Black Butler, Vol. 24

 Toboso, Yana. Black Butler, Vol. 24. 2017. 176p. ISBN 9780316511209. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

The musical cult of the S4 from Black Butler, Vol. 23 continues to make its mark on London, with people eagerly awaiting the 4th Saturday of the month performance at the Music Hall. With Ciel Phanthomhive's own betrothed, young Elizabeth, also under their influence, this is becoming a pressing problem in need of a resolution. The removal of large quantities of blood poses a risk to both the victims, and to the public order, so Ciel tasks Sebastian to infiltrate the Music Hall and discover who the four stars behind the movement are, and for what purpose is the blood being removed. Lady Sullivan, meanwhile, analyzes the blood previously collected and realizes that there is in fact four types of blood cells. This knowledge would revolutionize how blood transfusions are performed.

With a dearth of information, Phantomhive comes up with a plan. With Elizabeth in danger, why not fight fire with fire? A new music hall is erected across the street, and a new act literally steals the crowd. As their attendance dwindles, how will the mysterious cult fight back?

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

 Mask, Deirdre. The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power. 2020. 336p. ISBN 9781250134769. Available at 388.1 MAS on the library shelves.

What's in an address? It's the place where you live. You get your mail there. Your favorite online shopping service sends packages there. But what if you didn't have an address? How would you get your mail? How would you receive information? In this provocative book, Deirdre Mask recounts the history of the street address. From the ancient city of Rome to the development of Philadelphia, it was never pre-ordained that addresses would become one of the most important aspects of modern life and that lacking one would hamper the lives of so many people.

Addresses tell where you live, but they also tell much more. They can tell others about your social class. Someone living at an address on Central Park in New York is more likely to be wealthier than someone living in West Virginia. Certain addresses are in neighborhoods that are inhabited by a majority of people from the same ethnic or racial background. 

Learn all there is to know about addresses and the fascinating history that led to your home having a number attached to it!

Not Your Sidekick

 Lee, C.B. Not Your Sidekick. Book 1 of the Sidekick Squad series. 2016. 283p. ISBN 9781945053030.

Following wars and solar flares that destroyed much of the world but caused the apparition of super powers, life reorganized around nascent superheroes, who helped rebuild societies. At the same time, however, super villains also became prominent, and soon both groups were organized and fought against each other.

Jessica comes from a family of superheroes. Both of her father and mother are Class-C superheroes and they protect the Nevada city of Andover from the villainous Mr. and Mrs. Mischief. Her older sister, Claudia, is a Class-A and is interning with Captain Orion herself, the age's most famous superhero. Jess' younger brother is a genius who is already in college, and he is developing advanced technologies. Unlike all of them, however, Jess has not manifested a power. And now that she turned 17, the window has closed and she is the only one of her family who doesn't have a super power, something she had been looking forward to all of her life.

Knowing she will not have the easy life of a superhero, Jess reorient herself towards a mundane life and looks for an internship that will help you burnish her college application. She's surprised to be accepted by Munroe Technologies' division of special projects, where she will file papers, do administrative work, and other duties as assigned. She is surprised to see that Abby, the girl she has had a crush on for three years, also works there. She is surprised to discover that she will actually work for Mr. Mischief himself. With Jess' super parents' identity secret, she eagerly accepts the job. M, who wears one of Mr. Mischief's old suit, is her direct supervisor.

As Jess navigates the inner works of Munroe Technologies and confides her interest in Abby to M., she learns that the League of Heroes is not exactly what it seems like, and the disappearance of several villains recently indicate a nefarious purpose is at work. Can powerless Jess help M. and Abby discover what is happening?

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Vol. 10: Old School

Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Vol. 10: Old School. 2015. 217p. ISBN  978-1-48986459-8. Available at FIC KIN on the library shelves.

Just when Greg thought life couldn't get any more complicated, his mother is leading an initiative to turn the town into a voluntary unplugged zone to get people off their phones and computers and talking to one another again, just like in the olden days. To Greg that just sounds silly, especially since the good old days seem like anything but good. With his father on his case to become more responsible, Greg and Rowley start a lemonade stand business, but can't quite pull it off, so they turn to the water business, and get the great idea to head down to the park during unplugged weekend to sell their wares, only to be drafted in the effort to clean up the park.

Things go for bad to worse for Greg as he runs away with a juvenile delinquent, and ends up having to go to camp to escape his father's wrath that the family car ended up in the ditch. Of course, what could be a better place for a serial killer than camp? All the kids can talk about is Silas Scratch, the kid snatcher who haunts the woods around the camp. Speaking of camp, who's idea of fun is it to go to a farm all week long and do farm chores? Greg's pretty sure this is free labor for the farmer, and not a character builder exercise for the middle schoolers. And just when Greg thinks he's hit bottom, his father shows up to chaperone the remaining days at camp...

The Way of Kings

Sanderson, Brandon. The Way of Kings. Book 1 of The Stormlight Archive. 2010. 1007p. ISBN 9780765326355.

In this sweeping fantasy epic, Alethela, the most powerful kingdom on the continent is at war with the Parshendi, a nation of strange folks from the Shattered Plains of the Unclaimed Lands. Six years ago, Galivar, king of the newly united kingdom of Alethela, met the Parshendi on the Shattered Plains during a hunting expedition. Similar in many ways to the Alethela's servant race of Parshmen, but bigger and stronger, they sponsored the assassination of the king and claimed responsibility. In response, the ten High Princes led their armies to the Shattered Plains and have been besieging the Parshendi ever since, fighting them on plateaus as each side seek to acquire the valuable gem hearts out of giant chasmfiends. 

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin is brother to the former king, and commands the most disciplined and trained Alethela army. Whispers around the ten war camps talk of his slowly dropping into madness, for every time one of the devastating storm that flows on the continent from east to west he sees visions of the past. Slow to attack, Dalinar has fallen behind in the assaults on the Parshendi, but the visions are telling him he must unite the warring factions in the face of the Devastation that is to come. The storms have become more frequent and more violent.

Kaladin, who was the son of a surgeon, followed his younger brother to war when he was forcibly enrolled in the military so he could protect him. He failed his mission, but soon became an extraordinary squad leader. Slayer of a Shardbearer, a strange armor and weapon from ancient Knight Radiants who once fought against the Devastation, he was sentenced to become a slave so that the Brightlord he served under could claim the armor and weapon for his own. Kaladin finds himself a lowly bridgeman, condemned to serve on Bridge Four's crew. The bridge crews move Brightlord Sadeas' mobile bridges from one plateau to another, so that his army can travel and confront the Parshendi. The death rate of bridgemen is 100%. Against all odds, Kaladin survives, and begins training his own crew of bridgemen to be better than the rest, to increase their own odds of survival. With a windspren named Syl, who seems to encourage him, Kaladin searches for a way out, while he ponders why everything he touches eventually fails.

Shallan hopes to save her family's estate by stealing the Soulcaster worn by a famous scholar, Jasnah, who happens to be the daughter of the former king and niece of Dalinar. But Shallan also hopes to become a scholar, and as she trains under Jasnah, bidding her time to complete the steal, she discovers that the scholar has been studying the Voidbringers, who have been responsible for the last Desolations and the many crumblings of human civilizations. 

With a mysterious Truthless assassin on the loose, and with conspiracy and treachery abounding, it will take more than luck to discover the threat faced by the continent of Roshar.

Dragon Hoops: From Small Steps to Great Leaps

Yang, Gene Luen. Dragon Hoops: From Small Steps to Great Leaps. 2020. 446p. ISBN 9781626720794. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

Gene loves superheroes. He enjoys reading about them, watching movies about them, and creating his own comic books about them. Gene is an artist who creates his own graphic novels. In search of inspiration, Gene decides to explore his school's winning basketball team, the Dragons. Led by coach Lou Richie, the Bishop O'Dowd High School team is on the road to reach the California State Championship and win, something that has been denied in the past, with the team reaching the finals but never winning.

The problem is that Gene doesn't particularly like sports. Why bother, when there are all of these superheroes that have stories to tell. If only he could think of one. Reluctantly, Gene begins following the basketball team, and soon notices that instead of being a monolithic institution, each player brings their own stories, passions, and dreams to the team, and that the quest for a championship is very much like a superhero story, filled with villains, last second rescues, and people trying to do the right thing. And in the end, telling the story of each player and of the team will change not only their lives, but Gene's as well, showing him that athletes can also be superheroes.

Fans of graphic novels will appreciate the details and the illustrations, but will stay for the engaging story about high school students who triumph over adversity.

Spellsinger

Foster, Alan Dean. Spellsinger. Book 1 of the Spellsinger Adventures Series. 2011. 290p. ISBN 9780743498258.

Jonathan-Thomas Meriweather is a pre-law student at UCLA who works as a sanitation engineer (also known as a janitor) for the school, and who appreciates music and marijuana. When he wakes up in the middle of a forest from an epic party the night before, he is thoroughly confused. Why is he not in his bed? Why is this otter wearing clothes and standing on two legs threatening him with a sword? Thinking this must be a dream, Jonathan gets himself stabbed, which reveals to him that he is very much here, in this fantasy world where animals are anthropomorphic.

Brought to meet the great turtle wizard Clothahump by the otter, Jon-Tom, as he becomes known, is informed that the turtle is in fact the one who summoned him here. Looking for an engineer, the turtle brought him over to help defeat an unspeakable evil that threatens their world with destruction.

Armed with nothing but law, politics, and history, Jon-Tom joins a merry rag-tag of animal and human adventurers looking to warn all of the world's communities of the impending doom that will come from their insect-like neighbors, who have acquired a powerful weapon and who hope to finally achieve the conquest they have been denied for thousands of years. From a card-cheating rabbit to a Marxist-spewing dragon and an angry indented bat servant, the group must make its way across the continent before it is too late!

While Jon-Tom learns to master the magic that defines the land, he and his companions gets in all sorts of trouble. Hilarious and poking fun of fantasy tropes, the Spellsinger nevertheless delivers an interesting world building and memorable characters!