And the Winners Are...

The Wii Tournament is now over. We had quite a few teams--and everyone had a great time! The winners, with a whopping 1600 points, are Patrick, Michael and Brandon! Congratulations :)

Story Time Information

This is the LAST WEEK of story times for this session. For the next two weeks, try out the Listening Pond, make your kids tell YOU stories at the puppet theater or just check out extra books to read at home :) I will have posters, blog posts, Facebook posts and emails to let you know the new schedule and start dates. If I have your email, I will send you updates on story times and other children's programming--email me at lmichaud@sealib.org or just call 474-2044 and ask for Lisa.
Also, the first two weeks of "Pages and Stages" the interactive story telling program by UNH's Mask & Dagger theater troupe will take place at Seabrook Elementary--I'm so pleased we can share this program!! It will be at 3:30 on the 3rd and 10th, then at 4 on the remaining Wednesdays through March. Please join us! It's for all ages, with stories, props, and lots of chances to join in :)

February Vacation Week!

Monday at 2pm: Quilted Stories--We'll read stories for the K-4th grade group with real quilts and also with a cool craft to make and take home afterwords.

Tuesday at 4pm: Don't just sit at home! Come on out to watch "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs" with your friends--we have free popcorn too!




Wednesday at 6pm: Puzzle Evening--Sure, you CAN just put together puzzles if you want...but you can also make crafts out of spare puzzle pieces, create your own puzzle, or just color one in! Snacks are included :)

Thursday at 3:30pm--Wii Tournament Finale! This is your final chance to compete in the Wii Tournament! It doesn't matter whether or not you've played any of the previous rounds--anyone can play! Final rounds of Wii Play will be played, scores added up...then winners announced and trophies awarded! Snacks are included.

Friday 3:30-5:00pm--Paws 4 Reading (Misty). Come read a story to Misty, our German Shepherd! She listens attentively and gives high fives when you finish :) Call or email to sign up for a reading time.

Wii Tournament

The Wii Tournament starts Thursday, Feb. 4th at 3:30! Make a team (four players is as many as you'll want) and come prepared to compete. We'll be playing Wii Play games, so if you aren't really familiar with the Wii this is a very good opportunity. The games are great fun, but they're also designed so that you'll learn how to handle the remote as you play. The tournament will continue every Thursday in February--the Finale will be the Thursday of February Vacation Week with trophies for the winners! Snacks are included :)

new teen books

Ever since she was child, Jem has kept a secret: Whenever she meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they will die. Burdened with such awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. The two plan a trip to the city. But while waiting to ride the Eye ferris wheel, Jem is terrified to see that all the other tourists in line flash the same number. Today's number. Today's date. Terrorists are going to attack London. Jem's world is about to explode!



In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.
The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.
Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.






Daelyn Rice is broken beyond repair, and after a string of botched suicide attempts, she's determined to get her death right. She starts visiting a website for "completers"- www.through-the-light .com. While she's on the site, Daelyn blogs about her life, uncovering a history of bullying that goes back to kindergarten. When she's not on the Web, Daelyn's at her private school, where she's known as the freak who doesn't talk.Then, a boy named Santana begins to sit with her after school while she's waiting to for her parents to pick her up. Even though she's made it clear that she wants to be left alone, Santana won't give up. And it's too late for Daelyn to be letting people into her life.isn't it?National Book Award finalist Julie Anne Peters shines a light on how bullying can push young people to the very edge.

Paradise wasn't supposed to suck.Not the state of being, but a resort in the Caribbean. Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all there for different reasons, but at Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Paradise will change them all. It will change Jena, whose first brush with romance takes her that much closer to having a life, and not just reading about those infinitely cooler and more exciting.It will change Dakota, who needs the devastating truth about his past to make him realize that he doesn't have to be a jerk just because people think he's one.It will change Skye, a heartbreakingly beautiful actress, who must come to terms with the fact that for once she has to stop playing a role or face the consequences.And it will change Owen, who has never risked anything before and who will take the leap from his online life to a real one all because of a girl he met at Paradise. . . . From confused to confident and back again, one thing's certain: Four months after it all begins, none of them will ever be the same.


Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible. And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside- she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison, and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don't realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know.



Part two of the literary sci-fi thriller follows a boy and a girl who are caught in a warring town where thoughts can be heard — and secrets are never safe.Reaching the end of their tense and desperate flight in THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO, Todd and Viola did not find healing and hope in Haven. They found instead their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss, waiting to welcome them to New Prentisstown. There they are forced into separate lives: Todd to prison, and Viola to a house of healing where her wounds are treated. Soon Viola is swept into the ruthless activities of the Answer, aimed at overthrowing the tyrannical government. Todd, meanwhile, faces impossible choices when forced to join the mayor’s oppressive new regime. In alternating narratives — Todd’s gritty and volatile; Viola’s calmer but equally stubborn — the two struggle to reconcile their own dubious actions with their deepest beliefs. Torn by confusion and compromise, suspicion and betrayal, can their trust in each other possibly survive?

Restless souls and empty hearts
Brooklyn can't sleep. Her boyfriend, Lucca, died only a year ago, and now her friend Gabe has just died of an overdose. Every time she closes her eyes, Gabe's ghost is there waiting for her. She has no idea what he wants or why it isn't Lucca visiting her dreams.
Nico can't stop. He's always running, trying to escape the pain of losing his brother, Lucca. But when Lucca's ghost begins leaving messages, telling Nico to help Brooklyn, emotions come crashing to the surface.
As the nightmares escalate and the messages become relentless, Nico reaches out to Brooklyn. But neither of them can admit that they're being haunted. Until they learn to let each other in, not one soul will be able to rest.

new fiction

Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life—solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius, a journey that will lead him into the lives of the women closest to Robert Oliver and toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.Ranging from American museums to the coast of Normandy, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love, THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, the losses of history, and the power of art to preserve human hope.



Whether it's exhilarating historical romance or spine-tingling contemporary suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood weaves magnificent stories of passion, adventure, and intrigue. Now she raises the heat and spices up the action with a sexy, smart, daring new heroine and a smoldering thriller that's classic Garwood--and pure Sizzle.Lyra Prescott, a Los Angeles film student, is closing in on graduation and facing important decisions about her future. She's already been offered a job at her hometown TV station, an opportunity that could ultimately launch her dream career as a film editor. But heading back home would also mean dealing with her overprotective brothers, social-climbing mother, and eccentric grandmother. Unsure of her future, Lyra dives into work on her final school assignment: a documentary transformed by a twist of fate into a real-life horror film. After she unwittingly captures a shocking crime on camera, a rash of...

A voyage of discoveries, a meeting of two remarkable women, and extraordinary time and place enrich bestselling author Tracy Chevalier's enthralling new novelFrom the moment she's struck by lightening as a baby, it is clear that Mary Anning is marked for greatness. On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, she learns that she has "the eye"-and finds what no one else can see. When Mary uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious fathers on edge, the townspeople to vicious gossip, and the scientific world alight. In an arena dominated by men, however, Mary is barred from the academic community; as a young woman with unusual interests she is suspected of sinful behavior. Nature is a threat, throwing bitter, cold storms and landslips at her. And when she falls in love, it is with an impossible man.
Luckily, Mary finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth Philpot, a recent exile from London, who also loves...

A pregnancy pact between three teenaged girls puts their mothers' love to the ultimate test in this explosive new novel from Barbara Delinsky, “a first- rate storyteller who creates characters as familiar as your neighbors.” (Boston Globe) When Susan Tate's seventeen-year-old daughter, Lily, announces she is pregnant, Susan is stunned. A single mother, she has struggled to do everything right. She sees the pregnancy as an unimaginable tragedy for both Lily and herself.Then comes word of two more pregnancies among high school juniors who happen to be Lily's best friends-and the town turns to talk of a pact. As fingers start pointing, the most ardent criticism is directed at Susan. As principal of the high school, she has always been held up as a role model of hard work and core values. Now her detractors accuse her of being a lax mother, perhaps not worthy of the job of shepherding impressionable students. As Susan struggles with the implications of her daughter's pregnancy, her job, financial independence, and long-fought-for dreams are all at risk. The emotional ties between mothers and daughters are stretched to breaking in this emotionally wrenching story of love and forgiveness. Once again, Barbara Delinsky has given us a powerful novel, one that asks a central question: What does it take to be a good mother?

Griffin’s Honor Bound novels have been hailed as “terrific” (Newark Star-Ledger) and “immensely entertaining” (Kirkus Reviews), with “enough derring-do, romance and action to satisfy Griffin’s legions of fans and bring him new ones” (Rocky Mountain News). The new book is his best yet. August 6, 1943: In his brief career in the Office of Strategic Services, twenty-four-year-old Cletus Frade has already been involved in a lot of unusual situations, but nothing like the one he’s in now, standing with a German lieutenant colonel named Wilhelm Frogger in a Mississippi prisoner-of-war detention facility. Frade’s job? To help Frogger escape.
Frogger’s parents are in Frade’s custody in Argentina, because of their involvement in a secret German plan to establish safe havens for senior Nazi officials in South America, and the younger Frogger has agreed to help find out what they know. Even more important, however, is the secret within the secret. Before he was captured in Africa, Frogger was part of a conspiracy; its goal: to assassinate Adolf Hitler. If the OSS can use his knowledge and connections to nudge that plot along, even just a little bit— they may be able to end this war right now. But Frade is not the only one who knows about the Froggers. Even as he stands there in Mississippi, a troop of Germans and Argentinians, led by a Colonel Juan Perón, is on its way to kill the parents and, after them, Frade himself. His career in the OSS may have been brief—but it may just be about to be over. Filled with the special flair that Griffin’s fans have come to expect, The Honor of Spies is another rousing adventure from one of our finest storytellers.

Dear Reader:
I can hardly believe that A Different Light, one of my earliest novels, is available again at long last! And while the story is still the same, I've added new scenes and fleshed out the characters, making the novel richer and more contemporary. I've written twenty-three novels since A Different Light was first published, and I like to think I've brought the experience of the years to make this sparkling new edition even more compelling than before.
Throughout these years, the character of Athena Moran has stayed with me. In her New Jersey town, beautiful, vibrant Athena is well known as the young widow of a police officer slain in the line of duty and as the daughter of a beloved former city councilman. But when she meets Quentin Forbes, a tough newspaper reporter, emotions that she believed died along with her husband start to stir again. Then she is asked to run for mayor, and the political contest that follows will test her newfound feelings to the breaking point, teaching her that things are not always as they appear, and much of what she's believed is more smoke than substance. The new direction Athena chooses tests her strength and courage, and ultimately leads her to see herself and everyone she knows in a totally new and different light.
Best,
Mariah Stewart

Marian Keyes's inimitable blend of rollicking humor, effervescent prose, and stories that deal with real-life issues have captivated readers around the globe. She is one of the bestselling authors of women's fiction in the English-speaking world. Her new novel will delight fans of Candace Bushnell's darkly comic sensibility and Sophie Kinsella's fast-paced action. The Brightest Star in the Sky follows seven neighbors whose lives become entangled when a sassy and prescient spirit pays a visit to their Dublin townhouse with the intent of changing at least one of their lives. But what will this metamorphosis be and who will the sprite choose? There's Matt and Maeve, the newlyweds struggling to overcome the first obstacle in their storybook romance; Lydia, the brassy but vulnerable cabbie; Katie, the just-turned-forty PR executive searching for a more gratifying life; and the eldest resident, Jemima, currently playing hostess to her son Fionn, who is in town to star as the hunky gardener in a hot new television show. Keyes's universal themes and appealing characters have made her an international phenomenon, and are sure to conquer a wider American audience. With The Brightest Star in the Sky, she delivers another satisfying story charming in its wit and surprising in its depth.

new nonfiction

A riveting history of the men and women whose discoveries and inventions at the end of the eighteenth century gave birth to the Romantic Age of Science.

When young Joseph Banks stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, he hoped to discover Paradise. Inspired by the scientific ferment sweeping through Britain, the botanist had sailed with Captain Cook on his first Endeavour voyage in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discovery—astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical—swiftly follow in Richard Holmes’s original evocation of what truly emerges as an Age of Wonder.

Brilliantly conceived as a relay of scientific stories, The Age of Wonder investigates the earliest ideas of deep time and space, and the explorers of “dynamic science,” of an infinite, mysterious Nature waiting to be discovered. Three lives dominate the book: William Herschel and his sister Caroline, whose dedication to the study of the stars forever changed the public conception of the solar system, the Milky Way, and the meaning of the universe; and Humphry Davy, who, with only a grammar school education stunned the scientific community with his near-suicidal gas experiments that led to the invention of the miners’ lamp and established British chemistry as the leading professional science in Europe. This age of exploration extended to great writers and poets as well as scientists, all creators relishing in moments of high exhilaration, boundary-pushing and discovery.

Holmes’s extraordinary evocation of this age of wonder shows how great ideas and experiments—both successes and failures—were born of singular and oftenlonely dedication, and how religious faith and scientific truth collide. He has written a book breathtaking in its originality, its storytelling energy, and its intellectual significance.

What happens when a thirty-five-year-old average American woman spends one year following every piece of Oprah Winfrey's advice on how to "live your best life"? Robyn Okrant devoted 2008 to adhering to all of Oprah's suggestions and guidance delivered via her television show, her Web site, and her magazine. LIVING OPRAH is a month-by-month account of that year.
Some of the challenges included enrollment in Oprah's Best Life Challenge for physical fitness and weight control, living vegan, and participating in Oprah's Book Club. After 365 days of LIVING OPRAH, Okrant reflects on the rewards won and lessons learned as well as the tolls exacted by the experiment.



Twitter can boost your business and marketing efforts, and this guide shows you how
Twitter, the simple-to-use microblogging service, offers immense benefits for businesses and organizations. Fire departments, political candidates, and C0EOs have used Twitter to share up-to-the-minute information. Laura Fitton, maybe better known by her Twitter handle - @Pistachio, has more than 10,000 followers on Twitter, and gives presentations on how to use Twitter to build business and personal opportunity. She's joined by Michael Gruen and Leslie Poston to share Twitter expertise in this easy-to-follow guide.
You'll discover how to get set up on Twitter, build a follower list, and find a voice for your tweets. Then you'll learn to use third party tools to link Twitter to other sites and incorporate it into business communication models. This book covers The basics of signing up and creating tweets
Following other users and adding followers to your own tweets Mastering the "Twecosystem"-the tools that tie Twitter to many other Web applications, including mobile devices
Strategies for enhancing business communication, marketing, and networking opportunities with Twitter Twitter For Dummies gets you up and running on this hot communications tool the fun and easy way.



From the author of the #1 national bestseller Three Cups of Tea, the continuing story of this determined humanitarian and the schools he has established.

Later to bed, munching some fries, makes a girl pretty healthy and wise. . . .Yes, it’s true—more or less. Why? Women do need to eat healthier, exercise, get adequate sleep, and take preventive health care seriously, yet it’s equally important for them to relax. Relax, take a breather, and give up trying to follow the narrowly prescribed health “rules” that are constant sources of unhealthy stress and guilt. In Live a Little!, women finally get a long-overdue dose of realism about what’s truly healthy and what’s mostly hype. Susan Love and Alice Domar take on the health police, whose edicts make us feel terrible when we don’t get eight hours of sleep or eat the maximum daily serving of veggies. Most important, they remind us of a forgotten truth: Perfect health is not achievable.

In this compelling memoir, Brooke Shields talks candidly about her experience with postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, and provides millions of women with an inspiring example of recovery.

A sequel to her bestselling memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert’s new book is the story of how she and Felipe, the man she met and fell in love with at the end of Eat, Pray, Love, grapple and ultimately make peace with the notion of marriage, long after each of them has endured an ugly divorce and sworn off the institution.