Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book by Diane Muldrow

Little Golden Books--they're timeless and a part of almost every kid's little library, but this Little Golden Book is a bit different than the ones that we grew up with. Even though it has the traditional golden foil spine and a place to scrawl your name in the inside front cover, this book isn't for children; it's for adults.

The longtime editorial director for Golden Books and author of this new Golden Book argues that "there's a good chance that many of us learned pretty much everything that really matters about life from what we read between those sturdy, gilt-bound cardboard covers." Who would've thought that classics like The Poky Little Puppy, Doctor Dan, and Saggy Baggy Elephant that we read and our parents read before us, would be the key to our success as an adult?

In this fast, nostalgic read Muldrow gives us the keys to success while pairing good advice like, "daydream," "stargaze," and "savor the seasons as they roll around" with original illustrations from various Little Golden Books. The artwork, which is now a vintage style, will make you fondly remember your childhood while offering a bit of inspiration during the often chaotic daily routines we all have.

If you're looking for something fast to read, beautiful illustrations to look at, or you want to feel like a kid again, this is the book for you.

Check out Everything I Need to Know I Learned From a Little Golden Book @ the library!

Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past by Ransom Riggs

In a world obsessed with selfies, a picture is just something we take for granted, but photographs weren't always as easy to take and develop as they are today. Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued From the Past by Ransom Rigg, the author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, tells various stories using old photographs. If you enjoy human interest stories, have an interest in history, or just love looking at old photographs, this is the book for you. As Riggs mentions in the forward of his book, he has long had an interest in old photographs that he's found at antique stores and resale shops. While questioning how families can just discard a piece of their familial history, Riggs began to buy the old photographs, but only old photographs that had some kind of caption or writing somewhere on them. 

With the sometimes adorable, sometimes quirky, sometimes awkward photos he bought, Riggs tells a story by intertwining pictures of complete strangers into chapters that focus on love, war, and illness, among others. Not only are some of these pictures funny, many are thought provoking, endearing, heartwarming, and some even tug at your heart strings.

Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past is a fast read, coffee-table-type book that is sure to make you wonder just exactly who the subjects are in the photographs and what their long lost story actually is.

Check out Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past @ the library.

Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsy Bird, et al.

The world of children's books is easily imagined as an idyllic place full of fluffy bunnies. The authors should always be upstanding, proper citizens, and the books they write are happy, moral teaching tombs that will both stand the test of time and entertain audiences of all ages. Yeah right.

Three bloggers, Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson and Peter D. Sieruta bring to light the stories and the history behind some of the biggest names and books for children. From picture books being called subversive to authors of theses works choosing to live adult lives, no stone of scandalous behavior in and out of print, is left unexplored.

Fans of authors like Shel Silverstein may be surprised that he started out writing for Playboy, and Mary Poppins author may have more in common with E.L. James than most parents would care to share with their children. Beyond sex, there are issues of subversive themes in picture books, the private relationships of popular authors, and even those lovely books that booksellers,Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsy Bird, et al. librarians and teachers love, yet children are not drawn to (and vice versa).

Teachers, and those who work with children will want to check out Wild Things, and maybe learn a bit of the scandalous history behind the books we love to share with children.

Check out Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson and Peter D. Sieruta @ the library!

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are back in a new mystery!  Approximately nine months after solving the Lula Landry case, things are looking slightly better for gritty private investigator Cormoran Strike.   He’s now sleeping in the flat above his office (instead of *in* the office itself) and has a steady stream of rich socialites who have hired Strike to spy on their wives/husbands/girlfriends.  But Strike is bored.  Soon, a shabby, mousy woman arrives at the office saying that her husband has gone missing.  Leonora Quine insists that though Owen may be an unfaithful husband who often disappears for days at a time, he would never leave for too long because of their daughter.  Owen Quine is a has-been writer known for novels of a very graphic nature.  The newest book that he’s just finished and is ready to publish, Bombyx Mori, is more of the same or so it first appears.  Cormoran’s gut tells him that this is no ordinary case and is soon on the hunt for the missing Quine.

After a visit to Quine’s agent, Strike learns that the new novel is more than it seems.  Apparently Quine has based the characters in his book on many of his friends and coworkers in the publishing industry.  After being told that his book was unpublishable due to possible libel lawsuits, the author threatens to publish it himself as an ebook, gathers up every last scrap of the manuscript and disappears.  When Quine is discovered murdered in a way that mirrors that of the main character in Bombyx Mori, even more questions arise.  Who had a chance to read the manuscript?  Quine had dirt of a lot of people, but who would go so far as to commit murder?

Like The Cuckoo’s Calling, the first book in the Strike series written under J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym, The Silkworm jumps right back into the middle of Cormoran and Robin’s world of mystery and crime.  There is more character development: Robin’s fiancée Matthew still hasn’t come around to Robin’s career choice and Stike is still struggling with his latest breakup with Charlotte.  And yes, there is still a lot of unvoiced tension ala “Why don’t Robin and Strike just date each other?  Then they wouldn’t be so darn miserable!” which is half the fun of these books.  Readers who enjoyed The Cuckoos Calling will not be disappointed by The Silkworm and the fact that Galbraith has left plenty of room for more Cormoran Strike novels in the future.

Check out The Silkworm @ the library!