Colonel Theordore Roosevelt by David A. Adler

If you saw the PBS documentary by Ken Burns about the Roosevelt family and want to find out more about one of the most unique characters that even Hollywood could not have thought up, you will enjoy this. Maybe I am a little biased since after watching the PBS show, my husband agrees that I am too much like him. What would cause his daughter Alice to say that her father "wanted to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral?" Why would a senator be clearly upset enough to say "Now look, that damned cowboy is president of the United States?" Whatever he was, our country would be much different without him. If he was alive today, he would be still fighting some the same battles he fought years ago because he started most of them. But to really understand him,  you need to understand what made him the way he was. To do that, please read this book. To see why he is responsible for our way of life, click on the Biography label to find the other biography about him on this blog. I told you I had a little bias about him.

Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School Book the First) by Gail Carriger

You think your parents don't understand you. Sophronia doesn't want to be like all the other young ladies in her world of 1851 England (if you watch Downton Abbey you may understand). When she finally gets her mother so angry, she is shipped off to a finishing school -Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Qualities. That is the last place she wants to be, or so she thinks, but on her way she learns from her travel companions it is not your "normal" finishing school and she is what they call a covert recruit. As she is trying to find out what that is, the stagecoach is attacked by something you will not find in our history of England. This is only the start of surprises and quickly she learns that she may fit in more than she thought. If you think your teachers are weird, you have not met the faculty of this place. I would fit in easily. But there is a more pressing problem than learning how to curtsy and teatime manners while knowing how to hide the knife in your dress. Something has turned up missing and if the school doesn't hand it over, it might not be around much longer and its students may go with it. If you love a fast paced story full of the unexpected and humorous twists, this is for you. All I know is I want the pet dog she hides in her suite at school. I know I am a cat person, but I think that dog is the coolest dog in any book I have ever read. 

Suggestions on how to use and why I limit the amount of books

Five years ago, I started this book blog to help users find a good book to read. I looked at other book blogs and found too many were hard to use. They were just titles and authors, or had hundreds of books that could overwhelm. While this year, this blog will cross the 100 book mark, I choose to add only 11 books a year so it will grow slowly. I have a list of subjects that will allow users a way to call up only the books they are interested in reading. When you do, don't start at the top -- please go to the bottom where the 1st books listed will be found. Those are the ones I have given students for many years. That is why you see older books on this; once Scholastic moves on to new books, the ones which were loved can be forgotten. But some of the newest ones have made my top 25 list of my favorites. When you have been a librarian for over 28 years, you cannot have just a top ten. Those who know me from the small school district will tell you that long hair and hair dye hides my age very well.  All my other users, maybe some day we will meet.

Siver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause

Are you still having Twilight withdrawal? Long before Edward and his friends were created, there was Simon. Zoe's life is slowly coming apart. Her mother is sick, he dad is in his own world and her best friend is leaving. Simon is on a mission to end the life of the vampire that killed his mother centuries ago and made him a vampire. When this vampire almost gets her friend, Zoe's and Simon's worlds meet. Can Zoe help Simon end the evil in his life without losing hers? Can Simon fill the need of someone who loves you when Zoe needs someone to support her as her life crumbles? Can two hurt people find each other for a happy ending or does the relationship end without hope? To find out, enjoy this read. Is it better than than the better known book? Will I ruin another by helping you find a better written book again?

Savvy by Ingrid Law

You think your family is weird. Well, Mississippi Beaumont (called Mibs) has you beat and just by her name you know she can't be part of any normal family. She is turning 13 soon and this  can be a big problem in her family. When her older brother turned 13, his new talent caused her family to leave their beautiful gulf home in the south and move to Kansas. What would make a whole family leave because someone turns 13? You will not believe it. In Kansas, the family tries to lay low, but there is already talk. When Mibs learns that her father has been hurt in a car crash, she feels she has to get to him because maybe her special talent will save him. But taking off in a bus full of pink bibles to start the journey may not have been the best choice but that decision will change everyone involved including a few adults that get roped in to help the kids find their way to their very hurt father. Mibs may have it right that she can help her dad, but in a way no one expects. If you like to laugh, see people get what is coming to them, and love fantasies, you will love this.

Julia's Kitchen by Brenda Ferber

Why do I include sad books? Maybe it is because some of the best books are mostly sad, but help you learn how to handle the same problem if it ever happens to you. Or sometimes when you are junior high age, you enjoy sad books because you are glad it will never happen to you. I would not wish what happens to Cara even on my worst enemy. How can you go from being happy having a sleepover with your friend one minute to having the worst thing that could ever happen in the same night? Do you get mad at God, walk around too stunned to continue to live, or do you look for a lifeline from anywhere? Cara's Dad is no help and will not answer her questions. But finding something that makes you feel better is a start and Cara learns that doing something is better than sleepwalking through life which is her dad's choice -- or is it really her dad's choice? All I have left to say is why does the cat always get the blame when it was the human's choice?

Dreadful Fates; What a Shocking way to go! by Tracey Turner

With chapters like Fatal Food, Animal Encounters, and Fatal Mistakes, you get the feeling that some of this could happen to you if you are not careful. Maybe you should read this to keep some of your more brain dead friends (aren't all teens at different times during the day?) from joining these unlucky souls. From some gruesome book covers that you can really see if you visit a more interesting library than ours to why some people really did have a worry about being buried alive, I would not want you to read this on a dark stormy night alone in your house. For those who love those Mythbusters - please don't try this at home: "How to mummify yourself" ideas from some experts. Just in case you think these are just old true tales, a few have happened in your lifetime even if you are only in junior high. But DON'T AND I REPEAT DON'T get ideas about using any of this stuff on your "favorite" teachers. It is not legal and it is not nice. You will get me in trouble again for giving you ideas. You know what happened the last time that happened, don't you?

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms: Magic, Mystery & avery Strange Adventures by Lissa Evans

Stuart Horten is not happy to move back to his father's home town. He had to leave his friends and a cool house to go to a small home with 3 noisy girls next door who like to write bad things about them in their "newspaper." But once he learns about the mysterious disappearance of his great uncle Tony, life gets more interesting. Turns out his dull father was left a clue to solve what really happened to Uncle Tony but didn't bother to do it. So Stuart sets off on the cold trail that leads to places where he will only get in trouble if he goes. On his quest, he doesn't know who he can trust, but he has to do something before they tear down Tony's abandoned house which might have the final clue to lead to the surprising ending. When he realizes that he is being followed, life gets more dangerous with every clue. If he does find the truth, will any of adults believe him? If you love a good mystery that is not easy to know where it is going, this book is for you.  

Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman

Have your parents ever told you that you have a bad attitude, are mean, and say awful things? Then you may understand Meggy. Do you ever feel the world is out to get you? Then you do understand Meggy. Born to a mother who didn't really want her, she is sent to a father who she has never met after the one person who really loved her dies. There her life doesn't get much better. She has to make her own way and not expect much from him, but you will be shocked by how unloving his last behavior is toward her. Even with his attitude, she still doesn't know what to do when she learns of a plot he is involved with that could get him hanged. What she does will bring a surprising ending to those from whom she found kindness in this medieval world. If you don't know what alchemy is, don't look it up before you read this book. Why ruin the same surprise that Meggy had when she learned what her father was really up to.

The Last Silk Dress by Ann Rinaldi

Does every stand have to cost you dearly? Susan's life has been turned upside down by the Civil War. She is a daughter of the South and wants to help any way she can. So she gets involved in finding a way to give the South its own balloon even if she has to leave her comfort zone. But the war's effect on her life is not as big as the secrets her family has. Once those secrets are learned, how can she be the same? Choices you make once you find the truth don't always affect only you. One choice will be deadly. If you think your family may be strange, you have not read about this one. Modern soap operas have nothing on some Southern families before the Civil War and once war comes the drama only gets harder on those involved. Which side would you have been on if you were in Susan's shoes? Are you sure of that answer? You have to read to find out that those in history had reasons to do stuff we condemn today.

Lincoln's Flying Spries: Thaddeus Lowe and the Civil War Balloon Corps by Gail Jarrow

Before airplanes and satellites, armies still needed to know what each other were doing or even if they left under the cover of darkness. 150 years ago, balloons were the new high tech and brave (or stupid depending on your definition of those words) men rode high to do the spying. Thaddeus Lowe was the most famous and daring - he wanted to prove that he could take a balloon across the Atlantic Ocean but war broke out, so he volunteered to help the Union cause. How much trouble could a man in a balloon could get into? Being shot out of the air or being captured was a possibility any time you went up, but something else stopped them cold. Was it the technology that was lacking or was it humans' lack of vision?   When did the first aircraft carrier really exist? What were those "Quaker Guns" the balloons helped to find? (FYI - Quakers don't believe in war, so what is with those guns???) When did the first balloon trip happen across the Atlantic? Did those Confederates get their own balloon? How did Custer get involved with all of this? If you want the answers, keep reading this book.  If you have missed pictures in those books you have to read for school, you will enjoy the ones here.  They are really from the era so don't ask me why they are in black and white.

Constable and Toop by Garerh P. Jones

I promised the author if I liked his book I would put it on my book blog. (Yes, I met him in person and have a signed copy for the junior high to prove it.) If you enjoy humorous ghost tales with lots of "interesting" characters, action that jumps between tales that meet with a bang at the end, and lots of surprises between, you will love it also. Sam sees ghosts and can talk to them, but he doesn't want the gift because when you live with your father above his undertaking business you see too many ghosts. When a mysterious man shows up late one night, even Sam's strange life takes a twist. Lapsewood is just a ghost working his afterlife in the Ghost Bureau and it is just as boring as his human life. But when he is assigned to the housing department and sent back to Earth to find a missing outreach worker, his life isn't boring anymore. If he is not careful, he will end up in "the vault", a place whose name alone will scare even a ghost. Throw in teenage Claire who likes her haunted house and a reverend who is setting up a horrible plague for both ghosts and humans with every exorcism he does, not everyone will survive to see the last page.  How do ghost dogs and rogue ghosts fit in? You will have to read to find out. 

Across the Great Barrier by Patricia Wrede

I have not let myself read a whole series in almost 20 years, but I had to read the sequel to The Thirteenth Child.  The reason the sequel made this blog is you don't have to read it to understand the story (but you will want to anyway after you read this book). Eff has always had trouble controlling her magic. She has lived in the shadow of her twin brother and liked it that way. But now she has to figure out what she will do with her life as she graduates school. With others starting to believe she could be a powerful magician, she just wants to be left alone. But a trip across the great magical barrier brings her to a land where regular animals can kill you if the magic ones don't get you first.  If you don't understand the rules, you can get killed even if you are on the "safe" side. Her twin, Lan, has never been one who respects the rules and learns that with magic, not doing so will get someone killed quickly. But it will take both of them to help the settlers when a new magical animal shows up and there is evidence it has been in the area before with terrible consequences. If you like history and fantasy, just imagine what our country's history would be like if there was really magic in the world. Beware, you may have to read the last in series The Far West just like I did. I have too many authors to read to keep reading books by authors I have read but this series made me read it. Will it make you?

The Giant and How He Humbugged America by Jim Murphy

How you ever wondered how those who took other people's money by hook or crook did it? How did the crooks get those ideas and how did those who were tricked not know what was up? Is "too good to be true" really a clue or does something in ourselves make us suckers for these type of activities?  To learn how one of the biggest hoaxes in the late 1800s was pulled, we get a host of shady characters that you would not think were that smart, a mix of different kinds of beliefs that clash, and an example of the fact that when money is involved nothing is impossible. Even the famous P.T. Barnum gets involved. Learn how this hoax changed the way scientists and other academics did research and deemed things real.  For those of you who think we have all gotten too smart to fall for this, would you believe a very famous organization who has a television channel got fooled in the last 20 years?  You can even visit a copy of Cardiff Giant in Farmington Hills, MI. Just read the book to find out how.

How to use this blog to find a great book

Four years have passed since I started this and the list of books are getting longer. Please use the headings to the left to help you find the book you will love. Some of the best were put on at the beginning. While this has users all over the world, it is aimed at students in a small junior high that I miss. I started this because I was there only half time and for the last 2 years, not at all. No money is in the budget next year, so I am still working with the younger brothers and sisters, but not my favorite students. I need those students help now. I miss hearing about the books you love and I might. While I pull books to read in the summer from junior high collection, I am missing some that I might need to add for my readers all over the world. Can you let me know any books I am missing, so I can read them next summer (I refuse to take books away  during the school year from my students). You will find my email address on the school's website. I look forward to hearing your suggestions for this book blog. Hopefully, money will be found so I can join you again.

Frozen in Time by Ali Sparkes

Some boring summer!! Just when Ben and Rachel think the summer would be boring, they find a secret in the backyard. What they find sends all into an international mystery years in the making. How does a British government clean-up car, the Cold War,  Chernobyl, and a missing uncle help solve a 50 year old mystery? Can they really trust that helpful librarian? (Can you ever trust a helpful librarian??) The biggest question could be how do teens from the 1950s learn to be like teens today when everything you do was not allowed during that time? Will help arrive in time or will Ben and Rachel's new friends not make it to get to the bottom of what really happened to their father? For those of you who love a great mystery wrapped in one of the wildest sci-fi inventions, you will not want to put this down.

The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman by Meg Wolitzer

Have you ever wondered if life is out to get you?  Junior high schooler Duncan has that feeling every day. His single mom tries to help, but will life get any better or will it just get stranger? Duncan does have one gift and when the rich kid Carl learns of it, he has a plan - using that gift to win the national Scrabble tournament. Will winning really change Duncan's life? To do that he has to get past 2 other teams that have their own reasons to win. April Blunt needs this win to prove to her family that she really does belong to her sport jock family. Nate Savano just wants to get his father off his back and be allowed to go back to school. Does all of them becoming friends interfere with winning or does it end up keeping them alive when some adult takes the "winning-at-all-costs" idea a little to far? Who knew that Scrabble could be dangerous to your life? Who wins in both life and game? You will never play Scrabble the same way again once you read this.

Crunch by Leslie Conner

What would happen if our country really does run out of gas? How would you get around? What about getting food? Going to work or school? While others worry about these things, Dewey has bigger problems. Even though he is only 14, he told his dad that he would take care of the bike shop his family runs on the side. His parents went up north for their anniversary in his father's semi as he makes a run. The crunch stops their plans and strands them.  Could you as teenager find a way to help everyone who now needs bikes? Dewey does have help but the overwhelming need keeps growing. As the days pass, his older sister and younger twin siblings find what others will do to each other when society starts to come apart. But the worst happens when his dad is attacked far from home. All he wants is to see his parents again, but can that happen when there is no gas left in the United States? When things look the worst, some will rise to help, some will sink to hurt. What would you do? Let's hope you never have to find out, but until you do, enjoy this story about what we hope is not our future.

Blizzard! by Jim Murphy

125 years ago this day, many people in New York city found themselves fighting to stay alive.

Without the modern weather forecasting we have today, no one saw it coming. Even other places in the Northeast were hit even harder.  Hurricane Sandy hit the coast with wind and water, but this blizzard was just as powerful and it lasted 3 days. Who will survive, the young woman trying to make to the city on the trian that use coal stoves to heat the cars, the lawyer who decides to walk the long blocks or the factory workers trying to get home? What about the animals? Horses pulled everything and how can they survive being outside in this storm? Life and death struggles that  we think could not happen today, but please read and learn from their mistakes. Mistakes in a blizzard could cost you. If you like the Weather Channel, you will love this.

Izzy, Willy-Nilly by Cynthia Voight

Sometimes when an author hasn't published a YA book in a while, they are forgotten. Cynthia Voight should not be one of them. Izzy, Willy-Nilly is just one of her books that still relates to today's problems. Do you really know who your friends are? Will they be there when the chips are down or will they walk away? Izzy had it all, great family, popular friends, even on the cheer team. But all it takes to upset her life is trusting the wrong person. Izzy has to put her life back together again and she really needs support. It comes from someone who she thought she didn't even know, but sometimes it takes someone who knows how to be a real friend when you need one. Look around your school and find the people who are overlooked by the in crowd. You may find true friends there. Even with her new friends, can Izzy stand up to the person who took her old life away?