Younger books

Ok, for those who don't work in a library, there is a little thing called the ILS, or Integrated Library System. As a patron, you'll see certain aspects of this--the public catalog for instance. It's also what we use to check books in and out. It's also the librarian catalog and the back end catalog (yes, these are different), and really, it's the thing that tracks all of our materials and our patrons. It does all of our library-specific things.

The one our library has is from 1983. So, we're getting a new one. We've been all trained and it goes live next week. But, we had to take the old one down this week so they could transfer all the data over to the new one.

We're kicking it old skool this week--circ is being done by hand and will be entered in when the new catalog goes live. For finding books, we're playing "how well do you know the collection." It's fun. And exhausting. And more than a little insane.

2 days after the new catalog goes live, I'm going on vacation-- excellent timing on my part, even if vacation was planned before the change-over dates were announced.

So, anyway, that's what my life is like these days. :)

The Frandidate Jim Benton

This is the first Franny K. Stein book I've read and it's quite a treat! Franny is a mad scientist with her own laboratory. In this book, she decides she wants to run for class president, because if people CHOOSE her as her leader, than she can rule the world and it will be ok. Sadly, the kids in her class don't like her platform of chalk that explodes if you write the wrong answer or robots that will force-fed kids a healthy lunch. So, Fran goes into her lab and builds a candidate suit--specially designed to appear to a person just as they want them to appear and to say just want they want to hear!

But, why stop at school elections? Why not run for president? But will Franny be able to tell where she ends and the candidate begins?

Timely and funny with excellent illustrations. Kids will love Fran's dog cum lab assistant and appreciate her struggles with the truth.

Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express Megan McDonald

When the local pet store rescues some guinea pigs from lab, Stink and his friends set out to find homes for all 101 of them! They try everything they can think of, including a traveling van full of guinea pigs.

Filled with lots of fun facts about the little critters, it's a funny and sweet story that fans of Stink or his older sister Judy will surely enjoy.