Racing Through the Library At A Snail's Pace

I have a hopeless goal of reading a book from each shelf in my lovely local library. It's hopeless because we are due for a major renovation which will shuffle everything about, but when should certain doom discourage me in any endeavor? I've already finished Picture Books and Juvenile Series, and I'm turning the last corner in Juvenile Fiction.

Ordinary Magic, Caitlen Rubino-Bradway. A magical school book with a twist -- the world is magic and the special school is for the rare Ordinary child. After the initial shock and horror, the characters settle down into boarding school work, mischief, and defeating evil-doers.

The Dreamer, Pam Munoz Ryan. Lyrical biography of a famous poet. Not so artistic that children would avoid it, but still displaying the love and beauty of language.

Night of the Howling Dogs, Graham Salisbury. Boy scouts in Hawaii deal with a earthquake and tsunami while trapped on a beach during a wilderness camp. Good characters and good action.

Smells Like Dog, Suzanne Selfors. Mysterious societies, vanished uncles, and a town that just doesn't appreciate Homer's eccentricities make up this adventure story. I liked the flying cloud vehicles.



Blue Jasmine, Kashmira Sheth. A family moves from India to Iowa. I admit to grabbing it because of the Iowa thing, but it was an interesting culture shock story from a culture different than mine.

Elephant Run, Roland Smith. A World War II story about kids, English and Burmese, in Burma (later Myanmar) resisting the Japanese.

BONE: Quest For the Spark #1 Tom Sniegoski. A band of heroes assembles and begins to fight against the darkness while searching for the Spark. My first BONE book, but it looked fun and explains why my kids liked them.

Hokey Pokey, Jerry Spinelli. A magical realism story about childhood and growing up, which missed the mark a bit for me since my childhood was significantly different so my mythical landscape would have be different as well. I'm not sure which kids would enjoy it.


Liar & Spy, Rebecca Stead. A mystery with the mystery located slightly askew to where the main character thinks it is, with an additional puzzle he also hides from himself but which most readers will figure out. A good read if not quite as shiny as her previous book.

Edge Chronicles 7: Freeglader, Paul Steward. Delicious vocabulary and fantastical creatures abound in this book, but I never quite got in the spirit of things, probably because of that BOOK 7 thing.

Spellbinder, Helen Stringer. Good solid children's fantasy, with a girl who can see ghosts, a boy who believes her, and the problem of all the ghosts disappearing from the world.