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Garlic and the Vampire

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Garlic and the Vampire by Bree Paulsen
Format: Book
Who’s it for: Kids

Garlic, an enchanted garlic bulb, lives in a quiet garden with other enchanted vegetables under the care of their friend and mentor, Witch Agnes. Garlic chronically oversleeps and over-worries, but she loves tending the garden and finds her bliss safely in her comfort zone.

Interrupting their idyllic existence, smoke rises from a nearby (and supposedly long abandoned) castle. A vampire has moved in! Garlic, obviously having natural resistance to vampires, is volunteered to investigate and deal with their terrifying new neighbor. She doesn’t know how she could possibly do that – she’s just a little garlic! – but with encouragement from her best friend, Carrot, Garlic overcomes her self-doubt and confronts the vampire. Even with her newfound courage, it doesn’t go exactly the way she expects.

A wholesome and absolutely adorable story, Garlic and the Vampire is a middle-grade graphic novel about anxiety and bravery, believing in yourself, and perhaps most importantly, not judging a vampire just by his teeth.

Find Garlic and the Vampire in the catalog here!

Mindful Mr. Sloth

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Title: Mindful Mr. Sloth by Katy Hudson
Format: Picture Book
Who it’s for: Kids

Do you know someone who just won’t slow down? Well, you might just need a friend to help you see the world at a different pace!
Sasha Patience Pruitt is a little girl with little patience and little time for stillness until a newly made friend enters her life with a new perspective. Mr. Sloth is slow at talking, playing, and everything else Sasha loves to do. Maybe a bike race will bring her new friend up to speed, or maybe Sasha will learn that enjoying the moment is worth the “waaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiittttttt.”

This adorable picture book is a great read aloud for young movers and shakers as a gentle introduction to self regulation (the ability to pause between thought and action to respond appropriately to a situation) and practicing mindfulness (the ability to be aware and present with thoughts and feelings in the moment). Slowing down can be difficult and that’s why we have friends to show us that taking time to enjoy life can be exactly what we need. If you have a little one in your life who only knows one speed, this picture book is for you! Find Mindful Mr. Sloth in the catalog!

Old Bones

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Old Bones by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Format:  book
Who it’s For:  Adults

The handsome Historian, Clive Benton, contacts Nora Kelly, a successful archaeologist, to lead an excursion unlike any other. Clive begins his story containing the Donner Party. Benton explains he has found a diary that contains information on the “Lost Camp” and its location.

Fascinated by the Donner Party, Nora agrees and they travel into the Sierra Nevada in pursuit of the camp. They learn that the excavation of the lost camp, is just the beginning, and the fact behind those pioneers is not only far more complex than they could have believed, but it puts them both at risk from a very real threat in which the hunt for the lost party and its legendary treasure are simply means to a disturbing end.

Find Old Bones in the catalog!

If You Were an Elephant

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If You Were an Elephant by Leslie Staub
Format: Picture Book
Who it’s for: Kids

If you were an elephant, you could turn the page with your trunk. You could use your tent size ears to fan yourself. You could eat all day long and munch on whole bushes, branches and leaves. And you could drink gallons of water and spray it all over like a fountain, while taking a swim. Elephants in the savannah are the biggest animals who live on land. With thick as tree trunk legs and feet as flat as pancakes. You could roam wild places in your herd, with your mom, grandma and lots of cousins.

Did you know that adult elephants only need about two hours of sleep a day?  They sleep standing up. But they can only dream if they sleep lying down.

In this picture book about elephants, you will learn tons of facts all about a day in the life a young African bush elephants.

Find If You Were an Elephant in the catalog!

 

Freaky, Funky Fish: Odd Facts about Fascinating Fish

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Title: Freaky, Funky Fish: Odd Facts about Fascinating Fish by Debra Kempf Shumaker
Who’s it For: Children of all Ages
Format: Book

There once were two young boys who were like moths to a flame for anything marine animals. One I dubbed the “Little Professor” because he would unwittingly alter his voice as he spouted this or that fact. I took a photo of the other as a child. Instead of saying “cheese” I said “dolphin.” His face lit up with a broad smile. These two youngsters were my sons. They are now young adults. However, “Freaky, Funky Fish” is exactly the kind of book that they would have glommed onto as kids.

The illustrations are bright, amusing, and varied.  There are dozens of marine animals depicted with their name next to their humorous drawing.  What a great way to thumb through a book and learn animal names!  The author also “classifies” these creatures on a scale of 1 to 5 on a “funky” or “freaky” rating.  Funny!  Did you know that the parrotfish covers itself with a veneer of snot to repel parasites?  And the archerfish can spit to tag its insect meal?  This book is weird.  And it is gross.  Yet it is very entertaining.  What a great way to learn!

I am sure that many a child and adult will pour over this book with a smile on their face and some new facts to talk about at the dinner table.  Enjoy!

What are you waiting for?! 😉 Find Freak, Funky Fish in the catalog.

 

Devolution

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Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks
Format: Book, eBook, Digital Audiobook
Who it’s for: Adults

If you’ve read World War Z, you know Max Brooks is the master of writing imagined violent disasters as if they were non-fiction, and his latest book Devolution continues the tradition.

The novel is presented as the diary entries of Kate Holland, resident of Greenloop, a secluded environmentally-conscious neighborhood of telecommuting professionals in the vast forested area of Washington state, interspersed with interviews of other individuals impacted by mysterious events that occurred there in the wake of a volcanic eruption at Mount Rainier.

Kate’s diary begins when she arrives in Greenloop, and the first few entries consist of descriptions of her quirky new neighbors, complaints about her husband Dan, and observations about the elegant “smart” homes. She goes for invigorating nature walks, attends a cathartic meditation class, pretty standard stuff. But after Rainier erupts, and Greenloop is completely cut off from civilization, it becomes apparent that a group of enormous bipedal primates are living in the woods surrounding her community. Sasquatches are real. And they are hungry.

If you like fast-paced adventure, survival stories, or have always been fascinated by the legend of Bigfoot, you should definitely make this your next read.

Find Devolution in the catalog