Do you need a good scare? How about visiting a cemetery? Not just any cemetery, but “the oldest existing cemetery in the city” of New Orleans. It opened in 1789. The graves are above ground due to flooding and very damp ground.  “In this cemetery, a body stays inside a coffin for a year. Then the coffin is removed from the tomb to make room for another body. The bones are put in a bag and stay in the tomb.” (p. 10)

The book is divided into three very short chapters: A Lost Ghost, City of the Dead, and Haunted Cemetery. Specific people are  mentioned as being possible ghosts which many visitors sense while walking through this cemetery. New Orleans is usually a very warm place and yet visitors often feel cold in parts of this cemetery. Photos taken in this cemetery often have orbs of light in them once they are printed, which the photographer couldn’t see when taking the photo. “Are ghosts really in the cemetery or do people just imagine them? Perhaps the best way to find out is to visit. But keep an eye out for black cats and disappearing guests.” (p. 21) And so ends this book.

There is more photo than text at each page turn. The photos are quite clear in the center of the page, but get blurred around the edges and there has been an eerie florescent green tint added to the blurred edges of pages.

Includes: Glossary, To Learn More with books and www.factsurfer.com , and Index.

Terrorist: Gavrilo Princip, the Assassin who Ignited World War I, a graphic historical fiction novel, is an engrossing account of the young Serbian anarchist whose assassination of Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand led to The Great War (World War I). Henrik Rehr, a Dane who lived in Europe during the early 1980’s, and lived in New York City at the time of 9/11 terrorist attacks, is a well-known cartoonist and author of graphic novels. Rehr spent considerable time researching “old, old books” in the New York Public Library trying to figure out how “a small number of people of limited means carried out an act with broad repercussions.”

Terrorist: Gavrilo Princip, the Assassin who Ignited World War I is a 232-page account, in detailed and powerful black and white drawings and text, of what drove Princip and his fellow Serbian anarchists to plan the assassination of Ferdinand. The account is stark, depressing, and disturbing. While thoroughly researched, Rehr notes “Certain liberties had to be taken for the story to work. I put words into the mouths of my characters that I did not necessarily have historical sources for, but I did my best to stay true to my understanding of the people I attempted to bring to like. There is nothing in the book that I know to be historically false, but there is a lot that came from my imagination.”

The historical information in this lengthy graphic novel is vastly more detailed than what is found in the current McGraw-Hill World high school History text used in the Olympia School District. The historical detail makes this work a good addition to the library collection. The graphic novel format will engage many a teen reader who never would plow through volumes of history books to understand the oppression of the Serbian peoples in the early 20^th century, their struggles for independence from Austria-Hungary, and the backgrounds of Princip and his accomplices.

Some readers may be sensitive to the significant amount of violence portrayed. Additionally there is course language, and scenes with excessive alcohol use, discussions of sex, prostitution, suicide and murder. Teachers and librarians may want to keep this in mind when recommending this book to students. Should the library receive complaints on the content, it may be noted that the book is a Junior Library Guild Selection.

Here is a seasonal book with every two pages depicting and Christmas scene in which the reader is to search for Santa and his elves.  A short description of the event depicted is included.  This would be a good choice for one or two students to use for quiet time.  Similar to I Spy.

There was quite an expense in publishing this full-color book about Bad Piggies.  Lots of pages given to drawing different expressions on faces.  This whole Angry Birds Bad Piggies thing seems, to me, to be a fad and something that won’t last long.  Also, the audience to which this book is geared is limited.  The drawing lessons themselves are simple and easy to follow.  The angry looks are tiresome.

This is book #162 of the series The Boxcar Children, originally created by G.C. Warner.  The last scores of books have been written by ghost authors as Warner has long passed.  These books have the same four original characters, just as charming and wholesome as ever.  They still live with Grandfather Alden and his housekeeper, Mrs. McGregor.  Each book is a mystery which occurs away from home and in which the children solve.  In this particular installment, they are at a friend of Mrs. McGregor, which is a first for me, it’s usually Grandfather’s friend.  The town is called Sleepy Hollow and is almost Halloween.  Running ghost tours, the family friend is trying to raise money to maintain upkeep on the family home.  However, someone is trying to sabotage the tours and make them lose their home.  It’s pretty easy to figure out who the baddie is and even the Alden children pretty much had it at the very beginning.  There are always a few misleading clues but this one was pretty clear.  These books are terrific for the beginning reader, but there are enough of them now.  If beginning readers read all 162 books, they’d move on to harder books.  Time for the Boxcar children to age and move on.

This fun-filled book by Lois Ehlert is packed with underground worlds to explore, right under your feet!  It has the colorful collages that Ehlert is known for and the rhyming text that carries the reader through the tunnels to the end that has fantastic facts about moles and the other critters found in this book.

I love the illustrations.  They are absolutely charming and sweet, but I’m afraid the story doesn’t match up.  It’s a rather long, babbling story about a housewife quail and her day with her seven chicks, hiding under a bush to stay cool, preparing for a picnic, visiting their aunt, taking a bath, and going to bed.  For some unknown reason the text occasionally changes color, but there doesn’t seem to be any discernible pattern as to why.  There’s just nothing about it to make the reader care about what the quails are up to.

There’s not enough information in this volume to give it any real substance.  It is basically a chronological list of the first computers, with dates and names of inventors.  The full-page photos that accompany the text are useful, but the one showing the computer invented in 1975 is sitting on a shelf with a 2001 edition book. And once again we have book including a “timeline” in which the spacing along the line is completely misrepresentative of the time involved.

The illustrations are fun, but the story is a bit flat.  It basically show’s Nina following her ears through the woods, each sound leading her to a new group of friends who is up to something, but they all seem to be acting a bit strange/secretive.  In the end, she hears them all gathering for a surprise party for her birthday.  Basically it seems like a story that’s already been done, without something to make it stand out from the crowd.

In this first-day-of-school story, young Migs learns lessons about over-coming shyness, respecting others’ space, making amends, and making friends.  At first he’s so shy he doesn’t want to go to school, but the dress-up corner helps him create a super-hero costume that helps boost his nerve.  Unfortunately, he feels so powerful he starts racing around the room, ends up crashing into another student and destroying his artwork.  His first attempts to fix the tear just make things worse and worse, and Migs resorts to hiding again, but then he enlists the help of other students to bring the ruined artwork to life, breaking the ice with all, so that in the end he’s eager to return.  The illustrations are bright and cheerful; the problems are ones many kids can relate to.  The rhyming text is occasionally stilted, but generally works.