Banned Books Week is here!

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

This book was banned and challenged many times bases on the themes which are anti-God, anti-Catholic, and anti-religion.

This book has sparked much controversy because of its statuses as an award winner and as a commonly banned and challenged book.  The book won the Carnegie metal in 1996 and in 1997 it was one of the ALA Best Books for Young Adults, an ALA Notable Children's Book, on theTexas Lonestar Reading List, and won the Maine Student Book Award.

Interested yet, or are you bored from my describing why you should read it?

Well, it's a pretty interesting book, and you should check it out.  It follows Lyra in a world where part of each person's soul can take the shape of an animal.  Until puberty the daemon can change shape, but around that time they become permanent.  Lyra searching for her friend, Roger, and father, Lord Asriel and meets up with Mrs. Coulter.  When she finds out that Mrs. Coulter is one of the ones responsible for the recent trend of missing children, she runs away and eventually finds Roger.  Now she has a new goal: she must get the alethiometer (which looks like a compass with a gold back!) to Lord Asriel.

Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen!

Arr, September 19th be Talk Like a Pirate Day.  Arr ye interested in readin' about some Seadogs and Buccaneers?  Try out some of these great books at the Goldstein Library, where ye don't hafta Hornswaggle - books check out fer free at libraries!



The Ballad of the Pirate Queens by Jane Yolen
--Two women who sailed with Calico Jack Rackham and his pirates in the early 1700s do their best to defend their ship while the men on board are busy drinking.

Captain Butcher's Body by Scott Corbett
--Two boys confront the ghost of a long-dead pirate on an island off the coast of New England.

Pirates! The True and remarkable adventures of Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington, Female Pirates. by Celia Rees
--In 1722, after arriving with her brother at the family's Jamaican plantation where she is to be married off, sixteen-year-old Nancy Kington escapes with her slave friend, Minerva Sharpe, and together they become pirates traveling the world in search of treasure.


Pirate Royal by John and Patricia Beatty
--After being unjustly accused of theft, imprisoned, and sold as a bondservant, a seventeenth-century English youth joins a band of pirates.  Several years later he gains both pardon and praise from the King of England for his service to Henry Morgan, the famous buccaneer.

Enjoy Talk Like a Pirate Day, and enjoy a good read!