chrisholliman

Children's Librarian

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  • The Other Felix by Keir Graff

      Do you ever have nightmares?  Felix has nightmares every night.  They are always the same.  He is in a wooded area strewn with boulders and stone steps.   At some point a huge monster shows up and gives chase to him through the dark forest. Things aren’t necessarily better in the real world either.  He…

  • Shredderman: Secret Identity by Wendelin Van Draanen

       Nolan is in 5th grade now and sick of Bubba Bixby picking on everyone in the school.  Bubba lies, steals, cheats and has a pejorative name for all of his classmates.  Nolan is half the size of Bubba, so a physical confrontation is out of the question.  How can he stop Bubba’s bullying without…

  • A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

     The monster comes just after midnight for thirteen year old Connor O’Malley.  The yew tree in the church yard across from his house folds itself into the shape of a large man and lowers its eye to Connor’s window.  It demands his attention. But that isn’t the scariest thing in Connor’s life right now: his…

  • Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin

    Ten year old Sasha Zaichik’s greatest dream in life is to become a Young Soviet Pioneer.  His father works for the State Security and joining the Pioneers would make Sasha’s father proud and be an important step in following him in becoming a good Communist under Stalin.  The mother having passed away years before, Sasha…

  • Tofu Quilt by Ching Yeung Russell

    This is a verse novel narrated by a young girl set in the 1950’s and 60’s in Hong Kong.   Written almost as a verse diary over several years, the reader gains a glimpse into the girl’s life.  Her family subsists mainly from her father’s tailoring business, but work ebbs and flows.  When the father is…

  • A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

    Tree Ear is a boy who lives in a small village on the west coast of Korea in the middle of the 12th century.  He spends most of his time scavenging for scraps around local trash heaps and sleeps under a bridge at night.  His friend is Crane Man, an old man with a disabled…

  • Brixton Brothers: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett

       Twelve year old Steve Brixton is a detective.  He’s learned his trade by reading all 58 volumes of the Bailey Brothers mysteries as well as pouring over The Bailey Brother’s Detective Handbook.  He has a magnifying glass, a notebook, and a keen eye for thugs and hoods. Steve’s detective skills are put to the…

  • The Walls of Cartagena by Julia Durango

      It is the 17th century in Cartagena of the Indies (modern day Columbia), a time and place in which the slave trade is alive and well.  Thirteen year old Calepino, orphaned by his mother who died on a slave ship, finds himself in comfortable circumstances.  The  noblewoman Dona Isabel has taken him in and…

  • Enola Holmes Mystery: The Case of the Left Handed Lady by Nancy Springer

  • “A Tale Dark & Grimm” by Adam Gidwitz

      This is a bloody good book.  Literally.  Hansel and Gretel are the main characters, but their story is not confined to just meeting the witch with the candy house in the forest.  Rather, Gidwitz mines the complete collection of the Grimm’s Fairytales and has the brother and sister show up in stories with which…