Summer Reading Programs!

Summer Reading at the Chandler Public Library begins May 31. Kids, teens, and grown-ups can read to win fun prizes!

READ, PLAY, WIN! is the kids' Summer Reading Program. Pick up a gameboard at any Chandler Library, starting May 31. Fill it out as you read and earn prizes along the way. All kids who sign up will receive a voucher for a free Arizona Diamondbacks ticket. For ages 0 - 18.***

Don't forget to check the library's events calendar for special programs happening all summer: magicians, ventriloquists, and more! Go to chandlerlibrary.org and scroll down to the green EVENTS box. The 2 upcoming events will display, by branch, and you can click VIEW FULL CALENDAR to see all the events month by month.

YOU FEED YOUR MIND AND WE FEED YOUR BODY! is the teen Summer Reading Program. Add up your hours of reading to be entered into weekly drawings. Teens who read at least 16 hours will be entered into the grand prize drawing and invited to a Chipotle wrap party. For ages 12-18.***

LAUNCH INTO SUMMER READING! is the adult Summer Reading Program. Read for a chance to win an ebook reader.

For more information about all of the Summer Reading Programs, visit this webpage. Summer Reading runs from May 31 to July 30.

***Teens can do both the kids' and teen program, but not at the same time. Please finish one before starting on the other.

Book Review: Bossypants

Tina Fey is laugh-out-loud funny from the first page to the last in her new autobiography, Bossypants. (Also available as CD audiobook and downloadable audio ebook.) Despite Fey’s timeline of events jumping around a bit in her book, the reader gets to know what makes this funny lady tick - hard work and brains. The reader also gets her take on the quirky high school and college years along with a hilarious scene from her “dream honeymoon cruise.” I was fortunate enough to listen to Fey read her own book, and therefore her funny voices and the intonation she placed on certain areas were spot-on and punctuated her humor perfectly. Fey gives the reader just enough insight into her life without being intrusive to her family or coworkers. Bossypants would make a wonderful light read for your summer list. -Kathy (Downtown)

New Arrivals

New this week at the Chandler Library:

Adult fiction

Those in Peril by Wilbur Smith

The bestselling adventure novelist delivers a tale of piracy and kidnapping off the coast of Somalia.

Adult nonfiction

This Life Is In Your Hands by Melissa Coleman

In this memoir, the author describes her parents' quest for an idyllic life in the remote Maine wilderness and how that life is shaken by tragedy.

Juvenile fiction

The Last Martin by Jonathan Friesen

Martin is looking at headstones in the family cemetery and discovers an odd secret - there's always someone named Martin in his family, but only one can live at a time. Can he save himself from the family curse before his baby nephew Martin is born?

Juvenile nonfiction

The Pueblo and The Cheyenne

This new series about Native American groups teaches kids facts about their history and traditions.

Picture book

Baby Badger's Wonderful Night by Karen Saunders

Baby Badger is afraid of the dark. Can his papa convince him the night is wonderful?

New website!

Our new website launches this week. The new site has a more modern look and easier access to important information and featured material.

Featured information and photos will scroll in the middle part of the screen (such as the dates for our half-price booksale).

Contact information, locations and hours can be found in the white tab in the upper right, with closures and other important announcements right below it. Search our catalog by typing your search terms in the orange bar.

Most other links have been grouped in the brightly colored tabs: Read, Research, and My Library. Hover your mouse over one of these tabs to see further options. The image above shows what's under the My Library tab: links for access to your library account, study room reservations, adult education information, and more.


Scroll down the page to see other featured items: library events, book recommendations, our Twitter feed, and more.

Book Review: Malled

Caitlin Kelly was a successful journalist who never thought much about the people she interacted with daily: retail workers who sold her everything from food to clothing. Then the newspaper jobs started drying up and she was faced with the need for supplemental income, and she found herself on the other side of the cash register.

Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail is a memoir of the two-plus years Kelly spent working at a large outdoor clothing store in a New York shopping mall. She turns her journalist's attention to both the difficult working conditions and the satisfaction many retail workers find despite those conditions, the dysfunctional culture of large corporations and the contrasting example of small family businesses, the wealthy customers at her high-end store and the coworkers who often live in a state of endless debt and near-poverty. The book is full of things you might expect - stories about difficult customers and unreasonable demands from faceless corporate officers - and things you might not, such as her anecdotes that reveal what it's like to work in journalism. Malled is informative, maddening, and enlightening, and might change the way you look at that next person behind the register. -Michelle (Sunset)

Book Review: Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best

Henry loves tennis, but she's not crazy about her real name (Henriette) and she really doesn't like being from New Jersey. Her best friend, ballet student Eva, tells her she has to learn how to stand up to the jokes, that if she can survive Jersey, she can survive anything, and to just keep telling herself, "Jersey tomatoes are the best." But while Eva seems confident and strong, her real life is spiralling out of control.

Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best is a teen novel that alternates between Henry and Eva, each telling their stories as they navigate their complicated lives, their sometimes difficult parents, and the competitive worlds of tennis and ballet. Like many teen "issues" books, this one takes on weighty topics including anorexia and the pressue to have sex, but the engaging voices of the narrators keep the book always entertaining and never preachy. The author's gift of description is also a plus, and her depictions of the characters' beloved sports made this reviewer - who has never successfully hit a tennis ball in her life - feel as if she was part of the game. - Michelle (Sunset)