Publisher: Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 4/29/2008
ISBN: 9780345495006
ISBN-10: 0345495004

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan is a fictionalization of the relationship between Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright. On the back of the audiobook cover, she is referred to as a “footnote: in his life.” Yet here was an educated, highly independent woman, married with children who faced all the scandal, giving up all she held dear to be with this creative, arrogant genius. A tragic ending—riveting and spellbinding—based on true events and historical research.

First Chapter  

Publisher: PBS Home Video
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Ken Burns’ documentary on Frank Lloyd Wright has a segment on Mamah Cheney giving substance and factual detail to the above story. From the interviews and archival footage, his charisma and forceful presence is powerfully portrayed lending reason for Mamah’s strong attraction despite consequences that changed her life.

Publisher: J. Paul Getty Museum
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 9/10/2007
ISBN: 9780892368808
ISBN-10: 0892368802

My Travels with Clara by Mary Tavener Holmes is a fictionalized tale by an 18th century Dutch sea captain who bought a baby rhinoceros in India and toured her throughout western Europe by ship, in an enormous horse-drawn cart and on a raft on the Rhine. She was quite a curiosity (weighing 5000 lbs, eating 60 lbs of hay, 20 lbs of bread and 15 buckets of water a day), the likes of which had never been seen in Europe before. Soon there were all kinds of Clara inspired art, beautifully reproduced in this Getty Museum picture book.

Publisher: Candlewick Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 8/28/2007
ISBN: 9780763636555
ISBN-10: 076363655X

I can’t get enough of Mother Goose. Two new unusual ones have recently been published. Mother Goose: Numbers on the Loose by Caldecott winners Leo and Diane Dillon. They pair 24 traditional counting rhymes with their trademark sophisticated parade of elaborately costumed humans and animals set against stark white pages. As with all great illustrations, each time you look, the more you see. Mother Goose’s Little Treasures edited by Iona Opie and illustrated by Rosemary Wells has 22 lesser known rhymes, with a more sophisticated look, even though there are bunnies and chickens.

Publisher: Harcourt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/1/2007
ISBN: 9780152056766
ISBN-10: 0152056769

I can’t get enough of Mother Goose. Two new unusual ones have recently been published. Mother Goose: Numbers on the Loose by Caldecott winners Leo and Diane Dillon. They pair 24 traditional counting rhymes with their trademark sophisticated parade of elaborately costumed humans and animals set against stark white pages. As with all great illustrations, each time you look, the more you see. Mother Goose’s Little Treasures edited by Iona Opie and illustrated by Rosemary Wells has 22 lesser known rhymes, with a more sophisticated look, even though there are bunnies and chickens.

Publisher: Boyds Mills Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 8/15/2005
ISBN: 9781590780930
ISBN-10: 1590780930

I think everyone who is a librarian in some way or form collects librarian memorabilia whether it be comics, action figures, library newspaper articles or books. There is just something interesting about our profession. This book shows what libraries are like in other countries and more likely than not, it is not the traditional building we have in the United States. This book features non-traditional libraries from six continents. In Finland they have turned boats into libraries. In Indonesia they have people ride bicycles with cabinets on them filled with books. Other countries use animals such as camels, horses and elephants to cart books around. And in England they use wheelbarrows to go up and down the beach lending books. This book is highly enjoyable and filled with lots of color photographs.

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 3/7/2007
ISBN: 9780316010641
ISBN-10: 0316010642

Ever wanted to know what was used before toilet paper was invented? Ever wonder what the French did before there was a sewer? Curious about the different uses of urine? Well, now you can learn all about the history of the bathroom and all the things that go on there in rhyming format. The illustrations are cute and clever and you may just learn something. So, if someone yells "gardez l'eau" duck and cover. Warning: This book may cause fits of giggles.

Publisher: Aperture Foundation
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 8/1/2007
ISBN: 9781597110488
ISBN-10: 1597110485

This is a beautifully photographed art book. And it is enormous!, almost one and a half feet by two feet. This book is full of aerial shots of the beach and the ocean and the people who visit it. They lounge on the sand, they float in the sea. The beach is endless and the people are so small in comparison. The aerial shots allow for the viewer to see patterns in the sand and sea which we can’t normally see from the ground. This book makes me long to visit the ocean.

Publisher: Avenel Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2/1/1984
ISBN: 9780517412961
ISBN-10: 0517412969

Mary Stewart first published Madam will you talk? in 1956. She has her own style of writing romantic suspense novels. I love all her books, especially Nine coaches waiting, Moonspinners, and My brother Michael. The plots are very intriguing. Many times they concern victims or criminals of The war, by which she is referring to World War II. These books take you back and you have to remember that they were written in the 50’s and 60’s. They are rather brutal for their times complete with throat slashing and use of the b-word, but provide a sense of nostalgia which is very addictive.

Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 9/26/2007
ISBN: 9781593075958
ISBN-10: 1593075952

And now for something entirely different and not for children, I present the Kurosagi corpse delivery service. This manga revolves around a group of graduated university students who finish unfinished business of the dead. Five people in all, six if you count the talking alien puppet, each with their own unique ability: communing with the dead, embalmer, dousing expert, computer/hacking expert, and the guy who channels an alien through the puppet on his hand. Part CSI, part supernatural, this series is fantastic and I can’t wait until the next one comes out! The library has volumes 1 – 7 so far.

Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 9/1/2007
ISBN: 9781423106869
ISBN-10: 1423106865

Gerald becomes annoyed when a bird lands on his head, and the situation only gets worse until Piggie offers a solution to help him solve his problem.

Publisher: Scholastic Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2/1/2004
ISBN: 9780439373012
ISBN-10: 0439373018

This is an illustrated picture book based on a traditional children’s song about a naughty bunny that goes around poppin’ animals on the head. The illustrations showing Little Bunny Foo Foo in a wagon, then on a motor bike, and eventually on a tractor scoopin’ up all sorts of animals to pop on the head will make children laugh out loud.

Publisher: Merriweather Records
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 1997

One of my favorite songs to share during a story time, especially if the theme is rabbits, is “Sleeping Bunnies” by Kathy Reid-Naiman on her Tickles and Tunes album. Toddler and preschool-age children will have a great time pretending to be sleeping bunnies and then wake up and start hopping to the beat of the song.

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 9/4/2007
ISBN: 9781596432727
ISBN-10: 1596432721

This is a picture book about that age old question, "Which came first the chicken or the egg?” Transformations of all types are included such as a tadpole to frog, seed to flower, and of course egg to chicken. I enjoyed the colorful pictures and imaginative conclusion where the story seems to start all over again.

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 3/1/1977
ISBN: 9780316236133
ISBN-10: 0316236136

I recently found this book about drawing with thumbprints by Ed Emberley. I have always felt that I was horrible at art. Since, I’ve found this book, my opinion really hasn’t changed. However, my artistic skills are no longer limited to drawing stick figures. With a bit of guidance from this book, I now have a decent repertoire of thumbprint art, which include thumbprint frogs, caterpillars, and of course bunnies!

Publisher: Avon
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/1/2007
ISBN: 9780061245541
ISBN-10: 0061245542

What’s Perdita “Poppy” the Duchess of Selby to do when she believes her husband no longer loves her? She won’t settle for a marriage of convenience, so the very proper “Poppy” shocks her mother and society with her new independent life. Poppy’s mother, advocating that her son-in-law take a mistress so that her daughter is spared from unpleasant bedroom duties, moves into the Duke’s house to make his life intolerable. Meanwhile the Duke is determined to win Poppy back. Eloisa James writes with biting wit, showcases historical detail, and introduces unusual, lovable characters in another terrific regency romance.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Avon Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 5/1/2007
ISBN: 9780061231230
ISBN-10: 0061231231

Lady Charlotte Hayward is beautiful, intelligent, rich, and inexplicably unmarried at the advanced age nearly 30 years. But Lady Charlotte has a secret -- a child born out of wedlock and given away when she was a foolish teenager. Her reputation is spared though she believes she can never marry. But her intriguing new neighbor, the scientific Darius Carsington, fifth earl of Hargate, isn’t like the dozens of other eligible men she has rejected in the past.

First Chapter  

Publisher: William Morrow
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 3/1/2007
ISBN: 9780061128851
ISBN-10: 0061128856

The day before Easter 1975, the two young Bethany sisters disappear while on a Saturday shopping trip to the mall. They are never found, the media eventually loses interests, and the parents try to find a way to live while carrying the pain of their unspeakable loss. Now, decades later, a female accident victim claims to be Heather Bethany. Her story has gaping holes but still contains enough “insider” knowledge to raise hope that the case will at last be solved and the truth revealed. The police, the retired detective, a lawyer, a social worker, the Bethany girls’ mother join forces to discover if the mystery woman is indeed Heather Bethany.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Dutton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 4/17/2007
ISBN: 9780525950127
ISBN-10: 0525950125

A twenty-year old murder at a summer camp tangles with an attempt to smear the reputation of County Prosecutor, Paul Copeland. Suspend disbelief and enjoy this page-turner. Note: Coben’s books are great to listen to while traveling -- he’s the staple of my drives to LA on barren Highway 5.

Publisher: Tricycle Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 8/22/2006
ISBN: 9781582461809
ISBN-10: 1582461805

The curious title and interesting cover initially caught my attention, and then I stayed to read how Rachel’s story unfolded. Her story, written in a series of poems, was very touching as she learned to live with a single parent after her mother abandons both her and her father. Following Rachel through her heartache and pain brought a tear to my eye as I considered her lonely loss, but also a sense of hope was ignited as a path of healing and repair began for her. This was a good read and written by a local author too!

Publisher: Fox Home Entertainment
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/27/2007
UPC: 00024543460282

This quirky movie about a creative pie-making pregnant waitress was a real slice! The names of her pies alone made it worth watching! Just for a taste of added fun, I found recipes for “Don’t-want-Earl-to-kill-me pie” and “Falling-in-love-chocolate mousse pie” at the films website: http://waitressmovie.net/jennas-pies/

Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 9/20/2007
ISBN: 9780803731523
ISBN-10: 0803731523

This new book is a feast of knock-knock jokes, each joke is illustrated by well known children’s book illustrators. It was fun to see 14 different artists works compiled into one neat book!

Publisher: Kino International
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/5/2006
UPC: 00738329050221

An independent film made in Australia tells a story of a woman who envisions disaster at every turn and portrays it in her art. Then she witnesses a real train accident that takes a man’s life and a photojournalist arrives on the scene. Their personal stories unfold and the lives of those around them. There is an interesting unique intermingling of animation and photo sequences in this film that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 4/1/2007
ISBN: 9780316013574
ISBN-10: 0316013579

This fun new picture book captures the utter joy of new socks! I mean really, what more can you ask for . . . unless of course you want to talk about new shoes . . .