I love comic books. I love that there are now so many topics ... not just superheros, but non-fiction, classic literature and real life happenings! I love that I can learn a little bit about dinosaurs or physics and a second later I can read the Babysitters' Club. Too much fun for one day. :) We have a HUGE collection of comic books just waiting at Chili for you, from Disney to Iron Man. Here are some suggestions that I have been reading recently:

Guts
by Telgemeier, Raina
Raina wakes up one night with a terrible upset stomach. Her mom has one, too, so it's probably just a bug. Raina eventually returns to school, where she's dealing with the usual highs and lows: friends, not-friends, and classmates who think the school year is just one long gross-out session. It soon becomes clear that Raina's tummy trouble isn't going away... and it coincides with her worries about food, school, and changing friendships. What's going on?

Bats : learning to fly
by Koch, FalynnEvery volume of Science Comics offers a complete introduction to a particular topic--dinosaurs, coral reefs, the solar system, volcanoes, bats, flying machines, and more. These gorgeously illustrated graphic novels offer wildly entertaining views of their subjects. Whether you're a fourth grader doing a natural science unit at school or a thirty-year-old with a secret passion for airplanes, these books are for you.
This volume: In Bats, we follow a little brown bat whose wing is injured by humans on a nature hike. He is taken to a bat rehabilitation center where he meets many different species of bats. They teach him how they fly, what they eat, and where they like to live.

Cheshire Crossing
by Weir, Andy
What happens to Alice when she comes back from Wonderland? Wendy from Neverland? Dorothy from Oz? The three meet here, at Cheshire Crossing -- a boarding school where girls like them learn how to cope with their supernatural experiences and harness their magical world-crossing powers. But the trio -- now teenagers, who've had their fill of meddling authority figures -- aren't content to sit still in a classroom. Soon they're dashing from one universe to the next, leaving havoc in their wake -- and, inadvertently, bringing the Wicked Witch and Hook together in a deadly supervillain love match. To stop them, the girls will have to draw on all of their powers... and marshal a team of unlikely allies from across the magical multiverse.

This whole year should have been Dear Diary Day. So much craziness going on you should have been keeping record of it. I tried to get my kiddos to do it, but could not convince them. I, however write in a journal every night. I do it electronically, but I use a stylus, because I like the act of writing. Since many of you have electronic devices for school, you could do it that way, or just use a notebook! Easy peasey.
It doesn't all have to be words either. It can be doodles or taped on images If you're going the electronic route, emojis, photos or other images could be used.
Need some ideas when writing your diary? Here are some books:

Diary of a wimpy kid : Greg Heffley's journal
by Kinney, Jeff
Can't start with anything but this "classic" ...
Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.

The Night Diary
by Veera Hiranandani
(this one is available on Overdrive right now!)
It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders.
Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it's too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can't imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together.
Told through Nisha's letters to her mother, The Night Diary is a heartfelt story of one girl's search for home, for her own identity...and for a hopeful future.

Diary of Sarah Gillespie : a pioneer farm girl
by Huftalen, Sarah Gillespie
Twelve year old Sarah Gillespie and her family struggled to make a life for themselves on the Great Plains. Crops and animals needed constant care. Neighbors depended on one another for survival. Through it all, Sarah wrote down her experiences in a diary. Read her story, and learn about the American frontier from someone who lived on it.

Dear America series
I thought my soul would rise and fly : the diary of Patsy,a freed girl
by Hansen, Joyce
This is just one of the many in this series that uses diary format to discuss what life would be like for kids during that time period.
Patsy, an orphaned slave with a bad leg and a quiet nature, is considered slow by the Davis family. But Patsy's smart -- smart enough to learn to read and write on the sly. After the Civil War ends and slavery is abolished, Patsy believes Master Davis's promise to pay the former house slaves and to educate the slave children. But when the master ignores his promise to establish a schoo, and the Freedmen's Bureau cannot provide a teacher, Patsy steps in to teach the students to read and write.

We did our first storytime of the season today at 10am and it was so much fun. We started with princesses, because some of our Zoom storytime regulars wanted to start with that, but we didn't use just normal princesses, we had some AMAZING princesses! :) Then we asked what they would be interested in next and one of the boys hollered DRAGONS! So next week we're all about ... you guessed it ... dragons! While its not as much fun as seeing you all live, doing storytime on Zoom makes it easier for our friends to feel comfortable wiggling and giggling a little more. Curious to see what happens? Sign up here: https://calendar.libraryweb.org/event/6860508
Have a younger child between birth-24 months? Why not join us on Facebook for a Live event Tuesdays at 10am. No sign up necessary, just go to our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/chililibrary

School is almost here, in its new sort of way, and with that comes fall and all of our fall programs. We're still going to be virtual this fall and we're going to take it easy this month so that people can get used to the changes, but in October, November and December we'll have some fun programs to keep you going.
You can look at the programs "calendar view" here, but here are our programs all pretty like. :)