Life Outside the Lair

The Book Fair is over. If you didn't get chance to stop by last week, you've missed it. Luckily for you I got a lot of books from the Book Fair for the library. Lots of good stuff, it's pretty exciting! All these books you see in this picture will be in circulation as soon as I finish cataloging and processing them. I really enjoy getting the books ready for the shelves. I get my hands on each book and get a little bit intimate with them, typing their ISBN numbers into the computer, reading their summaries, printing their AR labels, checking their page numbers, looking at their illustrations. You may be wondering how distracting it is having all these awesome books sitting around begging to be read and the answer is very. Occupational hazard. I often lose a quarter of an hour reading the first chapter of a book or a picture book. Shh, don't tell!

While I'm waiting for my hold request on Crispin: the End of Time to be fulfilled, I thought I'd go ahead and listen to something else by Avi, so I picked up The Seer of Shadows from the public library. This was a wonderful ghost story, smart and spooky and well-told. The story takes place in 1870's New York and spirit photography is all the rage amongst the society folk. However, Horace Carpetine, a photographer's apprentice and a skeptic, knows first hand how the 'spirit images' are made. But, as it turns out Horace has a special gift that allows him to actually photograph ghosts and, in so doing, bring them back to the world of the living. Horace is a thoughtful character. When his master employs him to help create a fraudulent spirit image in hopes of financially benefiting from a grieving woman's loss, he is torn between doing what's right and losing his position or doing what his employer demands. The story has a satisfying resolution and the end is touching. I'd recommend this for grades 5 and up.

While listening, I finished a pair of fingerless mitts. They ended up too small for me so Katie nabbed them. Now here hands will always be warm while playing Monsters.