Blurbs From the Branch: Rhoda Penmark: The Ultimate Bad Girl

The first time I saw The Bad Seed was in high school, and I immediately loved it. This Warner Bros. film from 1956, starring Nancy Kelly and Patty McCormack , is a creepy tale about Rhoda Penmark, an 8 year old girl who coldly kills any person that stands in the way of what she wants. The story centers not on Rhoda herself, but on her mother, Christine Penmark. Christine is torn between revulsion at her daughter’s murderous personality, and a desire to protect her child at any cost. It wasn’t until my senior year of college that I discovered that the movie is actually based on a novel by William March, published in 1952. I have since read the book twice and seen the movie countless times. The book is subtle and introspective, with most of the suspense coming from Christine’s thoughts and discovery of Rhoda’s evil nature. Less than a year after its publication, the book was adapted for the stage. The movie uses the same script as the play, and stars six of the original Broadway cast, including Kelly and McCormack. Because of this, the movie is a tad over the top and melodramatic, but this only makes me love it more. The ending to the movie is different from the book, and I can’t decide which one is better, although the book’s ending is a little creepier. The book and movie can be taken either as two halves of the same whole, or as separate entities. I highly recommend both to anybody who loves a good psychological thriller.

-Becca

Blurbs from the Branch: Newbery Honor Book: Breaking Stalin’s Nose

Breaking Stalin’s Nose, written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin, is is a great choice for those in need of a historical fiction read. Set in the U.S.S.R., the main character, Sasha Zaichik, is a boy on the brink of a life changing event, one that he has planned and trained for throughout grade school. He is about to become a Young Pioneer.  However, some late night visitors and a klutzy move the following day, pits Sasha against his classroom nemesis and even the State! Readers follow Sasha’s adventures over the course of a couple days as he starts to see a side to communism that forces him to grow in ways he did not expect.  

Click here, for past Newberry winners and honor books.

 

Blurbs From the Branch: America’s Test Kitchen

I’m always searching for new recipes to try out. One of my favorite places to get recipes is from the internet. Another favorite place to get recipes is from America’s Test Kitchen. Unfortunately, you have to pay a fee to get recipes from their website, since they don’t accept advertising. Luckily, several oftheir cookbooks can be found in the library catalog.

America’s Test Kitchen tests all their recipes rigorously. They describe their testing process, whichworked and what didn’t work, for almost foolproof recipes. Another thing I like about America’s Test Kitchen is that they test kitchen gadgets and food products. I’ve bought some of their recommended items, and always been happy with their choices.

They publish two magazines, Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country which you find in some of the libraries. They also have a television show on PBS and several cookbooks. You can also find some of their magazines bound in book form in the catalog, and also DVD’s of the television show. Give some of their recipes a try, you won’t be disappointed in the results. Here are a few of my favorites available in the library catalog:

Blurbs from the Branch: For Fans of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline

 M. P. Kozlowski’s new Juvenile Fiction book, Juniper Berry, is a dark fairy tale about a girl whose parents begin to act strange. Juniper Berry’s parents are both famous actors, and the more well-known they become, the less loving they are. Juniper soon discovers that they are going to a dark world in the forest and trading their souls piece by piece to a creepy man with pointy teeth in order to get their hearts’ desire. Fast-paced and full of humor, Juniper’s fight to save her parents is a great read! I was often reminded of Coraline, as I read this book: another, darker world, creepy parents who look right but don’t act like they should, and an evil being who wants to keep the main character for their own. Any fan of Gaiman’s classic is sure to love Juniper Berry.

-Becca

Blurbs from the Branch: Concrete Poems

When I was in high school, I have to admit I was not fond of poetry and dreaded those units in my English classes.  However, if I had come across John Grandits’ concrete poems in Technically, It’s Not My Fault  and Blue Lipstick  I would have felt very differently.  Concrete poetry is poetry where words and art are arranged in the shape of the poem’s topic. 

 In Technically, It’s Not My Fault, Grandits writes in the voice of Robert, an eleven-year-old boy who chronicles his school and family life in 28 hilarious poems.  A recurring topic is his annoyance with his older teenage sister, Jessie, who suffers from Robert’s pranks in the poems “Bloodcurdling Screams” and “It’s Not Fair.”  However, don’t worry about Jessie – she gets her turn to get even with Robert in Blue Lipstick.  In addition to playing a few jokes on her brother, Jessie writes poems to her cat and describes the emotional ups and downs of teenage life in the poems “Bad Hair Day” and “A Chart of My Emotional Day.” 

 I laughed out loud while reading the poems in both books, as Grandits does a wonderful job depicting the thoughts and feelings of a tween boy and his older teenage sister. 

-Marianne