Registration continues until August 13
It’s official! Over 1,000 young people from preschool into high school have already signed up for Beebe Library’s Summer Reading Program. This easily beats last year’s end of the summer total of 932, with two weeks still remaining to register. Even though enrollment closes on August 13, summer reading club participants can continue to collect prizes or turn in raffle tickets until Friday, August 20.
Summer is a busy season for the Youth Services department. Children and teens come to the library to find the books on their schools’ assigned Summer Reading Lists, participate in special programs or performances and collect the prizes they have earned by tracking the amount of time they spend reading. Depending of their age, they join the appropriate reading club, take home books, and read (or listen as someone else reads to them).

Why is Jody Picoult so popular?

Jodi Picoult’s readers are immediately drawn into the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. She creates communities familiar to everyone. The author then explores what happens to everyday people when their lives go out of control. Picoult is known for her current and controversial issue-oriented themes, presenting all sides of the topic, and creating sympathy for everyone involved, making it difficult to take sides. Readers return to her for her highly satisfying stories that feature consistently interesting characters in an easy-to-read but compelling, page-turning tale.
(Some material taken from Kaite Meditore Stover’s Jodi Picoult: Author Readalikes; NoveList Plus 7/13/10)
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Bullying has many components, causes, and broad-range affects on children and families.  Below is a list of books to read with your children and discuss being bullied, or being a bully.  Additionally, this list includes peripheral issues behind bullying such as violence and peer pressure. 

PRESCHOOL BOOKS

Bullying

• Aubrey, Annette – The Rainbow Club
• Emberley, Ed – Ed Emberley’s bye-bye, big bad bullybug!
• Landstr=F – Four hens and a rooster
• Otoshi, Kathryn – One
• Rosen, Michael – I’m number one
• Vernon, Ursula – Dragonbreath

Fighting

• De la Garza, David – The great, great, great chicken war
• Durell, Ann – The Big book for peace
• Helquist, Brett – Roger, the Jolly Pirate
• Hoberman, Mary Ann – And to think that we thought that we’d never be friends
• Kuskin, Karla – The upstairs cat
• Minarik, Else Holmelund – No fighting, no biting! Pictures by Maurice
  Sendak
• Pfister, Marcus – Rainbow fish and the big blue whale

Peer Pressure

• Brumbeau, Jeff – Miss Hunnicut’s hat
• Shaw, Hannah – Sneaky Weasel

Parents in Prison

• Korman, Gordon – Now you see them, now you don’t
• Korman, Gordon – Hunting the hunter
• Korman, Gordon – Chasing the Falconers
• Korman, Gordon – The fugitive factor

Hot new fiction titles
Are you ready for more beach reads? Here are a few suggestions for readers as you search for the perfect way to relax amidst the sun and sand or in your air-conditioned living rooms.
First up are some energizing adrenaline-inducing page-turners. If you are unfamiliar with Lisa Gardner and looking for a suspenseful read, then this is a great time to discover her. Her novel, The Neighbor, revolves around the overnight disappearance of a young mother. Alternating points of view and cliffhanger chapter endings drive the pace and keep readers off balance in this compelling and unsettling read.
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A list of authors who either imitate or satirize Miss Austen and her books using her characters, plots, settings, and tone.

FICTION

Aidan, Pamela.

• An assembly such as this.
• Duty and desire.
• These three remain.

Aiken, Joan. Continue »

The new face behind the Circulation Desk at Beebe Library is Jaclyn Strycharz, the library’s new Head of Circulation Services.
Jaclyn comes to Beebe Library from the publishing world, where for the last six years she was Circulation and Customer Service Manager for Compliance Week, a business trade journal.
Jaclyn recently received her Master of Library Science degree from Simmons College in Boston. She earned her undergraduate degree in French and German from Connecticut College.

One of the things that attracted Jaclyn to the Beebe Library job was the fact that it involves both customer service and working with data.

“I liked that the job would combine customer service and statistical work,” she says. “Plus, Wakefield is a beautiful town with a nice library.”

A native of Westfield, Jaclyn now resides in Beverly. When she’s not working, she spends her time reading, cooking and gardening.

Beebe Library’s hours do not change in the summer. The library is open every Saturday all summer long. Beebe Library’s regular, year-round hours are: Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m.- 8 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m.- 6 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. The library is closed Sundays.