Ginnette Cameron-Gardner Teacher Librarian

It has been a wonderful year in the Primary Library with keen readers discussing and recommending books to each other and also making suggestions  for purchase. If you are looking for a new series to read please consider the titles below:

The Secret Zoo by Bryan Chick. 

This series of books instils the lesson of working together, kindness to others and friendship. It is a great Fantasy, Mystery Thriller full of suspense.

Noah and his sister Megan live next door to the Clarksville City Zoo. With their friends, Richie and Ellie they form the Action Scouts and build ‘The Action Scouts Clubhouse’ in a tree in Noah and Megan’s back garden. Megan feels certain that she has spotted monkeys on the rooftops of houses nearby and writes about it in her journal. She starts investigating but then disappears. Where has she gone? Can the Action Scouts find her?

This series that needs to be read in order of one to five and is located at JF CHI in the Primary Library.

The Secret Zoo: Secrets and shadows by Bryan Chick. Book 2  in The Secret Zoo series.

The adventure continues. A review would be a spoiler, but please read books two to five as well as there are strange things going on at the Clarksville Zoo. There is also a great underlying message in this series about the role humans play in preventing animal extinction.

Escape from Mr Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein. 

This was a New York Times Best Seller and is a fun read for middle grade readers with a positive teamwork message which is perfect for both the avid and reluctant reader. 

Kyle Keeley is the class clown and he is popular with most of the students even if not with the teachers. His hero is Luigi Lemoncello a wealthy, eccentric gentleman, who is a notorious, creative game maker. Mr Lemoncello uses his game-making genius when involved in building the new town Library. In a plot similar to a cross between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and A Night in the Museum, Kyle is fortunate enough to win a place as one of the first 12 kids in the library.  They are promised a night of fun, food and lots of games. However, when morning comes the children cannot exit the Library – the doors are locked! There is a hidden escape route, but Kyle and the other winners have to combine their gaming skills to solve every clue and secret puzzle to find the way out. The stakes are high, so they must work together to get out. This is a partially interactive read and taking part and playing along with the characters enhances the experience.  

There are two other books in the Mr. Lemoncello’s Library series – Mr Lemoncello’s Library Olympics and Mr Lemoncello’s Great Library Race. They are located at JF GRA.

A Million Ways Home by Dianna Dorisi Winget

When her grandmother and guardian suffers a stroke, twelve-year-old Poppy Parker’s life turns upside down as she is put into a Children’s Home. It becomes even more dramatic when she witnesses a murder and has to go into witness protection with Detective Brannigan’s mother where she makes a friend – Lizzie. She also makes friends with Gunner, a beautiful German shepherd with an uncertain future at an animal shelter who she visits and comes to love. She finds it hard to believe she will ever find a way home, let alone save Gunner. Grandma Beth is in hospital and then is moved into the Huckleberry Home but as Poppy has to be in witness protection until the dangerous criminal who she witnessed as a gunman at a gas station is caught by the police, she cannot visit Grandma Beth. Will her life ever return to normal? There are so many twists and turns in this novel about love and friendship and coming to terms with hard situations.

This is a middle grade story Located at JF WIN for Years 5 and 6 students.

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There are so very many good reads in the Primary Library, these are just a few of them, come explore the shelves.  Make a list of books you would like to read in the future, and you will find many of them at the local Public Library to read in the holidays. If you discover novels in the Public Library that you would like to recommend being held in the Primary Library please note the title and author and put notes in the suggestion box just inside the front door by the printer.

Happy reading as you enter worlds of adventure in the pages of books.