Just posted! A webcast with author Christina Diaz Gonzalez, author of Moving Target and its recent sequel, Return Fire.
When we first meet Cassandra Arroyo, she is living in Rome, Italy, with her father, a nomadic art history professor. Cassie’s biggest problems are raising her grade in World History and not-quite-daring to skip class. However, her world is turned upside down when her normally placid father drags her to the car, and, during the ensuing high speed chase through the city, confesses that Cassie is the target of a secret organization called the Hastati. Her father is wounded before he can explain any more, and Cassie must continue on her own.
She soon discovers that she is connected to the Spear of Destiny, an ancient object that can shape destiny when wielded by a marked descendant such as herself. What’s more, very powerful and ruthless people want to make sure she never finds it. Cassie and her friends are quickly caught in a relentless, high stakes game of hide and seek as they try to unravel riddles and clues – some of which are hidden in ancient books and paintings – to find the spear and save Cassie’s father.
Moving Target and Return Fire are fast-paced, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you eagerly turning pages. Diaz Gonzalez keeps the action so realistic, it’s like you’re on the run with Cassie and her friends, narrowly making escapes and wondering whom you can really trust. They’re also a whirlwind trip through the art, architecture, and culture of Italy – from the beautiful mountains to hushed underground chapels.
In addition to the Moving Target books, Diaz Gonzalez has written A Thunderous Whisper, a book set in Guernica during the Spanish Civil War and WWII, and The Red Umbrella, a story of a family being torn apart during the Cuban Communist regime. The latter was named an American Library Association’s Best Book for Young Adults.
Follow this link to the BiblioFiles interview
Bring your net and your sense of wonderment – there are butterflies in the park! We crafted a beautiful community garden, then waited for the butterflies to arrive. Swooping, diving, floating, and fluttering, how many butterflies can you catch for your own little garden?
We used 9.5″ x 11″ cardboard trays rescued from the recycling bin. Flip the tray over and use a golf pencil to punch holes in the top (the golf pencils worked great with 3-5 year-olds and were much less scary than using scissors to poke holes).
If you don’t have a tray, a large tissue box works too. Cut the top off the tissue box. Then, cut the entire box down to 2.5″. Flip it over, and use a golf pencil to punch holes in the top:
To plant your garden, cut a pipe cleaner, sparkle stem, and/or drinking straw in half. Attach a flower to one end, then poke the other end through a hole in the box. Secure the stem to the underside of the box with tape (or leave them loose so you can “pick” them!).
As you can see above, we offered tissue paper and baking cups for the flowers. You can also use the flowers from the template, and the kids can color them in. We brought out green construction paper grass fringes, green 
Four at a time, kids stepped into Butterfly Park wielding toy nets (I found mine in the $1 section of Target). Then Marissa and Joani strewed butterflies down upon them. Well, sometimes there was a little more dropping into nets than strewing…
Once kids had caught some butterflies, they gently tucked them into their gardens to take home. Did they have fun? Yes they did! Some kids even stayed 20 minutes after story time ended, just to get in on some more butterfly catching fun!
Boats float on the stars, a scarecrow waltzes with crows, a magic wand transforms a snowman, a box bursts with enthusiastic jazz musicians. These are the images and worlds created by talented local artist, 
For several years, Keenu has been a welcome guest at Cotsen Critix, our literary society for kids ages 9-12 (you also might recall hearing about him and his awesome cartooning skills at our How to Train Your Dragon 
Keenu has hundreds of original characters and story lines. Take, for example, his debut comic book, Life in the Suburbs. In the story, a human boy named Timmy lives with his non-human scarecrow family. While Burlap and Cotton (his parents), are happy to live on the farm, Timmy wants to live in the suburbs. But as Timmy and his siblings Lacy and Jinko learn, moving in and fitting in are two very different things! The comic is charming, funny, and really nicely paced.
Keenu also collaborated with his cousin to produce Queen, You Are Beautiful! It follows the life of Queen, a young girl who must deal with bullies and discover her inner beauty.
When Keenu visits our library, we always start with an interview and a viewing of his vast portfolio. Then he does a drawing exercise with the kids. At the very end of the workshop, Keenu makes custom freehand drawings of whatever characters the kids can think of. He does each drawing in minutes. It’s amazing. Here are just a few from his last visit (including one of his own characters, Rosemary):