What if, whenever someone in your vicinity fell asleep, you were sucked into that person's dreams and couldn't free yourself?  This is what Janie Hannagan has been living with since she was eight years old.  Then she finds herself in a terrifying nightmare with a killer -- and finds, to her horror, that he is her crush, Cabel.  *Wake* by Lisa McMann is followed by a sequel, *Fade*.  Both are totally gripping!

One of the best things about going to the American Library Association conference in Chicago was getting an advance review copy of *Catching Fire*, the second title in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins! 

Katniss and Peeta publicly outsmarted the capitol in the Hunger Games -- now the capitol is making its own cruel plan to punish them and the people they love.  You will not be disappointed in this extraordinary sequel!  Coming September 1, 2009.

What did you read?  Would you recommend it to anyone else? Would you look for more books by the same author? How would you rank this book, 1 - 100 (100 is THE BEST)? Click on comment (below) to enter your imput!

1.  Our bean bag loungers are on order!  They should arrive in late April or early May.

2.  We're back to our Friday meeting schedule.

4.  There is a sequel to The Gospel According to Larry titled Vote for Larry; and our library owns it.

3.  We're seeing signs of spring -- the daffodils and tulips in the courtyard will be in bloom before you know it!

For those of you who asked me how we made our bookclub avatars: we used Portrait Illustration Maker.  I've used mine in the Livonia HS Library webpage, LibraryThing, VoiceThread, and various other online applications.  Niicki at Squidoo wrote an article that compares some free avatar makers and shows their results: "The Avatar Makers I Love." Have fun playing with them!

 

We're going to have to wait a while for our chairs.  They are temporarily deleted from Scholastic's Bookfair rewards catalog while their maker reviews new manufacturing standards.

On the positive side, we're beginning a new and hilarious book about a guy named Josh, his anonymous web site, and his efforts to stay anonymous as the site gains popularity.  Yes, the picture on the cover is blurry -- possibly this symbolizes Josh's attempts to remain anonymous?

Our book fair was a tremendous success!  We earned enough to provide the library with eight bean bag loungers (currently pictured on the library webpage) and over $700 worth of books and materials (Twilight: the Complete Illustrated Movie Companion is one of our new books); plus donating over 250 books to charities.  We send out a big Thank You to everyone who helped or shopped at our fair!  We're looking forward to another book fair next year!

We will have breakfast pizza and jewelry making (for our Chairs fund) at our November 21 meeting.  Our next book is *Magic or Madness* by Justine Larbalestier; discussion on Dec. 5.  Post your discussion questions (click on comments) here!

BTW, if you haven't checked out LibraryThing.com, you're missing out!  It's very cool, like MySpace for serious readers!

Would you like to meet Tamora Pierce and Bruce Coville?  They will be presenting from 1:15 - 2:00 at the Rochester Children's Book Festival on Saturday, November 8.  The festival runs from 10 AM - 4 PM at MonroeCommunity College -- FREE admission! Click  the link at the left for more information.

Contributed by Crystal:  Was Thomas evil?  What do you think?  What examples in the book make you think so?

We will be discussing this and other questions at our meeting on Friday, October 31.  Refreshments will be served.

The BookClub yearbook picture is scheduled for 1:40 on Tuesday Oct. 28.  Pick up your pass at the library during homeroom (a pass is needed to get out of your 4th block class), and remember to bring a book!