Events

Bellmawr Branch
(856) 931-1400

Dance Dance Revolution Party
Tuesday, September 18
3:30 PM
Take a homework break and put on your dancin' socks for our monthly DDR event! Water will be provided.

Video Game Smackdown
Thursday, September 20
3:30 PM
Just how good are you? We'll hook up our PS2 and Nintendo GameCube for an afternoon of fun.

Haddon Township Branch
(856) 854-2752

Readings from The Uninhabited Kind
Thursday, September 6
4:00 PM
A reading with author H. Garni: Abandoned by his parents, alone in the shack, Devlin finds himself in the middle of one of Alaska's worst blizzards ever, and then discovers an old relic that will change his life forever.

Jazzy Journals
Thursday, September 13
4:00 PM
Create a journal that expresses your unique personality.

Make a Library Card Carrier
Thursday, September 20
4:00 PM
Celebrate Library Card Sign-Up Month by getting a library card and making a special library card-carrier!

South County Branch
(856) 753-2537

The YarnBalls! The Knitting & Crochet Club @ Your Library
Monday, September 24
7:00 PM
Do you enjoy knitting or crocheting? Need a new hobby? Join the YarnBalls. Meetings are held the fourth Monday of every month.

Voorhees Branch
(856) 772-1636

Anime & Manga Club
Tuesday, September 4
4:00-5:30 PM
Attention, otaku: this is the club for you! Watch anime, eat snacks, and debate the merits of shonen vs. shojo manga. New members always welcome!

Basic Manga Techniques
Sunday, September 9
1:30-4:30 PM
Have you always wanted to draw your own manga? Learn how to drac facial expressiona and assemble panels effectively for your own characters & stories! Pencils and paper will be provided for our by our instructor, Matt Cousin.

Gaming Club
Tuesday, September 18
4:00-6:00 PM
DDR! Super Smash Brothers! Mario Kart! Now with an extra 30 minutes of play time!

Teen Lock-In
Saturday, September 29
6:00 PM - 12:00 AM
Six full hours of games, movies, crafts, and food! The library will be closed to everyone by you & your friends. Registration is limited, so call today to reserve your spot!

New and Recently Released!

Does My Head Look Big in This? - by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Publisher: Orchard Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 5/1/2007
ISBN: 9780439919470
ISBN-10: 0439919479

Fiction. Amal, a smart, funny 11th grader at ritzy McCleans Preparatory School in Melbourne, Australia has made a big (and, in her own words, possibly "psychotic") decision: she is going to start wearing the Muslim hijab, or head covering, all the time. Even though she wants to publicly affirm her Muslim faith, Amal isn't sure how she will cope with her classmates' negative reactions...or when she falls in love with a non-Muslim boy. Luckily, Amal has some very good friends who know what it's like to be different.

Re-Gifters - by Mike Carey; art by Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel

Publisher: Minx
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 6/1/2007
ISBN: 9781401203719
ISBN-10: 140120371X

Graphic Novel. Korean-American Jen Dik Seong, a.k.a. Dixie, is poised to win the upcoming hapkido championship...until she spends her entry fee buying a gift for Adam, a fellow competitor she's googly-eyed over. Sadly, Adam has no interest in Dixie or her gift, which he gives to another girl. Now Dixie is flat broke and has to fight her way into the tournament in the open trials. Library Journal calls this a "delightful martial arts romantic comedy;" you're more likely to call it your favorite new book--especially if you like fast-paced stories with strong female characters.

Strays - by Ron Koertge

Publisher: Candlewick Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 5/8/2007
ISBN: 9780763627058
ISBN-10: 0763627054

Fiction. Ted O'Connor has always felt more connected to animals than to people, and until now, he's been surrounded by them in his parents' pet store. But since his mom and dad died in a car accident, high school senior Ted has been living with the Rafters, a rather bizarre foster family. He's learning the ropes from his foster brothers Astin and C.W., trying to figure out how to navigate his new school and stay under the radar until he turns 18. Ted's never really had friends without fur before--could the worst thing that ever happened to him change that?

First Chapter

Chloe Doe - by Suzanne Phillips

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 6/1/2007
ISBN: 9780316014137
ISBN-10: 0316014133

Fiction. When 17-year-old Chloe is arrested for prostitution, she gives "Doe" as her last name rather than claiming the name of the abusive family she's escaped. She's sent to Madeline Parker Institute for Girls to be reformed, but she's not about to cooperate. However, her therapist at the institute is persistent, and Chloe starts to tell him things about her life she thought she'd never reveal. If you are riveted by gritty, realistic stories of troubled lives--like Adam Rapp's 33 Snowfish or Ellen Hopkins' Impulse--you'll want to find out who Chloe Doe really is.

Freak Show - by James St. James

Publisher: Dutton Children's Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 5/17/2007
ISBN: 9780525477990
ISBN-10: 0525477993

Fiction. Billy Bloom is too utterly fabulous for his new high school, which is populated by "Stepford teens in full preen." Billy, who prefers the term "gender obscurist" to "drag queen," remains true to himself despite the hurtful remarks of his fellow students at Eisenhower Academy. When the verbal gay-bashing escalates to a physical beating that lands Billy in the hospital, he decides there's only one way to win the hearts of his community--and maybe even football stud Flip Kelly--he absolutely must be homecoming queen. If you love catty humor and outcast heroes who just can't be kept down, well...why haven't you read this yet?

Boot Camp - by Todd Strasser

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 5/22/2007
ISBN: 9781416908487
ISBN-10: 141690848X

Fiction. Fifteen-year-old Garrett is a model student...that is, if you ignore the fact that he's sleeping with his former math teacher, who is eight years older than he is. Garrett's wealthy and frustrated parents take decisive action to end their son's relationship: they have him committed at Lake Harmony, a "behavior modification" camp in the wilds of upstate New York. After he's abducted in the middle of the night by camp staff, he is subjected to ongoing physical and psychological abuse with one goal: convincing Garrett that only his parents' opinions matter, and that unquestioning obedience is his only way to freedom.

Focus on: Historical Fiction

Daniel Half Human: And the Good Nazi - by David Chotjewitz; translated by Doris Orgel

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/1/2004
ISBN: 9780689857478
ISBN-10: 0689857470

In 1933 Hamburg, best friends Daniel and Armin eagerly await their opportunity to join the Hitler Youth. Daniel's family is rich and Armin's is not, but this difference doesn't matter to them; they've sworn a blood oath of lasting brotherhood. When Daniel learns--to his own horror--that his mother is Jewish, his hopes of joining the Nazis are deflated, and his parents begin arguing over whether to remain in Germany. Armin defies his socialist father and joins the Hitler Youth by himself, but he struggles to keep his oath to his best friend--because, after all, the Nazis consider Daniel only half human.

First Chapter

A Northern Light - by Jennifer Donnelly

Publisher: Harcourt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 3/1/2003
ISBN: 9780152167059
ISBN-10: 0152167056

Sixteen-year-old Mattie works as a waitress at the Glenmore Hotel in early-20th-century upstate New York. She loves words, is a talented writer, and dreams of going to college. But Mattie made a promise by her mother's deathbed to take care of her father and siblings, and this promise--along with the romantic attentions of Royal Loomis--threatens to derail her ambitions. After Grace Brown, a guest at the Glenmore, asks Mattie to burn a bundle of letters and is later found dead, Mattie is shocked into serious reconsideration of her plans. The death in this story is based on the same 1906 murder case as Theodore Dreiser's 1925 classic An American Tragedy.

First Chapter

Samurai Shortstop - by Alan Gratz

Publisher: Dial Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 5/18/2006
ISBN: 9780803730755
ISBN-10: 0803730756

It's 1890, and Japan is evolving from a feudal society into a modern, industrial one. The Emperor has ordered the samurai to renounce their way of life, but rather than doing so, Toyo Shimada's Uncle Koji commits seppuku (ritual suicide). Toyo's father plans to kill himself as well--but only after he has imparted the warrior's code to Toyo, who is just beginning his study at the Ichiko Academy. At school, Toyo suffers hazing from older students and longs to play the newly imported game of besuboru--baseball, that is. Can Toyo somehow combine the old ways of the samurai with his new life? This fast-paced story includes lots of baseball action along with fascinating Japanese history.

Incantation - by Alice Hoffman

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/4/2006
ISBN: 9780316010191
ISBN-10: 0316010197

During the Spanish Inquisition, Christian soldiers stormed towns and villages, first only burning books, then robbing, torturing, and killing Jews and Muslims for their heresy against the Catholic church. Young Estrella deMadrigal at first doesn't know that her family, seemingly Catholic, have practiced their Jewish faith in secret for generations. But when a jealous conflict between Estrella and her best friend, Catalina, leads to a bitter betrayal, Estrella's entire family is put in mortal danger. If Estrella's harrowing story makes you want to read more about what Jews experienced during the Inquisition, try Blood Secret by Karen Lasky.

Eyes of the Emperor - by Graham Salisbury

Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 8/9/2005
ISBN: 9780385729710
ISBN-10: 0385729715

Eddy Okubo, a Japanese-American living in Hawaii in 1941, wants to join his buddies Chik and Cobra in the Army so badly that, at 16, he enlists using a forged birth certificate. Then Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and everything changes. Now Eddy and his friends, like all Japanese-Americans, are viewed with suspicion and assumed to be disloyal to the United States. As Cobra says, "to them we all look like Hirohito...we got the eyes of the Emperor." Determined to prove their loyalty, the three friends endure humiliation and abuse, and are forced to act as bait in a cruel and degrading army experiment. This action-packed story is based on the actual experiences of American soldiers during World War II.

First Chapter

No Shame, No Fear - by Ann Turnbull

Publisher: Thorndike Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 4/4/2007
ISBN: 9780786294275
ISBN-10: 0786294272

In England in 1662, Quakers like 15-year-old Susanna Thorn and her family are being violently persecuted; Susanna's father has been jailed for his beliefs. Seventeen-year-old William Heywood, a wealthy Anglican, has completed his Oxford education and is set to begin an internship, but he's begun to attend meetings of the Friends (another name for Quakers) in defiance of both his powerful father and the law. When Susanna begins working as a servant in town to help support her family, she and Will meet--and fall in love. Their union seems doomed, but Will makes Susanna a promise that they will not be parted--but can he keep it?

Contact your librarian for more great books!