It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a what???

You'll have to have good eyes to figure this one out, but these are photos of the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Yes, a whole museum dedicated to manga!

Charity Girl

What if you were a seventeen-year-old girl with a "social disease?" And what if this wasn't now, but back during World War I? Did you know that during World War I, the U.S. government went on a moral and medical campaign, quarantining and incarcerating young women who were thought to have venereal diseases? Charity Girl, by Michael Lowenthal is a novel about this fascinating period of history. It tells the story of Frieda Mintz, an employee at Jordan Marsh department store in Boston. She spends one night with an infected soldier, and is put in a detention home. This book tells her story, and the story of the other women she lives with.
Though this is not a YA fiction book it is very readable. If you're studying American history, this would be an interesting book for you. You'll find it in New Fiction. Put a reserve on it if it is checked out. It is bound to be a popular read. Read a review of the book here.

Graphic fiction rules!

The 2007 Michael L. Printz Award has gone to a graphic novel for the very first time! It's called "American Born Chinese" by Gene Luen Yang. The library doesn't own it yet, but I bet we'll get it soon (hint, hint.)
2007 Honor Books included:
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, by M.T. Anderson
An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green
Surrender, by Sonya Hartnett
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

The library does own the last one mentioned. More on the way, I hope!

(The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association. The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association.) From the ALA website.

Grammar Girl!

For those of you who are fans of podcasting, here's a good one. (Uh oh... don't know what podcasting is??? Whoops... got you... bet you're not a teen!) Grammar Girl makes grammar fun and easy to understand. You can listen to the podcasts, or read the texts at the web site.

Here's a quiz question. And you don't need to be a Bob Dylan fan to answer this.

Is Bob Dylan's song title "Lay Lady Lay" grammatically correct????

If you don't know the answer, you'd better check out Grammar Girl!