Lost & Found
Shaun Tan
Three beautifully illustrated tales tell simple stories of life as it truly is, was, or could be. “The Red Tree” offers hope to a little girl who feels all alone in a big, confusing world. “The Lost Thing,” without a home, finally finds a place to belong, and is happier for it. And pain, loss, change, and desire all comes forth though “The Rabbits” (as written by John Marsden). There isn’t much joy in this collection of stories, but there are fascinating bits of true feelings and deep-seated emotion, as well as a glimpse of a complicated world cut down into bare-bones letters and paint strokes. No doubt that there is something for everyone between the cover of this collection. Teens will imagine the future, children will find joy in the colors and the details as they exist on the page in the here and now, and adults will see a pure reflection of the past.
Chasing Lincoln’s Killer
James L. Swanson
Almost everyone who learns through the American school systems knows all about Abraham Lincoln, elected the sixteenth President of the United States of America. President Lincoln led the states though the Civil War and supported the Union’s mission to abolish slavery. Everyone (who paid attention in history class) also knows that President Lincoln was fatally shot in 1861 at Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth. But how much do we know about John Wilkes Booth . . . and his almost-successful attempt at escape?
Booth, a well-known theater actor and active Confederate sympathizer, shot Abraham Lincoln while the President sat in the President’s Box at Ford’s Theatre alongside his wife and friends. He intricately planned the assassination attempt down to the minute, at a time when he knew the lone actor on stage would deliver a line that would set the audience into a fit of loud laughter. Almost no one heard the shot. And while many saw Booth trying to escape the theater, no one caught him. Most were preoccupied with the shock of the lifeless President, who wasn’t quite willing to let the bullet lodged in his brain take his body so soon.
Experience the melodrama of one of the most important moments in American history with the images portrayed in this fascinating account of the life and death of two well-known men. Read and read-aloud, this tale is sure to capture your attention!
Same Difference
Siobhan Vivian
This is Emily’s last summer of high school (she’ll be a senior in September) and it’s going to be her first summer apart from her best friend Megan. Emily will be taking some classes at the Philadelphia College of Fine Art. Since her town of Cherry Grove, NJ is within commuting-distance to the college, she won’t be living away, but she’ll be on campus three days a week. She’s super excited to get out of her town for a while, but she also has mixed feelings leaving her best friend, with whom she’s felt some distance since Meg got serious with boyfriend Rick. When Emily arrives at the school, she’s overwhelmed by the “coolness” of many of her classmates, and she’s instantly intrigued by and attracted to Yates, the off-limits teaching assistant in her first drawing class. Emily begins to get caught up in her art school world, especially when Fiona starts to pay attention to her. Fiona isn’t afraid to stand out in a crowd, and Emily suddenly craves to be rid of her small-town, good-girl routine.
Emily isn’t entirely convincing, and it’s obvious how the author wants readers to feel about her characters, as well as how to view “Cherry Grove,” but Same Difference is a pretty quick read with a handful of twists and turns, and readers might end up cluing in sooner rather than later to what’s important in their own lives, and in themselves. Recommended to girls who like art, relationships, or getting out of town.
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President, NJLA Young Adult Section