Town School for Boys Library

We’re building our collection of books for new readers! Our library has thousands of great picture books, chapter books and non-fiction books for all levels of readers, but those first steps into reading can be intimidating. The series We Both Read aims to make the transition easier by offering alternating text for parent and child.

Titles include:

• My Car Trip
• Frank and the Balloon
• Baseball Fever
• The Mighty Little Lion Hunter
• Just 5 more minutes!

Come check them out!

And we’re back!

We’re thrilled that the school year has started and the Town School Library is once again a busy, noisy place.  There have been a few changes and improvements over the summer, and as usual, we have tons of brand new books.  Some of the changes you may notice include:

• A board-gaming area in the reference section.   Towards the end of last year, we started buying board games for boys who wanted an alternative to playing sports outside during recess.  So far, we have Monopoly, Harry Pottery trivia, and Runebound, and we’re definitely looking to build up this collection.  If you have any specific game requests, let us know.  We’ve also created shelf space for boys to save unfinished games, since most good games take at least two or three recess periods to finish.

• Our Junior Fiction section is better than ever.  We cleaned out and donated a number of the older books that were no longer appealing to kids, and we’ve bought a huge stack of new, colorful, and engaging short chapter books.  Come take a look!

• New magazines!  This year, we’ll be subscribing to a number of different magazines, including Game Informer, Mad Magazine for Kids, Cricket, MLS Magazine (soccer!), ESPN Magazine, Slam, and Time Magazine for Kids.  You’ll find all current issues of these magazines in the hanging racks next to the back windows.  Boys are welcome to borrow magazines overnight.

• As you may know, the library has lots of videos.  In previous years, only teachers were able to borrow these, but this year we have decided to let kids and parents check them out, too.  Boys can borrow videos on Fridays and must return them the following Monday.

• Looking to donate a book to the library?  Check out our new Amazon wishlist!  We’ll be using this wishlist as part of our new, improved Birthday Book program, coordinated by parent volunteers Tammy Leong and Akemi Tsuruyama.  And while we’re on the topic, if you’re a Town family member and are interested in volunteering in the library, feel free to contact our new volunteer coordinator, Tina Tunney.

• And last but hardly least, MICE!  Sadly, one of our library mice — Bernadette — died this summer.  As of last week, however, Nibbler has two new companions: a black mouse named Frances, and a grey-and-white mouse named Lucy.

The library just got 800 million brand new books!

Okay, okay. Not quite 800 million. We admit, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. But we did get a whole lot of new books — four boxes full, to be specific!

Among these books are some fantastic new graphic novels that you might enjoy. Read about them below.

	Tiny Tyrant, by Lewis Trondheim and Fabrice Parme In Portocristo, anything six-year-old King Ethelbert says goes, no matter how bizarre or harebrained. He transports himself back in time to meet a dinosaur, swaps his country’s kids for Ethelbert robots, tests his bodyguard’s mettle by putting a price on his own head, and shrinks the world down to his size.
	Goosebumps Graphix: Creepy Creatures. The fantastically popular Goosebumps books are now available in graphic novel form! This collection includes “The Werewolf of Fever Swamp,” “The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight,” and “The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena.”
	Big Fat Little Lit by Art Spiegelman. A collection of very silly short stories presented in comic book format. Includes some games and activities.
	Spiderman: Forces of NatureIt’s wall-to-wall mayhem in the Mighty Marvel Manner with four original tales of everybody’s favorite teenage wall-crawler! Featuring the Grey Gargoyle and Hydro-Man.

The books keep on coming! Every day seems to bring yet another carton of brand new books, all covered and ready to hit the shelves. Most of the books we buy are pretty new — published in the last year or so. But sometimes we pick up brand new copies of old favorites. Here are two that you might have missed.

George’s Marvelous Medicine, by Roald Dahl. 89 pages.

George has the nastiest grandmother in the world. She is, Roald Dahl explains, “a grizzly old grunion of a grandmother.” So what does George do? He concocts the strangest, most disgusting, most magical medicine for old Grandma that he can possibly imagine. If you like The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Twits, you’ll love this gross-out classic!

The Worst Witch at School, by Jill Murphy. 175 pages.

Mildred Hubble goes to school at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches, where she’s supposed to learn potions, chanting, and broomstick flying. Unfortunately, Mildred isn’t much good at any of these classes. Actually, the only thing she’s any good at all is getting into trouble. She’s very good at that! Who else but Mildred would accidentally turn their worst enemy into a pig?

Hey Bone fans! Book #7 has arrived!  If you would like to borrow Ghost Circles, the latest full-color version of Jeff Smith’s hugely popular Bone series, stop by the library and put your name on the sign-up sheet on our front door.  We have two copies of the book, so we hope you won’t have to wait too long before it’s your turn.

Speaking of madly popular books, we also have just a few more You Wouldn’t Want To books available.  If you’re curious about exactly why you wouldn’t want to be an Aztec sacrifice, or why you wouldn’t want to be an American colonist, come check them out.

There’s something new in the library, and it’s not a book, for once.  Can you guess what it is?

Here are some hints:

It has four tiny feet, a long tail, and a face full of whiskers.

Its fur is white, and its eyes are pink.

It runs on a wheel and drinks water from a bottle.

It rhymes with “house.”

Have you figured it out yet?

We’re proud to say that the Town School library has more than 24,000 titles in its collection.  That said, sometimes it can be hard to choose the next perfect book to read.  Our new “Spotlight on…” series is designed to help busy students choose their next book to check out.

 The first book in this series of spotlighted books is The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott.

From Publishers Weekly
Twin 15-year-old siblings Sophie and Josh Newman take summer jobs in San Francisco across the street from one another: she at a coffee shop, he at a bookstore owned by Nick and Perry Fleming. In the vey first chapter, armed goons garbed in black with “dead-looking skin and… marble eyes” (actually Golems) storm the bookshop, take Perry hostage and swipe a rare Book (but not before Josh snatches its two most important pages). The stolen volume is the Codex, an ancient text of magical wisdom. Nick Fleming is really Nicholas Flamel, the 14th-century alchemist who could turn base metal into gold, and make a potion that ensures immortality. Sophie and Josh learn that they are mentioned in the Codex’s prophecies: “The two that are one will come either to save or to destroy the world.” Mayhem ensues, as Irish author Scott draws on a wide knowledge of world mythology to stage a battle between the Dark Elders and their hired gun—Dr. John Dee—against the forces of good, led by Flamel and the twins (Sophie’s powers are “awakened” by the goddess Hekate, who’d been living in an elaborate treehouse north of San Francisco). Not only do they need the Codex back to stop Dee and company, but the immortality potion must be brewed afresh every month. Time is running out, literally, for the Flamels. Proceeding at a breakneck pace, and populated by the likes of werewolves and vampires, the novel ends on a precipice, presumably to be picked up in volume two.

By popular demand, the library now has Goosebumps books. For those of you who like a good, quick, scary read, R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series is perfect for an occasional thrill. They can get a little gory, though, so choose carefully. If you’re not a fan of horror stories, these are not the books for you!

If you are interested, you’ll find the Goosebumps books shelved with other Juvenile Fiction series books on the big walk-around shelf in the story area. (See picture below.)

The Goosebumps books’ call number is J FIC STI, and since they are part of a series, each book has a “Series” sticker on its spine. Right now the library owns just nine of these books, but we should be getting a few more in over the next couple weeks.

Anthony Horowitz, Snakehead — FIC HOR
The new installment of the Alex Rider’s adventures begins with Alex crash-landing on the Australian coast. Soon, he has been snapped up by the Australian Secret Service, who hope that he can help them in their fight against one of the ruthless gangs of smugglers known as the snakeheads.

Erin Hunter, Firestar’s Quest — FIC HUN
This latest book in the wildly popular Warriors series tells of Firestar’s difficult decision to leave behind his peaceful home and seek out a dark truth that has been long forgotten by living cats.

Nick Hornby, Slam — YA FIC HOR
Things are going pretty well for Sam. His mother has finally ditched her “rubbish boyfriend,” his art teacher thinks he’s got talent, and he’s just learned two new skateboarding tricks. And then Sam’s girlfriend gives him some shocking and life-changing news. This book is a young adult novel, best suited to 6th through 8th-grade readers.

Kathleen Odean, Great Books for Boys — PRO 028.1 ODE
Organized by level and genre, Odean’s annotated booklist is an excellent tool for parents and teachers looking to match young readers with just the right book.

Did you know that the library had a graphic novels collection specifically for 6th through 8th graders? (Younger students can borrow from this collection too, so long as a parent gives the OK.)

For those not familiar with this book format, a graphic novel is basically a long version of a comic book, with a paperback or hardback binding. Some graphic novels are actually collections of shorter comic book. For instance, the library has a 500-page Green Lantern book featuring 56 of these classic comics. We’ve also got two copies of Marvel’s The Amazing Spiderman, which includes reprints of dozens of popular Spiderman issues.

But graphic novels go way beyond superheroes. Authors and artists have collaborated to produce illustrated versions of well-known works of literature, like Beowulf and Frankenstein. There’s even a graphic novel version of the 9/11 Report! We’re also working on beefing up Town’s manga collection, for those students who enjoy reading these popular Japanese graphic novels.

Some of the highlights of our growing graphic novels collection at Town include:

Hikaru no Go — GN HOT v. 1
Hikaru Shindo is like any sixth-grader in Japan: a pretty normal schoolboy with a two-tone head of hair and a penchant for antics. One day, he finds an old bloodstained Go board in his grandfather’s attic — and that’s when things get really interesting.

The Red Badge of Courage — GN VAN
In a perfect world, young Henry Fleming would have been content to remain on the family farm. But the Civil War shattered that dream, tearing families apart, pitting brothers against brothers.

Marvel 1602 — GN GAI
Classic Marvel icons such as the X-Men, Spiderman, the Fantastic Four and Daredevil appear in this intriguing world of 17th century science and sorcery, instantly familiar to readers, yet subtly different in this new time.

Persepolis — GN SAT
Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution…The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

(All book descriptions taken from jacketflaps.)

You’ll find these graphic novels — and others — lined up atop the shelf to the left of the main entrance. All of them have bright yellow “GN” (Graphic Novel) stickers on their spines, plus the first three letters of their author’s last names. Let us know if you have any suggestions for additions to our library!