New Biographies

Louisa: The Life of Louisa May Alcott - Yona Zeldis McDonough
Louisa came from a family that was poor but freethinking, and she started teaching when she was only seventeen years old. But writing was her passion. This biography captures the life of a compassionate woman who left an indelible mark on literature for all ages.

An Eye for Color: The Story of Josef Albers - Natasha Wing 
The painter Joseph Albers saw art in simple things. Late in his career, he began painting squares of solid, unmixed color, one within another.

The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth - Kathleen Krull
This picture-book biography explains how Farnsworth held on to his dream to develop television and the scientific concepts behind it.

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Suzy) - Barbara Kerley
Thirteen-year-old Susy Clemens wants the world to know that her papa, Mark Twain, is more than just a humorist and sets out to write a comprehensive biography of the American icon.

Magellan's World - Stuart Waldman
A biography of Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan, the man who discovered the Americas for the rulers of Spain.

New Picture Books

Animal Heroes: True Rescue Stories - Sandra Markle
Learn about animals, both domestic and wild, who have become heroes when they came to the rescue of humans.

Here Comes the Garbage Barge! - Jonah Winter
In the spring of 1987, the town of Islip, New York, with no place for its 3,168 tons of garbage, loads it on a barge that sets out on a 162-day journey along the East Coast, around the Gulf of Mexico, down to Belize, and back again, in search of a place willing to accept and dispose of its very smelly cargo.

New Country Books

Mexico: the Culture - Bobbie Kalman
An introduction to the culture of Mexico that explores the traditions, celebrations, foods, holidays, sports, art, music, dance, language, and literature of the country.

Mexico: the Land - Bobbie Kalman
Mexico is dry deserts and lush rain forests, it is also rolling hills and broad plains. Mexico is full of contrasts: factories and farms, huge cities and small towns, populated areas, and untouched wilderness. Mexico is a land of variety.

Mexico - Elaine Landau
Brief survey of the history, geography and culture of Mexico.

Poland - Zilah Deckker
A basic overview of the history, geography, climate, and culture of Poland.







Mongolia - Allison Lassieur
Describes the geography, people, government, culture, history, religion, economy, and wildlife of Mongolia.

New YA Books

Numbers - Rachel Ward
Fifteen-year-old Jem knows when she looks at someone the exact date they will die, so she avoids relationships and tries to keep out of the way, but when she meets a boy named Spider and they plan a day out together, they become more involved than either of them had planned.

Raven Summer - David Almond
Led to an abandoned baby by a raven, fourteen-year-old Liam seems fated to meet two foster children who have experienced the world's violence in very different ways as he struggles to understand war, family problems, and friends who grow apart.

Salt - Maurice Gee
Hari, one of the enslaved people from Blood Burrow, and Pearl, a member of the ruling families known as Company, forge an unusual alliance and become reluctant traveling companions, as they undertake a desperate pilgrimage to save the world from a terror beyond their greatest imaginings.

New Award Books

My Abuelita - Tony Johnston
With great gusto, a child's grandmother performs deep knee bends, consumes a breakfast of "huevos estrellados," and practices vocal exercises before going to work as a storyteller. Pura Belpre Illustrator Award Honor
 
Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day - Kate McMullan
April Fools' Day is not a happy one for Wagner the mouse because his best friend, Pearl the rabbit, and other children and adults at school keep tricking him. Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor

The Day-Glo Brothers: the True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors - Chris Barton
The story of Joe and Bob Switzer who experimented with ultraviolet lights and fluorescent paints and invented a new kind of color called Day-Glo. Robert E. Sibert Informational Book Medal Honor
 
Darwin - Alice B. McGinty
A picture book biography which reveals the assembling of Darwin's most profound idea: the survival of the fittest.  Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children

Federico Garcia Lorca - Georgina Lazaro
Both a rhyming picture book and an illustrated biography, this tale recreates the early experiences of world-famous Spanish poet Federico Garca Lorca. Pura Belpre Author Award Honor

How Many Baby Pandas? - Sandra Markle
Looks at the eight panda pairs that were born at China's Wolong Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in 2005, examining how they live, grow, and play and the steps that are being taken to prepare them for their release into the wild. Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children Honor

New Traditional Literature Books

The Goat-Faced Girl: A Classic Italian Folktale - Leah Marinsky Sharpe
When Isabella, a beautiful but lazy young woman, agrees to marry an equally lazy prince, the sorceress who raised her gives her the head of a goat in hopes that she will learn to do things for herself.

The Gift of the Crocodile: A Cinderella Story - Judy Sierra
In this Indonesian version of the Cinderella story, a girl named Damura escapes her cruel stepmother and stepsister and marries a handsome prince with the help of Grandmother Crocodile.

The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story - Rebecca Hickox
An Iraqi version of the Cinderella story in which a kind and beautiful girl who is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsister finds a husband with the help of a magic fish.

New Picture Books

All Things Bright and Beautiful - Ashley Bryan
An illustrated version of the well-known hymn, which describes the marvels of God's creation.

Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies
Julie Andrews and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, have hand-selected a wonderful mix of their most cherished poems, songs, and lullabies in this rich and diverse poetry collection.


Beatrice Doesn't Want To - Laura Numeroff
On the third afternoon of going to the library with her brother Henry, Beatrice finally finds something she enjoys doing.

Corduroy's Best Halloween Ever!
Corduroy must decide on his costume in order to enjoy one of his favorite holidays with his friends.



Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers - Lura Numeroff
In a child's imagination, animals do wacky things, including ducks riding bikes, yaks skiing, and fish eating bagels.

Corduroy's Easter Party
As he and his friends get ready to celebrate Easter with a special party, Corduroy wonders if the Easter Bunny is real. What better time for Corduroy and his friends to throw an Easter party? They've got their Easter hats, they've dyed their eggs, and now they're waiting on one special long-eared guest. Will the Easter bunny show?

The Chicken of the Family - Mary Amato
When her older sisters tease her into believing that she is actually a chicken, Henrietta runs off to a farm to be among her own kind. Buckeye Children's Book Award, 2010

The Best Story - Eileen Spinelli
When a contest at the local library offers a prize for the best story, a girl tries to write one using her family's suggestions, but her story does not seem right until she listens to her heart.

Would I Trade My Parents? - Laura Numeroff
A young boy considers what is special about all of his friends' parents, and realizes that his own are the most wonderful of all.

What Aunts Do Best; What Uncles Do Best - Laura Numeroff
Read one way, this book describes all the wonderful things aunts do, and when turned over, it depicts why uncles are special.

Hedgie Blasts Off! - Jan Brett
When the spectacular, sparkling explosions at a popular tourist sight slow down, Hedgie the hedgehog is the only one capable of flying to tiny planet Mikkop to see what is wrong.

New YA Books

After Ever After - Jordan Sonnenblick
Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome after effects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.

Back Home - Julia Keller
Thirteen-year-old Rachel Browning understands that her father will be different after being injured in the Iraq War, but no one is prepared for the impact that his traumatic brain injury and other wounds have on the entire family.

Dragonfly - Julia Golding
When Tashi, the rigidly formal sixteen-year-old Fourth Crown Princess of the Blue Crescent Islands, reluctantly weds roguish eighteen-year-old Prince Ramil of Gerfal, their religious, cultural, and personal differences threaten to end their political alliance and put both countries at the mercy of a fearsome warlord.

The Brothers Story - Katherine Sturtevant
In the late seventeenth century, fifteen-year-old Kit, driven to desperation by the starvation of one brother and mistreatment of his own simple-minded twin, realizes his dream of becoming an apprentice in London but feels drawn by duty to return home to Essex.

Dragon Games: Book 2 of The Books of Umber - P.W. Catanese
Having learned more about his mysterious past, Happenstance accompanies Lord Umber on a daring journey that could affect the future of Kuraharen.

New Valentine's Day Book

Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! - Laura Numeroff
Join Mouse from 'If you give a mouse a cookie' as he celebrates Valentine's Day with all the friends he loves.

New Picture Book

The Easter Egg - Jan Brett

Hoppi the bunny wants to win the egg-decorating contest so the Easter Bunny will choose him to help distribute Easter eggs, but instead, while everyone else is working on their decorations, he finds himself guarding an egg that has fallen from a robin's nest.

New YA Books

The Viper's Nest (Book 7 of The 39 Clues) - Peter Lerangis
Shaken by a shocking loss, Amy and Dan flee to an exotic land and trace the footsteps of their most formidable ancestor yet: a military leader of mythic proportions.

The Chestnut King (Book 3 of The 100 Cupboards) - N.D. Wilson
Twelve-year-old Henry York, finally reunited with his family, works with them and the Chestnut King, the long-deposed and mythic leader of the faeren people, to destroy Nimiane and her forces of evil.

Cosmic - Frank Cottrell Boyce
12-year old Liam looks like he's thirty. Sometimes it's not bad; for example on the first day of school the principal mistakes Liam for a teacher or when he convinces a car dealer to let him test drive a Porsche. So feeling like he's stuck between two worlds, Liam cons his way into being the adult chaperone on the first space ship to take civilians into space. But when the ship is stuck 230,000 miles from home, being mistaken for an adult is not good.

New Pop-Up Books

God & Heroes - Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda
A volume of centuries-old myths and legends that takes the reader from the banks of the Nile to the clouds above Greece to Mount Olympus; up to Odin's frozen north and into the Far East; into Oceania and many more lands and times.

Everyone Says I Love You - Beegee Tolpa
How to say "I love you" in America, Italy, Holland, Japan, Kenya, and France.

February 2010 Newsletter

ALA Book Awards Announced

The American Library Association announced the winners of several coveted awards in January.  The Caldecott Medal, awarded to the illustrator of the most distinguished American picture book, was Jerry Pinkney for his book, The Lion and the Mouse, a nearly wordless book based on the Aesop fable in which an adventuresome mouse proves that even small creatures are capable of great deeds when he rescues the King of the Jungle.  The Newbery Medal, awarded to the author of the most distinguished book for children published in the United States during 2009, was Rebecca Stead, for her book, When You Reach Me.  Most of the award winners are already part of the CMC collection, and the others have been ordered.  A complete list of the award books in the CMC can be found at the CMC website.


Website of the Month

Edheads is an educational website that helps students learn through educational games and activities designed to meet state and national standards. The site contains free, high quality educational activities for the classroom or for individual use.  Most of the activities are science-related, and include virtual hip and knee replacements, weather, and simple machines.

Education News

Several textbook publishers, including Houghton-Mifflin and Pearson/Prentice-Hall, have signed deals to adapt their print textbooks to digital formats that could be used on devices such as Apple's new iPad.  Read about it here.

New CMC Materials

Nearly 100 new items were added to the CMC collection in January.  New resources include Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs, trade books, computer software, the movie the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and much more.

New Activity and Idea Books

Teaching green : the high school years : hands-on learning in grades 9-12

Forms at your fingertips. Grades 1-6 : over 150 timesaving forms to manage your classroom 





How to make super pop-ups

From The Historian's Apprentice series:

Garrison and Douglass : abolitionism in Black and White

What happened at Ellis Island?

Manifest Destiny and its critics 

How "Radical" was the American Revolution? 

Jefferson vs. Hamilton : two visions of a nation