Vampire Tales

In A Taste for Red, Svetlana is an olfactive who battles the Kensington Vampire, Ms. Larch. If you like reading about vampires, try one of these books today!

This Totally Bites! by Ruth Ames (A Poison Apple Book)

Twelve-year-old Emma-Rose Paley has always felt very different from her bubbly, outgoing parents. Unlike them, Emma-Rose has pale skin and jet-black hair, she prefers gray weather to sunshine, and she hates the taste of garlic. When Emma-Rose's great-aunt Margo comes to visit from Romania, Emma-rose uncovers a dark family secret and has a sudden revelation. Could Emma-Rose be a real, live vampire?"

Switched by Sienna Mercer (My Sister the Vampire, Book 1)

Upon moving to Franklin Grove, eighth-grader Olivia Abbott, a pink-loving cheerleader, learns that she has a twin sister, Ivy Vega, whose "goth" appearance hides a weird secret.

Vampire Island by Adele Griffin

Siblings Maddy, Lexie, and Hudson Livingstone, who are vampire-fruit bat hybrids, struggle to adjust to living as humans in New York City while maintaining their individual vampire strengths.

Vampire Brat by Angie Sage (Araminta Spookie, Book 4)

Things get even spookier at Spookie House when Uncle Drac's nephew Max comes to stay for a week and Araminta goes on a combined werewolf and vampire hunting expedition.

February Book Selection

The Book Buddies Book Club's next book will be A Taste for Red by Lewis Harris. We will meet to discuss this book on Tuesday, February 15th at 3:30pm in the John Clarke Children's Program Room. This will (hopefully) be the last month we meet on Tuesday; I'm planning a return to our regular Monday afternoon meetings in March. Hope to see you there!

When some of her classmates disappear, sixth-grader Svetlana, along with her new friends go in search of the missing students using her newfound ability as an Olfactive, one who has heightened smell, hearing, and the ability to detect vampires.

Saturday Matinee @ the Library

Join us this Saturday, January 22nd for an afternoon showing of the kids movie Planet 51! Rated PG. Held in the lower level program room at 2:30pm. No registration is required - just drop in.

For more information contact the Children's Department at 401-847-8720 ext. 204 and visit our website for the movie trailor and games!

January Meeting Wrap-Up

The Book Buddies Book Club met yesterday afternoon to discuss our January book, The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis. We had our biggest turn-out yet and everyone really enjoyed the book!

We began by talking about our overall impressions and it turns out that everybody really likes reading graphic novels! The fact that this was a graphic novel automatically made it a winner. Beyond that we all liked reading about the mystery and the inventions that the Alliance came up with.

We discussed the main characters, Julian, Ben and Greta and how they were all very different and what made them such good friends. We agreed that Julian's strategy of pretending to be dumb to try and fit in at his new school was not a good idea because it's important that you be honest about who you really are. By being yourself you never know who you might meet and become friends with and by lying about who you really are, you are only hurting yourself. Plus it can be very difficult to maintain a lie like that and if and when the truth comes out it would make it very hard for people to trust you again.

We talked about Ben and Greta's secret laboratory and why they invited Julian to be apart of it. Ben and Greta felt that Julian was smart and trustworthy and would be able to help them with their inventions.

Julian idolized fellow inventor Dr. Stringer and when he and his mom went to hear Dr. Stringer speak Julian wanted to talk with him afterwards. We talked about what happened, how Dr. Stringer dismissed him as a child and accused him of coping the inventions in his notebook from someone else. This led to a discussion of being disappointed by people we idolize and how those situations have made us feel.

We talked about the importance of confidence in life and in science and why Ben is always so down on himself. We concluded by talking about how the Alliance was able to stop Dr. Stringer from stealing Kablovsky's thinking cap from the Museum.

Everyone really enjoyed reading The Secret Science Alliance and had a lot of great ideas for their own inventions. A few club members wanted to create a homework machine and a machine that would do chores for them. Other invention ideas included a teleporter, miniature submarine, super sky scraper, robot guard and an earth core rover.

Other favorite graphic novels members have read include the Warriors series, Babymouse and the Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys mysteries among others.

Following our discussion we each tried our hand at creating our own graphic novels using the wonderful templates provided by Enchanted Learning.

Overall it was a terrific meeting and thanks to all the Book Buddies members who came out! See you in February!

Meeting Reminder

Just a reminder that the Book Buddies Book Club will meet this coming TUESDAY, January 18th at 3:30pm in the John Clarke Children's Program Room to discuss the book, The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis.

Hope to see you there!

Feeling Creative? Make Your Own Graphic Novel

Feeling like you want to try your hand at creating your own graphic novel or comic strip? There are some terrific websites out there for you to browse:

Comic Creator

Garfield's Comic Creator: Build Your Own Garfield Comic Strip

Scholastic's Make Your Own Amulet Graphix

Scholastic's Make Your Own Goosebumps Graphix

We also have some great books here at the library you might want to help you get started:

You Write It: Graphic Novel by John Hamilton

Write Your Own Graphic Novel by Natalie M. Rosinsky

Create Your Own Graphic Novel Using Digital Techniques by Mike Chinn

Spotlight On Graphic Novels

Our January book is a graphic novel and the Children's Department has a terrific section of graphic novels for kids. Here are a few graphic novels that I've enjoyed that you might want to check out!

Binky, The Space Cat by Ashley Spires

Binky's blast-off into outer space (outside) to battle aliens (bugs) is delayed when he realizes he's left something behind--and it's not the anti-gravity kitty litter.

Amelia Rules 1, The Whole World's Crazy by Jimmy Gownley

A collection of comic stories featuring nine-year-old Amelia, who has moved from Manhattan to a small town in the wake of her parent's divorce, and her fourth-grade friends, the Gathering of Awesome Super Pals, otherwise known as G.A.S.P.

Fashion Kitty by Charise Mericle Harper

After a stack of fashion magazines falls on Kiki Kitty's head while she is blowing out the candles on her birthday cake, Kiki turns into Fashion Kitty, a feline superhero who saves other kitties from fashion disaster.

Magic Pickle by Scott Morse

Meet the world's greenest, bumpiest, briniest superhero, the Magic Pickle. With his feisty sidekick Jo Jo Wigman, the Magic Pickle faces his worst nightmare, the Brotherhood of Evil Produce. Will he save the world from those foul fiends, or will the world be conquered by vegetables gone wild?

Bone, Vol 1: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith

After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins -- Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone -- are separated and lost in a vast, uncharted desert. One by one, they find their way into a deep, forested valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures. Eventually, the cousins are reunited at a farmstead run by tough Gran'ma Ben and her spirited granddaughter, Thorn. But little do the Bones know, there are dark forces conspiring against them and their adventures are only just beginning!

The Collected Alison Dare Little Miss Adventures, Vol 2 by J. Torres

Alison Dare is back in this new collection of stories! Thrill as Alison and her boarding school friends journey into the "Heart of the Maiden!" Shriek with girlish glee at the adventures of the costumed avenger The Blue Scarab! And laugh and learn as world renowned archaeologist Dr. Alice Dare teaches a thing or two about museum mayhem! All your favorite adventurers are here in tales by the dynamic duo of J. Torres & J. Bone!

Amulet. Bk 1, The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi

Emily and Navin move with their mother to the home of her deceased great-grandfather, but the strange house proves to be dangerous. Lured into an underground world inhabited by demons, robots, and talking animals, they face the most terrifying monster of all.

Babymouse. 11, Dragonslayer by Jennifer L. Holm

An imaginative mouse who likes to read heroic fantasy novels finds herself on the school math team as it prepares to compete for the coveted Golden Slide Rule.

To find out more about graphic novels and what to read next, check out the amazing site, No Flying No Tights: Sidekicks.

ALA Award Winners!

The American Library Association announced the winners of their Youth Media Awards yesterday. The Newbery Medal for outstanding contribution to children's literature went to Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. Four honor books were named as well: Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm, Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus, Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman and One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. Congrats to all the winnders!


Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.

January Author: Eleanor Davis

Eleanor Davis is the author of our January book, The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. She is also the author of the graphic Stinky, for younger readers.

Photo Credit: Yvonne Brooks

For more information about Eleanor, check out this interview.

A New Year, A New Book and a New Meeting Day!

It's time for a new book! The January book will be The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis. It's a graphic novel (yay!) and a lot of fun. I hope you all enjoy it!




The January meeting will be held on a new day! Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, January 18th at 3:30pm in the John Clarke Children's Program Room. I hope the day-change works for everyone. We'll be meeting on a Tuesday in February as well and after that I hope to get back to our regular Monday meetings.

Eleven-year-old Julian Calendar thought changing schools would mean leaving his "nerdy" persona behind, but instead he forms an alliance with fellow inventors Greta and Ben and works with them to prevent an adult from using one of their gadgets for nefarious purposes.