Melina Marchetta's 1992 novel Looking for Alibrandi won numerous literature prizes and landed on the national Australian high school reading list. Saving Francesca is Marchetta's first book in over ten years and her observations of school, family, and spirituality remain spot-on. The protagonist's biting wit and fierce love for her family and friends make this a must-read for fans of Louise Rennison or Laurie Halse Anderson.

When a family reads three or four picture books a night as part of the bedtime ritual, it is easy to lose sight of the concept of picture books as art.
A current exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago reminds us how talented picture book illustrators can be. The exhibit is called Fantasy, Facts and Furry Friends: Caldecott Medal and Honor Books, 2001-2005. You can view the original artwork and the finished book side by side. Many different styles of art are featured. Kevin Henkes' 2005 Caldecott winner Kitten's First Full Moon, completely drawn in black and white, is showcased. Brian Collier's lush jewel-toned illustrations for Doreen Rappaport's Martin's Big Words are included. Mo Willems' famous pigeon from Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is there along with many others.
If you're in the Chicago area, don't miss this exhibit. It runs through October 30.

Sherlock Holmes--what other literary character has appeared in so many stories not written by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Four notable additions to this Conan Doyle sub-genre have appeared in the past year:

In Mitch Cullin's A Slight Trick of the Mind, Holmes is 93, no longer sure of his memory or of his interpretation of events. His post-atom bomb visit to Hiroshima with a Japanese correspondent is haunting.

Michael Chabon's The Final Solution: A Story of Detection, also taking place after WWII, introduces a mute young refugee from the Third Reich. Caleb Carr's The Italian Secretary takes Holmes and Watson to Edinburgh, where murderous scoundrels are profiting from historic events at Holyrood Castle.

Avoiding school supply sales like the plague? Trying to get the most out of your last days of freedom? Need a book that is GUARANTEED to make every minute spent reading it worthwhile?

Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman is that book. Picture a boy out on an important date, (his best friend's vicarious love-life depends on it!). He takes her to a horror movie, then to the beach. The girl is feeling romantic, the boy is feeling lucky. Our hero goes to the trunk to get out the beach blanket, and..

What, you thought I was going to just give it away? Sorry my friend, you'll just have to get the book.

There were no new fiction titles on the list last Sunday. But a few new titles that the editors recommended are always worth a look.

Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis has provoked a lot of attention. Ellis has written a novel with a protagonist named Bret Easton Ellis. How much of it is real? Does it matter?

The Good Priest’s Son by Reynolds Price can be added to the small but growing list of 9/11 novels. Once again the prolific Price wrestles with the role of religion in everyday life.

Sean Astin, erstwhile hobbit and son of Patty Duke, is slated to join the cast of 24 this fall. For those who can't wait, Astin's book There And Back Again: An Actor's Tale gives a gritty and honest (too honest?) look into life on the ground during the making of the Lord of the Rings movies.

There have been numerous accounts of Waterloo, the famous, final and decisive battle of the Napoleonic era fought in Belgium on June 15, 1815. Alessandro Barbero, an Italian historian and novelist, has penned a new and exciting history of the encounter in The Battle: A New History of Waterloo. This truly fresh, balanced and appealing narrative of the battle, drawing on first-hand recollections from participants of all ranks and nationalities, presents new insights along with intense, colorful descriptions of the various skirmishes, charges and defensive stands that decided the outcome.

Expecting to hit the bookstores and the library shelves mid September, Marlon Brando’s Fan-Tan, a “film treatment-turned-novel“, has already gathered much media frenzy.

If you missed Dinitia Smith’s New York Times article on August 2nd on the various incarnations of Brando’s manuscript before finally landing at Alfred A. Knopf, the publisher; you might want to check out her weblog. (Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page.)

Though 50 degree mornings suggest that summer is in its last gasps, we still have time for another edition of The Fair Ground. Head on out to the 68th Annual Chelsea Community Fair from August 23 through August 27. There will be animal judging, tractor pulls, livestock auctions, clowns and to top it off, a parade! You might also be interested in reading about Agricultural Fairs in America: tradition, education, celebration edited by Julie A. Avery.
See you there!

Dennis Lynds, author of the Dan Fortune series under the pseudonym Michael Collins, died August 19, 2005.

Lynds’ first Dan Fortune series, Act of Fear (1967), won the Edgar for Best First Novel. In 1998, the Private Eye Writers of America honored him with their Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lynds wrote under many pseudonyms, including William Arden (Alfred Hitchock and the Three Investigators series).

Lynds was 81.