For this column, part two of the staff picks, I sent out a message to JDL staff, asking about their favorite children's chapter books.  I was delighted to receive so many replies! This column morphed into two installments, one from the older generation and one from the younger--with some others mixed in and around. This week, it's time for youth--and some new stories.
    Kate Burns of the Parma branch recommends The wonderful flight to the mushroom planet, an early science fiction book by Eleanor Cameron which has a whole series.

    For this column, I sent out a message to JDL staff, asking about their favorite children's chapter books.  I was delighted to receive more than a dozen replies! As the emails streamed in, I began to notice a trend.  The librarians of my age (40+) often selected certain series, while the younger generation chose different titles.  Quite naturally, the series reflect the popular authors of the times.

    Reluctance probably describes my attitude toward the movie We were soldiers as my family began watching it.  I dislike violence in movies, especially gratuitous, meaningless violence.  But gratuitous couldn't ever describe this movie, even though it is rated R and contains a large amount of very graphic death and dismemberment.

    Under the banner of heaven is neither new nor in the news.  But it is eye-opening. John Krakauer endeavors to put the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart and the 1984 murders of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter, Erica, into the religious context that influenced the crimes. Along the way, Krakauer digs deep into current and past Mormon events and teachings, both mainstream and fundamentalist, but mostly the fundamentalists.

     When I heard that there was a new novel in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, I was excited to reacquaint myself with the four friends that I've grown to love. I was not disappointed! The friendship that these girls share is beautifully written and often moved me to tears.