Good Reads For Adults and Kids

Welcome to Patch Picks, a weekly feature highlighting editor and reader picks of great local businesses, destinations, services, organizations, ways to spend a day off, and more. This week, Patch Picks celebrates National Read Across America Day. To do so, we solicited the help of local librarians. If we missed your favorite reads, please let us know in the comments!

This week, educators and parents alike will be encouraging children of all ages to sit down and make friends with a good book. This is largely due to the efforts of the National Education Association (NEA) which started National Read Across America Day in 1998. Their cause has grown each year since.

Now, most readers have a handful of authors or subjects that they enjoy and find the idea of branching out daunting. Luckily, a few of the libraries of North Jersey are here to help with a selection of books for child and adult readers.

Children’s Choices:

• Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don’t) by Barbara Bottner

A scowling first-grader who doesn’t much like to read (calling books “too pink” or “too yippity”) meets her match in a bubbly librarian who won’t take, “No, thanks” for an answer. Annie Miller, the Youth Services Librarian at Paramus Public Library says, “We think it’s hilarious. We read it to everyone and they really love it.”

• Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein

Bedtime is, traditionally, a good time for stories. But that’s not so easy for the father of a little chick who can’t help but literally jump into her bedtime classics and warn the characters of what is going to happen next. Tim Murphy, Director of the Fair Lawn Public Library, feels this hilarious book is an excellent choice for parents to read to their children at bedtime.

• Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

Steig (author of Shrek) tells the tale of Sylvester the donkey (is there a pattern here?) who makes a wish with a magic pebble and becomes a rock when scared by a creeping lion. The trouble is he can’t hold the pebble to wish himself back into a donkey. Denise Marchetti, the Children’s Librarian at the Wyckoff Public Library says its “perfect for first-graders. It has a nice message. The magic part of it really captures the kids’ attention.”

• The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School by Laurie Halsie Anderson

The only “bad hair day” for Zoe arrives when her teacher, Ms. Trisk, tells her she must contain her mane of crazy red curls. Ms. Trisk soon finds that messy mop can actually be helpful once you set it free. Chris Wilson, the head of Children’s Services at , says, “It’s a nice book about transitioning from kindergarten to first grade or any transition a child might be going through. It’s about self-confidence.”

• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

India Opal Buloni is a lonely girl in search of a friend. When she finds a scruffy looking dog who she names Winn-Dixie she soon finds that friends can’t be judged by how they look on the outside. Roberta Carswell, the Supervising Librarian at Ridgewood Public Library recommends all of DiCamillo’s work, “She really inspires kids to think creatively and to use your own life experiences and to keep a journal for your creative writing.”

• The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins

This wildly popular young adult series, which includes the novels Catching Fire and Mocking Jay, follows a girl in a post-apocalyptic world in which teenagers are sent to fight to the death on national television. Lori Quinn, the head of Circulation and Technical Services at Glen Rock Public Library, explained that, normally, she doesn’t even like that genre but loved the Hunger Games. The action and suspense drew her in from page one.

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Jody Treadway, the Director at Wayne Public Library recommends this novel because “it’s not mainstream [but] it draws the reader in. A lot of times people think that children can’t handle reality but they can if it is presented properly. It’s one of those books that gives you something to think about.” This story, as narrated by Death, follows the life of a young girl during the holocaust and her love for the written word.

Adult Selections:

• Plainsong by Kent Haruf

Set in the High Plains of east Denver, this story tells us of a widower father, a pregnant teen and two elderly brothers working the land. Treadway says this book is “about families and romance. There’s nothing flashy in the book but you really grow to love these characters.”

• The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

From the author of “The Namesake” is the Pulitzer Prize winning short story collection from the point of view of Indians living in America. Leslie Kruegel, the Reference Librarian at the Fair Lawn Public Library heard about this book while listening to NPR. “Her stories are just amazing. They’re very deep stories but easy to read. Anyone looking for a human experience will enjoy these.”

• The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Also recommended by Quinn, this soon-to-be-a-motion-picture novel, is set in Mississippi of the 1960s and tells how a trio of women crosses the racial divide to participate in a clandestine project. Quinn loved this novel because it gave her a “perspective on civil rights in the South that doesn’t come from an academic standpoint.”

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Barbara Weber, the Reference and Teen Librarian at Wyckoff Public Library, recently re-discovered this classic about a love affair in Russian high society. “The writing is fantastic. It’s one of the best stories ever. Now, I know why people love Tolstoy so much.”

• So Much For That by Lionel Shriver

This book is described as a dryly humorous novel, despite its dark subject matter, about a couple confronted by illness at a time when their health care isn’t enough. Lorri Steinbacher, the Circulation Librarian at the Ridgewood Public Library, enjoyed this story because, “it deals with modern themes about the health care situation today, what constitutes a successful life and what is the point of it all.”

• Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

This classic, about the lives of landed gentry living in 19^th century England, was chosen by Hanna Blatt, Senior Reference Librarian at Paramus Public Library. She calls it, “fun and timeless and at the same time it applies to the human condition.”

• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

With this book, Bacigalupi asks the question, what happens to the world when bio-terrorism is used for profit to sate corporate greed? Kurt Hadler, the Director of the Mahwah Public Library calls it a “very eye-opening book.”