"I'M NOT CUTE!"

"I'm not cute!"

By Jonathan Allen

Every kid gets stuck in the battle between wanting to be thought of as a grown up and wanting to be cuddled and pampered by their parents. In "I'm not cute!" Baby Owl is no different. Horrified that the other forest creatures think he is so adorable, Baby Owl insists he's "a huge, scary, sleek, sharp-eyed hunting machine"...until Mama comes to tuck him into bed. This book lovingly portrays every kid's conflict with their inner adult.

Also in the series: "I'm not sleepy!", "I'm not scared!", and "I'm not Santa!"

Short and sweet (just like Baby Owl), these are perfect bedtime books for small children and also have easily decodable words for beginning readers. They can be found in the Easy section under E ALL.

Courtesy of Sequoyah Regional Library System
Library website: http://www.sequoyahregionallibrary.org

MOON OVER MANIFEST by Clare Vanderpool

Clare Vanderpool's first novel is a winner - literally, because it won the Newberry Medal, and figuratively, because it successfully combines many different elements together to bring its story to life for the reader. It is a historical fiction piece, a mystery, and a coming-of-age story all wrapped up in one. Narrator Anabel Tucker is a likable heroine, who at the height of the Depression is shipped off to Manifest, Kansas while her father struggles to make a living on a railroad. While living with a rough-around-the-edges but well-meaning friend of her father, she soon discovers a hidden box of mementos that hold clues to an event that happened a generation before. With some new friends, she sets out to unravel the mystery of Manifest. The book jumps between periods, but in an easy-to-follow way, and the story unfolds in some surprising ways as Anabel reads a WWI soldier's letters home and old newspaper articles, and listens to reclusive Miss Sadie conjure up spirits from the town's past. Vanderpool moves the adventure along nicely and interestingly, as it is set against the backdrop of the first World War, the Depression, mining towns, immigrant discrimination, prohibition, orphan trains, and Hooverville shanty towns. Find this debut novel at J VAN.

THE SCHWA WAS HERE by Neal Shusterman

Neal Shusterman generally writes for a young adult audience, but he got the idea for this middle grades novel during a school visit when the librarian pointed out to him that one boy had had his hand up the whole time to ask a question, but he never noticed him. So Shusterman set out to write a story that will resonate with kids who sometimes feel they get lost in the shuffle. Narrator Antsy Bonano is a likable smart-alec who because he is a middle child doesn't feel that he gets any attention from his family, while his new friend Calvin, aka "the schwa," is almost invisible to everyone else - teachers and students don't remember having him in their class, no one remembers when he showed up at school, and his past remains a mystery. Main characters are developed with authenticity, even if the plot is a bit implausible. There is plenty of humor in the situations the friends get into, but serious issues are also explored when the boys get caught in a prank and have to do community service, when they befriend a blind girl and then have to compete for her affection, and when they both come to terms with their family situations. While not fitting neatly into any one genre, it is at times reminiscent of Spinelli's' Maniac Magee, and with a first chapter title like "Manny Bullpucky Gets His Sorry Butt Hurled off the Marine Park Bridge, kids should get engaged quickly. Find this book at J SHU.