Ages 18+
It’s Los Angeles in the 1940s and black war veteran Easy Rawlins has just been fired from his defense plant job. He is drinking his problems away at his friend’s bar when a white man walks in. The man offers Easy money if he can find Daphne Monet, a woman who is known to hang around jazz clubs. To Easy, it seems simple enough, but is there a catch? Find out in this first book of Mosley’s series featuring Easy Rawlins.
Ages 14+
Wisler chronicles Hamilton’s life by taking lessons and advice that we can learn from everything he did and the way he lived his own life. Hamilton was a scrappy orphan who had an insatiable hunger for learning. He read everything he could get his hands on, and then he wrote as much as he could. Helping win the Revolutionary War, ratifying the Constitution and creating the country’s financial system were just some of the things that Alexander Hamilton accomplished. Wisler explains Hamilton’s basic maxims, as Hamilton liked to say, for anyone who wants success in money, romance or a good fight. Hamilton was a man before his time, and people of all generations will learn from him for years to come.
Grades 3-6
From the author who wrote Love That Dog and Hate That Cat comes Moo, her newest novel in a mix of poetry and prose. When Reena’s family moves from the city to rural Maine, at first, she doesn’t know what to expect. Instead of exploring all Maine has to offer, including delicious lobster and blueberries, Reena and her brother Luke are forced to work for their neighbor Mrs. Falala and care for her farm animals, including her stubborn Cow, Zora. This story teaches us that our lives can change for the better if we’re open to it.
Grades 3-6
Annabelle’s life in a quiet Pennsylvania town has been affected by two world wars, but her life really changes when she meets her new classmate Betty Glengarry. Betty is a typical bully and makes it known. She specifically attacks Toby a veteran of World War I. Will Annabelle, who knows what a kind soul Toby is, be able to stand up for him or will she choke and be a bystander?
This is a 2017 Newbery Honor book.
Grades 6-9
This biography explains, in simple terms, what exactly Buffalo Bill Cody did in his day. The author explains both what Buffalo Bill said about himself as well as what is known about him historically. The book is filled with photos, memorabilia from shows and drawings to illustrate Cody’s shows.
Ages 18+
Stephanie Plum works as a bounty hunter for her cousin Vinny’s bond enforcement agency. The latest skip is Larry Virgil, who was arrested for stealing an 18-wheeler full of bourbon. Stephanie and her honorary partner Lula catch Virgil in the act once again, but he gets away, leaving behind a freezer truck complete with Bogart’s ice cream and a dead body, which is frozen solid and topped with chocolate and pecans. Stephanie’s friend and occasional lover Ranger calls on her to go undercover to investigate the Bogart Factory. She takes on the assignment while also juggling her on-again, off-again boyfriend as well as keeping tabs on her pip of a grandma who has a new beau. The twenty-third Stephanie Plum novel is not to be missed!
Grades 3-6
Peter rescued Pax the fox when he was little after his family was killed. From that moment on, Peter became “his boy.” When Peter’s father enlists in the war, Peter is sent to live with his grandfather and forced to release Pax back into the wild. Guilt immediately washes over Peter, and he sets out to find his beloved friend again. Will the two reunite or will Pax be lost forever?
Grades K-3
This story illustrates one of Parton’s popular songs. A little girl’s mother sews her a coat out of rags when winter arrives and she can’t afford to buy one. When she goes to school and her classmates laugh at her, she explains to them what it means to be rich.
Grades 3-6
Noah Keller’s life is turned upside down when his parents pick him up from school one day and announce that they won’t be going home to their house in Roanoke, Virginia, but rather to “the good Germany,” or East Berlin. It’s 1989 and they are hiding behind the Iron Curtain. There are so many secrets and lies that Noah can hardly keep up. For one, his name is now Jonah Brown, and his birthday is no longer in March, but rather in November. He begins to wonder when his mother became multi-lingual and what really happened to the parents of his friend Claudia, whom he calls Cloud. Will Noah’s life ever be the same again?
Ages 16+
This book sheds light on what it’s like to teach in city schools. The author combines his real life experience as a teacher in New York City with the research he did in order to present a new approach to teaching in an urban setting. As a man of color who felt invisible in his own school days, Emdin encourages teachers to respect the background of each child and to get students involved in their own learning. He presents his theory of Reality
Pedagogy and provides tools that teachers can use to build a community-like structure inside the classroom.
Michelle’s Bookish Life 