Girls In Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood

Brashares, Ann. Girls In Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood. 2005. 338p. ISBN 0-385-72935-9. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

For a second summer in a row, the magical pants that four best friends share helped them survive being apart. Now that they have graduated from high school and are ready to head off on their own to four different colleges miles apart from each other, Tibby, Lena, Carmen and Bridget once again decide to split custody of the pants. From the last day of school to a day at the beach to celebrate their last day together, summer has never felt so short.

Carmen is surprised to discover that her mother is pregnant and expecting a child with her new husband David just as she’s leaving their apartment. Happy at having a little brother but fearing being replaced, Carmen considers changing her choice of colleges to be closer to home so she can help out. Tired of babysitting, she agrees to work with Lena’s grandmother, taking her to appointments and keeping her company.

Tibby is ready for film school, and works at the movie theatre this summer, but what felt new and exciting has become repetitive. Her relationship with Brian is complicated, and she still misses Bailey. Her three-year-old sister is on the move, and in a moment of inattention she falls out of Tibby’s window while reaching for the apple tree, and ends up in the hospital. Tibby experiences guilt and feels responsible for her sister’s accident.

Lena’s enrollment in a summer art program and her future projects at art school are threatened when her father walks in during a modeling session when a fully nude male model sits on a stool in the middle of the room for all to see. The death of her grandfather last year has led to her grandmother living with them, much to everyone’s discomfort. Grandmother would rather not be here at all, but back in Greece in her home, even thought it would be lonely. Plus, she still thinks of Kostos.

Bridget returns to camp, but runs into Eric who also happens to be there as a counselor. Worse, they both have to work together. She has pursued him relentlessly when she was fifteen, but now at seventeen she’s wiser. Yet, she retains the hope that maybe they will connect. But now it’s her turn to be pursued by one of the male campers, and she immediately feels bad for her actions two summers ago.

As the girls navigate their last summer before moving out, their relationships will change yet will remain as strong as ever.

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Brashares, Ann. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood. Book 2 of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. 2003. 373p. ISBN 0-385-72934-0. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

Last summer a pair of jeans from the thrift store saved four girls from a terrible summer apart. At nearly seventeen, the four friends find themselves heading in different directions again. Lena will be working all summer. She and Kostos broke off their relationship, but she soon discovers that Kostos has come to the United States to pursue an internship in New York City. They can see each other every weekend, when he will make the trip down to Washington. Kostos, however, has a secret that will crush Lena.

Tibby is attending a summer program at Williamson College. There she struggles with acceptance by friends she perceives as cooler, and ignores Brian’s overture towards more than friendship. It takes making a mockery of her mother for her first production to realize that the story she really should tell is Bailey’s, her young friend who died of leukemia last summer.

Bridget dropped out of soccer during the year, blowing her chance at scholarship from a big university. When she discovers letters her maternal grandmother wrote her family, she decides she must reconnect with her and learn more about her own dead mother. She travels to Alabama, where she pretends to be someone else but soon finds herself living under that new identity with her grandmother, helping her clean the attic and removing personal memories that help Bee reconstruct a better view of her mother. As the same time, her abandonment of soccer was premature.

Last summer Carmen made an impression on Krista, her step-sister. Krista runs away to live with Carmen. At the same time, Christina, Carmen’s mother, re-enters the dating scene with a co-worker, throwing Carmen for a loop. Has she been holding her mother back all this time?

Through it all, the four best friends exchange the jeans. For the first part of the summer, the jeans are not used, but when Christina wears them Carmen throws a fit and decides to break her relationship with David so she will not be left alone. As the summer progresses, however, and as each girl’s relationship deepens, the jeans once again help make everything right. And as tragedy strikes, all four friends will be reunited and able to support each other.

See You in the Cosmos

Cheng, Jack. See You in the Cosmos. 2017. 316p. ISBN 978-0-399-18637-0. Available at FIC CHE on the library shelves.

Alex Petroski is fascinated by space. He loves stars and rockets, and his an active participant on Rocketforum.org, where he knows all of the other participants. He loves his dog, named after the famed astronomer Dr. Carl Sagan. He loves his older brother, who works in Los Angeles as a sports agent, and his mother, who has good days and bad days, but mostly bad days. At eleven, Alex wants to do is to replicate Dr. Sagan’s exploit of creating a golden record containing all sort of information on Earth, then sending it to space on Voyager back in 1977. He’s built a rocket, and he plans on attending SHARF (Southwest High Altitude Rocket Festival) in New Mexico so he can fire it up in the sky, along with a golden iPod on which he has been recording his thoughts.

Accompanied by Carl Sagan, Alex leaves a bunch of ready to eat meals for his mother, who rarely comes out of her bedroom, and heads out to New Mexico on a train from his hometown in Colorado. He meets Zed, a man who has made a vow of silence and communicates with a chalkboard and who is also heading to SHARF. Since the train is late, Alex agrees to go with Zed and Steve to the festival site. There, Alex manages to fire his rocket in the C competition, but it doesn’t go very far. Steve and Zed do their best to comfort Alex, but he perks up when he discover that there is a match for his father in Las Vegas. Alex and Ronnie’s father died eight years ago, and no one really talk about him. When Alex did a family project in school, he used Ancestry.com and left some contact information if anyone else was looking around, and lo and behold there is someone with the same name, birthdate and deathdate a state away. Steve and Zed agree to take him to Vegas to find out more about his father. As Alex’s adventures continue, he will realize that sometimes what you are looking for is right at home.

Told through transcripted recordings, Alex has the responsibility level of a 13-year-old, as he likes to point out, but he’s also incredibly naive and talkative, often repeating himself. Though not addressed until the end, his mother’s sickness and his brother’s absence from his life overshadow everything that Alex does. The discovery of a half sister increased the size of his family, and the many contacts he makes during his trip turn into friends that help him grow and deal with his mother’s schizophrenia. Alex, who often thought he was alone, has a bigger family and way more friends than he ever thought.

A Crack in the Sea

Bouwman, H. M. A Crack in the Sea. 2017. 358p. ISBN 978-0-399-54519-1. Available at FIC BOU on the library shelves.

Kinchen and Pip live with old man Ren, on the outside of Tathenn, the capital of the islands of Second World. When she returns home to discover that her 11-year-old brother has been invited to tea with the governor and the Raft King, Kinchen immediately worries. Pip can breathe underwater and can talk to fish, yet he has the worst time distinguishing between humans. They all look the same to him. For his part, the Raft King rules Raftworld, a large city constructed out of thousands of rafts that float tied together and powered by hydraulics.

The Islanders and the Raftworlders have always been at peace and meet every few years to exchange and trade. People willing to leave their home are welcomed with the other nation. The Raft King, however, is looking for a door so he can return to the First World, where his mother, Amelia, came from, and Pip is the one that can find this door by asking the fish.

Meanwhile, Thanh and his sister Sang are escaping warfare and Communist rule in Vietnam like so many, by boarding a small boat and risking the open sea to make landfall in Thailand, Malaysia or the Philippines. Accompanied by two adults, a baby, and another girl called Mai, they eventually stumble upon a doorway in the open sea held open by a Kraken, and are propulsed in the Second World.

Intermingled in their stories is the story of Venus and Swimmer, two African children who escape from a slave ship and live with a man they name uncle Caesar for a while, before being captured again and taken out onto another slave ship bound for Jamaica. Able to walk underwater, Venus rescues more than a hundred slaves, including her brother and her uncle, and they walk for days underwater before discovering a door leading to a new world.

These three stories all tie in together in a beautifully told tale of hope and redemption. Fans of intriguing fantasy will appreciate the well crafted main characters and the setting of the Second World.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 327p. 665 mins. Available both at FIC TWA the library shelves as an eBook and an audiobook from Overdrive.

Huckleberry Finn enjoys experiencing adventures with Tom Sawyer, because he never knows what to expect. That’s also true of his father, the town drunk who is always looking for easy money. In their prior adventure together, Huck and Tom had earned the significant sum of $6,000 each. Huck’s money has been entrusted with the local judge, and he himself has been placed in the custody of the widow Douglas for the purpose of civilizing him.

Sprung from this dreary existence of Church and learning by Tom, Huck joins his merry gang and spends some time before being captured by his alcoholic father. Taken to a remote cabin until he gets the money for his dad, Huck manages to escape and fakes his own death. He lands on an island in the Mississippi River, only to stumble upon Jim, old slave to widow Douglas. As a runaway slave, Jim can expect punishment or death if he’s caught.

Huck and Jim soon engineer a plan. They will go down the river until the Ohio, then travel northeast until Jim reaches a free state. That morning, though, Huck and Jim notice a boat on the river using dynamite. They are looking for his body! Huck and Jim head down the river, and thus begins a series of adventures that will sorely try Huck and Jim, including escaping hustlers, springing Jim free from prison, bad weather, and memorable encounters as they head down the river.

A classic of American literature, Huck Finn remains controversial for its language use but reflects the era in which it was written. It also proves that despite more than 150 years between the time the book takes place and today, boys will continue to be boys!

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. 2001. 294p. ISBN 0-385-72933-2. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

At nearly sixteen, four friends are about to spend their first summer apart. Carmen is heading to North Carolina to spend time with her father, Al. Lena and her younger sister are heading to Greece to be with grandparents they haven’t met before. Bridget is heading to Baja California to a soccer camp. Tibby, unlike the others, is staying here working a boring summer job at the local drug store. The four have known each other since birth, as their mothers were in the same nursing group together, and they’ve always celebrated the beginning of the summer by breaking into a gym for the night.

As they gather at Carmen’s house before the break-in, the girls are sad to be apart this summer, but are all, except Tibby, looking forward to new experiences. Carmen hopes to make Tibby feel better by offering her the jeans she had bought at the vintage thrift store when she had gone shopping with Lena. Dirty and worn, the jeans end up fitting Tibby perfectly. And Bridget. And Lena. When Carmen puts them on, everyone realize that the pants are magical. With four incredibly different body types, there’s no way these pants would fit each girl so well.

That night, in the gym, they agree that the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants will share their magical find. Each week, a different girl will have the pants. They create 10 rules that regulate pants use, and they agree that the pants will be shipped around the world so that each of them get to use them for two weeks.

As they depart the next morning for a summer full of adventures, each girl is looking forward to new experiences. The pants come to play a role in each of their lives, helping them grow as individuals and learn more about themselves.

Careers in the US Navy

Kiland, Taylor Baldwin. Careers in the US Navy. Part of the Careers in the US Armed Forces series. 2016. 128p. ISBN 978-0-7660-6949-7. Available at 359 KIL on the library shelves.

When John Paul Jones, aboard the Bonhomme Richard, uttered the words “I have not yet begun to fight,” little did he know that he was starting a maritime tradition of excellence and dominance. The United States Navy is present on every ocean, and provides military protection to American allies and deterrence to its enemies. From its humble beginnings as a small navy fighting the British for the colonies’ independence to a nuclear-powered fleet, the Navy exerts many roles.

This book presents information about the history of the Navy, and how it operates in today’s world. The various organizational structures of the Navy are discussed, and the role that diversity plays in Navy staffing is explored. Naval operations are presented, while vignettes of famous sailors and recipients of the Medal of Honor are peppered throughout. Navy specialties are explained, and service requirements are described. Finally, the book discusses Navy’s future in an uncertain world.

Individuals interested in joining the Navy or learning more about will appreciate this book.

Titles in this series include:

• Careers in the US Air Force
• Careers in the US Army
• Careers in the US Marine Corps
• Careers in the US Coast Guard

Into the Wild

Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. 2007. 207p. ISBN 978-0-307-38717-2. Available on the library shelves at 917.98 KRA and as an audiobook on Overdrive.

Christopher Johnson McCandless marched to his own tune. After graduating from college, McCandless disappeared from his family’s life and began an odyssey across the continental Western United States, Mexico, Canada, and Alaska. Seeking to discover the true world, McCandless whittled down his possessions to almost nothing, and for two years he traveled on his own schedule, making friends along the way. His dream, however, was to go to Alaska, enter the bush, and survive only on his skills.

Throwing away the literal map as well as the figurative one, he entered the Alaskan wilderness in April of 1992, hoping to experience a wilderness explored by no other and a true natural experience alone in the woods. Carrying a rifle, ammunition, and a large bag of rice, McCandless plans on spending months in the wild before heading out. What was to be a summer of reflection and contemplation in the wild turns into a tragic story of survival and deadly mistakes.

While some saw McCandless as a hero for leading his life off the beaten path, and others saw a villain who ultimately wasted his life away to reach an impossible ideal, most readers will empathize with McCandless’ purpose but shake their heads at his hubris. Readers who enjoy survivalist stories like Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet and Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm will appreciate what drove McCandless forward and guided him to that fateful bus in the Alaskan wilderness.

The River

Paulsen, Gary. The River. 2008. 2 hours 31 minutes. ISBN 978-0-7393-8618-7. Available as an audiobook on Moultonborough Overdrive.

Fifteen-year old Brian Robeson is a typical teenager, except for one glaring characteristic: two years ago, he survived alone 54 days in the wilderness when the plane he was in crashed in the Canadian north. For a while Brian did the talk show circuit and was featured prominently on the news, but now his notoriety has finally died down. Brian still feels lost, however. It is impossible to relate to the world he lives in with the experience he acquired, and he really can’t talk to anyone about it.

Now, however, the U.S. government hopes Brian would be willing to do it all over again so that Derek, a psychologist who serves on the team that designs survival courses for the military, can accompany him and document the conditions of survival in the wilderness. Basically, Derek wants Brian to relive his experience. Brian shocks his mother when he readily agrees. He needs to do this, to share this experience with someone else so that he can finally talk about it.

Upon arrival to another lake a hundred miles away from his first stay, Brian tells Derek that they cannot have any of the gear they brought with them on the float plane because it won’t be real. Derek agrees, but convinces Brian to at least keep the radio. At first, everything goes well. They build a shelter, get a fire going, and find enough food to satisfy their hunger. On the third night, however, Derek is struck by lightning and falls into a coma. Brian now faces a dilemma. He can stay here and home that Derek recovers, because the radio itself has also been fried by the bolt of electricity. Or he can get Derek on a raft and navigate the river that comes out of the lake for what seemed on the map to be about 120 miles until the first trading post. Brian decides to attempt to save Derek’s life, and he builds a raft. But now, he must face the elements once again on his own in a race against time….

A companion story to Hatchet, The River will keep survivalists riveted to the edge of their seats as they watch Brian’s progress or lack thereof down the river.

How the Automobile Changed History

Bailey, Diane. How the Automobile Changed History. Part of the Essential Library of Inventions series. 2016. 112p. ISBN 978-1-62403-781-8. Available at 629.2 BAI on the library shelves.

There are many inventions that have revolutionized the way people lived and changed the course history, but the automobile had a direct environmental and visual impact on how our society changed.

The coupling of a motor to a  horseless carriage (where the word car comes from) by inventor Karl Benz allowed people a new type of freedom they did not have before: the ability to travel long distances to destinations chosen by them, at their leisure. The first cars were noisy and not very comfortable, but as features were added and got better the motorized vehicle went from an object of suspicion to an accepted mode of transportation to a beloved symbol of success second only to one’s home.

Cars were expensive, but Henry Ford adapted the assembly line and managed to standardize the building process, reduce the price of each car, and mass-produce millions of model T. The car had arrived as the mode of transportation preferred by most Americans. Subsequent generations adapted the car for their own purposes, from the explosion of models and features following the Second World War to hot rods and the drive-in theatre and restaurants. Our entire society became centered around cars as an ever increasing number of roads were built to accommodate the growing number of vehicles.

Safety features had not kept up, however, and as the number of accident deaths climbed the American public clamored to make cars safer. At the same time, gas guzzlers found themselves crippled by the Oil Crisis of 1973, and Japanese cars, which were smaller and safer, made their entrance into the American market.

Today cars are safer than they have ever been, just as they continue to evolve to different energy sources such as electricity, hydrogen and natural gas. But fundamentally, Karl Benz would still recognize today’s automobile for what it was.

Cattle Ranching in the American West

Steele, Christy. Cattle Ranching in the American West. 2005. 48p. ISBN 0-8368-5787-9. Available at 636.2 STE on the library shelves.

When Christopher Columbus first lands in America, he discovers that there are neither horses nor cattle. So on his next trip he brings both. The availability of large open spaces and excellent foraging areas encourage the growth of both populations.

As colonists expanded on the continent, cows and horses went before them, and soon wild cattle and horses were everywhere. Thus evolved a new type of estate, the ranch or haciendia, and a new profession, the vaquero. First these vaqueros, who worked with the cattle, were slaves and indentured servants. But soon enough, with the push by Americans through Texas and what was then Northern Mexico, the vaqueros were transformed into cowboys.

Despite popular representation, cowboys were very low on the social order and worked very hard for meager earnings. Driving cattle from Texas and the Southwest United States to markets in California and the Midwest, they lived dangerous and isolated life.

The history of cattle ranching mirrors the society of the time, and was affected by ups and downs in the fortunes of the United States but eventually fulfilled the Manifest Destiny predicted by American Founders.

The Orphan Trains

Flanagan, Alice K. The Orphan Trains. 2006. 48p. ISBN 0-7565-1635-8. Available at 362.7 on the library shelves.

Industrialization in the United States led to a migratory movement from the countryside to cities. This dislocation brought more jobs, but also reduced many people to poverty. Some parents were simply unable to take care of their children. Many immigrants who arrived in New York City lived in overcrowded tenement housing and found it difficult to care for their offsprings. Sickness and poor health often killed one or both parents, leaving children orphaned and alone.

As cities grew in size, the number of orphans roaming increased as well. Concerned citizens created orphanages, but there were not enough people in cities to adopt these children. Thus orphan trains were born. The brainchild of the Children’s Aid Society, trains were chartered and sent to the Midwest and as far away as Texas with orphans on board ready to be adopted. Trains would stop in towns, and locals were invited to adopt a child and treat them as their own until the child reached the age of 18. Over the next eighty years, over 200,000 children were transported from New York City to new parents.

At first parents and orphans were concerned, but as reports of ideal environments and decent country living filtered back to New York City, more and more children joined the trek. An interesting period in history, the orphan trains reveal an innovative way to solve a problem.

Whirligig

Fleischman, Paul. Whirligig. 1998. 133p. ISBN 0-8050-5582-7. Available at FIC FLE on the library shelves.

Brent Bishop has always tried to impress the people at his school, and he’s had his eye on beautiful Brianna. But when she rejects him at a party in front of everyone, Brent loses face. Drunk and unhappy, he gets back in his car and drives away. Hoping to die, he takes his hands off the wheel, and lets the car drift….

The ensuing arrest, trial, and sentencing for the manslaughter of a girl he killed while driving drunk leaves him numb. He can’t believe he murdered someone. Then during a restitution meeting, the victim’s mother gives him one task: To travel to the four corners of the United States, build and place a whirligig that looks like her daughter there. Brent agrees to do it, and begins his trip of redemption.

Told from five different perspective, Brent’s trip through the United States is interspersed with the voice of a person whose life is changed by the whirligig Brent has placed in their little corner of the world. A tale of redemption in the face of an unspeakable tragedy, readers will appreciate the growth Brent undergoes during his travels, and will be reflecting on how our actions affect people we do not know long after we’ve done them.

Around the World in Eighty Days

Vernes, Jules. Around the World in Eighty Days. 2007. 160p. ISBN 978-1-40277615-1. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Phileas Fogg is a marvel of English self-control and quiet dignity. He leads a life regulated like clockwork, having his meals at precisely the same time every day, attending the Reform Club, and playing his favorite card game, Whist.

On this particular day, Fogg has just hired a new manservant, a Frenchman named Passepartout. He provides him the schedule, then leaves for the Reform Club at the appointed time. There, other members of the Reform Club are engaged in a vigorous discussion about how long it would take to go around the world. Fogg tells them that it would take precisely 80 days, no more, no less. His friends are impressed. Surely, they argue, it would take longer as Fogg’s schedule is dependent on everything working like clockwork. On the contrary, replies Fogg, his schedule makes allowances for such delays.

A wager is quickly placed, and Fogg announces he will forthwith leave England for France, thence through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, the United States, and back to England, all in 80 days or less. Returning home, Fogg tells Passepartout to pack, they’re off on a round the world trip that will change both of their lives forever!

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

Auxier, Jonathan. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. 2011. 397p. ISBN 9781419700255. Available at FIC AUX on the library shelves.

Discovered floating at sea with a raven sitting on the basket and with his eyes pecked out, Peter grew up a blind orphan in the port town that became his home. Adopted by a master thief, Peter became schooled in the art of pilfering, stealing, plundering, lock-picking, and pick-pocketing. He could maneuver in the tightest spots, climb the highest buildings, and explore through people’s houses with them in it. But this was never enough for Mr. Seamus, his evil master and his equally evil and vicious dog.

So when Peter manages to steal a box of magical eyes from a mysterious haberdasher, his life irrevocably changes. With nothing to lose, he decides to place one of the pair of eyes in his empty sockets, since they seem about the same size as his eyeballs would be. He is instantly transported into the waters of a tropical island, where he has to struggle to get out of the water while attempting to save a strange creature who turns out to be Sir Tode, a not-so-brave knight who was bewitched and turned into a strange mixture of cat and horse.

The two of them land on the island, where they meet the Professor and the haberdasher, who live on this island. Peter is to be sent on a very important mission: he must go to the missing kingdom and help the inhabitants restore the true king. At first Peter doesn’t want to go on this mission, but he and Sir Tode reluctantly agree to go.

They meet many strange creatures along the way, and end up in the desert, for the kingdom has lost all access to the ocean due to a curse. As Peter and Sir Tode make their way towards the distant castle, they must figure how to cross the uncrossable moat and help the people inside the castle. But ravens fly the skies and jealously guard the desert. And the evil king rules the castle with an iron fist and an army of armed gorillas.

Equipped only with his wits and his skills as a master thief, Peter must help the princess and the other children overthrow the king and escape from the bonds of slavery. As dangers grow and the stakes get higher, can Peter and his magical eyes shift the balance of justice?

A companion volume is called Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard. If you enjoyed this magical story, you might like Fake I.D. and The Great Greene Heist. Auxier also wrote a great horror story, The Night Gardener.

Secrets of the Space Shuttle

Rees, Peter. Secrets of the Space Shuttle. 2008. 36p. ISBN 978-0-531-17590-3. Available at 629.44 REE on the library shelves.

The space shuttle delivered astronauts, satellites, and pieces of the International Space Station to orbit around Earth for over three decades. This book not only tells the story of the space shuttle, but also of the whole space adventure from the beginning of the space race to today. Well written with great illustrations, it also discusses the future of space travel and space living.

Astronauts

Richardson, Adele D. Astronauts. 2000. 32p. ISBN 1-58340-046-X. Available at 629.45 RIC on the library shelves.

The conquest of space could not have happened without the courageous men and women who hurled themselves to outer space aboard rockets and space shuttles over the last fifty years. This book presents the pioneers of space travel and discusses the history of humans in space. Astronaut training is explored, and the various qualities necessary to become an astronaut are explained. Fans of space will enjoy reading about what it takes to be one of the few who get to go to space.