Featured Books: May 2009

	Fatally Flaky By Diane Mott Davidson 9780061348136 / $25.99 /William Morrow & Company Colorado caterer Goldy Schulz doesn't have a moment to spare as she frantically tries to pull everything together for two upcoming wedding receptions. When Harold Doc Finn dies under mysterious circumstances, Goldy wonders if it was an accident or murder. When her godfather and Doc Finn's good friend, Jack Carmichael, is also attacked, it's obvious that Goldy will have to venture out of the kitchen and put her detecting skills to use.

	Summer World: A Season of Bounty By Bernd Heinrich 9780060742171 / $26.99 / Ecco In Summer World: A Season of Bounty, Bernd Heinrich brings us the same bottomless reserve of wonder and reverence for the teeming animal life of backwoods New England that he brought us in Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival. Now he is focusing on the animal kingdom in the extremes of the warmer months, with all its feeding, nesting, fighting, and mating.

	B Is for Beer By Tom Robbins 9780061687273 / $17.95 / Ecco A Children's Book About Beer? Yes, believe it or not--but B Is for Beer is also a book for adults, and bear in mind that it's the work of maverick bestselling novelist Tom Robbins, internationally known for his ability to both seriously illuminate and comically entertain. B Is for Beer involves readers, young and old, in a surprising, far-reaching investigation into the limits of reality, the transformative powers of children, and, of course, the ultimate meaning of a tall, cold brewski.

	Who Is Mark Twain? By Mark Twain 9780061735004 / $19.99 / Harperstudio When Mark Twain died in 1910, he left behind the largest collection of personal papers created by any nineteenth-century American author. Wickedly funny and disarmingly relevant, Who Is Mark Twain? shines a new light on one of America's most beloved literary icons—a man who was well ahead of his time.

	For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz Age Chicago By Simon Baatz 9780060781026 / $15.99 / Harper Perennial In 1924, Nathan Leopold, 19, and Richard Loeb, 18, both intellectually precocious scions of wealthy Jewish Chicago families, kidnapped and brutally murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in an attempt to commit the perfect crime. Historian Baatz replays the crime from the killers' point of view. For the Thrill of It draws the reader into a world of speakeasies and flappers, of gangsters and gin parties, with a spellbinding narrative of Jazz Age murder and mystery.

	The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom By Simon Winchester 9780060884611 / $15.99 / Harper Perennial In sumptuous and illuminating detail, Simon Winchester, bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham--the brilliant Cambridge scientist, adventurer, freethinking intellectual, and practicing nudist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, once the world's most technologically advanced country.

	We've Always Had Paris...and Provence: A Scrapbook of Our Life in France By Patricia Wells & Walter Wells 9780060898588 /$15.99 / Harper Perennial For more than a quarter century, Patricia Wells, who has long been recognized as the leading American authority on French food, and her husband, Walter, have lived the life in France that many of us have often fantasized about. In this delightful memoir they share in two voices their experiences—the good, the bad, and the funny—offering a charming and evocative account of their beloved home and some of the wonderful people they have met along the way.

	Help! We Have Strange Powers! By R. L. Stine 9780439918787 / $5.99 / Scholastic Paperbacks Twelve-year-old twins Jillian and Jackson are startled when they discover they can read each other's thoughts. But that's not all. They can read other people's thoughts, too! The strange new powers are exciting...at first. But soon they discover that somebody else knows their secret. Somebody who will stop at nothing to control their powers....

	Julia Gillian (and the Art of Knowing) By Alison McGhee & Drazen Kozjan 9780545033497 / $6.99 / Scholastic Ten-year-old Julia Gillian knows everything about her quirky neighbors, her Minneapolis neighborhood, even the inscrutable "claw machine" in the back of the corner hardware store. The one thing Julia Gillian doesn't know is how the book she's reading is going to end. It doesn't seem as if it's going to have a happy ending, and that scares her. But Julia learns a little something about fear: sometimes you just have to work through it. And though bad things do happen sometimes, having good friends and family around you makes life a bit less scary - and much more fun.

	Loudest Beagle on the Block By Tui T. Sutherland 9780545102421 / $5.99 / Scholastic Ten-year-old Ella lives for music, and with the school talent show coming up, she doesn't have time for anything else. So when her aunt's beagle comes to live at her house, Ella doesn't think she has time for a dog -- especially when it turns out that every time the beagle hears music, she wants to sing along! And her voice is definitely NOT angelic. How is Ella supposed to win the talent show when all she can hear every time she rehearses is AAOOOWWAAAOOOOOO?

	Runaway Retriever By Tui T. Sutherland 9780545102414 / $5.99 / Scholastic Paperbacks Parker hadn't considered getting a dog, but when playful Merlin, the golden retriever, comes into his life, Parker is thrilled. The two are inseparable from day one--because whenever Parker tries to leave, Merlin escapes his fence or cage and follows him! Can anything make this loveable dog sit and STAY?

	Say Cheese and Die! By R. L. Stine 9780545035255 / $5.99 / Scholastic Paperbacks Greg thinks there is something wrong with the old camera he found. The photos keep turning out . . . different. When Greg takes a picture of his father's brand-new car, it's wrecked in the photo. And then his dad crashes the car. It's like the camera can tell the future--or worse. Maybe it makes the future!

	Swindle By Gordon Korman 9780439903455 / $6.99 / Scholastic After a mean collector named Swindle cons him out of his most valuable baseball card, Griffin Bing must put together a band of misfits to break into Swindle's compound and recapture the card. There are many things standing in their way -- a menacing guard dog, a high-tech security system, a very secret hiding place, and their inability to drive -- but Griffin and his team are going to get back what's rightfully his . . . even if hijinks ensue.

	Welcome to Camp Slither By R. L. Stine 9780439918770 / $5.99 / Scholastic Twelve-year-old Boone and his sister Heather love animals of every kind. That's why they wanted to come to Camp Hither. The wild legends of man-eating snakes and disappearing campers are hisss-terical! But Camp Hither has a cold-blooded secret: Somebody has unleashed a hungry horde of slithery snakes! Can these two survive long enough to accept their invitation to HorrorLand? Yesssssss! But only if they figure out why Camp Hither is crawling with trouble.