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TAILS & TALES 

C.H. BOOTH LIBRARY’S SUMMER READING PROGRAM

June 14--August 20


How it Works

  • Register for an account. You can make accounts for yourself and your family.

  • Log in to your account and record your reading. See your age group below for more information regarding logging and prizes.

  • Visit us at the library for reading recommendations, and see our Event Calendar for more summer fun for the whole family. 


Frequently Asked Questions

  • Who can participate?

The whole family! We have a program for children, young adults, and adults. 


  • Can I count books that I read on my computer or e-reader?

Of course!


  • Can I count audiobooks?

You bet! 


  • Can I join the program before or after its official start date?  

Yes! You can register now and start recording your reading on the official start date (June 14th). Log your reading until August 20 for children, young adults, and adults.


  • What should I read?

Stop by the library to ask us for recommendations, view our book lists online, or follow us on social media, where we will post book recommendations all summer long. 


Facebook / Instagram / YA Instagram / Children’s Instagram


KIDS 

Ages 4 to Grade 5

Stop by the children’s department to pick up your summer reading kit. Each kit which includes  tickets for our prize raffle to be held on August 21.  All tickets must be received by August 20 to be eligible.



YOUNG ADULTS

Grades 6 to 12


Log your time spent reading to win points. Each week, participants will have the opportunity to use their reading points for the chance to win gift cards for local businesses and other fun stuff!


The summer’s top readers will have a chance to win a Kindle Fire tablet.


ADULTS


For every book review you submit, you will be entered into the Friday morning gift card raffle as well as the end-of-the-summer raffle of your choice.

All Participants
Points Earned

Book Reviews
Search All Book Reviews
The Divines
by Ellie Eaton
View in Library Catalog
book cover


This was okay. Josephine has just gotten married. As a child, she was known as a "Divine" - she went to a very expensive school for entitled rich people, where the children were taught nothing academic and mostly just how to treat people they considered beneath them poorly. She hasn't thought about her years there much since she left, but when her husband starts asking questions about the box of mementos she's kept, she's forced to relive her past and confront some of the darker moments within - especially the tragic tale of her roommate, Gerry. The mystery part takes a bit to develop, and really isn't the focus of the story? It seems more like the struggle of a young girl to find her place in the world, and to deal with the pressure to conform to what her friends and family want her to be. The chapters alternated between her years at the school and her adult life, and I honestly didn't really care about her as an adult. Those chapters didn't really add anything to my experience. By the end I was left with this vague feeling like I'd missed something important, but I'm not sure what? This was the sort of book that seemed like my jam, because I love a good boarding school mystery, but something about it fell flat and I just didn't adore it like I expected to.

Greenlights
by Matthew Mcconaughey
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book cover


This is Matthew McConaughey's autobiography written as he turned 50. The greenlights refer to the lessons he has learned from his life experiences. He peppers his story with bumper stickers or little quotes or sayings which he considers relevant to the topic he is talking about. It is a fairly short book and quite light hearted and entertaining

The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
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book cover


This was just kind of boring? It's the story of real-life Belle da Costa Greene, who was hired by J. P. Morgan to be his personal librarian. She is in charge of finding and purchasing all of the rare books he wants for his collection, and in exchange he pays her a salary that is sufficient enough to keep her family comfortable. There's a lot of room for things to be stressful here - first, Belle is a woman, and it's not common for a woman to be hired for this position during the time period. She also deals with the stress of being the main income provider for her family, as her father left when she was a child. And, of course, Belle has to content with the fact that while on any official document she has been checking the "white," box, with enough digging, anyone would be able to find out she was lying - Belle's father is black. This is very much historical fiction, and is not at all a biography about Belle - however, with that in mind, I expected more to happen? It seems like a book where the character is constantly stressed, but nothing ever really seems to happen. There's no real tension or drama here to make the book compelling.

The Final Girl Support Group
by Grady Hendrix
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book cover


Set in a world where Slasher films really did happen, Lynnette is a member of what's known as the "The Final Girls Club." The club is made up of women who meet a very specific criteria - they all were the only survivors of two massacres, and they all killed the person responsible. They meet once a month to support each other and work towards moving on with their lives - until one day one of the members doesn't show up on time. Her monster has come back to kill her. Now, Lynnette is on a race to not only keep herself alive, but to keep the members of her club alive as well. This probably would have worked pretty well as a movie, honestly, but as a book it didn't quite work for me. First, Lynnette as a narrator was awful. She's unreliable from the start, so I found myself utterly distracted the entire book because I was always trying to figure out if I should believe what was happening. I know a lot of books use the unreliable narrator trope now, but it was a difficult sell in this book. I would have much preferred if a different narrator (Heather?) was responsible for telling us what was going on. Or if Lynette's character was tweaked a little. Second, the plot twists were not really plot twists. It was really easy to figure out who was going to be responsible for the killings happening, so that was disappointing. The twists didn't leave me going "oh wow!" so much as "ugh, finally, we got there." My third issue is that it seems like Grad Hendrix either didn't keep track of everything, didn't want to explain everything, or thought that no one would pay attention. For example, at one point a character is mentioned to have a cell phone that they are going to use to keep track of Amber Alerts and to check in with every five hours. Three sentences later, they say that they're going to keep the phone turned off and only have it on for the check in times. How...how are you checking for Amber Alerts? Why did you make a big deal about checking for Amber Alerts, only to then say you're turning the phone off and not getting them anyway? In another scene, Lynnette is dictating a message for someone to send. She claims that it was a difficult process, and that she had to spell out a lot of the words. The example given is using "p as in Paul which is fascinating, because the only words with "p" in her message are purchased, photos, people, and peace. Am I really supposed to believe that someone couldn't spell one of those words without help? Really? I could go on and on, but honestly? I had high hopes for this book. The summary sounded great, and I was really excited to read it. I'm glad I didn't spend money on it. The writing is just not good.

Henry And Mudge And The Sneaky Crackers
by Cynthia Rylant
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book cover


Henry and Mudge were spies and they found a spy kit with a password. After doing a lot of detective work, Henry and Mudge solved the mystery. The code was from another boy with the same spy kit and they all became friends, My favorite part of this book was that they found a new friend.

Into the Deep
by Colleen Coble
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book cover


Third book in the Rock Harbor series. Continue loving the characters and the lives they have entwined me into. I feel like I know the characters and care about what happens in their lives. In this book, Bree's dog Samson gets kidnapped and she tries to find him using the other dogs she is training. She doesn't give up and uses prayer and support of her family to help her get through this tough time.

Treasure Hunters
by James Patterson
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A very exciting book. Has many humorous elements but once again I wish it was more in depth.

The Last Olympian Graphic Novel
by Rick Riordan
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The Last Olympian Graphic Novel was great. Since the movies were not great they stopped at the second out of five in the series, so now I have a way to see what is happening in the books. Also you know what is happening because there are words so you know where you would be in the book with just words.

How The Word Is Passed
by Clint Smith
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book cover


I really enjoyed this book. I loved the way that the author used different chapters to take us to various different parts of the world and the United States to demonstrate how the history of the slave trade in America is represented and passed on either truthfully or not quite as truthfully. It is incredibly interesting, whilst at the same time exposing some horrific facts. Unfortunately I listed to this as an audiobook and did not feel that the author Clint Smith, despite being a poet, read it with much feeling or empathy. It was a relatively quick read but definitely leads me to want to do some more exploring of the information touched on in the book.

Elephant's Story
by Tracey Campbell Pearson
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book cover


What a fun book! I like the alligator character in the book. I also enjoyed how the elephant sneezed out the words-that was funny and creative. The illustrations were perfect and the elephant images turned into letters was really clever. Elephants are one of my fav animals!
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