Suggested Reads for Kids and Adults: Patch Picks

Turn off the TV for a moment, have a seat and crack open a book. In honor of National Read Across America Day, Patch asked Oak Lawn and Evergreen Park librarians to suggest a few good reads. Depending on your likes, here are a few picks given by librarians James Casey and Jean Day to take you on an imaginative journey, make you think critically or feed you new information.

Adult Picks:

• Thrones, Dominations  by Jill Paton Walsh (1999)--A Lord Peter Wimsey mystery written in the style of Dorothy Sayers.  This author carries on with the marriage of Peter and Harriet during 1936 as they try to solve a bloody murder. 
• Winter’s Child  by Margaret Maron (2007) --A mystery set in South Carolina and Virginia featuring Judge Deborah Knott as the detective.  Deborah’s policeman husband tries to solve several murders, including that of his ex-wife.
• American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, by Jon Meacham (2008)--The Presidency of Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) is presented with much detail and insight. 
• The Last Lincolns: The Rise and Fall of a Great American Family, by Charles Lachman (2010) -- Although Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln produced four sons in their 22 year marriage, the direct descendants of this famous couple did not survive the 20th Century.  This is an interesting look at the little known descendants of Lincoln. 

Kid Picks:

• The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (2009)--Winner of the prestigious Caldecott Award, this wordless version of an Aesop fable tells the story of an adventuresome mouse who proves that even small creatures are capable of great deeds.
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (1961)--It’s the 50th anniversary of the publication of this beloved classic about a boy who is bored with everything, until one day he finds a tollbooth in his room.  He drives through and embarks on a magical adventure to the Lands Beyond.
• Candy Bomber:  The Story of the Berlin Airlift’s Chocolate Pilot, by Michael Tunnell (2010)--World War II was over, and Berlin was in ruins.  US Air Force Lieutenant Gail Halvorsen knew that the children of the city were suffering.  They were hungry and afraid.  The young pilot wanted to help, but what could one man in one plane do?