Margaret Hodges, author of dozens of books for children, died December 20, at the age of 94. In addition to her popular retelling of well-loved legends, Hodges also wrote many biographies for children.

Ms. Hodges, a former children's librarian, received numerous prestigious literary awards, including the Caldecott Medal for Saint George and the Dragon: A Golden Legend (adapted from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene), illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, (1984).

Canadian Patricia Van Tighem, whose harrowing account of her savage mauling by a grizzly in 1983 is recounted in her memoir The Bear's Embrace: A Story of Survival, has died.

Van Tighem and her husband Trevor Janz were hiking near Montana in the Canadian Rockies when a brown grizzly appeared out of nowhere and attacked her husband. In horror, Van Tighem sought refuge in a nearby tree but the bear climbed after her and destroyed her face.

Van Tighem's life since then had been a nightmare of endless surgeries, relentless pain, and severe bouts of post-traumatic stress syndrome. When she wrote The Bear's Embrace in 2001, her family hoped it would trigger a full emotional recovery.

You know that feeling --- you found that perfect pair of pink-satin kitten heels on the sale rack and it is YOUR size. Oh that thrill of discovery, you just have to call your girlfriends. It is that way for me when I come across a first novel or a new author that is a cut above. In the next months, I will be sharing some of my finds with you.

Koula by the three-time Greek national book award winner Menes Koumantareas is the first of his works to be translated (nicely done by Kay Cicellis) into English.

Originally published in 1978, this timeless novella is set in Athens. The plot is fairly clichéd – an affair between young handsome Dimitri and the middle-aged Koula. What distinguishes this 88-page little gem is the “spare, immaculate prose… and the ending that is logical, appropriate, and poignant without being cheaply bittersweet”. A perfect short read. Starred review in Booklist.

Today the Diane Rehm show on NPR spotlighted author Kenneth C. Davis and his book, Don't know much about mythology: Everything you need to know about the greatest stories in human history but never learned. Their on-air discussion touched on everything from Jewish myths to the Saturnalia, from the winter solstice to early Christianity. It was all fascinating. Currently all copies of this book are checked out, but readers drawn to myths will want to get on the waiting list.

A new collection will be welcomed by fans of Jane Kenyon. Collected Poems is a compilation of all of her work including the poems in her celebrated book, Otherwise which was published in 1996, less than a year after her death from leukemia. Kenyon is especially well known and loved in Ann Arbor because of her marriage to Donald Hall, former professor at the University of Michigan and an honored poet himself. Kenyon found refuge from her disabling depression in the simple beauties and comforts of the rural landscape of New Hampshire. She was highly influenced by Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova, some of whose work she translated. Several of those translations are included here. Kenyon's poetry expresses the soul's longing like no other.

Harry and George are friends. George is a 100-year-old jazz musician and Harry is 7.
They have a lot in common. They both have red backpacks and go to the same school. They are also learning to read. George can’t read, A hundred years old and never learned how. "That must be corrected," says George. Amy Hest captures the warmth of this unlikely friendship in this tender story of the challenge to conquer illiteracy.

Two stories of 8-10 year old kids coping with a parent who has cancer. It is serious stuff, and family goes on. Ida B. is home-schooled until her mother must go into cancer treatment. Ida B. must find a new place in public school. Ida's patient teacher makes a significant difference in her outlook. Tobin in Chicken Boy has lost his mother to cancer. He changes significantly when Henry takes him home after school one day to see the chickens. Tobin's outlook grows through friendship with Henry and chickens.

Grandma's General Store: the Ark is the story of two young children in an African-American family in Florida during the Great Depression. The children must remain with Grandma in Florida, while their parents go north to find work in Philadelphia. This slim book maintains strong and honest characters and events while it leads to a simple happy ending. The family is re-united to live in the north, without Jim Crow laws.

In November the National Book Foundation awarded its first-ever Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-). Ferlinghetti is a poet, publisher, painter, tireless advocate for poetry and free speech, San Francisco poet laureate and proprietor of the renowned independent bookstore City Lights. Several of his books of poetry are available in the library, as well as a documentary of 1987 interviews with Ferlinghetti and other Beat writers, thinkers, and artists. Three cheers for the man who stood up for Howl and blessed the world with the first all-paperback bookstore.

There was only one new title this week and again it is from an author who is no stranger to the list.

Coming in at #4 is Forever Odd by Dean Koontz: this popular and prolific writer brings back Odd Thomas who uses his ability to communicate with the dead to search for his missing friend.