Johnson County Library is pleased to announce the winners of our Scary Story Youth Writing Contest. "The Rules" by Lara Blanton won in the 15-19 category.
The Rules
By Lara Blanton
Rule #1: When entering Grandfather’s house, never look the door knocker in the eyes, that will only anger it.
Witch trials are already a thing of the past in this historical novel set in Salem, Massachusetts during the lifetime of Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter. Witch trials are over; but their memory lives on in Hawthorne’s nineteenth century, with tensions lingering amongst the old Salem families and Hawthorne himself bearing ancestral guilt over his own great-great-grandfather's role in sentencing accused women to death more than a century earlier.
It was only this week I finished watching the first season of Ted Lasso. I'm arriving late to the show, but am loving it as much as expected--from both all the praise it's received and the little I knew about its premise. One of the areas it's exceeded my expectations is Ted's approach to coaching. In case you don't know, Ted is a top American football coach who takes a job as a British football (soccer) coach.
I can't believe I waited so long to read this teenage romance. This is a fantastic high fantasy about a teenage girl, but you can tell this is the author's debut book. I have confidence Osterlund will do wonderful things with the rest of this trilogy. I had a great time reading the fast-paced story. I want to see what she can do with the romantic tone when she has a little time under her belt.
I adore the character Aurelia. She is the type of woman of steel I always imagined a princess would be. Her blended family situation came across cleanly, with just a little violence.
We all have secrets, but some people are better at hiding them. Mari learns this firsthand when she accepts an offer to professionally photograph Yanagi Inn in Kyoto, Japan. She grew up in Japan before her parents split up and her mother moved Mari and her sister to the United States. Upon her return, she adjusts to the familiar culture of her childhood and initially enjoys exploring the grounds of the inn, especially photographing the overgrown garden. However, supernatural elements soon reveal secrets from the inn's history that touch upon her own past.
Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Ian James Fannin-Hughes has won our writing contest on the theme of Oceans of Possibility with his piece "All You Wanted Was the Ocean."
Ian is an environmental scientist, grower of too much okra, father of human children, and an aspiring fiction writer from the Kansas side of the Blue River Watershed.
All You Wanted Was the Ocean
You wouldn't shut up about the ocean, either of you.
The Bastard Legion is an action-packed thrill-ride into space warfare. Gavin Smith stays in the very top tier of science fiction writers with his future mercenaries. When I first saw the back of the book, I thought this military science fiction sounds like Suicide Squad. And I was right - it even has a science fiction Australian guy with a killer boomerang. The next question: is this space opera more like the mess of the movie or the well-crafted graphic novels?
Entwined is a fairy-tale inspired fiction of the story The Twelve Dancing Princesses. It's a suspenseful retelling. If I'm honest, the folktale that inspired this fantasy fiction was never been one of my favorites. This author manages to take a rather thin story and turn it into something interesting with a hero that is a strong woman of steel! This atmospheric version is my favorite retelling.
Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Amber Dawkins has won our writing contest on the theme of Oceans of Possibility with her piece "Oceans of Possibility."
Based on the romance between English poet, John Keats (played by Ben Whishaw), and Fanny Brawne (played by Abbie Cornish). Keats, not considered a successful writer during his life (dying at only the age of 25), is not considered a suitable husband for a woman of Brawne'
