Never Too Old:
Celebrating Youth Books
Next Meeting:
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2024, 5pm
Never Too Old meets the 1st WEDNESDAY of the month to share the diversity, depth, and relevance of Young Adult & Juvenile books.
All ages are welcome. For more information, contact Beth@LopezLibrary.org or Ingrid@LopezLibrary.org

November 6th - Author Katherine Rundell
Choose any of these books to read.
Impossible creatures
by Katherine Rundell

When Mal barges into his life, along with a baby griffin, demanding his help, Christopher embarks on an adventure of a lifetime with this fierce girl to save the Archipelago, a hidden world where magical creatures have thrived for thousands of years. 
The good thieves
by Katherine Rundell

In 1920s New York City, a young girl with a deformed foot recruits her new friends, a female pickpocket and two circus performers, to help recover an emerald from her grandfather's mansion in upstate New York after he loses his home to an unscrupulous tycoon.
The explorer
by Katherine Rundell

When their plane crashes in the Amazon on their way back to England from Manaus, Brazil, four kids work together to survive before discovering a map that leads them to a ruined city and an astonishing secret.
The wolf wilder
by Katherine Rundell

In the days before the Russian Revolution, twelve-year-old Feodora sets out to rescue her mother when the Tsar's Imperial Army imprisons her for teaching tamed wolves to fend for themselves.
Rooftoppers
by Katherine Rundell

Clinging to hope that her mother also survived an English Channel shipwreck, Sophie flees the threat of life in an orphanage and hides from authorities in France, where she is accepted into a network of rooftop-dwelling urchins who help her search for answers.
Cartwheeling in thunderstorms
by Katherine Rundell

Wilhelmina Silver lives half-wild on an African farm with her horse, her monkey and her best friend, but when her home is sold and Will is sent away to boarding school in England, the world becomes impossibly difficult—lions and hyenas are nothing compared to the packs of vicious schoolgirls she encounters.
December 4th - Picture Books & the Z section!
The World in Words and Pictures
 
The "Z" section (so named for the call number starting with Z) refers to picture books with content often more suitable for adults. They include biographies, fiction and nonfiction titles. Choose a book from this section and/or any picture book that you love and want to share with others. Read-alouds encouraged!
 

No meeting in January!

Since the first Wednesday of this month is New Year's Day, we won't have a 2025 meeting until February.
 
February 5th - Everything on a Waffle or any of Polly Horvath's books
(a selection of her many other books follows)
Everything on a waffle
by Polly Horvath

Eleven-year-old Primrose, who lives in a small fishing village in British Columbia, recounts her experiences and all that she learns about human nature and the unpredictability of life in the months after her parents are lost at sea.

AVAILABLE in PRINT & AS A LIBBY AUDIOBOOK.
One year in Coal Harbor
by Polly Horvath

Twelve-year-old Primrose Squarp, the heroine from the Newbery Honor-winning Everything on a Waffle, embarks on another adventurous year in Coal Harbor as she tries to act as matchmaker for her Uncle Jack; befriends Ked, a new foster child; decides if she is willing to go to jail for her convictions; and together with Ked, publishes a cookbook to raise money for the Fisherman's Aid. Includes recipes.

AVAILABLE ON LIBBY AS EBOOK & AUDIOBOOK
The trolls
by Polly Horvath

Eccentric Aunt Sally comes from Canada to babysit the Anderson children while their parents are on a trip to Paris and every night the bedtime story adds another piece to a very suspect family history.

AVAILABLE IN PRINT & AS A LIBBY EBOOK & AUDIOBOOK
Pine Island home
by Polly Horvath

Orphaned and alone, the four McCready sisters, aged eight to fourteen, move to a house off the coast of British Columbia left them by their great aunt, and get by with the help of neighbors.

AVAILABLE IN PRINT & AS A LIBBY EBOOK & AUDIOBOOK
Library girl
by Polly Horvath

Raised by four librarians who found her abandoned as a baby, 11-year-old Essie, longing for more freedom and a friend her own age, gets her wish when she meets a mysterious boy but soon realizes life isn't as perfect as the stories she's grown up with.
October 2nd Summary  
Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow

Five readers gathered in front of the fireplace to discuss this novel set in rural Vermont by a Vermont educator with sincere insights into poverty, family, land sense, addiction, and resilience in the face of devastation. Protagonist Ian Gray has one of the most powerful character voices many of us have ever read: a true Vermont native teen who loves the land and his family. One reader said that in two words, the book is about Community and Survival. Another said she was on board with Ian from the opening paragraphs. Ian's conversations with Sylvia and her father are a critique of wealthy liberals. We spoke at length about the education system and the need for valuing practical, kinesthetic skills equally to academic skills. Multiple intelligences were remembered; here is a link to Howard Gardner's Theory: https://www.simplypsychology.org/multiple-intelligences.html We also wished for an audiobook of the story, especially for kids who struggle with reading print.
 
Ian's poem inspired by Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" is worth featuring for it contains much of the book's essence.
 
KEPT OUT OF THE WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
Whose woods these are has made it clear
He does not want me hunting here
I wonder does he even know
This stream, the trees, those rocks, these deer?
 
The yellow signs give off their glow
At every hundred feet or so
The poster land, it shuts me down
But I have no place else to go.
 
I want to punch, I want to pound
I know this land for miles around
Over every hill, down every dell
I used to walk without a sound
 
But no one listens when I yell
Although I have a story to tell
Of a way of life I loved so well
A way of life I loved so well.
 
                        -“Ian Gray” in Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
 
Beth wrote to Mr. Cadow on Friday 10/4 telling him how much we loved Ian's story and asking about the audiobook. He replied on Sunday!
 
Dear Beth,
 
Thank you so much for your kind words about the book. The good news is that the audiobook was completed last November, and that the reader is a former student from the school where I first started teaching in Vermont. We are in a bit of a wait and see as to the release date because there seems to be some concern on the publisher's part (i.e. Candlewick) about the broad permissions the audiobook folks are insisting on. I have left most of these matters to them, given that my day job as high school principal doesn't leave much energy or time for bartering(!) and am hopeful that they'll release it very soon.
 
Wishing you a fine autumn!
 
Ken Cadow
 
See Kenneth Cadow's website and blog at https://kennethmcadow.ag-sites.net/index.htm
He has an article about rural education districts.
 
Gather
by Kenneth M. Cadow

"Ian Gray isn't supposed to have a dog, but a lot of things that shouldn't happen end up happening anyway. And Gather, Ian's adopted pup, is good company now that Ian has to quit the basketball team, find a job, and take care of his mom as she tries to overcome her opioid addiction. Despite the obstacles thrown their way, Ian is determined to keep his family afloat no matter what it takes. And for a little while, things are looking up: Ian makes friends, and his fondness for the outdoors and for fixing things lands him work helping neighbors. But an unforeseen tragedy results in Ian and his dog taking off on the run, trying to evade a future that would mean leaving their house and their land. Even if the community comes together to help him, would Ian and Gather have a home to return to? Told in a wry, cautious first-person voice that meanders like a dog circling to be sure it's safe to lie down, Kenneth M. Cadow's resonant debut brings an emotional and ultimately hopeful story of one teen's resilience in the face of unthinkable hardships"

DON'T MISS THIS POWERFUL NOVEL!!