Knox County Public Library, Knoxville, TN

Books of the Week for Children

Celestine, Drama Queen by Penny Ives

Celestine always knew she was born to be a star! She dresses herself carefully every day, prefers to eat only pink food, and insists on wearing a tiara at all times. The school play is the perfect chance to show the world just how special she is. But will a sudden case of stage fright keep her from making her grand debut?

On the Go With Mr. and Mrs. Green by Keith Baker

Mr. and Mrs. Green are back in another series of short and sweet stories. Here, the alligators practice magic tricks, indulge in some cookie snacking, and create a couple of wacky yet useful inventions.
 

Dustin Grubbs: One-Man Show by John Bonk

Sixth-grader Dustin Grubbs has the starring role in the school play, but the production seems doomed: the first show is interrupted by a fire and evacuation of the building, and the second ends abruptly when a stumbling princess precipitates a chain of events that includes collapsed sets and a wrecked piano. When it's announced that there will actually be a third show, Dustin is thrilled, but that's before it all goes wrong, again.

Books of the Week for Teens

The Switch by Anthony Horowitz

When wealthy, spoiled, thirteen-year-old Tad Spencer wishes he were someone else, he awakens as Bob Snarby, the uncouth, impoverished son of carnival workers, and as he is drawn into a life of crime he begins to discover truths about himself and his family.

Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell

In the small town of Ondine, Louisiana, fourteen-year-old Iris uncovers family secrets when she conjures up the ghost of a boy missing for decades and decides to solve the mystery of his disappearance.

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon

In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.

Infinite Jest, with Zombies

Maybe you've heard of the Infinite Summer project: a group reading of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest all this summer, organized around this reading schedule. Knoxville is home to one of the bloggers on another website devoted to discussion of the book, so we're trying to talk him into a book discussion program in September. We have more copies of the book on order and hope to receive them soon. Are there Infinite Summer participants who'd like a meetup close to the wrap-up? Are you curious about the Zombies? Post a comment!

Knoxvillian found

We have champions among us, and this bodybuilding title-winning Knoxvillian is lauded in the July issue of Flex magazine for organizing the second annual Weider Superstar Seminar benefitting the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Peter Putnam is the 2008 NPC Nationals middleweight winner and works for Rush Fitness Complex in Knoxville.

Books of the Week for Children

Chuck's Band

by Peggy Perry Anderson

Chuck and his barnyard friends forming a band, and boy howdy, these critters can really play!
 

Horrible Harry Bugs the Three Bears
by Suzy Kline

Horrible Harry has always loved insects, especially digging in the dirt for them. And, recently, he’s discovered a new favorite: earwigs! But when he tries to tell his friends about these critters, only Song Lee listens. So when Miss Mackle assigns groups in Room 3B to act out different fairy tales, Harry sees an opportunity to teach the class about his favorite bug. Will they think his play is hilarious…or horrible? Sylvie steps into the spotlight and proves that she's a dedicated ballerina ready for lessons.

Zibby Payne & the Drama Trauma
by Allison Bell

Everyone is excited about the school play -- except for Total Tomboy Zibby, who thinks acting is utterly boring. But when she learns that the main character in the play is a soccer star, just like her, she decides that playing a famous athlete and having tons of adoring fans would be More Than Okay. After she gets the part, she realizes her character has to kiss a boy. Even worse, the boy is her soccer buddy...and he may actually like her. That way. Can she find a way out of smooching on stage without letting down her cast members, or will she wreck the entire sixth grade musical?

Books of the Week for Teens

Dirty Laundry
by Daniel Ehrenhaft

Carli, a teen actress who has gone undercover at a New England boarding school in order to research a role, hooks up with a student graffiti artist to investigate the disappearance of another of the school's pupils.

The School for Dangerous Girls
by Eliot Schrefer

Sent to a remote, run-down reform school in Colorado, fifteen-year-old Angela is placed with the better girls, but upon learning that her "dangerous" friends are being isolated and left to live as animals, she takes radical steps to join them and help them escape.

Ten Things I Hate About Me
by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Lebanese-Australian Jamilah, known in school as Jamie, hides her heritage from her classmates and tries to pass by dyeing her hair blonde and wearing blue-tinted contact lenses, until her conflicted feelings become too much for her to bear.

Brown Bag, Green Book #4: Listen and discuss

Here is a recording of the fourth in our lunchtime book club series called Brown Bag, Green Book. Dr. Dana Christensen, Associate Laboratory Director of the Energy and Engineering Sciences Directorate of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) led our discussion of Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Coal and Oil. Listen and then discuss this episode using the comment form at the bottom of this page.

Download the recording here.

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Knox County Public Library Podcasts by Knox County Public Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. © 2009 Some Rights Reserved.

Historic Knoxville News #13: The Hanging of Mary, a circus elephant

This podcast episode tells the strange and sad story of how an elephant came to be executed in Erwin, TN in 1916 for killing her handler. The reading is an abridgment of an article entitled “The hanging of Mary, a circus elephant,” by Thomas Burton published in Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, volume 37, number 1, March 1971. The full article is available at the McClung Collection.

Take a look at The day they hung the elephant by Charles Edwin Price, and at this version on RootsWeb.

Download the recording with this link, or use the player here:

Subscribe for free to get new episodes automatically downloaded so you can listen whenever and wherever you want.

Knox County Public Library Podcasts by Knox County Public Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. © 2009 Some Rights Reserved.

Books of the Week for Children

Warthogs Paint!
by Pamela Duncan Edwards

Stuck inside on a rainy day, the warthogs start out with their cans of red, blue and yellow paint and various spills and messes show them that blue and yellow make green, etc., until they create an indoor rainbow.


Ballet Sisters: The Newest Dancer
by Jan Ormerod

Sylvie and Bonnie are sisters who love to dance, but Sylvie is too young for ballet school. One day, Sylvie follows Bonnie to class. With her sister's encouragement, Sylvie steps into the spotlight and proves that she's a dedicated ballerina ready for lessons.


Gooney the Fabulous
by Lois Lowry

Gooney Bird Greene is back and more fabulous than ever as she and Ms. Pidgeon's second-grade class each write their own fables to share during the school's holiday celebration.

Books of the Week for Teens

This Full House
by Virginia Euwer Wolff

High-school-senior LaVaughn's perceptions and expectations of her life begin to change as she learns about the many unexpected connections between the people she loves best. This is the third book in the Make Lemonade Trilogy.

Dope Sick
by Walter Dean Myers

Seeing no way out of his difficult life in Harlem, seventeen-year-old Jeremy "Lil J" Dance flees into a house after a drug deal goes awry and meets a weird man who shows different turning points in Lil J's life when he could have made better choices.


Wondrous Strange
by Lesley Livingston

Seventeen-year-old Kelley discovers her secret heritage after meeting Sonny, a guard of the gate that separates the fairy world from the mortal one, while a war band of fairies plan to force their way through the gate on Halloween night.

Books of the Week for Children

Babar's Museum of Art: (closed Mondays)
by Laurent dei Brunhoff

The old train station in Celesteville stands empty—should it be torn down? "No!" declare Celeste and Babar, who decide to turn it into an art museum.

Gus and Grandpa and the Piano Lesson
by Claudia Mills

After Gus, who would rather play outside than practice music, does not do too well at his piano recital, his grandfather shows him how music can be fun.

From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
by E. L. Konigsburg

When suburban Claudia Kincaid decides to run away, she knows she doesn't just want to run from somewhere, she wants to run to somewhere--she chooses the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Knowing that her younger brother Jamie has money and thus can help her with a serious cash-flow problem, she invites him along. Claudia and Jamie find themselves caught up in the mystery of an angel statue. The statue is possibly an early work of the Renaissance master Michelangelo, and therefore worth millions. Is it? Or isn't it? Claudia is determined to find out.

Books of the Week for Teens

Heroes of the Valley
by Jonathan Stroud

When young Halli Sveinsson takes a practical joke too far, he is forced to leave the House of Svein and go on a hero's quest where he encounters highway robbers, terrifying monsters, and a girl who may be as fearless as he is.

Evermore
by Alyson Noel

Since the car accident that claimed the lives of her family, sixteen-year- old Ever can see auras and hear people's thoughts, and she goes out of her way to hide from other people until she meets Damen, another psychic teenager who is hiding even more mysteries.

 
Bull Rider
by Suzanne Williams

When his older brother, a bull-riding champion, returns from the Iraq War partially paralyzed, fourteen-year-old Cam takes a break from skateboarding to enter a bull-riding contest, in hopes of winning the $15,000 prize and motivating his depressed brother to continue with his rehabilitation.

Books of the Week for Children

Katy Duck is a Caterpillar
by Alyssa Capucilli

Katy Duck is disappointed when she is cast as a caterpillar in the Spring dance recital.

Dancing Dinos Go to School
by Sally Lucas

Dancing dinosaurs leap off the pages of a book and suddenly appear in the school library. From there, the playful green friends peek and sneak into a classroom and onto the playground while creating a swirl of excitement for the school librarian and a boy who follow their escapades.

Chasing Vermeer
by Blue Balliet

There's a mystery at the University of Chicago's Lab School. There, outsiders Petra and Calder become friends as they try to find out what happened to a missing Vermeer painting.

Books of the Week for Teens

Daughter of the Flames by Zoe Marriott
After learning that she is the sole heir to the Ruan throne, orphaned Zira, trained in weaponry and martial arts as a warrior priestess, must unravel the secrets of her identity, decide her people's fate, and accept her feelings for a man who should be her enemy.

The Season by Sarah MacLean
Showing no interest in the sumptuous balls, lavish dinner parties, and country weekends enjoyed by the rest of early nineteenth-century London society, seventeen-year-old Lady Alexandra Stafford seeks adventure as she investigates the puzzling murder of the Earl of Blackmoor, father of devilishly handsome Gavin.

Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior by Chris Bradford
Orphaned by a ninja pirate attack off the coast of Japan in 1611, twelve- year-old English lad Jack Fletcher is determined to prove himself, despite the bullying of fellow students, when the legendary sword master who rescued him begins training him as a samurai warrior.