Booklist, one of the most prestigious reviewing sources used by librarians and booksellers in book selection, has announced its 16th annual Top of the List choices for 2005.

The winners and their categories are:

Adult Fiction
The March, by E.L. Doctorow

Adult Nonfiction
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

Babies love to listen to Your Voice. Start reading (or singing) with I Love You A Bushel And A Peck; Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed; Jiggle Joggle Jee; and Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear. Rhythm and Rhymes are fun enough to read over, and over, and over...

Yesterday Borders Books and Music announced the winners in its 9th annual Original Voices Awards. The mega bookstore chain bestows $5000 on each of the winners in five categories. The members of the selection process are all Borders employees, both store and Corporate. Their mission is to recognize writers and musicians for…”their outstanding achievement in crafting creative original books and music.” (The music category was just added this year.)

The categories and their winners are:

Fiction
Nicole Krauss for The History of Love

Nonfiction
Emma Larkin for Finding George Orwell in Burma

Children’s picture book
Robb Scotton for Russell the Sheep

Young Adult
Gabrielle Zevin for Elsewhere

Music
Madeleine Peyroux for Careless Love

All recipients will be honored at the Book Expo America convention in Washington, D.C. in May.

The Penderwicks is a fun family read aloud, if you are looking for a story of innocence, of four loving sisters, a gentle father, the boy next door, some pets, and a summer's adventure. This book won the National Book Award 2005 for Jeanne Birdsall.

Dr. Westerman will speak Tuesday, January 24, at 7:00 p.m. in the Downtown Library Multi-purpose Room. Please come to learn about the No Child Left Behind Act.

For further reflections on this legislation, consult these books:

America’s Failing Schools: How Parents and Educators Can Cope with No Child Left Behind by W. James Popham
Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s World by J. P. Comer
Many Children Left Behind: How the No Child Left Behind Act is Damaging Our Children and Our Schools edited by Deborah Meier and George Wood
Saving Our Schools: the Case for Public Education: Saying No to “No Child Left Behind” edited by Ken Goodman
What Every Teacher Should Know about No Child Left Behind by Nathan Essex

Even The Play Ground has to venture outside once and a while in the winter. Put on your long underwear for the 24th Annual Plymouth International Ice Sculpture Spectacular. Professional, hobby and student ice carvers display their work in this family friendly extravaganza that draws about a half a million visitors each year. Light show begins at dusk. Kellogg Park in downtown Plymouth. It's a lot closer than The Snow Show in Lapland.

James Frey admitted last week that he fabricated parts of his best-selling memoir A Million Little Pieces. His publisher didn't mind. Oprah didn't mind (Frey's book was recently chosen for Oprah's Book Club). And during an appearance on Larry King, Frey suggested that fabricating personal history is an accepted American literary tradition in the manner of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Bukowski and Keruoac. Do you agree? If not, are you still planning to read the book or will you be canceling your hold?

Paris, 1847, the ailing Louis Daguerre (from years of exposure to mercury), inventor of the Daguerreotype photographic process, searched of a model willing to pose nude for a set of 10 images he wished to immortalize before the approaching apocalypse he envisioned.

“Dreamlike, thoughtful, and impressive”, first-time novelist Dominic Smith skillfully interweaves Daguerre’s urgent quest with the memories of his lost love, Isobel, in this “touching tale of youthful love regained in maturity”.
The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre is “…(a) compelling psychological study, …and an atmospheric portrait of 19th century France”. (Kirkus Reviews). For readers of historical fiction and students of photography. (February release)

There has not yet been a new title making the List in 2006. Once again I can recommend a book "off-list".

Some fans of Prime Suspect may not know that Lynda La Plante created the series and its memorable heroine. Her new mystery Above Suspicion has just been released in the States and in it she introduces Anna Travis. While not as experienced or world weary as Tennison, this young detective bravely risks her life to catch a vicious serial killer.

Sheyann Webb courageously accepted an offer to lead the freedom songs during the civil rights marches in 1965. She was only nine years old and wanted to help Dr. Martin Luther King and African Americans gain the right to vote. This Just For You book touches on the subject of peaceful protests during the Civil Rights Movement. It is designed for children to read and discuss the important issues in the book with a parent.