Beware--if you have a snake phobia, you may not want to read the book Awakening. 

   It has some creepy snake moments. Personally, I like snakes--grew up with them. I can remember sharing the back seat with a rattlesnake in a cage. Fun times. I also remember a car trip when my mom woke up with baby snakes (nonvenomous) crawling across her.  Quick stop, lots of fussing.

    17-year-olds Sam and Emily see each other for the first time across the church sanctuary while Emily is singing her first and only solo ("I'll be there"). After holding her hair back while she ralphed outside in the parking lot, Sam disappears. Emily can't find him anywhere. She's never been that interested in a boy before, but Sam is special. Sam, meanwhile, has gotten the first haircut of his life, on a whim, and everyone suddenly notices him--since he's as hot as any model.

 The Adult Summer Reading program has ended, and the Foreign Film Series with it.  My name is Khan was one of the movies picked for the series, but I hadn't gotten around to seeing it yet.  Until this week.  I sat down to watch it, with pleasant expectations of a big Bollywood movie, lots of singing and dancing.

    At this late date in life, on the other side of a half century, it is really rare for me to stay up late reading a book, especially a children's book. Even rarer to find out it is very late after putting down the book!  But that is exactly what happened with Okay for now by Gary D.

    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.