Norfolk Public Library’s 17th Annual Literature Festival.
This July 30th is your chance to hear three authors of Golden Sower nominees speak at this Norfolk event. This could be your best chance to meet and listen to the newly named U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, author of Spot the Plot. Equally exciting will be the opportunity to hear Sarah Prineas, The Magic Thief, and Jen Bryant, Kaleidoscope Eyes. For more information, contact Norfolk Public Library, 402-844-2100. A day full of books and authors – should be great fun!
I recently finished Aliens on Vacation by Clete Barrett Smith. It is his debut novel and the first book in the new “Intergalactic Bed & Breakfast” series. David, nicknamed Scrub, is sent from Florida, where he had all kinds of plans with his best friend, to Washington to stay with his grandmother for the summer before seventh grade. She has a bed and breakfast and he is certain a long boring summer is ahead. He soon learns his grandmother’s reputation as a “crazy lady” is well founded — her visitors are from other planets. Soon Scrub is helping new arrivals to touch up their disguises and trying to keep the prying sheriff, who knows something is off with the place, out of his grandmother’s hair. Humor, sympathetic aliens, and some tension about being discovered will keep readers involved. After all, everyone deserves a vacation, as grandma says. Clever touches, such as the descriptions of the many – very different – aliens add to the fun. Certain to appeal to reluctant readers, this looks like the beginning of a wonderful series.
(Note: I received an electronic galley copy of this book from Disney-Hyperion Books via netgalley. The Nebraska Library Commission also receives free copies of children’s and young adult books for review from a number of publishers. After review, the print books are distributed free to Nebraska school and public libraries.)
