Community Corner

Librarians' Picks of the Week: 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' Flies Again

Montgomery County librarians pick their favorites and popular selections from the public library system.

 

Each week, librarians from Montgomery County Public Libraries will pick a few books they think should be added to your summer reading list.

Take a look and let us know what you think of the read!

Find out what's happening in Takoma Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Find out what's happening in Takoma Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Published by Candlewick, 2012

Section: Juvenile Fiction, ages 8 to 12

The Tooting family fits an old engine they find into their camper van, unaware that the engine once belonged to an extraordinary car and sends the family on an adventure across the world to rebuild the original Chitty. Best-selling, award-winning author Frank Cottrell Boyce picks up where Ian Fleming left off and tells the story of a modern, bi-racial family who inherit adventure, magic and humor as they are chased by over-the-top villains while on a mystery quest. Even those who haven’t read the original book may remember the Disney movie and will thrill to this updated sequel.

 

Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading by Tom Greenwald

Published by Square Fish, 2012

Recommended ages: 9 to 12 

Charlie Joe Jackson may be the most reluctant reader ever born, and so far, he's managed to get through life without ever reading an entire book from cover to cover. But now that he's in middle school, avoiding reading isn't as easy as it used to be. And when his friend Timmy McGibney decides that he's tired of covering for him, Charlie Joe finds himself resorting to desperate measures to keep his perfect record intact. This is the hilarious story of an avid non-reader and the extreme lengths to which he'll go to get out of reading a book.

 

ME—JANE by Patrick McDonnell

Section: Juvenile Nonfiction, J B GOODALL

Recommended ages: Preschool through grade 2

Jane loves Jubilee, her stuffed chimpanzee. She loves being outside with him, reading about animals and even keeping a notebook of her sketches and information. Her dream is to live in Africa and write about animals. This introduction to a well-known scientist and activist shows children that their dreams can become lifelong passions.

 

Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers One Blue, a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog by Ysabeau S. Wilce

Section: Young Adult

Recommended ages: 12 and up

Flora knows better than to take shortcuts in her family home, Crackpot Hall—the house has 11,000 rooms, and ever since her mother banished the magickal butler, those rooms move around at random. But Flora is late for school, so she takes the unpredictable elevator anyway. Huge mistake. Lost in her own house, she stumbles upon the long-banished butler—and into a mind-blowing muddle of intrigue and betrayal that changes her world forever. (Annotation from the publisher.)

 

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Section: Adult Fiction

Take an excursion through time, add chaos theory, romance, plenty of humor, a dollop of mystery and a spoof of the Victorian novel, and you end up with what seems like a comedy of errors but is actually a grand scheme "involving the entire course of history and all of time and space that, for some unfathomable reason, chose to work out its designs with cats and croquet mallets and penwipers, to say nothing of the dog. (Review from Booklist.)

 

London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets by Peter Ackroyd

Section: Adult Nonfiction

Call Number: 914.21 ACK

London Under is a wonderful, atmospheric, imagina­tive, oozing short study of everything that goes on under London, from original springs and streams and Roman amphitheaters to Victorian sewers, gang hideouts and modern tube stations. The depths below are hot—warmer than the surface—and this book tunnels down through the geological layers, meeting the creatures—real and fictional—that dwell in darkness: rats and eels, mon­sters and ghosts. When the Underground’s Metropolitan Line was opened in 1864, the guards asked for permission to grow beards to protect themselves against the sulfurous fumes, and named their engines after tyrants—Czar, Kaiser, Mogul—and even Pluto, god of the underworld. (Annotation by the publisher.)


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here