November 2000 RETURN TO HOME PAGE FEEDBACK

This month's new books list, provided by librarians Roberta Greifer and Carol Small, features a new thriller from Dick Francis (and his late wife), a transcontinental journey with monarch butterflies, and a look at Arthur the Aardvark's anxieties, in the children's section. To check out a book's availability, call 695-5095, or visit the Noe Valley - Sally Brunn Library at 451 Jersey St. near Castro. Besides books, the branch offers magazines, CDs, music, an outside deck, a computer with Internet access, and the archives of the Noe Valley Voice. Hours are Tuesdays, 10 to 9; Wednesdays, 1 to 9; Thursdays, 10 to 6; Fridays, 1 to 6; and Saturdays, 10 to 6.

Adult Fiction

2 In Dead and Gone by Andrew Vachss, Burke, a man-for-hire, discovers the secret hiding place of neo-Nazis, pedophiles, and other human predators.

2 Set in the year 2025, A Friend of the Earth, T.C. Boyle's eighth novel, portrays a world where the biosphere has collapsed and many animal species have become extinct.

2 So Far Back, by Pam Durban, depicts two Southern families -- one white, one black -- and their troubled histories.

2 Shattered, the latest thriller by Dick Francis, begins when jockey Martin Stukely dies after a fall.

Adult Nonfiction

2 Delving into the ethics of evasion, Artful Dodging, by Jeanne Martinet, contains painless techniques for avoiding anyone, anytime.

2 Partly a travel narrative about the American West, Chasing Monarchs, by Robert Michael Pyle, follows the path of migrating monarch butterflies on their 9,500-mile journey from British Columbia to the Mexican border.

2 Edited by John Bradley and told from the perspective of ordinary people, Learning to Glow: A Nuclear Reader contains personal accounts of the physical, psychological, and environmental consequences of growing up in the atomic era.

Annotations by Roberta Greifer

Librarian, Noe Valley Branch

Children's Fiction

2 The older sibling has a helpful suggestion when her sister can't get to sleep in Mr. Bear's New Baby, by Debi Gliori. Ages 3 to 5.

2 Arthur, the well-loved aardvark, is not the only one with anxiety dreams in Arthur's Underwear, by Marc Brown. Ages 4 to 7.

2 BaMusa learns an important lesson about thinking in The Hatseller and the Monkeys, a West African folk tale retold and illustrated by Baba Wagué Diakité. Ages 4 to 7.

2 If you enjoy riddles and are learning to read, you can have a lot of fun with Geese Find the Missing Piece: School Time Riddle Rhymes, by Marco and Giulio Maestro. Ages 5 and 6.

2 In First Day, Hooray! Nancy Poydar shows that the night before school starts there are others besides the students with "first-day jitters." Ages 5 to 7.

2 If you read Emeline at the Circus, by Marjorie Priceman, you might find yourself wondering why the teacher doesn't have any idea how many wild adventures one of her students has during the field trip. Ages 5 to 7.

2 In Philip Pullman's I Was a Rat! there turns out to be a very good reason why an otherwise appealing little boy has a few very odd and unappealing habits. Ages 9 and up.

2 In Pig and the Shrink, by Pamela Todd, a seventh-grader learns a completely unexpected but nevertheless important lesson from his "failed" science experiment. Ages 10 and up.

Annotations by Carol Small

Children's Librarian, Noe Valley Branch

Preschool Story Time

2 Children ages 3 to 5 will hear interesting tales at the library's preschool story time,
10 a.m., Tuesdays, Nov. 7, 21, and 28.

Infant and Toddler Lapsits

2 Enjoy stories, lullabies, and fingerplays at the 7 p.m. lapsits, for parents and their little ones, on Wednesdays, Nov. 1, 8, 15, and 29.

Films

2 Preschoolers ages 3 to 5 can watch films at 10 and 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 14.