Ages 16+
The Carol Burnett Show is chronicled in this hilarious memoir by none other than Carol herself. She highlights her favorite scenes and those she worked with on set. Guest stars on the show included Lucille Ball, Bernadette Peters, Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth. I highly recommend this book to fans of Carol Burnett and her show!
Ages 18+
Psychiatrist Dr. Lisa Damour has created a guide for parents with daughters so that they can help their teen develop into a well-rounded adult. She gives realistic examples of trials parents have gone through with their daughters, which serve as excellent examples of how to deal with teens on a day-to-day basis. The book is broken up into seven parts, including: Parting with Childhood, Contending with Adult Authority, Entering the Romantic World, and Caring for Herself. The aim of the book is to help parents understand and guide their daughters from adolescence to adulthood.
Ages 18+
Mike Massimino has dreamt of becoming an astronaut since the day Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Massimino grew up on Long Island, and attended both Columbia University and MIT. He took qualifying exams and was rejected twice by NASA, but he didn’t give up. On the final round of astronaut selection, he failed because of poor eyesight, but he didn’t stop there, either. He makes it to space and has the ride of his life. His memoir teaches us that when you persevere, anything is possible.
Grades 9-12
Felicia Day is a filmmaker, actress, musician, and self-proclaimed geek who found herself as an Internet entrepreneur after years of being home schooled and isolated. She moved to Hollywood to become an actress, but her misadventures led her to produce her own web series, own her own production company and become an Internet star. In this charming and funny memoir, Day shares her story and inspires us all to pursue our wildest dreams.
Grades 3-5
Patterson and Grabenstein team up once again and bring young readers a story about a small mouse with a big personality. Isaiah is a special kind of mouse: he can read, write and talk to humans, too! When he is separated from his very large family, he relies on the friendships that he makes along the way to get him through this tough time. The most special friend he makes is an equally lonely human girl named Hailey, and the two become inseparable. Will Isaiah be able to reconnect with his family or will they be gone for good?
Grades 3-6
Misuzu Kaneko was a children’s poet in the early 1900s whose work was quickly forgotten after her premature death. Now, years later, it is rediscovered in the wake of the devastating tsunami of 2011. Jacobson brings her poems back to life in this book after connecting with Kaneko’s brother, and they are presented in Japanese and English.
Ages 18+
This book is the encouraging story of how Nadia Lopez, a life long educator, opened and became the principal of her own Brooklyn school. She was inspired by her students to create the school, and suddenly found herself in the national spotlight while she met with President Obama and the beneficiary behind a campaign to fund the school. All it took was one post on the popular site Humans of New York for her to get noticed. This book is the story of how Mott Hall Bridges Academy came to be.
Ages 18+
Pashmina is an author who left her family long ago in order to make a fresh start for herself. Amelia, Pashmina’s young editor is ecstatic to be working for her on her successful mystery series. She and her boyfriend Tim become a big part of Pashmina’s life, and soon all three of their lives become intertwined and secrets are revealed that they never thought would surface.
Ages 18+
Sisters Shelby, Yeardley and Lily Lane are beginning to feel that their every day lives are mundane, so when they get invited to their aunt Nola’s cottage by the lake for a birthday celebration, they jump at the chance to get away. It has been a long while since they’ve traveled there, and to them it feels like a homecoming. They are looking forward to reconnecting with family and each other.
Grades 9-12
Seventeen-year-old Essie is a Jewish girl living in Manhattan in 1911. She is unable to take care of her six-year-old sister, Zelda, because she has a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. At the factory, she befriends the new girl, Harriet. She relates to her on a deeper level, because she realizes that Harriet is sad, lonely and lost. We see Essie navigate through her own loss and tragedy as the author alternates between the past and the present, weaving the story together like an intricate web.
Michelle’s Bookish Life 