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The Passover Guest

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The Passover Guest by Susan Kusel
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Kids

The Passover Guest, written by Susan Kusel, and illustrated by Sean Rubin, is inspired by the classic story The Magician, and the art of famous painter Marc Chagall. It takes place in depression-era Washington D.C. It’s spring, the cherry blossoms are blooming, and it’s the first night of Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating the exodus from Egypt. A young girl named Muriel is concerned. Her father, like so many others, has lost his job. They don’t have enough money to buy food for the seder, the traditional Passover meal, not even a cup of wine for Elijah, the prophet who is symbolically invited to every Passover seder. As she dejectedly makes her way home, she meets a peculiar stranger at the Lincoln Memorial. He performs a magic trick, and Muriel gives him the only penny left in her pocket.

When Muriel arrives home, she finds her family dressed in their finest clothes, with nothing on the table. There is a knock at the door. It is the man Muriel gave her last penny to! He asks if he can join in their seder. As they begin to explain they have nothing to share, a feast suddenly appears on their table! Muriel’s family is astounded, and apprehensive about eating food that wasn’t there moments ago. Muriel runs to ask the Rabbi what they should do. The Rabbi accompanies Muriel to her family’s home, along with most of their friends and neighbors. When they arrive, the stranger is gone, but the feast remains. The Rabbi declares it a miracle, and the whole community enjoys Muriel’s family’s seder together. In all the excitement Muriel remembers the mysterious stranger… and notices not a drop remains in Elijah’s cup of wine!

This magical holiday story was the recipient a Sydney Taylor Award this year; a well-deserved win for an exceptional book!

Find The Passover Guest in our catalog.

The Last Cuentista

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The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Kids, Tweens, Teens

Halley’s Comet is on a collision course with Earth. Petra Peña, an aspiring storyteller, does not want to leave her abuelita behind, but she and her family are among the select few who have been chosen to take to the stars.  Petra, her parents, and her little brother will spend the next 380 years in stasis learning everything they need to know to survive on their new planet. They will be humanity’s last hope. When Petra is awakened from stasis, however, she finds that her ship has been taken over by the Collective. They have reprogrammed everyone and erased all memories of Earth.  Petra is the only one who still remembers her home world, her family, and all of their cuentos.  She must use her stories of the past in an attempt to secure mankind’s future.

The Last Cuentista was just selected as the winner of the John Newbery Medal as well as the Pura Belpré Award. It was one of TIME’s Best Books of the Year and the Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Year, among others. I understand why. This book was full of storytelling magic. Despite some unexpected dark twists and turns that were a bit shocking, this was a beautifully told story. It combines science fiction, Mexican folklore, and a dystopian future. It is definitely one to add to your reading list!

Find The Last Cuentista in our catalog

The Snowy Day

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The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Format: Picture Book
Whose it’s for: Children

Winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal and The Library of Congress’s Books that Shaped America award.

A young boy named Peter awakens to find that while he was sleeping, snow has piled up outside his window. Peter puts on his red snowsuit and heads outside for a winter adventure. Peter makes snow angels, snow balls, and marvelous tracks in the snow. All the things a child would do when their city is blanketed in snow. Young children will relate to Peter and his wintery adventures, where snowbanks seem like like mountains waiting to be climbed, and snow so deep it’s hard for little legs to walk through.  Like Peter’s desire to play with older children, young listeners are reminded that sometimes you are just too small and you’ll have to wait until you get bigger.

While reading The Snowy Day to a child, it’s hard not to reminisce about your own fun childhood memories of playing in the snow. Peter’s adventures are familiar, realistic and oh so charming! Children and adults will appreciate Ezra Jack Keats simple story and beautiful illustrations. Share this story with a child, talk about your own snowy memories and ask them about theirs. Then, on the next snowy day, head outside and have an adventure, just like our beloved protagonist Peter.

In 2020, The New York Public Library announced that The Snowy Day was the most checked out book in the 125 year history of the Library!

In 2017 the U.S. Postal Service issued a collection of Forever stamps featuring four images from The Snowy Day.

 

Find The Snowy Day in the catalog.

Arlo & Pips: King of the Birds

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Arlo & Pips: King of the Birds by Elise Gravel
Format: Book
Who’s it for: Kids

Arlo is a bird, and not just any bird- he’s a crow! And as Arlo loves to explain, a crow is the King of the Birds! Arlo can’t wait to tell readers, and his tiny new songbird friend Pips, all about how amazing a crow can be. Arlo is smart! Arlo can imitate almost any sound! Arlo has one of the biggest brains of all birds! Arlo has beautiful glossy black feathers! Arlo can count to 6, remember up to 4 hiding places, play dead, and play tricks on other birds! Arlo knows EVERYTHING! Or does he? It turns out that Arlo is new to living in the city, and maybe little Pips knows some things about humans and city life that Arlo really needs to learn. Will Arlo learn a little humility along the way? …probably not. But he might just learn to be a good friend. This early reader is the 2020 Maryland Blue Crab Young Reader Award winner for Beginning Fiction.
Find it (and other Arlo & Pips books) in the catalog!

Giant Days

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Giant Days by John Allison
Art by: Max Sarin, Lissa Treiman, Liz Flemming, Jim Campbell, and Julia Madrigal
Format: eBook, Graphic Novel
Who’s it for?: Teens and Young Adults

This is a super fun slice-of-life graphic novel series about the shenanigans of UK college students. It’s funny, charming, and features strong female relationships between wildly dissimilar, but believable characters. In the first volume: Esther, gorgeous and goth, is a chaos magnet who is dealing with the heartache of a recent breakup. Daisy, homeschooled, wicked smart, and incredibly kind, does a bit of self-discovery. Susan, fiercely independent and kind of cranky, comes face-to-face with her hometown nemesis on campus. Throughout the 14-volume series, readers experience the wins and woes of university, from sickness to housing drama, from part-time jobs to exams. The art is adorable and the plot stays relatable, but light-hearted at the same time. I definitely recommend. Find it on Hoopla!

The Fall

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Recommended TV Series
The Fall by Acorn Media
Who it’s for: Adults

Brief Synopsis: Psychological thriller where a senior police officer from England is brought to Belfast, Ireland to lead the hunt for a serial killer.

Review: I was on hoopladigital.com browsing the tag Crime. I was in the mood for a new police procedural to watch. The cover caught my eye when I recognized Gillian Anderson from The X-Files and Jamie Doran from Fifty Shades. I have not watched many British productions. The ones I have watched have been mostly comedies produced by BBC television. This is a drama produced by Acorn, which, judging by the promotional images, probably lacked humor. I had only watched two BBC dramas but I absolutely loved them (Sherlock and Orphan Black). They were not original story concepts (there are only so many). To me the stories were produced, written, directed, and acted in completely fresh and new ways. The Fall is a TV show about the hunt for a serial killer that focuses on the killer and the police officer hunting him.  I predicted The Fall would tell this unoriginal idea in a way that I had never experienced before that would leave an impression just like Sherlock and Orphan Black.

Thankfully, I guessed correctly. 😁

The Fall seemed like it would be a darker version of Dexter, the Showtime TV series about a serial killer. I really, really, really liked Dexter. I was a little concerned that there might be gore, graphic murders, or rape scenes. I checked the reviews and was assured that was not the case. The Fall was not like Dexter where I got to know almost every aspect of the serial killer and the detectives hunting him. In The Fall, the murder victims and the other people in their lives are not the relationships that captured my attention. I am not sure if it is because it is a British production or an aspect of their culture but even by the end of the series both main characters are still a little like work associates not close friends. The TV show did reveal some things about their personalities and relationships with others that kept me very interested. It was not enough for me to truly root for one or the other. It was a great story but not one that invested too many emotions for me except excitement and anticipation of what comes next. At one point or another, I felt sympathy for Paul, Gibson, the murder victims, the police officers Gibson showed up by being brilliant, and Paul’s family. However, unlike in USA tv shows where I truly felt an emotional connection with the characters, if Paul or Gibson did something out of character, I would be annoyed but not highly upset (like I was with the last season of Dexter. 😤 still mad about that disaster of a season!)

Another reason I decided to watch this show is that it is a British TV drama. The entire TV series ends fairly quickly. It only has 3 seasons (or series as they call it). I consider this a binge worthy series. Every season it felt like Gibson was going to catch Paul or he would turn himself in or something.  I must say that is very good production, writing, and acting when I know a TV show lasts for 3 seasons but almost every episode kept me on the edge of my seat. That is the only reason I binged it. Normally I take my time with TV series; watching 1-2 episodes a day; finishing it in 3 or 4months. With The Fall, I could not wait for my hoopla checkouts to renew. I got the physical DVD copies and watched the entire 3 seasons in about 2 weeks. BINGE. WORTHY. I looked for similar shows. I was told about the Netflix series You which is based on a novel written by Caroline Kepnes. I may check one of them out or both.🤷🏾‍♀️🤔

Find it on hoolpadigital.com or check out the series on DVD!