Review: 102 Days of Lying About Lauren

978-0823453627

Twelve-year-old Mouse calls an amusement park home.

Nobody notices her, and that's the way she likes it. Mouse sweeps the streets and wears a uniform she “borrowed” and sleeps on the top floor of the Haunted House of Horrors. She knows which security guards to avoid, eats the bagel left out each morning for the Ghost of Summer (a popular theme park legend), and even has the taco guy convinced that her lunch is paid for. She has her special hiding methods down to a science.

But one morning, a girl named Cat comes looking for Lauren Suszek. Cat notices her, and Mouse doesn’t like it. Mouse cannot let this nosy pest find out who she really is! If Mouse gets discovered living in the park, Mama might come back for her, and Mouse doesn’t want that. Or—even worse?—Mama might not come back at all.

Mouse knows she can lose this girl without blowing her cover. She just has to follow her rules. A carefully constructed life in the park is all she needs. Right?

Adults may need to have a little suspension of disbelief, but we are not the target audience. The premise of living in an amusement park is sure to intrigue kids of any age, and Jortner gives plenty of details to make the ruse plausible. Mouse sometimes seems a bit younger than her purported age, which could be attributed to her background. That does make it harder to believe that she has passed for a 16-year-old for months, though. 

Mouse's character becomes vivid quickly, and I started seeing her mannerisms and hearing her voice early on. Jortner does a great job of showing, not telling. The action and tension climb quickly, and even while I could predict what was going to happen, I teared up at the climactic scene (which actually happens after the action has slowed.) A strong debut firmly in the middle grade category. Trigger warnings of death, parental abandonment/alienation, and panic attacks. 

Fairy Sighting!

 We have spotted evidence of fairies on the library lawn! Obviously the tiny fae have been hard at work here.

No Place to Sit

 Where did everything gooooooooo?

Oh...there it is! 

(And how long after this happened did it take me to realize I needed the sink? Five minutes.)

It's carpet cleaning day! Come by tomorrow to see how fresh and new it all looks!

Just take your shoes off* before you come in!

*Kidding. Maybe.

Review: The Black Queen by Jumata Emill

978-059-356-8575 (PB)

Nova Albright, the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High, is dead. Murdered the night of her coronation, her body found the next morning in the old slave cemetery she spent her weekends rehabilitating.

Tinsley McArthur was supposed to be queen. Not only is she beautiful, wealthy, and white, it’s her legacy—her grandmother, her mother, and even her sister wore the crown before her. Everyone in Lovett knows Tinsley would do anything to carry on the McArthur tradition.

No one is more certain of that than Duchess Simmons, Nova’s best friend. Duchess’s father is the first Black police captain in Lovett. For Duchess, Nova’s crown was more than just a win for Nova. It was a win for all the Black kids. Now her best friend is dead, and her father won’t face the fact that the main suspect is right in front of him. Duchess is convinced that Tinsley killed Nova—and that Tinsley is privileged enough to think she can get away with it. But Duchess’s father seems to be doing what he always does: fall behind the blue line. Which means that the white girl is going to walk.

Duchess is determined to prove Tinsley’s guilt. And to do that, she’ll have to get close to her.

But Tinsley has an agenda, too.

Everyone loved Nova. And sometimes, love is exactly what gets you killed.

Emill's debut YA novel catches the reader's attention and leaves them wanting to know what he has coming out next (answer: Wander in the Dark, out last month). The story line pulls you in and keeps your attention throughout. Going beyond the murder mystery thriller genre, it covers everything from racial bias and white savior syndrome to child sexual abuse to wealth/power disparity to teen pregnancy. Sound like a lot? It can be, at times. There is a lot going on, but then, there IS a lot going on in many teens' lives. 

The many twists and turns keep the reader guessing, but leave little time to really flesh out many of the characters. Told in Duchess and Tinsley's alternating viewpoints, at the beginning I had to check the chapter headings to make sure I knew who was talking. Creating distinct narrative voices is difficult for any author, and writing from the POV of a different gender (all characters appear to be cisgender) can make it more difficult. By the end of the book, I had a strong sense of who Duchess is, but Tinsley still felt a bit one-dimensional, as did most of the secondary characters. I actually felt like I knew Nova better than anyone. I haven't found anything stating it definitively, but it looks like Emill's next book is also told in two viewpoints - half brothers - so I am looking forward to seeing how he hones this skill. 

Current slang (no cap, booed up, lit) along with the secondary topics make it extremely relevant...right now. Three years from now, I can see teens picking it up and asking, "Who says 'no cap' any more"?? The story line and subthemes will continue to make it a great read, but the author might want to reconsider vocabulary that will make it feel outdated down the line.

My nitpicking aside, I found it a very enjoyable read, and immediately recommended it to coworkers. I will be ordering Wander in the Dark for the library, and The Black Queen will most likely make it into a few displays. I predict this will be an author to keep an eye on!

Toddler STEAM: Red, White and Pink

Valentine's Day is over, but the color scheme works so well for a lot of things - and I have been too lazy to take the decorations out to the shed. So, red, white and ink STEAM it is! Fortunately, just about any STEAM project can be made to fit a color scheme! 

Our messiest centers are always next to the sink. We now have these handy-dandy tablecloths to make clean-up easier, too! I put them on our Amazon wish list a while back, and two patrons have each purchased one so far. This one just arrived yesterday, in perfect timing! You can find there at this link (I am not an affiliate and do not get anything if you buy one!)

Fizzing Hearts

Good old baking soda and vinegar takes an artistic turn when you add liquid watercolors. I prefer liquid watercolors to food coloring, because it is less likely to stain, but I use both. Not pictured: old adult-sized t-shirts to slip on over kids' clothes first.

Of course, while this young lady was very precise, many kids just poured on the liquid. No big deal to dump the trays, but that created a traffic jam at the sink. 

Next time I will put out a dump bucket and rags to dry with in the other direction.

Sweetheart Slime

Slime is always a hit! I add red food coloring to the water from the start, for less mess (if there is such a thing as less mess when it comes to making slime).

The table didn't stay that clean for long! Neither did the chairs. Or the floor...

I usually mix up some Borax and water in a cup for the stubborn ones that just won't gel, and keep it out of kids' reach. A little drop of that, and everything starts setting up nicely!

We Love Bubbles

Every time we use bubbles I see this guy from Finding Nemo:

Even before Covid, I made sure everyone had their own straw, because: ew. 

You might station a trash can nearby just to make sure they don't get picked up and reused.

MY BUBBLES!

Rolling Along

You did remember to save all those tubes from your wrapping paper, right?

Of course any sort of ball works, but I had these pearls for some as-yet-undetermined-purpose and thought they were just special enough to go with Valentine's Day.

I Ran Out of Cute Names Balance Center

Anything with candy is going to be a hit! For this one you just need two kind that have different weights. Of course, you'll want to watch what goes into mouths - anything with tiny pieces I make sure to put on tables, so it isn't automatically in baby reach.

Does having the same number (ooh, counting practice!) on each side balance it out? Why do you think that is? How many red hots do you need to balance out one hard candy? (ratios and fractions at 3 years old!)

Tower Time

Simplest center ever. We use these tiny cups throughout the year to hold small craft items like sequins or googly eyes. Great investment.

I Suppose I Could at Least Have Called it Pretty Patterns or Something

Pony beads are always a hit (parents seem to like to play here, too!) They do go everywhere, which means keeping an eye out and scooping them up before the crawlers do.

Many kids just liked stacking them on the skewers, which was fine - still getting that fine motor practice in!

Sweetheart Sort

Again, very simple center, just grab everything red, white or pink you see in your craft stash. Sorting and classifying are huge in both math and science, and there are so many ways to build vocabulary here!

We had a lot of fun, and those tablecloths really helped with clean-up! What are your favorite crafts or activities to do with Valentine's Day?

Mad Scientist Training

Been a little while, hasn't it? I have just been posting things to various Facebook pages, but this would have been a rather large post, and I want to be able to share it with people, so...here's your photo dump! Does this mean I will start blogging regularly again? Who knows? It's not as if I have anything else taking up my time :)

Several years before Covid, we shifted our Halloween program to a Mad Scientist Training. That allows families who aren't comfortable with Halloween to participate, and gives us an excuse to explore some messy STEAM projects...all over the library!

We had 18 stations throughout the library. Each center was designed around a Halloween-type picture book. When kids completed 13 or more (or not, I wasn't checking), they got a bag of goodies from me and a certificate declaring them an official Mad Scientist. Based on number of bags given out, I would say we had about 200 kids and grown-ups.

In no particular order:

Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler. Kids used his bones (Q-tips) to make pictures. 

Next to it we had a "Bonus Center"...because I forgot to include it in the checklist, and I wasn't reprinting them all.

Last year Kevan Atteberry posted a different monster drawing every day in October, and they were so abso-freaking adorable I had to print them all out. He is doing the same this year! They make fabulous story starters:

We live in a heavily Hispanic area, and I am always careful to make sure people understand Dia de los Muertos is NOT "Mexican Halloween". BUT, we do want to commemorate it, so we have an ofrenda featuring authors and illustrators who passed away this year, and these awesome sugar skull pictures/masks. (Daniela's Day of the Dead by Lisa Bullard)

Pumpkin Trouble by Jan Thomas is a fun read-aloud, and lends itself to some coloring - don't let the same colors touch!

A Very Witchy Spelling Bee by George Shannon. How many words can you make out of the letters in Happy Halloween? This and the previous two centers were in our reference area - they were the quietest and least messy!

These ghosties had either red, blue or green dots on the bottom of the sticks. Kids had to guess which theirs would have before picking it, and they got a prize if they were right. Either way they got the sucker! 

The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams is another favorite for story time. What are you afraid of? Participants wrote their answers on post-its and added them to the posterboard.

I went first:

but others had plenty to say:

Otter Loves Halloween by Sam Garton. Catapults! Those candy corns went EVERYWHERE. A couple kids got them into the buckets, but I mostly nailed parents every time I tried to demonstrate.

Ghost Library by David Melling. We have hundreds of tiny ghosts (styrofoam pellets) trapped under plastic! Charge them up by rubbing a balloon across the top, then use one finger to chase them around. You are so scary, even ghosts will run from you!

The Teeny Tiny Ghost by Kay Winters left us some secret messages (written in white crayon). Kids painted over the papers with watercolors to reveal the message.

Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White - another story time classic. What can you make with them? 

I kept several bags aside and changed them out throughout the program, because this one got quite sticky! But fun.

We talked a bit about different shapes and how triangles are stronger than squares.

Frank Was a Monster who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves. Except he didn't. No matter how many alka seltzers we put in with the dried spaghetti, it wouldn't move. It worked in practice! Ah, well, that's science - sometimes things don't work the way we expect them to.

Aaaargh! Spider! by Lydia Monks. We looked at different types of spider webs and made some with glue and glitter. There. Is. Glitter. Everywhere.

A drying table (or two) is highly recommended!

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds. Mega Blocks to build something to keep the carrots contained! 

The carrots.

Before mermaids do construction, they sing a song or two.

For Boo-la-la Witch Spa by Samantha Berger we gave our brooms a makeover - and worked on patterns.

Bats at the Ballgame by Brian Lies. Using wind power to make our bats fly.

Anancy and the Haunted House by Richardo Keens-Douglas: spider races! All you need is some plastic spiders and straws.

How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow? by Wendell Minor. Two pumpkins with scales, rulers, protractor, and some nontraditional ways to measure such as string and paperclips.

We had a photo op station set up on the stage:

With the treat bags and extra craft supplies hidden under black tablecloths. One of the best investments I ever made.

And of course, plenty of volunteers! I put out a call to the teens who volunteered all summer, and ten of them showed up! Pizza 9 donated three large pizzas and we had a snack and drink station set up in my closet for them. I put them in pairs so they could trade off when they wanted to run and get something. They helped kids with projects and kept utter chaos from reigning while I was pretty much stuck in the meeting room with the messiest/loudest activities. They stayed after and helped clean up. Some of them were there for 4-5 hours! Many were in costumes...and I didn't get good pictures of any of them :(

We all had a great time. I hope this can help anyone else working on activities for their library or school! If you would like the files I have for these projects, message me with an e-mail and I will send them along.