Reviews

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that James P. has won first place in the 13-19 age group for the Scary Stories 2021 Youth Writing Contest with his piece "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond."

Around them the mist continued to drift, seeping into their veins, sapping their spirits. The younger of the two brothers poked his head from out of his sleeping bag which lay on the cold, merciless dirt in the clearing of the cold, merciless forest which was infused with the cold, merciless mist that had awoken his body with chills throughout.

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Georgia M. has won third place in the youth age group for the Scary Stories 2021 Youth Writing Contest with this piece "The Ghosts at Tanuki Mansion."

I’m not sure if I believe the rumor that Tanuki Mansion is haunted.

I’ve been there multiple times on school field trips, and only minor ‘scary’ things have happened.

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Andrea F. has won second place in the youth age group for the Scary Stories 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "The House on the Hill"

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Nova M. has won first place in the youth age group for the Scary Stories 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "The Pine Wood"

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Avah D. has won second place in the 12-14 age group for the Scary Stories 2021 Youth Writing Contest with her piece "The Storyteller"

“Mama, tell me a story.”

The girl loves stories, gobbles them down like sugar. The words fill her up, twisty and sharp and smooth, and come to life behind her eyes.

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Iago M. has won first place in the 12-14 age group for the Scary Stories 2021 Youth Writing Contest with his piece "The Trapdoor"

Oliver’s antique shop was not exceptional in any way. It did not have much inventory, what it sold did not hold much significance, it was not even the most popular antique shop on the street. This meant nothing to Oliver. When he opened the front door to the shop in the morning, he was at the crossroads to a thousand worlds.

Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Ripley N. has won second place in the 13-19 age group for the Scary Stories 2021 Youth Writing Contest with their piece "What Happened in Glen Forest"

Omnes una manet nox. That’s what it said on the invitation. Cole didn’t know much Latin, but he knew that said one, night or dark, and omnes. Many? Whatever it meant, Cole was in.

The frontier has long felt like a fixture of the collective American psyche, and literature featuring western characters facing the struggles of the rural life has been around since the late 1800s. These western novels often featured tough characters with a firm sense of moral justice and skill with a gun. This archetypical character has continued into modern writing, but in recent decades has made the leap out of the western genre and into thrillers and mysteries in the form of rural law enforcement.

For those in the (literary) know, Tuesdays are the traditional day where publishers release new titles into the world. Here at the library, we get patrons who always want to know what the new, hot, word-of-mouth books are. They scan the New Releases shelf, they stalk the "new titles" portion of our website, and want to be ahead of the curve and, above all, NOT be number 582 on the waiting list.

Valentine, by Elizabeth Wetmore is a hauntingly powerful, and beautiful debut novel set in Odessa, Texas in 1976. Wetmore has created four main characters with deep narratives, and all intertwined in ways that make the reader truly understand them in various ways. The detailed characterizations help to draw an accurate divide between age, class and race in west Texas in the mid-1970’s.