February 21-24, Presidents Day
Grades k-3, Abe Lincoln at Last (Magic Tree House #47), by Mary Pope Osborne*Are you ready for a presidential adventure?
Jack and Annie are! They are trying to get a special feather that will help save Merlin’s baby penguin, Penny. When the magic tree house whisks them back to Washington, D.C., in 1861, Jack can’t wait to meet Abraham Lincoln himself! But the new president is too busy to see them, as he is desperately trying to save a nation in crisis.
When Jack and Annie ask for some magical help, they go back even further in time to a mysterious woods. Are these the same woods where Abraham Lincoln takes his daily horse ride? If so, can an orphan named Sam help them find Abe? Or will Jack and Annie have to help Sam instead?
It’s a race against time as Jack and Annie try to do the right thing. Plus, they still have to aid a president and a troubled nation, as well as get the object that will save Penny the penguin!
Grades 4-6, Beehive Book Nominee, Lincoln and His Boys by Rosemary Wells.*Historians claim him as one of America’s most revered presidents. But to his rambunctious sons, Abraham Lincoln was above all a playful and loving father. Here is Lincoln as seen by two of his boys: Willie, thrilled to be on his first train trip when Lincoln was deciding to run for president; Willie and Tad barging into Cabinet meetings to lift Lincoln’s spirits in the early days of the Civil War, Tad accompanying him to Richmond just after the South’s defeat. With the war raging and the Union under siege, we see history unfolding through Willie’s eyes and then through Tad’s -- and we see Lincoln rising above his own inborn sadness and personal tragedy through his devotion to his sons. With evocative and engaging illustrations by P.J. Lynch, Rosemary Wells offers a carefully researched biography that gives us a Lincoln not frozen in time but accessible and utterly real.
March 5-9, BEEHIVE BOOKS
K - 3rd Grade, A Small Brown Dog With A Wet Pink Nose, by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen*Amelia wants a dog, needs a dog, and believes she simply cannot live without a small brown dog with a wet pink nose. Her parents think she can.
Rather than begging or pleading, Amelia adopts an imaginary dog named Bones. But when Amelia's make-believe pup runs away, her parents are in for a real surprise!
4th - 6th Grade, Because of Mr. Terupt, By Rob Buyea
Only Mr. Terupt, their new and energetic teacher, seems to know how to deal with them all. He makes the classroom a fun place, even if he doesn’t let them get away with much . . . until the snowy winter day when an accident changes everything—and everyone.
March 19 - 23, SPRING Books
K - 3rd Grade, When the Root Children Wake Up, by Audrey Wood*When Old Grandfather Winter disappears into his ice palace high in the mountains, Young Robin chirps her wake-up song to the Root Children deep underground. "Wake up," she sings. "It's time for the masquerade!"
Right away, the Root children set to work sewing their flowering costumes, and painting bugs with rainbows until they sparkle like jewels. Then, they frolic out into the world in a joyous chorus of color and song. They sing and dance through summer. But all good things must come to an end, and as the frosty autumn winds blow away the leaves and flowers, the Root Children must return to their underground bed with gentle Mother Earth.
4 - 6th Grade, The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs, by Joseph Buttler*When Eben McAllister reads about the Seven Wonders of the World, he longs to escape the small farming community of Sassafras Springs and do some exploring of his own. No one else ever seems to want to leave Sassafras, however–not even his best pal, Jeb–and so, for now, Eben figures he’s stuck on the farm with Pa and Aunt Pretty until he grows up.
All that changes when his pa, tired of Eben’s moping, challenges him to find Seven Wonders in Sassafras Springs that can stand up to the real Seven Wonders of the World. And if he does? Then Eben will get the adventure he’s been craving for–a trip out West. Eben doesn’t reckon he’ll have any luck–he can’t think of even one thing that could be called “interesting,” let alone wondrous, in Sassafras, but he figures he’ll give it a try.
Told in a down-home narrative with glimmers of magical realism woven throughout, Betty G. Birney’s tale about a boy’s journey of discovery reminds us all that extraordinary things can happen in the most ordinary of places . . . even in Sassafras Springs.
Eben McAllister searches his small town to see if he can find anything comparable to the real Seven Wonders of the World.
*Book Description provided by www.barnesandnoble.com
