Library: Book Reviews

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

Amazon.com says Artemis Fowl is "Fantastic stuff from beginning to end... A rip-roaring, 21st century romp of the highest order." Anti-hero and criminal mastermind, Artemis Fowl decides the only way to steal the legendary pot of fairy gold, is to kidnap one of the fairies. But Artemis, brilliant though he is, doesn't know what he is getting into. This is a fast-paced and devilishly fun read for the over-ten year old crowd.

Reviewed by: Amazon.com

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Sister Anne's Hands by Marybeth Lorbiecki

k-2 BOOK OF THE MONTH Seven-year-old Anna is excited about her first day in the 2nd grade. She is also very curious about her new teacher, an African-American nun. Anna has never encountered a black person close up before and she is uncertain. Soon, however, all her apprehensions vanish as her classroom comes alive with the Sister's warmth. Just when everything feels perfect, someone hurls a paper airplane with an ugly message on its wings. How Sister Anne deals with the incident has a profound impact on her students. Lorbiecki writes about a young girl's coming to terms with racial difference and about the pain ignorance can cause in a moving and timeless manner.

LIBRARIAN'S CHOICE

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When the Soldiers Were Gone by Vera Propp

3rd-4th BOOK OF THE MONTH The war is over, but Henk's world has been turned upside down by the arrival of a Jewish man and woman who say he is their son. During the war Henk was made to hide when the Nazi soldiers came. Now Henk must say good-bye to the only Mama and papa he knows and face a new, unfamiliar life, a baby brother, a new school. What will it be like?

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King of Shadows by Susan Cooper

5th-6th BOOK OF THE MONTH Nat Field's short life has been shadowed by loss & horror. His one escape is his talent for acting, & he has been picked to perform at Shakespeare's Globe, London's amazing new copy of the bard's playhouse. As the rehearsals begin strange, eeire echoes of the past begin creeping in. Nat goes to bed mysteriously sick and wakes up healthy, but in 1599! Now he's acting at the ORIGINAL Globe with William Shakespeare, a quirky, warm-hearted actor, as his co-star.

Cooper vividly conveys the sights, sounds, & smells of Elizabethan London. Her poignant characterization of Nat, whose grief is released by Shakespeare & healed by his words, captures perfectly an adolescent in the thrall of the the theater, in all its grittiness & grandeur.

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