When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune

When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune
by Laurie Aurelia Williams

Intended Audience: Young Adults and Adults

Despite the unusual title, When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune is not science fiction. This realistic book concerns itself with the inhabitants of Houston, Texas approximately 10-20 years ago. The story is from the perspective of Shayla, a sensitive, twelve-year-old, African-American girl who lives with her mother and older sister in a poor part of town. Shayla's family has struggles with money and a lack of male support but is managing to survive. Shayla's grandmother helps and the family's biggest fear is that older sister Tia will repeat her mother's mistakes when it comes to men. The story takes on new dimensions when out of this world Kambia Elaine moves in next door. As Shayla accepts her eccentric friend, she finds out what real trouble is and must learn the true meaning of friendship.

The writing in When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune is somewhat poetic and reflects the sensibilities of its main character. The themes in the novel range from intergenerational conflict, trust verses autonomy, and the dangers of authority in a minority community. The innocence of Shayla is a strong contrast to the gritty subjects covered in this book.

This book was the August Adult Book Club selection. The Kewanee Public Library has three copies of When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune: In book format in YA Fiction and Adult Fiction and an audiobook in YA Fiction.

Jill Gray
Information Services

The Rising Star of Rusty Nail

The Rising Star of Rusty Nail

By Lesley M. M. Blume

Recommended for Grades 4-8.
Rusty Nail, Minnesota in 1953. Mischievous Franny was a tomboy who liked to play pranks like throwing water balloons with her buddy Sandy. Franny was like any youngster in Rusty Nail except for the fact she was a naturally gifted pianist. Franny acquired her talent from father Wes, a gifted trumpet player, who was once, offered the opportunity to tour with Duke Ellington.

But even with all her talent, how could a child prodigy like Franny, who had surpassed the abilities of her piano teacher Mrs. Staudt, expect to become a star in a sleepy backwater town? Franny’s abilities seemed destined to be wasted until a mysterious Russian woman with a grand piano and a grand gift for playing it moved to Rusty Nail. During the era of McCarthyism when America was on high alert of the “Commie Menace”, Madame Malenkov’s arrival in Rusty Nail stirred much suspicion amongst the townsfolk. Will Franny be brave enough to overcome nosy town gossips in order to seek help from Madame Malenkov?

Two copies of The Rising Star of Rusty Nail by Lesley M. M. Blume are located in the Junior High Fiction section of the KPL Youth Department.

Submitted by Youth Services Dept. Head, Sara Darding

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

By Peg Kehret

Recommended for grades 4-8

Polio was a much feared disease in the United States before a vaccine was developed. Annually it would cripple or kill thousands of people. In 1949 it struck noted children’s author Peg Kehret. Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio is her account of her struggle with the disease and its horrible aftereffects.

Peg Schulze was a 12-year-old school girl happily involved with the start of 7^th grade when she suddenly began to experience muscle pain and spasms, weakness, and a high fever. By the next day, she was paralyzed from the neck down. The author vividly describes her terror on waking up paralyzed and alone (isolated to prevent spreading of the disease) and upon finding out that she had contracted not one but three different types of polio. Because of this, the virus affected not only the muscles in her arms and legs but also the muscles controlling her breathing, swallowing, and speech. She relates her panic at being told by an insensitive nurse, “Do not call me unless you can’t breathe,” thinking to herself, “How was I supposed to call for help if I couldn’t breathe?”

Though she survived the acute stage of the illness, the author was faced with months of often painful physical therapy treatments and the possibility of never walking by herself again. She describes the close friendships she formed with her four roommates at a rehabilitation center, the fun they managed to have there, and her fear of never fitting in again with her friends and school back home. Small Steps is an engrossing book and will give readers a good sense of what it was like to endure the effects of this terrible disease.

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio is located in the Biography section of the KPL Youth Department.

Reviewed by Laura Abbott

KPL Youth Department Clerk

The Teacher's Funeral

The Teacher’s Funeral

By Richard Peck

Recommended for grades 5-8

“If your teacher has to die, August isn’t a bad time of year for it,” says fifteen-year-old Russell Culver. School seems like a “jailhouse” to him anyway. Russell and his ten-year-old brother, Lloyd, hope that it is too late for the school board to hire someone else since school starts in a few days and teachers for their one-room school in rural Indiana are hard to come by. With the school closed, Russell would be free to follow his dream of joining a team of harvesters in the Dakotas working the new 1904 all-steel Case Agitator threshing machine.

Russell’s dreams are upended with an especially cruel twist of fate for a young boy. Not only does the school board hire a new teacher, they hire Tansy Culver, Russell’s seventeen-year-old, take-no-nonsense sister. She is determined that he will turn over a new leaf this school year by finally passing eighth grade and becoming a better role model for Lloyd. Russell suspects the worst--that Tansy just might be able to accomplish this despite all of his efforts to stop her.

The Teacher’s Funeral, by Richard Peck, humorously explores education in the one-room-schoolhouse days of rural Indiana through the eyes of a boy who must endure his bossy older sister as a teacher. Though the first third of the book moves a little slowly setting up the circumstances surrounding Tansy’s hiring, the author then switches to high gear with the antics of the school’s eight students and the efforts of their inexperienced teacher to force learning into them. Boys, especially, may enjoy reading about Russell’s life in 1904 and the pranks students used to play on their teachers.

Two copies of The Teacher’s Funeral are available in the KPL Youth Department in the Junior High Fiction section.

Reviewed by Laura Abbott

KPL Youth Department Clerk

Title of book: Yellow Star

Author: Jennifer Roy

Intended Audience: Young Adult (and up)

Yellow Star is based on the true story of Sylvia Perlmutter, who was only four and a half years old when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Sylvia’s family was forced to move to the Lodz ghetto, along with over 270,000 other people. At the end of the war only 800 were still alive, including twelve children. Sylvia was one of the twelve.

Her family eventually moved to the United States, and for many years Sylvia did not speak about her experiences in Lodz. She finally decided to tell her niece, Jennifer Roy. Roy felt that Sylvia’s story deserved a wider audience, and wrote Yellow Star.

The book is written as a series of free verse poems, with an occasional brief prose section giving helpful historical background. The poems express Sylvia’s feelings and describe her experiences in simple, direct language, as if the young Sylvia herself were talking to you. Her convincing voice tells of unbelievable hardship and extraordinary courage. Roy concludes the book by describing what happened to the real-life Sylvia and her family after the war ended. She also provides a timeline of some important World War II dates.

Yellow Star gives us a view of our own humanity that is both horrifying and inspiring. It’s an unforgettable story, beautifully told.

Kewanee Public Library has one copy of Yellow Star in the New Books section of the Young Adult Room.

Gail Hintze

Kewanee Public Library Young Adult Coordinator

The Misadventures of Maude March

The Misadventures of Maude March, or, Trouble Rides a Fast Horse
By Audrey Couloumbis
Recommended for grades 5-8

Eleven-year-old Sallie March and her fifteen-year-old sister, Maude, are on the run in the Wild West of the 1800’s. The orphans are traveling on their own on horseback from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to find their long lost uncle in Independence, Missouri. As if this weren’t tough enough, Maude is wanted in several states for horse thievery, bank robbery, and murder, all of them crimes she did not commit (well, almost all of them). The sisters’ lives are beginning to resemble those of the rough-and-tumble characters in the dime adventure novels which Sallie dearly loves.

Trouble follows the two sisters in Audrey Couloumbis’ fun novel The Misadventures of Maude March from the time their aunt and guardian falls dead from a stray bullet, leaving the girls orphaned for the second time. The girls must rely on their own smarts and the help of a few unusual friends found along the way. They are portrayed as intelligent and spunky but are allowed to show less positive emotions, such as moodiness and stubbornness. Told from the younger sister’s viewpoint, the book also gives the reader an idea of what life was like when Missouri and Iowa were on the edge of the western frontier. Readers who enjoy novels packed with adventure and action will enjoy this book and will probably be glad to know there is a sequel (Maude March On the Run!, or, Trouble Is Her Middle Name).

The Misadventures of Maude March is the May selection for the Mother & Daughter Book Club at Kewanee Public Library. One copy of the book is available in the KPL Youth Department in the Junior High Fiction section. The sequel will be available soon in the same section.

Reviewed by Laura Abbott
KPL Youth Department Clerk

Naked in Death

Naked in Death by J. D. Robb

I decided to read this book after seeing a bookmark at the Library called "Read Them in Order." These bookmarks give readers a chronological list of many popular fiction series, which is sometimes difficult to figure out.

For the uninitiated, J. D. Robb is a pseudonym for popular romance writer, Nora Roberts. Naked In Death is the first of her Eve Dallas/Roarke series. When I first started reading this book, I believed that it was a futuristic mystery. Several chapters in, I found that Roberts, while writing as Robb was staying true to her romantic roots, despite the book's cover.

The story concerns a no nonsense woman police detective (Dallas) and her investigation into the murder of a prostitute. In the process of finding the killer, Dallas must deal with politics, police bureaucracy and the demons of her own childhood abuse. She also manages to meet a rich, mysterious and handsome man known only as “Roarke.” This stranger, while under suspicion for the murder, manages to seduce Dallas.

The mystery part of the book was satisfying and had a nice twist to its ending. The characters in the novel were very typical of mystery and romance novels, somewhat shallow in development. The relationship between Roarke and Dallas is also fairly typical of the romance genre. In regards to the future setting of this novel- I felt that many of the details of America in the year 2058 were awkwardly included, but one should not compare Nora Roberts/J. D. Robb to masters such as Orwell or Heinlein.

Overall, this book was fun and a nice escape.

The Kewanee Public Library has a copy of Naked in Death available for check out in Adult Fiction.

Jill Gray

Information Services
Kewanee Public Library

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

This is the April KPL Adult Book Club selection. My coworker, Sarah already reviewed it in February. You can see her review here.

Like Sarah, I found this an attention grabbing tale of secrets, regrets and losses that impact us all.

Jill Gray
Kewanee Public Library

King Dork

King Dork
Frank Portman
High School

Tom Henderson, or Chi-mo as his classmates call him, was just a sophomore reject with a band. School was a tortured maze of random violence, make out/ fake outs, and avoidance. Home was not much better. Chi-mo’s mom and step-dad were ex-hippies who try to connect with him in an after school special way but fail, his sister is a brat, and his father died in a mysterious car accident when Chi-mo was eight. In search of a copy of Catcher and the Rye, which he has to read for school again, he stumbles upon a stack of his fathers books. Inside the books Chi-mo finds encoded notes, a funeral card, a dry cleaners ticket, and obscure passages underlined. He feels if he can solve the mystery behind these items he will be able to get to know his father.
King Dork is written by Frank Portman lead singer of The Mr. T Experience. When writing his first book Portman found inspiration in his song “King Dork”. You can listen to “King Dork” as well as “Thinking of Suicide” and “I Wanna Ramone You” from the book on Amazon. Also on Amazon you can find Chi-moe’s reading list and a discography of the book. Portman’s website, http://frankportman.com/, has a link to a trailer for King Dork on You Tube. A reading gallery is also on his website.

You can find a copy of King Dork by Frank Portman in the YA Room in the lower level of Kewanee Public Library.

Sarah R. Barth Kewanee Public Library, Youth Services

Get Real
By Betty Hicks
Recommended for Grades 5-8

Adoption, family, and true friendship are the subjects of the book Get Real, by Betty Hicks. The author combines these themes with humor and adventure to tell the tale of two best friends trying to understand their families and relationships. Their story should appeal to teens and pre-teens who are themselves adoptees or to those who have ever found themselves wishing they could have different parents.

Dez and Jil are best friends in high school. Dez likes things neat, organized, and elegant. Her eccentric mom and dad, along with her energetic little brother, make her home life messy and chaotic. Dez is so different from the rest of her family that sometimes she even wonders how she could possibly be related to them. She envies Jil her neat, luxurious home and seemingly perfect adoptive parents. Dez doesn’t understand why Jil so desperately wants to meet her birth mother, Jane. She can’t comprehend why Jil wants to spend more and more time with Jane and Penny, Jil’s half sister, when this behavior obviously hurts her adoptive mom and dad very much. The two girls drift apart over this issue for awhile, but events and a somewhat dangerous adventure conspire to bring them back together. Dez and Jil both finally come to understand what it is that makes a parent “real.”

Get Real is the April selection for the Mother & Daughter Book Club at the library. One copy of the book is available in the KPL Youth Department in the Junior High Fiction section. Another copy can be found in the Young Adult room in the fiction section.

Reviewed by Laura Abbott
KPL Youth Department Clerk

Title: Cures for Heartbreak

Author: Margo Rabb

Intended Audience: Young Adults and up

Fifteen-year-old Mia has a lot of spunk and a good sense of humor, and she’s going to need both. Her mom has just died unexpectedly, leaving Mia feeling very alone. She misses her mom terribly. She argues with her sister and feels like she barely knows her dad. Her school work suffers drastically. All of this may sound like it would make for grim reading, but author Margo Rabb has created a wonderful story, and given her young narrator such an engaging and authentic voice that you will want to read every word.
Mia’s mother gave her daughter a precious gift before she died. As Mia expresses her sorrow and works to navigate her new world, the value of her mother’s gift becomes ever clearer. Read Cures for Heartbreak to learn about that gift, and to enjoy a story that will stay with you for a long time.
The library has one copy of Cures for Heartbreak. You can find it in the Young Adult Room on the “new books” shelf.

Reviewed by Gail Hintze, Young Adult Coordinator

Sahara Special

By Esme Raji Codell

Recommended for grades 4-8

We’ve all heard the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Things—and people—aren’t always what they seem on the outside. No one knows this better than Sahara Jones, the title character in Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell. Though she is an avid reader, writes her own “Heart-Wrenching Life Story and Amazing Adventures,” and aspires to be a writer, she has spent years in school turning in incomplete, half-heartedly attempted assignments and trying hard not to be noticed. This behavior gets her assigned to a “Special Needs” teacher (thus her classroom nickname “Sahara Special”) and leads to her repeating the 5^th grade. As she begins 5^th grade for the second time, Sahara finds that a new teacher, Madame Poitier, has been assigned to her class. “Miss Pointy,” as the children call her, is slowly able to persuade Sahara to show her secret self and unleash her writing talent. In the process, Sahara also learns to deal with the hurt of her father’s absence and begins to imagine an exciting future.

Esme Raji Codell uses much humor and beautifully descriptive language to tell this story of a girl not daring to live up to her potential. Students (and adult readers) will identify with many of the school experiences, humorous and otherwise, included in the book. Miss Pointy is an especially wonderful and quirky character who is shown being patient and loving with her class as well as openly exasperated at times with their behavior. Sahara’s story will remind readers of the importance of making peace with our past and striving to be who we were meant to be.

Sahara Special was a 2006 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award nominee. It is the March selection for the Mother & Daughter Book Club at the library. Two copies of the book are available in the KPL Youth Department in the Junior High Fiction section.

Reviewed by Laura Abbott

KPL Youth Department Clerk

Peace like a River

Peace like a River by Leif Enger
KPL Adult Book Club selection for March 2007

Set in rural Minnesota and North Dakota during the 1960s, Peace Like a River captures the feel of its era authentically. That alone makes this book pleasing enough without considering the plot or writing. However this novel also has excellent prose and a riveting plot that make it a must read.
Peace like a River tells the story of the Land family, who put their faith to the test in a journey that ultimately reinforces the importance of home and family. The four main characters are believable yet each posses certain fantastic characteristics that reinforce the novel’s biblical themes. For instance, the narrator Ruben is the middle son who suffers from lung ailments. He views himself as quite ordinary yet knows that he is called to serve as a witness” to miracles. His role in the story becomes pivotal as he must decide who to share his knowledge with.
An additional bonus to this novel is the character of Swede, the younger sister. She is a brilliant and precocious youngster whose fascination with the old west lends an epic, even more nostalgic flavor to the book.

The Kewanee Public Library has one copy of Peace like a River in the Adult Fiction section of the Library.

Reviewed by Jill Gray
Information Services

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

Kim Edwards

Adult Fiction

A surprise spring snow storm swept through Lexington, Kentucky March 1964. It was that cold night that Norah Henry went into labor. Do to the weather her husband, Dr. David Henry, had to deliver her baby with only the help of his nurse. First came a healthy baby boy, Paul. Then unexpectedly Norah delivered another baby. Instantly David knew something was wrong with this baby. Their baby girl was born with Down’s syndrome. David had to make a decision quickly. He decided to send their daughter, Phoebe, away to an institution, and tell his wife that the baby died. David’s nurse, Caroline, was told to take the baby to an institute. When Caroline walked through the institute she knew it was not a place for a baby. She left immediately taking Phoebe with her and raising her on her own.

In Lexington Norah was never able to get over the loss of her baby, while David was ripped apart inside by his lie. In Pittsburgh Caroline fought to provide a good education for Phoebe. Two families living separate lives but forever connected by one morning in March.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a story that will catch your attention right away. Written by award winning author Kim Edwards. She is also a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. You can find a copy of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter in the Large Print section of Kewanee Public Library.

Sarah R. Barth, Youth Services, Kewanee Public Library

The Christians Culture Survival Guide: The Misadventures of an Outsider on the Inside

The Christians Culture Survival Guide: The Misadventures of an Outsider on the Inside

Matthew Paul Turner

Young Adult and Adult

Matthew Paul Turner grew up in a conservative Baptist church. He discuses every thing form his churches view on baptism to sex and boycotts. As he got older he began church hopping. Turner shares the lessons he has learned from attending countless different churches. He talks about all the uncomfortable to down right bizarre thing he has encountered over the years. Though out the book he throws in fun list of thing he thinks you should know, like “Six Signs Your Pastor Might Have an Ego Problem” and “Five Creative Ideas for Your Old WWJD Bracelets”.

Turner dares to write things that many Christians wouldn’t dare say out loud but think. Much of what he writes is very funny. You will be quoting lines from this book for days. However, Turner tends to drop bible verses into his writing that don’t always make sense. In the end Turner tries to be spiritually profound but come up lacking. Anyone who has ever raised your eyebrow or stifled a laugh at something you have seen at a church will enjoy this book.

Kewanee Public Library has one copy of The Christian Culture Survival Guide by Matthew Paul Turner. This copy can be found in the Young Adult Non Fiction in the lower level.

Sarah R. Barth, Youth Services, Kewanee Public Library

No More Dead Dogs

No More Dead Dogs

Gordon Korman

5^th-9^th grades

Janet was a precocious little girl. She has survived family hardships and rocky friendships. Lucky for Janet she has a trustworthy old friend, her dog Rex. The story moves along beautifully until I realize that the dog was going to die. It has happened to me again. I have been duped. There should be warning labels on books like these.

Warning: A dog will die a terrible death in this book. If you

are a dog lover we suggest you do not read this book. However,

if you do, please do so in the privacy of your own home. So that

you will not bawl uncontrollable in public.

How many times have you read a book when all of the sudden, “Son get the shotgun. It’s time to kill your beloved dog”? It was after one of these experiences that I knew it was time to read No More Dead Dogs.

Wallace Wallace was having a similar experience when his English teacher made him read Old Shep, My Pal. He hated it. When it came time to write a review of the book Wallace had no problem writing about how much he disliked it. However, this was not good enough for his English teacher. Soon a war breaks out between Wallace’s football friends and his English teacher’s Drama Club. Find out all about Wallace’s high jinks in No More Dead Dogs.

Kewanee Public Library has two copies of No More Dead Dogs. They can both be found in the juvenile fiction section on the second floor.

Sarah R. Barth, Kewanee Public Library, Youth Services

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think

By Brian Wansink, Ph.D

Intended audience: young adults and up

If you gave a bunch of moviegoers some really, really stale popcorn, do you think they would eat it? What do you think would happen if you served that same old popcorn in larger containers? If you gave restaurant diners a free glass of fine North Dakota wine to enjoy with their food, do you think it would change how much they eat and how long they linger over their meal?

“People eat however much they want depending on how hungry they are and how good it tastes. At least that’s what they say. My graduate students and I think different.” explains author Brian Wansink. Wansink has spent years studying people’s food choices, and he’s had a lot of fun while he’s learned some surprising things about how and why we eat. In Mindless Eating, he describes some of his entertaining experiments and their instructive results.

Wansink states that Mindless Eating is not a diet book, but he does give tips for “mindless” weight loss, which those of us who struggle with dieting may find very helpful. He also provides lots of ideas to help you make healthier decisions about the food you eat. Even if you don’t care about losing weight, you’ll find Mindless Eating well worth your time.

You can find a copy of Mindless Eating in the New Books section of the Young Adult Room in the basement.

Gail Hintze

Kewanee Public Library

Young Adult Coordinator

Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

Intended Audience: Adults or teenagers interested in racial issues

I first heard of Barack Obama back in 2004 when he became a candidate for the US Senate for Illinois. Although at the time, his selection and ultimate victory seemed a lucky fluke, he quickly became rather famous, giving the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Currently he is the only seated US Senator of African American descent. On Saturday, February 10, 2007, Obama is expected to announce that he is running for President of the United States.

Obama’s biography, Dreams from My Father was selected for Kewanee Public Library’s Adult Book Club read for February in honor of Black History month. It is a fitting book for February as it deals with both racial discrimination and identity in a fair and balanced manner. The book will also give readers an inside glimpse into the history and character of this rising star in our political sky. Obama birth was the result of a racially mixed marriage. His father was a foreign student from Kenya who ultimately returned to his native country to fulfill his own destiny. Barack Obama was raised by his white mother and grandparents, mostly in Hawaii. Barack remained relatively innocent about racial tensions in the world until junior high school. Once he became aware of the undercurrents and power disparities in the world Obama spent the rest of his adolescence questioning his role as a black man in America and ultimately reached the realistic but hopeful tone he implores today.

One copy of Dreams from My Father is available at the Kewanee Public Library in Adult Biography

Reviewed by Jill Gray

Information Services, Kewanee Public Library

I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers
Tim Madigan

Recommended for all ages


”It’s a good day in the neighborhood” was frequently spoken by a man who had a caring spirit for all those he came into contact with. It is none other than, Mr. Rogers, of Pittsburgh, Pa who hosted the show Mister Roger’s Neighborhood for young people because he cared about what they viewed on television.
The “I’m Proud of You” is a story about the friendship between journalist Tim Madigan and Fred Rogers. Fred learns one lesson that would carry him throughout his life and this lesson has lightened his load as he traveled down the road of life and increased his faith in God. The author shares his relationship and insights of Fred Rogers as they share many of life’s sorrows and joys together through their correspondence. The reader can find inspiration at many points as this is a book about real life and shared experience.


Reviewed by Mary Oberg
Information Services