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Showing posts with label Juvenile Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Juvenile Fiction. Show all posts

Monday, November 15, 2021

Ghostbusters!!!

 


I spent quite a bit of time in the children's hospital, in the '80s.   I recall spending a lot of that time in the playroom, alone, with their t.v. on a cart attached to what could have very well been a beta, and watching Ghostbusters, over and over and over, until a nurse would finally claim the t.v. cart was needed elsewhere.  Bill Murray, (my first and everlasting crush), Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, the entire cast, I idolized.  They were my heroes because they kept me company when I was alone, they made me laugh, when I was scared, they gave me an escape when I desperately needed one.

By the time Ghostbusters II was released, I was an avid watcher of the Ghostbusters Saturday morning cartoon.  I begged for the toys and somehow only ended up with Slimer but I had a playhouse.  My rickety playhouse with three steps leading to a door, a triangular roof, two windows, and a built-in wooden seat.  In 1989, my playhouse got a facelift.  It was painted neon slime green, with the ghostbusters II logo painted above to door thanks to my mom.  It was gaudy.  I loved it.

I love Ghostbusters.  As someone who can never pick a favorite, I can say that Ghostbusters is tops.  I even adore the much-maligned 2016 Ghostbusters, (it's really not hard as long as you keep in mind that it is an alternate universe and should not in any way be taken seriously).  When the teasers for Ghostbusters Afterlife started, I was ready for it.  Every time a new trailer is released I'm ecstatic.  I am so ready for this.




    Exploring everything from the pioneering special effects to set design and the unforgettable soundtrack, this authorized book tells the exhaustive behind-the-scenes story of how Dan Akroyd's original concept evolved into a cinematic sensation. Packed with fascinating production photos, concept art, and behind-the-scenes images, this book details how Slimer, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and the many ghosts and ghouls in the films came to the screen. Featuring new interviews with Dan Akroyd, Ivan Reitman, Ernie Hudson, Richard Edlund, and many others, the book reveals how the cast and crew overcame momentous challenges to create one of the best-loved movie franchises of the 1980s. --from back cover.










    When a possessed fashion designer offers a spring line aimed to displease, Ray learns that catching ghosts isn't always exciting, Egon has a touching moment with a spectral spook, and Winston shines.



    Thirty years after the original film took the world by storm, Ghostbusters is back and fully rebooted for a new generation. Director Paul Feig combines all the paranormal-fighting elements that made the original franchise so beloved with a cast of new characters, played by the funniest actors working today. The Ghostbusters are back and ready to save the world! Boys and girls ages 3 to 7 will love having both the new and classic Ghostbusters Little Golden Books in one big hardcover edition!

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Banned Books Week: Sept. 26- Oct. 2


“Artwork courtesy of the American Library Association, www.ala.org“
"I don't think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. It's tosh. It's snobbery and it's foolishness. We need our children to get on the reading ladder: anything that they enjoy reading will move them up, rung by rung, into literacy."
-Neil Gaiman, "Art Matters: Because Your Imagination Can Change The World"

"In 2020, more than 273 books were affected by censorship attempts. Demands to remove books addressing racism and racial justice or those that shared the stories of Black, Indigenous, or people of color grew in number. At the same time, books addressing themes and issues of concern for LGBTQIA+ people continued to dominate the list." https://www.ala.org/news/mediapresscenter/presskits/bbw

“Artwork courtesy of the American Library Association, www.ala.org“


What does it mean when we say, ‘Books unite us?’ It means that books are the tethers that connect us culturally. Stories ground us in our humanity; they convince us that we’re not actually that different and that the things that are actually different about us should be celebrated because they are what make up this tapestry of life.”
-Jason Reynolds



"When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part . . . because she's a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all" -- provided by publisher





"The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. Racist ideas are woven into the fabric of this country, and the first step to building an antiracist America is acknowledging America's racist past and present. This book takes you on that journey, showing how racist ideas started and were spread, and how they can be discredited"--Dust jacket flap.
"A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning"-- Provided by publisher.



When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn's alternating viewpoints.






"Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless--an outcast--because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her.



Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.



After discussing the police shooting of a local Black man with their families, Emma and Josh know how to treat a new student who looks and speaks differently than his classmates. -WorldCat



A young girl growing up in an Alabama town in the 1930s learns of injustice and violence when her father, a lawyer, defends a black man accused of raping a white girl.



In Depression-era California, two migrant workers dream of better days on a spread of their own until an act of unintentional violence leads to tragic consequences.



It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove -- a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others -- who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful so that people will look at her so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.




"Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does--or does not--say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life." -- Amazon.


Look for ALA’s Top Challenged Books of 2020 list in April 2021!

“Artwork courtesy of the American Library Association, www.ala.org“

Friday, November 27, 2020

Sherlock Holmes Day



 May 22nd is traditionally recognized as Sherlock Holmes day, in honor of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Birthday. However, there are some sources, (5minlib.com, and bookglow.net) that say that it's December 1. It's claimed that "A Study in Scarlett) was first published on Dec. 1, 1887, but there is some debate on the authenticity of the exact date, claiming that the day of publication was actually in November. (https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/12/the-real-first-publication-date-of.html#.X5co-4hKjIU) It's also debated on whether or not the character Sherlock Holmes would celebrate his birthday on December 2nd or January 6th, (https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/the-curious-case-of-a-birthday-for-sherlock/) 

Either way, it's never a bad time to celebrate and appreciate all that is Sherlock Holmes. 


An omnibus edition of three of Arthur Conan Doyle's best-known works.




Collects two volumes of Doyle's short stories starring Sherlock Holmes, each of which is annotated to provide definitions and further explanations of Sherlock's theories, as well as literary and cultural details about Victorian society.



Read two of the most intriguing mystery stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" the sharp-eyed Holmes, along with his friend, Dr. Watson, is able to save the life of a young woman fated by an evil stepfather to meet a horrifying death. "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" is even more difficult to solve, but Sherlock Holmes comes to the rescue again and saves an innocent young man from a fate he does not deserve.




Rising War Office star Mycroft Holmes persuades his brother, Sherlock, to volunteer at a friend's orphanage, where the suspicious death of a street urchin and a mysterious Chinese woman leads the brothers into the London opium trade's dark underside.



It is 1890. A year after Holmes's death, Watson--now in a retirement home--narrates a tale of Sherlockian detection that could tear apart the very fabric of society. The story opens with a train robbery in Boston and moves to the innocuous setting of Wimbledon.



Days after the encounter at the Swiss waterfall that claimed the lives of Sherlock Holmes and criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty, Pinkerton detective agent Frederick Chase and Scotland Yard Inspector Athelney Jones, a devoted student of Holmes's methods of investigation and deduction, must track down a sinister figure who is determined to stake his claim as Moriarty's successor.



"As "Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective," Charlotte Holmes has solved murders and found missing individuals. But she has never stolen a priceless artwork--or rather, made away with the secrets hidden behind a much-coveted canvas. But Mrs. Watson is desperate to help her old friend recover those secrets and Charlotte finds herself involved in a fever-paced scheme to infiltrate a glamorous Yuletide ball where the painting is one handshake away from being sold and the secrets a bare breath from exposure. Her dear friend Lord Ingram, her sister Livia, Livia's admirer Stephen Marbleton--everyone pitches in to help and everyone has a grand time. But nothing about this adventure is what it seems and disaster is biding time on the grounds of a glittering French chateau, waiting only for Charlotte to make a single mistake."-- Provided by publisher.



"Joanna Blalock's keen mind and incredible insight lead her to become a highly-skilled nurse, one of the few professions that allow her to use her finely-tuned brain. But when she and her ten-year-old son witness a man fall to his death, apparently by suicide, they are visited by the elderly Dr. John Watson and his charming, handsome son, Dr. John Watson Jr. Impressed by her forensic and deductive skills, they invite her to become the third member of their deductive team. Caught up in a Holmesian mystery that spans from hidden treasure to the Second Afghan War of 1878-1880, Joanna and her companions must devise an ingenious plan to catch a murderer in the act while dodging familiar culprits, Scotland Yard, and members of the British aristocracy."-- Provided by publisher.



Sherlock Manga - printed in English in the US for the first time!

Adapting the episodes of the smash-hit TV series starring worldwide superstars Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange) and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit). Holmes and Watson tackle brain-teasing crimes in modern-day London in this stunning Manga, presented in its original right-to-left reading order, and in the full chapters as originally serialized! 
Meet Holmes and Watson for the first time...all over again!"



YA. Graphic Novel. Sherlock Holmes died fighting Professor Moriarty in the Reichenbach Falls. At least, that's what the press claims. However, Holmes is alive and well and takes advantage of his presumed death to travel the globe. Unfortunately, Holmes's plans are thwarted when a plague of vampirism haunts Britain. This book collects the comics, Sherlock Holmes and the Vampires of London Volumes 1 and 2, originally created by French publisher, Soleil.



" As a young medical student, Arthur Conan Doyle studied in Edinburgh under the vigilant eye of a diagnostic genius, Dr. Joseph Bell. Doyle often observed Bell identifying a patient's occupation, hometown, and ailments from the smallest details of dress, gait, and speech. Although Doyle was training to be a surgeon, he was meanwhile cultivating essential knowledge that would feed his literary dreams and help him develop the most iconic detective in fiction. Michael Sims traces the circuitous development of Conan Doyle as the father of the modern mystery, from his early days in Edinburgh surrounded by poverty and violence, through his escape to University (where he gained terrifying firsthand knowledge of poisons), leading to his own medical practice in 1882. Five hardworking years later -- after Doyle's only modest success in both medicine and literature -- Sherlock Holmes emerged in A Study in Scarlet. Sims deftly shows Holmes to be a product of Doyle's varied adventures in his personal and professional life, as well as built out of the traditions of Edgar Allan Poe, Émile Gaboriau, Wilkie Collins, and Charles Dickens -- not just a skillful translator of clues, but a veritable superhero of the mind in the tradition of Doyle's esteemed teacher. Filled with details that will surprise even the most knowledgeable Sherlockian, Arthur and Sherlock is a literary genesis story for detective fans everywhere. "-- Provided by publisher.



No fictional character is more renowned for his powers of thought and observation than Sherlock Holmes. But is his extraordinary intellect merely a gift of fiction, or can we learn to cultivate these abilities ourselves, to improve our lives at work and at home? We can, says psychologist and journalist Maria Konnikova, and in Mastermind, she shows us how. Beginning with the "brain attic"--Holmes's metaphor for how we store information and organize knowledge--Konnikova unpacks the mental strategies that lead to clearer thinking and deeper insights. Drawing on twenty-first-century neuroscience and psychology, Mastermind explores Holmes's unique methods of ever-present mindfulness, astute observation, and logical deduction. In doing so, it shows how each of us, with some self-awareness and a little practice, can employ these same methods to sharpen our perceptions, solve difficult problems, and enhance our creative powers. For Holmes aficionados and casual readers alike, Konnikova reveals how the world's most keen-eyed detective can serve as an unparalleled guide to upgrading the mind.--Amazon.



A new series featuring Sherlock Holmes' much-younger sister Enola begins. When her mother disappears, Enola is determined to find her and sets out to the heart of London. There Enola becomes involved in the kidnapping of a young marquess.



Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are asked to help the King of Bohemia find a very important photograph. It won't be easy. The King's former love, Irene Alder, has hidden the photograph. Holmes must don a clever disguise, stage a brawl, and even fake a house fire to find the mysterious image! But has Holmes underestimated Irene Alder?

DVD




















November 2026

November is a month full of celebrations; not just Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. It is Native American Heritage Month and Men's Health ...