Review of Airman by Eoin Colfer

Eoin Colfer, long time teen favorite for his Artemis Fowl series, has produced an exciting new work. Airman is about young Conor Broekhart, who begins his life by being born in a falling hot air balloon. He lives on the Saltee Islands, a small, but wealthy, kingdom of the cost of Ireland. His childhood is idyllic and his education includes fencing, languages, and the science of flight. In a time before the Wright brothers Conor and his teacher, Victor, dream and work towards creating a heavier than air self-propelled flying machine. Things do not last and Conor is framed for a horrible crime and sent off to prison, where he plots his way towards freedom and revenge. In a manner reminiscent of Batman and the Count of Monte Cristo, Conor recreates himself as the Airman.

Airman fast-paced, well-written, alternate-history adventure story, that should appeal to a wide range of readers. The characters are interesting and generally likable, though like Batman, Conor does tend to brood a fair amount. There's a little be of romance, but nothing extreme, so the book is fine for older children, younger teens, and family car-trips. Older teens and adults will not be bored, due to the high amount of action. I'd recommend the book and the audiobook to any public, middle school, or high school library. One of my favorite books so far this year.

First post! Introduction

It is about time I got a library blog. I need some place to record the current happenings.

I think it is a very interesting time to be a librarian. Tech is changing, funding is changing, the world itself is changing. I'm lucky enough to work at a library that is currently changing and transforming.

Our first load of Playaways arrived the other day. They are sitting in the cataloging office next to Great Courses DVDs and the Modern Scholar CDs. We are a small enough community that we do really serve as the place of lifelong learning. The new shelving for all of this, and our DVD collection, will arrive in a matter of weeks. Soon the library will bare little resemblance to how it look just over a year ago when I started. We started out by creating a teen area (which I've been told, by a mom, is "hip") and pulling the entire teen collection away from the picture book area. We are now in the process of creating a Computer zone (hopefully with coffee), a Marketplace (which will hold the DVDs, all formats audiobooks, and the new books), a quiet area.

I myself work with the teens, and am in charge of ordering books, creating and running programs, reader's advisory, and homework help. In a little over an hour a group of teens will be here, after walking from their school, to drink soda and watch Death Note.