New Historical Fiction

	The Revolution of Sabine – Beth Levine Ain 16-year-old Sabine Durand, daughter of aristocrats, thinks of nothing but donning exquisite ball gowns and being seen at all the right parties in Paris. But when she sneaks away to a salon and meets the revolutionary Ben Franklin, Sabine becomes fascinated by ideas of change.  Now determined to take control of her life as it spins toward an arranged marriage, Sabine must discover how to break free of her social-climbing mother’s cruel grasp.
	Den of Thieves – Julia Golding The third volume of the Cat Royal series takes readers to Paris on a covert mission. The Theater Royal is closed for renovations, so Mr. Sheridan commissions Cat to act as his spy in revolutionary Paris. Disguised as a ballerina, Cat joins the revolution, only to find that it is up to her to save her friends when they are captured as traitors.
	The Devil’s Paintbox – Victoria McKernan When orphans Aiden and Maddy Lynch first meet trailrider Jefferson J. Jackson in the spring of 1865, they’re struggling to survive on their family’s drought-ravaged Kansas farm. So when Jackson offers an escape—a 2000-mile journey on the Oregon Trail, across the roughest country in the world—Aiden knows it’s their only choice.
	Flygirl – Sherri L. Smith Ida Mae Jones dreams of flight. But being a woman, and being black, are two strikes against her. When America enters the war with Germany and Japan, the Army creates the WASP, the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots—and Ida suddenly sees a way to fly. But even the WASP won’t accept her as a black woman, forcing Ida Mae to make a difficult choice of “passing,” of pretending to be white to be accepted into the program.
	Distant Waves – Suzanne Weyn Four sisters and their mother make their way from a spiritualist town in New York to London, becoming acquainted with journalist W. T. Stead, scientist Nikola Tesla, and industrialist John Jacob Astor. When they all find themselves on the Titanic, one of Tesla’s inventions dooms them…and one could save them.

Mmm…Cuppycakes!

Do you like cupcakes?  (If you said no – are you CRAZY??)

If the answer is a resounding YES, then come out to the library on Wednesday, July 29 at 3:00 for a chance to play with your food at our cupcake decorating party.  Use cupcakes as your canvas and icings as your paint – plus, you get to eat the final result!  If you want some inspiration, check out some of these awesome cupcake designs:

 

 

 

The end of summer reading draws near…

Just a reminder to all teens that time is running out on our Go Wild! Summer Reading Program.  The last day to turn in an entry for a free paperback book is on Friday, July 31.  If you complete all five sections on your card by then, make sure to fill out a postcard for the final prize drawing!  We’ll be holding the drawing on Monday, August 3, after which I’ll mail out all the postcards to our winners, and you’ll have until August 31 to pick them up at the front desk.  Remember, everyone who completes the program will win a prize, so hurry up and get your card filled out!

Here’s a few of the great prizes you could win:

Grand prize: Acer Aspire 5515 laptop computer

Other prizes: iPod Nano, portable DVD player, MP3 players, books, T-shirts, booklights, gift cards from Panera Bread, Jimmy John’s, Medici, Garlic Press, Tobin’s Pizza, Avanti’s, Dunkin Donuts, Ironwood Golf, Big Mouth’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, and more!

We Will Wizard Rock You

Anyone planning on going to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince tonight?   I’ve been anxiously waiting for this movie ever since it got pushed back so Twilight could premiere last November.  Can’t wait!  And for those of you really serious Harry Potter fans out there, I found a great article online on Wizard Rock to keep you entertained while you wait to see the movie.  Any Harry and the Potters fans out there?  How about Draco and the Malfoys, for the Slytherins?

New Fiction

	Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen Auden is starting college in the fall, and decides to escape her control-freak professor mom to spend the summer with her novelist father, his new wife, and their baby daughter. Over the summer, Auden tackles many new projects: learning to ride a bike, facing the emotional fallout of her parents’ divorce, distancing herself from her mother, and falling in love with Eli, a fellow insomniac bicyclist recovering from his own traumas.
	Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim Nina Khan feels like an outsider, for two reasons: her perfect older sister, Sonia, and the fact that she has inherited the “Pakistani hairy gene.” It’s bad enough that she has dark hair on her legs, arms, and face, but then she also grows a dark, downy stripe down her back.  On top of all this, her conservative parents don’t allow her to date or attend parties.  How can one teenage girl deal with all of this mortification?
	Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle Growing up in a world of wealth and pastel-tinted entitlement, fifteen-year-old Carly has always relied on the constancy—and authenticity—of her sister, Anna. But when fourteen-year-old Anna turns plastic-perfect-pretty over the course of a single summer, everything starts to change. And there are boys involved, complicating things as boys always do.
	Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt Remy Walker has it all: he found the love of his life at home in Dwyer, West Virginia, deep in his beloved Appalachian Mountains. But at 17, you’re not supposed to already be where you want to be, right? You’ve got a whole world to make your way through, and you start by leaving your dead-end town, right?  So when a fascinating young artist from out of state shows Remy his home through new eyes, why is he suddenly questioning his future?

Altered Books craft

Want an excuse to rip up and redecorate old books?  At this event, we’ll use discarded books and other found objects to create beautiful recycled works of art, with the help of the Ecology Action Center.

Altered Books
For teens age 12-18
Normal Public Library Community Room
Friday, June 19 from 1:30-3:00.

Summer Reading Mid-Program Drawing

Just a reminder that Wednesday, July 8  is the last day to turn in a book review for the mid-program prize drawing.  You can choose to enter for one of two book baskets – one has some of the best teen novels of the past year, and the other has a great collection of manga and comics.  If you’d like to see what the book baskets look like, you can find them in the display case by the College Avenue entrance.  20 runner-up prize winners will receive a Normal Parks and Recreation pool pass.  Hurry up and turn in your book review now!