Author: MHKLibrary Staff

2017 Kansas Book Festival and Kansas Notable Books

By Diedre Lemon, Adult Services Librarian

This past weekend, the State Library of Kansas hosted its annual book festival at the capitol building in Topeka, Kansas. Authors around the area and those authors who have books about Kansas were invited to read and discuss their work. Also, it is during this event that the Kansas Notable Books are honored. Kansas Notable Book Awards go to authors who are from Kansas or whose books were about Kansas. Over a dozen titles were honored this year.

While at the festival, I heard several of these authors read and discuss their books. One that is on my to-read list is Dodge City by Tom Clavin. Clavin tells the story of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson as young men learning to be lawmen in the west. The book rounds out their friendship by telling about their arrival in Dodge City and their return to the town years later. What appeals to me about this book is not just Earp’s and Masterson’s stories, but also the fascinating characters and adventures they encounter along the way in Dodge City. Clavin painted a vivid picture of all that was happening in western Kansas in the mid-1870s.

Julianne Couch examines small towns in Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas in her book The Small-Town Midwest. Norton and Sedan, Kansas fill two chapters in her book. What drew her to write about these towns? Hope and resiliency are the characteristics each of these small towns possesses. Couch herself lives in a small town where she appreciates people who want to keep small towns alive and resist the pull to urban life. Couch explores–with genuine curiosity– how these small towns keep thriving and are going to survive once the older generations pass on or retire. She raises questions about the towns’ futures and reflects on their solutions.

Never Enough Flamingos, by Janelle Diller, tells the fictional story of the Peters family during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in Kansas. Cat Peters’ family must accept a loan from a wealthy man, Simon Yoder. Cat must work at Yoder’s house to help pay off the loan where she discovers he is more sinister than she expected because Yoder wants to steal the souls of young women. Diller has also written a sequel entitled Never Enough Sisters.

Two poetry collections made the Kansas Notable Book list: Fast-Food Sonnets: Poems by Dennis Etzel Jr. and Ghost Sign: Poems from White Buffalo by Al Ortolani, Melissa Fite Johnson, Adam Jameson, and J.T. Knoll. Etzel’s collection sparked my interest at the festival. Hearing the author read poems about the fast-food industry brought to life mundane work tasks and revealed that one can truly write about anything. His sonnets were humorous and relatable even if you have not worked in food service. Etzel’s poems are in the sonnet form while experimenting with subjects in fast-food; consequently, the second collection of poems—which was written by four poets—keeps with tradition in subject. Conversely, Ghost Sign reflects on southeast Kansas, Pittsburg, Kansas. This collection would appeal to those who like history about Kansas.

The Kansas Book Festival, a free event, also offered activities for children. An area on the front lawn of the state capitol building had crafts, balloon animals and face painting for children. Famous storybook characters, like Clifford the Big Red Dog and Curious George, attend this event, too. Children’s authors showcased their work at the festival for children, parents and educators. Andrea Davis Pinkney kept children entertained with her books and stories.

Book vendors and the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library had booths for visitors to shop during the day. A food truck provided snacks and lunch for spending the day at the event too. Author signings took place after the authors spoke to audiences. Save the date for next year’s festival: Saturday, September 8, 2018. Of course, you do not have to wait until next year to read the Kansas Notable Books, as you can come check them out at Manhattan Public Library.

K-State Book Network Picks ‘Curious Incident of the Dog’ as Winner

By Rhonna Hargett, Adult Services Manager

Once again K-State Book Network has picked a winner for their annual common book. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is written from the perspective of Christopher Boone, and what a unique perspective it is. Christopher, a British 15-year-old, is very gifted at some things such as math and physics, but he faces many challenges in other areas like human relationships. Animals are much easier for him to understand.

The book begins with Christopher discovering that a neighborhood dog, Wellington, has been killed. As he writes, “I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.” His love of dogs and solving puzzles leads him to investigate the murder, although he is discouraged from doing so. Christopher, however, doesn’t always do what he is asked. His affinity for animals is made clear throughout the book with his determination to find Wellington’s killer and also his love for his constant companion, a rat named Toby. Animals’ thought processes are more understandable than humans’ to Christopher.

His investigation unexpectedly opens up his world, giving him the motivation to talk to his neighbors who know who he is and obviously care for him, but whom he has never found any reason to approach before. The neighbors don’t help him solve the mystery, but they reveal truths and provide him with another source of encouragement. They also provide a glimpse into working-class British life that we don’t always get to see.

Christopher lives with his father, who loves him but isn’t always sure how to best parent him and often gets frustrated. Haddon never names why the boy is in a special education program, but he is clearly challenged in communicating with others and is sometimes overwhelmed with stimuli. His father wants the best for him, but also struggles to keep him safe. He’s been told that his mother died a few years before due to a sudden heart condition and her absence is a huge gap in his life. As the investigation progresses, Christopher keeps uncovering information that he isn’t supposed to know, and his father’s frustration reaches a dangerous and frightening boiling point. Once Christopher’s trust in his father is violated, he seeks out other people to turn to, leading Christopher on the most challenging quest of his life and his father to greater understanding of his son.

The story is told from Christopher’s perspective, which gives us an unreliable narrator, but also an entire book to be completely immersed in the mind of this fascinating character. His behavior is baffling to those around him, but when you see things from his perspective, it becomes clear that he is merely processing the stimuli he’s receiving in the only way he can.

Haddon wraps bildungsroman, adventure, scientific thinking, mystery, and much more into this gripping tale, but really it is just a great story. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a dryly humorous yet bittersweet look into the life of a young man who is trying to figure out how the world works and on whom he can rely. Winner of several awards, including Library Journal Best Books, Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, and New York Times Notable Books, Haddon has created a character who will move you to appreciate those that process life in their own way.

We’ll be discussing the book at the library Thursday, September 7, at noon. You can explore the book further with a series of lectures at K-State. For more detail on the book discussion, go to www.mhklibrary.org. To find out more about the lectures, visit www.k-state.edu/ksbn.

The Wondrous Worlds of Science

by Crystal Hicks, Adult Services Librarian

I’ve always liked science, but not quite enough to study it in college, so I’d figured my required science classes were the most I’d ever learn about it. Imagine my surprise, then, when I started working at the library and discovered popular science books! These are books about science written for people without a scientific background, and they cover every aspect of science imaginable. Mind. Blown. My first foray into these books was with Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, which covers the basics of quarks, dark matter, gravitational waves, and more in just over 200 pages. With that quick and witty reminder of how awe-inspiring science can be, my reading life was changed.

If you love chemistry, like I do, then Napoleon’s Buttons might be worth a look. In this book, organic chemists Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson explore how 17 different molecules have shaped history. This sounds like a bit of a stretch at first—chemistry impacting the course of the world?!—but makes sense once the authors get into it. After all, the spice trade was responsible for much of the world’s exploration, and that would never have come to pass without piperine, the active ingredient in black pepper, which helped with preserving meat and masking the taste of food gone bad. Each chapter covers various groups of unrelated molecules, so there’s no reason to read the book in any particular order. If you’re a completionist, you can read the book from front-to-back, but otherwise you can pick and choose what you read, spending time with explosive “Nitro Compounds” before skipping on ahead to the intriguing “Molecules of Witchcraft.”

Among science writers, Mary Roach is known for covering weird and borderline-taboo topics with wry humor and plenty of gusto. Her works include: Packing for Mars (all about humans in space), Gulp (the science of the human digestive system), Bonk (sex and science), Stiff (what we do with human cadavers), and Spook (you guessed it—ghosts). Her most recent book, Grunt, looks at the science behind how we go to war. Not the science of guns or military battles, but the science of human bodies as it impacts war. Roach gleefully investigates sweat, diarrhea, and maggots, finding out the very real influences these things have on military operations. If you’re eager for a look at the mundane-yet-bizarre scientific goings-on of the military, give this book a try.

Christie Wilcox has long been fascinated by venomous animals, going so far as to become a scientist in order to spend more time with these terrifying, strangely-captivating creatures. In Venomous, Wilcox writes with infectious, bright-eyed enthusiasm for her subject, telling of the many kinds of venomous animals in the world and what we can learn from them. Equally fascinating are the scientists who study them, like Justin Schmidt, who felt the stings of more than 100 insects in order to make his Schmidt Pain Index for insect stings, or Wilcox’s invertebrate biology professor who used to bring her pet leech to class (there’s a reason why she stopped). Venomous not only has plenty to teach about biochemistry, but it also makes me feel like a kid again, morbidly curious about how a viper can kill with such lethal efficiency or entranced by the deadly beauty of a swarm of jellyfish.

My last book is for anyone interested in any aspect of science, no matter how much or little you already know. Randall Munroe, the author of an online comic featuring stick figures, already knows how to simplify images to their most important elements—next, he challenged himself to write a science book using only the 1000 most common words in the English language, and Thing Explainer is the result. With Munroe’s straightforward line drawings and simplified text, a dishwasher becomes a “box that cleans food holders,” the tectonic plates become “big flat rocks we live on,” and the International Space Station becomes a “shared space house.” Science can seem daunting to the uninitiated, with so many big words to learn and complicated concepts to understand, and Munroe helpfully breaks down those barriers and makes science accessible in this fun, wide-ranging book.

If you’re new to an area of science or refreshing dusty memories from high school, the library’s guaranteed to have a popular science book that’ll interest you. Come browse our collection for yourself, or stop by the Reference Desk for a personalized recommendation.

William Allen White Book List Provides Diverse Experiences

By Jennifer Bergen, Youth Services Manager

The William Allen White Children’s Book Award was founded in 1952 and was the first statewide book award set up for kids to vote on, not adults. Most other states have followed suit and have children’s choice book awards as well.  Kansas schools and libraries promote the WAW reading lists to third through eighth graders, and often hold schoolwide voting days to see which titles will win in their schools, and then send their tallies on to the award committee for the statewide vote. Some popular previous WAW Award Winners include Old Yeller (1959 winner), The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1968), Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1974), Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic (1984), and The Giver (1996). Kansas kids choose some pretty great books when given the chance!
The WAW master list for the 2017-18 school year is out, and kids are sure to find some favorites from this stack. Here are a few titles to start off. The full list is available at www.emporia.edu/libsv/wawbookaward.

Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate
Right from the start, fifth grader Jackson is at the beach and notices that, out on the waves, there is a giant surfboarding cat, wearing a t-shirt and carrying a closed umbrella.  “He also looked awfully familiar. ‘Crenshaw,’ I whispered.” Jackson knows it is crazy to be seeing this and hopes the cat, his old imaginary friend, will go away, but he doesn’t. In fact, Crenshaw arrives just as Jackson is realizing things are not right at home. There’s no food in the cupboards for him and his little sister, Robin. Jackson knows his parents are running out of money, and he worries they will have to start living in their van. Again.
But isn’t a fifth grader too old to have an imaginary friend? Why did Crenshaw come back to him? And is Crenshaw…real?  This is a powerful story about a child who feels disconnected from his parents and out of control in his life.  Despite the downward spiral of events, Jackson, with the help of Crenshaw, finds a way to cope and even help his family.

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
Draper’s historical novel is based on the life of her grandmother, Estelle Mills. Stories passed down and a treasured journal of Estelle’s give authenticity to the story, of which Draper says in a video, “It took all my life for these stories to become a part of me and finally emerge so that I could retell them.” The opening chapter hooks the reader with a tense and shocking scene. Stella and her little brother, Jojo, are hiding behind a tree in the middle of the cold night, watching men in white bedsheets set fire to a large cross. Klan. They rush home to inform their parents. It is 1932, the Ku Klux Klan has not been active in Bumblebee, North Carolina, for a few years, and all the men in their community know this is a very bad sign.
Stella feels compelled to write about unjust and frightening situations, but knows she must keep the writing secret. What could an eleven-year-old girl do, if even the adults could not find a way to do anything about the Klan? Stella’s instinct and bravery are on display more than once as life-threatening
situations arise, and as lives are intertwined in the most unlikely ways. Draper’s hope is that “from books of historical fiction, we can learn something that can help us in the present.” Stella is an admirable heroine from whom we all can learn.

George by Alex Gino
From the outside, George appears to be a boy and that is how everyone sees her, but inside, George knows she is a girl. A girl named Melissa. This secret inside of her makes her feel sad and alone. When George tries out for the part of Charlotte in the fourth grade Charlotte’s Web play, the teacher believes it is a joke. Frustrated and miserable, George confides in her best friend, Kelly, and discovers the support she needs to show her class and family who she is inside.
Gino’s book is such an important work, not just for transgender kids, but for their peers, teachers, parents and siblings. The author’s prologue, “Frequently Asked Questions (And Other Things Alex Wants to Say),” describes some reasons Gino wrote the book, answers many questions for readers, and provides tips for being a supportive friend, family and school.
Books like these are sure to garner discussion in homes and classrooms. The William Allen White committee has released a master list that will encourage kids to see many different perspectives, learn new things and reflect more thoughtfully on the various experiences people have in our world, both historically and in the present.