Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney

"Double, double toil and trouble;/Fire burn and cauldron bubble"

Maybe you've heard this before. It's from the play Macbeth by Shakespeare and is spoken by three witches. The book Enter Three Witches is not Shakespeare, but it is Caroline B. Cooney's highly entertaining retelling of the story of Macbeth. Cooney takes some liberties with Shakespeare's work including adding new characters and making a few minor characters more important.

Enter Three Witches is told from the viewpoint of Lady Mary, the 14 year old ward of Lord and Lady Macbeth. Mary is being groomed to wed someone of importance and to be the head of her own castle. Mary's life drastically changes when her father is hanged as a traitor to King Duncan. Then King Duncan is murdered, his sons and heirs to the throne run away, and Lord Macbeth becomes King through suspicious means. Mary's life becomes perilous and her beloved Lady Macbeth seems to be losing her mind.

While Enter Three Witches is a good introduction to a classic Shakespeare play, it also a great story full of deception, murder, revenge, greed, violence, and yes - witches.

Look here for the library's copy

Rash

Rash by Pete Hautman is set in a futuristic society that has surrendered many freedoms to keep all its citizens safe from illness, disease, injury, natural disasters, etc. When sixteen year old Bo is sent to a prison labor camp in the tundra, he is introduced to playing the game of football. In Bo's world outside prison, playing football is illegal. So is running without wearing shin guards, kneepads and a helmet. At first, Bo can't catch, throw, run with or kick the football. But Bo is a gifted athlete and he soon learns to run with the ball. Playing football in prison gives Bo many privileges, but Bo doesn't like playing football at the whim of the prison warden and Bo wants desperately to leave prison. And Bo just might find a way to do this when the Artificial Intelligence program named Bork he created in high school suddenly contacts him in prison.

Rash should appeal to both boys and girls in grades 7 - 12. And although this book is set in the future, non sci-fi fans should enjoy it as well as fans of the genre.

Find the book here at the Adrian Public Library

Dairy Queen

No, we're not talking about the ice cream store. It's a book by Catherine Gilbert Murdock I've just finished reading. It's a wonderful story about a dairy farm, Wisconsin, football, a snotty quarterback, the athletic Schwenk family, a big Family Fight, not becoming a "cow", and the hardest working 15 year old girl in the middle of all of it. D.J. is having an enlightening summer to say the least and it all culminates in her decision to try out for the football team at her high school. Yes, this is a girl wanting to play football with the boys.

This book made me want to laugh and cry and I hated having to say goodbye to the characters when the book ended.

Both boys and girls in grades 7-12 should enjoy this book.

Harry Potter #7

No, we haven't read this book yet! It comes out July 21 and the library has ordered 4 copies. We have to wait to read it just like everyone else. We thought this would be a good time to speculate about what happens in book #7. So, what do you think happens in book #7? Does Harry kill "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named"? Do you think any of the main characters gets killed off? J.K. Rowling has hinted that someone important dies. Do Ron and Hermoine get together? What's with Professor Snape? Is he a good guy or a bad guy? We'll all have to wait just a little bit longer to find out the answers, but we can have fun guessing. So, tell us what you think.

Chris Crutcher is King!

. . . King of the Mild Frontier, that is. This is the title of teen author Chris Crutcher's autobiography: King of the Mild Frontier: an Ill-Advised Autobiography.

It is a hilarious book about the author's childhood and teen years in a small town in rural Idaho. Chris is basically an unathletic, uncoordinated "dweeb" with a wicked temper.

Some examples of the hilarity: when the author is six, his older brother asks him, "wanna do something neat?" The something "neat" is peeing into the heat register grate in the middle of the their living room floor. And of course, 6 year old Chris wants to do something neat and of course his brother assures him he will not get in trouble . . . yeah, right.

And then there is the time Chris tries his hand at winter wilderness survival and needs to use a fishing pole to cook a piece of sausage . . .

And the time he is convinced that Jesus has an older brother named Esus . . .

After finishing this book, you can see where Chris Crutcher gets his ideas for his books. Haven't read any of his books? You might try:

Whale Talk

Chris Crutcher is a great author for older teens who like an author who tells it like it us, doesn't pull punches and doesn't treat teenagers like kids who need to be protected from some of the uncomfortable facts of life.