Book

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Madeline W. has won third place in the 9-12 age group for the Summer 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "Eyes in the Sky." 

I started writing for school, and decided to start putting the many stories I had into the physical world. I don’t have a lot of favorites, but I like Spider-Man, and really hate spoilers for things I want to watch, read, or participate in in any way. 

 

 As I focused on my connection, my mind spread its boundaries, forming a link― a bridge, if you will―to the spirit realm. My consciousness compressed itself

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Derek W. has won second place in the 13-19 age group for the Summer 2021 Youth Writing Contest with his piece "I've Been Haunted Lately"

Derek W. is proud to be a lifelong student of the art of writing, a previous winner of a Young Arts Merit Award for writing and several Scholastic Arts and Writing awards. He is nineteen years old, and is currently studying at the University of Michigan. His story "I've Been Haunted Lately" speaks to the painful process of connecting with someone, and the fears that accompany opening up to that person, who

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Nayla S. has won second place in the 9-12 age group for the Summer 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "Me & Yule"

Nayla S. is an amateur writer who enjoys spinning tales with enchantingly scenic settings, (hopefully) endearing characters, and lots and lots of magic. When she isn't writing, she enjoys detective and classic novels, chocolate, and working on her little sapling of a blog which you can find at www.witchywordcraft.com

The train screeched to a stop, and I woke up with a gasp. Sheila shrieked and Mom let her head loll

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Sangshita P.. has won third place in the 8 and under age group for the Summer 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "The Lost Princess." 

Hi I'm Sangshita. Well, everyone calls me Moonmoon. I'm seven and this fall I will be in second grade. 

I have a duck puppet and I created a story about it. I used to tell stories to my best friend and she said I could write them. 

Then I started to write. The first story I wrote was a fantasy one. 

I love reading books by Dr Seuss. 

A fun fact about me is I'm really really scared of bugs but I'm not

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Ava S. has won third place in the 13-19 age group for the Summer 2021 Youth Writing Contest.

Ava S. is a homeschooled junior that recently traded her Ohio buckeye trees in for the wild sunflowers of Kansas. Ava has been writing for most of her life and has worked on multiple novels, poems, songs, and short stories. Her inspirations are the books she grew up reading in her elementary and preteen years. This particular short story was loosely inspired by the classic Thumbelina. Some of her author influences are Lucy Maud Montgomery, Leigh

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Sylvie G.. has won first place in the 8 and under age group for the Summer 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "The Tree Unicorn."

First thank you so much for choosing me as a winner. I am so happy right now. I've been writing since about halfway into 1st grade and I'm currently writing a book called Animal City. I want to say if I did not watch My Little Pony I wouldn’t have written this story because that is my inspiration. I have always liked mythical things like unicorns and alicorns. Just ponies are amazing too. My author

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that James P. has won first place in the 13-19 age group for the Summer 2021 Youth Writing Contest with his piece "When the Caged Zebra Falls."

My name is James P. and I’m a senior at Blue Valley High School. I’ve been writing for about a year; I began last summer as a means of expressing my thoughts during quarantine. Some of my biggest influences are George Orwell, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Joe Strummer. My other passions are soccer, history, and playing the guitar. My story was inspired by the human desire to be led, and our willingness to

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Georgia M.. has won second place in the early age group for the Sci-Fi Spring 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "Not So Boring."

Not So Boring 

Of course we get stuck on the worst planet, Aerial. Out of the 116 planets my family discovered in the past year, we had to get stranded on the most boring and cold one.

I spend most of my time on the ship playing with our munden, Tuerto. He’s a mix between a dog, a cat, an elephant, and a tiger. White with black stripes, he has pointy ears, a short, stubby trunk, and a dog-like tail. I’m

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Parsons H. has won first place in the early age group for the Sci-Fi Spring 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "The Bad."

I love writing and sharing stories. I love to let my creativity show! In my free time I love to read, write, listen to Christian and 80's music, and play dolls. 

The Bad

There are a group of kids, the lonely, the bad, the forgotten, the hidden, the sad, and the blamed. These are not a normal group of kids, they wanted and did get revenge. The lonely wanted revenge on whoever had the chance to become friends with

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Anna Grace V. has won third place in the early age group for the Sci-Fi Spring 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "Turkey and Della"

My name is Anna Grace.  I am 10 years old and I live with my 2 brothers, my 2 dogs, and my mom and dad.  I like reading, especially Greek Mythology and fantasy books.  I also like drawing and creating fantasy stories. I hope you like “Turkey and Della.” 

The Spectacular Journey of Turkey and Della

This book is dedicated to my teacher; Ms.Westerman, for being an awesome teacher and on awesome scientist

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Hunter G. has won second place in the second age group for the Sci-Fi Spring 2021 Youth Writing Contest with his piece "The Time She Had Returned."

María sat quietly and carefully outside in the front area of a bar. The area was quite overgrown with a variety of green. What the bar lacked was people. This little town she had once remembered was teeming with solemness. María wondered why the plants continued to grow with little water. They climbed up in search of something. These desperate plants continued no  matter what.  It was

Although admitting this may qualify me as a one-hundred percent board-certified nerd (dweeb, Poindexter, etc.), I’ve loved reference books for as long as I can remember. And they’ve come a long way since three clever Scots dreamed up the first Encyclopædia Brittanica in Edinburgh in 1768. Over the years they’ve become much more accessible, engaging, and, dare I say, delightful, in large part thanks to a company called Dorling Kindersley Limited, better known as DK Publishing. 

I first became aware of DK Publishing through their expansive Eyewitness series. As a grade school student in the

“Normal is whatever you grow used to, like wildfires choking the life out of everything.  Or a town that live through its children, over and over again, until nobody remembers a time when that wasn’t the case.”

Each chapter is its own short story.  Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock does a fabulous job intertwining the lives of several teenagers from small towns in the American West and Alaska.  The collection is relatable, full of heart and hope with stories about a wildfire, a camp, as well as a mysterious disappearance.  (My personal favorite was Parking-Lot Flowers about a teenage boy who picks up a

A fascinating and quietly powerful book.

I can't remember for sure, but I believe this was recommended to me by a high school teacher even though the four children at its center are first graders; its wisdom is that widely applicable. I even kept mentally applying its situations to my workplace manager-employee relationships. It's something I recommend for all educators, parents, and managers--to anyone with power over others.

Troublemakers struck me with particular relevance and immediacy because my two children are currently in kindergarten and first grade and have been known to cause a

When you start tuning in to winter, you realise that we live through a thousand winters in our lives--some big, some small.

Sometimes you find yourself reading a book so full of interesting, exciting ideas that the author has found a way to express so clearly and exquisitely that they are both familiar and revelatory, that the book continuously sparks moments of resonant discovery so that you find yourself stopping to have your own related ideas, pondering your own life in light of the new perspectives just gained from the reading, marking passages to revisit, taking notes to develop later

In this stand alone mystery, Toby Hennessey suffers a severe beating during a break in to his apartment. He provides care to his dying uncle while he recuperates from his injuries, reminiscing and reliving the best parts of his salad days. The first third of the book is taken up with getting to know more about Toby & his family relationships, mainly his two cousins, Susana and Leon, and his Uncle Hugo.  The discovery of a skull inside the ancient elm tree in Hugo's garden interrupts the idyllic setting and moments of the Ivy House. Toby's head injuries makes him an unreliable narrator, trying

Poet Gay decided he would adopt a practice for a year of paying attention to what delighted him and writing a daily "essayette" recording his related thoughts. This is his compilation of those journal entries. He writes in the prologue how the habit helped him develop a kind of "delight radar," as he became more aware of the delightful aspects of life at all times and happier for it, and his joy is apparent on every page.

Gay writes with an intentionally free-flowing, rambling style (see the excerpt below). It captures the personality and spontaneity of his process, and readers come to know

The Girl with the Louding Voice, by Abi Dare, is a powerfully unforgettable story about Adunni, a 14-year-old Nigerian girl who wants nothing more than to go to school and become a teacher. Her mother encourages her to continue with her education and find not just her voice but her “louding voice”. Adunni’s life becomes hard and arduous after her mother’s death when her father, who is in need of money for himself and her brothers to survive, “sells” her to a much older man to be his third wife. What follows is a life of abuse and misery and a discontinuation of her schooling. Throughout her

If you are a fan of The Time Traveler's Wife,  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and/or The Two Lives of Lydia Bird you should give Oona Out of Order a try.  (And if you haven't checked out any of the previously mentioned titles, you should!)  The novel was published in the early part of 2020 (in the Before Times) and may have slipped by unnoticed.  It's a hard book to explain because time travel but not in your typical sense and yet it was easy to fall in love with Oona and her story.

"By turns tragic and triumphant, heartbreakingly poignant and joyful, this is ultimately an uplifting

August Snow is a former Marine, police officer, and a product of a loving Mexican/African American family. He loves his hometown of Mexicantown, Detroit and hates seeing the decay, drugs, violence and corruption running through the city.  He’s bought and renovated a number of houses on the street to bring them back to their former glory. After being fired by the police for uncovering high level corruption, August wins a $12 million lawsuit against the city for unfair termination. Traveling the world for year to regain his perspective and deal with his parents deaths, August yearns for his city

Cross-stitching: the final frontier. These are the exploits of the librarian Charles. His three-week mission: to explore strange new books. To seek out new crafts and new materials. To boldly make where no man has made before!

I am a maker. I love exploring new ways to express my creativity through the things I create. I am often at my happiest when I am trying a new craft or project, anticipating the learning and challenges ahead of me.

I am also a Star Trek fan. My dad introduced me to the series through Star Trek: Voyager, and I enjoy the show’s focus on using science and logic to solve

What a book. What a story. What a family. The Kurcs are a Polish family who will not let the cruelty and dehumanizing Nazi and Soviet rule crush their spirit.  

We see babies born, weddings, and a family desperately wishing they were all together again. They feel lucky just to be with one another.  We follow the lives of the Kurc families’ five children through the war.  

Addy moved to France to finish his studies and stayed after finding a job. Now, he cannot return to Poland because there is no safe way to get there and he doesn’t have the right paperwork. His one hopeful thought is seeing

Shadow and Bone, a TV adaptation of Leigh Bardugo's bestselling fantasy trilogy of the same name, launches on Netflix, April 23rd. Some are calling the show the next Game of Thrones. A huge GoT fan, I knew I had to read the books before the TV series hit the airwaves because let's face it, the books are always better than the show. 

I managed to read the entire trilogy in a month and have moved on to Bardugo's Six of Crows duology that follows. Needless to say, I'm a fan. Bardugo has created a captivating universe set in what feels like the Russia of long ago but with magic. In Shadow and

I’m what we librarians call a gentle horror reader.  I’m fascinated by the supernatural but can’t handle graphic violence or gore.  I normally indulge in juvenile scary stories or classics like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  I heard a lot of buzz around Matt Ruff’s horror novel, Lovecraft County, after the release of the critically acclaimed HBO drama series adaptation, created by Misha Green.  The premise of resilient and intelligent African American characters grappling with racism and the supernatural in the 1950s intrigued me.  This was the perfect horror novel to

Matt Miller, a senior in high school, is dealing with the recent death of his mom to cancer.  Mr. Ray, Matt’s neighbor, offers him a job at the funeral home.  He is hesitant to take it but can’t pass up the good paycheck. So, Matt becomes the boy in the black suit because he starts wearing it every day.  In a way it brings Matt comfort to watch the funerals.  “I liked watching other people deal with the loss of someone, not because I enjoyed seeing them in pain, but because, somehow, it made me feel better knowing that my pain isn’t only mine.”

When he least expects it, Matt meets Lovey.  She

“Poetry is a matter of life, not just of language.” Lucille Clifton 

This quote—a favorite, I freely admit—echoed in my mind as I read and re-read Bridget Lowe’s second collection, My Second Work. I understand Clifton’s quote to mean that poetry can be esoteric—a symphony of sounds that lull us into a state in which we choose to not question the meaning of it all simply because it sounds so good in the air. Let’s be clear: I love poetry that sings to me and, sometimes, I do not care “what it means” or if it means anything to me, personally, because the language of it lets me imagine/lets me

This is unlike any other book I've read on racism, and it's a good, refreshing thing.



Menakem is a therapist, and his perspective starts with the body. He sees the trauma induced by racism as a physical thing and posits that we need to address as such. Specifically, in the vagus nerve, "which oversees a vast array of crucial bodily functions, including control of mood, immune response, digestion, and heart rate. It establishes one of the connections between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract and sends information about the state of the inner organs to the brain via afferent fibers."*

It’s perfect, but is it real? Influence follows the lives of four teen influencers who live what seem like perfect lives: Delilah Rollins, a newbie who shot to fame after posting a viral video, Jasmine Walters-Diaz, a former child star who’s tired of hiding her real self, Fiona Jacobs, an aspiring actress who harbors a dark secret from her past, and Scarlet Leigh, the quintessential mean girl of the group. In the whirlwind of events and auditions and shoots, the tension escalates and one of the girls ends up dead. As the other girls try to root out the killer, they are reminded again and again

Bedtime Bonnet is a joy. When a young child’s special bedtime bonnet goes missing, she searches the house for clues, interviewing each person in her multi-generational family as they prepare their own hair for bed. Brother twist his locs into a durag, Grandma rolls her “silver mane” with old-timey foam rollers, and Dad brushes his hair before donning his wave cap. Mom and Sister fix their hair too, but Grandpa doesn’t need to worry about getting his bald head ready for bed. Oh, wait, speaking of—that silly Grandpa! Where is he hiding? Maybe he knows what happened to his granddaughter’s special