It's Story Time Season Again!

Story Times will begin April 14^th at the Seabrook Library and will continue through May. The following sessions are scheduled:

Tuesday, 10:30am. 1-2 year olds, Toddlers Story Time.

Wednesday, 6:00pm. 4-6 year olds, Runners Story Time.

Thursday, 11:00am. 2-3 year olds, Walkers with Parents Story Time.

Friday, 11:00am. 3-4 year olds, Independent Walkers Story Time.

Each Story Time is different: The Toddlers group will have mostly songs and fingerplays or rhymes, with a very simple book, maybe two. Then the little ones will play while the grown-ups have coffee and tea and a little time to socialize. The Walkers with Parents Story Time is slightly more advanced, with some songs and fingerplays, but we’ll also introduce picture books and ask a few simple questions. Instead of play time, this group will make a small craft at the end. Independent Walkers will follow the same format, but they will come in on their own while their parents have a chance to select their own library materials. The Runners group will have a couple songs or fingerplays, but most of the time will be spent reading and talking about the stories while their parents have a chance to select their own materials. They will also have a craft at the end.

There will be a different theme each week, from favorites to flowers to May Day, etc. Our space is limited, so please call to sign up—these limits exist not only because of space but also so that each child will have the best Story Time experience possible. We will find a way to accommodate every interested child, adding a Story Time if necessary.

Call 474-2044 and ask for Lisa to sign up. You can also e-mail lmichaud@sealib.org.

New teen books

D Foster showed up a few months before Tupac got shot that first time and left us the summer before he died.
The day D Foster enters Neeka and her best friend’s lives, the world opens up for them. D comes from a world vastly different from their safe Queens neighborhood, and through her, the girls see another side of life that includes loss, foster families and an amount of freedom that makes the girls envious. Although all of them are crazy about Tupac Shakur’s rap music, D is the one who truly understands the place where he’s coming from, and through knowing D, Tupac’s lyrics become more personal for all of them.
The girls are thirteen when D’s mom swoops in to reclaim D—and as magically as she appeared, she now disappears from their lives. Tupac is gone, too, after another shooting; this time fatal. As the narrator looks back, she sees lives suspended in time, and realizes that even all-too-brief connections can touch deeply.


A vibrant new voice . . . a modern classic.
For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a “savvy”—a special supernatural power that strikes when they turn thirteen. Grandpa Bomba moves mountains, her older brothers create hurricanes and spark electricity . . . and now it’s the eve of Mibs’s big day.
As if waiting weren’t hard enough, the family gets scary news two days before Mibs’s birthday: Poppa has been in a terrible accident. Mibs develops the singular mission to get to the hospital and prove that her new power can save her dad. So she sneaks onto a salesman’s bus . . . only to find the bus heading in the opposite direction. Suddenly Mibs finds herself on an unforgettable odyssey that will force her to make sense of growing up—and of other people, who might also have a few secrets hidden just beneath the skin.

Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.I am that girl.I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame. Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies.But now Cassie is dead. Lia’s mother is busy saving other people’s lives.Her father is away on business. Her stepmother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia’s head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way – thin, thinner, thinnest – maybe she’ll disappear altogether.In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl’s chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia. Winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award 2009

Great Stone Face Award Voting

The Great Stone Face Book Award is sponsored by the Children's Librarians of New Hampshire and is given each year to an author whose book receives the most votes from elementary students throughout the state. Each year a committee chooses 25 recently published titles, which children then use as a guide for voting. The winner is announced in May. The purpose of the award is to promote reading enjoyment, to increase awareness of contemporary writing, and to allow children to honor their favorite author.
All the Great Stone Face nominees are on the shelf between the Children's Area and the Teen Area; come check them out:

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Bearwalker

The Big One-Oh

Billy Creekmore

The Black Book of Secrets

The Book of Lies

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Dragon's Egg

Elephant's Run

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat

Igraine the Brave

The Lacemaker and the Princess

Lawn Boy

Leepike Ridge

The Mailbox

My Last Best Friend

Nightmare Academy

No Talking

On the Wings of Heroes

Paint the Wind

Schooled

The Shadow Thieves

Skullduggery Pleasant

The Softwire : Virus on Orbis 1

White Giraffe

Pick your favorite and VOTE for it!

Ladybug Nominees for 2009 are here!

The Ladybug Picture Book Award is designed to promote early literacy and honor the best in recent children's picture books. A committee of children's librarians from around the state selects 10 picture book titles early in the year. Then, during November, New Hampshire children from preschoolers to those in third grade choose the award winner. The winning picture book is announced at the end of the year.
Come read this year's picks! (oh, and if you missed it, last year's winner is "When Dinosaurs Came with Everything" by Elise Broach). See if you can pick next year's winner!

Bear is quite sure he doesn’t like visitors. He even has a sign. So when a mouse taps on his door one day, Bear tells him to leave. But when Bear goes to the cupboard to get a bowl, there is the mouse — small and gray and bright-eyed. In this slapstick tale that begs to be read aloud, all Bear wants is to eat his breakfast in peace, but the mouse — who keeps popping up in the most unexpected places — just won’t go away!


Spencer has too many toys! His father trips over them, his mother falls over them, and the house is overflowing with junk. Now its time to give some of the mountain of goodies away, but Spencer finds it hard. In the end, he fills a box, but decides the one toy he can't part with is the box!





Everyone knows Sleeping Beauty has to be woken with a kiss, except Prince Charming. Every time the fairies watching over her try to tell him, he interrupts with his ideas of how to wake her. Eventually he gets the message, and his reaction is priceless: "One hundred years of morning breath Wow! That could be the kiss of death!"






Old Man Fookwire is a grump. The only thing he likes to do is paint pictures of the birds that visit his backyard. The problem is, they fly south every winter, leaving him sad and lonely. So he decides to get them to stay by putting up beautiful birdfeeders filled with seeds and berries. Unfortunately, the squirrels like the treats, too, and make a daring raid on the feeders. The conflict escalates—until the birds depart (as usual), and the squirrels come up with a plan that completely charms the old grump.
Rex is a tiny tadpole who can't wait to grow up and be big like everybody else. Unfortunately for Rex, he lives in a prehistoric swamp . . . and everybody else is a gigantic dinosaur.
With a little time—and a lot of patience—Rex does grow, gaining arms and legs and, most importantly, a personality big enough to take on even the mightiest of his neighbors.





Beep! Beep! Beep! Meet Blue. A muddy country road is no match for this little pick up—that is, until he gets stuck while pushing a dump truck out of the muck. Luckily, Blue has made a pack of farm animal friends along his route. And they're willing to whatever it takes to get their pal back on the road. Filled with truck sounds and animals noises, here is a rollicking homage to the power of friendship and the rewards of helping others.
The four big chickens who were afraid of everything in their well-received debut, Big Chickens, are now feeling all cooped up, so they set off to find the farmhouse. But where, the hapless hens wonder, is it? First they find a doghouse (loud barking!); then they run into a tractor (ewww, dirty!); and then they stomp into the barn (wild horses!). Who knew the farmhouse was right under their beaks the whole time?


This is the tale of a bear with a creative streak and a mind of his own. Bear is happily painting a picture when two fine, proper gentlemen approach and begin critiquing his work. But Bear knows that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the only person that his picture needs to impress is himself.

Splish splash
rumba-rumba
bim bam boom!
It's bedtime at the swamp—except somebody's not ready. Somebody's still splashing in the water and the mud.
Is there a monster on the loose?
Kristyn Crow has taken every child's worst nightmare and transformed it into a frolic through swampland. With funny illustrations and a catchy refrain, this story won't scare little monster too much before bedtime.

Quick, call out! Tell all you can reach: the night is just perfect for bats at the beach!
So pack your buckets, banjos, and blankets—don’t forget the moon-tan lotion—and wing with this bunch of fuzzy bats to where foamy sea and soft sand meet.
Brian Lies’s enchanting art and cheery beachside verse will inspire bedtime imaginations again and again. Come visit a bedazzling world of moonlight, firelight, and . . . bats!
*This one will be available soon--it's still on order!

New! Children's Room Computer

The Children's Room now has its own computer! Only children ages 12 and under will be allowed to use it, so when you pick up your tag at the main desk, a librarian will log on for you. It is connected to the internet and has plenty of table space for your homework beside it. If homework isn't really what you'd like to do, we are in the process of loading a variety of educational games onto it which will be available either on the computer directly or on discs you may ask to borrow. A complete listing of those games will be available soon, along with a listing of helpful sites for homework.

New teen books

It was just supposed to be a routine exam. But when the doctors snake the fiber-optic tube down Robert Smith's throat, what they discover doesn't make medical sense. Plastic casings. Silver filaments. Moving metal parts. In his naked, anesthetized state on the operating table, Robert hears the surgeons' shocked comments: "What the hell is that?" "It's me," Robert thinks, "and I've got to get out of here." Armed with a stolen automatic and the videotape of his strange organs, he manages to escape, and to embark on an orphan's violent odyssey to find out exactly who--exactly what--he is.

Are our schools safe?" It's hard to turn on the news without hearing this question, and the answer is typically "no." This novel explores what happens when bullying escalates to violence, and it challenges our definition of victimization. With thought-provoking prose, Suzanne Phillips explores the psyche of Cameron, a bullied freshman who ultimately does the unthinkable: he kills another student. As she did with Chloe Doe, Suzanne has found a way to make this seemingly dark story ultimately redemptive. But she also dares readers to look at the behavior that provokes violence as having the potential to be as dangerous as the violence itself. It's Suzanne's hope that Burn will inspire readers to take a precautionary stance against bullying rather than waiting to react to it.

Angela's parents think she's on the road to ruin because she's dating a "bad boy." After her behavior gets too much for them, they ship her off to Hidden Oak. Isolated and isolating, Hidden Oak promises to rehabilitate "dangerous girls." But as Angela gets drawn in further and further, she discovers that recovery is only on the agenda for the "better" girls. The other girls -- designated as "the purple thread" -- will instead be manipulated to become more and more dangerous . . . and more and more reliant on Hidden Oak's care.

Welcome to Chilo, a planet with corrosive rain, crushing pressure, and deadly heat. Fortunately, fourteen-year-old Timas lives in one of the domed cities that float 100,000 feet above the surface, circling near the edge of a monstrous perpetual storm. Above the acidic clouds the temperature and pressure are normal. But to make a living, Timas like many other young men, is lowered to the surface in an armored suit to scavenge what he can.Timas’s life is turned upside down when a strange man crash lands on the city. The newcomer is fleeing an alien intelligence intent on invading the planet and discovering the secret hidden deep inside the perpetual storm—a secret that could lead to interplanetary war.As the invaded cities fall silent one by one, Chilo’s citizens must race against time to stop the enemy. And Timas will find out what kind of man he has become in the harsh conditions of Chilo’s surface.

From Booklist*Starred Review* The first reaction of some readers upon finishing the first several pages of this novel might be: “Hey, didn’t The Twilight Zone already do this story?” It’s true, there are similarities between Clark’s story of a little boy with a terrifying mental power and “It’s a Good Life,” the famous Twilight Zone episode based on a Jerome Bixby short story about a little boy with a terrifying mental power. But the similarities between the two are only thematic. In execution, the two tales are very different. Clark, author of such stellar horror thrillers as London under Midnight (2006) and Lucifer’s Ark (2008), proves again that he has a real knack for working unique variations on time-tested themes. His little boy is the sole survivor of a shipwreck, now living in an orphan asylum, and he’s the sweetest boy you could ever want to meet—until his eyes glaze over, and he begins to repeat your name. Then it’s time to take cover. But is the boy evil himself, or is he merely the innocent vessel of a much greater, darker evil? Clark will tell you, but in his own good time, and only after the knot in the pit of your stomach is the size of a boulder. Another clever, original, and beguiling thriller from this very talented storyteller

New non-fiction

2009: The Year You Can’t Afford to Make Any Mistakes with Your Money.The credit crunch, the stock market freefall, the staggering toll of home foreclosures and job losses: The economic crisis that struck in 2008 has left no one untouched and everybody reeling. Seemingly overnight, the financial landscape has undergone seismic changes that suddenly have you asking all kinds of questions: Are your savings safe? Should you continue to invest in your retirement account? Should you keep your home if it’s worth less than what you owe or should you sell it? How do you pay your bills if you’ve just been laid off?The nation’s go-to expert on financial matters, Suze Orman, believes that 2009 is a critical year for your money. There are safeguards to put in place, actions to take, costly mistakes to avoid, and even opportunities to be had, so that you are protected during the bad times and prepared to prosper when things take a turn for the better. No matter what situation you’re in, you will find a plan of action and the answers to your questions about:-Credit-Retirement-Savings and Spending-Real Estate-Paying for College-Protecting Your Family.


In the more than twenty-five years since she co-founded Omega Institute - now the world's largest center for spiritual retreat and personal growth -Elizabeth Lesser has been an intimate witness to the ways in which people weather change and transition. In a beautifully crafted blend of moving stories, humorous insights, practical guidance, and personal memoir, she offers tools to help us make the choice we all face in times of challenge: Will we be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed? Lesser shares tales of ordinary people who have risen from the ashes of illness, divorce, loss of a job or a loved one - stronger, wiser, and more in touch with their purpose and passion. And she draws on the world's great spiritual and psychological traditions to support us as we too learn to break open and blossom into who we were meant to be.

1968, THE YEAR AMERICA GREW UP From racial and gender equality fights to the struggle against the draft and the Vietnam war, in 1968 Americans asked questions and fought for their rights. Now, 30 years later, we look back on that seminal year--from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assasination to the Columbia University riots to our changing role among other nations--in this gripping introduction to the events home and abroad. The year we first took steps in space, the year we shaped the present, 1968 presented by a former New York Times writer who lived through it all, shares the story with detail and passion.

The bronze fragments of an ancient Greek device have puzzled scholars for more than a century after they were recovered from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, where they had lain since about 80 BC. Now, using advanced imaging technology, scientists have solved the mystery of its intricate workings. Unmatched in complexity for a thousand years, the mechanism functioned as the world’s first analog computer, calculating the movements of the sun, moon, and planets through the zodiac.
In Decoding the Heavens, Jo Marchant details for the first time the hundred-year quest to decode this ancient computer. Along the way she unearths a diverse cast of remarkable characters—ranging from Archimedes to Jacques Cousteau—and explores the deep roots of modern technology, not only in ancient Greece, but in the Islamic world and medieval Europe. At its heart, this is an epic adventure story, a book that challenges our assumptions about technology development through the ages while giving us fresh insights into history itself.

No figure in American public life has had such great expectations thrust upon him, or has responded so poorly. But Ted Kennedy -- the youngest of the Kennedy children and the son who felt the least pressure to satisfy his father's enormous ambitions -- would go on to live a life that no one could have predicted: dismissed as a spent force in politics by the time he reached middle age, Ted became the most powerful senator of the last half century and the nation's keeper of traditional liberalism.
As Peter S. Canellos and his team of Boston Globe reporters show in this revealing and intimate biography, the gregarious, pudgy, and least academically successful of the Kennedy boys has witnessed greater tragedy and suffered greater pressure than any of his siblings. At the age of thirty-six, Ted Kennedy found himself the last brother, the champion of a generation's dreams and ambitions. He would be expected to give the nation the confidence to confront its problems and to build a fairer society at home and abroad.
He quickly failed in spectacular fashion. Late one night in the summer of 1969, he left the scene of a fatal automobile accident on Chappaquiddick Island. The death there of a young woman from his brother's campaign would haunt and ultimately doom his presidential ambitions. Political rivals turned his all-too-human failings -- drinking, philandering, and divorce -- into a condemnation of his liberal politics.
But as the presidency eluded his grasp, Kennedy was finally liberated from the expectations of others, free to become his own man. Once a symbol of youthful folly and nepotism, he transformed himself in his later years into a symbol of wisdom and perseverance. He built a deeply loving marriage with his second wife, Victoria Reggie. He embraced his role as the family patriarch. And as his health failed, he anointed the young and ambitious presidential candidate Barack Obama, whom many commentators compared to his brother Jack. The Kennedy brand of liberalism was rediscovered by a new generation of Americans.
Perceptive and carefully reported, drawing heavily from candid interviews with the Kennedy family and inner circle, Last Lion captures magnificently the life and historic achievements of Ted Kennedy, as well as the personal redemption that he found.

Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began.Since early 2007 a new military order has directed American strategy. Some top U.S. officials now in Iraq actually opposed the 2003 invasion, and almost all are severely critical of how the war was fought from then through 2006. At the core of the story is General David Petraeus, a military intellectual who has gathered around him an unprecedented number of officers with both combat experience and Ph.D.s. Underscoring his new and unorthodox approach, three of his key advisers are quirky foreigners—an Australian infantryman-turned- anthropologist, an antimilitary British woman who is an expert in the Middle East, and a Mennonite-educated Palestinian pacifist.The Gamble offers news breaking information, revealing behind-the-scenes disagreements between top commanders. We learn that almost every single officer in the chain of command fought the surge. Many of Petraeus’s closest advisers went to Iraq extremely pessimistic, doubting that the surge would have any effect, and his own boss was so skeptical that he dispatched an admiral to Baghdad in the summer of 2007 to come up with a strategy to replace Petraeus’s. That same boss later flew to Iraq to try to talk Petraeus out of his planned congressional testimony. The Gamble examines the congressional hearings through the eyes of Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and their views of the questions posed by the 2008 presidential candidates.For Petraeus, prevailing in Iraq means extending the war. Thomas E. Ricks concludes that the war is likely to last another five to ten years—and that that outcome is a best case scenario. His stunning conclusion, stated in the last line of the book, is that “the events for which the Iraq war will be remembered by us and by the world have not yet happened.”

New Time for Reading to Aspen

Another library wants Aspen to come listen to stories for them, so we've changed her schedule here. Aspen and her owner, Ursula Mackey, will now be here on Mondays from 3:30 to 5:00pm.

Aspen is a beautiful gentle dog who loves sitting with kids and listening to them read. If you have trouble reading, don't like reading out loud or are just learning to read, Aspen's the perfect audience for you.

You do need to sign up to read to Aspen. Please call 474-2044 and ask for Lisa to reserve a reading time.

With a Skip, Hop, and Some Great Dancing...

"Moving the Story Off the Pages" was a huge hit! Thank you all for coming to join us! Miss Lori wore nearly everybody out jumping, dancing, stretching, galloping, leaping and skipping. All the pictures from the program are on our Flickr photostream.

Check out the great activities and some very happy children--I think the pictures tell volumes about how well the program went!

Moving the Story Off the Pages!

Lori Hardacker, owner of Dance Parties and Fitness in Motion, will be bringing an active program to the library this Friday, March 20th. It's called "Moving the Story Off the Pages". Everyone will have a chance to participate with props, instruments and movement in a story performance. If you're active, don't like to sit through programs and just want to MOVE, please join us on Friday at 11:00 am!