Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee

Type: Fantasy

When Ophelia moves to a strange city where it never stops snowing, she discovers a boy locked away for 75 years in a museum. She must help the boy before the Snow Queen freezes the world. Along the way, Ophelia learns how to believe in things she cannot see.

Targeted readers: People who like fairy tales would enjoy this book.

A Hundred Horses by Sarah Lean

Type: Mystery

The wooden horse that Nell brings along during her visits to aunt and cousins is stolen by a girl named Angel. As Nell finds out Angers true identity, a bond grows between them and a group of 99 horses. Word has it that the 100th horse is magical. But where is it? Nell doesn’t know, but Angel might know.

Targeted readers: Kids who like animals and nature will be sure to find this book exciting.

How to Catch a Bogle by Catherine Jinks

Type: Fantasy

Birdie is an orphan who is good at trapping monsters with her singing voice. She is the only goblin (妖精) hunter in the world. When kids go missing, it’s up to her to figure out why.

Targeted readers: Anyone who is looking for monsters will take great pleasure in this book.

I Even Funnier. A Middle School Story by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein

Type: Fiction

After a car accident, Jamie loses his family, so he moves in with his aunt, uncle and his cousin Stevie, whose basic aim is to trick Jamie. But Jamie keeps having a positive attitude and running after his goals. He has been recently honored the Funniest Kid Comic of New York State.

Targeted readers: This book would be great for anyone who is fond of humorous books.

In the tiny village of Angelica, New York, the post office is more than a place to get mail or send packages. There you’ll find the heart of this lovely community. It’s where villagers meet and greet friends.

When Angelica’s post office was threatened with being closed in the 1980s，a villager，Pat, came up with a plan to save it. “At Christmas time I would hear on the news about towns named Snow or Bethlehem having celebrations,” says Pat, “Why couldn’t we do the same thing with Angelica?”

Pat, who is an artist，created a postal cancellation (邮戳) design featuring an Angelica angel.

She drew her angels in a traditional fashion and submitted her suggestion to the U.S. Postal Service. Once approved, the drawing was carved into a cancellation stamp that could be used for one day only. The postmistress (女邮局局长) then had another idea to make the day even more special calling the post office Angel Station.

The large increase in mail amount saved Angelica’s post office from being closed and keeps the doors open today.

Now it’s tradition that on the first Friday in December，people come to Angelica to mail their Christmas cards. Each year the amount of mail going through the Angelica Post Office increases during late November and early December. Stamp collectors from around the world have accepted the Angel Station cancellation, some sending mail from as far away as France.

Because the stamp is destroyed each season, Pat draws a new angel that conveys season’s greetings from Angel Station every year. Post offices may close in other parts of the country, but this tiny one continues.

As her son Cameron sits at his laptop completing a task for his math degree course, Alison Thompson，a full-time mum，is busy helping her daughter Emma (two years younger than Cameron) get dressed. While help has always been available for Emma, Alison and her husband also have to fight to get Cameron the support he needs. “People could see that Emma has special needs but because Cameron was doing so well at school, his teachers never thought there was a problem with him.”       says Alison.

It took Alison and her husband a while to realize their son was different. Cameron’s ability didn’t become clear until he began primary school. Once he even corrected the teacher when she told the class that zero was the lowest number. Cameron told her she was wrong because there were negative numbers (负数). He was four at the time. Now 14-year-old Cameron is at secondary school, studying for a distance learning math degree with the Open University, having sailed through his GCSE at 11 and his A-level at 12, achieving top grades.

Bethany, another daughter of Alison, is bright too but not gifted. She is the one who will remind absent-minded Cameron to put on his coat. She also helps him out in social situations.

Emma attends a specialist school and the family is quick to celebrate her successes too.

“The other day she did up the buttons on her coat, which was real progress,” Alison says.

Late last year the Thompsons took part in a television documentary (纪录片) to prove that not all gifted children are the result of extremely ambitious parents. Gifted children need support too, but their lives don’t have to be that different. Cameron is an example.

On April 14th, 2010, my entire life changed in an instant. One moment I was joyfully riding through the sunshine. The next moment, metal, flesh and bone were spreading against the pavement in a thunderous crash. Another cyclist, biking carelessly, had cut me off and sent me supermanning toward oncoming traffic.

As if to symbolize the accident that had hit my life, another disaster also occurred on April 14th, 2010. It cost the airline industry＄l.7 billion. Ten million travelers were stuck for days. Economies all over the world were disturbed. This was the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, one of Iceland's many volcanoes.

However, volcanoes are not all bad. In fact, they are necessary. They are responsible for the birth of new earth, and for the creation of rich soil. This eruption gave off 0.15 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere daily. But cancelling 48% of the world’s flight travel saved about 2.8 million tons of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere, temporarily decreasing our carbon footprint.

Similarly, the accident had badly affected my emotion but it also allowed me to look more closely inside myself and discover things about myself I never would have realized. I learned how not to judge myself for my new limitations.

In 1973, another Icelandic volcano, Eldfell, broke out. Icelanders decided to bomb it with cold water until it froze and chose a different path. After their plan worked, they used the geothermal （地热） energy for the next 15years to heat their homes. A good example of life bringing lemons, and making lemonade! One must move on from misfortunes, focusing only on the present moment and being hopeful for the future.

I ran from April 14th, 2010, to every kind of escape. Eventually I ended up in university for a new-found love in Earth sciences.