Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O’Connor

Most people send postcards from fun and exciting places they have visited such as Florida, Hawaii, or Australia.  In the book entitled Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O’Connor, you probably wouldn’t find anyone sending a postcard from the Sleepy Time Motel in the Great Smoky Mountains.  Even the name sounds dull! 

It is a run-down motel in the middle of nowhere, and there has not been a visitor there in almost three months!  But something very interesting happens when four families meet under somewhat unusual circumstances.  Read this book to find out how sometimes with a little bit of hope, you can find exactly what you need even in the middle of nowhere. 

Book reviewed by Carol C., Youth Services Assistant

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

If you loved The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick’s latest novel Wonderstruck--told as two stories, one in words and one in pictures--will keep you reading until the very last page.  In 1977, twelve-year old Ben first loses his mother and soon after his hearing when struck by lightning. Discovering some clues in his mother’s belongings he runs away to New York in search of his father.  Fifty years earlier a deaf girl named Rose departs to find the movie star Lillian Mayhew who we learn is her mother.  Each child’s personal quest leads them to an adventure at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.  The two stories weave back and forth until they form a special connection in the conclusion.
A wonderful comparison can be made if you read an earlier classic, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg where two children run away to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, then plan your own scavenger hunt uncovering similarities that Selznick had included in Wonderstruck.

Book reviewed by Marsha D., Youth Services Assistant