel, the eldest, is really into theater. Lloyd and Zander are twins who constantly fight. Meanwhile, Dad has just been promoted to police chief and Mom… left.

Not only is the story wonderful, the art is great. It’s all black and white and is just amazing.  Hicks perfectly communicates expressions, moods and atmosphere while keeping everything bold and fresh. Together her art and writing are clever and funny and touching and and and…

I just want to hug Maggie and hang out with everyone in the courtyard, okay.

Now, go read it. Tell me how you like it even if you don’t.

Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary by Neil Corry, et al

I bought “Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary” for the Teen Department collection because the Doctor is quickly gaining in popularity among my teens. I have several who completely nerd out any time “Doctor Who” is mentioned. It’s pretty fantastic.

The new series of “Doctor Who” is so popular among the Library’s patrons, in fact, that Monday was the first time I’ve seen the book on my shelves since I first put it on display in February. Before I could check it out for this review, I had to let three teens in my department look through it. (I kept saying, “You can look, but you can’t check it out. It’s mine!”)

This visual dictionary features the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, pretty heavily, but does have some mention of previous Doctors, including the Doctors from the “classic” shows.

While it looks like it’s going to be a quick read (and I’m sure it can be for the non-obsessed) ,  I spent ages reading every word about the Doctor, the TARDIS, the various companions, as well as the myriad of species the Doctor encounters. I learned quite a bit from the entries, but much of my reading time was spent thinking, “OH! I remember that episode!”

“Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary” is a perfect resource for anyone who wants to know what all the hubbub is about but doesn’t want to slog through seven seasons of a (completely wonderful, amazing and engrossing) show, or for established fans who want to pore over as many details from “Doctor Who” as possible.

“Touch & Go” by Lisa Gardner

From all appearances, Justin and Libby Denbe and their 15-year-old daughter, Ashlyn are the perfect, loving family. Justin owns a multi-million-dollar construction company that has provided the family with a life of wealth, including an elegant, multi-story Boston townhouse, cars and anything else that money can buy.

When Libby discovers that Justin had an affair with a much younger woman, she relegates him to a bedroom in the basement of their elegant Boston townhouse. Libby and Justin are trying to work through their marital problems by having occasional date nights.

They arrive home after a rather tense night out only to be attacked by intruders. Justin, Libby and Ashlyn are tasered, drugged and abducted with brutal efficiency by three armed men.

Northledge Investigations, the firm that handles security for Denbe Construction, employs Tessa Leoni to investigate the abduction. Tessa Leoni, a private investigator, is the main character from “Love You More,” an earlier novel by Lisa Gardner. D. D. Warren, the character in another popular Gardner series, makes a brief but welcome cameo appearance in this novel.

The Boston police, the FBI and Tessa begin to fit together pieces of the puzzle of the missing family. Wyatt Foster, a New Hampshire sheriff, assists with the case when the investigation reveals that the abductors and their prisoners have crossed the state line into New Hampshire.

Tessa and Wyatt find the investigation perplexing. How did the kidnappers enter the house? The home has a state-of-the-art security system installed by Denbe Construction. The abductors must have had inside information about the house and the family’s activities.

Why abduct a whole family? Three people are harder to control and hide than a single person. Where have they hidden the family? Where do you hide three people? What is the motive for the kidnapping? There is no immediate ransom demand.

As the hours pass in their small cell, the strain of their captivity reveals a far from perfect family unit. The Denbe family begins to disintegrate as each character’s darkest secrets are revealed—Justin’s attraction to other women, Libby’s addiction to painkillers, and the result of Ashlyn’s actions after her feeling of being left out of her parents’ lives.

“This is the truth: love, safety, family–it is all touch and go.”

Libby’s first-person point of view is particularly compelling in the audio format narrated by Elisabeth Rogers. Libby reveals the slow unraveling of the family members. Tessa’s and the other characters’ narratives are told in the third person. The characters are believable and the plot gripping.

I do recommend reading “Love You More” before reading “Touch & Go.” The previous novel helped me to understand references to Tessa’s background as a disgraced former state trooper, but “Touch & Go” still works well as a standalone novel.

The novel’s well-crafted plot moves at a hectic pace with intricate twists, turns and surprises galore. It becomes clear as the novel progresses that the situation is far more complex than anyone would have guessed at the beginning. “Touch & Go” is a riveting psychological thriller.

From all appearances, Justin Denbe and Libby and their 15-year-old daughter, Ashlyn are the perfect, loving family. Justin owns a multi-million-dollar construction company that has provided the family with a life of wealth, including an elegant, multi-story Boston townhouse, cars and anything else that money can buy.

When Libby discovers that Justin had an affair with a much younger woman, she relegates him to a bedroom in the basement of their elegant Boston townhouse. Libby and Justin are trying to work through their marital problems by having occasional date nights.

They arrive home after a rather tense night out only to be attacked by intruders. Justin, Libby and Ashlyn are tasered, drugged and abducted with brutal efficiency by three armed men.

Northledge Investigations, the firm that handles security for Denbe Construction, employs Tessa Leoni to investigate the abduction. Tessa Leoni, a private investigator, is the main character from “Love You More,” an earlier novel by Lisa Gardner. D. D. Warren, the character in another popular Gardner series, makes a brief but welcome cameo appearance in this novel.

The Boston police, the FBI and Tessa begin to fit together pieces of the puzzle of the missing family. Wyatt Foster, a New Hampshire sheriff, assists with the case when the investigation reveals that the abductors and their prisoners have crossed the state line into New Hampshire.

Tessa and Wyatt find the investigation perplexing. How did the kidnappers enter the house? The home has a state-of-the-art security system installed by Denbe Construction. The abductors must have had inside information about the house and the family’s activities.

Why abduct a whole family? Three people are harder to control and hide than a single person. Where have they hidden the family? Where do you hide three people? What is the motive for the kidnapping? There is no immediate ransom demand.

As the hours pass in their small cell, the strain of their captivity reveals a far from perfect family unit. The Denbe family begins to disintegrate as each character’s darkest secrets are revealed—Justin’s attraction to other women, Libby’s addiction to painkillers, and the result of Ashlyn’s actions after her feeling of being left out of her parents’ lives.

“This is the truth: love, safety, family–it is all touch and go.”

Libby’s first-person point of view is particularly compelling in the audio format narrated by Elisabeth Rogers. Libby reveals the slow unraveling of the family members. Tessa’s and the other characters’ narratives are told in the third person. The characters are believable and the plot gripping.

I do recommend reading “Love You More” before reading “Touch & Go.” The previous novel helped me to understand references to Tessa’s background as a disgraced former state trooper, but “Touch & Go” still works well as a standalone novel.

The novel’s well-crafted plot moves at a hectic pace with intricate twists, turns and surprises galore. It becomes clear as the novel progresses that the situation is far more complex than anyone would have guessed at the beginning. “Touch & Go” is a riveting psychological thriller.

Vanished by Irene Hannon

 

I just finished a book by an author I hadn’t read before, but found I really liked. Irene Hannon (a Missouri author) is an award-winning author specializing in romantic and suspense novels. (I’ve told you I like to read “brain candy” when I’m on my own time.)

She writes what is considered “Christian” or “inspirational” fiction. Today’s inspirational fiction differs from that of the past. In Hannon’s words, her “books aren’t preachy. The faith content is subtle and reflected more in characters’ actions than in words. I prefer to show characters living their faith rather than talking about it.”

“Vanished” by Irene Hannon features Moira, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative journalist. Moira is lost, at night, on an isolated, rain-slickened road when a woman frantically waving runs out in the road right in front of her car. She slams on her brakes and fishtails, but it is too late. The last image she sees before she feels a solid thump on the side of the car is that of the woman with glazed, terror-filled eyes.

Moira careens across the road, crashing into a tree. From nowhere, a man appears, promising to call 911 and to help the person she hit. After losing consciousness and finally coming to, she gets out of the car and realizes the man has not called 911. There also is no body and no man; there is only the image of the woman’s terror-filled eyes burned in her memory.

Even though she calls the police and the deputy can’t find any evidence of her hitting a woman, she can’t let go of the memory. The authorities believe she only hit a deer and that she sustained a concussion. They are of no help.

She decides she cannot leave this alone; the woman’s terrified eyes and her own journalistic instincts will not allow it. So, she takes steps to solve the mystery. Enter a handsome P.I. That’s all I’ll tell you. No spoilers here.

Moira does a couple of things that remind me of the TV shows where the background music is ominously bum-bum-bumming in the background. It’s dark and storming. The heroine is obviously about to do something really stupid and dangerous. You are thinking, “You idiot!! Don’t (you fill in the blank)!” But she does anyway, and the results make you want to jump out of your skin.

The characters here are well-developed. I like it when I can understand what motivates both the good guys and the bad guys. Also, this title had one of the most important qualities for my brain-candy reading: a satisfying conclusion.

This is the first title of Hannon’s new series, “A Private Justice.” I intend to go back and pick up titles from her others, “Guardians of Justice” and “Heroes of Quantico.” Hannon writes in such a way that each book in a series can also be read as a stand-alone.

Joplin Public Library carries Hannon’s titles in print, on CDs, and as downloadable e-books.