Tue, Apr 8 | 7 – 8 pm online For ages 5-11. Register at bit.ly/2025-BoB
Battle of the Book featured authors Victoria Jamieson and Matt Phelan answer your questions about their books, When Stars Are Scattered and The Sheep, the Rooster, and the Duck. When you register, you have the opportunity to submit questions to them. The authors will answer selected questions during the virtual presentation. You receive an automated email confirmation containing the Zoom link when you register.
Victoria Jamieson When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed is a graphic novel based on co-author Omar Mohamed’s life growing up in a refugee camp in Kenya called Dadaab. It is told to New York Times bestselling author and artist Victoria Jamieson by Omar Mohamed, the Somali man who lived the story.
Victoria Jamieson is the creator of Newbery Honor Book Roller Girl. She received her BFA in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and worked as a children’s book designer before becoming a full-time illustrator. She now lives with her family in Pennsylvania.
Matt Phelan The Sheep, the Rooster, and the Duck is an adventure full of secrets, fun, and re-imagined historical events. Author Matt Phelan is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author/illustrator of picture books, middle grade novels, and graphic novels for young readers. In 2014, Matt was awarded the Free Library of Philadelphia/Drexel University Children’s Literature Citation. Matt also teaches on the faculty for Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults.
Mystery, Adventure, and Friendship in Ira Marcks’ Graphic Novels: Shark Summer and Spirit Week
by Ahmad Ndir
Ira Marcks’ graphic novels Shark Summer and Spirit Week combine mystery, adventure, and friendship in different settings. Both books feature young protagonists who are drawn into solving a local legend or curse with the help of unlikely allies. The stories are fast-paced, engaging, and full of twists and turns that keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Shark Summer is set on Martha’s Vineyard, where a Hollywood film crew arrives with a mechanical shark and a youth film contest. Gayle, a disgraced pitcher, sees a chance to turn her bad season into the best summer ever by making a movie about the island’s phantom shark. Along the way, she teams up with Elijah, an aspiring cinematographer, and Maddie, a moody director. Together, they uncover the truth behind the shark and the history of the island. The book has a vivid sense of place and a nostalgic vibe that pays homage to classic movies like Jaws and The Goonies.
Spirit Week takes place in the Underlook Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, a famous landmark that belongs to the reclusive horror writer Jack Axworth. Suzy, an aspiring engineer, is invited to tutor Jack’s son, Danny, but instead she finds herself investigating a local curse that threatens the hotel. With the help of Elijah, an amateur filmmaker, and Rena, the hotel’s caretaker, Suzy tries to save the hotel and the town from the shadows of the past. The book has a creepy and dark tone that draws inspiration from horror stories like The Shining and The Haunting of Hill House.
Both books are well-written and illustrated, with expressive characters and colorful scenes. The themes of acceptance, belonging, and finding your family intertwine throughout the stories, as the characters overcome their personal challenges and grow closer to each other. The books are suitable for middle grade and young adult readers who enjoy graphic novels, mystery, and horror. I would recommend them to anyone who likes a good scare along with a good laugh.
Award-winning graphic novelist Ira Marcks visits HCLS on April 3 at 5 pm at Central Branch. He discusses how he plans, writes, and draws a long form comic story by engaging hands-on using the three essential elements of storytelling – characters, setting, and theme. Followed by book sales and signing.
Ahmad Ndir is a Teens’ Instructor & Research Specialist at the Central Branch at HCLS. Along with helping young learners discover new books, he is an avid reader of teen fiction and nonfiction titles on different aspects of psychology. He strives for positivity for himself and those around him, in both his personal and work life.
Claribel Ortega’s debut novel is perfect for middle grade readers who love the paranormal, magic, adventure, and a little mystery. This book celebrates Dominican culture and lore, while also providing beautiful examples of caring adults and loving relationships among families and friends.This book also explores themes of grief, loss, and found family.
Twelve year old Lucely Luna lives a pretty supernatural life in a haunted house with her father, who gives ghost tours in St. Augustine, Florida. She is surrounded by the spirits of her loved ones who have passed. These spirits, familial fireflies, assume their ghostly human forms to comfort and care for Lucely. Something strange happens to her beloved grandmother’s spirit and Lucely and her best friend, Syd, inadvertently awaken malicious spirits in their efforts to help bring back her grandmother’s spirit. These malevolent spirits not only threaten the existence of Lucely’s fireflies, but desire to drag St. Augustine into the underworld. Lucely, Syd, Syd’s abuela Babette (a real witch), and Babette’s chonky kitty, Chunk, must work together to make everything right once more.
This is the second installment in the Willa of the Wood series by Robert Beatty. However, it’s also a standalone story, so you won’t miss anything if you haven’t read the first book. This story stresses the importance of conserving our natural world and the invaluable relationships we build with family and friends. Themes of found family and the complexity of doing what’s right abound.
Willa is among the last of an ancient Indigenous people of the Great Smoky Mountains, the Faeran. Willa is deeply connected with the forest and the animals with which she can communicate via her Faeran language. Her magical abilities also include camouflage and making trees grow instantly. She is, after all, a young teenage wood witch trained and brought up by her grandmother against the harmful norms of Faeran society. Willa feels helpless against the industrial loggers who continue to destroy the forest in the name of progress. She discovers a dark hollow with strange and beautiful creatures, but the mystery and danger grows as she learns how these dark forces are hunting humans. But are these hunters the right answer to dealing with the loggers as their handiwork endangers her own adoptive family? Can Willa find a way to save her family, the forest, and the animals she loves all by herself?
Other titles and series for kids who enjoy the paranormal and supernatural, fantasy and magic, mystery and adventure:
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, I haven’t had the desire nor the motivation to read. I know that’s a horrible thing to say as an employee of a library (a 5-Star Library system as a matter of fact), but it took me quite a while to get back into reading novels. So you know what I did? I did what I’ve suggested to many a parent who has come in trying to find something to get their child to like reading; I picked up a graphic novel.
Graphic novels can be about literally hundreds of subjects across any number of genres. Many authors have written wonderful original stories as well as graphic representations of classic novels. When a parent needs a suggestion for a book for their reluctant child or when someone wants something interesting to read, I almost always suggest a graphic novel. Why? Well, as a visual learner, I find myself more engaged with the story and with the characters when I see them visually represented, and it’s easier for my brain to follow along without distraction. Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve read graphic novels for adults, teens, tweens, and children. From the many I’ve recently read, here are six picks that teach everyone to be who you are unapologetically, and if you can, be a little magical, too.
What I loved about this book is that it challenges the gender norms in Aster’s family and society. In his family, the girls are raised as witches while the boys are raised as shape-shifters. But that isn’t who Aster is, and he practices in secret since it is forbidden for boys to study magic. He desperately wants to be a witch but is afraid of his family finding out. When trouble brews and his magical skills are what’s needed to help save the day, he has to find the courage within himself to be who he feels in his heart that he is meant to be.
Many will see the similarity between the events of the Salem witch trials and the events of Founder’s Bluff in this book. Moth has always loved all things witchy and magical, so when her powers emerge, she is immediately thrust into a world where the history of her hometown is intertwined with that of her own family. She discovers that her mother was once a member of a powerful coven of witches who separated from a world that despised them but broke away to live a life free of magic. As she discovers this history, she must come to terms with being a witch (which she finds kind of cool) along with the existence of people in town descended from those who discriminated and hated her family and those like her. What’s a fledgling young witch with a talking cat to do?
Beetle and the Hollowbones is a tale of outgrowing what society expects you to be, standing up for your friends even if it means standing up to them, and embracing and loving who you are. Much like the Witch Boy, Beetle is a goblin and goblins are only supposed to do a specific type of magic and none other. One day she meets Blob Ghost, a, well, ghost blob haunting the local mall that is inexplicably tied to its location. So when the mall is due to be demolished, it is up to Beetle to find out why he’s connected to the mall and rescue him. Along the way she reconnects with an old friend (and love interest) who needs to be reminded about their friendship, who they are, and to stand up to family even if they are family.
How would you feel if your life was turned upside down and inside out all of a sudden? That’s what happens to Effie. Having lost her mom and the only home she ever knew, she is suddenly taken to live with two estranged aunts. Once there, Effie learns more about her family than she ever thought possible, including the fact that they can do magic! This newfound knowledge and ability is almost too much for Effie, and it rears its ugly head at the worst of times. She soon starts to accept that this is her life now, that magic is a part of it, and that zany things are going to happen, including helping one of her favorite singers when she comes to Effie’s aunts for help with a nasty curse.
Snap’s town has a witch. Maybe. Possibly. At least that’s the rumor going around. When Snap needs help from the town “witch”, she learns that there’s more than meets the eye and discovers the power she has within herself. Aside from the super cool supernatural elements, the characters are all a delight to read. And especially the children. They’re the perfect example of prejudice being made, not born, because when given an upbringing that doesn’t include any of that, they can be perfectly accepting of everyone around them without thinking it’s “weird.” They celebrate and encourage uniqueness.
What happens when three friends are brought together by unforeseeable circumstances and their group, particularly young sand dancer Oona Lee, is what stands between saving the five worlds and their destruction? Oona must find the power within herself that she didn’t know she had, as well as the confidence to travel the five worlds, light all the beacons, and fend off attacks from the evil hiding in the shadows. Between all of this, she has to save her friend An Tzu, who also has mysterious origins and a tie to what can save everything, from a mysterious ailment. Beautiful art, rich characters, and full of world-building elements, you’ll love this series!
Disclaimer: There are a number of graphic novels on the same subject but these are only the most recent I’ve read. Please visit any Howard County Library branch to learn more!
Peter is an Instructor and Research Specialist at the Miller Branch and LOVES graphic novels and dogs. Especially fluffy dogs.
CHAPTER CHATS 