Friday, December 5, 2014

Great Author Visit with Kate Hattemer!


On December 3rd, Indian Hill High School Learning Commons Media Specialist Vicky Mendoza and English teacher Tom Millard hosted Kate Hattemer, local author of The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy. Ms. Hattemer’s book, set in an arts school where a reality TV show is being filmed, drew a lively discussion.  Students and parents were excited to hear about the author’s inspiration and writing process -and felt privileged to meet her in person!


Friday, October 10, 2014

Vote For Your Favorite Book Spine Poem!

Book Spine Poetry Contest Finalists

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Vote for the best poem!

Click on the link below to choose your favorite. The top 3 will win prizes.

Click Here to Vote

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Monday, September 8, 2014

Sekret by Lindsay Smith


An empty mind is a safe mind.
 
Yulia knows she must hide her thoughts and control her emotions to survive in Communist Russia. But if she sometimes manipulates the black market traders by reading their thoughts when she touches their skin, so what? Anything to help her survive.

Sunday, August 17, 2014



Just One Day by Gayle Forman

From the New York Times bestselling author of If I Stay

I enjoyed reading how this character takes a risk to follow her gut instead of her head. Wish i had been that adventuresome when I was that young...


Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

The Fault in Our Stars-



I'm a big John Green Fan.  His books really captivate teens and adults alike.  Hearing him speak he's both engaging and humble.  Just saw the film version of The Fault in Our Stars. It really moved me.  I was glad I brought Kleenex!  Check out these other books if you're a fan.

Monday, May 5, 2014








Friday, April 11, 2014

Freshmen Book Club


Our 4th quarter book is Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters

We'll be discussing it on Wednesday, May 21 in the Library Learning Commons at 6:00pm



From the Publisher:

Every character in Spoon River Anthology is dead. And the dead speak. In Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthologythe speakers lie together in a hillside graveyard in a small, rural community in central Illinois. As they moulder in their earthen tombs, they spill forth their secrets to the living. From its first appearance (in serial form) in the pages of William Marion Reedy's Mirrorin 1914, the American literary world had not seen anything quite like Spoon River Anthology, and the world has yet to see its true successor, despite its influence and imitators. The Spoon River dead speak for all of us, and their secrets are the hidden things that prick at the hearts of each of us.

Ketchup Clouds by Anabel Pitcher




Interesting premise... another one to add to my books to read list (sigh)

Dear Mr. S. Harris,

Ignore the blob of red in the top left corner. It's jam, not blood, though I don't think I need to tell you the difference. It wasn't your wife's jam the police found on your shoe. . . .

I know what it's like.

Mine wasn't a woman. Mine was a boy. And I killed him exactly three months ago.
Zoe has an unconventional pen pal--Mr. Stuart Harris, a Texas Death Row inmate and convicted murderer. But then again, Zoe has an unconventional story to tell. A story about how she fell for two boys, betrayed one of them, and killed the other.

Hidden away in her backyard shed in the middle of the night with a jam sandwich in one hand and a pen in the other, Zoe gives a voice to her heart and her fears after months of silence. Mr. Harris may never respond to Zoe's letters, but at least somebody will know her story--somebody who knows what it's like to kill a person you love. Only through her unusual confession can Zoe hope to atone for her mistakes that have torn lives apart, and work to put her own life back together again.

Rising literary star Annabel Pitcher pens a captivating second novel, rich with her distinctive balance between humor and heart. Annabel explores the themes of first love, guilt, and grief, introducing a character with a witty voice and true emotional resonance.


Monday, March 17, 2014

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout



Here's my spring break read.  I loaded the library e-book on my phone.  No more boredom waiting for Kirk's soccer practice to end!



Catalyzed by a nephew's thoughtless prank, a pair of brothers confront painful psychological issues surrounding the freak accident that killed their father when they were boys, a loss linked to a heartbreaking deception that shaped their personal and professional lives.


Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Just In! Full Ride by Margaret Peterson Haddix

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Haddix is a great novelist and she's local.  She lives in Columbus.  Looking forward to reading this...


Becca's claim to fame is one she's been hiding from for the past three years: Her father is a notorious embezzler, and when he was caught, his excuse was, "How else is a guy like me supposed to put his kid through college?"

Three years after the trial and imprisonment that destroyed Becca's life, she and her mother have started over again and are living in a town where no one knows their secret. But as college—and its cost—looms large, Becca begins to wonder how they'll afford it. And how she can apply for financial aid without divulging her secret? A local scholarship opportunity seems like a dream come true, but as the application process commences, Becca uncovers a chain of secrets that could destroy everything she's worked so hard to build. But the truth could also lead her toward the future she's always dreamed of…

Friday, February 7, 2014

Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario



Here's a good book to read especially now with all the immigration reform that's going on.

In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States. When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed her children, leaves Honduras to work in the United States. The move allows her to send money back home to Enrique so he can eat better and go to school past the third grade.

Friday, January 31, 2014





This is for  all you gamers out  there- FIC DAS



Friday, January 24, 2014

Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides




My husband's two uncles survived the Baatan Death march. But one did not survive the war.  He was feeding the American troops stuck behind the lines, bringing them rice from his family's warehouses.  He had to turn himself in otherwise, his family would be harmed.  The Japanese ended up beheading him.  

 On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty rugged miles to rescue 513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp, among them the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. A recent prison massacre by Japanese soldiers elsewhere in the Philippines made the stakes impossibly high and left little time to plan the complex operation. In Ghost Soldiers Hampton Sides vividly re-creates this daring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfolds alongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives in the camp. Sides shows how the POWs banded together to survive, defying the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and torture. Harrowing, poignant, and inspiring, Ghost Soldiers is the mesmerizing story of a remarkable mission. It is also a testament to the human spirit, an account of enormous bravery and self-sacrifice amid the most trying conditions.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Totally Unrelated by Tom Ryan


   Start off the new year by reading a book for pleasure.

Take a look at this read:Totally Unrelated by Tom Ryan.

Neil plays guitar with his family's band, the Family McClintock, even though he can't stand the Celtic music they play, he doesn't dance, he hates the outfits, and every single performance reminds him that he isn't as talented as the rest of the family.